dothackers.net

"...we can't stay here!"

Wulf hadn't caught the beginning of the statement. He'd been focusing on figuring out how to navigate through a void. Eventually, swinging his spear back and forth, he hit a wall and was dragging his hand along it to travel. The words came bounding off the walls he couldn't see and panicked. Yelling back into the void he questioned, "Wait! Why not?! Is something wrong?" He paused, not sure if heading back would lead outwards since he'd lost sight of the light and unsure if he should keep moving forward considering someone was yelling that they shouldn't be there in the first place. All he could do was stand there as he tried to decide.

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ULFRICs breath was heavy. Shaking his chest from inside the Virtual Box in the corner of his dorm room. Someone had come by earlier and left a note on his desk about a project meeting but opted not to knock on the box and interrupt his game. He was concerned now though. The virtual box was built to make the gap between the net world and the real world even smaller. He could feel and sense [The World] as if it was all a real place. But if something happened to him in a place not actually a part of the game, what became of him?

the alarm rang out...

???:Whatthefu? !? wait..... what? how much time i've been sleeping? {He got up, brushed his teeth, and eated some snacks} Let's ROCK!

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He was now entering Mac Anu, he was unusually happy, and saw Eria, it seemed like she wanted to help someone to level up, then he was going to buy something

"You can't pass!", an axeman said "Oh yeaahh??" he answered with sarcasm "Show me that you don't use the 'Box'!" Seige grabbed the axeman by the neck, lifting him "I didn't woke up to see stupids like you 'round here, y'don't know who i am?" he throwed the axeman to a wall "!?... Y-y-y-y-y-y-youuu.... You're...." "the very same, also, if i see more rumors around there, i'll blame you..... and it won't be pretty..." he walked to the chaos gate, aproaching Eria "Leveling up?"

James could hear Ulfric's breathing through the mic. First he doesn't leave, and now he's followed us down the rabbit hole. Great. He switched back to local chat, "Ok, Wulf was it? Just hit the back button on your controller until you reach the point you came in at. If you leave now, you should be fine. Or if you don't think you can do that just hit Alt and F4 on your keyboard to force The World to shut down, or get out of your box and manually turn off the computer. Your character will reappear in Mac Anu when you next log in." Well, I can't really guarantee that, but it's better for everyone if he leaves.

James could see what was around him now, or rather what wasn't. It was like Avantha had said, this place was outside The World. It's not like it was an incomplete dungeon or a smattering of source code like in those shows where they show a cyberspace, there was just nothing there. At any moment D-=Scythe could walk off whatever surface was supporting her and become lost to the great void. Well James, you always wanted a good mystery, maybe you should have been a little bit more careful about what you wished for. He switched back to party chat, "Avantha, holes like this don't just appear, and they certainly don't usually become visible from a fairy's orb, someone or something made this for some reason. And we won't find out why if we don't explore it. If you want to leave, that's your prerogative, but I intend to see how deep this rabbit hole will take me. Are you in or out?" While saying that he set his controller down and rummaged through his notebooks. Aha! Grid paper. I knew I had some. Let's just hope this place isn't as volatile as it probably is. He marked where they had entered and began sketching what 'ground' he had covered, and what he had seen Toshiro cover before he disappeared around a corner.

Avantha let out a sigh and covered her face in her palm. "Well aren't you a stubborn little ass," she said. After a moment of silence she did something that surprised her more than it would surprise anyone else: she burst out laughing. She wasn't sure for how long she laughed, but it took all her strength to pull herself back together. "You...you remind me of someone I know," she said between deep breaths. "You even kind of look like him."

She stared at him for a minute, her look of joy and remembrance turning to sadness and regret. "If only I could have saved..." she started, but shook her head at once. "Sorry, I sometimes start rambling nonsense. Well, I was hoping to scare you out of here, but apparently you're either to stupid or too brave to take the bait...although sometimes those two things aren't very different. I suppose I could use you. But let's get one thing straight: if you are going to work with me then don't question what I know. Don't ask how I know what I do, and don't even try to be my 'friend.' You are a business acquaintance and nothing more. I don't need another half-assed friend who will only stab me in the back when things get too 'boring' to stick around."

