Cathulhu Online, MUNYA!

Pangu Universe Incorporate Tower was a dark pyramid-like skyscraper, standing tall in the middle of B. City Metropolitan. Because of its painting and ominous architecture, everybody nicknamed it Villain Lair.

On the 10th floor of this building was a large office, where a hundred game moderators coordinated with the customer contact center, dealing with troubleshooting, assisting glitched players, and collecting bug reports in-game. Some of them were in charge of monitoring the log files and scanning for suspicious activities of the players.

These moderators were proud of their game's security system as no hackers or cheaters managed to damage the game. Although many aspiring hackers and cheaters had attempted to abuse the game's glitches and came up with cheat apps, these sites with the apps mysteriously disappeared along with the owners, and their apps never made it to the market.

Despite not knowing how these exploiters disappeared, these employees never doubted their company as it was none of their business. After all, these moderators' daily job was more disturbing than game security issues.

The VR technologies had come far. Because of its realism, many wild men used this feature to sexually harass women and men-in-woman-avatars.

Sexual activities were a feature in-game, but one could not simply walk around naked in town. These moderators acted like real-life police, arresting and banning indecent players to the point that they grew numb to it.

Today as well, they had been monitoring log files and banning sexual abusers as usual.

Half of the employees lazed around, staring at their monitors with a bored expression. Some of them had been nipping their doughnuts while many of them walked around, sipping coffee and glancing at their table.

While everybody took it easy on the job, someone noticed a strange log.

"What the hell?!"

The employee frowned as the corner of his eyes noticed the series of spamming game messages of a player. He opened the log file and rechecked the game messages of a certain player. Then, he turned around to ask his colleagues.

"Say, what is the drop rate of super rare skill books again?"

His friend muttered without looking at his friend, "If it's dungeon bosses or roaming guardians, 0.05% per book."

"Is it possible for a boss to drop more than one skill book?"

"Of course. Every boss has a drop table for specific skill books. For example, a level 50 boss carries about 200 different skill books with him, and every book has a certain fixed drop rate. So, when the boss dies, you roll the dice 200 times. If the randomized number is the same as the programmed number, the boss drops that skill book. If no jackpot occurs, the boss will drop one random skill book from the loot table."

"Then, what are the chances that a player can get 600 skill books from a boss?"

"Pfft. Impossible. He must have been a hacker if that's the case."

"Then, what is this?"_.

"Huh?"

The friend frowned. He turned around and checked the monitor of the employee.

After reading the spam log, he was speechless.

"Isolate this mofo in jail and bring the player's activity log to the manager. We'll ban him and file a report to the police."

"On it!"

The two employees started working seriously. They began accessing the player's data, real-world information, and NFT character to make a report.

But as soon as they tried to check the player's sensitive information, a large red warning panel appeared on their screen. The person's ID and the player's information could not be accessed.

<ERROR: CODE MUNYA-MUNYA!>

The two employees looked at each other in dismay. One of them opened their guidebook, checking for the glossary and error code list. Unfortunately, there was no such thing as Code Munya-Munya.

"What the hell is MUNYA?!"

"No idea."

"Then, how do we report this person to the manager?"

"I don't know. Let's call the manager. You make the call. I'll send the ban hammer."

"Okay."

One of the employees brought out his phone and called the manager. As for the second guy, the opened his administrator tool and searched for the player with his ID number.

But as he pressed the [Ban] button, he received a warning message.

<NOT ENOUGH AUTHORIZATION!>

"What now?!"

The frustration and confusion were unreal. The employee was about to lose his mind.

But as he was about to browse the game code to search for the bug, his friend passed his phone to him.

"The manager wants to talk to you."

"…"

The employee looked at his friend. He received the phone.

"This is Wang Mang."

‘Ah, Wang Mang. I heard you guys run into a bug character.'

"Yes, and we're having trouble banning him. The tool said Code Munya-Munya or something, but we haven't seen this type of error before. Also, I can't ban the player."

‘Oh, that. I've been looking at the log file as well. But you see, some of the bugged players are not actually hackers.'

"What do you mean, sir?"

‘Recently, we have distributed custom-made game capsules to our board directors, executives, and management-level employees. You know… their newly created characters get a few unique perks… and some advantages.'

In short, the manager tried to tell his employees that the top brass people were playing the game with their cheat characters, and they had no authority to mess with their activities.

"But sir, we're talking about level 50 super rare skill books. They're not supposed to be a common commodity! A freaking player just got 600 books from the boss just now!"

‘I know it's excessive. I'll handle this case. Remember my words – This incident never happens, alright? Also, I've already contacted the programming department. They will launch a hotfix patch soon.'

"… If you say so, sir."

