Present Day

Opening the file sent from the developers, I reviewed the code for the new expansion. The office was empty today, which is typical. Whenever it rains, everyone opts to work from home. Which is great news for me because I can just sit in my office and escape from all the personnel issues from the staff.

My phone came to life. On the screen was a video call from Tom. He looked in the camera with his vibrant lilac eyes, wearing a stern expression. He cut his hair since the last time I saw him; Tom now had a fade all around with his hair grown out at the top. He was even growing out his beard. “You busy Vin?” Tom said. Behind him was a generic painting you’d normally find at a hotel.

“No, I was about to review the code for the new expansion. But no one is here. I have time to talk.” I said, sitting back in my chair and holding the phone directly in front of my face.

“Are you still a developer on that virtual reality game Nightmare Chasers?” Tom asked, sitting up in his chair and leaning into the camera.

“Yup, unless they plan on laying me off today. “

“Hopefully that happens after I get your help with this case.”  

I sat up in my chair. “Your finally enlisting me on one of your cool FBI detective missions!”

Tom laughed. “Yup, I finally need your expertise.”

“Are you kidding? I’ve been waiting for this my entire career! What is it this time, a serial killer that is targeting coders? A killer murdering people based on Nightmare Chaser raids? No wait, don’t tell me it's a killer that is posing as their in-game character and murdering the innocent.”

“None of the above.” Tom laughed. “Our serial killer is doing it from within the game.”

“That’s impossible. I would have heard about it by now.”

"Yes, you would’ve heard about it if you didn't live under a rock. It’s been trending all over social media for the last few weeks.

He was right. I have been so busy with work and my Phd that I haven’t been keeping up with current events. “Ah, you bring up a fair point, so what are these killers MO?” I asked.

“From the information that we gathered, there is a player going around in the game. When he kills a victim in the game, they will also die in real life.”

“Wait, a second. That sounds like that one anime with the swords but for some reason it had like half a season where all the characters used guns except somehow the main character discovered the best weapon in the gun game was the beam saber. Do you think they're copying that story?”

“That was one of our first leads we looked into. Apparently, in the show, there were two killers. One person was in the game and would shoot the character. The other breaks into the victim’s home, and once they get the signal from the player in the game, the killer inside the home will then inject the victim with a lethal dose of succinylcholine.” Tom said. He grabbed his glass of water and took a sip.

Putting the glass down, he continued, “We investigated that option, but now in days, practically everyone has an at home video security system. Through the recordings, we didn’t find any reoccurring characters showing up at the victim’s homes. We checked all the camera blind spots and there were no signs of forced entry,” Tom sighed. “Unfortunately, our killer can somehow do this by himself and kill the victims while they are wearing their VR headsets.”

“Okay, so why are you reaching out to me?” I leaned forward with the camera in front of me.

“Well, we need your specialization in this game,” Tom said.

“I will only accept if you do one raid with me and Ruzo, just like old times.” I said. “Autumn and her dad are so inconsistent and hardly play with us anymore.”

Tom raised an eyebrow. “That’s it? Other informants want a fat check, but you only want to do a raid as payment. That’s cheap!”

“Wait, I can get paid for this?”

“Not anymore! We’ll do a raid and Kalina will finally get off my back about me spending too much on my personal investigation budget.” Tom said, laughing as he ended the call.