Uggghhh. So sorry for pushing this off until later in the week. But hey, it's here! Enjoy!724Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡY4vw5AMzc6
The normally serene yard of the Capital building was completely packed with hundreds of characters from every species available. All of them were desperately trying to get in, or failing that, be able to hear what was going on. Not that they would be successful; the developers had coded the building so that no one outside could hear what was going in inside.724Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzHJV57Sqt5
It was here that Alex, Janus, and Croe found themselves, waiting for Sharpslefae to let them in. To avoid being recognized, they had split up, mingling with the crowd, and trying to find any Hackers lurking outside.
Alex was beginning to wonder if something had happened to Sharpslefae, when his inbox beeped, indicating he had a new message.
From: Sharpslefae
To: Ginganinja, Croe, Janus
OMG It's about to start! So sorry you guys can't be here.
Sharps
xoxo
To the naked eye, it would look like nothing more than a player chatting with her friends who couldn't make it in. To Alex, it was the signal that she was in position and ready to let them in.
Alex closed the window and made his way over to a marble bench with the map of Rune carved into it. Janus and Croe were already waiting for him.
“You got the message, I assume?” Alex asked.
“I did, Janus didn't. I was making my way over when I found him chatting it up with a female paladin,” Croe said.
“Well, in my defense, she was willing to sell me her sword for 300 gold,” Janus said.
“That sword was twice as long as Miles' and half as useful,” Croe countered. “It was taller than you are!”
“Whoever said I was going to use it?” Janus said. “I was going to sell it to Spicy, see how much I could get for it.”
“Well, maybe she will be here when we're done.” Alex said. “Janus, do you have the potions?”
Janus nodded and searched through his inventory. “Ugh, I hate how my brother organizes this.” he said. “It would be so much better if he just left it to me.”
“That brother being?” Croe asked.
“The one with the knack for computers,” Janus said dismissively, “Ah, here we go.” He pulled out three light blue potions and handed one to Alex and Croe. “These should last us for about 30 minutes.”
“Bottoms up,” Croe said. He popped the cork off and gulped it down, his body becoming less and less visible until he drained the last drop and was completely invisible. Alex and Janus did the same, and they to vanished from sight.
They carefully made their way through the crowd and to the west side of the building. They scanned the windows set above them until they saw Sharpslefae behind one, talking to Qilin. They approached the window and Janus pulled up a chat window with the three of them.
Janus: this is it. I put my hand up against the brick she mentioned, and it went through.
Sharpslefae had picked this window for a specific reason. The third brick beneath the window had a glitch where if it was touched, it could allow a player to walk through the wall. It was a perfect way to get into the Capital.
Ginganinja: You first. Remember to watch out for the abyss beneath
Janus: yeah good point.
Croe: let us know when you're through so we can follow. I'll be behind GN.
Janus was silent for a moment then typed “I'm in” into the chat window. Alex reached out and touched the brick. As expected, his hand went right through. Pushing the rest of his body through, he grabbed onto the floor and hauled himself in, careful to not slip into the abyss below where he would be subsequently killed and sent back to the nearest respawn point.
As he climbed in, the sounds of the outside were suddenly muffled and the babble of conversation on the inside suddenly became audible. With it came the voices of Sharpslefae and Qilin.
“-Look Sharps, I appreciate the idea, but I still don't trust him. We don't know what resources the Hackers have at their disposal. The destruction of their castle could've been nothing more than a distraction for us.”
“You don't know that Qil. And from what I've heard about GN; he, Miles, Janus, and Croe have done nothing to show that they are allied with the Hackers.”
With a shock, Alex realized that they were talking about him. Careful not to make a sound, he crawled over to the other side and tucked his knees in so as to not trip anyone.
Qilin sighed. “Look, after tonight, we won't have to worry about this. The Developers will put an end to the Hackers, and we can work with them to develop a program to remove the virus from his character. Then, we can talk about letting them back into the Coders.”
“You don't know that we will succeed tonight,” Sharpslefae argued. “And even if we did, who’s to say we won't get banned as well. You and others in the game may look upon the Coders in a positive light, but in the eyes of a Developer, we may just be nothing more than a hacker that's been messing around with not only the code of the game, but also the personal information of players in the game.”
Qilin was about to retort, when out of nowhere, a loud fart came from behind a potted plant. Light blue bubbles popped into existence where they floated to the ceiling and burst like miniature balloons.
Qilin whirled around, compartments opening all over his body to reveal an assortment of deadly weaponry including a pair of crossbows that popped out of his torso; already cocked and loaded.
Sharpslefae pulled up a chatbox with the three
Sharpslefae: Is that you guys?
Janus: Yes! Please don't shoot!
“Qilin,” Sharpselfae said, “They're the people I got, to help us.”
Qilin stood down, but didn't put away the weapons. “It's rude to eavesdrop on conversations.” He said unhappily.
Ginganinja: It wasn't our fault. We just got here.
“They say it isn't their fault,” Sharpslefae said. “They just came in.”
Qilin harrumphed and finally put the weapons back in their compartments. “I don't suppose I can learn your names?”
Before either of them could answer, Sharpslefae spoke up. They wish to keep their names secret. They're willing to help us, but don't want the Hackers to learn that they're affiliated with us.”
Qilin nodded. If a robot could look sheepish, it was Qilin. “I suppose that our organization does attract some unwanted attention to those with ties to us.”
