Win Safari and the NetDoom Cult

A Novel/Work of Fan Fiction. By Timuu-kun.

Chapter 1: Introduction to the 41st Century

Hey! I'm Win Safari, and I'm gonna give the intro to this story. Yeah, I know that this guy Timuu-kun wrote the book, but I'm gonna give the intro, OK? Soooo…It's 4000 now, and things have changed. Like, the internet; that's changed a lot. In the world I live in, everything's connected by this huge network that connects everything. Like, I mean, EVERYTHING! And that includes people, too. Everyone now has these cool little black headbands called "Pulse Bands," which let us "pulse in" to the internet whenever we want, wherever we want. Oh, and the net is now virtual reality. I probably should've mentioned that before. Yep, nowadays, instead of just viewing the internet, we're a part of the internet. We actually feel what's going on in the net, because the Pulse Bands screw with our brainwaves and make us feel things. Like, for instance, if we're watching a movie or the news or whatever, we actually are a part of the movie: we not only see it, but we can touch things in it, we feel the heat and cold, we smell parts of it…yeah, it's pretty sweet. Really realistic. Of course, you lose all contact with your body while on the net, but hey, give-and-take, right?

So, to get around on the net, we all have Navigator programs in our pulse bands. Basically, it just puts your body right into the internet, so that you can walk around and chat with other people…pretty much whatever you want. Kinda like an avatar on steroids. But the Navigator is way cooler than your real body, because you can customize it! You can buy it clothes, armor, nightvision glasses, rocket-powered shoes, whatever you want (if you have the NetCash). Like mine, for instance. I'm pretty scrawny, but my Navigator is this huge muscle-man with awesome glowing turquoise-and-red armor and rocket-powered shoes. He's still got my face and my personality, but he's incredibly strong! Like, nobody can beat him. That kind of strong.

That's another thing. Even cooler that walking around on the net is the NetBattles that you can have with your friends. If you all agree to it, you and a bunch of your friends can link up Pulse Bands and fight it out in awesome cyber battles. The goal there is to frag the other guy until he's deleted, but nobody does it by just brute force: you've gotta have Battle Drives. But I'm getting ahead of myself; lemme explain. Battle Drives are a NetBattler's tools/arsenal/weapons…you get the point. All they really are are tiny little SD Cards which you download to your Pulse Band, but on the net, they have a billion uses. There are swords, cannons, shields…you think of a weapon and there's a battle drive of it. Anyway, you use them against the other guy and try to frag him enough to delete him before he frags you. Pretty simple; kinda like a wrestling deathmatch with awesome glowey weapons. Of course, some Drives are more expensive than others, but it's the strategy in the battle that really counts. You have to think about what elemental type your opponent is: if he's got turquoise armor with red undertones like mine, he'll be strong with earth and water, but weak against fire. So, you have to use the right battle drives: fight fire with water, and water with electricity, and electricity with earth…that sort of thing. Like Pokémon. Sorta…at least, the element parts. Ok, just forget the Pokémon.

Of course, all this awesomeness has a price. Even though there is no war anymore (because all the world is led by one government, as of 2500), there are still hackers and jerks that write viruses to screw with the net. But, because the net is so important, these stupid viruses are a big threat. Sometimes they can be pretty harmless; they slow down web sites or open billions of popup windows or obnoxiousness like that, but they can also really mess up websites and possess or delete navigators. So, just about everyone is trained in "virus busting" these days. "Busting" or deleting a virus is a lot like battling a Navigator: you use your Battle Drives to frag and delete the little sons-of-b***ches. Only thing is, it can get pretty dangerous: you don't pulse out automatically if you get critically damaged while battling a virus like you do when battling a friend, so if you get in over your head and try to bust a huge virus, your navigator could get deleted. And you know what that means…yep: thousands of Zennys in customizations and armor and awesome illegal mods…(er…forget that last one…heh heh) down the drain in the blink of an eye. Oh, and until you get a new one, you can't browse the internet either, which is pretty bad in today's world.

Ok, I'm being tapped on the shoulder by Timuu…*wait up, man, I'll finish in a sec.* Ahem… he wants me to stop talking now. Needs to get down to the "real story" he says. Yeah, prepare yourselves for one awesome story told by one less-than-awesome nerd, people. Err…don't tell him that I said that… Any-schwe, I'll turn it over to my main man Tim now, who will take you back to my 8th grade year. Man, middle school sucked for me, and you're about to see why. Just picture in your heads a cloudy Monday morning in Server City; the city to replace New York City as the most densely populated city in the former United States. It's 7:45 am and I'm conked-out-dead-asleep at home…