Avantha took a few steps forward and looked around, the guise of her previous panic gone from her face. "So if you're going to be my acquittance then I suppose I should help you get a few things straight," she said. "I'm not going to have an ignorant shadow if I can help it. A place like this isn't at all uncommon in a virtual world. All computer games are basically voids when you look at the big picture behind the walls. The only things that keeps our characters from falling endlessly are these paper thin walls that have had certain collision programing placed on them. It really isn't that surprising to find a few areas where that collision programing breaks and you basically fall through the world. So normally this place wouldn't be anything special. The weird part is that last week I came to this exact dungeon, and there was a Gott Statue that time. If I am guessing right, that doorway we walked through was the opening to another hallway which led to the Gott Statue. Basically, someone seems to have deleted this particular hallway from the game, and if we want to find out who they are then we need to find the room that this hallway led two and find some traces. The only problem is, video game walls are only designed to load textures on one side to decrease loading times, so unless we walk and look at the correct angle, we aren't going to see the missing rooms."

She walked of the steps of Mac Anu and felt weird. Something was different but what? Oh, yeah. The axemen weren't bugging her for any reason. She tried the emotion control, but epically failed. She wasn't used to using commands for anything at all. Mostly sense the virtual box. She looked around some more and and decided to go and sit over by the spot that that one character had been sitting the other day.

(Post removed due to a change in the story and lack of participation from shugo_lover.)

James looked over his character model and then had D-=Scythe cross her arms, since he couldn't remember if raising one's eyebrow was a command. "Another fan of female character models and Death specifically?" She shook her head, "How intriguing, but that is a more personal matter and not at all appropriate for right now besides. I solemnly swear not to give voice to any questions regarding how or why you know what you know. At least not unless the impossible happens and we become more than merely business associates who tolerate one another. Oh, and despite the weird spelling, the name's Deathscythe."

James kept one hand on the controller, moving Deathscythe forward and the other was marking the hall on the graph paper. "If I seem to be moving oddly it's because I'm mapping this place with some graph paper. Rather difficult when you don't have any proper points of reference. Oh, and it's not that I'm brave, I'm no hero. It's just that I like trying to solve mysteries."

Eria turned to look at him and shrugged, still smiling a bit. "Oh, hey Seige. I'm thinking about it, since no one seems to need or want help right now. I'm also thinking about that area that's all over the message boards. What was it again...?" she paused to think for a moment before in came to her. "I think it was Δ Expansive Eternal Fiery Sands? Well, it was something like that, anyways. What about you, Seige? Roaming and fighting as usual?" she asked, letting the matter drop if it was meant to.

"yeah, hey, what's in that area? another of those monsters or something?" he said, putting the keywords into the chaos gate

"Hmmm...." She thought for a second as she sent the party invite for Seige to join her. She had a feeling that this would be better then the usual way they played together. "Huh... I can't really remember anymore. I think it was a monster though. We should probably be careful then," she finally replied before smiling. "I kinda hope it is. I want to be the first one to defeat it and become the strongest in the World!"

"heheh" he laughed playfully, accepting her party invite "Let's ROCK!" he put a background music, (One like the ones in action movies or games, where the main char gets super powerfull and ready to beat the bad guy:3) they both teleported to the area "Hmmm, never seen anything like this before" numbers were floating around "Let's go to tehe dungeon, i cover your back and you cover mine ok?, i got a skill that i wanted to use" he walked at Eria's side

Toshiro noticing the other players now only a foot away from him seemed to be having trouble he decided he would show himself and help out. It was getting late outside in the real world anyway he couldn't stay on much longer. He walked over to the two Pc's and tapped female twin blade on her shoulder. "You seem a bit lost. I mapped out the area as I whent if your looking for the exit. It was tricky, but I don't trust game maps so I make my own as I go." He said waiting for a response

(Note: I might not respond at all tonight. I have a really bad headache and am having trouble reading long paragraphs, so don't freak out that I'm on and not posting anything.)

