Desolate World

After being ejected by the game, he looked at the cover of the capsule blankly. He knew that he was done for. He had lost 12 million dirac after all. All of his hard work for these months went down the drain.

He wanted to cry. He wanted to shout. It was unfair. He had never done bad things to others. Even if he was bullied by Sunny Gulf Guild, he had never given up to live as normally as he could. 

But, why did bad things always come to him? 

"Yes, it should be them. He should be a member of the Sunny Gulf Guild. They always came to mess with me. Damn it! I should be more careful!" Troy said with hatred.

He was sure his attacker was from Sunny Gulf Guild. He also suspected the NPC may have lied. He must not be a staff of town hall. It must have been planned a long time ago. Because, it was impossible for it to be just a coincidence. How could his attacker know that he had a 12 million dirac check? 

If he wasn't there from the start, it was impossible for him to know. As Troy himself had never had a plan of the transaction in the first place. It was the NPC himself that always initiated the transaction.

The more he thought, the more he was sure that he was planned from the beginning. And he only had an enemy there, it was Sunny Gulf Guild. So, it was their doing. He was really angry at the moment. Not only because of the incident, but because of his powerlessness.

It took him half an hour to calm down. He then realized that he had failed to assess his situation. The most important thing for him at the moment, was to find a way out of his problem not to self-pity or make a random guess.

He then exited the capsule. He started to browse the internet about cases like his. And he saw that there were many similar cases like him. 

After reading the other cases for an hour, he found that most of the players that had faced similar situations like him were penalized by the system. As they were deemed guilty of scamming. It made him think that he would end up like them, rotting in the prison and all of his possessions would be confiscated.

As he wanted to give up, he saw a post in the forum that told the struggle of a former lawyer after being trapped like him in such a case. What he did after the incident was to report his misfortune to the village hall and mention some reasonable explanations and give them some proof to support his claim that he was a victim. 

After that, he was brought in front of the village head to be judged by the village head himself. After being asked some questions, he was inserted into the dungeon. The NPCs said that they would try their hardest to solve the case, but for the time being, they asked him to be 'cooperative'.

Wasn't satisfied with the treatment of the NPC, he made a report to the police. After his statement was reported, the police officer asked him to wait for a few weeks at home. And he asked him to not enter the game for the time being.

A few weeks later, he was called by the police to come. After coming, he was told that based on his activities log, the union found that he was proven to be innocent. However, as the union couldn't interfere with the NPC's behavior, they couldn't help him to get the justice that he deserved.

But, the police assured him that no further legal action would be put on him, and he could restart playing the game by creating a new character. 

From the story, Troy concluded that struggling in the game would be useless. It should be expected. The NPC didn't have access to the player's activities log like the Union who was also the developer of the game. So, it was impossible for them to get a clue just from a statement of every involved person, without knowing if they were honest or not.

As for the Union, they had access to all players' activities logs. So they would be able to verify the statement of the player involved in the case. So, they could determine if the player was guilty or not.

Unfortunately, the Union's conclusion was only effective in the real world. They couldn't affect the outcome in the game. 

And he couldn't even enter the game. According to the writer of the story, doing so will make him seem suspicious. As his every action and achievement would be recorded in his activities log but not his words. 

So the writer suggested the people who had a similar experience like him not come back to the game and immediately went to the police station. 

Because, the more frequently you entered the game, the more suspicious your actions were in the eyes of the Union. So it was better to give up your character altogether to avoid a greater loss.

Troy thought it was reasonable. So he decided to give up his character, his assets in the game, and diracs. Although he would suffer a great loss, he could hope to not be further trapped in 12 million of debt.

That very moment, He went to the police office to report his case. At first, the police officer who was in charge didn't know if he had the authority to handle the case or not. So he asked Troy to wait, while he consulted with his higher-up. 

After 10 minutes or so, he came back with his higher-up. After taking his statement, he was asked to not enter the game for the time being. It was the exact same procedure that he had read from the post. So, he had some confidence that his case would have the same outcome as the writer's, who had written the post. He hoped so.

For 3 weeks, he didn't get any notice from the police. But, the fact that he wasn't arrested, he hoped that it meant he would be sentenced not guilty. Actually, he couldn't sleep well every night, as he was always nervous.

***