//i hate them, Connie. they don't care about dancing at all. they just want to have sex.

Aaron locked the dance studio's outer door. He almost forgot that it was his turn to close up today. Mr. Brown would have killed him if he did.

//could you blame me? i endured all the idiots that came for tonight's class. none of them have the soul of a dancer. how can i be expected to give dance lessons to such superficial people?

He lived two blocks away, so he walked home every night. It's not like he had a car anyway. Noone waiting for him at home either. He was an orphan and he couldn't find a girlfriend. He had no money; no friends; basically, no life.

Night after night, he buried himself in Hypersim, a worldwide phenomenon of a game. Like most people that hated reality, he escaped into his capsule to travel to a fantasy world. After 5 years of playing the game, however, he realized that this was going nowhere. His debts kept growing and his life didn't get any better.

He loved and hated the game. It was a drug, an addiction that supplied him with just enough happiness to give it more money.

He had decided to take revenge by using his hacker skills. He swore not to use them after the tragedy it caused the last time he did. Hacking had killed his dear childhood best friend, Connie. The Russian mob hunted him down and made him disappear because they had angered them. It was Connie's idea, but it didn't matter. Aaron felt guilty about it to this day.

But he had no choice left now. His life was in the dumpster anyway.

He was going to attack the Hypersim servers with a Logic Bomb. He wanted to wipe every piece of data they had. There would be a public uproar. Simujack, the developer company of the game, had all kinds of information about their users. People would lose trust in their so-called impenetrable security system, and the company would bankrupt!

After months of trying, however, Aaron couldn't bypass their security. He couldn't even scratch the surface of that piece of shit. It really was fucking impossible to do it.

It was scary. Whatever gap he thought he found, it got closed until he came up with a plan to exploit it, as though they were watching his every move. But he was sure that they didn't know his identity. He would be in jail if that was the case.

It looked like all hope was lost until he saw a want ad for a job. Hypersim was looking for a tea boy to service people in their developers' office. Aaron thought this was his last shot at hacking them. He had to attack the end users, the developer team in the office, by using his social engineering skills.

He was finally home. The job interview was tomorrow morning. He was confident because of his family's tea recipe. He went to bed directly, hoping to get enough sleep for the next morning.

***

Weeks later, he was pouring his special tea for the whole office. People shouted impatiently for their cup, they loved it.

Aaron had a plan in place for today. He was working on it ever since he started working here. He had memorized every security camera's location and angle of coverage. He was sure of his success as long as the people acted the way he predicted.

Carrying the tray full of cups, he walked out of the small tea room where there were no cameras—that was important because he completed his last preparation there.

"Aaron, there you are!"

"Finally!"

"Took you long enough."

He put the tray in front of them. "Sorry guys. Like I said earlier, we ran out of cups. So you have to use these paper cups instead."

They attacked the cups before he even finished speaking. And just as he had planned, Eric's cup broke at the bottom and spilled the boiling hot tea on his lap.

Eric screamed in pain whereas his friends were in panic.

"Oh my god! I'm so sorry!" Aaron yelled over them.

They supported him to the toilet. One of the guys said "It wasn't your fault." to Aaron before he followed them.

"I'll clean this up." Aaron said, taking a roll of paper towel in his hand.

He ducked under the desk, wiping the floor with the paper towels. He angled himself in a way that the camera right behind him wouldn't be able to see his next move. He slid the mini flash drive down from his sleeve into his palm and inserted it into a USB slot at the back of Eric's computer. Nobody would notice it here for a long time.

He got up and threw the dirty towels in the trash bin. He went to the toilet to act his part, which was the concerned co-worker. He could hear Eric's screams from inside.

He entered and saw that they were trying to get his pants off of him. Eric saw Aaron and started yelling at him.

"You fucking piece of shit! This is all your fault! You boiled my fucking dick and balls!"

Aaron acted shocked. He looked around at others, playing innocent.

"I'm sorry Eric. I truly am. But I told you guys to wait until we get the usual cups back. I guess I should have refused to serve you guys."

The others looked guilty. Aaron's plan was working!

"Shut up, you piece of shit!" Eric yelled. He slapped one of the guys trying to get his pants off. "It hurts, you idiot!"

//yes, yes! let your usual bossy side out Eric!

That was why Aaron had chosen Eric as his target. People were already sick of his bad behavior in the office, but none of them dared to speak up to him because he was a developer since the Hypersim's alpha stage.

"We have to get it off or else it would be worse!" The guy yelled back at Eric.

Aaron left as they kept yelling at each other, saying "I'll call an ambulance."

***

Waiting for midnight was very hard for Aaron when he got home. That was the time when the office was empty.

He typed in Eric's password, which he had read from a post-it note on his screen at the office, exactly at midnight.

1337*5p34k*5uck5*455

And he was in!

He ran his software to gather all kinds of useful information about the game and Eric himself. It all happened in a few minutes. Aaron laughed like a maniac in the process, couldn't believe his plan actually worked. Lastly, the software cleared after itself, leaving no trace.

This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.

He sighed and leaned back in his chair after examining everything. There was no concrete evidence of anything, but he could make usable deductions from certain digital footprints.

He picked up the picture of Connie from his bedside. Connie hated his picture being taken, but Aaron had taken it without him knowing. It was the only picture he had of him. He was a blond kid with bright blue eyes.

//i have good news and bad news, Connie. which one do you wanna hear first? alright. bad news first, then. i still have no idea how to bypass the security system. and the good news you ask? i found something i never would have dreamed of. i found a way to blackmail Eric to become rich!

