One. Two. One. Two. One. Two
Asura had long memorized the ways the white lights flickered above his head, considering that nobody had listened to their complaints no matter how many times they said it. So the white lights continued to flicker at that same pattern.
He found it amusing that nobody higher up even considered replacing the white lights for new ones. But it was the most consistent thing in the entire room and while he did not quite value consistency, it was a much better sight than what was in front of him.
Locked up in a fully glass cage, a few dozen feet in front of him sat three moderators. He had only seen one of the three before, the one seated in the middle. He had tried probing them for their names a few times, but all they really told him was their number.
Moderator#00003
"Number three!" He called out.
The moderator turned their head, only sparing him a brief glance before going back to discuss the whole process while the other moderators. It was easy to tell from the way their eyebrows knitted, focused sight and slightly narrowed eyes that they were stressing over the task at hand.
He would not blame any of them for being so nervous, considering that the system yesterday had been unstable for nearly the whole day.
He could only really imagine the pressure that was now placed on their shoulders, there had never been an incident like this until now, which was impressive the amount of exploits the players would occasionally do just to earn more gold or EXP.
Though the exploits would be quickly removed within a few days once it is found. The players generally would not be punished too harshly, as long they did not overly exploit the system.
That could not be said for the NPCs.
But this was not a system exploit, no. The game's weakness could be patched out easily once the moderators figured out what was making the exploit possible. This was much more of a hostile takeover, someone that wanted to make the system be completely under their control.
And this was definitely a cause for headache.
His feet tapped against the white tiled floor, though the floors and ceiling were all made of the same white tile. The longer he stayed here, the more it felt like a prison and that the mods were actively trying to get him to become insane or provoke him to act a certain way.
His hunch told him that all of those were going to happen, sooner or later.
"Sorry for making you wait so long, we were —"
He waved them off. "Yada yada yada. Heard the same spiel like a hundred times already. Go on with your damned 'tests'."
Their eyes narrowed further, though they quickly went back to being relaxed.
"Commencing [AUDIT] on [45131514119147]."
His shrugged his shoulders, head slightly leaned to the side as he checked his surroundings for any changes. There seemed to be none for the moment, the same old boring sight, even including the way number three's white pupils bored into his very being.
"Lying is not accepted, [45131514119147], I believe I don't have to say that twice."
"So now, what did you see that day when the system glitched?"
He stood upright, though his posture remained relaxed. "Ah, the system window was trying to greet me, as if it gained sentience or consciousness. Then, it asked me if I wanted to help it."
"And did you agree?"
His eyes widened, then placed a hand on his chest. "Me? Agreeing?"
"Do I look like I would agree to help out a system window just because it said so?!"
"... Yes?"
He sucked in breath through his teeth, then shook his head. "How could you think of me that way, Number Three? Do I seem like the type that wants to save the world from an evil overlord or something?"
He paused for a second, then added, "Well... I am the evil overlord. I think one is enough in a story."
Number Three stared at the system window right in front of them, waiting for anything else to show up on it, when they found nothing, they simply nodded back at Asura.
"Next question. Have you met up with [71541913519195147518] recently?"
"Irene? Yeah. Like, a week ago in the Tavern."
"Have you told her anything?"
"Just told her what I saw and asked a few questions, that's all."
"What questions?"
He raised an eyebrow, trying to suppress that urge to smirk. "Like if she had seen anything, what her thoughts are on the system glitch."
"What happened afterwards?"
"Got into a fight with Paladin, then got forced out of The Tavern after almost splitting the place in half."
They looked back over to their system window, seeing nothing else displayed on it, meaning every word Asura had said up until this point was the truth.
He just barely held his urge to smirk in. He could not help but to feel that all of this was going in a direction that he definitely was not expecting, but he would be damned if he let his composure slip up right now.
"Very well. It seems like you're honest after all."
"You know that there are some myths or stories that state that demons would not lie to their contractors, right?"
"You're not a contractor."
"Oh, but I am obligated to follow and play along with the rules of this 'game'. How is that not a contract?" He asked, his body leaning forward slightly.
They let out a sigh, deciding to keep going onto the next segment.
"You passed the first round, we are going on to the second."
Asura's body suddenly felt much more stiff yet he felt strange, like he was not in full control of his body.
"Walk."
He raised an eyebrow but still moved along anyways, slowly walking towards the glass that separated him from the mods.
"Stop."
He stopped, moving himself a little so he was standing upright and standing in a comfortable enough position. His legs spread apart enough that his center of mass did not feel off.
"Break the glass."
His sword appeared by his side before he could raise his hand, he quickly acted anyway. He unsheathed his blade and with a relaxed swing, the glass shattered apart into a million pieces. He only moved away so the glass shards had no chance of landing on himself, even if the glass shards could not possibly hurt him in any way.
One of the other mod snapped their fingers, making a complete replica of Irena stand right beside him.
"Kill her."
Despite feeling like his limb was being forced to point his blade at her, he still did not fight against that feeling. He raised his blade, pointing it right at her throat. A grin formed naturally on his lips as he swung it, slashing at her throat, decapitating her swiftly. Blood coated his blade, giving a dash of red to the black hues, the bright color highlighted just how sharp his blade was.
"Good. I'm glad that you're still so cooperative, [45131514119147]."
Their facial expressions were far more relaxed than what Asura first saw, which made him a little curious about the whole thing. Audits were not new, they would always do audits after a system maintenance to ensure everyone was still acting the same and functioned just fine.
The destruction and corpse was cleaned up instantly, turning the whole area back to how it was before. They even cleaned up the blood that was on his blade, which was something he was definitely grateful for.
"Did something happen, Number Three?"
It really was just a try, since he had always known that no mods could say too much. In fact, there was a reason why mods changed out so frequently; One day he would see the mods he had known for ages visiting his zones and then suddenly, he would never see their faces around again.
So when they even answered his question, it was a definite surprise.
"Aside from the strange system glitches, yes. Something else quite major had happened."
"Starting from tomorrow, you will have some new and old NPCs trying to challenge you, as well as the players that were supposed to challenge you anyways."
That answer made Asura's eyebrows furrow, his blade disappeared before he could even sheath it.
"[71541913519195147518] has been banished since yesterday."