Haru mounted her staff and flew down the Backlot main avenue toward HomeRoom. Even before arriving, the air felt ominous. There were no armored guards at the gate, and it was just left open. The courtyard was filled with all types of mobs: raid bosses, world bosses, encounter bosses, and small representative groups for normal enemies.
Easing the staff to a stop at the end of the avenue, she let herself down slowly so to not crash into the mob of mobs in the courtyard. The witch tip-toed toward the open gate. She thought of a list of things she’d done wrong: flew around Fairbank when players only had ground-based mounts, caused a riot, nearly died in town—a pacifist zone which shouldn’t have had any enemies in it, not to mention changing up a scripted fight to hide the fact that the DPS requirement to defeat her was horribly broken. All of this was in between only one patch.
There was no way this unplanned maintenance wasn’t Haru’s fault. She prepared for the inevitable reprimand, or even worse, punishment for her antics. Dejected, she meandered toward the courtyard, wanting to delay her judgement for as long as possible. Inside, the crowd clamored, cacophonous calls, cries, and queries emanated.
Haru slipped in and stopped at the gate to search for Leonora, hoping that maybe she knew more about what was going on and why everyone was gathered here. Being such a new game, unplanned maintenance wasn’t exactly rare. And the recent explosion in popularity didn’t help either. But this was the first time the devs had called everyone to HomeRoom during such an event.
“Nor!” Haru called out over the crowd, hoping to catch the attention of her swashbuckling buddy. She looked around the dense crowd but couldn’t find any sign of the pirate princess.
The witch’s wading was blocked when she suddenly bumped into a mass of armor. It was Gunther, the Fallen Paladin. His charcoal and gold breastplate with dragonhead pauldrons stood out against her purple and indigo robes.
His hard expression started to melt upon locking gaze with Haru. Then he looked away and had trouble making eye-contact again. “H—Haru, s—salutations.”
The witch puffed her cheek with concern, his nervousness said it all. She was in trouble. “Hi Gunther.” She braced herself, folding her hands in front of her. “Have you seen Leonora?”
Gunther psyched himself up, then pushed himself to look at Haru. “L—Leo—L—” He swiftly looked up then away, off into the distance. “The pirate?”
“Yes, she’s the main level 20 encounter.”
The fallen paladin looked around with intensity. “Uh, maybe she’s—” His great height certainly gave him an advantage in finding someone in the crowd.
Haru had already taken up enough of his time, and he was making her even more nervous. “That’s okay. Thanks anyways.” She slipped away into a crowd of Banarbra, sheep-like normal mobs that walked on two legs and wore big leaf aprons with chefs hats. Gunther sputtered as she left, but she couldn’t make out anything he said.
She continued her search, despite being shorter than all but the smallest of creatures. The tip of her hat was the great height equalizer though, it was the only means to spot her in the sea of mobs, like a submarine’s periscope.
As the crowd grew denser the farther Haru traversed, she was again halted after bumping into someone. “Oof, sorry.” Her voice was deflated by the thoughts of her fate soon coming. She looked up, spotting a short skirt and fishnets. “Nor. I was looking for you.”
The pirate leaned down with a dour expression. “Roo, what’s going on?”
“I don’t know. I was hoping you heard something.”
Leonora shook her head. “We’ve all just been standing out here forever.” She stood straight up and looked around, then leaned far down at Haru’s feet. “Where’s that furball companion of yours?”
It was then that Haru realized she hadn’t told anyone about her encounter. She wondered how to explain what happened without causing alarm. At the same time, she was worried about saying too much about her own issue and everyone around overhearing. “He… uh—”
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Then her notification alert went off. The courtyard fell silent in that moment as everyone opened their planners. It looked like a system-wide message went around. Haru followed the group and inspected the note. It was an instruction for everyone to move to their regularly assigned room.
Leonora sighed. “Well, let’s go in and see what this is all about.”
The crowd, still silent, began to file into the academy. The raid and encounter bosses, as usual went to room 307, including Haru.
Everything was like a normal HomeRoom session. The minute Haru breached the threshold, her outfit was transformed into a sailor suit, as did the rest of the girls’ garments. The boys’ clothes changed into semi-formal attire with white button-down shirts. She sat in her assigned seat. Once all were in attendance, Astra called out for everyone to stand and bow. Nothing was out of place or different in any way.
