.hack//ADMINISTRATION

 by Wanderer

Chapter 1: The Beginning of a Legend

“This game, seems so high-tech all of these rules and restrictions I wonder how many people even follow these rules in the first place” A young boy said as he read the manual to a new game he purchased, it was called “The World” and was one of the first games to use Virtual Reality. He decided he should know as much about the game before he started to play it would seem like the right thing, “Character Design?” Character design was the most interesting thing that caught his eye; you could design your character to what you wanted it to look like. He figured that he had read as much as he needed and was ready to play so he slipped on his VR Visor on his eyes and it slipped on his ears. He picked up his game controller which was set in front of him and pressed the button to activate “The World”

“Welcome to The World, press X to continue to your Character Design” The game voice said, the boy only saw darkness and pressed X on the controller, “Now choose your “User name’” He thought about it for a while and figured that this was just like an account name so it wouldn’t really matter. He entered his real name, Michael.

“Now choose your ‘Character Name’” The voice said again, Michael thought about this and then remembered a book that he liked to read whenever he was bored or sad, The Wanderer. He looked at the letter menu that was dropped in front of his eyes and entered “Wanderer”. The voice continued to ask the standard questions of Gender, Age, Hair and Eye color. But then it moved to character design. A body of white appeared and Michael remembered from the manual that it said you had to dress an example and then you could continue it. He looked at the menu options and chose a blue cloak, with white symbols along the sides, chest and the hood that hung around his neck. Beneath the cloak was hardly visible but he wore a white shirt. He looked at his character and saw it come to life, Brown eyes, and short brown hair with his clothes.

The last question was of a Character Class, Wave Master, Twin Blade, Heavy Blade, Blade Master, and Long Arm. He chose Wave master because it was a sorcerer type class and he liked that.

“Confirm?” The voice said and Michael hit X, “Welcome ‘Wanderer’ to ‘The World’” the voice said and Michael began to swirl in a long vortex of bright light he looked around and saw that he was in Wanderers body now, his role playing character so he better act different. Golden rings went around his body and he appeared in a town, it looked so real that Wanderer blinked a few times and saw that it looked exactly like a town square. He knew how to play though he did read the manual, he headed towards the Item shop and bought a few things and looked around at others people character designs.

“These games are beginning to look very realistic; I want to go out on an adventure!” Wanderer yelled out and he headed towards the blue spinning Chaos Gate, he entered a few random keywords to a level 1 area and the golden rings flowed upwards and took him somewhere else. He landed in a grass like area with large Mushrooms he smiled and looked around. He suddenly saw two users that looked old than him, they snickered a bit and ran at him, and one of them swung his arm around Wanderer and began to talk.

“Are you a newbie?” He said, and held out his sword to Wanderers neck, the other one hung around the side and twirled his twin blades. They were a much higher level than Wanderer, “I asked you if you were a Newbie!” Wanderer twirled out his arm and swung in front of them he gripped his staff and looked at the guys Character Design. He had long brown hair and silver plates of armor, and red clothes, with red symbols on his face. The other one was quite similar except he had green clothes and his hair was shorter and purple.

“Hahaha you think you can beat the two of us!? A level 1 Wave master beat two higher level PCs!? Don’t make me laugh!” The first guy said. He held out his sword and the other own gripped his blades and approached Wanderer, Wanderer felt uneasy and gripped his staff he only knew one spell called Juk Rom a wooden tornado spell. It wouldn’t have a lot of effect on the users but it might be something to help him escape, he gripped his staff and swung in the air.

“JUK ROM!” He yelled out and the wooden tornado formed at their feet, it swirled up dust and materialized sticks to knock at their faces and Wanderer dashed holding onto his staff tightly. After running a while he slid in front of a tall Mushroom and turned to look back, the person with the Twin Blades suddenly slammed down in front of him. Wanderer fell back and quickly used his staff to lean on so he wouldn’t fall he got up and began to run. He suddenly stopped, he didn’t want to run. He turned around and slammed his staff on the ground, making the tip slightly converge into the earth, “I will run from you no longer.”

“What?” The twin blade said as he stopped, the blade master from before also stood by his side, “You want to die then?” He continued and held up his blades. Wanderer twisted his staff in the ground and steadied himself.

