dothackers.net

Well, she's definitely a team player. It's a small wonder she's been left alone on that bridge every morning. "Look, I'm not here to do what you tell me to do. I'm investigating what happened, so unless you care to enlighten me as to what you know about it, and who it is you seem to fear was involved, don't expect me to consider you an expert on the matter. And I don't intend to just let myself be killed, but if I have the chance I want to examine the beast and the scene without getting into a fight. Fair enough?" They got to the next floor and he used a fairy's orb to find the quickest route. How deep is this dungeons. We should be nearly to the basement by now, right?

"For me to tell you anything," said Avantha," you actually need to give me a reason. And so far you haven't given me anything. So I would rather keep my personal business personal. And if your only reason for being here is because you're 'curious' then just get out of here now. You'll only mess up what's going on here. If you want to help then help by leaving this issue to me."

She turned around a corner into another room, but stopped at once at the sight. The room was completely empty, and the hallway behind her led back up to the previous floors with no branches leading elsewhere. They had reached a dead end. "What the..." she said in disbelief. "What's going on? This can't be all that there is to this dungeon. There isn't even a Gott Statue. Where is everything else?"

She ran around the room, running her hands along the walls in hopes of finding any clues, but the walls were empty, and the room was empty, and nothing seemed out of place other than the missing hallways leading ahead. "This isn't it," she said. "This can't be it. There has to be something--anything--that tells me where to go next."

Somehow Wulf had managed to get turned around. He'd run out of fairy orbs a few floors back and was blindly running from room to room in search of the statue or even the next set of stairs. Finally spotting the descent he howled a victory cry and rushed down them. It was strange though, he found himself in a single room. With no way out but backwards. That's not how dungeons were designed. There had to be a statue. Maybe even a boss battle. But there couldn't be nothing. Not unless someone had just recently gotten the treasure. But if that was the case, he should still have found an empty Gott Statue room. Instead, he found two other players.

"Hey! You two! Was there a boss here?" If the pair had just taken down a boss then perhaps the room would have some explanation. But he hadn't ever seen a dungeon where the boss didn't lead to the Gott Statue. Maybe it was a new type of boss that he hadn't gotten a chance to encounter yet, and with the pair of players in the room, if that was the case he'd have to wait longer to meet one.

She could hear a faint voice.
"What ever it doesn't matter" she sighed and walked a few steps away from him. Then logged out.
After logging out she spun around in her chair and looked at the door. Standing in it was her mom, giving her an evil glare.
"That's it! I haven't heard or seen you in days!" her mother yelled and ran over to the computer. In the maddened furry that she was in she shoved Josette out of her chair and ripped out virtual box only with the whole game in general.
"Momma no!" Josette yelled.
"It's for your own good Josette!" She creamed back and left the room.

Toshiro turned to see another player behind him. "I am fine I do not need your assitance, I can handle myself fine." He then finished the last monster from the portal with one quick slice. One more room left according to the map. If its in here it has to be there... Ignoring the other Pc's presince and the aprouching people or monsters he could here in the distance he turned away and walked calmly twards the last room. He had to get there before anyone else, and he had to go alone. If he had to he would take down the other characters for there own saftey. " If your smart you will turn around now and not return here. Also take those others who are coming this way with you." With that he walked into the final room.

"Ok, good luck with the bugs..." he leaved the dungeon and transported to the city, and logged out, then, got to sleep

"Hmph. Fine then." Gibken signed and decided to log out. "Think that's enough for now....let's see whats cooking on the BBS."

After flipping through the various pages, he came across the highly discussed topic of the area Δ Expansive Eternal Fiery Sands.

He responded: "Yup. I'm done for now. Log Out."

[Gibken has Logged Out]

Riki sighed and removed his FMD and walked out of the room, "What's up with The World these days?"

James activated a screen recorder and looked around the room while Avantha started panicking. Maybe I should have kept the box on, I'd be able to do a more thorough investigation of the area if I did. D-=Scythe wandered around the room, getting a shot of everything from several different angles. "I have answered every question you put to me. You asked why I'm here, it's to investigate. If you've looked at the boards then you know that I agreed to do that on behalf of the original poster of the message. And I even agreed not to start a fight at your request, so don't say I haven't given you anything. I didn't ask for your personal history either, just what you knew about this, not how you discovered it or why you know it. I bet Sherlock Holmes never had to deal with this." The last part he grumbled mostly to himself.

Around this time Wulf walked in. "There's no boss, no loot, no monsters, not even grunty food, nothing of interest to an adventurer. You obviously don't know anything about the event that happened here, so I suggest you use a sprite ocarina and leave now. We don't need anyone contaminating the scene further." What I wouldn't give to be an elven thief right now. Alas, this is The World not D&D. I'll have to rely on other methods of finding any hidden doors, if there are any. She walked over to Avantha, "Hey, Fairy's Orbs and wavemasters are able to reveal the map and locate treasure chests, right? So what do you think would happen if there were a hidden passage?" He said just before D-=Scythe activated a fairy's orb. If this doesn't work I'll call one of my wavemaster friends when they're online next, assuming this place is still around, and see if they can discover anything.

