Moderator Chronos

---Chapter 20: Moderator Chronos

Chronos stood in the center of a large, open space. The walls, floors, and ceiling were all a dull gray color, and stretched as far as the eye could see. Thin lines ran across the surface of this space, all in a symmetrical fashion. Chronos wasn’t doing anything in particular in this place. He simply stood still, deep in thought.

No… Based on how she described it, this cannot be the place.

Chronos frowned and began pacing back and forth.

This space he stood in was the Creation Map. It was an alternate space that existed within the game for the purpose of creation of new game elements. If something new were to be created and implemented into the game, this was the space where moderators and the game design team would gather and create everything. Almost all of this happened in-game, in this unique space that couldn’t be accessed by ordinary players.

The reason Chronos had come here was because the description of a certain place reminded him of this area. Earlier, Chronos had just heard from Quartz12 and YUI-YUI, two players he’d been regularly in contact with for a little while now regarding an issue they were having. However, things became much more serious after learning that the consciousness of the player behind YUI-YUI had been trapped within the game world for months. The truth of the matter is, he actually checked both of their user data not long after meeting them, and took notice of YUI-YUI’s bizarre online status, which implied that she’d been perpetually online for a ridiculous amount of time, something that shouldn’t be possible given the game’s design.

The idea of someone being “trapped in the game” was the kind of story that he’d ordinarily dismiss, but there was enough proof in front of him that he had to take it seriously. Plus, this full-dive technology was new enough to raise some doubts about the way it was supposed to work. In the end, Chronos could only carefully consider Yui’s story.

“If this place isn’t the white void they mentioned, then… Where could it be?” muttered Chronos to himself.

After learning the full truth of Yui’s situation, Chronos deduced that the key to this whole ordeal likely lied within that “white void” area that she mentioned stumbling into for a moment. It was after that incident when she realized she could no longer logout, after all. However, the only similar location Chronos could think of was here, the Creation Map. But the more he looked, the more he realized that it’d be unlikely for anyone to call this place a “white void”, given its distinct gray color and symmetrical lines.

Just as Chronos was about to give up and leave the area, another moderator suddenly warped into the area.

“Oh, hello Chronos. What are you doing here?” he asked.

“Just brainstorming ideas for future updates, nothing big.” Chronos lied, waving his hand. “I was actually headed back now.”

Just as Chronos was about to teleport out, the moderator spoke up once more.

“Wait, actually, it seems the admins want to speak with you.”

“The administrators…?” Chronos blinked.

If moderators were the ones that did a lot of the legwork in managing the game and its players, then the administrators were the ones to make sure everything occurring in the game was going according to the wishes of the Cyber Moon company executives. They were basically the direct superiors to all of the moderators. Outside of conveying monthly goals and objectives though, they rarely interacted with the moderation team. Thus why it caught Chronos by surprise to be called on by them.

Chronos quickly opened up his in-game menu and did see that he’d gotten a message with a summons by the admins about 20 minutes ago. It seems he’d failed to notice it due to being lost in thought.

“I see. Thanks for letting me know.” Chronos spoke.

He and the other moderator bowed to one another before Chronos promptly left the Creation Map.

---

“Moderator Chronos, welcome.” a deep commanding voice echoed throughout what looked to be some kind of sci-fi meeting room. The ceiling, floor, and walls were all a dark steel material, with fluorescent blue lights shining, illuminating the space.

Chronos bowed down.

Seated at the long desk in front of Chronos was, instead of people, a group of five indistinct statues, each with a thin line of fluorescent light wrapped around them, similar to the lights in the room.

Even though moderators were actual employees of Cyber Moon, who had to commute to their offices in person every day, meetings with the administrators of the game would usually take place in this location, dubbed the Administrative Office. It was another special location inaccessible to ordinary players. As for the administrators themselves, they took on the shape of the five statues, rather than the shape of a player character like the moderators and players. In a sense, one could look at this office as if it were a shrine for one to converse with the “gods” of this world.

“Chronos, you may be wondering why we’ve summoned you here today.” spoke one of the statues.

“Yes, sirs.” Chronos kept his head bowed.

“Raise your head, this is but a simple matter.” one of the other administrators spoke.

“As you wish.” Chronos then stood up, facing the five statue-shaped administrators.

“Recently, we have taken note of your daily activity, and have noticed repeated interactions with certain players outside of sanctioned events.” one of the administrators quickly broached the subject. “As you are aware, contact between the casual playerbase and our moderators should be kept to a minimum. So, for what reason do you continue to make contact with these players?”

Chronos began to sweat. A part of his job as a moderator was to create daily reports based on everything he took care of each day. Due to a gut feeling, Chronos had chosen not to write about anything regarding Yui’s situation in his reports. It was an arbitrary decision, but one that he was glad he made upon finally hearing about the full truth from her. Yui’s situation was clearly abnormal, and Chronos couldn’t help but feel that there was something terribly wrong going on.

Still, Chronos’ continued meetings with Quartz and Yui weren’t hidden at all, so apparently somebody must’ve noticed and the information got to the administrators. Chronos’ mind now raced, desperately trying to think of an explanation.

“I’m simply helping those players troubleshoot a minor glitch they’d encountered.” Chronos answered. “I know continued meetings are discouraged, but you see, it’s a bit of a back-and-forth process in trying to resolve the issue.”

“Players are to report such issues to customer support. It is not a moderator’s job to troubleshoot individual issues.” spoke one of the admins, disapprovingly.

“It seems they couldn’t resolve the issue with customer support, so I decided to take it into my own hands after they reached out to me.” Chronos bowed. “I understand it was a bit over the line, but please understand, sirs.”

A few moments passed, with the administrator statues remaining quite. They were likely conversing amongst themselves so that Chronos couldn’t hear. Soon, one of them spoke aloud once more.

“Has their issue been resolved?” the administrator asked.

“No, sir. But I believe I finally have a solution.” Chronos was bluffing, trying to get through this as smoothly as possible. This whole time, he’d been careful to speak truthfully, to come across as genuinely as he could, all while hiding key details he didn’t want the admins to know.

After another moment of silence, they spoke aloud again.

“The next time you meet these players, please refer them to customer support if they have any further issues.” commanded one of the admins.

“Understood.” Chronos bowed.

---

Sometime later, the moderator known as Chronos logged out. In the Cyber Moon central offices, a young man removed his headgear and stretched. His name was Masahiro Suwada, and he was employed at Cyber Moon Enterprises as the moderator Chronos. His work day had just ended and he was about to leave the offices and head home.

However, before leaving, he checked his private E-mail account on his PC. There, he noticed a particular new e-mail from someone he’d contacted before.

“No way, he responded…”

After checking the contents of the e-mail, he couldn’t help but smirk. A while back, he’d tried to get in contact with a certain person who used to work at this company before him. It took a while, but a response to his e-mail finally arrived.

“Well, well… I guess my bluff may turn out to be true after all.” Masahiro whispered to himself.

On the screen of his PC, the following text could be seen:

“If it’s about that item, I can tell you about it. Let’s meet up somewhere.”

[To be continued…]