COI C133

The internet went so smoothly after the users updating the servers under the Fuku City’s central service. The citizens notice through the news when they introduce them the Horsin world alternative internet. Thanks to that, they can able to create new websites than using already existed platforms. They can create websites replicating it that they feel theirs. People are crowding on the servers as they feel like back home, barely, but added really well as if the spec requirements are no longer needed. It is because it uses magic, runes, and they blissfully feel like the future they are in.

Inside the main computer facilities, they are carefully implementing the main servers and protecting them from the dark web. A contract, a deal, or what the hackers call it balanced war. They have seen the websites are forming their own territories with the Dexter Guild. The public users didn’t notice it yet. The contract says they will not enter the public sites, except sacrificing their main servers as the part of the treaty deal. It will be taken if they let them, as their files and data are hidden there, especially the virus containing classified information.

Hid separately from a lone server, the virus is contained but show signs of breaking out. They tried to separate the wires connecting to the lone server, but recordings show how it moves the wire finding something to connect. This is no ordinary virus, or better yet, this is what ordinary virus that Horsin world has. The users have no choice to connect to the prototype server in order to slow it down from of its finicky way to escape. The Dexter Guild wants it back, while the hackers have to decode it to find the special software designs that will resurface the advancement they never seen before.

Looking at the map of the internet, the borders are forming in and the first place that the Dexters did capturing the gaming platform website. It is now finally abandoned leaving the Fuku adventurers to take it on their own. Traces of data being copied and taken away. It was easy to leave that place for it only provide entertaining services for gamers. However, there are other sites that fell into a battlefield. The most annoying one is one of the social media platforms. The most toxic social media so far, from what they thought thanks to trolling. It is same goes with the others, but the popularity of this site means something to most younger audiences.

The borders are already forming, and it seems not one ever want to expand the border. The rest are peaceful enough while the Fuku adventurers made their choice to just fill up the map with their territorial colors, but the Dexter Guild shows specific websites that made it look promising to them. They can’t understand why they are reviving the archived websites and restoring other deleted websites as well. What purpose are they trying to use it? Through the internet traffic, they are not that many users visiting those sites.

A report appeared in their screen and it was Miss and C. The administrators of the social media website had given information as one of the intruders were removed from their platform. They look at the avatar as it called itself Linked. It only banned on that website alone, but at least one account banned means they can trace its IP and ban it again. The best thing about it that its details of its abilities and items. That’s how according to the rules of their combat within the section papers of the contract.

The balanced war, more like too complex with new innovations. Thanks to the Linked’s uses on its abilities, they started to figure it out how the game works. Their utilities are more of an ability themselves after all. The main account link to access to the website is now banned, it can still be of use to other websites. In order to fully removed it is to remove the email address, which the Dexter’s websites are deep within the dark web. It is pointless to go there for what random tools it has to make it difficult to capture it. The social media platform though, had been transformed they could not comprehend.

The thread of posts is becoming like magic portals, going through the wall of texts on each bubble texts. It has the same twit functionality, and pictures are location for the transportation. When it comes to go someone’s picture it leads them to the same person who they use in the hashtags, same goes as the main relevance like #freetheinternet. That post had turn into the main hub to link other posts who uses it. Physically inside the internet, it is like the networks of transportation and quick location maker. This is something would work and added something new.

Linked uses it to collect its resources, placing files into the post and place it in hashtags to random locations. It requires a password to open it though. This is really being useful to transport than it already has. Attacks, abilities, and gif plays along as it uses their utilities forcing the user to take action, it works together very well. The program disrupter was reverse engineered by them. This makes it harder to differentiate except treating they were casting a spell. Really makes them think just to treat it like magic. Coding will be so much harder if they never let the contract signed. What else will it happen if they needlessly hacking one another, a pointless inevitable.

The administrators are feeling refresh to see that there are only three users left. Ahegao, Basket Head, and Tea. They have to pick who is the next target. It is already night time outside as they need to find them in order to call them out again. Miss has made her outstanding performance to abuse the system from Linked’s abilities, she left the site as she focuses on her daily routine. They still have C, getting paid extra just to find at least one of them. One of the Fuku adventurers already sending report where Tea as she is already group up with Basket Head.

