"Not just players, but those on the TOP 10."

Fantasia Zero had multiple servers worldwide. Servers had opened simultaneously ever since the first day of the game release. The said top 10 players were from the overall ranking be it a cross-server ranking. In summary, Fantasia Zero's Top 10 players. Kyungsoo had called the strongest of the ten. You couldn't see the boy's face beneath the black he's wearing as he walked his way to the podium to explain his experience of the game. 

You guessed the boy didn't want to remove his cap but your predictions disappointed you. He removed his black snapback, revealing his face.

... 'Jungkook!?' your eyes went wide on the boy's sudden appearance. Jungkook wasn't nervous at all. The hologram screens took the attention of everyone in front of them where Jungkook's gaming information was shared.

"I'm Jeon Jungkook, 18 years old.I've played Fantasia Zero for about 2 months now ever since the release of the game. I currently reached the level cap. On my first day at the game, you would definitely think everything is your typical fantasy like Enforcer Jung said. When I reached level 50, everything was still normal until I've visited Icarus for some kill time, the mobs had changed without an update notice so players will normally think it was an event or a bug or something. There was this one time I came to Valhalla once again for a quest. I was killing ghouls and there wre massive blood splatters and realistic broken limbs---" Jungkook suddenly covered his mouth to prevent himself from throwing up.

He turned his back to hide his pale face. The medical team quickly came to his aid. Jungkook had earned whispers around the room. Part of you wanted to go to him but your other half got you stuck on your seat when you saw the so-called ghouls on your screen and their hideous forms. There was a moment of shock for the officers but they already proceeded on theinvestigation. Gore games had been banned ever since the first prototype of VRs for it may affect the psychological states of the users. Fantasia Zero wasn't South Korea's property as it was a Japanese-made game. The only clue they had was the company's game; Red Bullet. The description of the Red Bullet company that was shared was just a plain faux. Hoseok was now doubting if the company's name was really "Red Bullet". 

If you will do a crime, better live in a life full of lies. That was Hoseok was thinking at the moment. He wasn't a player of the game but he can completely feel Jungkook's foul experience because he experienced the same thing on his first job of a brutal murder case.

While Jungkook was taken custody, a young man you didn't expect had walked up to the stage with a blank expression plastered on his face. His eyes were dark but not enough to be called lifeless. He stood before the podium. 

"I'm Yook Sungjae from Daegu and Fantasia Zero's Top 2 player." Sungjae unpredictably confessed the latter fact. Surprising you the most. "I didn't came from Korea's sever but from Japan's server because the Korean server was already crowded so the game transferred me to the other." 

Explains why Jungkook didn't meet Sungjae before.

"Unlike Jeon Jungkook's experience, mine is totally different. I have also the same game level as he does but my experience on Valhalla is the opposite. Yes, there are ghouls but no bloods were shed. Going back to Enforcer Jung's statement, once mobs are killed, they disappear into shards. In summary, Japanese server and Korean server have different features. I'll make this fast, I've already made a research and interviewed the Top 3 to 10 before this meeting," his brilliant actions made a great impression on the elder police staffs. Something you would expect from the Black Fox. "I've came into a conclusion that the Korean server only has the different features. This can be going overboard, but I've been thinking that Japanese company has something in their sleeves against the Korean technology." 

Sungjae's deduction about Red Bullet was too early to believe. He was practically accusing Japan that he caused displeasure to a certain a player, Satsuma Kou, 16 years old, a Japanese girl from the Japanese server. 

"Excuse me, Sungjae-san." despite her overflowing anger to the boy accusing her country, she managed to keep reserved in front of the foreign people, "Do you have any proper evidence about your accusation on my country?" she defended. Sungjae learned Japanese language in a week so he understood what she just said.

"I don't have. Yet." Sungjae fought back in an unintentional confident manner, "This is just my hypothesis." he stressed the word 'my'.

The girl with the winged hairpin was stopped from talking by the reddish auburn haired boy on her side named Mark Tuan, 

landing a hand on her shoulder, telling her to sit down. Satsuma Kou and Mark Tuan were both in the Top 10. Satsuma Kou was a Rogue listed as the 10th ranker whilst Mark Tuan was a Paladin as the 4th ranker, playing from the American server. The two had met on a cross-server arena once and they became friends after the girl had beaten the boy's for taking easy on the said rogue. He was told to though.

