‘News flash—the popular online game ‘The World’ developed by corporate giant CC Corp—is now the operating ground for cyber terrorists. Two hours ago, a dangerous guild under the name of ‘Blazing Dawn’ has taken several players hostages. Usually this would not be problem since players can just log out. But when the members of ‘Blazing Dawn’ experimented on a captive player with a strange program, the player, in the real world was left comatose. The particular player, Tokio Asamura, is now in the hospital, where her vitals were reported to be failing. The hostage players are also infected with a virus which causes them unable to log out. The ‘Blazing Dawn’ demands a sum of 900 hundred billion USD to be delivered in an unknown account or they will hurt another player. Authorities are now working with the system administrators of ‘The World’ to find the true identities of the members of the ‘Blazing Dawn’, determined to stop these cyber terrorists.’

.hack//SHADOW

Chapter 1

The Setting Sun

Sigma Eternal Blazing Sun’s Wrath was truly an enchanting area. It was a wide field, where flowers bloomed in each corner. There were temple buildings in the center of the field, surrounded by high walls. The only entrance to the temples was the wooden double doors, bolted from the inside. The original entrance was a warp point, standing not far from the doors. But the point had been disabled by the inhabitants of the area. Two guards, one an Edge Punisher and the other a Twin Blade, stood at the doors. These PCs had been hacked into insanely high levels; the perfect security for the cyber terrorist guild, the Blazing Dawn.

A tree in the distance wiggled, but the guards ignored it, knowing it was a tree full of Chim Chims.

Wolf looked from behind the tree, sighing. Good thing he picked this tree. A flash mail appeared in his sight. ‘How many guards?’

‘Two.’ Wolf quickly replied.

‘Levels?’

Wolf used the patch that was installed in his PC. This patch was given to certain players like him, as they were ‘special’. A text box popped in his sight.

Edge Punisher – Level 112

Twin Blade – Level 99

‘Nothing I can’t handle.’ Wolf sent the flash mail and dashed toward the guards. The guards saw him and gritted their teeth. They both reached behind themselves. Light erupted behind their backs. Slowly, they extracted their weapons from that light. Wolf smiled, looked through his items and used a Hell Raiser. A dark hole appeared under the guards, as claws and a spiked tail was unleashed, dealing damage to them. While the Twin Blade was still dazed from the attack, Wolf reached behind himself and extracted his blade. A single swipe caused the player to be instantly PK’d.

The Edge Punisher roared, as he swung his massive sword. It hit Wolf’s back, and took 36 points out of his health. Wolf grunted. ‘Not bad,’ he said, as he slashed. 200 points was taken out from the Punisher’s life. Wolf performed a skill, Disaster Sword, and the last guard finally fell.

Wolf sighed yet again. ‘What a drag…’ he sent a flash mail. ‘Entrance cleared. Where’s the cavalry?’

As a response, two blue orbs appeared in front of him. The orbs spiraled downwards, and PCs appeared within the fading spires.

‘Two?’ Wolf mused. ‘SHADOW has a bunch of PCs and they just send three of us to handle this situation?’

The first PC, a female, snorted. ‘This stuff is small time compared to the usual stuff we’ve been dealing with. But then again, you are new in SHADOW…’

‘Hush, Cierra.’ The second PC, a male Blade Brandier, cut in. ‘We’ve got a job to do.’

‘Whatever, Darius,’ yawned Cierra. ‘Let’s hurry this up. I have to feed my cat.’

The three pushed the double doors and entered. An uncomfortable sight greeted them all. An amount of PCs stared at them, weapons drawn. Wolf tensed. He had his weapon out already. At the corner of his eye, Wolf saw Darius had already taken out his sword and Cierra had her scythe ready.

‘Really, this is a bittersweet moment for me.’ A voice said from behind all the PCs. They cleared the way, and a male player walked towards the three. ‘I’m touched that CC Corp has sent the elite of the elite to deal with me, but honestly! Only three of the legendary SHADOW? Is the Blazing Dawn not worthy of your attention?’

‘The only thing you’re worthy of is a nice little cell they’ve prepared for you in the real world, Maxus.’ Darius said. ‘You’re under arrest for threatening the stability of the Internet.’

The PC laughed. Wolf then clearly saw the black patch on Maxus’s right eye. ‘It has been boring, my dear Darius. Who knew just several hacking programs can give you luxuries in The World and in the real world? So I hacked into the system, boosted me and my men’s levels, blocked off this area from the system’s master control for Blazing Dawn’s private use. It was then when I discovered what I can do to real life people…but everything, in the end, led to money.’ He paused, and then continued. ‘So here I am, holding players hostage for ransom, and I am countered by the sheer power of CC Corp by only three SHADOW members…oh, my dilemma.’

‘You know what, Maxus?’ said Darius. ‘I bet we can finish everything here under five minutes.’

Wolf choked, and looked at Darius. Was the man serious? There was like dozens of hacked players here. He even got a scratch from the fight outside. Just imagine fighting a battalion…

‘Ooh,’ chided Maxus. ‘Is that a challenge? Very well, I accept! Men, help yourselves!’

The PCs cheered. Darius whispered to his comrades. ‘Cierra, take care of these idiots. Wolf, find the hostages.’

