Paying to Win in a VRMMO: Volume 5

by Blitz Kiva

  “Speak of the Kirihitters...” Iris began.

  Kirschwasser nodded. “Indeed...”

  There was a spark of danger crackling between Kirihito (Leader) and Duplichiro. It seemed Kirschwasser’s greatest fear was unfolding. If there was any silver lining, it was that the people drawn into it included people he knew, which would give him a greater berth to explain what was going on.

  Kirihito (Leader) seemed to be on the verge of drawing his sword, while Duplichiro just stood there looking aloof. He had none of the usual cool aura that hung around the real thing; he was just grinning in an irritating way.

  Kirschwasser wanted to shout, “Master Ichiro would never smile like that!” In fact, it was a real challenge to temper his desire to spur Oukaou straight into the chaos and finish things straight away.

  “Both of you, enough!” he called in a stern voice completely unlike that of Sakurako Ogi, then broke in between them with Oukaou.

  The first response, predictably enough, came from Kirihito (Leader). “Mr. Kirsch! What has come over Mr. Tsuwabuki?”

  From horseback, Kirschwasser looked out over those assembled and quickly took stock of the situation. There was one player present who had taken a great deal of damage—an intermediate level player.

  So Duplichiro was on a killing spree. The fact that the player hadn’t died immediately suggested that either Duplichiro wasn’t using his full power, or that he was just playing around.

  The Kirihitters must have just been passing by, and perhaps overtaken by righteous indignation, they had tried to stop him. Kirschwasser was grateful to Kirihito (Leader) for his restraint in not attacking Duplichiro immediately, among other things.

  “That is not Ichiro. He is somebody else,” Nem said, and Kirschwasser dismounted with a nod of agreement.

  “An account hack? Can that even happen in NaroFan?” Kirihito (Leader) asked.

  “As far as I know, this is the first case of it,” said Kirschwasser.

  The group as a whole cast penetrating gazes at Duplichiro. All of their gazes were critical, but there were also traces of hatred, and some curiosity. Duplichiro didn’t seem to mind at all. At least in audacity, he was an equal to the real thing.

  Kirschwasser smoothly drew his Knight Sword and pointed the tip towards Duplichiro. The Kirihitters looked shocked by the sight, but they immediately followed his gesture, drawing their tie-in swords.

  “Master Duplichiro,” Kirschwasser snapped. “What do you have to say for yourself? Even if the devs are about to freeze that account, I cannot allow you to cause any further violence wearing my master’s face!”

  “I’m surprised you can still roleplay like this...” Iris muttered.

  “If I showed my anger in the way I do IRL, it would make you all uncomfortable,” said Kirschwasser.

  “That’s not fair, Mr. Kirschwasser,” Nem complained. “I wanted to say something like that, too...”

  “W-Well, yes... I’m sorry...”

  Even with a sword pointed at him, Duplichiro just continued grinning.

  Tension hung in the air over everyone present. Kirschwasser cast a glance at the injured girl, and saw her party members standing in front of her to protect her. They said nothing, but they couldn’t hide their anger.

  It was in this moment that Duplichiro sprang into action. He clenched his fists, rushed across the slope, and lashed out with a punch. It was pure luck that Kirschwasser managed to react in time. He lowered his sword and readied his shield to protect the Kirihitters behind him. Through the Kite Shield decorated with cherry blossoms, Kirschwasser felt the impact and the damage that came with it.

  “Ngh!”

  “Mr. Kirsch!”

  Kirihito (Leader) readied his straight sword and slashed at Duplichiro. Then he stepped in closer and slashed upwards again. Duplichiro brought his fist up to block it, a bare-handed “Weapon Guard.” He then used “Art Cancel” to cut through his cooldown time and unleashed a volley of fire magic from his palm.

  “Damn!” Kirihito (Leader) had to jump back, but he managed to dodge the attack.

  The other Kirihitters and players began sidling towards Duplichiro, weapons at the ready. Iris didn’t ready hers, but watched over things with narrowed eyes as Nem just stood there, fidgeting.