“I will not fear your low class of maturity for playing this game. If you have nothing better to do then to player kill newbies who have done nothing to do with you then you are of a despise. You would think that higher level users would have something better to do?” Wanderer had let his hood go on his head and he smirked from within it, “You should be ashamed of yourselves. You should be banned for such stupidity and lame remarks of powerless strength!”

“What, who do you think you are!?” The blade master said and approached closer.

“I am nobody but a level 1 user who refuses to give in to such childish play of a game, you should know better or do you have less experience than I do?” Wanderer continued, he had the gate out key on standby if the users decided to ignore him and attack.

“We do have more experience than you! What are you talking about!?” The twin blade said getting annoyed he approached closer was only a few inches from Wanderers face.

“Are you bored yet?” Wanderer said, and the users gasped a little and looked at him,” Go ahead, kill me. Let me see your self-righteous skills of strength! Let me see that you can actually call yourselves the better users by killing a level 1 user!” The two users looked at each other then back to Wanderer, the golden rings encircled them and they disappeared.

“That was quite impressive” A mans voice said from within the large mushrooms Wanderer looked into them after giving a slight gasp.

“Whose there?” He said and walked towards the mushrooms.

“Not too many Level 1 PC’s can fend off two level 16 users all by themselves” The man's voice said, and he suddenly appeared. He was large and had a brown mustache. He was wearing overalls and a white shirt with normal brown shoes, and a green hat. He had one hand on his hip while his other was gesturing. The strangest thing was, Wanderer couldn’t find a Character Class Weapon.

“Who are you?” Wanderer said staring at the man.

“I am Adam one of the System Managers of The World, I was just browsing this area because more reports have been coming in of Player kills who stay in this are and kill newbies” Adam said and approached Wanderer.

“Oh?” Wanderer said, staring at his bland character design.

“My character design was pre-made for me. I was wondering did you know those users.” Wanderer gave a tiny yelp at the sudden remark at his thoughts.

“No, this is my first time in a field in The World, but I know all of the rules.” Wanderer said trying to impress a System Manager.

“Yes, I figured that. Well you’ve done something quite impressive, you’ve 1 helped me and 1 managed to use the rules to save yourself against higher level arrogant users. I think this deserves a reward.”

“Reward?”

“Yes, hold on I’m checking something. Yes, Yes. I can do that myself, yes. Good thank you very much.” The man seemed to be talking to something in the air or to him, but Wanderer figured it was a flash mail within The World or something, “Well you should be happy with what I’ve done for you.

“I didn’t ask you to do… anything…”Wanderer said trying not to sound ungrateful.

“Yes I know that but I am making you a moderator of The World, I am also giving you the authority of organizing a clan to help you further your authority. I am also giving my System of Administrations contact address if you manage to capture a Player Killer, or find an area that seems corrupted, you can contact me about it so I can do something about it. Ok?”

“Well, um, yeah, I guess I could do all of that, will the users know that I am a… moderator of ‘The World’?” Wanderer said feeling a bit excited with his sudden raise of authority from only his first time in “The World”.

“Yes of course, there will be a ceremony actually. The users who gather will know and then tell their friends.”

“A-a ceremony? Don’t you think that’s a little much?” Wanderer said feeling a little nervous now.

“It won’t be that big of a ceremony come on now we’re going to Mac Anu, they have already set up the boat for you.” Adam grabbed Wanderers arm gently and the golden rings flowed over them and they appeared in Mac Anu. Adam tugged on Wanderers arm and he let go he began to walk towards the river and Wanderer followed. Were users going to hate him more then really follow him? He looked down at the ground most of the time as he continued to follow. Finally they reached a large crowd of users, and a pair of people who looked like Adam almost exactly was standing on both ends of a boat that was in the river.

“Ladies and Gentlemen! Boys and Girls! Users of the World! We would like to inform all of you that there will be a user who will be playing “The World” as a moderator! If you run into a problem, please confide it to this user, he has access to the System of Administration and will get what he can as best as he can. Will the user who was announced moderator of The World please step up?” One of the men said, on the right side of the boat. His voice was louder than usual, and the users listened intently. Adam gave a small nudge on Wanderer and he began to walk towards the boat. Users began to twirl around looking for the user and as Wanderer stepped out of the crowd the crowd gasped. Wanderer walked in between the two men and looked at the crowd.

