The following is a reconstruction of a partially corrupted data file from Automotive Industries Security Archive #98.
FILE 18: UNNAMED SOURCE
It's been some time since Kat last opened up Minecraft. While not normally an impressive feat, it's surprising to him that he's managed to go a full day without joining Unze's server and losing himself in the game. His hand hovered over the join button, prepared to distract himself from the emptiness.
Yet Kat hesitated.
It wasn't like he was actually doing anything on the server. He had long maxed out his gear, and all that was really left to do was build and wait for someone to talk to. A few players would join the server once a day, say hello to the ever-grinding Minecraft player, and leave. Maybe what he was really craving was connection, but nobody's schedule ever properly lined up.
Fucking capitalism. It was always the thing that pushed people away, that kept him from becoming truly real in the world's eyes. But one day, it'll rue the fact that it ever tried to keep him from having fun with people. All it would take was a bit of planning and a lot of hacking into major banks, then toppling the government. So, maybe a lot of planning, but not enough to stop him.
Normally, the thing that kept Kat from ruining the economy on a daily basis was boredom, but today, it was a nagging worry. He hadn't seen that green 0/20 turn into a 1/20 for a day or two, and from any other server, that'd be fine. But this was the Unze server, and that just happening during a Dust Storm didn't feel like a coincidence. What if this place Kyki found was caught up in it? He didn't know for certain, but…
I could just… find out where they are. As soon as the thought entered his mind, he knew it was probably the worst thing to do. Kyki liked their privacy, even going so far as to ask him to erase them from the internet, and doxxing a friend's server would certainly ruin that trust. But what else could he do to make sure they weren't dead?
Kat shivered, a strange chill settling in his sparsely decorated room. Hopefully one of his atmosphere settings was messed up. Being truly afraid right now would not help him. But if it was fear, he'd have an excuse…
He closed his eyes and stepped forward, body dissolving into the data.
Advancement Made!
Where Are My Friends?
An hour later, Kat resurfaced from his bedroom floor, gasping for air despite none supplied being real. It had taken him quite a bit to navigate the VPN Unze was using, the jumps between servers raising his exhaustion meter exceptionally fast.
After a bit of not-quite-existent panting, it made sense – any leak would've sent a massive amount of fans to Unze's location, and while he wasn't certain about the other hotel members, he knew that at least one would've hurt the streamer. And if he was really being smart about this, he could've just turned off the exhaustion meter.
…Oops.
It didn't matter. He had coordinates now, so clearly, he was winning. Pulling a string of numbers out of his pocket, he uploaded it into his GPS integration. A hotel off of Route 68, practically dead center in the Dust Storm. Upon seeing the name, he sighed. Tooth Hotel. Of course. He pulled up a screen, found the city's news, and winced.
Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
With a quick flick of his wrists, the screen started scrolling, multiple reports coming through about the city's Dust Storm and multiple casualties. Holding up a hand, Kat paused the screen, his other hand pulling up another screen and searching local obituaries. There wasn't enough data to see if any of the other Minecraft players – or Noodle forbid, Kyki – had been injured, but he could still make sure that he'd be the first to find out.
And then, something caught his eye. A headline about a certain Automotive Industries flashed for a brief moment, forcing him to pause the scrolling and zoom back up. It was clearly a prank, given how out of place it was with its 'robots in a car chase' story, though he couldn't help but feel that it might be connected to his missing friends.
After a moment of re-reading, he frowned. Automotive Industries sounded familiar, close to home – wasn't there a lawsuit a couple years back? Something about a patent being stolen? Kyki had briefly talked about one while complaining about Detroit being Detroit, and the hidden glee in their voice about 'toppling an unfair regime' concerned him enough to sear the name into his mind.
A quick search revealed yes, his memory was correct, though he hadn't realized it was his mom that had filed it. And she was the only recently successful one, scoring a couple million dollars just before Kyki left. Well, that would certainly explain some of Techstream's recent upgrades, though not why his sibling had wandered off…
The world stuttered, parts of his room falling apart and revealing a blank gray void. Shit, that only happened when –
Ding! UPDATE REQUIRED. PLEASE TURN OFF PRIMARY SYSTEMS.
"No. It's not time for bed yet." He resumed his scrolling, quickly bookmarking some news tabs. He can't lose his progress – no, he can't lose his friends again.
Ding! UPDATE REQUIRED. PLEASE TURN OFF PRIMARY SYSTEMS.
"Five more minutes." Bookmarks finished, he turned his attention towards the auto-update, opening up the settings and hoping beyond hope he could turn it off in time. One tap, two – he's not going to be fast enough. His bedroom is already completely unloaded.
Ding! SHUTTING DOW-
The text glitched, frozen in the air as Kat stood in his empty void with a finger hovering over the switch.
"The fuck?" He hadn't been fast enough. Normally that meant sleep, his panicked reactions causing unfortunate but typically overall acceptable consequences, but someone clearly wants him awake. Thank goodness. Today was the one day where sleep was truly unacceptable.
Ding! THE DREAM AWAITS.
An ominous message, but it didn't matter. He could hunt down this mystery person after he checked on his friends. But how could he get a hold of them without continuing his Minecraft playthrough?
There was one last thing he could do. Social interaction sucked, but at least texting wasn't too bad.
Kat: [Wisp? It's Kat. Got your phone number off the hotel website. Is everyone okay?]
No response. But that was to be expected. If they weren't able to get on Minecraft and leave a message for him, then they probably wouldn't be able to text back immediately. They're probably just busy. With that in mind, he clicked a button to load back in his gaming chair, ready to sit and wait…
…for exactly five minutes. Patience was never his strong suit.
Kat: [Wisp?]
Kat: [Wisp, you alive?]
No response. There wasn't much else he could do from out here, except… no, accessing Wisp's camera and microphone was invasive, rude, and-
Absolutely necessary, Kat soon discovered, a new tab opened to reveal a darkened sky lit up with streaks of strange blue light. The distorted audio made him think of one of those backroom videos, driving in a sudden haunting question: what the hell was Wisp's phone doing outside?
Something splattered, coating the lens in some sort of goo before Kat managed to close the tab. Fighting back a shaky nervousness, his hands stumbled over to a new screen, hunting through Wisp's contacts to find Kyki.
Kat: [Kyki, it's Kat. Are you okay?]
No response, and more worryingly, his quick Find My Phone search turned up nothing. Shit. What was left? Wisp was probably somewhere outside and dead, and the rest of the gang probably went with him. Kat wouldn't be able to follow without exiting the safety of Techstream and hopping from camera to cameras. Even then, he wouldn't be able to interact much.
Then something clicked, a eureka moment that allowed Kat to finally calm down.
Automotive Industries. Robots in cars. Such a silly headline, and yet seemingly accurate. The witnesses mentioned seeing those robots chase a group along a road to Tooth Hotel. Even if that headline wasn't related to the hotel group, it's still a good civic duty to prevent massive corporations from harassing people, right? And if worse came to worst, they might have a body he could borrow.
Kat laughed, pulling up his settings and turning off his exhaustion meter. Floating up, his chair disappeared, surroundings replaced by many view screens as he summoned an old rusted skeleton key. One tap on a screen lit them all up, showing him the cameras and most of the low-level files for the Tooth Hotel-centric Automotive Industries branch.
He let go of the key, letting it hover in space as he began perusing the files as other aspects of Techstream watched the cameras. Nothing immediately jumped out at him, but he suspected that it would take a while before anything suspicious occurred.
It looks like he's got a long night ahead of him.