Haru wringed her hands, regretting not being more on guard when the hacker showed up at her encounter. “I’m really sorry, Vern.”

The cat cozied up against what was usually Haru’s pillow on her bed. “Yes, say it again. It’s almost about to make me feel better.”

The witch scrunched her face. “I said it over a dozen times now.”

Her companion stretched. “I know. I’ve always said that you should be on your guard more. Not every player wants to stick to the rules, you know.”

“I get it now.” Haru fidgeted. “I just think that playing by the rules is more fun for everyone.”

Vernal rolled over and relaxed. “Shouldn’t you go to HomeRoom and report the incident?”

“But what if they investigate and find out about us?” Haru swallowed hard.

“What if the hacker ruins the game and they shut us down for good?”

The witch shifted uncomfortably. “I—I suppose that is a fair point. I’ll go talk to them.” She got up, walked over to head out, and put her witch’s hat on, plucking it from the coat rack next to the door.

“Oh.” Vernal called out.

Haru stopped and turned just as she was about to leave. “Yes?”

“Could you bring back some Royal Choco Biscuits?”

The witch draped her cloak over her arm, amused by the request. “I will.”

“Oooh ah.” The cat sprawled out. “The perfect medicine.”

Gently closing the door to her apartment, she exited the three-story brick complex that, from a side alley, led to the Backlot. She decided to get the treats for Vernal so she wouldn’t forget. And so that there was time to figure out how to make sense of what happened.

Donning her cloak as she walked down the double-wide avenue with tree planters in the middle, she started to go through scenarios, acting out her report on what happened in the encounter to HomeRoom. As the cloth touched her back, her hat disappeared, replaced by the hood on her cloak.

Haru worried that if she said too much, the devs would decide to investigate everything about her, then they would uncover that her power scale was off the charts, and the devs would permanently remove her from the game. She passed through the gate and entered Fairbank lost in thought and plagued by worry.

“Hello Ms. Haru.” Ostiarius, the gate itself called out, his voice baritone. “How is Mr. Vernal?”

The greeting startled the witch from her thoughts, and she spun around to face the gate. “Oh, uh, good. He’s back to his normal self. I’m off to get him some treats.” Haru pointed in the general direction of the food vendor. Then her mind wandered back to what she was going to say in her report to HomeRoom. Curiosity struck in that moment. “Have you seen anything strange lately?” It was a long shot. He was a stationary gate on an unpopulated part of town. “Maybe odd players or out-of-place NPCs?”

Ostiarius hummed, likely in thought. “Well, now that you mention it, there was a strange fellow loitering nearby for quite a while.”

The response surprised Haru. “What did he look like?”

“I mistook him for an NPC at first, but after looking at him for a while, I was certain he was definitely not one.”

The witch turned around and noticed a lack of decorative NPCs. They usually paced around town to make it feel more bustling for the players. Out here, the cobblestone streets were barren. Probably because it was exceptionally rare for players to wander out this way.

“Did you see which way he went?” Haru raised her eyebrows, hopeful. Maybe she could catch the hacker and turn him in, preventing being investigated herself.

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“Back the way he came, the auction house.” The gate responded.

Haru waved and sprinted in that direction. “Thank you Ostiarius. See you later.”

Before long, she found herself in the populated section of town. Players sprinted around, bunny hopping, jumping off bridges and high ledges, disregarding the fall damage in order to quickly and efficiently get to where they were going. Not wanting to make the same mistake twice, she double-checked that her nametag was hidden.

Haru found a lone bench overlooking the riverside on the second story deck. It had a great view of the entire auction house area as well as the underside, where all the quest givers were. If the stranger that Ostiarius mentioned might have come this way, she would be able to easily spot him.

After waiting and watching for a long while, it seemed that this strange character wasn’t here. Or at least wasn’t as obvious as was described.