They were all staring in disbelief, Wanderer looked to the ground then got a sudden feeling in his stomach and then shot his chin up looking at the crowd triumphantly.

“This user Wanderer will be known as Lord Wanderer, to users as a name of respect. To let all of you know Lord Wanderer also has the authority to start up a clan to follow in his footsteps and to help him moderate “The World”! So, to get things done. Lord Wanderer would you like wings as a part of your character design to show your authority?”

“Yes.” Wanderer said, feeling the feeling in his stomach greaten, at the sudden title given to him. The man to his left who hadn’t spoken lifted his hand in the air and a bright platform formed at Wanderers feet. The line shined brightly upwards and covered Wanderer’s body a pair of semi-small white wings that grew to his shoulders from his back appeared. The users all gaped at and awed at the wings. Wanderer tried to flap them with no success, oh well he thought to him self.

“Ah, now take your first steps onto the authority boat!” The man who was speaking first slightly pushed Wanderers back, and Wanderer stepped forward. He turned around to face the boat and took 2 steps; he slowly took the last and final step and walked on the boat.

A user logged into Mac Anu and looked around, he was new to the game and had the class of a Blade Master he had played twice before and was ready to head out for an adventure. He first headed towards the item shop and began to stock up on items, he looked down at the river and saw Lord Wanderer doing his usual post, slowly boating down and waiting for users to approach him of anything corrupted. Lord Wanderer turned and caught the eye of the user, and he quickly turned back heading towards the chaos gate. He entered some key words and the golden rings encircled him and took him somewhere, somewhere different. He looked around and saw upside down pine trees floating mid air, a box floated above his head and he stared at it as it flowed across the sky. He suddenly saw a yellow spinning portal appear in front of him it activated before he had a chance to check the level and a goblin of a sort with twin blades appeared and slammed in front of him.

“Is this an event or something?” He said to himself, and then gripped his sword he charged, and the goblin jumped in the air the boy quickly gave a thrust on his sword upwards and sliced the goblin into two. It felt to the ground gray colored and then disappeared. Two other yellow portals appeared in front of him and he quickly ran back he continued to run as two of the same goblins hopped towards him. One of them hopped in front of him and pushed him down with the sides of his blades while the other jumped in the air on top of him and came slamming with his daggers pointed downwards, “AHHHH! NO!!!”

GAME OVER

“What? A user has gone into a coma…?” Lord Wanderer said he turned from his frontal position on his boat and towards one of his knights that followed in his authority. He tapped his staff touched the ground as he turned to the user. He was wearing silver armor and blue pads; he was also wearing a helmet that was shaped in the form of a falcons head. It opened around his head so there was more armor behind his head, “Are you sure it’s because of The World?” Lord Wanderer continued. All of his knights who were Heavy Blades, Blade Masters, or Long Arms all wore the same suit. Wave Masters had the similar suit but had green pads instead of blue and the Twin Blades had Yellow Armor, they all followed in Wanderers authority and there were a total of 100 members.

“Yes, my lord. The person who played this character was found unconscious and his friends within The World; say that he’s been flash mailing them with distress signals of a sort.” The user said he was kneeling in front of Wanderer as he spoke.

“Threw my 2 months of moderation, there have been no reports of this type of thing. The strangest thing of this situation is that the user continues to flash mail his minimal contacts within The World, all of which who don’t know the user in real life. They live in vas distances away from the user’s home location, so I was thinking. Is it possible for a person who has been removed from his or her terminal, but still have their character remain in the game? I’ve heard of this type of thing happening before.” Lord Wanderer said he was in a different place, a place with large mushrooms that sprung in the air like trees; he was talking to someone who was leaning on the other side of the mushroom.

“This situation is under control by the System of Administration, you don’t have to worry about it. Tell the users who may ask you that it is under control. If that will be all…” The person who was leaning on the other side of the mushroom replied it was Adam.

“Oh, wait. I’ve been thinking about things, I was wondering. Could you give me management abilities?” He paused as Adam gave a small gasp, “I know it may seem a little too much for me, but the sudden moderation abilities were brought on rather quickly and I’ve been looked to from users more than the System of Administration itself.”

“Yeah, you have been productive in your duty and their have been some workers who are relieved that you are here, and taking quite a load off their backs. I’ll take this to someone who is of a higher rank than me, and I’ll see what I can do. For now is there anything else?”