Sungjae cleared his throat, "I've checked the game logs of the victims. All 21 victims were staying inside the game a week or much longer than that without logging out. It was that addictive. All victims were Koreans. No reports of foreign people losing their sanity. It's just Korea. Just Korea."

Inspector Bang Yongguk intervened, "Are you saying that if you stay inside the game for too long, you get addicted and that's it? you lose your mind?" 

"I don't know yet, Mr. Bang. I've played Fantasia Zero for a week straight and here am I, still sane." Sungjae didn't care about his good reputation being ruined by his gaming addiction. He knew himself he almost got addicted with the game.

"That's because you're from the Japanese server." Im Jae Bum from the Busan Police intruded. 

Sungjae took the side comment coolly, "Exactly."

A boy from the far corner at the left raised his hand, "Can I speak?" 

Sungjae nodded at him. The baby-faced boy cleared his throat and exhaled deepy, gathering his courage to speak in front of these professional investigators. "My name is Park Jimin. I ranked 5th in the game. I've been with Jungkook ever since he's level 20. We talked about few things and he mentioned to me once that he stayed in the game two weeks straight without break during vacation. As you can see, he's still sane." Jimin's statement had the situation get more complicated than it already it was.

"Well, that's all I have to share as the 2nd ranker. The rest will be explain by Kyungsoo-sshi." Sungjae bowed at everyone and returned back to his seat. 

Kyungsoo had spoken the main purposes of the investigation. It was to determine the reason behind the mysterious insanity of the players. To determine the goal of the Red Bullet company and sue them. The company's IP address was undetectable, much to their disappointment.

Jungkook finally recovered and walked back to his seat beside Jimin who was very worried at his formerly pale-looking friend. The color on Jungkook's face had came back. 

"I must admit that searching for the Red Bullet around every corners of the world is useless because they can change places so easily so I've decided to do the investigation while playing the game. We've been working on this since last month but the Japanese government refuses to give us a chance to conduct an investigation on their territory. We already decided the three players to cooperate with us on the investigation and that'll be... Jung You , Yook Sungjae and Wang Jackson." 

Wang Jackson ranked 3rd in the game. He came from the Hong Kong server where he faced Jungkook about four times during a cross-server solo player wars. You can say Jackson was Jungkook's archnemesis because of the score of 4:3 with Jackson on the lead. Both of them were gunslingers who reached the level cap. Despite their rivalry, they were in good terms.

Your beautiful black orbs enlarged by the mention of your name. Out of this strong players, you were chosen? Why? That was what you were asking yourself at the moment. If they needed a strong girl, Satsuma Kou would be the best option. Why would they choose you, a newbie on the top of that? You honestly preferred investigating behind the screens.

The old man two seats beside you spoke for you, "Why You ?" Inspector Jeon questioned the conductor.

"Don't you think it's too suspicious for the top players suddenly transferring their accounts into one server?" Some investigators whispered on each other and agreed to Kyungsoo. 

"Then why don't we choose those from the same server?" Detective Park Jung-su proposed. 

The heated debate started in seconds... because of you. You realized that everyone in S-CSIT was trying to protect you, as well as Sungjae and Hoseok. Kyungsoo had mentioned about the risk of being in the game while investigating. By the current very advanced technology, the game staffs can send microwaves through the NerveGear, causing it to malfunction then destroying your sensory organs then killing you by attacking your brain. One more risk was, if they already thought of this idea: they'll trap you in the game for eternity with real nightmares.

"I request to start the investigation by tomorrow." The Chief of Staff of Gwangju Police said without the consent of the others. 

The old man's irrational request finally ticked Sungjae off, "If we don't think about this properly, the company can get innocent players in this ! I don't really mind dying on this game but remember that five hundred million people are playing this goddamned game! They could kill them in an instant!!!"

That was probably the first time Sungjae had yelled towards an older police officer. Sungjae had a point, but he didn't know why these stinking old men couldn't get where was he coming from. The meeting had ended another hour later when the Chief of Staffs came to an agreement regarding the investigation, but that wasn't the end yet. Do Kyungsoo had summoned you, the top 10 players and some people on casual clothing you didn't really now in a small meeting room at the next door. Sungjae came out of the conference room still angered but you were trying your best to calm him down. Jungkook and Jimin followed after the two of you and greeting you both as well.

