"Where the hell is she?" Li Hua thundered.

  The little secretary visibly shrunk back from the imposing and terrifying CLO and moved closer to the least scary person in the room, her former boss Li Na.

  "Shanshan, don't be afraid. Tell us where she is," Li Na said. "You are not in trouble."

  Ming Shanshan, Senior Executive Assistant to the CTO, looked around the room, hoping to figure out a way to get out of this situation without angering one or more of the Li sisters. Li Hua was still glaring at her, Li Na looked worried, Li Jing was smiling, and Li Fen simply stared at Shanshan, her face giving nothing away.

  "She...she is working on a very important..."

  "Shanshan, please," Li Jing interrupted. "We don't want to hear corporate speak. Tell us where Xiao-Yue is. Why did she send a text telling us to not disturb her? Why is she not answering our calls? Is she in her apartment? Why is her door code changed?"

  "And why the hell hasn't she been to work for the past three days?" Li Hua yelled. "The new AI model beta testing is about to start in a week, and she is missing work at this critical phase?"

  "She has been... playing Dragon Gate: Ascendence, Ms. Li," Shanshan managed to squeak out.

  "Isn't that the game the kids play all the time? Why is she suddenly so obsessed with it?" Li Na asked.

  "No, Ms. Li, that's the original Dragon Gate. This is the sequel. It was released three days ago."

  "That's it? She has just been playing a stupid game for three days?" Li Hua was still angry, but now, after learning about the game, she mainly seemed annoyed. "Why isn't she back yet? Shouldn't the game be over by now?"

  "It's an MMORPG, Ms.Li," Shanshan clarified. "It's a very big game. And...and she is mainly killing all the other players in the game."

  "Wait, is she 404_Mercy_Notfound?" Li Jing asked Shanshan while scrolling through her phone.

  "Yes, Ms. Li," Shanshan replied.

  "You know about this, Xiao-Jing?" Li Hua asked her sister accusingly.

  "One of my girls sent me this article," Li Jing said. "I didn't think much of it at the time. Apparently 404_Mercy_Notfound has become a pretty big nuisance in the game. She is killing players left and right, and nobody has been able to stop her. They are calling her The Pixel Tyrant. Where is that article?...Found it. Listen to this:

  ...the community has named 404_Mercy_Notfound, The Pixel Tyrant, for their ruthless and dominating play style. Their reign of terror has continued unchallenged since the release of the game. And the number of their victims only grows with each passing day. No one, not newcomers to the game, nor veterans of Dragon Gate, and not even groups of players are safe from the blade of the Pixel Tyrant. Stories of their victims are numerous, here is a small sample of that misery.

  Spectacled_Goblin_5252 said, "Me and my girlfriend, we are both fans of the Dragon Gate franchise. While having a romantic date inside the game, we were both attacked by the Pixel Tyrant. Once they defeated us, they stole our items. They didn't even take them. The new armor I was hoping to surprise my girlfriend with, they dismantled it in front of us and converted it into spare parts. It took me an entire day's worth of grinding to get the items for that armor."

  EnlightenedRabbit_68 said, "Me and a couple of friends just wanted to spend the weekend in game after a busy week at the office. Things were going great until 404_Mercy_Notfound attacked us. At first we thought we could handle them; there were 5 of us after all. But their skill is on a completely different level. All five of us have been gamers for a long time, but we were no match for the Pixel Tyrant. The synergy between the undead race and their rogue and mage multi-class is simply astounding. Do you know if they stream somewhere? I would watch it."

  Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.

  Yingernaut, leader of the popular guild Cult of Ying said, "I am gonna kill her. She killed me when I was getting adjusted to the mechanics. She won't get another chance. I am gonna kill her, and then I am gonna steal her snacks."

  Despite all the terror and pain inflicted upon the gaming community..."

  "All right, all right, we get it," Li Hua interrupted Li Jing. "That last one seemed a bit threatening. They also seemed to know that the Pixel Tyrant is a woman. Do we know who this is? Is this someone stalking Xiao-Yue?"

  Li Na chuckled. "Jie, didn't you hear the username, Yingernaut, leader of the Cult of Ying? It's Jingjing. They were probably playing together, and Xiao-Yue likely killed her. And now Jingjing wants revenge."

