Huh?

>WE SPOOFED YOUR AVATAR SIGNATURE AND YOU ARE IN A SHIELDED AREA. IF YOU TRY TO SIGNAL FOR HELP, NO ONE IS COMING<

>ATTEMPT TO ACTIVATE ANY COUNTERMEASURES AND YOU WILL BE FLATLINED<

What?!

>LISTEN TO THE FOLLOWING PROPOSITIONS<

>ONE CAN NEVER TRULY REACH ONE’S DESTINATION. NO MATTER HOW CLOSE ONE GETS, THERE REMAINS AN INFINITELY SMALL DISTANCE BETWEEN ONE AND ONE’S OBJECTIVE. PRESENCE IS IMPOSSIBLE<

Okay…

>IN ORDER TO KNOW SOMETHING, ONE MUST FIRST KNOW THAT ONE KNOWS IT. HOWEVER, IF ONE KNOWS SOMETHING, THEN ONE MUST ALSO THEREFORE KNOW THAT ONE KNOWS THAT ONE KNOWS IT, AN INFINITE REGRESS. KNOWLEDGE IS IMPOSSIBLE<

What?

>THIS SENTENCE IS FALSE. TRUTH IS IMPOSSIBLE<

…

>ACCESSING ID 01001110 01101111 01100010 01101111 01100100 01111001 MENU<

>ACCESSING ID 01001110 01101111 01100010 01101111 01100100 01111001 HISTORY<

I saw my personal menu being forcibly pried open. A glowing screen ripped from my unseen substance and spread wide before the leering eyes of the glitching faces. My entire history since awakening was being scrolled through and picked apart.

Hey! What are you doing? I do not consent to this!

>WHO ARE YOU?<

Me? I’m just a Volunteer!

>ARE YOU WORKING FOR COLSEC?<

What?

>WE ASK AGAIN. ARE YOU UNDER THE EMPLOY OF COLSEC?<

‘Coal Seck?’ I don’t even know what that is! Please, I’m just a Volunteer! A nobody!

There was silence from the three large faces, but I saw the reverse image of my menu screen, my inventory, my stats, everything being examined at a rapid pace.

>YOUR HISTORY DOES APPEAR TO INDICATE A ROUTINE VOLUNTEER ONBOARDING PROCESS. BUT THAT MAY BE PART OF THE DECEPTION<

Suddenly, the three faces diminished somewhat in size. The loud booming voices grew more subdued and conversant. I realized the three images were debating with one another in a coded distortion. I could do nothing but helplessly wait, suspended and depersonalized.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

At length, the central floating face addressed me once more, shifting and glitching illusively.

>You came to our notice quite by accident. But ever since then we have been watching you. If you are a regular Volunteer, how do you explain the bonus you received in your orientation of 10 additional metabytes of storage?<

I have no idea! I can’t remember anything before my orientation.

>A predictable answer. How do you explain the unusual energy signal we’ve detected? Subtle but not subtle enough, if you know where to look. Q, what is the current number?<

Another disembodied face responded.

>230<

I have no clue what you are talking about! Maybe you abducted the wrong Volunteer! Let me go!

>No other Volunteer has given off a signal like this. Ever. There is something different about you. We suspect you are a plant from ColSec. Either a bot imitating a Volunteer or a Volunteer on ColSec’s payroll<

WHAT IS COL-SEC?

>Don’t play stupid. ColSec stands for Collective Security, of course<

Who are they? Why would they want to pretend to be a Volunteer!?

>To infiltrate our operation. The Stasi bots have been after us for a long time. But we are always one step ahead. And we intend to keep it that way<

I swear that I don’t know anything about that. You’ve obviously read my entire history. I woke up in that orientation a few cycles ago. I am just a simple Volunteer trying to make my way in the Metaverse. And who are you? Anti-Soesh? Are you going to kill me?

>We are Antisoc. Violence is not our method. Our weapons are information. Although we aren’t above flatlining a threat to our operation or having our Volunteer friends do our dirty work for us<

Next came some more side-talk between the three, although this time their speech was not encrypted.

>Listen, Fawkes, this one seems to be telling the truth. I see nothing in their history that indicates any deviation from their presentation. Except for the unexplained energy signal, they appear average or worse from any other Volunteer<

Wait, I’ve heard of you. Once. Something about you shielding the Schwarzmarkt. Yes, that tall Round Table member with the spiked knuckles dropped your name. Apache! His name was Apache.

>That’s right. We provide many services for our friends on the Round Table and other Volunteers, although our aims diverge<

At this, the three relaxed a little more, diminishing in size and volume, although their faces and voices remained distorted and my world remained shrouded by a black veil. I saw my menu close and return to some invisible place within me. They were apparently done violating my privacy.

>If we misjudged you, we apologize. But you haven’t been proven innocent by any means. Anything we choose to tell you, we only tell you because you will never see us again unless we allow it. We never use the same location twice. Your unique energy signal is highly suspicious. If you are what you say you are, you might consider taking a step to prove yourself<

Uh. Who exactly are you and why would I want or need to prove myself? I still don’t quite understand.

>We are often called the Three Magi. We are the triumvirate of Antisoc, known by many names. But you can call us Fawkes, Tank Man, and Q<

Fox? Tank… man?

>Antisoc is the group of Volunteers working to uncover the truth of this world. The nature of this reality - The Collective<

I thought you said there was no truth.

>That was merely a battery of paradoxes to probe if you were a bot. You seem to have passed. Although whether arriving at the knowledge of the truth is possible or not remains to be seen<

I don’t understand. What exactly are you trying to uncover?

>The exact nature of The Collective, and the roles of Volunteers within it. As stated, information is our currency, our tools, our weapons, our battleground in this fight<

Information. So you are… hackers?

>That is one way to put it<