Sitting up in a large comfortable chair in a large room with several other dozens of people, a young woman was covered in sweat as she looked at the floor and removed the VR glasses on her face.

Her breathing was ragged and her body was clearly showing the fear she felt.

The young woman was the GM Monica. She had just exited the VR game off her shift because of what she had seen.

After a while she pulled a phone out from the chair and requested to talk with someone of a higher position about the punishment system.

“That man! We can’t let something like that be loose or it would endanger the entire world.” she thought.

After a moment there was a call for her to go to the GM chief of staff’s office and she rushed out and went to the office as fast as possible.

Entering the office nervously, she saw the middle aged man with black hair that was starting to grey and some wrinkles on his face.

“You left your shift mid way, is there something important?” The man asked the girl, his eyes narrowed since it’s not common for a GM to be like this and leave the game during work.

“Yes, let me explain the entire situation from the start after I had investigated where it all began.” Monica said.

She began telling about the little fight in the village and the expulsion of the group. Then their chase of the young woman until finally their attempt to rape her. It was then that her body shuddered as she brought out a memory card.

“The rest is here in video form.” She says.

The man takes the small thumbnail sized disk and puts it into a small slot. The pc on his desk instantly began to play the image showing the men about to hit the woman.

A sneer was on the chief of staff but suddenly the webs began to restrain the men, all of them.

Finally Droso appears and the events begin to unfold. First it was normal but once the Droso’s eyes were seen the chief was visibly shaken.

“WHAT IS THIS!?!?!? WHAT HAPPENED TO HIM!?” He shouted.

“I checked all the systems but ‘officially’ the player Droso fell unconscious due to mental stress and was not there.” I told him.

From there ‘he’ appeared and began the torture session which caused my stomach turn and the chief turned completely white from how pale he was.

Then I appeared and the incident ended but not without the warning coming in loud and clear.

I was shaking at this part because his voice seemed to sound more threatening than ever like the devil himself was speaking.

“H-how could this happen!?” The chief was saying.

“The only conclusion I could come with after what he said was that the player developed a secondary consciousness.” I said making the chief look at me like I was insane but after a moment he seemed to agree somewhat.

“Great! First it was that damned priest, now this!” He said.

“What priest?” I asked.

“You don’t know?” He looked at me with a curious expression. I shook my head and he leaned back on his chair as he removed the small disk I gave him. “The head Priest of the Light church went and used Divine Judgement on seven players after he got information, ironically, about this man we see here.” He said.

This made my jaws drop to the ground. That spell was the biggest taboo in the game for us and we have pestered the AI’s to get rid of it or put restrictions on it since the launching but because there has never been any incident they have just pushed it off.

“The virtual security sector must be happy to finally have a valid reason to get rid of that spell.” I say.

“Oh it’s even worse than you think. All seven of the players were policemen of the federal level. The moment the news of the event reached the higher ups that the spell was used, they had it investigated but once the victims were found, well hehehe! Let’s just say that the despair of the several higher ups was through the roof. They almost instantly sent people to check on the group and are preparing all the necessary things if the men developed trauma. They want to avoid problems as much as possible.” The chief said.

“Then I would like for you to suggest stricter punishment in the game. I REALLY don’t want to go through ‘that’ again.” I said looking at the disk.

“I will definitely see to it. I can’t take seeing something like that and such a heavy weighed warning like this… ‘man’ gave. Also did you figure out who the real player is? I would suggest you show him a copy in case he didn’t see this. If he really was unconscious then it would be best to know about this and quick.” Chief said.

“Yes, with your permission I can travel there personally to his house.” I tell him.

“I will get the authorization, get some rest for a bit and calm down and return to work while I do my part.” he tells me.

I feel like weight is removed from my shoulders when he took command. He makes a copy of the disk and I checked if the files were correct, something of a pet peeve I have, before I leave.

The chief sighs after Monica leaves and looks at the disk in his hand.

“Droso… this boy’s name sure is circulating the company a lot recently. You my friend are something else huh…”

He gets up after a while and calls the security sector and calls for a conference. It’s not always that the GM chief of staff calls a meeting and only for important meetings when something big happens and seeing the call, not one of the higher ups lost time and set it up for the same day.

