The gulf between rich and poor was huge: they lived in their own little islands of opulence in a sea of mediocrity. When I was younger, my grandfather would keep going on and on about how automation would bring equality to the world. Instead, it had solidified the status quo. The wealthy had the luxury of choice, while the rest gritted their teeth and made do with what was left, their existence guaranteed by an army of food dispensers.

Nowhere was the division more obvious than in Kalifax. Named after the dog of the original art director of Vesperia, the city was a hub of paying players throughout the game. Everything there could only be bought with real currency: pets, clothes, items, equipment, even food. Owning a square foot of land cost several hundred bucks per day, not even counting building materials.

As I walked, I could feel the glances of the locals focusing on at me. A human in Kalifax… I might as well be carrying a beggar’s bowl. If it hadn’t been for my max level, I’d have been thrown out the moment I set foot witching the city limits. After all, even the rich were curious. Plus, I had an appealing real life avatar.

“You're being scanned,” Twinkle said in my private channel. “There’ve been three attempts to get your data since you teleported here.”

Of course there would be. Rich kids were predictable. I opened the map. According to the marker, FlickerFlacker was in the mage library. That was both good and bad. Good because I could be relatively sure he'd be alone—even role-players preferred to get their information from online guides rather than read virtual books in-game. Bad because all public buildings in Kalifax cost money to enter.

“You lost?” A tigaur warrior blocked my path. He was a standard level seventy with gleaming white fur and customized clothing—the paid pack of choice two months ago. The fact that the player hadn’t bothered to gain a level since his purchase told me all I needed to know.

“Nope,” I said without a care in the world. “Going to the library to meet someone.”

“Yeah, right,” he scoffed, glancing me over. “In those clothes?”

Part of me wanted to stab him and steal his account. It was so obvious he was an obnoxious rich kid, probably mid teens, used to throwing money at all problems. Flashing a provocative smile, I put my hands on my hips and leaned backwards.

“Why don't you check my stats?” I asked.

It wasn’t long for him to take the bait. He was using the standard gamekit spyware that most rich kids bought—utter crap, but good enough to fool them into thinking it worked. In truth, most of the information the kit “obtained” was publicly available, if one bothered to spend twenty minutes on the net. My information firewall blocked most of the attempts, of course, letting pass only what I wanted others to see: my username, my level and my first login date, as well as my avatar specifics.

“Umm, okay?” His tone had changed. I couldn’t tell whether it was because of my login date or the fact that I was a girl. “Know how to get there?”

“I'll manage, thanks.” I kept smiling as I moved forward. Inadvertently, he stepped aside, letting me pass.

“Seventeen new attempts,” Twinkle whispered. “Do you want to do anything?”

I didn't bother to reply. In ten minutes, everyone would have forgotten about me.

The further I went into Kalifax, the more expensive things became. Marble became gold, then crystal, then finally firestone. A fine waste of money for something a few lines of code could achieve. If I had that much money to spend, I'd waste it on a whole set of other things, all of them in the real world. The library was located almost in the very center, next to the governing palace. The only time I had ever gone there was when I had accepted an open bounty quest at level eighty.

“Giving you your twenty minutes warning, Sarah,” Twinkle said cheerfully. “Tomorrow is an early day, and you need to get at least two hours of sleep.”

Early shift. That had completely slipped my mind. Technically, it remained a night shift, but since the law forced employers to pay double, they had come up with an ingenious solution. The shift started at four in the morning and was given the misleading name “early morning shift.” That way, employers achieve the desired result and politicians could point out that workers’ rights remained intact.

“Remind me again in ten.” I rushed towards the library entrance.

The building was probably the only elegant structure in the whole town. Covered by superficial glitter, one could easily tell it was built by a game architect—tall and slender with large crystal windows, very much unlike than the eyesores around it. A pair of large platinum doors marked the entrance. I made my way to them and pressed the handle. No reaction. Even my max level account couldn't interact with a paywall item. In theory, doors of public buildings were supposed to be interactable for all; however, as with all the free-to-play games, there were exceptions. Certain doors were considered “arcane,” thus only accessible to magic characters, which coincidentally were only available through purchase. One could go questing and collect magic tokens to achieve the same result, but that was a long and tedious process.

“Twinkle, find me the cheapest way to get inside.” I took a step back. Direct payment or tokens from an e-commerce site, it didn't really matter, as long as I entered in the next ten minutes.

“You can buy a token for seventeen,” the AI announced in less than a second. “Do you want me to buy it for you?”

“Buy it and open the door,” I said. The familiar clinging sound echoed in my ears, followed by a brief melody indicating I had used the item up. Moments later, the doors swung wide open. “Any idea where FlickerFlacker is?” I opened my map. The marker was still set on the library.

