Haru stood at the podium in the center of the hexagonal arena, nervous for what was to come. Above her, situated on a raised observation platform that sprawled across her vision, the three Magi sat and looked down upon her with suspicion.

“So,” Balthazar, situated in the center of the trio, spoke, “you’ve had this power all this time and somehow kept it hidden. Even from our prying eyes.” The old magus stroked his long white beard. “My contempt for such an act knows no limit.” His voice was grave, almost sinister.

Haru stared at the ground, shameful. “I’m very sorry.”

Melchior, the magus on the observation platform to Haru’s right spoke, who looked identical to the other two. “It was quite the feat though. To avoid being noticed for all this time.” His voice was bright, almost playful.

Balthazar scoffed. “Don’t encourage such defiance.”

The third magus, Gaspar, on the platform to Haru’s left shook his head. “No, I agree with Melchior. This intruder is also doing something similar.” His voice was solemn. “It would be foolish to simply admonish this one.”

Balthazar looked to his left and right and sputtered in bemusement. “It seems I’m the only one here that cares about order.” He leaned forward then stared at Haru. “Mark my words, you will have your comeuppance. To act against the server in such a fashion will not go unpunished.”

Haru winced, fear gripped her.

Gaspar exhaled a disapproving breath. “You torment our only chance at defeating this enemy. For what reason?”

With a bewildered scoff, Balthazar shifted forward in his seat. “There are more problems to take into consideration than just this one lone actor!” His voice boomed throughout the space, echoing in the dome overhead. “What shall we do about the damage? How do we repair the game so to conclude this maintenance and bring back the players we so desperately depend upon? We don’t have much time left to get them back online before this whole project is finished.” The magus threw his hands up. “Have you gone mad?”

Melchior rested his cheek on a balled fist. “If we do not eliminate the source of these problems, we will never solve them.” With a sigh, he returned to sitting upright and looked down to Haru. “Tell me, young one—you stood against this hacker and survived, what is the nature of this intruder? What should we do to stop him?”

Slamming a fist into his arm rest, Balthazar hopped in his seat. “Madness, this is pure madn—”

“Let her speak.” Gaspar raised his otherwise calm voice.

Haru shifted, nervous. “I wouldn’t say I survived. I’m infected just like my friend who was with me.”

With the flick of his wrist, Gaspar summoned forth a huge display. It spanned the width of the hexagonal area and nearly as high as the dome. The panel appeared behind the witch. It showed the results of the latest trace diagnostic on Haru, showing her critical infection status and combat attributes.

“Critical!” Balthazar shook his head. “Delete this one immediately, she’ll turn on us at any moment. Then what?”

Haru cowered.

Melchior leaned forward and squinted. “No, that doesn’t seem right. If she were going to turn, she would have already.”

“Don’t be stup—” Balthazar started.

“Like that failed expedition you sent out.” Gaspar piped up, looking to Balthazar. “The one who managed to comeback was consumed by the infection in mere cycles. But it has been—” He looked to Min, who was standing patiently behind Haru.

The professor cleared his throat. “Seconds, sir. 1.42, to be exact.”

Melchior and Gaspar nodded with raised eyebrows.

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“Seconds.” Gaspar finished. Then he sat in ponderance. “That’s far more than enough time to be sure.”

A sly grin formed on Melchior’s face. “How many cycles was that again?” He looked to Gaspar.

With a cocked eyebrow, Gaspar hesitated, then the same devious grin emerged. “Over four billion, I imagine.”

Balthazar gnashed his teeth in silence.

Melchior nodded with a satisfied smile on his face. “Now then, young one, tell me the nature of this foe.”

Haru described in detail the demon she fought. How it grew stronger as the fight continued. Then spoke about the beast’s ability to transform, and the core that she couldn’t land a hit upon.

The three magi sat, quiet for a long while after she finished.

Gaspar broke the silence. “Then it continues to evolve.” His voice, tinged with concern, echoed.