***

Eric tried to sleep, but he doubted he could do it in the uncomfortable hospital bed he was in even if his crotch hadn't been hurting like hell. He stopped them from giving him too much morphine because he had to attend a company meeting tomorrow morning. He regretted his decision, however. He probably should have paid more attention to his doctor when he said that his injuries were more severe than Eric had thought. But he was busy complaining about how small the room was and how bad the food tasted for the money he paid for his treatment. In retrospect, he couldn't blame the doctor for not caring more about him. He always did shit like this, acting like his father, thinking money is everything.

He was contemplating to forget about the meeting and calling the nurse for more morphine when the buzzing of his phone startled him. He was sure he put it on silent mode.

He looked at the screen and saw a message-box-like interface he never have seen before. His heart lurching, he grabbed the phone and read the text.

hello Eric :)

i have very bad news for you, news that would ruin your day even if you were healthy.

i know about the backdoor :)

Eric clenched his fist. What the fuck?! Who the fuck is he? How does he know?

He could feel the panic building up. He had to keep it under control if he wanted to get some answers.

He wrote back.

Who are you?

that hardly matters right now.

How do you know?

i know a lot more than the backdoor you built into Hypersim when it was still in its alpha stage. i know that you use it to sell items to players, for example.

That's just guesswork.

This was probably someone he sold items to in the past and they were guessing Eric had a backdoor. But how did they know it was Eric?

you sold modified items to people. your mother has cancer. your father is a serial adulterer and he beat you when you were little. you watch degenerate p*rn categories like st*p fantasy, c*cking, and sh*male.

is this enough proof for you, Eric :)

Eric was clenching his phone so hard that he had to relax before breaking it.

What the fuck do you want?

i want something extremely valuable in-game. you will create it for me, just like you did for your clients.

Eric exhaled loudly. Whoever this guy was, he was an idiot. Any valuable item got announced once they were looted. He was going to expose himself the minute he got the item. Dumbass.

Fine. What do you want, exactly?

There was a long pause before the guy answered back. He didn't even know what he wanted. He hadn't thought this through at all. What an amateur.

i want a rigged [Ultra Rare Mega Loot Box]. make it so that it doesn't give any Common, Uncommon, Rare, Epic, Unique, Legendary, or Artifact level content.

That would only leave the second rarest item level, Mythic. Why would he do that?

It dawned on Eric: he didn't want people to get too suspicious. There were a few Mythic items in the game, but there were no Artifact level items yet. The company would have to investigate the issue further if it is the first one ever. But more importantly, this was going to make it impossible to know who he was! Looting an [Ultra Rare Mega Loot Box] didn't give out any server-wide notices, nor did opening one. He couldn't use any company resources to find him, too. It would raise red flags and questions would be asked. If they caught him, he would tell them about Eric's illegal dealings without him erasing the evidence first. He got him cornered...

That damned bastard. He did think this through after all...

Alright.

You win.

***

Aaron was sweating profusely. He didn't know what he wanted, so he panicked and requested an [Ultra Rare Mega Loot Box]. Why didn't he want something like 10 guaranteed upgrade scrolls? He could have bought the most expensive item he could afford, he would have borrowed more money for it, too, make it a +10, and sell it for millions of dollars...

Now, all he got is a loot box with some random high-grade item as a reward for months of work and risking prison. He looked at his VR Capsule, contemplating logging into Hypersim. He had panicked, stored all his items in storage, and deleted his character before logging out. He did it so that Eric wouldn't be able to trace him by normal means, he knew he wouldn't dare to use his company resources.

But then he had an epiphany.

With enough time, Eric could erase all evidence of his illegal dealings before he notified the authorities—that is if he suspected more blackmail. It would be hard to explain the details without incriminating himself, but it was possible.

He didn't know whether Eric would go through with it, but it was a toss-up either way. He was left with only one thing to do before anyone came bursting through the door: he had to see what was inside that [Ultra Rare Mega Loot Box].

He logged in. The character creation screen popped up. Visually, player's Hypersim character would always directly mirror their real self—unless they were in the Roleplay server. There were no classes in the beginning either. So all he had to do was to choose a name. He stared at the empty text box for a few seconds before writing down the first thing that came to his mind.

AA

He logged in. The starting zone was a very small castle with high stone walls surrounding it.

He ran to the nearest Storage NPC. He got the loot box and went to a secluded area in the castle.

He finally opened it.

Sparks and fireworks went off as the box unlocked. AA couldn't help but get excited. He held his breath as the box finally opened.

And..!

It was another box...

[Mythical Class Loot Box] is added to your inventory.

{It gives a random Mythical Class to the user when opened.}

{!CANNOT BE TRADED!}

//what?

//what the fuck?

//i didn't even know the award could be a class. i can't sell it. i don't even have time to use it. what am i going to do with this now?

AA had thought about selling the award item to get a new identity and escape before Eric could make his move. But now it was impossible. His fate was in the hands of Eric, the most irritable person he have ever met.

He was ready to log out when his curiosity got the better of him. If he can't trade away the class, there was nothing else to do other than to see what he would get.

He opened the second box.

This time the air around him turned dark. Shadowy tentacles arose within the box. One of them stabbed AA in the chest. The pain roared through AA's whole body; it was poisonous. He felt his breath escaping his lungs.

Another tentacle went through his stomach. He couldn't stand the pain anymore.

One last tentacle shot through his forehead. His vision was fading as he saw a child with bone white skin and hair as dark as nightfall. He had shadowy black wings on his back like the Angel of Death.

AA tried to say something to him, but he had no breath to make a sound. All he could muster was choking sounds.

"Hush now, Aaron." The child said, smiling. "We'll make a great team."

The connection was lost...