Cheating?

"The protective barrier surrounding Rygeth, it requires a very specific key in order to open it. Yet you did not obtain this key."

Kan'na answered, "I decoded it. Took me a few months, but I managed to figure out how to unravel the thing."

"That should be-"

"Impossible? But I did, learnt a few things whilst doing it as well."

"We used a high intelligent A.I. in order to create it, you'd have to be a genius in order to grasp even half of it!"

"Why thank you."

"Then the battle with Rygeth! You all died and lost! It should have been a character deletion! Yet you still stand!"

Akiol answered, "I made a bet with the god in charge of our character deletion. Won, and came back."

"There's nothing a God could want from a bet!"

"He seemed quite interested in what I offered."

Randwell grit his teeth, "The player Wrecking Rocks' Skills. Even if you are a Martial Founder there should be limits on what you can create. Yet why is it you have obtained Skills with power capable of being part of the top tier?"

Wrock shrugged, "Shouldn't that be something you investigate yourself? I simply messed with it a bit and figured out how it worked. After that it was similar to gacha in order for me to find the skill with similar effects that I was looking for. Sometimes it gave me something completely different than I intended, but the effects were just too good to pass up."

Randwell flipped to another page, "War Sights! Something very few should be able to obtain, yet most of you have one! Moreover their strength is ridiculous!"

Tilia shrugged, "You guys created it right? Not our fault that we happened to gain some benefits from such a system."

"Finding the Upper Four sword Breaker of Stars, which completely changed a future quest for it!"

Akiol chuckled at that, "Sheer coincidence, if Stars hadn't taken pity on my Lesser Slime race I wouldn't have found the area he was in. Moreover if I wasn't a slime I wouldn't have been able to take him out of the crystal."

"Yet you are wielding him! The requirements to wield such a powerful sword are not small!"

"He offered first though, well technically. Why is that such a big deal though?"

"The power of that sword isn't something the playerbase can handle if fighting against!"

"But he just seems better than average?"

Randwell was momentarily dumbfounded, "What?"

"Like sure his stats are powerful and all, and the Skills are good too. But it isn't much I haven't seen before. It's not like with him I suddenly gain the ability to wipe out continents."

"That's because you've only unlocked a fraction of his power!"

"So it isn't his final form, he told me that. But as time progresses wouldn't the average player grow stronger as well?"

Randwell felt like fainting from anger, yet he kept his head steady and flipped to another page, "These stats are ridiculous for current stage players."

"You should be interrogating the one named Dot then."

Randwell's eye twitched, "What do you know about him?"

"Powerful guy, didn't really know how to wield a sword before, but suddenly he's grown quite a bit. Came across him a few times, battle against other times."

"..."

"Honestly not sure if I can beat him in my current state. Guy is like a plant growing on steroids or something. Just refuses to stop..."

Randwell flipped another page, "Your mana control Skill is maxed out that`"

Kan'na interrupted, "Isn't possible? It's not that hard to control really. Once you get the hang of it, it becomes a steady progress upwards."

Randwell flipped another page, there had to be something! Something to really get them to admit they were cheating!

His real intention began to shine through. With such improbably feats only one conclusion came to his mind: They were cheating.

He grew desperate trying to get them to admit it, but they either deflected the question or answered in a straightforward manner. With such answers he grew more certain in his heart that they were cheating. Like they were prepared for such a situation and readied their answers beforehand.

He continued, "Monster Collector spawned in next to an incredibly rare and unique class. Normally you are supposed to spawn in a village!"

Jarvis nodded, "Yes that is a fair question, I was wondering the same. At first I thought perhaps it was just chance, that you spawned players somewhere randomly in the forest. However the more I played the quicker I realized that such a situation wasn't the norm."

Kan'na added, "Additionally I spawned near my mentor's house."

Joining in Akiol spoke, "Likewise, I spawned near the kingdom of slimes."

Question after question, answer after answer. Randwell grew more frustrated every moment. It was already obvious to the party that he wanted something from them, and wasn't getting it. Wrock spoke up, "So much for assuring us we aren't in any trouble. Honestly I think we entertained you for long enough."

Everyone agreed and stood up, ready to leave. Randwell clenched his hands into fists, "Why won't you admit you cheated?"

"So that's what this is about?" Akiol paused and looked at Randwell humorously.

"What you did, it can only be explained by you cheating."

"I see now, because you're so certain we cheated you have been blinded. Refusing to see answers other than the ones that fit your view. There are other answers out there, we didn't cheat. In fact this competition should prove that. Since we won't be able to tinker with anything in front of so many eyes..."

"Yeah, prove that you are cheating. When this super human ability of yours is somehow nowhere to be found."

"You still remain blind Randwell, it's such a shame. We will take our leave, you have taken enough of our time. I hope you can see the truth."

Randwell sat in anger as the group left, he was unwilling to accept it. There should be no way, no possible way!

The door slammed open, startling Randwell. Upon seeing who it was his eyes narrowed, "Fancy seeing you here Steven."

"Randwell! You've gone too far! You had no right! You were given orders specifically to watch and not interfere!"

"Just because the cowards ordered us to remain silent doesn't mean I will! I will not stand idly by as some blatant cheaters get away with their actions!"

"You idiot, they aren't cheating! We've done so many checks!"

"So they abused a flaw we aren't aware of, that's how cheaters normally work."

"It doesn't matter if they are or aren't! It's not your job to figure that out! You've dragged them over here and questioned them for such a long time! If word of this gets out that we are accusing someone of cheating with no significant evidence our reputation will take a hit!"

"But when we prove they are cheating-"

"Our reputation will still take a hit! If the playerbase finds out we let a cheater be free for so long they will naturally doubt us!"

"But it's better for it to be now than never!"

Steven was incredibly frustrated with Randwell's ignorance, "I'm reporting this to the higher ups. This isn't something that can just be overlooked Randwell, you jeopardized more than your job. You may harm the one thing that the higher ups care about the most, our reputation."

"They can't fire me. Even if they wanted to I know too much about the game to be let go."

"You think that, but you should know how tightly bound we are to a contract. Will you willingly risk your everything to just prove that some innocents are cheating?"

"Because they are, when I do prove them I will won't be treated with such disrespect."

"Ridiculous, just because you can't do the same things doesn't mean it's not possible."

"You're the ridiculous one here, you should know that it isn't possible for any human to do that."

Steven sighed, "You're beyond saving Randwell, you did this to yourself."

Steven promptly left, leaving Randwell to his own thoughts.

When faced with such a showcase of skills and strength the human race naturally doubts the ethnicity of it. After a moment of wonder a thought of 'how?' will form in their heads. As they ponder they begin to doubt what they saw more and more. Thoughts of scripted, trickery, and manipulation forms into their head.

It all stems from the natural curiosity and fear of the unknown the human race possesses. Without an answer it plagues them, haunts them to figure it out. It had to have had a reasonable answer, something they could understand!

If not answered soon it is mostly forgotten, or put aside. However those obsessed with it soon come up with their own answer, and begin to spend their time to proving their answer to be correct. Having a sickly obsession with it after so long...

Randwell was one of such people, with an act he deemed impossible to do normally he came to the conclusion the party was cheating.

He was prepared to risk it all to prove this.