  The instant Duplichiro made a move, the players all fell on him at once. Kirschwasser’s cry of warning came all too late.

  Duplichiro dodged or blocked each attack in turn, lashing out with neat counterattacks to each one. His fighting style was technically flawless; extremely efficient, but also inelegant. He simply dispatched of each of his enemies in the most economical way possible, with no hint of “play” whatsoever in his actions.

  There was a bang as several equipment items fell to the ground; the death penalty from an avatar’s defeat. Kirihito (Leader) gritted his teeth.

  “What should we do, Mr. Kirsch?” Iris asked. “Just hold out until his account is suspended?”

  “Interfering might just make the damage worse,” said Kirschwasser. “But we can’t just leave him at large, either.”

  If Duplichiro escaped here, there was a chance he might resume his rampage, which meant Kirschwasser had to work with the surviving players to buy time. But just as he was thinking that...

  A black whirlwind intervened, assailing Duplichiro from the side. Duplichiro made a noiseless expression of surprise, the smile disappearing from his face. He twisted immediately to dodge the attack, but the damage visual that flashed up immediately after suggested that the sword had taken off a chunk of his health.

  Kicking up clouds of sand, the new arrival glided to a stop, looked up, and glared hard at Duplichiro.

  “K-King Kirihito!” the crowd cried out in unison.

  “King, the young heir has been...!”

  “I know.” King gave a clipped response to Iris’s words, then assumed a new stance with his sword. He ran in smoothly, drawing the tip of his sword along the ground to kick up another dust cloud before launching into an upwards diagonal strike. Duplichiro managed to dodge it, barely, but after the strike sliced through air, King gripped the hilt of his blade in both hands and redirected.

  “Nngh!”

  As this next strike took a big gouge out of Duplichiro’s body, the crowd let out a shout of joy.

  “Ah... the clothing I designed...” Iris breathed out in frustration, wavering between two emotions. If Duplichiro died, the death penalty would cause his equip items to be dropped, so it was only natural that her feelings on the matter would be complicated.

  “Iris, is that, ah, Prada? Armani?” Nem asked.

  “I used a lot of references... But what? Nem, why are you looking at me like that?!”

  “No reason.”

  “What? Spit it out! You promised, didn’t you?” Iris cried.

  “Then next time we meet in person, I will give you an earful.”

  While the amateur and the pro designers conversed, King Kirihito had forced Duplichiro up against the wall. It was hard to tell whether King had dramatically improved, or whether this simply reflected a clear difference in skill between Ichiro and his duplicate. If this kept up, Duplichiro would be easily dealt with. If they could get him back to the guild house, respawned in a more vulnerable form, and restrain him...

  But just then, Duplichiro disappeared.

  “Hmm?”

  “Oh.”

  “Ah?”

  Finding it strange, Iris opened a window and checked. “Ah, the young heir’s account has been suspended.”

  Hearing that, King Kirihito wordlessly sheathed his sword. The crowd erupted into heartfelt applause for the hero who had appeared out of nowhere and bought time for them until the account was suspended.

  The Kirihitters were in tears, apparently moved to the bottoms of their hearts—though Kirschwasser had a feeling they cried every time King appeared.

  At any rate, King turned his eyes back to where Duplichiro had been.

  Did this mean that the developers h
ad stepped into action? He didn’t know much about the process for dealing with something like this, but it felt like relatively swift work. There were still a few things he was curious about, but all he could really do for now was wait for Ichiro to report in.

  It seemed the interpersonal damages had been kept to a minimum, and he probably owed a thanks to the Kirihitters for keeping it that way. His first priority, though, was to issue an apology to the party that had been attacked.

  “Forgive my master’s account for its unspeakable rudeness,” Kirschwasser said, bowing. All he had to give them by way of apology was Potions, but that would at least help heal the literal damage done.

  “O-Oh... no... you can’t help having your account stolen...” the party member said, taking them.

