Virtuality

Aesir-fest Investigation: Part 2

Unknown sender, eh? Who would send such a thing to me? Urgh. This might be the only lead I have as of now. I better rest already. I'll just continue this tomorrow.

..........

I woke up the next day with a lot of things weighing my mind.

I don't know where to start with this investigation. Maybe I should just tighten the security of the server instead of using my time to investigate all these stuffs? But no, it's too late.

Based from the mail I received, someone most likely is telling me that the irregularity on the server wasn't a glitch.

It's the only lead I have for now, but how am I supposed to find whoever sent it? I can't track the sender that easily.

Come to think of it, I wonder how's Julienne doing. I haven't practiced with her for awhile.

Should I visit her? Maybe. I don't know what to do right now.

I really need to calm myself down. Nothing bad has happened yet, but if I don't get any useful information, something bad might really happen.

KITT studied all the footages while I was sleeping. I asked him,

"KITT, what's the status?"

"Status: No suspicious markers detected. All subjects are employees of A.R.C."

As I expected, it's not an inside job. Everyone that was in the footage are all employees of A.R.C.

No one in the Admins can do something like this, much more the employees. However, there are two persons I'm suspicious about.

First, Aesir himself. David said that he's the only one who didn't show up on the Aesir-fest. I also checked the footage of the virtual concert myself, and it's true.

Second, the new advisor Dr. Neumann. His father may have been an important asset to the foundation of A.R.C., but some parts of him makes me feel anxious.

Not to mention, he's the newest employee up-to-date.

I decided to not stress myself about it, so I just stayed at home since I don't need to do anything at the A.R.C. Headquarters.

I just started researching for any records in the past that might help me with my investigation. I spent my hours at my secret home researching and finding clues that may at least help me with the case.

I traced every records that A.R.C. has back to the date 600's.

..........

Two days have passed since I'm just at my home where I've been stuck with the case. A question striked me though. Who is Aesir? He's certainly the key to all this questions. Another question striked me. What if the fact that he didn't appear was just used as a diversion to avoid attention unto the real culprit?

*Phone rings*

"Oh, probably a mail from David."

I sighed knowing that it will be a text saying that I should come back at the HQ since I didn't show up for two days straight.

I opened the mail. The contents are:

"Hey, got any leads as to whoever the 'hacker' may be? Btw, haven't you checked the news yet? If you haven't checked it yet, please do. I'm already panicking here....."

Looks like a bad situation. Knowing him, it's definitely urgent.

I checked the news using my computer. As I searched using the keywords "Latest news in
cyTus", majority of what I saw are news about people complaining to the A.R.C. about the cyTus server.

I opened one article and all that it says are:

'Virtual world's server: In Jeopardy?'

"Many but unspecified number of people have sent their complaints to A.R.C. regarding the fainting problem that they've experienced. This is clearly one of A.R.C's biggest crisis. The company still hasn't given a statement as to how this will be resolved. The cause of the incident is still under investigation by their security specialists."

I'm really speechless. It seems like I was wrong. This problem is gonna get bigger and bigger. I must meet up with David as soon as possible......

I texted him immediately.

"Are you still at HQ? I'm going there. Let's meet up."

He replied after a minute.

"Hurry. The admins will also be furious if we don't get a handle on this already. You have an iM account, right? Try reading some threads to see other people's feedback. In that way, it would be easier rather than checking the news."

I went to A.R.C's HQ as quick as I could. I ran to David's office. I saw two persons inside. The first was David. The other one was the new advisor Dr. Neumann.

I don't really have a good impression of him, but I have a different purpose as to why I'm here, so I should set aside what I think right now and just focus on the task at hand.

"Oh, good. You're finally here, Simon", David said.

Dr. Neumann just bowed his head as a sign of respect. I'll just monitor him time to time since I don't have a background information on him.

Without having any second thoughts, I started analyzing the problem regarding the complaints of the users of cyTus.

It might be linked to the fainting I had during the Aesir-fest.

I assumed that it might also be related to the "not so much" secret hacking incident on the server during the Aesir-fest.

Assuming that, I just applied and worked on new security patches for the server. Day by day, I spent all of my time into tightening the security hoping that the problem will be solved.

Little did I know, the problem hasn't even started yet......