A gamer logged on to the 26th server Kudre as the castle Lindsay’s owner, Red Bat. Suddenly, a notice popped up.
“June 24th 2009. 14:45 You have been confirmed to be an illegal bug user. Your account has been suspended. If you have any questions, please contact the customer service center.
He read it and re-read it, becoming angry.
“Dammit! Dammit…”
His friend sent him a link recently that could help him with the game. When he saw it, he suspected it to be a bug, but he used it anyway. He only used it once though, so he couldn’t understand how he was caught.
Especially now when he was just about to take over a castle!
A similar thing happened to Jo Jungmin, who was playing at the 27th server Jessnuts.
“You have been confirmed to be an illegal bug user. Your account has been suspended. If you have any questions, please contact the customer service center.”
“Dammit! This isn’t fair.”
His character was at level 95. He slept only 4 hours every day to get this far.
He was addicted to the game. Jo Jungmin was furious. All the time and effort he spent turned to nothing.
It didn’t matter if he used an illegal bug. Perhaps he did in the past, but he couldn’t really remember anymore.
However, he was sure he wasn’t the only one who used this bug.
Everyone used it. He became resentful. He felt like he was the victim.
This was the worst timing. He recently became a castle owner and was just about to earn real money.
Why did it have to happen now!?
Jo Jungmin called the customer service right away.
There were two types of gamers.
Hard user.
Light user.
Woosung used the data Jung Jinsup provided to filter out the illegal gamers, especially the ones he needed to leave so it could be easier for his characters to thrive. Many were hard users, and once they were booted out from the game, it was easier for Woosung to take over more castles.
Finally, he was at the 32nd server named Latist.
Inside, four out of five castles were already his. The only one left was named Arin. Woosung logged in as a character named Wealthy Hunter.
The name of his guild was Riot.
Woosung uploaded a message for all.
“The Riot begins now.”
Woosung’s character started to move with his weapon. The other guild members followed him.
When they reached the front of the castle, the countdown began.
“5, 4, 3, 2, 1.”
The first move was by the existing castle owner with his followers. He had a strong character, but Woosung had a secret weapon. He possessed a Cronos Sword, which caused four times the damage as any other swords in the game. It was worth over 20,000 dollars.
It was a massacre. No one could stop Woosung. The Arin’s existing guild was strong, but it was no match for Woosung.
Finally at 3 am.
Woosung won the castle. He clicked the button “Accept” to be the new castle owner.
MOX’s strategy development team chief Choi Gilak looked at the report with a frown.
“There is a 3% decline from last month? Really?”
“Yes, and we are only two weeks into this month. It’s because of so many members leaving the game.”
“I don’t understand, the reviews we have been getting so far were positive. Gamers have been complimenting how we got rid of all the illegal bug users. So why are we losing customers?”
“Did you have a look at the customer type graph I created?”
Choi Gilak nodded. “Hard user 10%. Light user 90%”
“Majority of the light users are in their teens and early 20’s.” Choi Gilak remained silent. He could guess what his assistant was about to say. “Because of the increase in taxes and item prices, the young users with no money are leaving. We need to stop this before it becomes too late.”
“Did you call the Guild chapter?”
“I couldn’t get through.”
“How about suspending the responsible accounts?”
“We don’t have a legal reason to do so.”
“If these tyrants became successful this fast, they must have used a bug.”
“Our team checked it and they were all clean.”
Choi Gilak sighed. Something bad was brewing. He could feel it.
It was worse than how it appears because this was happening to both Legend 1 and 2, which made up 80% of the entire company.
MOX’s fate depended on these games.
Choi Gilak answered.
“Fine. I’ll take care of it.”
Choi Gilak stood up and went to the development general manager.
“I think we need to move the characters.”
“Are you talking about the increase in the taxes in some castles? That’s not something new.”
“Our sales are going to be down significantly this month, and I’m sure it will happen next month too. We need to take over a few castles and stabilize the situation right now.”
“But we can’t just interfere willy-nilly. If we use our master account and the users find out, would be in trouble.”
Choi Gilak replied.
“But the sales! We have no choice. We need to be proactive about this.”
“There must be another way.”
“This is an emergency!”
Choi Gilak sighed in frustration. He turned around and replied, “Fine. We’ll wait on it for a while, but you may be making a huge mistake.”
That same day, MOX’s stock price declined to $50.40, a dollar lower than the previous day.