“No, thank you for your time.” Lord Wanderer said and watched as the golden rings encircled Adam upwards. He disappeared and two of his knights appeared quickly after, two knights, “What is it?”

“My lord, there is something you should see. Come with us immediately” One of the knights said, kneeling. Lord Wanderer stared a bit, and then gated out to the area they had told him. He warped and saw an area that had upside down floating pine trees, and a strange box floating in the distant air. He looked around for a bit and then turned to a group of his knights that were using a scan board. A scan bored was able to scan any activity that had been happened in the current area.

“So this is where the user who had fallen into a coma was playing before it actually happened?” Lord Wanderer said as he looked around. A small group of kneeling knights nodded, “In the name of The Guardians of Fianna. I, Lord Wanderer, moderator of The World hereby close this area for further inspection.” Guardians of Fianna was the name of the moderating team, Wanderer raised his staff in the air and slammed it on the ground. He had a special moderation menu on his screen and opened it and selected the option “Close This Area” he clicked it and the area was suddenly held off to any normal users.

“Please continue to scan the area, has there been anything found yet?” Wanderer said as he turned to the knight who was using the scan board.

“The Wave Master and Long Arm units are scanning around the field right now my lord, and so far they have seen no dungeon or any yellow portals. I myself with the scan board have found that there was a user who played here a week ago. He was defeated almost immediately and managed to gain some experience points from defeating a monster.” The knight said.

“So, there was an active use of a Yellow Portal here?”

“Yes, but the monsters data doesn’t seem to exist here. Only records of the user defeating, and then going to a game over are available from the Scan Board.” The knight said, as he turned to face Lord Wanderer.

“Ok, thank you that will be all. Please continue to have the units scan the area, if they don’t find anything soon. Then leave this area, I will report to the System of Administration as soon as possible.” As the knight bowed Wanderer had the golden rings encircle him and take him back to Mac Anu, he looked around at the users as they began to log out. The sun was setting to show that was getting late, Wanderer was going to log out soon. Suddenly he heard the indistinct sound of a “Ba-Dung” it was the sound made when a user received a flash mail from another user. He quickly checked the address and subject.

Subject: Help

Sender: Ranion

“Ranion… it sounds familiar. Wait! The user who fell into a coma! His name was Ranion!”

Wanderer quickly read the message:

Please help me Lord Wanderer. I’ve only played The World a few times, and I’m in a place where I can’t gate out. The only thing I remember is playing in a field with upside down trees, and these strange goblin monsters I don’t remember seeing in the strategy guides! One of them killed me and I got flashed the “Game Over” sign. I tried to log out, but it felt as if my body was no longer there!! I’ve been trying to log out for over a week now! What has happened to me!?? I don’t know the area of where I am, so please find a way to track this message.

Please help. I’m scared.

This is, impossible. The user is still able to access The World and to send flash mails. I must track this message at once! Wanderer quickly thought to himself, he contacted a good friend within his knights who was good with all of this technology and who might be able to track the message. He was online and quickly warped in. Wanderer led him towards his boat and told the two who were standing by to go and round the town. The two boarded and began to set a flow.

“This is interesting” The user said, he was a Wave Master and was sitting on the end of the boat as Wanderer did the same on the other side.

“Do you think you could track it?” Wanderer said.

“Since the message wasn’t sent to me in the first place it might take me a bit, since you’ve forwarded it to me.”

“Yes, I thought of that. It would track it to me right?” Wanderer said looking to the side at the ground a little dismayed.

“I might be able to bypass that and go on to the next sender. It might take me a bit but I’m sure I can do it. Don’t worry; shall I report our current standings to Adam?”

“No, there is no need for that. We are unsure about this situation ourselves and should only report when we have an accurate standing.”

“Right, my lord. Is there anything else I can do for you?”

“No, that will be all.” Later on that day Wanderer continued walk around Mac Anu and did the usual answering to users. He gated to other servers and logged out for a bit. He needed time to rethink things.

“Lets see, lets see. If I just use the data here, and check the history…” The user who was talking to Wanderer earlier about tracking the message was hard at work. He was at the Guardians of Fianna head quarters and in his office. In the real world he was using his modern day tools to track the message. He continued to type complicated words and then waited for it to load.

Loading…..Loading… Tracking message IP# 234.23.7.23456.478.2345.2.326….