Stillness permeated the room once more. Haru grew uneasy with the sudden calm after realizing the three magi were looking to each other for answers.

Min stepped forward, to stand next to the witch. “If I may, wise ones.” He flicked his hand and brought up new information on the screen behind them where Haru’s stats once were. “I’ve been studying the movement of this hacker since the beginning.” He changed the screen to show the three continents of the world, with a series of red lines and dots across Pangea, the biggest continent and where Haru’s encounter was located. “While the damage is of great concern, it only has been located within a relatively small area within the game itself. There is an opportunity to fix this problem.”

Balthazar sat forward and squinted. “That’s where a majority of players have been though.”

The professor smiled. “That is correct. The starter areas and the areas beyond them are where most of our player base is located right now.” Then he turned and motioned to zoom in on the path. “But as we can see, since Haru’s brush with them, the hacker has gone dormant ever since. While still in that location, no new activity has been recorded.”

Balthazar sat back, and the other two shifted in their chairs.

Melchior piped up. “What if this evolution means it can now evade our tracking agents?”

“While a distinct possibility,” Min gestured toward the screen, “it’s highly unlikely as we’re still able to get a reading on their relative position, based on the lack of area data.” A large circular area near Leonora’s encounter zone was empty, as if that small section was entirely removed from the game. “While we don’t have normal trace, or even debug data of what is going on inside, the fact that there’s no information is enough for us to understand where the hacker is located.”

Gaspar chimed in. “It seems that despite their growth in power, they’re still making the same mistakes.”

Balthazar scoffed. “Or it’s a ruse.”

Min shook his head and brought up another image showing two different pictures of Leonora’s zone. “I have no reason to believe it’s a feint. This is a historical comparison of when Haru was checked into quarantine.” He pointed to the picture with a smaller circle of missing data. Then he pointed to the next, with a much bigger radius. “And this is today, just before this audience.”

Gaspar sat back. “If this is one big ruse and the hacker is untraceable, then we’re already defeated.” He looked to Min. “What is this plan?”

“Based on expedition reports, “Min started,” and Haru’s testimony, the current consensus is that this player is trying to rush to the end game and cause issues there. But I have a different theory. I think they’re trying to replace and control the roster of main encounter and raid bosses. The path taken to get to each main encounter has been minimal, which infers they aren’t out to entirely damage the game.”

The three magi nodded quietly.

The professor continued. “At the same time, based on our limited knowledge, their strategy has been to assimilate bosses into their move set.”

Balthazar grumbled. “Get to the point.”

Min bowed slightly. “Of course. This strategy has induced a weakness. One that we can exploit. The hacker is becoming a mob that can be defeated.”

Balthazar scoffed. “Ridiculous! You’re proposing we recruit players to take this fiend down? They’d revolt at hearing we can’t keep a handle on our own game.”

“No sir,” Min began to pace. “I’m proposing we already have one that can do so.”

Gaspar smiled and gave a knowing look to Melchior.

The professor flicked his wrist. The screen behind him and Haru went dark. Then a white padlock appeared. Behind it, red scrolling text repeated the word ‘Confidential’. The image unlatched and the contents of the screen parted, revealing a plaintext document.

Min continued. “At the beginning of development, R&D created a system that allowed for synthetic players to populate the world. These NPCs would travel through the game as any other player and interact with the world as such.”

“Project Ludum.” Gaspar commented and clasped his hands in front of his face.

The professor nodded. “In the event the game needed more time to catch on, to gain traction on the market, these synthetic players would be used to make the game feel more populated than it was, to prevent player attrition.”

Balthazar rolled his eyes. “You’re going to raise an army of imitation players to go after one hacker?”

“No,” Min replied, “that would have disastrous consequences, of which would take months, or years to calculate the impact.” The professor stepped behind Haru. “What I am proposing is that we send one synthetic player in to settle the problem. The only one that has met with the enemy and survived.”

Haru gasped the moment she realized Min was talking about her.