  “Who the hell was that, anyway?” King asked grumpily, but no one there could answer him. “I heard the old man’s account got stolen, but it wasn’t much of an imitation. He was careless, too. I’d assumed he was gonna sell his stuff off via RMT, but it doesn’t look like that’s what he was doing.”

  “I fear I don’t know,” Kirschwasser responded with a shrug. “It’s possible he might have been handing items to an accomplice, but it still doesn’t add up.”

  “Maybe he’s an exhibitionist? I mean, he was so conspicuous...”

  “I concur with that assessment.”

  In the end, they couldn’t know Duplichiro’s motives for sure. His actions would surely be in violation of the Unauthorized Computer Access Law, which meant the police might get involved. Even for someone doing this for attention, it all seemed a little too brazen, in Kirschwasser’s opinion. But there was no sign of any tangible gains he’d gotten from it, either. And while he couldn’t deny that Ichiro had gotten on the bad side of quite a lot of players, he couldn’t imagine anything he’d done that would lead someone to go to the risk of hacking his account and potentially getting arrested.

  “It just doesn’t add up...” Iris murmured.

  Kirschwasser nodded in silent agreement.

  “Forgive the wait, Mr. Tsuwabuki.”

  After getting in touch with the Thistle Corporation, Ichiro had ended up taking a personal trek to visit the company headquarters. It seemed there was quite a battle raging at present, so he had deemed it best to hear what they had to say in person. Led by the male employee who’d come to escort him, Ichiro headed for the office.

  “Has your investigation turned up anything?” he asked.

  “We tried tracing back the IP and found signs of a login from America.”

  Ichiro had made his account using the Premium Pack, and only one account could be created from it. However, once established, an account could be accessed from anywhere, as long as one had the appropriate software and hardware. If you could get your hands on someone’s user ID and password, you could even log in from another country. The question was: How had the culprit gotten them?

  “If I may ask, Mr. Tsuwabuki, did you give your password to anyone?” the employee asked.

  “Nonsense. I haven’t even told it to Sakurako-san, and it’s not the kind of password someone could remember even if I had. Of course, it’s different from all of my other passwords, as well.”

  The worker frowned deeply just before they entered the office.

  “What’s wrong?” Ichiro asked.

  “It’s just... if there was nothing wrong with your security, then...”

  “Well, there’s still a chance that someone engaged in cracking at my home, but it’s also possible that someone’s gotten into Thistle’s account management system,” Ichiro replied.

  The worker said nothing as he opened the door to the office on the second floor.

  Inside the room, it was war. However, there was none of the chaos of phones ringing off the hook, or employees shouting down people offering complaints. It was a room full of people, mute, with eyes locked grimly on their computers. A silent war. Desks were littered with energy drinks. Eyes were bloodshot.

  “Did you lock my account already?” Ichiro asked.

  “Yes. We did it the minute we received word from you and confirmed it. We have Mr. Edogawa here, too, and he’s looking into the situation right now.”

  “Edogawa?” Ichiro asked.

  “Yes, um...” the employee said. “See, we were just in the middle of bolstering security on the server in preparation for the big update...”

  “Oh, I see.” Ichiro nodded. “You were installing new security. This man is involved in developing the security program, then?” If the hacker had taken advantage of that, then it would represent extremely bad luck.

  Of everyone else in the room, President Azami was the only one talking. She was speaking to another member of the company with a serious expression on her face.

  Actually, he couldn’t be a member of the company. The man Azami was talking to—tall, gangly, and looking quite exhausted—was wearing a tightly-fitted business suit here in the height of summer. The Thistle Corporation was quite devoted to the “Cool Biz” philosophy and permitted its workers to wear casual clothes in the office environment. This meant he must be an outside contractor, most likely the “Edogawa” in question.

  “President...” the employee said.

  President Azami finally noticed their presence and stood up. The man at her side also turned to look at them. Ichiro was sure he’d never met the man before, yet his expression stiffened as he saw Ichiro’s face.

