MMORPG: How a Computer Game Becomes Deadly Serious Read Online Free PDF

certain that the painting was meant to claim responsibility for the attack. She also confirmed that it was signed with the text ‘The world will tremble for the Hammer of Righteous Justice’ .
     
     
    Rebecca shook her head. “I’m sorry, but I still don’t see what you’re getting at.”
    “That’s because I haven’t told you the rest yet.” Robert started to pace the room, not saying anything for a few seconds. Rebecca started to open her mouth, but he motioned her to silence. “I’m just trying to explain this to you in the clearest way possible. Look, I told you that I saw the name Hammer of Righteous Justice on the computer screen of Khalid, who lives right across from my room, by the way. What I didn’t remember until I read the paper this morning, is that there was more. I don’t know why it took me so long to remember, because it was all in capitals! Now listen to me, I wrote it down.”
    He stopped his pacing and turned to face her. Standing right in the middle of the room, he read directly from his notebook:
     
     
    We meet again in ten days and then we strike! The world will tremble for the Hammer of Righteous Justice!
     
     
    She stared at him. “So what you’re saying is-”
    “Exactly!” he interrupted. “It’s not just the name; it’s the entire sentence. The world will tremble for the Hammer of Righteous Justice. Exactly the same words as in the terrorist painting. Coincidence? Who knows. But that’s not all. Listen again:
     
    We meet together in ten days and then we strike!”
     
     
    “When was this? When did you see this?”
    “Aha!” He looked at her in triumph. “Today.” He held up the paper as proof, pointing at the date. “Is September twenty-one. So yesterday, the day of the attack, it was the twentieth. The day I first met Khalid, and saw what I saw, was on my first day here. And I arrived on Friday September ten. In other words, exactly ten days before the attack took place.”
    Rebecca was listening intently, doing the math in her head. Now she also stood and walked to the tiny window. She answered with her back to him. “You read the text ‘We meet again in ten days and then we strike! The world will tremble for the Hammer of Righteous Justice!’ ten days before a terrorist attack occurs which is claimed by a painting on the scene that bears exactly the same message.”
    She shivered. “This is serious. I mean, we don’t know anything for sure, but it’s strange. At least it’s a lot of coincidence. What do you think we should do? Should we go to the police?”
    “I don’t know. I was thinking the same thing. But is it proof? And are they going to arrest the guy who lives next to me?”
    “Maybe we should confront him with it.”
    Robert laughed. “I ran into him earlier today. For a second I wanted to do that, but I chickened out.”
    Suddenly, Rebecca leaned forward, an intent look in her eyes. “Can you tell me what you saw? On the screen, in World of Warcraft? All of it. Try to remember and tell me.”
    “All right.” He sat on his desk, closing his eyes. “I saw a man in weird clothing. He was flying. Not by himself; he was sitting on the back of some flying animal that looked like some kind of dragon. They weren’t moving. They were just stationary in the air. The dragon was flapping its wings to keep aloft.”
    “Good,” she said encouragingly. “What else can you remember?”
    “Well, they were floating over something that looked like a mountain ridge. Really high. And there were all kinds of buttons to the side of the screen.”
    “Okay. Now we go back to the flying animal. What color was it? And would you describe it as a huge bird or as a flying dragon? A lion with wings perhaps?”
    He flicked his fingers. “It was brownish. And I’d say it wasn’t a bird, but a dragon. It might have been a lion with wings, but not a bird. Why is that important?”
    “Never mind. I’ll tell you later. Now, what exactly can you remember of the