I'm Hotaru. That's all you need to know about me. Why? Because I'm boring. But don't worry, I won't be talking about me. Because if I did, then this story won't amount to much now, would it?

No, I'm here to talk about what I do and what I did that got me here. I'm a game tester. Not just any kind of game tester, but the best of the best. What do I do? As my job title states, I test games, but that's obvious. To be specific, I find bugs and glitches in a game and report it before release. But that alone won't make me any special, right? So, what separates me from the others, makes me the best? The thing is, I have a knack of finding all kinds of exploits in a game. No matter how good the game is programmed, I'll still find quite a bit of exploits at the end of the day.

If you're now saying to yourself, "That's still boring!", I can only ask you to stay awhile, because that's not the interesting part yet; it comes after that. What could possibly be interesting about my work? Well, while testing a game, I may have found a way… to a different world.

Yes, you heard that right. Do I have your attention now?

…

Good. Before talking about the "otherworld", I feel like I should talk about how I found it in the first place. As many say, "the journey is just as interesting as the destination." Don't worry, as I'm telling the story, I won't boggle your mind with tons of computer lingo; I'll keep it as simple as possible. I'll try, at least.

I was hired by a company (can't disclose its name, sorry) to test their latest game…

(flashback)

Wow… that's a really tall building.

The Alpha Building. The tallest building ever made by man (so far). Standing at almost 200 floors tall, the Burj Khalifa of olden times is nothing compared to it. Of course, a building, however tall it is, amounts to nothing if it houses useless things. So, the Alpha Co. rents their floors only to the best companies, each a pioneer of their own field. That includes the company I will be working for.

As a human told to have an almost mechanical (figuratively speaking) brain and thought processes, I am devoid of appreciation for aesthetic beauty. With this in mind, hopefully you'll understand when I say that this building, which many deemed to be elegant and the most beautiful art of modern times, is just a normal building, both from afar and within.

I head up towards the front desk to register myself and get a temporary pass only valid until the end of my work here. Security is tight; they don't want a repeat of 6/12, an event even worse than 9/11 back in the day. If even one of the passes, temporary or otherwise, doesn't check-out by the end of the day, a full lockdown is initiated, an initial team is immediately sent up to the tracked pass, and all floors are searched, one by one, with no nooks and crannies left unchecked and no stones left unturned. The owner of the pass in question is then shot with both a stun gun and tranq gun on sight, no exceptions. However, nothing like that happened so far since the opening of the building, so here's me hoping I don't become the first.

I arrive at the 101st floor. You may ask, "How long did it take you?" Well, no time at all. You see, one of the wonderful inventions the pioneers invented is the teleportation pad. It's still experimental, so nowhere else will you find one, except here. Being a building for pioneers, it must have state-of-the-art technology too!

On arrival, a short girl in her 20s behind the front desk greets me.

"Welcome to ***** Co. How may I help you?"

"I'm the game tester you hired, Hotaru."

"Welcome, Hotaru-san. Please, follow me."

She leads me to a white room with nothing except a cryochamber-looking capsule and a standard PC.

"Please wait here."

After she left, I immediately observe the cryo capsule. To be honest, throughout my career working with big companies and pioneers, I've never seen anything quite like this. Its black finish shines under the white lights. It is sleek and stylish, unlike the bulky form of a typical cryochamber. Moreover, cryochambers are required, by law, to be colored white. Furthermore, placing a cryochamber here is pointless, so it must have a different purpose.

Hmm…

Could it be… a full-body VR machine?!

If it is, then I'll be amazed that they were able to keep this under the radar for so long! But really! Gone are the days when we have to rely on VR headsets and holograms for gaming entertainment. To be honest, gaming with those has gone a bit stale lately. But now, with this machine, the possibilities are endless!

As I am looking at this machine in amazement, the doors open and someone steps inside.

"Hotaru! Long time no see!"

My best friend, Ryouta, steps in and hugs me.

"How are you doing? Heard a game tester is coming to test our game. Didn't know it's gonna be you!"

"Aren't you in the department handling employees? You should have seen my name there, Ryouta-san."

"Ehh… They don't trust me enough for hiring. They say I'm too 'biased.' Also, how many times do I have to tell you to stop calling me with a -san? I swear, we've been best of friends for years, yet you still call me with honorifics!"

*I think they don't let you handle hiring because you ARE biased; every cute face or slender legs you see, you hire immediately, no questions asked!* I thought quietly to myself.

Also, it is true that we've been best friends for years, but every time we meet is for business; I'm just being polite and professional, you know!

"Anyways, you've seen that girl in the front desk, right? What do you think of her? Cute, right?"

"Yeah, cute." I say in a nonchalant way.

"That's it?! No other opinion?! And I even handpicked her myself… I swear, something's wrong with that brain of yours!"

"Can we get on to business?"

