"Tory, my man, that serious face doesn''t look well on you. Tell me, what trouble we''vended ourselves into this time."


    Vik patted Tory''s shoulder before adding on.


    "Hehe! It wasn''t the first and it won''t be thest."


    Tory remained unresponsive to Vik''s attempts to lighten the mood.


    There was a loud techno-trance track ying in the background. People were dancing and drinking all around the two. And yet Tory wasn''t interested in any of those. It broke his usual image of being as carefree as carefree could get.


    "Don''t tell me you got one of your "Mamacitas" pregnant by ident."


    Vik chuckled before ordering a drink for himself at the counter. Tory got even more serious after listening to his remark before smiling mirthlessly:


    "Hehehe. I should have gotten them pregnant after all. All of them at the same time damn it.


    That op might as well be ourst, Vik. There hasn''t been any official news released to the public yet."


    Tory said and looked at his rum ss. He traced the rim of the ss with hir right index finger before adding the rest.


    "Maybe they are confirming something. Or they are waiting for someone to break the news. Either way. It''ll happen sooner thanter."


    Tory said and consumed the ss of rum given to him in one gulp. Even as a virtual drink, the stimtion provided to his nervous system was real. So the guy coughed a bit due to the potency of the on-the-rock rum before continuing.


    "I''m afraid we might not be able to get outside that haunted house once our real pictures start making the rounds in the news bulletins here and in reality.


    We are fucked, Vik. Six ways to Sunday."


    Vik wanted Tory to exin clearly instead of beating around the bush. But before he could demand such an exnation, he heard a spectral screen appearing right above the dance floor.


    "Attention to all themon denizens of the Oasis Online. The Oasis Corp''s chairperson Miss Raquel Roy requests your attendance."


    A gentle female voice was heard from seemingly everywhere and nowhere. The nk screen then showed a live feed of a woman that looked to be in her early 30s.


    She had lustrous ck hair and a tanned oliveplexion. Since the live feed was being projected on a big spectral screen with extra zoom on the woman''s face, people could see her light grey eyes were moist. As if she had just wiped her tears.


    Raquel Roy was a famous personality within the Oasismunity and outside it. She was the only daughter of Remington Roy, one of the founding families behind the Oasis Corp.


    Oasis Corp was established by a bunch of influential families some centuries back when the concepts of VR were still quite vague and suffocatingly limited. Thesepanies became the pir with which the virtual worldter built its foundation.


    As the founding families, these families had secured arge chunk of the corporation''s stakes for themselves. The corporation would have to act ording to the whims of these families if theye to a consensus on something particr.


    But the strong ties between these three families slowly deteriorated over time. They used to often fight each other both in Oasis as well as in real life.


    Remington Roy was a charismatic leader within the Roy faction. He was widely known for his Permavatar Lord Victorious in Oasis. And his achievements in the virtual world spanned over a century and a half.


    That''s right! Remington Roy was more than 175 years old. And he only married after turning 130.


    Raquel was conceived when Remington was 135 years old. So she too had seen her share of life in her 40-plus years.


    And currently, thisdy was using her family''s privilege and special status to make a global announcement. One could guess things she would talk about would be pretty serious.


    Raquel used a piece of tissue to wipe the seemingly real tears before finally speaking in a shaky voice:


    "Denizens of the Meta Oasis. I apologize for interrupting your activities. But I have a grim piece of news to share with you.


    My father, Remington Roy, has died.


    No. Let me correct that. He has been killed."


    The entire Battery Point bar seemed to have frozen in time when Raquel made that announcement. Everybody looked at each other with dismay. In addition to them, two people listened to this news with different emotions than the rest.


    Raquel took a moment to pause and clenched her fists as if trying to muster the courage to speak up. Her voice was heard soon after.


    "He... he was killed by two men and all their aplices."


    Vik had stress lines on his forehead after listening this far. He had a foreboding sense that told him that he wouldn''t like what Raquel was about to say next. But he listened to her words anyway.


    "The external hardware research and development department of Oasis Corp was something my father dedicated his whole life to. And he was finally about to have a big breakthrough.


    We all know that the sense of time in Oasis Online is far different from real life. The span of three hours here means only an hour in real life.


    This difference is what made Oasis a sess story all these years. It allows all of us to work hard for our goals and still have quality time with our families."


    Raquel stared nkly in front of her as if trying to imagine something majestic before continuing. Her voice was now coated with a dash of excitement.


    "But what if we could change that ratio from 1:3 to 1:6? What kind of revolution would it bring to the world of Oasis Online and our real world?


    My father worked on achieving this near-impossible goal for years on end. And he finally had a breakthrough.


    His team had seeded in making the beta versions of the metapods that would have such a capability."


    Raquel''s facial expressions changed from excitement to that pure anger. In her tone was the wrath she seemed to feel in her heart.


    "But it seems that our opponents didn''t like that our influence in Oasis Corp was bound to increase. Our secret research facility in Latvia was ransacked a few days after the beta hardware was tested for the first time.


    The beta metapods were stolen that day. The researchers involved in the project were killed along with the other staff. But those demons didn''t stop there.


    They also took advantage of my father being logged into the Mesis to kill him. He was an Awakened and a skilled warrior as you know him to be.


    He couldn''t have been killed by these lowly thugs had it been a fair fight. But they killed him when he was not in his senses. That''s how an aplished hero was in by the hands of petty thugs."


    ''Bitch, you better not...''


    Vik''s stressed expressions were reced with those that spelled impending doom. But his curses couldn''t stop Raquel from speaking further.


    "I believe the two men we are talking about were supported by my family''s enemies. Major help was provided to them so that they could aplish this almost impossible task with ease.


    I am also inclined to believe that they had some internal help from my family''s faction.


    Therefore, I''ve decided to clean the house. I will make sure that the people who killed my father and the people who were behind that killing get what they deserve sooner orter.


    I''ll start by hunting the two men whose involvement in this heinous incident is confirmed along with their identities. And I need your help to do that."


    Vik and Tory both looked at each other with the same expressions as they heard Raquel''s final words.


    "I''m offering bounty money for these two men. Their identities are…


    Fernando Torres.


    ? And...


    Viktor dimir."