"So, Defec- Detective, what do you want to talk again?" Mark Cho asked him, almost pronouncing his occupation wrong again while opening a can of energy drink.

       It was easier for Cass to find the young man in front of him, rather than explaining what he does for a living. It took 15 minutes just explaining his almost extinct occupation compared on finding him on the neighborhood for only 5 minutes. At the end, the guy misunderstood him and thought he was part of the government.

       Overall, it was still a good thing he agreed to talk to him.

       According to Malcolm's research, the younger man had zero activities for the past month and the only thing that this person do was to stay indoors. That and always ordered a take-out. Looking at the younger person's brown hood stained with moss colored messy lines and dots all over. His friend's report was indeed correct.

       "It was about these two." He got the two pieces of pictures from his satchel and put it on the coffee table between them. "Do you recognize them?"

       Mark put down the energy drink on the table and took the picture. He inspected them carefully. "No. I don't know them." He answered.

       "One of them is dead." Detective Nova stated looking at him straight in the eye.

       It's technically the truth. He was not lying to this poor young man.

       Mark's eyes immediately masked a face of mixture of fear and uncertainty. "I-I didn't kill anyone."

       "I didn't say you kill one of them." He clarified. "Well, let's say one day, an asshole started calling one of them and pretending to be the dead person. Do you know how it hard for a person to hear from the dead again?"

       "No! I didn't do anything wrong! Believe me!"

       He took out a cigar and an old lighter from his satchel. Lit the cigar and took a long smoke. "That statement is wrong. You and I both know that..." He said, daring him. "You see. I found something interesting about you."

       He opened his satchel and pulled out pieces of paper. He picked one of those and put it down to the coffee table in front of them. It was a printed copy of the grades. A lot of red marks were shining off on the paper with a Failed written on it.

       Mark immediately grasped the paper, his hands crumpling it in the process. "Where did you get this?"

       "A trade secret." Detective Nova muttered, avoiding the question.

       "Well. That's not mine." Mark stoop up completely crumpling the paper and threw it away.

       His eyebrows shot up with the younger man's words. He needed to get a better lie than that.

       "It has your name in it." He pointed out to him. "Unless, there are other Mark Cho's in this City?"

       "Please get out of here." The younger guy stood up.

       The watch in Mark's left wrist started to vibrate.

       "Answer it." He said with a puff of smoke coming from his mouth. "That must be your mother."

       "Did you tell them?" Mark demanded, his eyes looked furious.

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

       "Answer it and you'll know."

       Mark flicked the watch and a woman started to talk.

       "Mark dearie! How are you? By the way, a scholarship student from your school came here looking for you. He said he was amazed by your study skills as you always at the top of your class. Don't you know how proud I was! I gave him your address. He was going to discuss studying with you."

       "Yeah, Mom. I think I met him already." Mark replied back sweetly while his eyes shooting daggers at him.

       "Isn't him a nice kid?"

       "Yeah. He is." His voice was strained. "Yes, Mom. Yes- Yes- okay. Goodbye. Love you."

       "You haven't told them." Mark stated, sitting down.

       "Told them what? This?" He pulled another paper of from his satchel and put it on the table.

       It was the letter of warning addressed for Mark Cho. This time the young guy didn't react.

       "No, I haven't." He continued. "Well, you know. It's not the end of the world if your parents knew you have a...have bad grades." Corrected himself.

       "You don't know my parents but for me I'm dead for sure." Mark retorted back to him.

       Bingo. Now he has a good blackmail material. Younger generations were rather easier to blackmail- errr- manipulate.

       "All right. I understand. A friend-" He stopped like he was remembering something. "Two friends who have the same kind of parents as yours. One of them had a perfect so his parents were in cloud nine. Another friend had a 3 bad grades like yours and they kicked him out when he was 14."

       "What happened to him?"

       "He became successful Black Marketer." He smiled. "And the other one with the perfect grades is now a failure in his parents eyes. Trying to make ends meet."

       Mark didn't answer. His face more relaxed.

       "Anyways, you'll never know what tomorrow will bring." Cass coaxed at him. He looked at him as he took deep breaths on the greenish smoke he exhaled . "Are you now ready to answer my questions?"

       "Yes. As long as you don't tell my parents." Mark voice agreed in a calm and slower manner. "Is it me or the room is tilting."

       "No, it's not." He reassured. "Now, we traced the call came from your I.P. address."

       "I hadn't call anyone recently." Mark tried to look at him straight in the eyes, but it keeps on drooping. "Well except for that. Of course."

       "What were you doing last week, Friday night?"

       "I was playing uhmm Hologames."

       "Hologames?" He asked. "The one that you play using gestures?"

       "When was the last time you played a game?" Mark looked at him incredulously. "That was phased out ,like- 2 years ago, Man."

       "Was it?" He's getting old. "We're you making calls in-game?"

       "No, not really."

       "Can you show me?"

       "I can show you the save time history of the game. But, please don't call my parents."

       "Okay we got a deal. What game is that?"

       "It was un-published game. Only a few can play it all over the world." Mark explained. He took a black watch from his hood pocket. Flicking it, a black menu appeared. "These are my logging views."

       Time and the Chapter title was displayed.

       "You weren't streaming it online?" He asked inspecting the logging times.

       "No we are not allowed to do so." Mark explained. "It's part of the agreement."

       "Now that you saw it. Please get out."

       "I want to see what you were doing at the time."

       He pointed on the 3:00 AM. The exact time Mrs. Smith answered the prank call.

       "Hmm.. There was a ghost that was trying to catch me that time."

       He looked at the young man.

       "Reload it and let me see it."

       "Man! It was hard to get out of that level." Mark said, exasperated.

       He put down another piece of paper on the table. This time; an expulsion letter.

       "I'm getting expelled?" Mark voice higher, getting out of the trance he made.

       Damn. They have really dug deeper this time. Malcolm, you idiot.

       "I can make this data disappear from your college record if you let me see the game. Do we have a deal?" He offered.

       The young man looked at him hard, not blinking. He smirked fully knowing what his answer will be.