“The Kalifax library has seven visible levels,” Twinkle recited. “The bottom two floors are reserved for role-playing and are unoccupied at this point. The top five levels are full of books relating to various subjects of the game. I would suggest checking the top five levels.”

“You’re some help, you know that?” I grumbled, heading towards the central staircase.

“Thank you, Sarah! I love you too!” The standard response, a remnant from my childhood days when I didn't have any friends and all my real life acquaintances shunned me.

Five levels. It wasn't a lot, but too much for me to go through before work. Walking up the stairs, I did a web search of the building. The good thing about the net was that sooner or later, most information made it there, even in those cases where money was concerned. According to the online guide I'd found, the library had seventeen levels in total. Seven were visible for all, while the remaining ten were reserved for paying participants. The invisible levels all contained shelves of skill and ability books, allowing characters to gain ability points for free. FlickerFlacker was a maxed-out character, so he wouldn't waste time there. Of the top five floors, three were reserved to bestiaries, while the remaining two contained legends, lore, and all other sort of game fluff. Assuming Flicker would try to find more hints among the lore books, that still didn’t narrow my search enough.

“Twinkle, guide me to the geography section,” I ordered.

“There's no geography section in the library, Sarah. There are lore references, though. Would you like me to guide you there?”

“Yes.” He really was annoying.

“Okay! Level six. I’ve placed a marker. Also you have seventeen minutes left.”

I rushed up the stairs. A flight in, I started getting tired. I wouldn't call myself athletic, but I had been playing virtual games long enough to call myself fit. Right now, I had serious doubts. The fatigue I experienced, while linked to my character, was as real as anything else the brain felt. It remained within the obligatory safety limiters but was enough to make me want to pause for a rest.

“Twinkle, check for bugs,” I said making my way further up. “Also do a search for stamina drains.”

“No bugs according to my query.” My companion popped into existence. “There are a few posts that suggest the stairs are stamina draining to non-magical races, but nothing confirmed. Do you want me to report a bug?”

Of course there wouldn't be. Pay-encouragers were designed in such a fashion for them to be obvious. This felt way too subtle. Or maybe I was just imagining things?

“No, just be ready to buy a stamina potion,” I said and pushed on.

When I reached the fifth floor, I felt like throwing up. Twice I checked my stamina meter, yet couldn’t find anything wrong. There was something strange going on, but that would have to wait for later. I opened the floor map. Like most magical buildings, this one was the size of a small city packed into a tower fifty times smaller thanks to the wonders of computer programming. The geography section wasn't too far off, so I activated my silent walking ability and went in that the direction.

I didn't have to walk long. Less than a minute in, I saw him. It's said that a lot could be learned about a player from their choice of avatar. FlickerFlacker was, for the lack of better word, massive. His character was a chimera combining the body of an extreme bodybuilder, pointy elf ears, a British mustache, and several dozen battle scars covering his mostly naked torso. If he was an elf, it was only by name, yet unlike most rich kids that spend their lives partying away in Vesperia, he had put in enough effort to reach the fabled level ninety-nine. That fact that he had suggested that the account might very well be stolen. It made sense. Stealing a paid account granted access to all sorts of goodies, not to mention skill advantages. It was the smart thing to do. If I had the skills and wasn't afraid of being thrown out of college, I'd have done so myself.

“FlickerFlacker?” I whispered, a short distance away.

The elf didn't react, focused on the book he was reading. I took advantage and moved a few steps closer.

“FlickerFlacker,” I repeated.

This time he heard me, looking up from his book and turning my direction. I couldn't see any weapons on him, yet suspected that one hit from his would be more enough to deplete my life total.

“Saraphin?” he addressed me with my game alias. I could tell he didn't expect to see me here.

“You could have answered your messages.” I crossed my arms. “I had to do through a lot of—“

Before I could finish by sentence, the elf disappeared. A message box appeared where he stood, notifying me that the user had disconnected.

Shit! I rushed forward.

“Twinkle, what happened?” I shouted, the volume of my voice reduced in half by the library silence settings.

“FlickerFlacker appears to have logged off,” my AI said with a giggle. “You also have eleven minutes until you have to go to sleep if you're to wake up in time for work.”

All that effort for nothing! My first instinct was to message my information broker to find out more. There was no reason for him to run away from me…unless the account really was stolen and there was hell to pay for it.

“Twinkle, mask as much as you can of today’s session.” I logged off from the game. “Wipe any video grabs I have and as much of the game logs as possible.”

“Are you sure, Sarah? There are users who—“

“Just do, it Twinkle!” I went through my bank accounts. Nothing seemed to be missing, and the transfer logs seemed fine. Just to be on the safe side, I checked my login attempts. Everything seemed in order. Hopefully, I was in the clear.

“Done!” Twinkie announced. “Do you want me to adjust your gaming schedule for tomorrow?”

“Clear my schedule,” I ordered. I knew exactly what I was going to do the next six days.