Professor Min entered, but without a folder. He quickly and efficiently greeted everyone and began the session. “Let’s get straight to the point today. The reason why we’ve gone down for Unscheduled Maintenance and called everyone in, is because we’ve become aware of a hacking incident.”
Haru immediately breathed a sigh of relief upon hearing Min speak those words.
The professor continued. “Right now, we’re having trouble tracking the culprit down. The players have been made aware that we didn’t anticipate bringing the game servers down, but we’ve not told them it is a hacking incident yet.” Min looked around the room. “So far only a few zones have been impacted, but those have been severe cases.”
A screen appeared next to the professor. The image displayed the Cave of Woe, a small quest area before Haru’s encounter. The cave walls were scarred with deep cuts. Magma-like fissures were etched into many of the surfaces. Most of the mobs were missing in the cave.
“It appears this hacker is able to not only modify combat data, but also damage the world itself.” The professor continued. “We have reason to believe he’s moved into the Plentiful Glade.” He turned to Haru, the glade was the zone just after her encounter. “Have you encountered or seen evidence of this hacker anywhere? He has been covering his tracks by deleting all data related to his whereabouts whenever he strikes.”
Haru sat up, happily ready to explain what happened but Min interrupted before she could speak.
“We will have to do a comprehensive investigation with any mobs this culprit has encountered to ensure no corruption of data has occurred.”
The witch shook her head. “N—no I haven’t seen anything.” She slouched down in her seat as the smile on her face faded away.
The professor hummed with disappointment. “It appears they may also be using exploits to move between zones in that case.” He then looked around the room. “The maintenance period will be extended in order to repair damaged zones and perform thorough investigations on any mobs which have encountered this hacker.”
Haru swallowed hard.
“From now on, you are to report any and all suspicious activity.” The professor swept his gaze across the room. “That includes anything out of the ordinary among game entities.”
The witch slid down even further in her seat. Game entities meant that even all the bosses were suspect. Including her.
“That is all for today’s meeting.”
Astra called for everyone to rise and bow. The professor exited the room.
Haru felt like the walls were going to close in at any moment, like there were a million eyes and they were all on her. She slipped away and rushed from the academy without another word to anyone. Mounting her staff, she decided to go to the Cave of Woe. Haru needed to find a way to track this hacker down before they took her down with them. Retracing their steps would be the best way to figure out where they were going to strike next.
Because there were no players connected, she didn’t need to conceal her movement and went straight to the Cave of Woe. In the alpha, when she was temporarily removed, Haru had a chance to explore the world and understand the core mechanics more deeply. She probably knew more about the game than the rest of the encounter bosses combined.
The cave had three types of enemies: the Tem, which was a spider with a scorpion tail; the Gogo, a goblin-type enemy that used swords and spears; and the Bal, a feathered bear with a lizard head and was a target for one of the main quest objectives.
Haru ignited the sphere of her staff and used it to light her way. There were no signs of mobs in the cave at all. It was barren, empty. And as she walked through the narrow winding path toward the scarred section of the cave the professor showed in his picture, it grew darker. It was a void that her staff couldn’t light. Much like during the encounter with the hacker.
She came upon the damaged area, which stood out among the darkness. The shape of the scar was outlined as if it sheered the fabric of the void itself. As Haru neared, the fissure scintillated with wild energy. Through the gap, she could see the cave in its original form. Mobs still wandered around. Out of arm’s reach, the power radiating from the damage forced her to stop. She couldn’t get close enough to prod or poke at it. Desire to know why the hacker damaged the world like this gnawed at Haru.
She’d never seen anything like it. The erratic and chaotic nature of the scar suddenly unnerved her. Frightened by the oddity, she backed away. As the gap between her and the scarring opened, the void faded. Finally far enough away that the cave around her was visible once more, Haru found herself on the far side, near where the Bal usually slept.
A grumble and groan shocked her. She spun, brandishing her staff and ready to strike. The sounds came from the odd NPC that she chased around Fairbank earlier. He was sound asleep on the cave floor.