“They already found each other, where is that Ahegao”

“Ugh! Is the information about it really makes sense? It is one of the other users who never uses any features of the website and also hides itself as only a viewer. Click some twits then read some posts and threads, then disappear then so on”

“You forgot to mention it has the most kill rates next to Basket Head. Except, it shutdowns the rest of our people one by one, instead bombing them in groups. It acts like a hitman or a hunter and making the webpages as its jungle”

“To you guys if you didn’t know, the jungles are pictures and gifs relating to memes. Mostly anime”

The social media website has a lot of community accounts as well, more to show as companies making their accounts just for announcements and events to spread throughout as advertisements. This unknown individual uses it as a background, with weapons on its hands for hunting and the settings to set focus on difficulty. It has its own platform made with special rules involved. Treating the field of battle into high risked duels, those who dies are forced to give their accounts to the victor. The advantage for anyone can make more accounts just to fight it.

No one realized what they have will become its loots. It gathered so many trophies of the enemies’ equipment and items. It is digital and they can copy and pasted it, but for this armored wearing ‘ahegao’ designed shooter, has a pile of accounts in its data. Turning those accounts into bots, and adding the wounds even greater amount of salt. It actually existed in this social media website. This hidden character is a troll, a well skilled first-person shooting troll. It made the rules just to make this. The challenge is not to die from it or it will turn those backup accounts into bots, zombie bots.

The one who actually found out about it is with the administrators. “I suspect much like the view bots in the streaming websites. Third party software is such an amazing tool for the internet”

“I can’t believe from what you have say to us before. Bot accounts are becoming actual robots”

“It is set to normal difficulty when I last met him, it was kind of stupid and more so when my guys are getting ganked with the rush B strats”

“. . .”

“It works against the bots, but not ‘Ahegao’”

They gave the people with fake accounts installed and replaced their original account. C is one of the groups. Never once using a gun before inside the internet, he feels like using a controller on the first-person shooter, one of them see his settings.

“Why can’t you use keyboard and mouse?”

“Computers are expensive, and I only play single player games on console”

The group look at each other trying not to be mean about his preferable settings, one of them chuckles as he speaks “Don’t let the bots kill you . . . laugh* I just can’t”

They entered the twits of Ahegao, first posts were the arts of lewd visuals. The first guy said out loud yet whispers as he can “HENTAI!”

They grumbled at him as they softly grouch at him. They phase through the picture and the map shows like any ordinary city, and the backgrounds are surrounded by adult content characters. Thankfully it is just a gallery, until they found one bad picture of ugly bastards. No hesitation, one of them pull out their weapons and doused it in flames.

“Burn the accursed content”

Already exposing their positions, it is nothing they could do now to savor their hate on that picture. Ahegao sees that they burn another picture of men through its thread as it scrolls back up. They hid inside one of the maps, as it too going to the most preferable place instead, the forest. The mountain forest has questionable adult content, it is better than a city where the bots have more advantageous in numbers when surrounding them, and this place has so many secret areas that the bots can’t understand to go through the obstacles.

C points out something hidden behind the rocky terrain. They throw the grenade and the bot blown to the side and continue to fall off the cliff. They move forward and see a small hole, one of them pointed down to see what it is. One of them using a rolling camera bot into the cave, in night vision view, they found secret stash and a passage to somewhere else. They used their items to group themselves together and teleported into the cave. There is one who left behind as it places a beacon as their retreating rally point, the man climbs up the tree to scout around the area.

While inside the damp hidden passage, they found content being abstracted by other twits. Cropped it or screenshot of it, these are the controversial topics that the people are talking about. Politics, trolls, arguments, and the rest are opinions contradicting themselves throughout the years of using the social media platform. One of them look at C’s young anime avatar showing the expression of confused

“Have you experienced something like this before?”

“No, what are all these?”

“Many of us don’t know, because we never stuck with this site 24/7”

“From what he is saying, there are also bad people going around ruining people’s fun. Continue spreading hate that we never know what country think like that”

They move on through the tight corners of the passage, where they reach to the caverns. Only one set out to the cavern to scout, setting a radar as the enemies’ position already there. The good news that the bots didn’t have night vision, as they pulled out their silence weapons. This has to be done. The bots were taken hit in a powerful rifle, they react as they maneuvered themselves out to the open. The scout moves back and the team ready to aim at their enemies. The bots fire back and the team opens their barriers against enemy projectiles.

