I take a seat across from The Creator with Kai and Daamin backing me up. We’re going to try this my way now. The Creator pouts and stares at me without saying anything this time, which is a good thing.

“My name is Alexandre; you can call me Alex, Andre or Dre. I’m sorry I shot you earlier. I couldn’t keep up with you and it seemed like the better answer. These are my friends Kai and Daamin. We just need answers to get out of here. Can you help us with that?”

“Will you let me go if I answer your questions,” she’s bargaining, good.

“Of course,” Kai answers before I can.

“If we’re being held in the game for ransom, why did you say we can get out if we win,” my first question.

The Creator doesn’t answer, but Daamin speaks up. “Not only is she lying, she trapped us in here. I’ve seen a lot of anime, read a lot of manga, even some LitRPG. She’s the villain here,” I try to calm Daamin but he keeps going, “She wanted people to play the game. That’s it, if more people played the game, it wouldn’t have to shut down because they’d make more money. She did it. You want to go home, she’s the reason you can’t. Look at her, I see it in her eyes.”

“Did you trap us in the game,” I ask but get no response. “Did you trap us here?”

Kai slaps the creator, “did you trap us or not!”

“I did it, I admit it. I did.”

My head spins with ideas as to why someone would trap people in a game. A game where people have died and can’t come back. A game where people are fighting through actual sci-fi nonsense and she just did it without a care in the world. Nobody stops me when I blast her with my shotgun. I only stop when she’s lying on the ground and I’m out of rounds. I should have thought about it before I fired, now we’ll be stuck in the game forever. Sure, I can survive but this isn’t how I want to live my life. I want to get married and have some kids. Be filthy rich in the real world.

“Good thing you had that set to stun,” Kai puts a hand on my shoulder.

“Yeah, good thing,” I laugh awkwardly.

“Thought you killed her,” Daamin asked.

“Yeah.”

“Finally did something unpredictable and instant regret,” Daamin shrugs.

I sit far away as Daamin takes a crack at questioning, “let’s start with your name and please remember I can just bite your head off.”

“My name is Kay, short for Kaeleigh,” she actually seems terrified.

“Great Kay, why did you trap everyone in the game?”

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“I wanted people to play the game. Really play it.”

“There’s over two million unique players that log in every week. More during events.”

“Yes, but nobody really plays the game. They just screw around. I worked hard on the game. Nobody has ever seen the ending of the game. There’s so many side quests that I worked on but people just replay the same ones over and over again because they make the most money that way.”

“Why is it so important for you to have people play your game one way. Isn’t it enough that people enjoy it and get to live out some of their wildest dreams,” Daamin asks.

“But I worked really hard on those quests. I did research for them. I made sure things were scientifically accurate. I created hundreds of unique NPCs that can only be seen in quests. There’s quests that branch out in dozens of different directions and almost nobody ever sees them. Do you know what it’s like to pour your heart into a creation and have nobody appreciate it for anything more than a space filler? It’s like working on the greatest painting ever and nobody appreciates it for being a great painting, they just care that it matches the color scheme of the room.”

“I want you to think about all the people that have died and will die because of this.”

“They don’t really die,” Kay seems ashamed to say that.

“Then what happens?”

“They lose their memory of the last 48 hours and are dropped at a random location in the game world.”

“First Johnny Mnemonic then Log Horizon do you have a single unique idea in your brain?”

“I’ve never heard of Johnny Mnemonic.”

“Whatever. You sit here while I go talk to my friends.”

Bad cop, psycho cop and scary cop is way more effective than good cop bad cop. Daamin got some good information. I’m glad people aren’t actually dying but the who situation is still messed up.

“What do we do,” Kai asks.

“I vote we beat the game,” I cast the vote.

“Nobody is dying, not our business,” Daamin sticks to his opinion.

Kai takes a deep breath, “there will be other games we can play. Let’s beat it.”

The three of us approach Kay, “we’re going to beat your game. Explain how or I’m going to start shooting again,” I hold up my gun.

“Start talking,” Kai tells her when she doesn’t answer me.

“Okay, so the first thing you need to do is collect the four pieces of code fragments hidden in the game,” Kay starts.

“That’s Ready Player One, but let me guess. You’ve never seen that either,” Daamin says sarcastically.

“Ready Player One had three Easter Eggs, and I have four code fragments,” Kay smiles.

“Oh, so now you’re a movie expert. You’re a hack, a hack,” Daamin starts.

“If I was a hack why do you keep playing my game? You love it don’t you,” Kay argues but stops talking when Daamin lets out a growl and shows his teeth.

“Kay,” Kai starts. “We get the code fragments then what?”

“You need someone with a high enough hacking and engineering skills to combine them into a cure that can be dispersed to everyone,” Kay continues.

“Alright, how do we disperse it,” I ask.

Kay smiles and evil smile that lets me know she has too many dark thoughts, “you have to defeat 300 floors of security at AutoSoft. From the top floor, you’ll need to upload the cure to a satellite.”

AutoSoft is a corporation located in the center of downtown. It’s a massive building that towers over everything else. They’re also one of the main security providers for the businesses in the city. Soldiers, drones, robots, and everything else that shoots. It’ll be a pain to get up there. Then there’s the need for someone with a high enough skill. This is going to be a pain.

“Can I go now,” Kay asks.

“Why would you think you can go now,” I ask.

“Because you guys said I can leave if I told you how to beat the game.”

“Then you started talking about hidden keys.”

“Code fragments asshole,” Kay shouts.

“You really have to stop calling me an asshole.”

I get a notification that Kay has been added to our party, “now you’re in the group and can’t leave unless we all vote to kick you out,” Kai smiles.

“Where’s the first key,” Daamin asks.