“We have heard the reports,” the man in sunglasses said. “There was a rash of 14 play-related deaths in the news. Draco’s PR department hasn’t uttered a peep. Are you claiming that these were linked to these zones?”
“Yes,” Van said. “There is good news in this. If we can assemble a strong enough task force, we can begin to recruit a military within the game to move into these zones and forcibly shut down Draco from the inside.”
“You’re talking about waging war in a computer game?” the general asked with a laugh.
“Yes, sir, I am. All of this data was located inside of the game. It was physically extracted from Draco’s server points. How much more do you think there is? If Draco has been running this scam for almost twenty years, they must have a lot of information. We’ve tried in vain to find their leaders in the real world, but to no avail. They are hiding extremely well and there’s only one place where I can guarantee you they can be found. Inside of the game.”
The general slowly nodded at that. “So, what then? You want to recruit an army? What’s gonna stop Draco from shutting down their servers and stopping the game entirely?”
Van shrugged. “No idea, but if those servers go down, that means they lose all connection to their agents. We win. If they refuse and we’re able to gain more information, we could potentially find out the physical whereabouts of Draco leadership.”
“Damn, son,” the general said, “you really know your stuff, don’t you?”
“Sir, I’ve been playing this game for a long, long time. It’s the only world I’ve ever known well and, quite frankly, I’m more at home in there than I am out here. If you give us the people, we can build a task force to militarize the population within the game. We can overcome Draco and beat them at their own game. Worst case scenario, Draco nukes the entire system and they can’t communicate anymore.”
“Well said, Van,” Frederick said as he leaned back. “It would appear that Mr. Van’s advice is identical to that of Agent Sang’s. Please note that Sang was under instruction not to tell any of her plan to Van. With these two agents giving us the exact same idea, it is clear that we have a clear sense of direction for our next steps. We must move forward and begin a program to mobilize more players inside of the game. The bigger the army, the more effective we will be against Draco.”
“I’m sorry,” sunglasses man said, “but I’m still having trouble understanding why we need to send more people into a virtual game. Even if Draco is a threat, we should focus on figuring some way to hack into their system.”
“Hacking?” asked the fourth man. He had been sitting silently for the entire duration. He wore a lab coat with a bright red bow tie. “You’ve got to be kidding me. You people have such Hollywood notions of hacking. If we could use some kind of advance cyberwarfare system of cracking Draco, don’t you think we would have by now? The military has been trying to reverse engineer the pods for combat simulations for years, and all attempts have failed. Draco’s system is ironclad. We either go inside the game and break it from the inside out, or we wait until they eventually get their hands on a nuclear launch code and see what happens.”
“See?” the major general offered. “Even the nerds know the truth. Alright, we’re giving this operation the green light. Van, you are hereby commissioned by this taskforce to oversee and lead the recruitment operation. Your mission is going to be to gain as big and as loyal of a force as you can, so that we can press against Draco inside of their own game.”
Van looked over at Sang. “What about Sang?”
“Agent Sang is a fine field agent and an excellent resource, but according to her reports, you were able to effortlessly mobilize a large force, despite the fact that you were, and I’m just repeating her here because I have no idea what the hell it means, several levels lower,” the general said. “This indicates that you are a leader at heart. Sang will be serving alongside you, of course, but in any effective organization, you must always have an executive authority, because anything with two heads is a monster.”
Frederick smiled and spoke up. “Van, you have proven yourself an effective commander. You have carte blanche to handle this however you will. You will have your choice of recruits to go into the game, as well as the resources necessary to motivate players inside of the game financially, should it come to that. This is your operation now, Van.”
The words echoed through Van’s mind. He could barely register what had just been said. They were giving him total control? He was going to be in charge? Two months ago, he had been a nobody, working his way to Draco fame, and now… now he was a key leader in an anti-alien operation? Ideas, images, and plans surged in his mind as he considered everything necessary to win against Draco. He could barely believe it.
“Mr. Van, are you okay?” the man in sunglasses asked. “You haven’t accepted the position.”
“Oh, right. I accept!” Van said. “I accept this charge. I will lead this team against Draco and we will destroy them, once and for all.”
“Excellent, and for their acts of heroism and bravery in the line of duty, we are going to be assigning you Agents Neil and O’Hara as operations managers to assist you in getting set up at the new headquarters,” Frederick said.
Van grimaced at the mention of Neil’s name. “Oh, can I pick someone else?”
Fredrick chuckled, “Ha. No.”
Sang let out a heavy sigh as the door to her hotel slammed behind her. Finally, she was somewhere that wasn’t a government facility. She’d be able to get some rest and collect her thoughts. She had been pushing too hard these last few weeks, and she felt as if she were going to keel over any minute. The conference with the various government branches had been successful—Van had managed to convince the feds to side with his plan and, in the next few weeks, they’d be ready for the final major phase of the operation.
But for now, Sang fell on the hotel bed and let out a long, deep sigh. She couldn’t believe that she’d survived. She had been so close to death so many times that she’d been positive she wouldn’t make it out of that game. And yet, the dust had settled and she was free to relax and enjoy herself.
Of course, despite the fact that she was cleared to get some rest and recuperation, something was still bothering Sang. She couldn’t put her finger on it, but in the back of her mind, she felt a continuous sense of unease. She wasn’t sure what was wrong, but whenever things became still and quiet, she could sense a tension that was still heavy within her, looking for attention.
She tried to sleep, but sleep never came. Instead, she found herself staring at the ceiling, desperately trying to figure out what was wrong. As her mind played through the events of the last few weeks, she realized that she was simply worried about Van. The documentation that she had read came back to her mind.
“He has a high chance of conversion,” it had read. “He can be used for a contingency plan.” What did that mean? Ever since she’d read those words, something had been bothering her, but she couldn’t put her finger on it. She trusted Van implicitly, after all, and she had told Frederick Yuri that Van was the right man for leading the operation within the game. She had seen him fight tooth and nail to save the planet, so why was she feeling so off?