## 2018:04:30:09:02 - The World Neuvo: μ Capture Zone Wiessa

q5corbo looked out over the vast barren wasteland. So far, no sign of the monster Mobashem. No wind, no dark floating clouds, and no strange anomalies had yet occurred. Now playing as the floating, bodiless camera Gemphl, Dasomov zoomed to and fro invisibly throughout the game field. He would likely be the first to spot something, but q5corbo and a number of other testers were acting as the bait.

Time continued to pass, but nothing.

q5corbo reported: "No sign the creature."

There was a tense pause as q5corbo waited unreasonably yet impatiently for a response. Finally, Zontna broke the ice.

Zontna: "No signs in the logs yet. Nothing unusual coming up in the feeds."

The tense silence resumed, but with each passing tick, the mutual feeling went from apprehension to bewildered disappointment.

This time Gemphl broke the silence. "It's possible this monster is confined to original game fields."

Kellei chimed in, "Now you tell us."

Gemphl: "Someone is going to have to lure the monster in."

q5corbo: "I guess that would be me."

Gemphl: "Jump to Dun Loireag after I give you the signal. I want to make the jump first and keep an eye on you directly."

q5corbo: "I await your signal."

Gemphl: "And use only chat comm, no in-game chat in case this monster can detect our discussion."

q5corbo: "Aye, aye!"

## 2018:04:30:09:53 - The World Neuvo: Θ Dun Loireag

It took only a minute, but by the time q5corbo made the jump to Dun Loireag, Dasomov had forked and reconfigured a couple of monitoring programs disguised as port drivers. These programs saved output to readily-accessible text files both on the game servers and on separate servers so that the activity could be analyzed later. Complementing that, Yegor was watching the debugging logs and network activity for the Omega server so they could immediately respond.

q5corbo arrived in Dun Loireag at the chaos gate and surveyed the situation, looking out over where they had first seen Mobashem and then glancing up to the mountain where Krikle had been found. The immediate situation seemed normal - not a sound nor sign of disturbance.

q5corbo typed into the chat window: "Maybe it shut down already."

Gemphl: "Don't bet on it. It knows we came."

The clock ticked on for what felt like an hour, yet no sign of the monster came. q5corbo searched around for any clues, but upon finding nothing, completed his search at the plateau where it all began.

q5corbo: "I guess we forgot to invite the monster to the party."

Zontna: "Nothing unusual."

Doslad: "Hold on. I have a hunch this monster might only come out if it finds itself in competition with other admins."

q5corbo: "But it's not coming out for you."

Gemphl: "It doesn't see me as a player. I'm only a camera."

q5corbo: "True."

Gemphl: "I have an idea. Enable your admin controls but only the ones the game provides, not ours."

q5corbo: "Ok, and you think that will trigger it?"

Gemphl: "We'll see."

q5corbo enabled his admin controls. Nothing unusual happened.

q5corbo: "Nothing. No fireworks this time."

Zontna: "It probably thinks you're a regular admin now."

Gemphl: "Now turn off the game panel and enable our admin tools one-by-one, turning one off before you turn one on just to see which one might trigger it."

q5corbo: "Any suggestions as to which tool first?"

Zontna: "I have a suggestion: Turn on the one for moving units."

q5corbo: "Ok, now loading module Telekinesis."

Module Telekinesis loaded and a message for this appeared in the logging. Still, The World remained as calm as a pleasant summer day.

Zontna: "This is starting to bother me. I wonder if this thing knows we're looking for it."

Gemphl: "That's possible, but it didn't seem intimidated last time, and we had all our powers then too."

q5corbo: "Ok. Turning that off. Now loading our entities search library."

No sooner had he done this then from out of the depths below the floating islands there came a creaking groan like the hull of a wooden galleon on its last voyage.

q5corbo: "Sounds like our guest got the invite."

A haunting black mist floated up and crept over the land. As a shell on the sea shore covered by waves, q5corbo was surrounded by the mist and tugged towards its source.

"What's going on?" he typed in chat. "I'm being forced against my will towards the cliff. Zontna, are you seeing this?"

Zontna's next words weren't what anyone wanted to hear: "What's going on?"

Dasomov checked the logs. No sign that the monster had been loaded.

Despite this, once again the game exposed its ominous side. The sky turned blood red and the runes of the mountains began to glow. Out of the black mist arose that terrible giant with antlers like fire and a body like a mantis: Mobashem.

At the feet of the beast and slowly floating towards q5corbo were two figures, cloaked in ragged clothes and having pale grey skin. Around their wrists and ankles were shackles, and the emptiness in their eyes swallowed the rivers of joy. Their faces were all too familiar now: they were the original avatars of Mikmik and Doslad.

q5corbo: "Good news! We found Doslad's avatar, and we can get it and Mikmik back at the same time!"

Gemphl: "Can you get it to follow you to the test server?"

There was a pause.

q5corbo: "I can't move. It won't let me."

Gemphl: "And you probably can't log out, either, can you?"

Pause.

q5corbo: "No."

Gemphl: "Darn... Looks like you might be losing yours too."

q5corbo: "Oh well. I'll think of a new character alias anyways."

Zontna: "Go ahead and shut off your game, q5corbo."

q5corbo: "Will do."

With that, the avatar of q5corbo became a player-less shell. A few moments later, the mists had flooded the mesh and transform it into a floating zombie resembling the other two.

In a surprising move, the creature glared up in the direction of Gemphl and finally spoke. With the voice of the queen of adders, the monster hissed, "There is no escape. Cleverness shall be rewarded with painful fruit. The child is born dead. A noose rings its neck."

The hideous beast flailed its demonic tail around as if trying to swat Gemphl like a fly.

Gemphl: "Hm.. It seems to recognize my presence."

Then, raising its eyes and uttering in the trance of a priest, the monster continued: "My tail scars the sky. Constellations crumble in its wake. What eye shall behold Land's End before failing? None can pass my vigilant guard!"

It spread its legs and the mist ascended into the air, creating pillars of fog the width of sequoias. On top, the pillars split up into branches that spread across the sky and weaved a net around the area where Gemphl flew.

Zontna: "I think our work here is done for today."

Gemphl: "Agreed. Sadly, it seems the creature has also won round 2."

Zontna: "Meh. The most points are gained in the final fight anyways. I have some thoughts on the matter to discuss with you."

Gemphl: "Alright. Logging out now."

## 2018:04:30:11:12 - Real Life: Dasomov's Apartment

Dasomov switched over to his console screen and killed the process running the game. For a minute, he watched things unload, and a dozen thoughts crossed his mind. How could this creature hide from detection? Why didn't it simply delete them? Why didn't it destroy the game outright? Was it trying to capture them and turn them into zombies before deleting the game? Dasomov found himself staring at a blinking cursor in the Terminal window. He pulled up the chat window. The sight of a private chat window from Zontna made him pleased.

"Time for some answers."