The glow of computer screens filled the dimly lit basement, the sound of mechanical clicks and tapping keys almost hypnotic. In the far corner of the room, a neon sign buzzed faintly, casting an eerie glow that reflected off the slick surface of the hacker’s workstation. A group of four individuals sat in front of rows of monitors, their faces illuminated by the harsh light of code scrolling across the screens. They were dressed in dark hoodies, their features obscured by shadows and the occasional flicker of blue light.
“Alright, we’ve got the server’s weak spot,” one of them, a wiry figure named Dex, muttered. “Eternal Night’s been a goldmine for personal data—credit cards, addresses, usernames. It’s all here for the taking.”
Dex’s fingers flew over the keyboard, bypassing security measures with ease. His two partners, Mara and Nick, kept a watchful eye on their screens, while the last member of the group, called simply “Breeze,” sat back with a headset on, monitoring various online forums for any chatter about their activities.
“I still don’t get why you’re so obsessed with this,” Mara said, her voice a low rasp. “It’s just a game. There’s plenty of money to be made elsewhere.”
Dex looked at her, his lips curling into a smirk. “You don’t get it, do you? The game’s a jackpot. People live for this. And all those tiny in-game purchases? We can drain the accounts slowly, make it look like nothing’s wrong. A slow bleed, unnoticed until it’s too late.”
Nick, who had been watching a series of encrypted windows open, chimed in. “We’re almost through to the player database. Just a few more minutes.”
“Perfect,” Dex said, leaning forward with intensity. “We’ll have enough info to make our move. We can start selling the data to the highest bidder tomorrow. Just imagine what we can do with that kind of money.”
The group continued to work in silence, each of them hyper-focused on their screens as they manipulated the game’s backend, extracting confidential information while remaining undetected. A sense of satisfaction washed over them; they had done this before, but Eternal Night had proven to be an exceptionally lucrative target. It wasn’t just a simple game—it was an immersive world, one that people cared about. And when people care, their personal details become valuable.
Outside, the world continued on its usual pace, unaware of the digital invasion taking place. But something was wrong. The screens began to flicker, a slight glitch spreading like a ripple across the monitors. Dex froze, eyes narrowing.
“What the hell is this?” he muttered under his breath. The mouse cursor seemed to move on its own, bouncing across his screen as if it were alive.
Mara’s eyes darted nervously to her own screen. “It’s happening to me too. What the hell’s going on?”
Before any of them could react, the basement was suddenly plunged into total darkness. The hum of the computers, the rhythmic tapping of keys, all stopped as if the world had frozen. A low, eerie buzz filled the air, vibrating through the walls. It wasn’t just the screens glitching now—it felt like the entire room itself was glitching, warping and distorting. And then, in an instant, everything changed.
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One by one, the hackers felt the floor beneath them vanish. They were pulled upward with force, their bodies rising into the air as their screens flared to life, brighter than ever before. There was no time to scream, no time to resist. The world around them dissolved into a blur of color and light, the familiar environment of their basement fading as their bodies were sucked through the glowing portals of their own screens.
And then they were gone.
The room was silent.
A pizza delivery man stood in the doorway, holding a large box of pizza. He’d knocked three times, waiting for an answer. The delivery was late, but that wasn’t unusual. He adjusted his cap, his eyes darting from side to side in confusion. No one had come to the door. The sounds of life—voices, laughter, even the faint hum of electronic equipment—had disappeared.
His phone buzzed in his pocket, but he didn’t reach for it. He was still trying to make sense of what was happening. This wasn’t right. He took another step inside, his gaze scanning the empty basement, wondering if the customers were around. Maybe they had gone to the bathroom or stepped out for a second.
He looked back down at the pizza box. It wasn’t his job to know about the lives of his customers, but something about the empty basement, the unnerving silence, gave him an uneasy feeling. He knocked on the wall. “Hey, your pizza’s here. You good?”
There was no answer.
Suddenly, a hum rose from the computers again. The lights flickered back on, their glow harsh and cold, but no one was sitting at the desks. The monitors, now dark, flashed back on with violent static, distorting the room’s image for a fraction of a second. And then, in a surreal, almost grotesque moment, a wave of color surged across the room like a digital wave, causing the delivery man to stumble backward in surprise.
He dropped the pizza box.
The air grew thick with an unnatural force, pulling him in, much like the hackers had been moments before. His feet slid across the floor, his body inching toward the screens. He tried to resist, planting his feet against the wooden floor, but it was no use. The pull intensified, and before he could comprehend what was happening, his body was sucked into the glowing screen, his last thoughts a panicked mess as he vanished without a trace.
The house was now empty, save for the pizza box, its contents spilled on the floor as if someone had dropped it without a second thought. Outside, the world carried on, oblivious to the strange occurrence inside the walls of the old house. But something had changed. The hackers, the pizza delivery man—none of them had any idea what they had just become a part of. What they had just been pulled into.
Somewhere, deep inside the world of Eternal Night, things were about to take a dark turn. The game’s system, which had already begun to bend and break under the pressure of its own complexity, had just experienced a breach of its own—one that would have consequences no one could predict.
A mysterious force was at play, something more powerful than even the game itself. Something that would soon force him to confront the nature of the world he had built. But for now, all was quiet, the delivery man’s pizza box the only clue left behind in a basement that had suddenly become very, very empty.