Chapter 2

'Well that was anticlimactic' Vincent thought as the door opened to an empty hallway. Looking back and forth, he noticed rows of doors like his on both sides of the hall. He stepped out and closed the door behind him but then he noticed a key in the door key holder and his curiosity got the better of him. Turning the key to the left until he heard a clicking sound, he tried again to open the door but it wouldn't budge. Taking out the key, he noticed a tag on it, 'Room 209'. He looked up and noticed it was the same tag as the door's number plate.

"I bet not many know about this" he muttered to himself and pocketed the key. Just as he did, he heard the sound of a door closing and turned around to see a girl in a hoodie coming out of one of the rooms. She noticed him too and she paused, at least long enough for him to see her player tag,

[Leslie]

That was the only information he could see on her. Only now did he realize there were no player levels.

The girl stared at him for what felt like a minute and next she did something shocking, she opened another door and went in.

It didn't take Vincent long to figure out what was going on. These doors were unlocked! They were player rooms and she was robbing them.

Without delay, Vincent tried the door beside his and it opened. Lady luck shined on him on the first try because sitting on this bed was a briefcase. He hurried to open it and suddenly froze at the sight. Stacks on stacks of money sat inside the briefcase. Who would leave this here? He wondered and picked one up.

[Received $100,000]

'What the...' Without any more delay, he started to grab stack after stack of cash, afraid that the girl from earlier would come in. Until he got a message that worried him.

[Error: Please update your bank information to save more than $10 million]

All of a sudden it clicked why this money was left lying there. He remembered the chat where he saw someone saying they'd got $100 million from the Starter Package, if his thinking was right then there had to be $90 million left... well $80m now that he had taken ten from it. Closing the briefcase, he quickly picked it up and walked out of the door. As he closed the door behind him, he noticed four other players come out of a room and enter the next without even glancing at him. There was even someone who tried his door which made him feel fortunate that he locked it. He still had those five car keys in there.

Without any more delay, he hurried to his room, placed the briefcase on the bed, checked the window to make sure it was locked, and hurried back out only it was different in the hallway this time. The players he had seen before were now in handcuffs and held by some men in uniform whose name tags he couldn't see.

'What's going on?' he wondered and that was when one of the men in a blue Police uniform approached him.

"Hello, can I see your Citizen ID?" the cop asked. It was a female police officer, her eyes watching him warily like a hawk expecting some violent reaction from him.

Vincent was not the violent type, this was a new game, and there was no way he would fight someone who looked like they had some authority in the game when he had no idea what game he was playing yet.

He obediently took out his ID and showed it to her. She produced a strange device from her side which she inserted the ID into, all this time her attention was mostly fixed on him.

While his ID was being scanned, Vincent glanced to the side and saw Leslie, the girl in the hoodie standing before another cop, her ID also being scanned like him.

Noticing his stare she smiled and winked at him causing him to look away in embarrassment.

"Can I ask what's going on?" he asked the cop trying to start a conversation. From the way she spoke to him, he realized this NPC was different from every other game he played. They seemed no different from players aside from having no visible nameplate.

Despite the advancement in technology, there was no real AI yet. Which made him wonder if these were employees of the CHAOS Company playing cops to keep the game in balance.

"We received a call from one of you, Players, that someone had broken into their apartment. My partner and I were just downstairs so we arrived in time to help her and that was when we noticed other players robbing people. We are just doing our jobs. You wouldn't have stolen something from someone else's room would you?" the policewoman asked her brows raised at him.

Vincent was quick on the uptake, someone must have tried to rob a room when the owner was inside and they called the cops. Thinking of it, he hadn't checked the numbers in his contacts.

Although his thoughts roamed, his lips were not slow, "As you can see, I just came out of my room".

The Policewoman studied him a while longer before handing him back his ID. It seemed she confirmed that the room was indeed his somehow.

"Well be sure to lock your door before you leave. We won't stand here guarding your things" she warned and continued down the hallway.

"Hey," Vincent heard someone call and turned to his left to see the girl Leslie standing there.

"Let me guess, you called the cops?" he asked. He noticed that this girl seemed to be a troublesome one. She was the first person to think about robbing others and he just followed in her footsteps along with the others.

"Well, you can't blame me. We all got something different from the Starter Package, some more fortunate than others. I only got ten grand and seeing everyone announcing their wealth in the local chat, I had to find a way to fend for myself." Leslie explained with a shrug.

Vincent became increasingly wary of her. Why was she explaining all this to him?

"Don't be a chicken, the game just started. I'm not doing anything to you. I just didn't want everyone getting the same advantage I did." she noticed his wariness and took a step back with an amused smile on her lips.

"What do you want?" Vincent asked.

"I thought you'd never ask. Well, you see from one of our friends I got this letter" She produced a letter and handed it to him seemingly without worries.

Vincent hesitated to accept it but as the cops were still around, he found the courage to. The letter's seal was broken but on the back were five red stars and the words 'Classified'.

Opening it, it read.

[Congratulations, due to your high focus and reflex stat, you have been specially invited to join the National Intelligence Agency, and head to the Town Hall to see the Mayor.]

Vincent was confused by the words in the letter and he looked back up at Leslie.

"Don't you get it? This world may be the same as our old world but here we can become anyone and that letter encourages diversity in player choices meaning that each player will get a suggestion or prompt to become something. I bet you got one too?" Leslie asked.

Vincent could tell that she was trying to fish information out of him but he wasn't telling. He got a prompt but it came as a game tip not a letter like this one. Who could be so foolish as to leave this in their room? Or was it originally Leslie's?

"You still haven't told me what you want," Vincent said, handing the letter back.

"Well if I am right and this game is like the real world then we are in for a mountain of surprises. There are no skills here for fighting or levels to increase our personal strength but friends in high places can get you a lot. So I am here with an offer, to become your friend" Leslie grinned and offered him a handshake.

Vincent was even more confused right now. She talked this much and showed him that just to become friends? Was she always this chatty? She didn't seem that way when he saw her the first time. Regardless, he saw no reason to refuse so he accepted the handshake expecting a friend request to pop up in his vision but nothing happened.

"Uh- how do we do this?" he asked, eliciting a giggle from Leslie.

"Your phone number silly" she teased.

"Ah," he mouthed in realization and took out his phone. The moment he did Leslie's eyes fixated on it.

"What?" he asked, wariness returning to his heart.

"You got a smartphone?" Leslie asked... well more like she muttered to herself.

"Didn't you?" Vincent replied in confusion.

Instead of answering, Leslie produced three phones from her hoodie pocket and showed him. They were so much like those ancient button phones he heard about but never seen.

"How do you see the local chat then?" he asked curiously.

Pointing at the air slightly above her head, Leslie replied, "On the screen, there's a timer beside it though so I'm guessing it will disappear in. . . 3 days, three days to get a smartphone".

Vincent finally found his phone number in his contact list and showed it to Leslie who inputted it into one of hers.

'She must have stolen the others. How many rooms did she rob?' he wondered.

"See you later Vincent" She walked away quickly after getting what she came for.

'Why me thoug

h?' Vincent could not help but notice that she was going out instead of to any of the other players.

'I delayed too long already' he thought to himself and hurried behind her to catch the elevator going down.