"Sungjae-hyung! You !" the familiar voice of Jungkook made the two of you turned around on your back.

"Ah, Jung-gun. Hey." Jungkook could tell that his hyung wasn't in the mood. 

"Oh, Jungkook." you simply responded. "Or should I say... Mr. Rank One?" your face suddenly morphed into judging look. 

Jungkook was taken aback at your remark "Uh... Look. I'm sorry for not telling you because I know it doesn't really matter, okay?" Jungkook was surrendering with his hands. Then, your taunting eyes turned to Sungjae. 

"And Mr. Rank Two?" Sungjae flinched at your sudden attack of words and gulped. He thought you forgot about that.

Seriously... 

The four of you had arrived on the small meeting room where the seats were almost filled. Everyone was almost quite in the room because of a painful truth from the game they really liked the most. They would never play the game with the same feeling they had ever again. Kyungsoo sat on the chair at the very front on the center on this medium sized circular table.

"I'll explain the plan very briefly." Kyungsoo said, opening the hologram screen at the center of the table. "I've mentioned about the three players engaging in the game to search the source of the madness while the hackers here are hacking into the game's system to trace every single thing regarding the company."

"Since those who'll be investigating the game are chosen, what are we going to do now?" 

Kunpimook Bhuwakul, or his in-game name Bambam, questioned their presence. Bambam came from the Thailand server, ranking 6th overall. He looked like a 14 year old but he was actually an 18 year old guy who was the strongest Arch Ranger of Fantasia Zero. 

"You can leave after I say this: I want you to cooperate with us until we find the Red Bullet. The risk applies the same to all ten of you. Do you still want to lend us a hand?" Kyungsoo questioned the youths around him. 

They took their time deciding for the best and no one had left the room. They thought their gaming characters can help the 500 million players around the world. They finally can put their game levels to a better use.

"The plan I have for you from the other servers is to let us do a surveillance on you while gaming. We won't have you go home until the whole case is over." 

The S-CSIT can guarantee their safety on their real bodies but not in the game. Despite the harsh decision of leaving their families for who knows how long, they still put their minds thinking how they can help preventing the insanity plague. 

"Alright." A boy with thick black rimmed glasses named Xi Luhan nodded the scientist. The other players had agreed as well

Xi Luhan took place below Bambam, the 7th ranker. Luhan played from the Chinese-server. The Chinese server was the second most crowded server after American server. He teamed up once with Park Jimin and Mark Tuan for a "World War".

"How about our classes at school? Won't we get dropped out for our absents?" the slightly-tanned guy dedicated to his studies asked Kyungsoo. 

This guy was Kim Jongin or widely known as Kai the Grenadier who came from the same server as Jungkook and Jimin. His overall ranking was 9th. He faced Jungkook twice but he never won.

"Just leave it on us. We'll work it out. without fail."

Kyungsoo said that those on the Korean server will be the back-up if anything messed up. The meeting ended shortly, dismissing the others while you, Sungjae, Jungkook and Jimin were left in the room. Sungjae threw his feet on the table and crossed his arms. That nasty position was his comfortable position. 

"I didn't get so worked up for a long time thanks to that old man." Sungjae sighed deeply. 

"I think it was awesome, hyung." Jungkook complimented, giving the older a thumbs up. "You totally shut him up." 

"That was rude to put it, Jungkook." Jimin nudged the boy beside him with his elbow.

"Whatever. Sungjae-hyung, You , this is Jimin. My classmate."

"Nice to meet you, I'm Jung You ." you extended out a hand as Jimin reached for it. You let go after a bow.

"Yook Sungjae." said Sungjae with a smile. 

Jimin was left speechless. "This guy here really admire Sungjae-hyung." Jungkook said with an amused look.

"Hah. Really?" Sungjae chuckled heartily. "You, Park Jimin, really got me out of words earlier after explaining Jung-gun's side." It was meant a compliment but Jimin mistakenly took it as a sarcasm. 

While Sungjae and Jimin conversed, you turned to Jungkook. You found something unwanted on his flawless face, "By the way Jungkook, what's up with that cut or scar on your cheek?"

I guess I'll do a massive character section editing later... xDDD 

I actually didn't go to school because I have a fever today but here am I writing this bit :3 I feel okay tho! <3

The next chapter will be the start of the main idea of the story~!