hack/ AUREOLE
By StarWulf.EXE
Chapter 1: Dawn of a New Era
"Amano… Mitsu Amano…Miss Amano, will you please pay attention?"
A girl about fourteen years old quickly lifted her head from her desk. She had long, blonde hair tied into a ponytail that reached down to her waist and bright hazel eyes. Her face turned a vibrant red as she released she fell asleep in class.
"I'm so sorry, Miyashita-sensei!" she said. "It won't happen again."
The teacher scoffed. "For your sake, I hope it doesn't." He turned back to the chalkboard and started writing more equations. Mitsu got out her notebook and started taking notes.
"What's that matter?" her friend whispered. "You never fell asleep in class before."
Mitsu smiled. "I was online all night bidding for The World – Ultimate Bundle Pack."
"Well, did you win?"
"Yeah, my parents are gonna pick it up at the post office today. I can't wait to start playing it!"
"Ahem! Miss Amano, do I have to separate you from the rest of the class?"
"No, Miyashita-sensei."
- - -
"Watarai, Yeats, thank you for coming on such short notice. I assume you've been informed on the current situation?"
The two figures nodded. "Yes, we have. How long do we have left?"
Lios frowned. "Only about an hour. The Black Box has been tampered with and deleted. Without Aura, The World won't last long. We've already had to close down some servers."
Watarai looked at the two empty terminals. "I suppose you want us to find the cause?"
"Yes." Lios said firmly. "System Administrator Reki will join you once you log in."
"What about the others? Will they be coming?" Yeats asked.
There was an odd silence in the room. Finally, Lios spoke. "No…They've all been terminated. In The World and…in the real world. Reki, I, and you two are the only ones remaining. "
Watarai tried to hold back a gasp but was unsuccessful. "Even Orca and Balmung? Even Kamui?
"Yes. Now, with that aside, we better get moving."
Yeats and Watarai walked over to the terminals and started up the game. They each put their FMDs, gave a thumbs-up, and logged on.
LOG ON, ALBIREO
LOG ON, HOKUTO
As soon as the server connection was made, warning lights started to flash on both players' screens. Lios quickly rushed over to the Altimit OS power switch, flipping it off. Both Watarai and Yeats collapsed to the floor.
"Damn, not again!" Lios cursed. He checked their pulses, only to find them dead. Still cursing, he called the medics over to take care of the bodies. Suddenly, he gasped, remembering Reki was still logged in.
"DAMN!" he cursed even louder, picking up his cell phone and dialing Reki's home phone number. It rung a few times before someone picked it up.
"Hello, is Re-"
"Lios, it's you! Something's happened to my brother! He was waiting for someone in The World when he just collapsed!"
"Art, calm down. There's nothing we can do for him now. He's dead."
There was a short silence before Art started to sob, suddenly struck by the realization that his brother wasn't coming back. He hung up, leaving Lios alone on the line. He shut off his phone and looked at his watch. 45 minutes He thought. The World doesn't have long. But then…with all the chaos it's been causing lately, maybe it's for the better.
- - -
Mitsu dashed home from school, not even taking time to say goodbye to her friends. When she arrived home, her parents where waiting outside holding up a Celtic-themed game box with the words, THE WORLD, written on the side.
"Thank you!" she called out as she swiped the box from her parents.
30 minutes later…
Mitsu's computer beeped, signaling The World was fully installed. Putting on her new FMD, she moved her cursor over the game's icon and started it up. Bringing up the character design window, she scrolled through the list of character classes. She quickly picked the Heavy Axe class, eager to start playing. Her character was dressed up in a long, purple dress and a purple tank-top. Around her arms where golden bracers that matched her hair that was purposely designed to match Mitsu's own.
When she came to the name screen, Mitsu sat there for a second, not sure what to name her character. After a minute of careful thinking, she finally deicide on a name.
"I'll call her… Emanation." Mitsu said to no one in particular. She typed in the name and finished her character. "Now let's start playing!"
LOG ON, EMANATION
- - -
Lios sat silently in his office, counting down the game's final moments. There was nothing he could do. If he tried to log on, he would suffer the same fate as all of the others. He glanced at his watch, only five seconds to go.
5…
4…
3…
2…
1…
His computer, which was monitoring the servers, suddenly started flashing. Lios stared at the screen, his mouth hanging open.
THE WORLD:
Servers:
OMEGA – Online
DELTA – Online
THETA – Online
SIGMA – Online
LAMBDA – Online
"But…How?" He said to himself. He typed in a few commands and brought up the file in which the Black Box once resided. In its place was a new encrypted program, something called PlatinumEra.aruA.