"Straight to business, huh? Fine. The game this time is an MMO. You know how they are; lots of exploiters looking to get ahead than everyone else. We want you to find as much exploits as you can before release, which is a week from now."

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

"I see. How about this capsule? What is it?" I ask as I point to the thing in question.

"Ahh… I'm sure you've already inspected it and came to a conclusion as to what it is, right?"

"Yes, I just want to confirm my guess."

"It's a full-body VR, first of its kind! This is the prototype, but it works just as well and looks just as good as the commercial ones."

"Really?!" I ask excitedly.

"Yes, really. I swear, getting excited with technology but not with girls… There's no hope for you, is there?"

*Of course, these things are more interesting than girls!* I think to myself.

"That doesn't matter! How does it work?! Can I try it now?!"

"W-Wait! Do your work first!"

"I really can after?! Ok!"

"Yes, you can after. *sigh* You never change. Everything you need is already there; the source code, your favorite IDE, everything."

"Thanks, Ryouta-san!"

" *sigh* No problem. I'll just be here if you need me."

He then steps out and closes the doors behind him. Now that I'm alone here, I better get started. I have 5 days to work on this, so if I finish everything by today, I'll have 4 more days to play with this baby! Hehehe, that seems like a plan.

*Ok. Exploits, show me yourselves!* I quietly whisper myself as I start working on it.

…

"It's already been 5 hours, huh? Well, it doesn't matter. I just need to check one more thing and I should have everything done with an hour more to spare. Here I come, VR!"

I say that as I open the last source code file I need to check.

"Huh? What's this? Is this it, or did I miss something?"

This last file is named CreateWorld.cs and it only has one function inside, even though I expected more because… isn't this the code responsible for creating the whole MMO world? Another weird thing is that the only function inside it is called Teleport… however, this is not being used anywhere, which means that this will never run at all.

Hmm, I should test this but it would be a breach of contract if I change the code in any way at all. Even if I just change it back after, they'll know. Knowing these guys, I bet they've been watching me work ever since I started.

But I have a plan. With the dev version of the game, I can access the console. Not only that, but any function can be run in the console to make debugging easier; it's just the matter of knowing the command to actually run the function. I know that the game engine they are using is a custom one based off a game engine I happen to know very well. So, without wasting any more time, I type this in the console:

runfunc -adef ******** ~/Scripts/Managers/CreateWorld.cs Teleport -n 0

Basically, the letters after the dash mean:

- a: run with admin privileges using a password

- d: run in debug mode

- e: specify a file with a directory

- f: force run function

- n: specify number of arguments. In this case, none.

How do I know the password? Well, this command is already deprecated, meaning it's old and shouldn't be used. Typically, game devs remove this functionality before the game's release to avoid exploits like what I did. But since they have game testers like me to test their games, they didn't seem to bother worrying about exploits at all. Now, getting to the password. This is the only command to use a unique admin password (separate from the system password used by other commands, which is one of the reasons why this command was deprecated). I just lucked out that they haven't changed the admin password at all, and I won't even be surprised if they don't know about the command in the first place. You know what the default password is? It's just "password". I swear, they're too lax!

When I run the program, nothing happens. Well, that's to be expected since I haven't even turned on the VR machine. But I can't use it until my job is over. So, I make the exploit report (rhymes, right?) while omitting the runfunc exploit (I won't be able to use the Teleport function otherwise) and walk over to Ryouta to hand it in.

"What's this? Is this the exploit report?! This quick?! You sure you got all of them?"

"When have I ever failed you?"

"True true. I just didn't expect it this quick!"

"Yeah… So, as promised, you'll let me use it, right?"

"The VR machine? I did promise… Fine, you can use it. Just don't break it or pry its hardware box open like last time, all right?!"

"I won't, I promise!"

"You also told me that the last time!"

"How will I even be able to pry it open with my bare hands?! I'm not that inhuman!"

"True. Just get on with it quick! Also, since you finished waaay too early, you don't have to come back tomorrow."

"Even if I want to?"

"Let me rephrase: you CAN'T go back tomorrow."

"But I thought the contract's like last time!"

"They changed the contract because you always finish early before, then fiddle with, and even break, some things afterwards. Now, your contract only holds until you finish the job. You should be grateful that I'm giving you a pass ONLY this time!"

"… Fine. Can't argue with you anyways."

"Good. Just be out by 9 pm. You don't want the guards going full-lockdown and harassing you just because you played too much. Anyways, I'm done for the day. See you next time, and good job!"

"Ok! See ya if I ever see ya!"

With that, Ryouta picks up his suitcase and walks out of the offices. Now, I have the full place to myself, not that I care though. I only have about an hour to play with this baby, but it should be more than enough. Since I can't type from inside the capsule, I set a macro typing the command on timer, and go into the capsule. Wow, it's actually comfy in here.

In 3 more secs, the command should run.

3…

2…

1…

(darkness)