‘What about you?’ asked Wolf, as Cierra cracked her knuckles. What was the point? It was just data…

‘I’ll mop the floor with Maxus.’

Maxus’s men roared and charged. Cierra swung her scythe 360 degrees, striking every single one. Each PC had 150 health points taken away. ‘This bitch’s got style!’ one of them managed to say.

‘What did you say?’ Cierra said sinisterly, eyes aflame.

‘Oh, shit.’

Wolf ran through a hallway as Cierra crushed the members of the Blazing Dawn with a wicked Reaper’s Touch skill attack.

--

Winx bumped her head softly at the wall behind her, emitting a low sigh. The other PCs around were asleep in this dark lonely room. Though every one of them had tried, Winx desperately selected the ‘Log Out’ option in her menu system. A text box appeared. You are unable to log out now. It had been like this since she was captured by these jerks. The Blazing Dawn, they called themselves.

She was unsure about the others, but Winx was kidnapped while she walking around in Mac Anu, trying to find the Quest Shop. She was a noob, a level 4 Adept Rogue. She just started playing The World for about two weeks, and she loved the online game. Suddenly she was whisked away to this place, while a guy with a black eye patch executed programs on them. She wasn’t a computer wiz, but she knew those programs made her like this.

However, she was thankful the eye patch guy didn’t hurt her like he did to Rose. Winx shivered. She remembered when the eye patch guy laughed and tapped on his virtual keyboard, infecting Rose with some strange virus. Rose screamed so much until even the guards could not bear to look at her. Rose’s screams died when she began to fade away. Her PC’s data defragmenting from her body slowly…like feathers floating in the air, though much more eerie.

Suddenly there was a knock at the metal door; the only entrance to the dark room. It was a soft knock, and then it became a loud one. ‘Is someone in there?’

Those weren’t the guards. Had someone come to save them? Winx almost cried. ‘Help! We’re in here! Help!’ the others began waking up. Soon, they joined in her cries of help.

‘Hold on!’

--

Jackpot! Now…how to open the door? You can’t just use the ‘Open’ option. Damn hackers. Maybe a skill attack?

‘Disaster Sword!’ the door shattered into a million data fragments. Light flooded into the dark room as the captive players rushed out to hug their savior.

‘Thank you! Thank you!’ they cried, crushing him until Wolf dropped on his back. He forcefully pushed them back and got up.

‘All right, folks. Let’s get out of here. Follow me.’

--

‘Looks like you lose, Darius,’ Maxus panted, his weapon arm shaking. ‘You can’t finish all this in five minutes.’

Darius stood still, his blade still held high. ‘You’re weakened, Maxus. Just give it up. Even as a Steam Gunner, your hacked levels can’t match mine. I don’t want to PK you anyway.’

‘So you know,’ Maxus sneered, his real self sweating furiously.

‘I know that you hacked your PC to be untraceable. I know that if I PK you, it’ll take a long time to find you again. And by the time I find out who you really are, you’ll be out of Japan. I know the only way to find you now is to inject you with this bugging program.’ Darius held a small twinkling object in his hand.

‘You’ll never…find me…’ raising his gun, Maxus pulled the trigger. A shot blasted out of the nozzle, but Darius was already behind Maxus, pushing the twinkling object within Maxus’s back. Maxus cried, and fell down to the ground. He quickly opened his sub-menus and selected the ‘Log Out’ option.

You are unable to log out now.

Maxus closed his eyes, accepting defeat silently.

--

‘News flash—CC Corp has spectacularly managed to undermine the cyber terrorist threat with the help of the authorities. The members of the cyber terrorist organization, the ‘Blazing Dawn’, have been located and arrested. The hostage players have been rescued and cured. They have logged out and reunited with their families. The leader of the ‘Blazing Dawn’, a 46-year-old man named Fe Kazuya, will be facing charges by the Japanese Justice Department and CC Corp for threatening the stability of the Internet and putting innocent lives at risk. His first victim, Tokio Asamura, is still comatose. The authorities also have seized custody of Fe Kazuya’s research materials on hacking when CC Corp turned the evidence in. Fe Kazuya’s first trial will be announced in two days while the criminal is being held at an unknown maximum-security prison. Meanwhile, the online game ‘The World’ may have risked being shut down, but instead more players are subscribing to the game. Its number of 2 million subscribers has now increased to an approximate value of 6.5 million after the hostage incident.’

--

‘This incident brought many questions about. After the Third Network Crisis, security measures of The World have been increased to ensure safety of the players. For about four years…The World prospered, profitable for CC Corp, of course. Now suddenly the game is haven for cyber terrorists. And worse, these terrorist are more than professional hackers. They have created hacking programs that disable players’ logging out and causing comatose players in real life. The only thing that was capable of doing these feats within The World was AIDA. How can a sleazebag like Fe Kazuya or Maxus create such programs? This will be our primary objective from now on. We need to uncover the truth behind this incident. Mark my words; there will be more of these cyber terrorists, especially after they saw what Kazuya could do. We need to protect The World and its players.

‘This is SHADOW’s cause.’

To be continued…

--

Thanks for reading Chapter 1, folks. Stay tuned for Chapter 2. Please review!