  "Ahh, okay. That makes sense," said Li Hua, her body visibly relaxing a little.

  "Does anyone have any solutions on how to get her back?"

  The entire room fell quiet, and all eyes turned towards the CEO's desk where Li Fen sat silently. The lingering authority of her voice the only indication that she has spoken at all. Despite all the strong personalities in the room, there was no doubt about who held the ultimate power here. Li Fen's question remained unanswered while each of the sisters waited for someone else to speak up first.

  Li Hua was the first to break the silence. "Da-jie, we could get our security team to drag her out. Or I could do it myself."

  "No, Hua. Something less violent," Li Fen said, dismissing the idea.

  "What about Xiao-Yan? Were you guys able to reach him?" Li Jing asked. "He didn't answer my calls. Is he playing with her too?"

  The sisters looked at each other, and then their collective gaze turned to Shanshan. The little secretary felt like a deer being sized up by a pack of lions for the dinner menu, but she managed to blurt out, "Xiao-Yan, Ms. Li?"

  "Lu Moyan, Xiao-Yue's boyfriend," Li Na clarified.

  "Oh, I am not sure, Ms. Li. She might have mentioned something about him being busy with work. I don't know the details."

  "That seems accurate," Li Hua added. "He is a nice boy. He won't stop responding unless it's something important."

  "Any other solutions?"

  "How about getting the game company to permanently ban Xiao-Yue's gaming account?" It took a few moments for the other people in the room to process that the suggestion had come from the nice Li sister. While everyone looked at her with a mixture of surprise and mild shock, Li Na added, "I mean, it's just an idea, since we are brainstorming. I didn't say we do it."

  "I love the ruthless Xiao-Na, but let's keep that as a nuclear option," Li Fen said. "Do we own a percentage of that company?"

  "Yes, Da-jie, we have shares in it. But a phone call from you would likely have the desired result anyway," Li Na said, now going back to her analytical CFO mode.

  "I did some work for that company," Li Jing added. "I might have a good amount of influence there as well."

  "Why did you work for a game company?" Li Hua questioned her sister.

  "The kids used to play the previous game, right? So I thought they might enjoy me showing up in game. I asked the game company, and they were only too happy to have me there. I am not sure if I will show up in this game, or was I in the previous game?"

  "It's the new game Ms. Li," Shanshan said helpfully. "You are one of the main bosses of the campaign."

  "Oh yeah, I play some sort of evil queen. It was pretty fun."

  "Perfect casting I would say," Li Hua quipped.

  "Let's not go there Hua-jie. They just didn't ask you because all the monster quotas were filled."

  "What did you say you brat? I will..."

  Seeing the conversation derailing, Li Fen pulled it back on track. "All right, enough with the insults. We are here to solve the Xiao-Yue problem, and I am not hearing any workable, non-trauma-inducing solutions."

  The sisters fell silent and looked at each other, hoping that someone else would come up with an idea.

  It was then that Ming Shanshan softly said, "Maybe, we can go in-game..." She lost her courage halfway through under the unnerving gaze of the dragons, and her suggestion petered out.

  "What's that Shanshan? Speak up," Li Fen commanded. "If you have an idea, let's hear it."

  "Ms. Li, I...I was thinking that maybe someone could go in-game and defeat her." She looked around the room and found courage in the fact that no-one was telling her to stop. "It's a silly idea, but maybe she might stop playing once she is defeated and her kill streak is broken."

  "That's not a bad strategy," Li Na said. "I think it might work."

  "Yeah, Xiao-Yue always has that need to be first at everything. She usually lets go of her obsessions once she is beaten," Li Hua added.

  Li Jing joined in, "Yeah, remember that week when she was in high school? She was watching that quiz program obsessively while competing with the participants. She stopped watching for a month after Xiao-Wei defeated her."

  All four sisters smiled and nodded.

  "All right. Let me make a call," said Li Fen.

  The room fell silent once again.

  Jingjing...It's about the game...mhm...yes...I want you to defeat her...yeah...I get it...mhm...mhm...And your fee?...mhm...yes...fine...You need anything else?...alright...okay...take care...see you on Sunday.

  Li Jing spoke up first. "What did she say, Da-jie? Did she agree?"

  "Yes, she did."

  "And, what did she ask for in return?"

  "Nothing. She said she would do it for free. Apparently, this is personal."