The scout returned as he pointed out their locations, updating their systems and their UIs are giving the outlines of the bots where they are at. They open their shield as they leave the barriers. The bots pulled out their melee weapons and attached to their guns. Even hand guns are attached with knives. The fight went smoothly as the team able to fend them off leaving the accounts floating like it is like an item they could get.

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“That’s 6 out of 200 accounts returned”

C trips a bit as he heard it “194 accounts been taken away from that avatar”

They are already used to it, but C didn’t know back then. “I guess you weren’t been there before. There were idiots who were attacked by them previously. It ended up that Linked thing able to access accounts from them. This was before this new idea came up with”

“Just make it short, blah blah, they discover hacked accounts and give it to Ahegao. It able to make software bots to form as their own army. Then slowly it learns to take our accounts as well with the tricked account on its homepage. The administrators were smart enough not to delete or banned it, because Ahegao can make programs in its pages. In conclusion, they won’t let it spread further as the users warned them how it can recreate”

They check the cavern for anything suspicious, the suspicion they could describe as abstract, and there is plenty of it as they carefully look at it. The entire cavern is filled with banned posts that were trying to troll people, but there are rare exceptions. If they could analyze it properly to whom they twit who, yet it will some time to figure it out. C sees rare critique and more importantly reminding message post that sounds convincing at first. They don’t know whom are these accounts at first, until he found relatable twit to an old drama. He remembers it then brushes it off.

One of them notice his reaction as he takes a look at it. “Hmm, hater threads. So, this is what the news talking about”

“Hey! Don’t mind it back home, these twits are worthless where the op and the commenter are probably not with us in this world”

“Yeah, yeah, but there are people out there is bat shit crazy like us”

“Move on, we made our choices and go lie in it. You know our people. They will alienate everyone who are not part in their society. Heh, this collective group mindset is great and all. But outcasts like us, hah! We are the same lowlifes even before coming to this world”

“Now we become what they have expected. The fools, they don’t even give a sense about us”

The scout checks deeper within the cavern, something was off. The radar shows that there are no incoming enemies coming their way. Ahegao had always planned something after the first phase of the fight. He checks it again, and still nothing. He switches the radar vertically as the wave of different layers of the ground levels show disturbance. This is not looking too good as the unidentifiable position is right above them. He quickly aims to the ceiling, and shoots an explosive shot. The team hears a loud gunshot exploded and debris falling to the ground.

The fall of rocky debris, but there is a strong metallic crash as it lands. The scout calls out to them echoing the caverns fighting through the noise. “I found a mech, I repeat, mech incoming! AAH!”

A battle machine stands up, modded to look like a crab with tentacles on its back and legs only four. Flailing around as it grabbed the scout, numerous tendrils that are more than eight trying to pierce through his shield. The scout struggles to fight back as all the tendrils are focusing him. The team open fires to its legs, as it fell down to the ground.

Its tendrils wrapped itself to make thick limb to stand up. The team takes out more powerful weapons as the others surrounding it. The vast open cavern is wide enough for them to use more destructive weapons. The first shot were the missile projectiles keep hammering on its legs. Its body frame broke and reveal someone is piloting it. One of the team picks out rifle and tries to shoot the pilot. The barrier suddenly appeared and hardened when it hits the pilot. The scout shouts at his team

“I am not going to make it. RESET!”

He pulls out an explosive as he is being wrapped around with its tendrils. The mech loses its tendrils with a big bam, as the smoke covers the mech. They continue to barrage it with explosives. The sounds of debris falling to the mech are not the noise they expected to hear. The falling debris are not those same stalagmites inside the cave, and the rock formation is not smooth and well-shaped either. The team uses a flair and with their users’ utilities to the ceiling. It reveals camouflaged machine parts dangling on the ceiling.

The mech is attaching its parts and installing its own weapons. The team calls out the retreat. “Pull back! Go to the corners and prepare the barriers. We must not waste any of our ammunition here”

The mech attached with a grenade launcher as it fires back. The team pulls out their melee weapon, a shovel knife, and sees the bouncing grenades. He lays down on the ground with an item. The grenade almost explodes as it detecting life near it. The man rackets it back to the mech as he buffs it up with enough power to send it back before exploding in mid-air.

The mech comes closer as the stasis grenades lie and wait. It attached another part, as it nullifies the stasis field. The team reactivate their stasis and the explosion pushes to it. The shrapnel of the explosion cause barrier damage as its energy running low. It stops for a bit and proceed to follow into the passage way. C was the last one who stay at the front, looking at the strange modded character. As it slowly moving to them as it being cloaked within the darkness, he follows his team as they need to re-cooperate.