  “Thank you for coming all the way out here, Ichiro,” said President Azami. “I’m sorry for all the trouble.”

  “Having caused a great deal of trouble for you myself, I could hardly say anything about it.” With that, Ichiro turned his gaze to the young man in the suit.

  “Oh, allow me to introduce you two,” she said. “This is Mr. Edogawa from System Ajax, Inc. Mr. Edogawa, this is a Narrow Fantasy Online player, the son of Meiro Tsuwabuki who leads the Tsuwabuki Concern, Ichiro Tsuwabuki.”

  “Hello, um, Mr. Tsuwabuki. My name is Edogawa.” Edogawa gave him a mechanical smile and proffered a business card.

  Since they were in a public place, perhaps this sort of formality was indeed best, Ichiro thought. He joined the man in pulling out the business card case he quite rarely employed and began flipping through the different cards inside. He had a variety of titles to choose from, after all.

  The card he took from the man read “Domon Edogawa, System Ajax Technology, Inc., Sales Department.” An old-fashioned name.

  System Ajax wasn’t a terribly famous company, but Ichiro did recognize the name. He knew that the headquarters was in Shizuoka and that it was a small software company. They were small enough to be overshadowed by most of their rivals, so getting to develop a relationship with a new client like the Thistle Corporation was probably a good business opportunity for them. For an account to get hacked just as they’d begun was certainly a bad omen.

  Regardless of all that, Ichiro pulled out a business card with a rather noncommittal title and introduced himself. “I’m Ichiro Tsuwabuki. A pleasure.”

  As he watched Edogawa return his greeting with a frozen smile, Ichiro made a connection in his mind.

  2 - Noble Son, Have Tea

  President Azami was watching a display monitoring the analysis being done on the server room.

  If Ichiro’s account had been hacked via an infiltration through the system server itself, the problem could grow more serious. In order to better preserve security at Thistle headquarters, the account information that a player accessed and the personal information they submitted to create that account were managed on separate computers.

  “Account information” in this case referred to the information needed to play a character, which consisted mostly of the character’s name and stats. Apps downloaded from the Pony Entertainment Future Store and virtual currency information were stored within the Miraive Gear itself.

  “If you had an e-mail address for receiving messages, or any credit card information saved...” she said.

 
“I didn’t register my address, and I had a card plugged directly into the Cocoon slot. I don’t think any of my information is on the server.” Ichiro whipped out a credit card, which drew the eyes of the other Thistle employees. It was irritatingly black and shiny.

  “Which means there’s been no leaking of personal information from your account,” said President Azami.

  The new security program had been created by Edogawa’s company. He had been performing a major series of modifications to match the updates and server enhancements, and if it was his actions that had led to this, it was only natural that he would be unsettled about it.

  But President Azami was likely just as unsettled as he was. They had been right on the verge of the NaroFan one-year anniversary ceremony with its huge accompanying update only to have this happen. If things got worse, and it developed into a situation where user information was leaked, people could lose faith in her company. Although she was putting on a calm front, she was surely panicking inside.

  “Well, Edogawa, have you learned anything?” Ichiro asked.

  “Y-Yes, I think so.” Edogawa manipulated his tablet, his expression strained. “There are no signs of a direct server breach from the outside. But starting from a while back, there’s been an unexplained exchange of data with an outside party. It was mixed into overall increases in the data bus, so it didn’t stand out, but... well, it’s been quite a burden on the server.”

  “A while back?” Ichiro asked.

  “About a month ago.”

  “Ah, the day I fought King,” Ichiro murmured, and an awkward silence fell over those present.

  He was the one who had put the burden on the server. Naturally, that by itself wouldn’t make it easier to hack, but if the hacker had taken advantage of his actions to leak account information to the outside world, it meant that he still held some responsibility for what had happened.

  “There were a number of these disguised information leaks to the outside taking place during times of increased data exchanges, but no traces of direct cracking at this time,” Edogawa said. “Also, I know you’ve got PII strictly locked down, so there’s no chance that any of that was leaked.”