.hack ENCRYPTION
disclaimer: I do not own .hack

This is my first .hack fanfic. So please review, oh, and no flames please.

Chapter 1: New World

"LOG IN!" Kenta Huraki said as he pressed the START button on his controller. Within seconds, he was in the root town, Mac Anu. His avatar was a Twin-blade in a black-sleeved blue tunic that draped slightly over his black pants that were tucked into his black boots that reached up to the middle of his shins. Two blue cloths wrapped around the lower half of his lower arms. Two short swords were in their sheiths held to his body by the sash around his waste. He stood there and turned his brown eyes toward the artificial wind that blew against his navy-blue hair that barely stretched down to his shoulders.

"Wow… this game sure is realistic" he thought while he moved his character model across the bridge that crossed above the river.

"Hm… what to do?" Kenta took off his VR goggles to read the beginner's guide he bought along with the software. "Uh… let's see… hm. Here's a good area to start. Delta Bursting Passed Over Aqua Field." In that instant, he heard a voice coming from the speaker built into the VR goggle. "Huh?" Kenta slid the head set back over his eyes to find his character on the ground, apparently by a collision from another player.

"What are you doing just standing there in the middle of the walkway?" asked a female Long-arm standing in front of Kenta, obviously the one who ran into him.

"Uh, I'm sorry. I just took the goggles off to read the beginner's manual, so I couldn't see…" Kenta got interrupted before he could finish.

"Oh, I see. You're a newbie."

"Huh? Well yeah, I only started to play and I'm not what you'd say familiar with the game." Kenta got up and looked at the Long-arm. She had long brown hair and silver eyes. The artificial light from the digital sun created a glare on the goldenrod armor plating strapped to her upper body. Two red short sleeves covered half her upper arms while two black long fingerless gloves took up her the rest of her lower arms and hand. At the bottom of the armor was a leather belt that wrapped against crimson pants that were tucked into brown thin knee-high boots.

"So, I'm guessing you're only level one. Am I right?"

"Uh, yeah. I am."

"I see. Well, I'm going. Nice meeting you." The Long-arm said as she walked off only to see that the Twin-blade was going in the same direction. "Oh, I'm guessing you're going to a field as well."

"Yes. I am."
"Hm. Well, I couldn't get any of my other contacts to join me. How about I add you to my party then?"

"Oh, okay then."

"Great." She said as the two walked up to the chaos gate. "Oh yeah, I'm Tomiko by the way. What's your name?"

"I'm uh…." He paused "Wait, I never did think up of a user name" "I'm uh…. K... Kaizoku. Yeah."

"Hm. Nice to meet you Kaizoku." The two reached the Chaos Gate "Alright…. let's go!" Tomiko yelled as she held up her hand. "……………………" She stayed silent for that moment.

"Hm? Is something wrong?" Kaizoku queried.

"Um….I….don't know any keywords or any good ones. Heh heh…" She said as a sweat drop formed on the back of her head. Kaizoku fell to the ground anime-style.

"Hm…Well, I have some. Bursting Passed over Aqua field!" He said as he got up. Three gold rings surrounded both characters as they were teleported to a large grassy plain. Kaizoku looked around astonished by the amazing and realistic graphics of the game environment. "whoa…"

"Hey! Wake up! A magic portal's opening" Tomiko told him as a pack of three goblins materialized where the glowing yellow portal was.

"Huh? Oh, right!" Kaizoku unsheithed his two short swords and ran toward the three monsters. Kenta tapped the X button on his controller rapidly as Kaizoku cut down the monsters to 0 HP. Tomiko had already finished off the goblin she was working on leaving a lone creature in between the two players. "I got this one!" Kaizoku yelled jumping toward the goblin, but the goblin had a trick up his sleeve. He strafed to the side and Kaizoku slashed at the air. The monster then hit Kaizoku from behind and caught him off his feet. "AH!"

Tomiko had stepped in and stabbed the goblin and watched it as it disappeared from the field. "You got it huh?"

After dealing with creatures above, the two headed down toward the dungeon. By the time they reached the bottom floor, Kaizoku had leveled up twice, the same with Tomiko.

"Yes Level three!" Tomiko shouted.

"Huh? That's my level." Kaizoku pointed out.

"Yeah, I know that. So?"

"Well, I thought you were at a higher level, seeing how you fought and by how much you know about this game."

"Oh….well, no. I'm new as well. I just read everything in the manual first before I played." She said while scratching the back of her head. After going through two more rooms, they reached the Gott Statue.

"Hm… I'm guessing this is where they keep rare items." Kaizoku thought out loud.

"Yep. There's a Gott Statue in every dungeon" Tomiko said as she opened up the chest. She took the yellow candy item and Kaizoku took the Rainbow card.

"Hey, there's one more" Kaizoku reached in and grabbed a Grunty doll but so did Tomiko.

"Hm. I should keep this one"

"Why you?"

"Well, I did do most of the battling back there, Kaizoku."

"What?? But if I hadn't provided you with all those health drinks, you'd still be a ghost by now."

"Yeah, but I got you out of the mess back on B1 with that giant moth!"

"Well I was the one who killed in the end!" Kaizoku swung one of his swords and unintentionally cut the Grunty doll in two.

"NO!! Look what you did to it! It was a cute doll as well!" Tomiko said as anime tears ran down her cheeks.

"I didn't think an item as such could get destroyed in this game…"

Upon returning to the field, another magic portal was opening in front of them.

"Hm…one more won't hurt" Tomiko said as she raised her spear's point at it. Another goblin showed up.

"I'm really getting tired of these critters right now". Kaizoku thought. Tomiko had stabbed the monster, but it's HP didn't go down. She removed the point from it's body only to see it regenerate.

"What the…?"

"This monster…" Kaizoku jumped to the side as the goblin tried slashing at him. Kaizoku used Tiger Claws attack on it, making contact with every spin, but the enemy still didn't loose HP. "It's not going down."

"Well no use in trying to defeat it. Let's just go!" Tomiko grabbed Kaizoku and used a speed charm to get away to exit Battle Mode and gate out. Soon, they were both in Mac Anu again.

"Hm…. something about that Goblin didn't look right. Its name was a jumble of symbols and letters, and its HP meter never went down." Kaizoku said perplexed.

"Hm…..data bug…"

"Data bug?"

"Yeah, a data bug. It's a monster that has infinite HP."

"And there's no way to defeat them?"

"No. Well, yes."

"Which is it?"

"Well, maybe no. Well, maybe yes…"

"Spit it out!"

"Well, long ago, there was a player who had the power to fight against the data bugs. While I can't remember what his name was, he had an amazing power that could rewrite the Monster's data and utterly weaken it. Four yeas after, another player got an avatar similar to his and also received that power."

"Hm. So, what kind of power is it?"

"I don't know. I guess it's something that only his avatar can get."

"Oh. I see. So, whatever happened to those two? Do you know where we can find them?"

"That, I don't know. I don't know if they are even playing this game anymore. I don't think anyone knows. There's nothing in the logs about a character with that ability."

"Hm… well, I gotta go. See ya." Kaizoku said as he logged out of "The World".

End of Chapter 1

Next Chapter: Book of Twilight