With their breaths starts to heavy their voices “We can’t beat it with the size of that motherfucker. The only way to take it down is chipped off its limbs and exposed its body framework. Its barriers hardened every time when explosives are off. The best tactic we could do is being in front of it and explode like a suicide bomber”

As they regroup, they turn to the tight corners while the team was not convinced with his plan. “What in the hell are you planning? Using one of our essentials to take one mech out!?” “Or else It will chase us back to our recon zone, if we keep backing like this”

The loud noise echoing through the passage as the mech is coming in. The man needs to explain them quick. “I just need expendable members who will be forming the second group at recon. Our scout takes himself out before his account to be taken by them”

Everyone tries to remember their team’s role. At least one of them steps in and pointed to the new guy. “Hey kid with a controller, what is your specialization?”

“I can only do melee combat . . .”

The team member stops him “Then this is enough for the suicide mission”

The team member doesn’t want to lose his men, but the tight areas won’t be that easy to escape the attacking mech. He calls out the others “Ready our traps!”

The pilot is troubling going through the passage, the tendrils are acting like drills to clear away the area to make it through. Its crab legs moved to the front as the shield protected it. Blind, but the tendrils are its sensors as it drills. The pilot calls out to Ahegao

“Enemies spotted inside the bunker networks, Mech unit OC is going in”

“Affirmative, ready your ejector seat from incoming traps. They took the stash that has concentration of explosives. Your energy won’t be enough to stop it”

The call is out as it continues to expand the passage. Something clicks to the corner as the tendrils pulled back, the crab like legs kicks it as the item bounces off. Someone catches it and throws it back at the mech, the tendrils swiftly returns as it grabs it. The team fires long-range projectiles filled sticky fluids. The item stuck on its tendrils as it forced itself closer to them for the explosions about to blow. The team retreats further away as they reach to the start of their location. The items they left behind are slowly glued on to the mech.

The mech slows down as it realized the sticky fluid is stuck with different items thrown on it Without knowing what it is, it decided to ignore it and start firing at the enemies. They raise their barricade to hold off the assault, not a single one of them fires back. As one of the team signals themselves for the right moment.

“Boy, if you can’t shoot yourself with that controller of yours. I’ll be glad to be your commissar”

C turns around as the item is activating, the anime like expression of wtf showing to the man who said it. They ignore him and the man who volunteers head first.

The mech detects the items are activating. It channels itself to release an electromagnetic wave to discharged the items, it doesn’t affect it. The items it is stuck into are users’ utilities, not explosives. The items activate, a person materialized in pixels phasing through the tendrils. He goes to the legs covering the pilot seat, then fire the explosives inside his inventory. The hardened barrier is able to hold it off, but the particle effects malfunctioned as the pilot sees the bugs glitching through. The man’s body solidifies inside the mech. Showing a severed body in front of the pilot, he pulls out his gun shoots himself, negating the kill from the enemy.

The pilot is confused from he did after. It tries to control the mech, but the glitch remains as the man’s dead body stuck on the mechanism. This was the strangest interaction what the bot had to face, but it didn’t react to it. It follows the command as it tries to make it to work. No knowledge of how to react something like this. Now it’s C’s turn to appear near the pilot seat. After the pixelization, he somehow managed not to get glitch into the mech as the legs are clear. He brings out a C4 and stick it to the pilot seat. An item on his hands as he forced to activate the barrier, the barrier appears as both of his hands severed off as it hardened. C fell off from the mech.

A harpoon attached with an emp fires to him and accidentally hits him as the barrier is being disrupted. The team gives a bad impression as they hit him, and the man looks at the kid without his hands.

“Holy shit! What game does he kept him alive while being severed?”

“Shut the fuck up, take him down before they take his avatar”

C being electrocuted by the emp as he barely stands up. As the C4 is charging up, it explodes and they saw his body flying off towards them. C survived with his cheats without them knowing.

The one who comment him to be the one to kill him rushes forward grabs C’s body to the ground and quickly take a shot. He said to him as he fires

“Son of a bitch!”

C goes down and the protocol activate as he will be sent to the recon. The team goes forth to the machine and see the damage. The pilot was blown to bits and its body are shredded. The bot pretends to be dead as one of them gives the finishing blow. The pilot with the remaining functioning parts of its body. Ahegao sees that its features of functioning severed bodies are capable to act from a terrible damage. The only way to fully kill someone is through the head.