Deflated, Haru scanned all of the local chats using her personal planner, hoping to find someone that might have seen something. Through the translucent display, she spotted a figure standing and staring at her. The witch raised her head enough to look over the menu to find a disheveled NPC leaning against the stone balustrade. The strange character was frail looking, like a raisin left out in the sun too long. Not a design any other mob in the game would have, and certainly not a player either.

As they locked eyes, the strange character gasped and dashed away.

“Hey!” Haru shouted, dismissing her planner and leaping from the bench in one fluid motion. She chased him into a narrow passage between two stone buildings.

The stranger weaved a tight path through the back alleys leading away from the auction house. Despite being so shriveled, he was unexpectantly fast.

Haru wanted to pull out her staff and hurl herself at this guy. But the tight turns and narrow passageways would only make sure that idea led to disaster. As the chase continued, she found herself losing the stranger. This convinced her even more that he was the hacker. All humanoid characters walked and dashed at the same speed. There was no way she was falling behind so much without him breaking the rules.

Finally, they reached the end of the passageway, which opened into a courtyard that was a dead end. She had him now.

The stranger leaped the metal railing of a small set of stairs that descended into the small plaza.

“Don’t move, stay where you are.” Haru commanded, stopping at the same railing he bounded over.

Without a word, but gasping in panic and looking around, the stranger rushed toward a gutter pipe at the far side of the courtyard.

“There’s nowhere to run. You’re coming with me.” Haru summoned her staff.

The stranger began jumping and throwing himself at the pipe. Each hop caused him to ascend and stand, as if he were bounding upon a series of ledges, just like the speed runner before in Haru’s encounter.

The witch decided that she would have none of this. She mounted her staff and readied to charge him down. As soon as the stranger reached the top of the terracotta roof, Haru blasted off toward him. Like a Legionnaire using Line Breaker, she readied to intercept and yank the hacker up by his tattered linen tunic. Then she could make haste to HomeRoom via the Backlot.

The stranger spotted her coming and a look of panic came upon his face. At the last second, he ducked and covered his face.

Haru almost lost her balance in trying to reach for her target. Nearly falling, she righted herself and pulled on the staff to swing around, to line up for another attempt.

Local chat began to light up, swathes of people excitedly declaring someone was somehow flying around the city. A horde of players formed near the auction house, which turned into a wave, then a tsunami as they chased Haru, trying to get a better look. A notification rang out from Haru’s planner, but she didn’t have time now to look at what it was.

The witch lined up with the stranger, who hadn’t moved from the spot on the roof to which he ascended. He was still ducking. There was nowhere for him to go this time. Haru hurtled towards the stranger. She reached down. Just before her fingertips touched the man’s shirt, he rolled off the roof. Haru gasped in shock.

With the regular painful stomping sound creatures made when falling from a great height, he landed hard and took falling damage. Then the stranger disappeared into a small nook in the courtyard.

Yanking hard on her staff, the witch had to strain in order not to plaster herself against the pitched terracotta rooftops across the courtyard. As she ascended, it was evident the horde of players enamored with the mystery flyer had located her position. Haru had to act fast.

Taking a risk, she dismissed her staff and started falling back down, canceling her momentum. She was diving straight down into the small alcove. It was a risky move. With only one hit point, any falling damage was death. And she didn’t want to think about how badly she’d be in trouble with the devs, if she, an encounter boss, died in a main city. But capturing the hacker was too important.

Summoning her staff, she mounted and rocketed straight up to slow her fall. As she entered the alcove, Haru found herself alone. Assuming the stranger already ran from the small nook, she dashed out into the plaza.

That’s when she spotted the tidal wave of players tripping over each other, rushing for Haru. As they careened down the steps, the mass halted suddenly. All of them were running in place. She looked around. There was no sign of the stranger anywhere.

After a few moments, the entire mass of players disappeared. Haru’s planner notification rang out once more. She relented and pulled it up. The alert was notifying all mobs of unplanned maintenance. The devs shut the servers down without warning. She and the rest of the encounters were being immediately summoned to HomeRoom.

This was bad.