Continuing to access data message………

DFP9UW09ER9028390I23U4903JKLMLS90F89023094890213KLJS098F90WER923UI409I2394IOPSPDFQ9UR90UIF9UD90VU9IUR90U3HIDDENR90UWEIRIOVHNSLKDNVFKLJFH2FORBIDDEN498T7U0ONKJSDHF8923U5HOLY09298409JNMKLSNGROUNDFJ2U3092U903J4RKLMNFNOIJ09U4509289045JIOSJF98U29588720934890

“What is this!?” The man yelled out he stared at his computer screen as jumbled numbers and letter flowed threw his screen. He stared at his screen threw his VR Visor and then it flashed white light, it continued to flash multiple colors of light blinding him and making him twitch. Then something else happened, in the real world. His body slumped onto his computer desk, his VR visor still on. His hands let go of the gaming controller, and it hung on the side of the table. In The World, his character suddenly glitched and turned gray and then faded from sight.

“Then it’s true. I too received the scrambled e-mail.” Wanderer said, as he walked along the docks of Mac Anu. He turned to the knights who were following him on each side.

“Yes, my lord. We were able to decipher some strange words that might be Keywords to an area” One of the Knights said, as he kneeled with the other knight.

“Please tell me, what are they keywords?” Lord Wanderer said.

“Hidden Forbidden Holy Ground”

“We will go there then.” Wanderer said he turned towards the Chaos Gate and the two knights followed, Wanderer quickly entered the keywords and the golden rings circled them upwards as they transmitted to a foggy area. They looked around and saw that there wasn’t much around, Wanderer headed down a large wide cemented bridge of a sort and the knights followed. They looked around cautiously and then saw up ahead a building. It was a church to be more specific, and Wanderer looked up at it amazed, “Get a unit with a scan board immediately. Tell him to search for records of this… church being built. If anything is found contact me at once. Do not report any of our current standings to Adam, I’ll handle this until we get a firm standing. That will be all, there is a person I have to meet so I will be leaving you now” The knights nodded and began to contact a member in the Guardians of Fianna. Wanderer turned back and transmitted back to the Chaos Gate.

He entered designated key words and then gated out. He landed in a snowy field with tall trees everywhere. He looked around saw a twin blade hoping towards him. The Twin Blade jumped in front of Wanderer, he was wearing armor of red and dark red colors, and long brown hair.

“Are you the one who knows Ranion?” Wanderer said, going into his superior physique.

“Yes! I was his first friend when he started to play The World! I helped him gain a level!” The Twin Blade said.

Perhaps a defect in his character design or that he was a hacker of a sort?” Wanderer continued.

“Nope! He had all of his character design was ok, and he was just a kid!”

“Oh, I see and about the flash mails he sent you?”

“Yeah, those were very strange. He kept asking me for help, and some of his messages were kind of scrambled with numbers and strange symbols, so I couldn’t read some of them.

“Did he ever send you keywords of where he might be at?”

“Yeah, I went to go check it out but it was a protected area,” The Twin Blade said shifting his weight.

“Did you get the protected area message? Did it say who closed the area?”

“Yeah, it was the system manager Adam.” Wanderer gave a light gasp.

“Adam… did it say why he locked the area?”

“No, just the usual. This area is experiencing Technical Difficulties please wait until we can fix them.” The Twin blade said sounding monotone.

“Thank you, if there’s anything else out of the ordinary..?”

“Nope, that was all but hey if you found out something about my partner let me know will you?” Wanderer nodded and then gated out. Adam did say he had the situation under control, so maybe he did find this area before I did. He must already be one step ahead of me at this. I might be able to access the area.. the user said that the area was Bursting Passed Over Aqua Field. Wanderer headed to the Chaos Gate and first entered Hidden Forbidden Holy Ground to see how the investigation was going. He entered the key words and warped in front of the church.\He looked around saw nobody, he walked down the path a bit and then headed back to enter the church.

“Where is everyone?” He said and suddenly saw one of his knights lying on the floor. He had his hands flailed along the sides lifeless, and a scan board was a few feet on the ground away from him. Wanderer quickly recognized the user, “Oxford! What happened!?” he crouched down towards him and saw that he was unconscious. He looked around and saw that a couple other knights were leaning against a wall lifeless also. Wanderer turned around suddenly to the entrance of The Church as he heard some one gate in.