…

While the company was in chaos, Miao Damao and Katerina had been chilling, standing in front of the conference hall and observing the news reporters, who bombarded Pan Mei and Pan Xian with nasty questions.

The parents of Xiaomao were dressed in black suits. Their matching sunglasses blended them among the crowd of bodyguards, who had been watching over Pan Xian and Pan Mei in the conference hall.

While Miao Damao was bored, his cellphone vibrated. He peeked at his phone to check the message.

As soon as he saw the text, his expression was ashen. He glanced at his wife, but she frowned at him as if she understood what he was thinking.

"I'll cover your post. Make it quick."

"Sorry, wifey."

Miao Damao turned around and disappeared into the crowd.

Nobody noticed a shadow silhouette, who suddenly jumped out of an alley and leaped across several buildings in the night sky.

BEEP

A few seconds after Miao Damao had left, Katerina's phone also vibrated. She scanned the crowd one more time to prevent mishaps before she peeked at her phone.

It was a message from the Developer Department of the Pangu Universe Incorporate.

‘Kat! Your son's game character is too broken. You added too many perks for him!'

Katerina pursed her lips, having the urge to laugh out loud. She texted back.

"What perk?"

‘Didn't you add a skill that increases the drop rate to 100%?'

"I didn't do anything to the capsule. It's Damao's responsibility. Also, I don't see anything wrong with it. We have a lot of broken skills and spells in the game."

‘But your son exploited it and got 600 skill books from a dungeon boss. The mod department almost banned him just now.'

"Every executive's kid gets to have fun, Vice Director."

‘600 SUPER RARE SKILL BOOKS, Katerina! If he learns everything, what kind of disaster he will bring us when we launch the Heavenly Dao Patch?!'

"It's the programming department's fault for putting so many skill books in the same monster's loot table. Tell them to fix that instead. How about limiting it to three to five books per monster?"

‘I'm going to do just that. Also, I'm going to confiscate some of your son's items. Is that alright?'

"Make sure to compensate him properly. He PLAYED the game by using the GAME SKILLS and character's PERKS! You can't punish him because he UTILIZED one of the game's FEATURES!"

‘Alright.'

The Development Department's director stopped sending text messages.

Katerina smirked and put her phone back in her suit's inner pocket and resumed her bodyguard work.

WHOOSH

A few minutes after Katerina finished chatting with her colleague, a shadow silhouette descended from a building into an alley. A man in a black suit and sunglasses strolled out of the dark path and returned to his post.

Katerina twitched her nose and whispered.

"You reek blood."

Miao Damao brought out a hand-sanitizing spray bottle and pressed it. He rubbed his hands with alcohol until hands were dried. Then, he put on a pair of white gloves.

He muttered as he secretly sniffed his suit.

"Too many hackers to kill, too little time to prepare."

"How many do we get in from this job?"

"Ten spirit stones and a hundred grand."

"Too little!"

"There's only one remnant cultivator from the first game among the hit list today. You can't expect them to be that rich. Spirit stones are scarce these days."

Katerina shook her head and sighed in disappointment. Then, she fetched her phone and tossed it to Damao.

"What?" Miao Damao caught the phone with one hand and without looking at it.

"Check out my chat with the developer's director. Xiaomao is in trouble."

Miao Damao snickered. Without looking at the chat, he tossed the phone back. Katerina frowned and caught it with her fingers.

"I already expected that."

"So, you were behind this?"

"It's the custom-made capsule. Every executive director has one or two for their kids. Even our family's custom-made capsules are scheduled for the next year. But coincidentally, Xiaomao invested in PACT and began acting like an adult. Since he was doing well, I bought the capsule from a board director and gave it to him ahead of the schedule."

"So, it was you all along."

"That's right. IT WAS ME, DAMAO!" Miao Damao grinned and mimicked an anime meme.

"Does the capsule increase the drop rate to 100%?"

"Huh?" Miao Damao froze. He turned to Katerina, "What 100%?"

"100% drop rate."

"What drop rate?"

"Doesn't your capsule increase the monster drop rate for Xiaomao's game character!?" Katerina turned to Miao Damao. Her face didn't hide her confusion and doubt.

"That capsule only improves the game integration and synchronization rate so that he can become supermen like us faster. It won't affect the game and his character's skills."

"Huh?"

Now, Katerina frowned. She swiped her phone and reread the texts.

If Miao Damao had nothing to do with the issue, then how did Xiaomao get the 100% drop rate skill?

…

Miao Xiaomao's Bedroom

The four cats of Xiaomao all sat on the capsule hatch, staring at their owner.

Mu-Nyang faintly smiled while the other cats scratched the hatch's thick glass, trying to wake Xiaomao up to play with them.

Munya!