"What?" said Avantha when D-=Scythe walked over to her. "Why would a fairy's orb do anything here? Since when are there secret passages in a delta server dungeon? How about next time you come up with a stupid idea you think it over before saying it..."

Her voice trailed off as her eyes focused on the wall of the far corner. A small rectangle of light no larger than a person had started to flicker across the surface of the wall, and in a few seconds the entire section had vanished, leaving nothing more than a black hole leading into a room beyond.

"But...but how," said Avantha, taking cautious steps towards the opening. "I went through all the files on delta dungeons when they were put out. There isn't supposed to be any hidden rooms on this server. This shouldn't be possible...unless...unless he's starting to alter the actual game..."

She stopped at the edge of the opening and peered through, but nothing could be seen on the other side other than an empty blackness. She raised her foot and hesitated, her desire to find answers starting to beat her anxiety of what awaited beyond.

"You're not a troubleshooter, are you." James was smiling, quite smugly, behind his monitor. Now things are getting very interesting. She followed Avantha and looked into the eerie black. "It's not impossible, therefore it was the only possibility. Besides you were getting nowhere, and it is far better to try something than to do nothing. Plus I like thinking aloud, you just happened to be in the room. I'm continuing, I assume you intend to as well." Avantha got a message saying that she had received Deathscythe's member address. "Add me as a party member, I've got Resurrections and I doubt you want to wade through everyone that's coming in behind us if you get killed." D-=Scythe stepped into the black. James wasn't going to wait for this girl to snap at him again and waste more of their time. She was right though, Delta's supposed to be for beginners, they don't introduce hidden passages until higher level servers. So why is there one here, and why does it look so strange?

EDIT: Avantha now has D-=Scythe's member address, whether she wanted it or not.

Avantha jumped at the sudden message of the member address. She hesitated, and after a moment accepted the information. She didn't want to risk getting someone else caught in this mess...or her getting hurt again...but she knew when she had no real choice. The only way she had of getting rid of D-=Scythe would send red flags to the administration team, and she couldn't risk that. She invited the girl to her party, but before she could say anything further D-=Scythe had disappeared into the opening.

"No!" she yelled after the girl, despite knowing that it would do nothing. "Damn it. I haven't even tested if it is safe yet."

She hesitated, knowing what the dangers were if things were as bad as she feared, but the desire to not let someone else be hurt by this mess was too much for her to resist. She stepped through the door, ready to react to anything that happened...but nothing did happen. All was still, quiet, and dark. Her eyes were only able to pick up the blackness in the room around her, broken only be the light from the room she had left behind. But something was odd about the light from the doorway--it was dim and faded, almost as if the black room she had stepped into was trying to block it out. She raised her arms and took several steps forward but didn't make contact with anything.

"Dammit," said Avantha. "How am I supposed to find anything if I can't see?"

James accepted the invite as soon as it popped up, switching his communication channel from local to party. If not for the message he almost thought his monitor had died on him. "In the worst case, you could always pick a wall and stick to it, that's what I'm doing." He commented humorlessly. "Give me a sec, I'm going to try casting a spell and cranking up my brightness." She cast Repth hoping the light of the spell would brighten the room up a little, if only for a second. And he began upping the brightness of his monitor, there would be practically no colors but it should allow him to at least see what was in front of him. It worked in Pokemon when I didn't teach anyone Flash, it might work now. ((The minimap is disabled in this area, correct?))

Wulf nodded. "Oh, alright. Sorry about that." He pulled out his sprite ocarina and gave it a gentle blow. But nothing. The song played, but he was still in the dungeon. He looked around and pulled out another one, trying it again. To no avail. Hmm...must be for the event.[/b] He shrugged and turned around, running up the stairs. He paused and thought to himself, Event? Event areas were marked. This place had no such marking on it. "Hehe, smells like a cover up~ Perfect for an adventurer." Quickly he ran back down the stairs and into the vacant room to find its vacancy now more vacant than it was before. "Hello?"

His voice echoed off the walls. The room was empty and just as he'd left it save the missing two players. It was the flash of light that spilled from the corner that drew his attention. "Was that there before?" Gripping his spear he darted to the dark crevice and stepped inside.

[Gibken Log In]

Gibken teleported into Mac Anu, and was genuinely surprised by the silence in Mac Anu. Looks like that's the last of the arguments for today any ways. Besides, it's like 10PM or something.

Gibken walked through Mac Anu, stocking up on his daily intake of items. He sighed and looked up at the sky.

