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The thief, Purple Eyes, was right behind the man who he heard was looking for him. His stealth ability was as high as it could be for his level and the ring that he wore made it almost impossible for anyone to know he was there. Even a thief of equal level or maybe a few levels higher would not be able to spot him, let alone a swordsman that was five levels lower than him, but as he got a little closer, he realized that despite everything the man knew that he was being followed. Purple Eyes was about to turn around when the man in front of him stopped and threw a bag behind him, towards where Purple Eyes was supposed to be hidden.

The man charged forward with his sword out. Normally a thief would have an advantage in damage but that was only when you added on the bonus damage that they could get from a surprise attack. The bag had not only dispelled the Stealth skill and made it so that he could not even go back into it. The powder was immune to the skill. He was walking around like a ghost. But Purple Eyes was not going to give up just yet. He was hoping that he could figure out something about not only this man and the powder but his real target as well.

Purple Eyes drew out both of his daggers and moved towards the swordsman in front of him. The two quickly exchanged some blows and with his speed Purple Eyes scored a wicked hit on the man's leg, slowing the man even more and hitting him with a Bleed status based on the ability of the dagger than he used. A few more exchanges and the man had not come close to touching Purple Eyes, who could see the frustration building. Purple Eyes knew that the man would not be fast enough to stop him and he had no desire for a red name so he broke from combat and started to run away.

After just a few steps he felt something was wrong. The feeling and pressure in the area seemed to go through the roof, almost like he was facing a world boss. He turned to see if the other man was affected and saw him standing there with all of his wounds healed. His hand jerked forward faster than Purple Eyes could track and he felt an impact in his stomach. "That should even things out."

Izak looked down at the dagger that was stuck in his stomach the pain radiated out so much that he bent over to throw up. 'Why does it hurt so much? I have my pain settings turned down. Did the AI change them because of the special location that he was in?' Something was wrong, he was easily defending himself from the man across from him when the notification of a special dungeon rang and now the man is fighting like an expert, no not an expert, an elite expert. In his entire time in the game, he had only seen one other person fight this way and he was the number one player in 'Earth: Reboot' the online game that blew up a decade ago, and he had started playing a few days after it open due to an injury.

"I see that you are confused. When I activated the private dungeon around me all of your settings were preset to what I desired and I altered my stats like a world boss and you got hit with debuffs that you can't resist."

Izak hit the record option of his character and tried not to show any reaction when it worked. He knew that something was wrong with the system when he heard that. "Wait, how did you start a private dungeon? I thought that it was all being controlled by an external AI so that no developer could get involved in the process, Mr. Washburn."

Rage quickly showed on the man's face. "How do you know that name?"

"You did not dig far enough into who I am to figure that out?" There was a note of disdain in his words. "I am a private investigator, I investigated. I played to enjoy it for a few years but then they made marriage and the like legal in the game and then I used it to make money. Finding out the identities of characters in real life so that some young and stupid rich kid did not lose their family's fortune. Or some young attractive girl married to a middle-aged otaku. So, when I realized that I was being watched I started digging." He felt the urge to cough and hacked out a clot of blood. 'Damn some things are just too real.'

"Since you are now trapped in my private dungeon I may as well enlighten you. You see the AI is bound to the game and the game to the AI but that was only true to things that existed after the AI was activated in the game. You see that are a few of us who invested heavily in the game that wanted a little more control over everything and with a lot of money we convinced the AI developers to let a few people make characters before the game started. They were inserted with special conditions and this is one of them. As you are aware my family is in charge of the pods and with a few modifications to the plans they were built with a safety bypass."

'What does a safety bypass have to do with anything other than if your health starts to deteriorate?'

"You are wondering about the purpose of the bypass. Well, it is twofold you see. First it allows us access to the pod that you are using and then we send it a signal and the stored capacitors, that are not really necessary, overcharge and fry your brain. And to top it off the way that they are designed it looks like you messed with it and removed the burden of liability from the company."

"But to what end? I mean why?"

"That is another easy one, money. Someone pays for someone to die and we find them in here and then we trap them in a private dungeon. Some of us kill quickly and some of us, like me, turn the pain absorbers off and then toy with them before they die. Once they are dead in here it triggers the bypass in the game and there you go."

"How many of you psychos are there?"

"More than you realize. Honestly, I am not sure. All I know is that you are my target. Apparently, you have been looking into one of the other guys on the list and while he is not a killer it is a money guy for us and we had to put a stop to it. So now that, that is settled, let's continue shall we."

Izak stopped the recording and attached it to an email. He quickly thought out some basic information into the email since he did not have a keyboard, player name Christopher Washburn, Character name Devils Hand. Normally in a private dungeon an email would not be able to send. But Izak was not normal and as an investigator he even got himself trapped in a dungeon a lot like this one and found out that no matter the circumstances the AI could get emails. He sent the email out and waited until he got the ping that said the message was sent. He saw that his health was about to run out and he knew that the man across from him was about to heal and torture him, before the man could get close, he spit out another mouthful of blood and grabbed the dagger. With a twist and jerk his health quickly bottomed out and he felt his body dissolve. Even though he knew that he was dying he gave the man a smile and flipped him off.

Washburn saw the man grab the dagger and knew he was trying to take the quick way out. He had to commend the man on his resolve even though he knew that it would mean death in real life. He quickly closed the distance between them but he knew that the time it took to cast the spell and the time left to log out after death was too different and there was nothing that he could do. And then to make it worse he saw the smile and the rude gesture. "SON OF A *&@(*!"

The man was still screaming and cussing when he got a message inside from one of the only people who could communicate with the inside of the private dungeon. "We have a problem."

"What kind of problem?"

"Apparently, the worm that you were dealing with was smarter than we thought. He managed to get a message out."

"Who in the hell did he get a message out too?"

"He sent it directly to the AI as a trouble ticket."

"Mother of God. She will start tearing apart the hidden code and not only block us out but she also has everything that has ever happened stored in her warehouse. This is really, really bad."

"Well, it is bad for you. Sorry about this."

That was when he realized that the man was about to hit the bypass on his pod. "My dad will kill you all."

"He is the one that gave the order."

Izak opened his eyes and looked around. "Shouldn't I be dead?" He blinked a few times and realized that something else was wrong. "I haven't lived here in over nine years." He looked at his phone and checked the date. It was a month before the Earth: Reboot launch. "What in the hell is going on."