(Sorry for not responding I've been busy with a state-wide competition lately and I won't be able to respond this weekend, so I give control of my character to Gamer Kale)

(Sorry for not responding I've been busy with a state-wide competition lately and I won't be able to respond this weekend, so I give control of my character to Gamer Kale)

She nodded as she looked at the floating data. "Yeah. We should probably hurry. I saw a place like this once and soon after finding it, An Admin asked me to Gate out so it could be fixed," Eria replied to him as she cast Ap Do on Seige and renewed her own status before the two took of for the dungeon near by. When they got down to the first floor, Eria used a Fairy orb to discover all doors open and no portals. "Huh...? I didn't know the Delta Server had empty dungeons..."

"Wait a sec"

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???:Wait a sec Eria....{He quickly clicked and wrote things with his keyboard}

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"Alldone!" he checked the map "Well...... this has 3 floors...... and the last floor.... it seems like there's someone in the last floor.... let's go there...." They walked up ahead "Look" An admin was standing in there "Please leave inmediatedly, this area is corrupted" he walked past the admin "Whatever, C'mon Eria....." They walked to the first room "Empty..... Follow me, i got a Map of the Area" He slowly and seriously walked ahead

"A... map...?" she asked as she walked along with him, deciding to ignore the Admin message as well and continue with her friend. Seige acquired a map of the entire dungeon and found out that someone else is here...? She raised an eyebrow at Seige. Though she tended to act carefree and a bit ditzy, she wasn't stupid either. "Seige, you're a Ha-" Eria's statement was cut off as the area flashed negative with a burst of static. Normally, it wouldn't have bothered a player, but Eria shivered, her skin crawling and goosebumps raising, as her Virtual Box translated the momentary error as sensory information. Her eyes widened in fear as she whipped around to look around, the feeling of being watched so strong that her player in real life looked around their room a moment before replacing the headset. But the feeling was gone as fast as it had come, lasting only as long as the static burst had. For the first since starting, Eria was scared. "Did you feel that, Seige...? I didn't imagine that...right?"

"Yeah...." he looked to her "I'm not a hacker...... i got contacts..... i didn't make the map, the person who's here send it to me, he's the real hacker.... i haven't hacked in here, if i use a hack, is to help in the bugs deleting...." he walked forward "3rd floor....... empty..... the treasure room is straigh ahead..."

To: Seige
From: ProARC
SEIGE! Watch out!!! i don't have time, a bug! in teh treasure room, GET........

"What?!, Hey! answer!" ran to Eria "let's buff ourselves..... a bug..... 's coming here...." he walked to the door to the treasure room "Let's buff here, i gotta prepare..." he used items "Let's speed out!" "ROCKTIME!" "The other buffs is up to you"

"Some mysteries are best left unsolved," Avantha said to D-=Scythe, a slight hint of hostility in her voice. "And my friend was a guy. I was just remarking how funny it was that male and female character can be made to look so similar."

She took a step forward, but was instantly intercepted by another being. She raised her two blades and prepared to attack, but let out an annoyed groan when she realized what stood before her was not a monster but a player named Toshiro. "Oh no, not another one," said Avantha. "Please tell me that you're the last person down in this place. I'm getting sick of people trying to bud into where they don't belong. Look, I don't need an exit and I can find my own way through here. I was here last week so I should be able to remember how the hallway was shaped. It shouldn't be hard to find the missing room."

Avantha pushed Toshiro aside and traversed deeper in the black void as if it was just another stroll through an ordinary field. "Besides, who actually draws a map in a video game?" she said. "Why would anyone ever waste their time like that? There are programs that can do that for you. I have one making a map for me right now. All it takes is a little coding and it's simple. And if this thing is right--which it usually is since I created it--all I need to do is take fifty paces, turn right, and I should see the doorway."