The Player's System

Missing Report

Jake returned home just before the sun was gliding away in the sky, tearing the sunlight away and letting darkness settle. His grades were his only source of happiness for now. He had the habit of marching towards the small study area they had in their tiny little house. Their play station was fixated in that area and he would find Patina already be sitting there, day after day, acing every game so that she would be able to make money to get his hand fixed.

Today was a special day. He got back his result card and Patina had her live match today; Jake wanted to cheer up for Patina. But when he reached the study area a devastating scene stood before him. There was no one in the play station and not only that but the screen was broken as if somebody had kicked the screen in the middle and all the wires were pulled out and broken. It was a scene straight from a nightmare. Jake hastily ran from the study area into the small house calling Patina's name loud and clear.

There was no answer.

He pulled out his phone from his pocket and dialled her phone number.

"The number you're trying to reach is powered off, please try later."

Jake Lin ran his fingers through his dark hair, fear curdling his blood. The small play station area was evidence that something was criminally wrong with her. Patina was not an overly emotional or temperamental girl. She was sober most of the time even at her losses.

His play station was still in good condition which was strange. It could possibly mean Patina got furious over something and broke her play station, hopefully. Jake suddenly realized that he knew where to look for Patina.

He dashed out of his house and started running toward the left side of the street; Jake crossed several paths and reached the small wooden bridge where Patina liked to stand there alone whenever she was sad.

His last dissolved into the thin air when he saw that there was no one.

The pain that came from the insults and taunts that were thrown at him by his fellow classmates was nothing compared to the agony he was feeling right now. Filing a missing person's report seemed the only answer. He walked to the police station that was 4 km away. His legs ached, his throat was burning with thirst, his heart was beating loudly in his chest as he entered the grim-looking police station. The atmosphere in the police station was tense because they found a dead body. Someone had committed suicide by jumping from the bridge and the identity was yet to confirm.

"We should send this body to the hospital for the time being until someone claim." The in-charge voiced. He was a really tall man with a built of a sumo wrestler.

Jake reached near the desk and worriedly told him about his sister that she was missing. The in-charge looked him up and down; he could see the streaks of tension lining the face of Jake Lin.

"What does your sibling look like? Do you have any pictures? What's her name? Age?" the in-charge bombarded him with questions.

"She is twenty-one years old with chocolate brown hair. Here is the pic." Jake Lin hurriedly opened his gallery and showed the picture of Patina to the police officer.

"Bring your parents and claim the body from the hospital; we are sending it there. According to the witnesses, the girl committed suicide from the bridge." The In-charge said in an emotionless robotic tone and Jake Lin's world came crashing down. His heavy steps could not follow the gesture of the police officer.

He was in a state of trance, unable to abridge the turn of events. The ambulance took the dead body and Jake Lin walked out of the police station empty-handed. He could not comprehend what was going on around him as sorrow and despair gripped his heart. He was told where the hospital was and was asked to send the parents there for legal procedure.

On the mention of the word parents, his sadness turned even bitter due to the scathing hatred he had for the man that called himself their father. His father had abandoned them and was now living with his second family, happily.

He was left all alone in the big world. There were people walking around him in accordance with the fast traffic however he was dragging his heavy feet toward the hospital. He was going to claim the dead body.

His eyes got blurry at the thought of the death of his lovely sister. The things in the surroundings mixed up and the bright flash of some car blinded his eyes further. Jake was thrown toward the footpath. The car owner called the ambulance before fleeing.

Such a nobleman.

He was thrown across the road where he landed on his right palm.

His right wrist got fractured and so did the first two metacarpals, his right shoulder had been unhinged. The ambulance picked his injured body and admitted him to the city hospital where they had taken the dead body of his sister earlier. The doctors put some temporary stitches and support for the broken bones. They were waiting for someone from relatives of the younger boy to appear and ask for the bigger surgeries but no one came. They eventually provided him with provisional care and moved along to the next patient.

Jake Lin was unconscious for two days. In these two days; the group chats; the global chat of the 'Sovereign Rulers' remain flooded talking about the glitch and asking who was responsible for this.

The fingers pointing toward the famous player Patina Lin; various followers tried to contact her on her personal group chat however she did not appear. They started calling vulgarities against her. The impact of the coded glitch was so immense that the servers crashed for two hours; when they resumed the operation; the developers came to know that the game Sovereign Rulers lost its secret substance to the confidential assets of the game.

The loss did not stop there. Several hundred thousand players lost their expensive in-game IDs and resources. The game servers were in an absolute mess and the players who witnessed the last live match blamed the player. The constant and blunt accuse caught the attention of the developers and they checked the reports.

When they were about to call the press and talk in detail; they received insider information.

It was the spy of the Sovereign Ruler working in the number one game company.

"The girl has been only used as a tool and she did not know about it at the least. Blaming her literally is equivalent to a slap on our own face. Do you want it to happen?"

The company CEO dismissed the press conference.

"What are we supposed to do to silent the hundred thousand users?" The media managing team was concerned for obvious reasons.

"Tell them we are collecting whatever pieces of evidence we can scramble and have something to announce. Also, the company will compensate the loss of the users."

The CEO was a young high spirited individual. He did not want this incident to slide away so easily, their opponent had played the dirtiest of the games. He would make sure to stifle and tighten the rope around their neck and get the loss compensated.

"What about our loss?" The company manager added.

"We have money enough to last next few hundred years. And even if I light half of it to fire to burn the enemy. It would help us build a better repute and the coming few years after that shall be even more profitable. Do you deny?" The CEO disliked people who didn't possess the vision to look beyond the picture. The enemy company had walked all over their heads and still, his employees were thinking about loss.

The blunt blames slowly turned into gossips because the game company did not directly blame the player instead they claimed that the company will sue the 'Optimal Crown' for interrupting the private matters of the company the following day; they wrote the petition with strong pieces of evidence.

The president of the 'Optimal Crown' was baffled to see the court notice.. He thought that no one was aware of his actions, yet, the video proof had already reached the court.

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