How to "Negotiate"

"Do I have your attention?" Chau mocked, holding the hackers back with his blade. All three floated in the air before landing at the edge of the lake.

The pair at their keyboards gritted their teeth as they glared at their screen.

"It's a mod! This is a bust!" AlbertrossCrow said.

"Let's just log off and change the usernames later! Sound good!?" CallofSwallows asked.

The battlemage nodded and started clicking on his profile icon.

"Hold it!" Chau called, making the pair halt.

"Ignore him, we're out of here!" CallofSwallows exclaimed.

Chau opened up a chatbox and a phone icon appeared. "Layla, they're making a run for it, you ready?" he said.

"They can try." A husky deadpan voice replied from the speaker.

As the pair of hackers clicked through the boxes asking to log out, they waited for the game to close their screens.

"What the hell!?" the Chi-Master yelled, startling his partner.

AlbertrossCrow looked at both of their screens and had the same reaction.

Error(4420): Unable to verify account. Please try again.

The two tried again.

Error(4420): Unable to verify account. Please try again.

They rapidly clicked.

Error(4420): Unable to verify account. Please try again.

Error(4420): Unable to verify account. Please try again.

Error(4420): Unable to verify account. Please try again.

Error(4420): Unable to verify account. Please try again.

Error(4420): Unable to verify account. Please try again.

Error(4420): Unable to verify account. Please try again.

"You fools ready to listen now?" Chau interrupted their attempts getting in their faces in the game, almost causing them to fall back in the lake.

"Just click out the game?" AlbertrossCrow suggested.

CallofSwallows clicked the X in the left corner, but to no avail.

Are you sure you want to log out?

"We've been trying to log out!" CallofSwallows said, as slammed his hands around his keyboard.

"What the hell is happening? Maybe we should just turn the computers off." AlbatrossCrow said with a cringe.

As I was Saying!

The pair put their attention back on Chau.

"If you'll pay attention, you'll know I know you're rocking illegal account cards. So if we could skip to the negotiations, let's talk giving those account cards back and don't even think about throwing away those cards if you want amnesty." Chau threatened.

"Should we just ditch the account cards?" The battlemage asked.

"We spent 50Mill each on these!" CallofSwallows exclaimed.

"But we can't cover our tracks if we don't log out!" AlbartrossCrow retorted.

HEY!

The pair startled almost fell out of their chairs.

"I said don't even think about ditching those account cards, or else no chance of amnesty. Finding you will not be hard. In the game or IRL. How hard do you want to make it?" Chau warned, glaring at the two.

Looking back and forth between Chau and the error screen the duo discussed their options.

"There's no way he can find us, nothing in here has a GPS tracker on and our VPN changes our IP addresses on a regular basis." AlbatrossCrow said.

"You think he's bluffing?"CallofSwallows said.

"I think we still have to get rid of the account cards, he found us and something's keeping us from logging out. We're already exposed." AlbatrossCrow said with a frown.

"And waste all that money!?" CallofSwallows yelled. He knew his partner was right, but that was still 100 Million RMB down the drain.

"Let's just turn the computers off and figure out the rest later." AlbatrossCrow whispered, taking off his headset.

"Dammit." CallofSwallows lamented and leaned toward his hard drive's power button.

"Before you do something stupid, and I mean real stupid. You should know, that VPNs as hard as it is to get still won't help you in this case." Chau said. The two halted, unable to shake off their curiosity at Chau's words.

"VPNs technically aren't illegal for private use in China, but that doesn't mean they want em out on the street doing as they please. In order for any VPN provider to make legit money, they have to be approved by the government. That means that data you think is hidden is being seen by somebody and depending on who asks they'll get it and they'll use it to find you." Chau warned.

The heartbeats of the hackers began escalating at hearing this.

"Also, our boss knows every VPN provider in the country because he went to school with half of them. We ask the right people we will find you. Doesn't matter what fake name you used, or the Swiss Bank account they charged, someone has your location. But of course, you'll get that option if we so choose." Chau explained.

"What does he mean?" AlbatrossCrow asked.

"What do you mean!?" CallofSwalls asked, making AlbatrossCrow facepalm his nose.

"We can track you down in the midsts of our own investigation or we go the cops tell em about the 100 Mill RMB of contraband and the government hunts you down. Do you know how they treat white-collar criminals nowadays? The judges will be looking to make an example out of you." Chau threatened.

The pair started to sweat, feeling the pressure of Chau's reasoning.

"There are only 3 good VPN services in the country with government approval and my Boss knows them all. One phone call, and we'll have your asses in a day and we'll send that info to the cops. One call straight to the cops and your asses will be arrested in an hour, via government resources. With 1 day you could probably get out of the country, maybe. An hour? Forget about it. But that doesn't have to happen IF you surrender the account cards and you abide by our terms. I should also warn you, they don't treat hackers well in jail." Chau said, letting every word hang on their heads.

AlbatrossCrow and CallofSwallows panicked, finding no words to argue with.

"What do we do...call his bluff?" the battlemage asked with sweat covering his face.

"He's not bluffing, if we weren't hackers the VPN thing would still be enough to get us in court. Those account cards weren't worth it, we don't play even play Glory!" CallofSwallows shouted into his headset.

"So I think you boys know what you have to do." Chau said, lighting up a cigarette.

The users of the accounts cards didn't outright say it, but their defeat was already written.

"Good job Chau, just keep repeating after me." the raspy voice called from the chat.

"Damn Layla you're good." Chau whispered with a smirk.