"This is so boring. Why's it that my friends refuse to join The World?" Gibken let more than a minute of silence overtake him, hoping that somehow he would find something to do.

He stood up to his feet and walked towards the chaos gate. "Maybe I'll check out the area everyone's talking about."

He put his hand on the gate and brought of the menu. "Let's see I think it was....Expansive, Eternal, Fiery...Sands." He inputted in the area and was surprised at its level.
"Heh I guess I'm just right." His character dissappeared in a flash of rings and revamped the setting, transporting him to a barren sandy desert, however in the distance, he was able to spot out a large entrance.

A flurry of rings announced the arrival of Eria as she logged in and stretched. "Man, that took too long. I hate that job, but I need the money..." she sighed for a moment before her smile returned and she walked off. It was quiet and peaceful now as most on this server were getting off to sleep or do other things, like paint the message boards with rumors about a Delta area. It had been all she could read about today before she logged on. But whatever, it could wait for now. It wasn't long before she found herself in front of the guarded alleyway. "Hello, you two."

"You again, Eria? Doesn't it bore you do this everyday?" the axeman asked as he and his partner looked at the perpetually smiling girl.

She shook her head. "Why would I? It gets me ready to play and it puts some entertainment in this boring job of yours. Or do you like standing around staring at nothing all day and night?" she countered as she dashed for the opening. She always made the first move for them. It was a way to let them respond without leaving their post. She dodged the first attack as she swung her own weapon to meet a block the other one's attack. By this point, the shock of the true size of her weapon had long since worn off. What still surprised them a bit was that either she, it, or both were strong enough to fight head-on against 'stronger' classes like them or even two-on-one. With a small giggle she pushed aside the weapon to swing against the first, whom blocked and was pinned against the wall by the force, before dodging back just barely in time to be missed by a simple, but powerful Brandish from the other Axeman, freeing his ally. Eria giggled again. "Well, that was fun, right?" she asked as she noticed them look past her. That was all the warning she needed.

"Anid Punisher!!" She moved sideways with impressive speed as the dark axe descended where she'd been standing. But by that time, she was already using her own technique.

"Gan Divider!" It almost seemed strange to the two guards. She'd never used a skill against them. They'd begun to wonder if her weapon had them at all. Now here she was using one. What changed? Then they realized she wasn't smiling. The somersault was fast and brutal as she came down with the massive earth blade to lay the bald Heavy Axeman down on his face, his body blinking red to warn of his low life. She placed the weapon on her back as she squatted down to the Axeman. "You should ready look to see if your target is buffed first before you jump them, Mr. Clean." She'd applied Ap Do and Ap Ganz to herself before the section with the two guards. "Now, please stop this. Go away, please." Standing, she waved at the guards, her smile back. "Bye, it was fun warming up." With that, she walked back to the Chaos gate to decide on an area and see if anyone wanted some help leveling or acquiring items.

Toshiro was a bit surprised to find the secret room. He was already inside of it when he heared voices. Apparently that other player left those other Pc's here....I have to find that creater before anyone else gets hurt.... Toshiro carefully walked through the room. He made sure not to make a sound trying not to make his presence known to the others or any awaiting monsters in the dark. I can't see anything! No, good at all if those rumors are true and that monster is still in here and I run into it now I would be at a disadvantage. He grimmly eased his way along the room nervously reaching out for a wall of some sort.

GamerKale wrote:((The minimap is disabled in this area, correct?))

(You are correct sir. )

Avantha didn't say anything at first, or really move at all. Her character stared off into the black nothingness as if able to see something the others could not. She took one step forward, but after a moment jumped back towards the door.

"Stop moving!" she yelled. "We're not supposed to be here...nothing is supposed to be here. This place...it doesn't exist. This isn't a bugged room or anything like that...the place just doesn't exist within the game at all. That doorway is a hole in the world. That means our characters could get lost within the data at any moment. We can't stay here."

Toshiro realized his search was useless if there was a monster here it has been long gone. He decided he would turn around and warp back. There was no use staying in a place that his map didn't even work properly in. Especially a place his map didn't work in and he couldn't see in. He walked back the way he came until he was faintly able to make out the outline of one of the Pc's that had enterd the room after him.

She stopped in front of the cafe and walked in. She sat at one of the computers in the corner. Shakily she put the disk in the computer. She had managed to swipe 'The world', head set, and controller her mom had sloppily left lying out. Her virtual box however was know where to be found. Her mom had left and she found herself not wanting to be in the house any longer.
She glared at the computer screen in front of her. She is now at a cybercafe. She looked around a little. She noticed that she wasn't the only one played 'The World' here. She finished hooking up her stuff and logged back into the world
She watched as the golden rings around her disappeared. She looked out across Mac Anu. 'The World' Felt completely different to her now without her virtual box. Her character who was normally so full of emotion, now only stared blankly forward.