“Wanderer! Get out of there!” A familiar voice yelled out, it was Adams. Wanderer quickly clenched his eyes together to see Adam. He was running inside with two people who looked very similar to him, “Get out of here now! This area is unstable!”

“Right away!” Wanderer ran past Adam and the two other people as they headed towards the fallen knights. Wanderer ran out of the church and held his staff in the area, the golden rings quickly encircled him and then he disappeared back to Mac Anu. What happened to my knights? Wanderer thought to himself. He quickly entered Bursting Passed Over Aqua Field, and then got the Protected Area message, he entered his moderation password and then it let him in. It was a dark area with thunder rumbling, Wanderer could barely see anything.

“Hey.. you!” Wanderer shot his eyes open and turned around and saw a boy user. Wanderer stared.

“Are you Ranion?” Wanderer said taking a chance.

“Yeah!! Lord Wanderer! You’ve found me! Where is this place!?” Wanderer gave a relieved look.

“I’m not sure, how you were transmitted here, because it’s a protected area.”

“Yeah, I know that. I haven’t been able to gate out because it’s a protected area.”

“I’ll unlock the area so you can gate out ok?”

“Wait, some things-things happ-pening … I-I” Wanderer stared at the Blade master he was glitching out of sight, Wanderer quickly ran to him and held out his hand. The blade master grasped it but then his had glitched and disappeared, as did the rest of his body began to materialize away going up to his head, “Nooooo!!!” he yelled as his head faded away pixilated.

“What… happened to him.” Wanderer said as he swayed his hand around in the air of where the user was. He quickly gated out of the area and returned to Mac Anu. The World is changing…. He thought to himself.

Two kids who were about the same age or were going to be in a few months flipped on their pair of VR visors. They had played The World before and were advanced players, they had two computers on the desk they were facing, and were logging in together like usual. They laughed a bit then hit the log in button. They logged into Dun Loireag a different servers root town, consisted of small islands of earth that were connected by bridges of earth. They seemingly floated in the clouds. This server was for more experienced players, and these two were.

“Where did you want to go today?” The boy PC said, as he turned towards the girl one. They were both energetic users and were always ready for a dungeon quest.

“I guess we can just enter some random keywords and go out on an adventure.” The girl said back, the two headed towards the item shops and began to stock up. The boy was a Heavy Blade and the girl was a Long Arm. They looked around for any upgraded items and then without luck headed back to the Chaos Gate. They entered some random keywords and then they warped, they looked around at the strange area and closed in together holding their weapons high in offensive positions.

“What is this place?” The heavy blade boy said, as he looked around. It was dark and the ground and sky were unstable. Everything seemed to be rumbling with a light purple mist and lighting rays roared in the air.

“We should leave at once and tell Lord Wanderer! Look!” The girl long arm said she pointed with her spear at an approaching bright light it was in the shape of a round portal and it was coming closer, “Gate out! Now!” The boy took one glance at the approaching light and then back at his friend, as she warped out he too gated out and they both landed in Mac Anu.

“Lord Wanderer is usually in Mac Anu let’s going there.” The boy said and they gated out to another server.

“No, Lord Wanderer is currently available at this time. I am the head knight of The Guardians of Fianna and will take this message personally for my lord.” A knight said as the two users managed to catch up with the boat. A heavy blade user who was dressed in bulkier armor was currently standing on the boat.

“Well, just tell him to contact us. My name is Brock and this is my friend Krystal, we’ll be waiting for his reply.” Brock said, as he shifted his weight with his heavy blade. The knight nodded and turned back onto his boat. Brock and Krystal turned to each other and then walked down to a private bench.

“Do you think we should go back to that are and see if it’s still like that?” Krystal said as she leaned on her spear slightly.

“If something happens to us though… no we should really wait for Lord Wanderer.” The two users waited around for a bit and then headed to different areas, to train and fight and to kill time. Eventually they gated back to Dun Loireag and lay down in the grass near the docks. They only waited a bit as Lord Wanderer approached them.

“Was there something that you two users wanted to show me?” He said, the two users quickly got up and stood before him.

“Yes, there is a strange area in this server that we think you should take a look at” Krystal said. Wanderer nodded and the three headed for the Chaos Gate, the two told Wanderer the key words and they all warped together. Wanderer quickly held onto his staff as the sudden rumbling and unstable ground caught him off guard. He looked around at the strange area and then saw the familiar portal of light zoom towards them.

