VRMMORPG: The Other World Online

A woman in a neat black suit sipped on a tea and typed away at the virtual keyboard in front of her. She had curly red hair and a pair of deep-set blue eyes. Her Caucasian features were delicate and doll like.

The virtual screen in front of her showed a list of names, range of their age and a string of time.

The woman's glasses glinted as she looked up towards the door.

A man wearing a lab coat walked towards the woman, his stride calm and purposeful.

The woman got up from her chair respectfully. "Dr Mead!"

The tall man with brown hair and green eyes walked towards her. He waved her to sit down.

"How is the data compiling going?" he asked as he leaned against her chair.

The woman blushed, her eyes lowered to the keyboard in front of her. "I…it is going smoothly."

"Were you able to get any information from those people on the forum?"

"No," the woman said with a shake of her head. "They seemed to just talk about The Other World in general. Nothing about Qi, or their own situations regarding it."

The man's trimmed eyebrows furrowed. "Nothing at all?"

The woman shook her head again.

"Have you got any information on the players themselves?" he asked after a while.

The woman's eyes widened and then she took a print out of a file and handed it over to the man.

Their fingers touched briefly, making her blush even more.

"What is this?" he asked her, ignoring her reactions to his actions.

"These are the player names, their approximate age range, and the record of the time they logged into the game for the first time."

The man looked through the list and frowned. "These are fake names."

The woman stilled for a moment, and then nodded. "This is a game. They wouldn't go out of their way to use their real names in this."

The man looked at the woman with a cold gaze. "Assistant Moore, I did not ask for your personal experience in this regard."

The woman backed away from him. "Understood, Dr Mead."

"If you find out anything else that might be able to help us to locate these indivuduals, then report it to me immediately," the man ordered and then turned to walk away.

"Sir!" the woman called.

The man stopped and stared at her.

"Can I ask you something?"

"What is it?"

Assistant Moore pursed her lips as she arranged her thoughts. "Dr Mead…Can we…um…get a cup of coffee sometimes?"

The man stared at her for a few seconds. The man let out a small smile, one that hid the harsh shadows of his face. "Then you would have to call me Joseph."

The woman looked at him in surprise. She did not think he would actually agree!

"Then…when do you want to get that coffee?" she asked tentatively.

The man kept staring at her.

Assistant Moore fidgeted. Did she think wrong? Did he only say that to get away or did he say that as a friend? Did he not understand her meaning?

The man looked at the watch on his wrist. "How about now?"

"Now?" she asked in shock.

The man nodded. "Why not? You can get back to work after we have had our first date."

"D-date?" the woman asked, shock on her face. A smile slowly crept its way into the mix of expressions, making her face look too horrific.

Joseph shivered but still maintained his cold expression. "That is right. Our first date."

The woman looked at the files that she had opened up before and then at Joseph. She was very conflicted.

"What is it?" Joseph asked her. Didn't she just seem over eager to get a date with him?

"That…can you wait for half-an-hour? Dr Fennings had me compile a few projects…"

The man nodded in understanding. "That data on The Other World AI activities."

"Yes," the redhead said in a small voice. "So-"

"That is fine then," the man said to her. "We can go in the evening. Make it a candle light dinner. How does that sound? I hear that the Bamboo House restaurant across the street is a very famous place for dates."

Assistant Moore nodded with a blush. "Dr Mead is so considerate."

The man gave her a small smile, and left after bidding her a good day.

The woman rushed to the door and peeked out, watching the man walk away. The blush on her face was still deep.

She closed the door firmly, and the shy smile and blush on her face drained away immediately.

She took out a pen from her desk and clicked on the back end of the metallic casing.

A projection of a few scanned documents appeared above her head.

She picked up her Fold device and called someone.

"Hello," a gruff voice called from the other side.

"Chief," the woman said in a low voice.

"Alyssa!" the man exclaimed. "You unfilial child!"

She sighed. "Joseph Mead just entered the room."

There was the sound of something crashing.

"What!"

"He wanted to know if I had the identities of the players of the Qiless Awakened Forum in that game."

"Then, have you found it?" the man asked in a light voice.

"No."

"That is okay then. We don't really think he had anything to do with the disappearances but it is good to make sure. After all, he was in that area every time something happened."

"I think he might have a hand in the disappearance of those Qiless people," Alyssa said instead.

"What!"

"Just a hunch," the woman explained. "But Chief…if it really is the case, then this act of discrimination is not just a simple discrimination."

"I know," the chief said in a serious tone, "My guess is that these Qiless have something that made them a target for Joseph and whoever is behind him."

The woman's blue eyes fell on the Forum group's name.

Qiless Awakened….Awakened….

The woman gasped in surprise.

"What! What is it!" the man at the other side of the phone asked in panic.

The woman did not answer, and instead went towards the latest Advertising hologram of the Other World.

'Qi Awakening for even the Qiless.'

Though it was a simple and familiar boasting…

"I think I know what makes these batches of Qiless special," the woman said to her Chief at last.

"What is it?"

"I will call you back," the woman said and cut the call. She then went to the various files of the people who had gone missing in the last few months.

She circled a few parts on the virtual screen.

"If I am right," the woman whispered to herself, "then there is a revolution happening around us without us even knowing it."