Beyond the Chaos Gates of the world's most popular RPG, The World, there lies a monstrous program powerful enough to wipe out all the players and send them all to the hospital. Once a year, somebody from the System Administrator Team must go to the 'basement' of The World and make sure that the program is safely sealed away.
The Debugging Team has tried to delete the program, but so far, it has proved to be undeletable. No on in The World has had the power to delete it. Yet.
Because the 'basement' is used only once a year and is not open to the public, the graphics are very bad, and occasionally a few harmless viruses hide out there. Sometimes wandering AIs pass through, as it is connected to the Net Slums, although no one really knows how or where. The Cobalt Knights don't really want to waste their time in a basement where the viruses don't harm anyone, so they just didn't bother.
Up until now, no one from the generation has witnessed the 'Forbidden Program' in action, which was a relief. They have only heard tales from the older players.
It is said that only the creators of The World know the program's purpose, weaknesses, and how do delete it, if possible.
Yet, the previous generations were able to weaken the program momentarily to seal it away. Although the previous players are not revealing their secrets because they are long gone, many scientists are trying to find a way by testing on a weaker version of the program.
Many often wonder what the program is capable of, and many wandering minds want to use it for evil…
(Little kid voice): What does that even mean? Anyways, let me tell you about the REAL story. This story is about a guy who 'made' a big mistake, and the program was released. It screwed with The World's programming, and many features were broken. Also, random warp holes started appearing everywhere.
Anyways, the guy just wants peace, but now he will forever be annoyed at by his boss at Cyber Connect Corporation. He also wants some good luck in his love life.
He struggles to beat the program which has taken over his life. Fighting to save all he has, he also meets some strange people along the way, such as a mysterious girl who can predict the future.
And will he find love with the lovely assistant of the head of the Cobalt Knights?
And, in the end, everyone realizes-
(Brick hits him in the head)
You're giving away too much!
Oh, sorry. Anyways, enjoy!
(Someone whispers)
Oh, and one more thing. I-
WE
WE forgot to tell ya that since this is AU, or alternate universe, and is technically the writer's world, a few changes have been made.
First: Magi the player character is now female because it just makes things less…confusing.
Second: The World was created a couple decades ago but the characters from .hack/Legend of the Twilight are still the same ages. You could probably tell that from the weird intro this guy said earlier.
Hey!
Third: Hotaru is a girl in The World and in real life.
Technically this should be true anyway because the anime is non-canon and the manga is canon... In the anime she is a foreign boy, but in the manga she is a foreign girl.
Ya ya. And the writer says that she doesn't know much about .hack so if she makes a mistake, don't blame her-er us-er whoever. Also, she said that there may be elements of a crackfic, so there will be people falling down stairs, people falling in rivers, and people getting whacked by sports equipment. Sounds like a fun story!
Enjoy!
Hey, that's my line!
You're taking too long.
You're intro was too long!
(They get in a fight.)
Start the story already!
It was a typical day at the administration headquarters of Cyber Connect Corporation.
As usual, Balmung was complaining of all the paperwork he had and shoved it all to his assistant Reki.
Reki groaned as his mountain of work grew and grew.
In the real world, Fujio Satoshi tore up papers in frustration. "Why did I have to take this job?"
Back in The World, all the admins received an email.
It's that time of year again. Choose who will go and check on the program.
Fujio slumped in his chair. Already?
Every year, they drew straws. A few years ago, Balmung drew the shortest one and threw a fit. The other admins didn't want to deal with him so they made his assistant go instead.
A box of straws appeared in front of the group and everyone began picking nervously. Nobody thought the job was interesting and they all thought it was a waste of time. If the program got out, you would be blamed.
"Don't expect me to cover for you again." Reki whispered to his boss. "In fact, you should be the one covering for me this time."
Reki reached out to take a straw. It was the short one. He looked around for Balmung, but as soon as the Blademaster saw he hadn't chosen the short one, he disappeared into the crowd, hoping that Reki wouldn't find him.
Reki sighed and gated to the basement. The program was sealed in a strange room with a lock that was nearly impossible to break into. The key was destroyed long ago, but the lock was getting old.
Reki tested the lock and sighed with relief when it held. He sent a letter of confirmation back to headquarters. As he turned to leave, he heard a strange sound. He whirled around and saw that the lock was in flames. How on earth did that happen?
The lock melted. Reki ducked as the door swung open and the evil power rushed out.
Reki followed it. The program warped into a thin vapour and transported itself to the main server. Twin Blade Shugo and his party gated into Mac Anu when a sudden gust of wind blew. A sign snapped.
They turned and saw Balmung's assistant Reki gate in and look around. He saw the snapped sign and ran towards an evil, invisible force.
"Hello!" Mireille cried out.
Reki turned to answer but lost his footing and fell into the Mac Anu River. The program disappeared inside one of the shops where it then embedded itself to the world's programming. No one would ever know it was there.
Minutes later, as he climbed out of the river, he was greeted by the gruff voice of one of the Cobalt Knights.
"Hey, you! Stop right there!"