“We saw that before! We left before it got any closer though!” Brock said as he held up his blade, he got in front of Wanderer to protect him as did Krystal. Wanderer looked to them and then at the portal that was coming closer the trio stared at it. It got closer then burst, light was shining everywhere as a figure of a girl in white appeared. She was wearing all white dresses and had long white hair that flowed in the unseen wind. She looked at Wanderer then to Brock, then to Krsytal. She flowed closer and then picked up Brocks hand by his wrist and then made it burst with light, she flowed to Krystal and held her hand out on her forehead and it shined with light.

“Data Drain. Gate Hacking.” The little girl said and she flowed backwards, her hair still flowing and then faded away. Brock looked down at his wrist and saw nothing; Krystal rubbed her forehead and felt nothing out of the usual. The two looked to each other and then turned slowly back to Wanderer who was staring dumbstruck, he was gasping a little and then held up his staff suddenly in front of his body, the golden rings encircled him and he turned his head to the ground as he disappeared. Krystal and Brock turned to each other again and then back at the rumbling field where the girl had faded back into. They quickly gated out and saw that Wanderer had disappeared.

“I wonder what just happened” Brock said as he continued to look at his wrist. Krystal was nearby as she always was and was looking into a window of Mac Anu to see her reflection. She was massaging her forehead looking for any symbol or something but there was nothing there.

“I was surprised at the look on Lord Wanderers face; he looked so surprised, confused, and scared at the same time. I’ve never seen him look like that before.” Krystal said as she turned to Brock, she looked at his wrist uneasily as he twisted it around.

“Neither have I. Although I didn’t usually just sit there and stare at him like you did. I wonder if he knows what that girl meant “Data Drain and Gate Hacking” what are those?”

“They sound like user names, of a character that’s played The World.”

“I suppose but why would she touch us like that? We did glow kind of weird at the spots she touched us.” Brock said as he stood up, he looked to the sun setting and down at the river. He saw a few knights patrolling but mainly just talking and laughing to keep themselves from getting too bored. He continued to look around and saw a pair of newbies try and cast spells one each other, while advanced players yawned and logged out. This was his world, a place where he could escape reality as did most of the users who played.

“Well, we should be heading out now Brock. We have to make dinner before your Dad gets home, we’ll go back in tomorrow since it’s the weekend and see if Lord Wanderer can talk.” Krystal said as she turned away from Mac Anus sunset. She too was thinking about The World and its purpose of playing, she didn’t want anything to happen to it. She got off the bench and headed towards the Chaos Gate; Brock continued to stare at the river a bit then slowly rose and headed towards the Chaos Gate. The two logged out together as the golden rings encircled them.

“Are you certain it was her?” Lord Wanderer hadn’t logged out. After he had transmitted out of the area he quickly warped to Mac Anu and contacted Adam. He didn’t always come to his messages right away but it sounded urgent.

“Yes, I’m positive. Do you think it could be like from before? The .hackers legend continues?” Wanderer said as he shifted his weight in a chair-like throne somewhere secret in Mac Anu. Adam paced up and down the path with one hand automatically set on his waist.

“I don’t think it’s possible, it’s been almost 2 years since The World has experienced anything like that. Don’t tell those two their abilities we don’t want them starting that up again.” Adam said and he turned form Wanderers face and transmitted. Wanderer continued to sit in his chair and glanced to his staff that was leaning against one of the side posts of the chair.

“If those two did know their abilities and the legend did continue.” Wanderer didn’t finish his sentence, he grabbed his staff and rose from his chair, “I hope that she’s chosen the right people for this job, those two are our only hope now. But, at least we have some now.” Wanderer gave a slight smile then headed out of the room.

Chapter 2: A New Hope.

“Yes, I was wondering if you wanted to go somewhere with me?” Wanderer said it was a new day in Mac Anu and he felt very nervous. He was talking to Brock and Krystal as they had just conveniently logged on. The two stared at him a bit and then nodded smiling. They exchanged Member Address and formed a part. Lord Wanderer headed towards the Chaos Gate and entered designated key words the golden rings encircled the trio and took them to a snowy field.

