As I left the sigma shop, a raccoon started following me. Short and full of fluff, it matched my walking pace with ease. Amazingly I heard some reports of it being a bug or a glitch in the world but what they didn't know was that it was actually Extrabios in her disguise.
"Extra!" I crouched down to her eye level. "Why are you a raccoon?"
"I'm hiding." She stopped to sit on the side of the next shop as we hadn't walked far. This shop was a katana shop selling a bunch of skins. "Tamino wants you at Central. Bring Heili along."
"Hey!" I froze, my head shooting up to see who called out. It was a person who was staring at us. "It's that raccoon!"
"I have to go now." Extra said awkwardly before she scurried off into the night.
Central was a large round room that hosted the main hive of activity for the game. Nine large doors formed half of the room with the modes available for the players from there they could pick how they wanted to play, choose how large they wanted their room from a minimum of four people to sixteen depending on the map and the map. One was frosted over. The rumour was that this was going to be a Christmas event hence all the ice keeping it closed.
Right in the centre was the canteen area complete with a row of stalls that ran around the circumference from a number of countries - American, a few Asian dishes and a handful of Eastern European.
On the other half was a room for volunteers - Game Sage or GS for short - like Heili and the main offices for the GM team. There was a floor to ceiling window but there wasn't much to look at, it was the same as what you would see through the window of Chaser's Office map - a bland landscape full of hexagonal shapes with a gradient from an evening sky orange to a deep hue of purple. A city was seen in the distance but it was too far to make out any detail as to what it was and why it was there since the early days of the Netsphere.
Random Fumbi was on that side. I thought we were going to pay him a visit but instead Heili took me upstairs to the main office which was restricted access for the public. You couldn't pass through the entrance without a written consent or if you have on the spot permission to enter.
I hadn't been here in a while. Not since I left.
Once there we overlooked the canteen area. It wasn't until recently there was much to interfere with though. The recent explosions meant there was an increase of people knocking on the office door asking what happened despite there being an official statement out already.
Heili typed in the code to enter, inviting me in with him.
We had just came straight here. With the names of the man and woman in hand there was no need to keep them bound. Since Heili had their guilty names down to the right capitals, asterisks and all that jazz, all he had to do was pass on their sorry names for a GM to deal with them.
The place hadn't changed at all. As the entrance was on the second floor, we were on an open plan landing. Mesh made up the floor beneath our feet with supporting panels and was finished with railing so you don't accidently fall of the edge for whatever reason. Straight in front was a floor to ceiling window with the same view that was outside of Office. There wasn't much on this floor.
Descending the stairway was the main living room. On the left side wall was a flat screen TV with two sofas and a small coffee table set up in a right angle facing it. White furniture made the space feel modern despite how old the Netsphere was.
Adjacent to the empty landing was the kitchen, silver countertops holding everything you would need for an experience baker or cook. Red cabinets alongside the walls brought colour and character to the place. A breakfast bar separated the two rooms whilst keeping the space together.
There were also rooms for meetings which ran parallel like a hallway alongside the left wall.
When I was still a member, pugs ran around the place. So much it was probably why Chopper who had been a GM for S4L up until recently, offered to be on Ironsight.
Tamino appeared from one of those meeting rooms. Despite the time - which I assumed was early in the morning - she was still up and waiting for us despite Heili's call to her.
"Hi Pugino." I grinned. I loved my pug nicknames for everyone. Everytime someone would join the team I would immediately think of how I could pug them.
"Hi Hatsu."
"It's Kohaku. I'm not Hatsu anymore!" I pouted.
"Or fish." Heili shrugged. But he had a massive grin plastered on his face.
"HatsuKoi is one word!" Why do people split the two words up? Just because 'koi' can mean fish too...
Tamino sat on a stool leaning against the breakfast bar. "So, any breakthrough with this?"
I shook my head. "It looked like they were going to set off the bombs under the sigma shop but I wouldn't know for certain until I spoke with them." I had put them on my block list so I could look at their profile and see where they were. Right now, they had split up. The man, Steven was in DM's Construction. The female, on the other hand, Rachel, was in TD's Highway. Frankly what happened just now was the only lead we had on this case.
When the maps were looked into after they had been bombed, there were no clues left. There was just nothing. I was still part of this voluntary team at the time and the minute I had stepped into any affected map, players plagued me with questions. "What's happening?", "Who's doing this?", "Are the devs going to do something about the bombings?" Similarly feature style discussions kept popping up such as "Is the Netsphere going to be getting a new map as a consequence of this?" It was all over the Monthly Netsphere, now happening on a weekly basis, a need now considering the recent incidents.
"I also need to talk to Random Fumbi."
Tamino frowned. "I think Heili must have missed that part out."
I explained why he was involved. She looked up in thought. "I think I'll talk to the devs in removing the bomb from his random generator at least temporarily."
"Players might get it from the shop." Heili added. "If removing that is an option you might have to remove it from the shop. Granted, it won't be as powerful but community safety is a priority."
I was nodding throughout. "An announcement should be made too regarding the removal linking it to the incidents."
Tamino sighed. I could tell what was running through her mind. What about players who have a permanent version already?
"For now, I'll talk to the devs. I'll see what they think and act accordingly. In the meantime, talk to those guys involved. Oh!" she leaned forward. "Don't forget to give me the names of the two you found. Also wasn't there something about a mirror?"
Heili did what she said. I continued, pulling out the mirrors out for her. "Yeah, I've never seen this before."
"I'll ask some people on it." I already had someone in mind for it. Tamino nodded saying she was going to do the same thing and with nothing else to talk about, we left it at that.