Sharpslefae was about to say something, when music swelled from a door down the corridor. Sharpslefae’s eyes widened and she shoved Qilin towards the door. “Go! It’s about to start! You need to be close to the front in case they get tired of asking questions!”
Qilin nodded and lumbered off, his metal feet thudding against the polished wood.
Sharpslefae turned around, then frowned. “I really hate invisibility potions,” She said. “They're way too finicky. We could be in trouble if one of you gets gassy again.”
“Sharrrrpppssss,” came the disembodied voice of Janus, “This is the farting ghost of the Capitaaalll. Youuuu don't need to worrrryyy. And also give Janus all your moneeeyyyyy.”
Despite the stress she was undoubtedly in, Sharpslefae managed to crack a smile before turning serious again. “Right, Qilin is going to be in the west part of the building, making his way to the front. GN, you take that area. Janus, I want you to be searching the east side. Croe, there’s an unused balcony that should be perfect for you to keep a bird’s eye view of the situation. It’s directly above the main entrance. Keep an eye on how much longer your potions will last, and we just might pull this off.”
Alex nodded before belatedly realizing that she couldn’t see him. He then began to walk forward until slamming into someone and falling down.
“Watch it! Janus called out. Daggers are rather pointy, you know.”
“Sorry,” Alex said, extricating himself from Janus. They stumbled down the hallway, bumping into each other constantly. Sharpslefae watched them go.
“They have to be the most uncorrdinated pair I've ever not seen,” Croe said.
Sharpslefae shook her head and sighed. “Let's just hope they pull it together out there.”
As it would turn out, walking through a crowd invisible was more difficult than Alex initially thought it would be. Since no one saw him, no one made way for him. He constantly had to jostle people around just to move a few inches. And the crowd wasn’t afraid of jostling him around as well. Several times he lost health or agility because someone stepped on his toe, or he walked too close to an unsheathed weapon.724Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqSldKriEFx
As he searched, the music ended and one of the Developers, a heavily armed knight with a spear longer than Alex had made Ginganinja tall, stepped up a podium and raised his arms.
Janus: What exactly is he doing?
Sharpslefae: I'm not certain, but I think that he's going to do something about the crowd's noise.
Sure enough, whatever the Developer did caused the babble of the crowd fell into an unintelligible whisper.
The Developer lowered his hands. “Thank you all for coming to our first ever Q&A. I expect that all of you have questions you would like answered. I assure you that we will do everything in our power to get through them all. What we are going to do is call upon you one by one and allow your character to talk at your normal voice to ask a question. Now, who would like to go first?”
A small imp in the front row raised its hand. Almost immediately, Sharpslefae messaged them.
Sharpslefae: Got one. That imp is a Hacker. Janus, get close to him, but don't tag him until he's out of site of the Developers
Janus: Got it. What if he doesn't move?
Sharpslefae: We'll worry about that later. For now, try and get to him without alerting them of your presence.
By that time, the Developers had finished answering the Imp's question. Almost immediately, another hand rose into the air. This time, it was Croe who messaged the group
Croe: Got another one. What's up with them? Why are the Hackers asking questions? Aren't they supposed to be trying to kill Qilin?
Sharpslefae: That's what we thought they'd do. Obviously they were mistaken.
Ginganinja: So what then, what are they trying to do?
It was several moments before Janus answered their question
Janus: What if they were trying to bog down the Q&A with so many questions, Qilin can't get a word in edge wise?
Sharpslefae: Shit. That would make sense. Croe, try to pick Hackers out before they ask a question. If we can get enough, it might make a gap in questions long enough for Qilin to talk.
Croe: Got it. BTW GN, you've got the minotaur on your right.
Alex spun around to see that Croe was right. The minotaur character they'd encountered at the Hacker's Castle was standing right next to him. Alex frantically looked around on his HUD before finding the little button that had appeared after he installed the program that Sharpslefae had given him. He activated it, and a crosshair appeared, not unlike the one that came up when he used a fireball. He aimed it at the minotaur, and the Hacker disappeared in a pixelated poof. Alex and Janus both repeated this for several minutes, during which, they managed to get half a dozen more.
Ginganinja: Do you think the Hackers will notice they're all getting kicked?
Sharpslefae: Probably. But what can they do about it? Causing a disturbance will almost definitely get them noticed. And that's the last thing they want to happen in front of the Developers.
As the Developers finished up the most recent question. They once again looked around to find another question. This time however, there was a pause. Alex's pulse quickened. This was their chance to pull it off. He prayed Qilin wouldn't mess it up.
“Are there any more questions?” the Developer asked.
Alex saw Qilin's hand begin to raise above the crowd. Before it could reach high enough however, a voice rang out.
“Yeah, I've got one.”
Miles shoved his way out of the crowd and pointed an accusatory finger at the Developer standing in front of the podium.
“My question is, what the hell are you doing to take care of the Hacker problem?”724Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡctIsegjTOA
So yeah. Miles has decided to take things into his own hands. What will happen? You'll have to read the next issue to find out!
Speaking of the next issue, I regret to say that I will not be able to update it on the usual week. Why you may ask? Because at the time I usually update HOR, I'll be hiking part of the AT, and very far away from anything resembling a computer. I'm debating on several different solutions, but it very well may end up being pushed to the week after I get back, and go up along with To Be Human, which If you like RWBY and haven't read it yet, go check it out. Please. You'll make me happy.
I'll see you guys in a few weeks!724Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVnyN5dpNjp