“Why did you take us here Lord Wanderer?” Brock said as he held his hands on the handle of his blade which was sheathed on his back.

“I wanted to talk to you about yesterday’s event. First off all, I would like to apologize for leaving so suddenly without any consent. I was just shocked had to contact someone immediately.” Wanderer paused and began to walk the users followed side by side.

“Oh, that’s ok. We saw your face you did look a little strange.” Krystal said smiling, Wanderer gave a little “emph” of embarrassment and continued to walk slowly.

“Data Drain and Gate Hacking. You two must be wondering what those words mean.” Wanderer said as he stopped and turned to face them, they gave a light gasp and nodded, “Data Drain is an illegal ability that is able to rewrite data within The World. For an example if you were facing a monster that was an extremely high level, you could data drain it to a level 1 monster. This ability is dangerous to the system and causes defects each time it is used. Thankfully the ability is banned from the game and cannot be modified into any weapons. Gate hacking is a different ability with no effect against monsters what so ever, an area that is protected can be opened to the user who has the ability of Gate hacking. This ability too was banned and deleted and Is now an illegal skill”

“Your not going to punish us because we might have these abilities right!?” Brock cried out angrily as Wanderer finished. Wanderer looked to the ground and then rose his chin.

“I wasn’t even suppose to tell you what your abilities could do but I felt like I had to. There is something that is going to happen to this world, and you two –with help- will be able to stop it.”

“What’s going to happen to The World?” Krystal said.

“I can’t tell you right now but—“Wanderer was suddenly cut off as he heard a loud rumbling stomp, he quickly turned around and saw a strange monster.

“I’ve never seen that kind of monster before! Let’s go Krystal!” Brock yelled out and yanked out his large sword, Krystal gave a small “humph” of approval and excitement she quickly dashed after Brock. Brock quickly ran up and held his sword above the monster and slammed down leaving a large slice along the monsters shoulder and chest. Krystal gave a good look at the large monster it was large blue and with snake and lion heads here and there. She quickly jumped up at midpoint of the monsters body and gave a quick slash across its’ chest. She jumped back and stood by Brock. Wanderer ran up and began to cast a strong fire spell called ‘BiVak Rom” the monster was suddenly surrounded by a ring of fire and then it closed in.

“Oh!” Krystal said as she saw Wanderer slide in by her side, he looked to her and gave a slight smile and looked back up the monster. He shot his wide open as he saw that where the monster had been struck a shimmering light of purple began to connect the slashed parts and bring them together.

“Reviving! How is this possible!?” Brock yelled out as he saw the monster lunge its huge sword at him, he quickly jumped up and the huge blade missed slamming into the ground. Wanderer was just standing there as Krystal and Brock continued to slash out at the monster barely avoiding being hit. Krystal was suddenly struck hard by the monsters elbow and Wanderer ran up.

“MeRue Kruz!!” He yelled out and struck his staff in the area, a large group of water objects in the shape of ice cubes suddenly appeared around the monster and then struck. The monster flung off balance as Brock approached Krystal, “Brock! We cannot defeat this monster with normal abilities! Hold out your right wrist and yell out Data Drain!!” Wanderer quickly began to cast a thunder spell and it struck the monster down the middle, he regenerated and began to charge at Krystal.

“Krystal!! NO!” Brock yelled out and gave a quick slash against the side of the monsters side, the monster turned suddenly and began to slam down its fist. Brock jumped back held out his right wrist with his left hand, “Data! DRAIN!” A bright light surrounded Brocks body and it suddenly surrounded his right wrist, the shape of a round thick bracelet appeared and it shimmered. The bracelet began to glow many colors and then a beam resembling a very small meteor shot out and struck the monster, the monster roared in pain and a golden round light shot out of him in the shape of squares. The square particles of light shot back into the monster and he disappeared. In his place a small cat with a dogs head on the left began to bark and meow.

Krystal stared and stabbed her spear in the ground and she pushed herself up and looked at the cat-dog. The little monster then began to run away, the cats head tugging with the dog frustrated.

“What was that?” Krystal said as Brock ran up to help her walk. The both of them turned to Wanderer he stared at them and had the same look from the broken area. He quickly shook out of it and smiled.

“Good job Brock! Wanderer said and tapped his staff on the ground, “You’ve learned Data Drain!” Wanderer smiled and tilted his head to the side a bit and gated out.