C sees on his head set portraying the death timer. Waiting for something to happen, it was a bit longer than he had thought. The way the man who shoot him calling him ‘son of a bitch’. On the contrary, he thinks about the item they used. A glitch that forces their avatar go through solid object, calling no clip, but it needed the pixel body to shred their body apart, so many questions but it needs to be done. There is no actual pain, but habits react to it made it feel real to them. The experience is so far and it is something.

Wondering about it as he finally revived, “What’s with that strange body pixels?”

Scout was shocked “Whoa, questioning about that when you were killing yourself.”

The volunteer answers him “Just treat is as undead magic or whatever they named their magic. Anyway”

C sits up as he realized he is in the forest. The scout who died and the volunteer took the first trap are here. The man here looks at the kid as he thought he still don’t know what happened

“To make it easy for you to understand the rule of this webpage, Ahegao made the rule but there is some nice loophole. It is like a game but the kills trigger on the head, so the body is like sponge or props to destroy. So, we made it fragile as we can still move without having crippled limbs messing our movements. I can’t say much else but that’s the rules”

The scout looks at the data where the man lay down the beacon here. This is where they respawn, and top of that, the place is not well secured. “So, are we going to move on?”

“You lead scout, while I’m protecting the beacon, or do you want to go back at the start again?”

The volunteer looks at them as he pulled up C off the ground, he said to C “Make good use of your controller, boy. We are heading through this meme abstract nature”

They venture deep to the higher range of the mountain forest. The recon team is form as the group had their sub-mission.

The volunteer explains to them “We have to create a mini map for them inside the caves, or anything to have their gaming UI efficient down there”

The man holding the beacon, “Just like last time, we were detected once we start transmitting the info to them. Do you think four of us here could be better off survive in this environment?”

Scout points out the location as he answers his question “Yeah, over there. I think we can set up a base there and help them maneuver under the mountain. C, care to have my guns or do you have aim assists?”

C intentionally have aim assist, it wasn’t for to make him easy to shoot but in this dark forest. He never had experienced playing like this in the battlefield except stealth missions

“I have, but would’ve it be cheating?”

“The fate of the internet is within our conglomerates’ hands. It is obvious to cheat, but make sure that it is hacks related. If the administration cheats, it will become a feature for them too. I don’t see the internet to be fair after what was happening before . . . Not right now, I think you’ll be needing this”

Scout gives C the flamethrower handgun, and said to him “Bots’ heads are between around the head or the body. This weapon will be easier for you instead looking for the ‘head’. He runs off as the man throws a detector to the scout’s direction. They are now closing to the top of the mountain where the hidden facility is. The bots were following a path as they patrol. The volunteer is already setting up the structure as the three goes in. C takes the first target around the corner as he fires.

The bot reacts but quickly taken down as C blazes it then kicks it to the ground without a chance to act. The breached was successful as they reach to the room where the bots are idle around with no commands. The door opened as the group fires to their body parts, arms shot off, and legs fell off from the joints. One bot able to retaliate but C comes in and burst it in the flames. The bot resisted and hits him with a frying pan. Scout comes to his rescue as he parried the frying pan out of its hand, he activates his ability, takes its frying pan, go to the wall for a wall jump, and back at it with its own weapon.

Scout sits on it as it is being stun, he looks at it again to make it sure. He smirks at the avatar as he checks for the others

“Is it clear?”

C responds “Everything looks clear, and thanks for the saves”

“Great, then how about burn this last buddy over here”

C stares at the bot as the avatar looks like a fictional game character. It is scout from tf2, the difference from how it looks are how it dressed. He looks at scout and realized that they have the same face. Scout sees him finding out about it, with his mean eyes and his badass face to kill. He stands up and said,

“You can see it that’s me, my old account, taken away from the moment I got shot down”

C follows his orders as he burns the bot as his account is return to his system. The scout pulls out his set of weapons as his frying pan returned back to his list. He looks at C as he starts to look confident again with a serious killing machine smile. The man broke their moment and said,

“Let’s set up the base, make sure that we won’t be overrun next time”

As the base is being built, barricades to every vicinity they captured. The bots look at them from the other side of the terrain. Ahegao is about to get inside the underground passage. Group of bots ready in modded uniform, showing the skull and wings to its armored shoulders.