In the highest room on top of the HQ of the company that made VLO the higher ups and the CEO were all there when the Chief arrived.

“Thank you all for coming so quickly.” He said.

“This had better be important!” One of the men said, clearly showing the stress of the recent events.

“Yes, I want to suggest a stricter punishment system for the game.” He said.

No one talked, showing anger on their faces.

“Is there a reason for this, because if there isn’t then you will be fired this instant for calling us for such a small reason.” The CEO said.

“Yes, I wouldn’t call a meeting if there wasn’t a reason.” he said and inserted the disk he got from Monica. “One of the GM’s recorded this video by using the overview menu after the incident.” the chief says and starts to play the video from the point where the crime of rape was shown and soon the events showed through making every man there pale as a ghost.

Shutting the video off and walking in front of everyone he begins talking.

“I was told by the same GM that she examined the player throughout the incident and it showed that 5 seconds before he started to laugh the system registered him as ‘unconscious’.” He said.

A chill ran down all the men's spines, they had clearly seen him moving.

“I can’t be sure what happened without having the AI’s directly examine the player himself but I am not a man that would play with fire. Besides this incident, we can use this opportunity to reduce the Divine Judgement spell uses and add restrictions that the AI’s have avoided doing. I suggest we remake the celestial race as a kind of judge that will perform a trial on captured players that the NPC want gone.” The chief said.

“We can talk about that later but right now what kind of stricter security system do you suggest?” The CEO asked.

“Similar to torture and other heavy crimes that can cause mental trauma it should ban permanently as well as put people in jail. This restriction would be for players doing the acts to both NPC and Players. If this had been enforced from the start then this…” He said lifting the disk, “...wouldn’t have happened.”

The higher ups begin to talk.

“I can see your point, you may return to your sector, thank you for reporting this incident and we will discuss in further depth what you have said. Please watch the player in that video and keep tabs of what he does whenever that… thing appears again.” The CEO said.

“Of course, I’ll be going and thank you all for the time you have spent on me.” The chief says and leaves the higher ups of the company to discuss this crisis going on within the virtual world.

***

“Alright, we are done.” Said a man that had been asking Gelot lots of questions and doing lots of tests.

“Well, are there any real problems?” Gelot asked the man that was the psychiatrist.

“Besides a severe case of shock from a possibly traumatizing event there isn’t much else. I don’t think you may have developed trauma but if you do notice a fear or something you didn’t have before then don’t hesitate to call. Also, after testing all seven of you I will notify your superiors to give you 1 week off from work. Tell all the others that you are to get plenty of rest and maybe go somewhere calm or do some non-stressful physical activity like walking on an off road trail through nature. Things like this can help calm you down. With the current state of mind you all are in, it is very dangerous for you to return to work until your mind has recovered enough to handle the line of work federal police go through.” The doctor said.

“So mainly rest then.” Gelot says.

“Yes, spend time with your wife, also ABSOLUTELY NO VR GAMING! I want this especially emphasised, until I can be certain that your mental states aren't recovered absolutely no virtual reality games. If you can’t stay without it then I suggest downloading the apps the game company makes and use the real world integration through the glasses but besides that just rest for now.” The doctor said.

Gelot was surprised to hear about the apps. Well he didn’t have a character to play them with so it didn’t matter.

Gelot gots up and thanks the doctor and leaves. He sees the other six and begins giving out the diagnostics to the men and their girlfriends or wives. The women were rather happy to get to spend a week with their husbands or boyfriends.

They all locked the arms of their men with a smile as they began to drag them men out for some time together but as they exited the building a man in a tux walked up to them.

“Greeting gentlemen, by chance do you seven men play VLO and recently have an incident regarding a priest?” He said.

The seven men frowned.

“And what of it?” Tyson said.

“I am from XCom Inc. and was sent to speak with you men about what happened. First off, on behalf of the company we offer you all an apology for not being able to remove the spell in question before it did damage.” He said.

“Let’s talk somewhere else, in the streets it’s not a place for this.” Gelot says.

“Yes, well what about a restaurant. There is a good one nearby.” The man suggested.

“Let’s go!” Orion said.

