Loop after loop ran together in a blur of activity. With each passing iteration, Kaitlyn continued to learn and refine her approach to circumventing the game's will. Most of her attempts ended in failure, but gave her just enough information that they didn't feel entirely meaningless. She even managed to learn a few more valuable tidbits about the world around her and its limitations. Not to mention how her programming skills continued to progress in leaps and bounds.
Dang. Some of this stuff would've been good to know for Ian's route. I could've saved him a lot of time spent debugging… Then again, maybe it's better that I didn't overstep on accident.
Besides the game knowledge she managed to collect, both general and specific to Heartthrob University, Kaitlyn also found herself surprisingly interested in the hacking aspect of things. It had taken a while, but she eventually felt as though she had a pretty good grasp on what stood a chance of working and what was far too finicky to even try. She tested her theories at the end of each loop by typing a few lines of code into her Notes app and waiting for the reset to happen. So far, none of her attempts had yielded the kind of results she was hoping for. But she had a feeling that was about to change.
Kaitlyn paced in her empty dorm, pink phone clutched in one hand. Her sharp eyes combed over the text written there, making sure that every character was perfect. After about the fourth readthrough, she stopped and sighed.
…I've already tested it enough to know that it works, in theory. And I know that I copied it over perfectly. Reading over it again won't give it a better chance of working.
She forced herself to pocket the device, turning her attention to the dorm window instead. The full moon's glow illuminated the silent campus below with its ghostly light. Only the quiet sounds of tree branches rustling in the wind carried up to her open window, most of the students having returned home for winter break.
…A few minutes until the reset. Then we'll see if I managed to get it right.
Her current attack was relatively straightforward, in theory. It was a simple code injection. By using the Notes app to insert malicious foreign code into the game's underlying processes, she hoped to cause an error in how the app reloaded next cycle. Her real hope was that it would crash the game. But barring that, she'd take any feedback she could get.
However, her success relied on a few assumptions. The first was that the game actually used the language she expected in its design. There were a whole variety of options that it could use, after all, and she had no real way of confirming any of them without testing.
I don't even know if it was designed using one of the languages that EXISTS here. The game could have entirely made up D-Flat and Rattler and Assam. I do feel like I remember the name Assam from before getting sucked in here, but still…
It was a bit of a moot point regardless. If the game was programmed in a language that she didn't know, all of this was for naught anyway. The best thing she could do was assume that she had a chance and go from there. It was why she'd spent the last few loops designing and testing injections for a variety of languages. Besides, if anything, this approach required a little less precision than some of the other methods she'd considered. All of them relied on a bit of luck, but that was unavoidable.
Leaning on the windowsill, Kaitlyn took a deep lungful of the crisp night air. She felt it stoke the flame deep inside her. The desire for revenge had long since settled in her stomach, a constant companion that quietly evaluated her every move. It kept her company through the countless ideas and approaches she'd experimented with, as promising or silly as they may have seemed. Even through her failures, it encouraged and reminded her that there would always be next time. After all, time was on their side.
It'll be worth it. If I can just get something to work, it'll all be worth it.
Her hands clenched into fists. As much as she tried to tell herself that, it was getting harder and harder to believe. Especially with just how lonely the last few loops had been. She'd considered pulling back a few times and pursuing her more rebellious projects on the side as opposed to obsessing over them. However, the risks outweighed the benefits.
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I can't let anyone else get involved. Not even by accident. If—no, WHEN—I actually get something to work, I still might get punished for it. And I won't give the game or the Enforcers any excuses to go after anyone else.
It was the reason why she continued to steer clear of everyone she could. Not just the male leads, but Heather, Rachel, and her labmates as well. There was no way she'd ever allow the Philip situation to repeat itself. Not on her watch. Still, that didn't make the loneliness any easier to bear.
Gradually, Kaitlyn released the tension in her shoulders and arms. She chanced another look at her phone, just to check the time. It was almost midnight.
Right. Here we go. Time for the big moment.
She braced herself for the result, whatever it might be. It wasn't as though she was out of ideas. But there were only so many times she could try this particular method before admitting defeat. If it didn't work soon, then she'd have to cross into much more difficult—and possibly risky—territory. Such as messing with the forced resets.
The last minute of the loop slowly ticked away. As it did, Kaitlyn wondered how much longer she would do this for. Between the loneliness and the frustrating reality of having to do this blind, it was getting harder and harder to justify her crusade.
How many loops is too many? Should I set a cap or something? No, that would feel like I'm giving up and letting the game win… What if I start alternating loops, just to make sure I don't go crazy or something? That might not be a bad idea. Then I can keep working on endings, if a bit slower…
As the thoughts drifted through her mind, the world suddenly went quiet. A quick glance around revealed that everything—the fan, the blinds, and even the trees gently rustling outside—had completely frozen in place. High above the dorms, the normally star-studded night sky and its milky moon vanished, replaced with a vast expanse of inky black void.
She grimaced. Dangit. Another failure, I guess. Not like I really expected anything different, but still…
Rolling her shoulders, Kaitlyn ran through the possible failings of her latest approach in her head. Revisions and alternate approaches swirled through her mind as she went down her mental checklist of next steps. Guess I'll try a Rattler injection next time. I'd be shocked if that one worked, but...
A long sigh escaped her. Kaitlyn leaned on the windowsill and waited for the darkness to inevitably close over her vision. And waited. And waited.
…This sure is taking a while.
Just as she began to sense that something was up, there was a brief flicker in the sky. Then, the deafening silence gave way to the quiet sound of crackling static. Confusion filled her, only to be quickly tinged with hope.
Holy crap. Did I… did I really do it?
The sound grew louder and louder until it became a deafening roar. Kaitlyn reached up to cover her ears, and the motion left her nauseous. Every little movement of her head and eyes seemed out of sync somehow. It was like being drunk, but far worse. It honestly felt as though her vision itself were lagging.
As she struggled to force down the growing sense of motion sickness, she belatedly realized that plugging her ears had done absolutely nothing about the noise. The static continued to fill her head as clearly as if it were her own thoughts. Outside of the window, the sky continued to flicker with increasing frequency as it, too, turned to static.
Despite her rising panic, Kaitlyn couldn't help but grin. Nothing like this had ever happened before, not once in all her loops. And although it was absolutely terrifying in every sense of the word, there was only one explanation for its cause. She had done it.
Her grin turned to a grimace as the static sound screeched painfully in her head. Finally, the expected darkness began to close around her vision, stuttering and fuzzy at the edges. She barely had time to wonder what would happen next when a loud crack echoed through her skull. Then, the world winked out entirely.
***
C4c1e 41 ͼϙmpװe7e!
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TꝎtal Enl ꞆoꞆal Und: 121͔͘21͕̄21̌͜2
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