Chapter 2

Riiiiiing.

Heather jerked awake, woken suddenly by the ringing of her phone's daily alarm.

"Goddammit, why is it always so loud," she muttered.

Groggily, she sat up and stared around her room before glancing at her phone screen.

7:30 am. Right. School in an hour. Argh, this sucks.

She got up and walked to her bathroom which was adjacent to the room's only door.

Glancing at the mirror, she quickly brushed her teeth, flossed, and put on her glasses.

Yawning loudly, she walked over to her small closet and chose a pair of clothes to wear for the day.

Although school uniforms were mandatory, the school gave the students a couple of different clothes to choose from every day which was nice.

Heather slipped into her gray uniform and matching gray socks before trodding towards her dorm's door, grabbing her discarded phone on the way.

Right before leaving, she glanced in the tall mirror right next to the door.

Ah. My hair...well, whatever. It's naturally curly and bouncy anyway. Brushing it ain't gonna do much to calm it down.

Slipping on monotone sneakers, Heather grabbed her pale yellow school bag, dropped her phone into the bag, double-checked to make sure everything was in there and walked out of her dormitory.

It was a cool, cloudy day coupled with a light breeze that brought a promise of winter.

Heather glanced towards the right side of the dormitory she just left before turning and walking towards the left.

She made her way towards the bike racks and unhooked the ride that was hers.

Tucking the locking chain into her backpack, she hopped on her bike.

Right before she kicked the pedal and started moving, her phone rang, the sound breaking the soothing silence of the morning.

She took the phone out and glanced at the caller before answering.

"Mornin' Mingkai. What's up?"

"Morning Heather. Nothing much really. Just dragging this idiot with me before he makes us both late to class."

"Hey! Who are you calling idiot??", shouted someone who was most likely Jake, Mingkai's roommate.

"Jake", Heather drolled, "How many tardies have you had this year again?"

Over the phone, Jake mumbled something inaudible, not willing to answer the question.

"5 tardies," Mingkai bluntly said, not bothering with what sounded like Jake hitting him.

"And 7 tardies means you automatically fail the class! It's only mid-October too which means you have to be careful for the rest of this semester," teased Heather.

"Yeah yeah, okay. Anyway, wanna stop and get some drinks before heading to class?"Jake said, obviously trying to change the subject away from him being late to class.

"Jake", Heather said seriously, "You forget that my class starts at 8:30 pm while your class starts at 9:00 pm. Let's get drinks during lunch."

"Alright. Same meeting place?"Jake replied.

"Sure! Alright then, see you boys," Heather said.

After receiving a confirming "See ya" from Jake and a simple "Bye" from Mingkai, Heather hung up, put in her airpods, and began her ride to school.

Taking the route she had memorized a year ago, Heather rode silently while listening to music.

As she took her last turn that would take her straight to the school, she noticed a large billboard showcasing the CEO of DelightOnline, the company that managed D.O. She glanced up, reading the captions, and instantly narrowed her eyes in thought.

The billboard read:

CEO JOHN OF DELIGHTONLINE ANNOUNCING SPECIALIZED TEAM TO FIND HIDDEN PLAYERS

Sh*t, Heather cursed, I'm gonna have to be even more careful if the leader of this specialized team ends up being one of the big 10.

Suddenly, the surface of the billboard changed again, showcasing the name of the person who would lead the specialized team.

Haha, Heather mentally laughed, staring at the name with mixed feelings, out of all 10 it had to be the very best. Although I shouldn't be surprised, DelightOnline DOES have a lot of money.

But still, to think it would be <Believer> of all people.

<Believer> was the world's most famous black turned white hat hacker.

After hacking, in general, lost its steam around 25 years ago, most hackers became <hidden player hunters>.

While most big-name hackers lost their fame and potential positions to new <hunters>, <Believer> was one of the few who retained nearly everything.

Although D.O. had far more <hidden players> than most other big-name games, somewhere in the upper 3,000, it seemed that those <hidden players> wouldn't last very long.

Let's see how long I can last, Heather thought while parking her bike. She had ridden the rest of the way to school, pondering what she should do to prepare for the next three days.

As she walked past her school entrance, she let one last thought about the specialized team leader go before forcing herself to focus on her upcoming class.

Hah. To think <Believer> would take up a job like this so soon. After all, they just finished finding all of Reverse's <hidden players>. What a beast of a <hunter>.