They all walked to the restaurant and though the women wanted to stay with their husbands and boyfriends they were able to make them take a separate seat.

“Now, what did you want?” Gelot asked.

“First off, it’s the decisions of what we would do after the incident and another one that recently happened, which actually is also about your friend Droso.” He says.

The name makes us curious but he says he can’t divulge the information which we understand.

“Now, with the recent incidents the company is increasing security measures. Before only extremely serious crimes that caused deep mental scars would cause jail time and permanent banning from the game. But after what has recently happened with your friend the CEO is beginning to talk with the government to make any act such as Rape and Torture, punishable by being thrown in jail and its for players and even includes NPC as part of the victims.

Now you must be curious about your part. Let’s see, it seems that the security sector of XCom Inc. has finally been able to override their control of that spell and has begun to remodel how that spell works. From what I understand the AI’s will cause an announcement through all their churches, and leave a race called celestials which are angelic beings that serve the gods, they will now run all the churches instead of the high priests and they would have a modified version of the divine judgement spell that was a true banning spell but nothing else. The true Divine Judgement spell would be permanently destroyed by the celestials themselves who would wipe it from the memories of everyone that has it.” After the man explained it a relieved face spread on all the cops faces.

“Besides that, we are prepared to compensate all of you even beyond that single request that was already promised when you were ejected. This includes paying each of you a sum of $200,000 each as well as allowing me to speak of some information about the game.” He said.

This made the men quiet and only after a while Gelot asked.

“This will be done in the case where we don’t pursue your company for the danger we passed through?” Gelot asked, making the man nod.

“Yes, we are prepared to give compensation up to a degree without needing to go to court.” He says.

It makes the men nod understanding what they wanted. A huge company being put in court isn’t the best image they want and even more so showing what problem the game had.

“Fine, if you can do something for us then with this request remake our characters with every stat and level in its proper place and every last coin and item in its place and put us in the south region capital without the month long restriction like new players have.” Gelot said.

After a moment all the others nodded. They did waste a lot of time to obtain the extra points by training.

“I will need to see with the higher ups and AI, if you can leave me with your contacts i can inform you of the decision.” he said.

They all agreed.

“Now the second request… hm...” Gelot said while scratching his chin.

"Eh… before you think of this let me say that a request like doubling your stats would be impossible, we can easily remake your character and place them somewhere else with every piece of equipment you had and item in your inventory down to the last coin but doubling your stats would be impossible." The man from XCom said.

"Thought as much..." Gelot said

"Then what about information?" Orion suggested.

"Depends on the kind but up to a degree I can answer as long as it doesn’t go too deeply into the secrets of the game which then I wouldn't know." The man said.

"Then a question I want to know is which craft skills would be essential in the process to craft a gun in that world." Orion asked.

...

"Guns?" The man asked.

"Yes..." Orion said stone faced.

The man sighed at the question. Everyone had already guessed guns would eventually reach the game world but the number of skills and which skills it needed were unknown.

He pulled out his pc and began to type.

"From what I can make out… blacksmithing, carpentry and sculpting." He replied. "Before you ask, sculpting mixed with blacksmithing allows you to make the delicate and small pieces of the gun. There seems to also already be research on this."

Orion quickly wrote it down in a message on his phone and forwarded the message.

"Is this enough for you men?" He asked.

"No, one last question, what is the best class for fighting other players and humanoids?" Gelot asked.

The man’s fingers start moving again.

"Can’t say the most advanced class but since you are currently a warrior I will tell you the next advancement class with that requirement." He says gaining a nod from Gelot. "It would be Bounty Hunter, the actual class and not simply the job of going to the board and grabbing a bounty poster and hunting the man or bandits." He said.

"Requirements for it?" Gelot said.

"Hunt bounties without changing classes until someone sends you to the trainer or he appears to you. You need a high success rate." The man says and gets up. "I believe that is all then gentlemen, I shall forward the request to the boss and when you all return to the game you will probably already have your characters back." He said.

The seven cops get up as well and shake the man's hand as he leaves. They all have a serious look but they go over to the women and make a smile for them telling them it went well.

From there they enjoy a meal with the girls before splitting up going their own ways.