Side Chapter: The Investigator’s Meeting

A lively conversation filled the air of the quaint little coffee shop nestled in a quiet corner of the city. The scent of freshly ground coffee beans mixed with the subtle aroma of baked pastries created a cozy atmosphere. Outside, the neon glow of city lights reflected against the rain-slick pavement, while inside, a middle-aged man wearing a leather coat sat alone at a corner table with his arms crossed, his foot tapping idly against the ceramic floor. A black coffee was steaming on his table.

He had been waiting for over fifteen minutes, though he had expected as much. Getting in touch with a player of Magus Academy Online — the rumored ultra-realistic game he had been investigating for over a month — had proven far more troublesome than anticipated. It wasn’t just a game anymore; for many, it had become an obsession, a second life even.

Ever since its closed beta launch, the game had drawn massive attention, garnering over a million applicants who wanted to gain entry to the game. But more than that, it had stirred something… unsettling. A game this realistic should not have existed. The technology required to make it possible simply wasn’t there yet, but here it was.

The man worked as a government investigator, assigned to uncover the truth behind this mysterious anomaly that had recently landed on his desk. He had spent weeks digging into its origins, and the deeper he looked, the more questions arose. No public developer records, no conventional server data, and the enigmatic corporation behind it — WorldGate Soft Co. — offered little to no information about the game’s backend. It was almost as if Magus Academy Online had simply appeared out of nowhere.

At first, he had assumed that the game was nothing more than a front, perhaps an elaborate gambling operation or even a covert intelligence-gathering tool designed by a foreign power to siphon sensitive data from the country’s gamers. But despite his extensive searches, he had found nothing to confirm his suspicions.

And that was precisely what troubled him the most.

He took a slow sip of his coffee just as the bell above the café’s door jingled. His eyes instinctively flickered up.

A young man, likely in his mid-twenties, stepped inside, shaking off the light drizzle from his jacket. He looked around cautiously before spotting him and making his way over. The young man was a veteran player of Magus Academy Online with the username “GladiusZone” and a frequent poster on the game’s official website forum — someone who had been particularly vocal about the game’s insane level of realism.

“You’re the one asking questions?” the man asked, pulling out the chair across from him. “Man, I don’t want to be here if not for the money you offer.”

The investigator nodded. “Thanks for meeting me. My name is John. I take it you’ve read my message?”

“Yeah, and I gotta say, I don’t know what you expect to hear from me. Everyone’s already said the same thing — it’s just a game.” The young man leaned back in his chair, crossing his arms. “Oh, and I’m Nicholas by the way.”

John, the investigator, didn’t miss the slight hesitation in his voice. He placed a small recorder on the table between them. “Then humor me. I just want to understand — why is Magus Academy Online so different? Why are people calling it the most immersive VR experience ever? And more importantly…” He leaned forward slightly. “Why do some players claim it feels too real?”

Even though he had confirmed that the game wasn’t just a front, John still didn’t believe the claims and recordings that players were posting online. If it wasn’t a fake site or a covert intelligence-gathering tool, then it could simply be a hyped-up game designed to attract attention, with all the netizens commenting on the forums being nothing more than paid buzzer accounts.

Nicholas exhaled sharply, rubbing his temples. “Look, man… I don’t know how to explain it. You put on the VR headset — the one shaped like a damn motorcycle helmet — you lay inside the gaming capsule, though that part’s optional unless you plan to play for days on end. And once you’re in…” He paused, struggling for the right words. “It’s like—no, it is reality.”

“Wait,” John interrupted, clearly skeptical. “How can you be so sure it’s not just a hallucination? Or that the helmet and gaming capsule aren’t injecting some kind of hallucinogenic substance into your body?”

Nicholas frowned. “Are you serious right now? Are you saying I’m lying?! That over a thousand players currently in the game are all hallucinating the exact same thing?!”

“No. That’s not what I mean,” John responded calmly.

