Bad Pull

**Bad Pull** is the third case released and revolves around solving the death of a Video Game Developer while uncovering massive corruption at a Game Studio. It is followed by Little Terem.

## Plot

Dana, Peter, and Andy arrive at the apartment of Edward Park after his neighbor reports his body. While investigating the apartment, they discover that Edward was a developer for the Popular Gacha mobile game Imp Act and that the studio is based in Miami. Upon arrival, they start to notice signs that the game studio is financially struggling, such as the coffee machine being broken, the only drink being offered to guests is Water, and that the studio had been spending a lot of money on mundane things such as gardening and hair-cuts. Because of this, the studio is in the red.

Andy is disappointed to discover that the developers for his favorite game are a trio of overworked employees who can barely make ends meet and are forced to work overtime. After dealing with Bennett Hicks and Samir Ahssible, who prove to be less then helpful, the team talks to Xiao Wangshu, who explains the pressure the studio has been under after an update caused every thing in the game to become overpriced, prompting a large amount of angry comments and death threats, causing the team to theorize Edward's killer was an angry player.

Upon returning to HQ, Ruby narrows down people who were targeting Edward specifically to Florida natives before narrowing in on one individual; Angel Grey, aka "Dark\_Angel". Dana and Peter confront Angel about angry messages he had sent Edward Park prior to his death, where Angel clarifies that while he was angry, Edward had recently reached out to him.

Angel and numerous other players where infuriated that the probabilities in Imp Act where manipulated to the point that people had to spend buckets of cash in order to receive rewards in the game, as well as losing rare and valuable rewards. Edward had wanted to expose the drop rate scam and was going to interview Angel. At the same time, Ruby and Andy return to Edward's apartment, deducing that Edward had died from eating candies laced with poison and that he had been seeing a woman.

Dana and Peter return to Honk AI games and confront Samir about the scam being run by his company and how Edward wanted to expose it. However, Samir had no idea about the scheme and mentions Bennett was in charge of everything relating to Imp Act.

Bennett admits to masterminding the scheme, but is surprised to hear that Edward wanted to expose at, as monetary gain was based on seniority and he had a lot to gain from the scam. Dana and Peter deduce that one of Edward's co-workers had the most to gain from his death and bring them in for questioning.

During the interrogation, Lisa admits that she and Edward were dating, which was against company policy. He had called her over the night he died to discuss evidence he gathered regarding a project called "Bad Pull", which referred to Imp Act being rigged and scamming numerous players and the evidence was on a thumb drive. After the interrogation, Lisa is arrested.

Later, the real killer arrives at Edward's apartment, relieved that they didn't get caught and they killed Edward for wanting to expose "Bad Pull". The lights turn on, revealing the killer to be Kaeya, as Dana arrives. She reveals that the thumb drive was fake and arresting Lisa was only a ploy to draw the real killer back to Edward's apartment to look for non-existent evidence. Kaeya tries to run, but is tackled by Dana and is arrested.

Afterwards, Lisa thanks the team for apprehending Kaeya and it's mentioned that Samir will change his business practices.

**Victim:** Edward Park

**Killer:** Kaeya West

**Motive:** Edward wanted to expose how Honk AI Games was scamming and defrauding numerous players.

**Persons of Interests:**

**Amber Ahssible:** Receptionist and daughter of Samir Ahssible

**Samir Ahssible:** CEO of Honk AI Games

**Bennett Hicks:** Project Manager of Imp Act

**Xiao Wangshu:** Edward's Co-Worker

**Kaeya West:** Edward's Co-Worker

**Lisa Yoon:** Edward's Co-Worker and Girlfriend

**Angel Grey:** A Video Game Streamer known as "Dark\_Angel"

## Trivia

* The case tackles several commentaries regarding the video game industry; such as employees being over-worked, developers being cyber-bullied by angry players, and allegations of studios purposefully releasing buggy/subpar products while overcharging people in the process.
* Kaeya West's name is possibly a reference to Kanye West.