“Regardless, I don’t care what you’re trying to uncover,” Nicholas said. “But I swear on my life that it’s all real. The way your body moves, the way magic works, the way people interact — it’s not scripted, not pre-programmed NPC behavior. It’s... alive.”

John narrowed his eyes. “And you don’t find that strange?”

“Of course I do,” Nicholas admitted, lowering his voice. “But that’s the thing. No one wants to question it. We love it. Some of us barely log out anymore. After all, we can sustain ourselves — or even earn more than a typical day-to-day job — just by playing. The currency exchange system makes that possible.”

That transactional system was one of the main reasons the government had started paying attention to Magus Academy Online in the first place. While the company technically paid taxes according to the law, the IRS was growing suspicious of potential money laundering schemes, which was likely that of Spinula Tech Innovation’s. After all, how could an unknown game generate millions of dollars in revenue within just several weeks? And the fact that the company made no effort to hide its financial transactions only made it stick out like a sore thumb.

John’s grip on his cup tightened. “What if I told you there’s no trace of conventional hardware supporting the game? No data centers, no public coding records — just a blank space where a billion-dollar operation should be.”

“That’s not possible…”

Without a word, John reached into his briefcase and pulled out a thin folder, sliding it across the table. “Take a look. You tell me if any of this makes sense.” This was supposed to be confidential, but it was the only proof he had.

Nicholas hesitated before flipping it open. He looked at the pages, his expression darkening with every line he read. “But… but could it be something like Sword Art Online? Where a genius inventor created an ultra-realistic VR game with breakthrough technology?”

John let out a dry chuckle. “Ha. That kind of thing might fly in fiction, but not in reality. Or it’s not supposed to.” He shook his head. “There are only two plausible explanations: either someone from the future went back in time to make this game using advanced technology… or an alien infiltrated our civilization and planted it here for reasons we can’t even begin to understand.”

“Shit…” Nicholas’s body trembled slightly, then a realization seemed to hit him. His gaze sharpened as he questioned, “Who are you, really? How come you have this kind of information?” For the first time since the meeting started, he looked genuinely uneasy.

“Who I am doesn’t matter.” John shrugged, taking another slow sip of his coffee. “Now, tell me everything you know about Magus Academy Online, especially any peculiarities you’ve discovered so far in the game.”

Nicholas hesitated, glancing between John and the folder in front of him. But in the end, there was no reason not to talk. Taking a deep breath, he recounted everything he knew, every detail of the events that had happened within the game. John listened intently, not interrupting once. Yet, even with all this new information, he still couldn’t reach a definitive conclusion. All he knew was that the game was likely part of a much larger conspiracy designed to attract players.

Nicholas suddenly frowned. “Wait. Your reasoning is solid, but isn’t it also just a theory based on fiction as well?”

John scoffed. “At least it’s more plausible than your reasoning.” After pausing for a moment to collect his thoughts, he continued, “Anyway, thanks for your information. I’ll transfer the promised amount to your account tonight.”

Nicholas nodded. “All right. I gotta go now — I don’t want to miss my game time. If you have more questions, just hit me up on Discord.” He stood up, stretched, and quickly left the coffee shop, disappearing into the rainy night.

Left alone, John finally had the time to process everything. He exhaled slowly, rubbing his temple as he mulled over what he had learned. No matter how he looked at it, Magus Academy Online defied all logic. If he couldn’t find the person behind the game directly, then the next best thing was to target the companies funding it. Follow the money — that’s how you expose the truth.

He reached into his briefcase and pulled out another folder, setting it on the table. The name stamped across the front read: Spinula Tech Innovation.

This was the lead he hadn’t shown Nicholas.

John opened the file, flipping through the pages filled with financial records, corporate structures, and personal profiles. Then, his gaze landed on a particular name…

“The head of Spinula Tech… Monica Caswell.” He tapped a finger against the name, narrowing his eyes.

Chapter 212 | Chapter 213