.hack//AI Buster - Volume 1 - Chapter 0

Chapter 0 - Area.O Nave l of Lake

.: 1 :.

I plugged in.
I felt the hair stand up on the back of my neck as a brief surge of excitement bristled down my spine. It lasted only, millisecond as my consciousness leapt from my real body into my avatar. I scanned my surroundings. It's the first thing I do whenever I jwnp into The World.

A (Delta) Server Zone: Hidden, Forbidden, Sacred

I was in what looked like an old gothic stone church. A long service hall stretched before m.e, its ceiling cross vaulted. The marble floor had a greenish tint with a diamond-shaped pattern. A pendulum swung back and forth marking off time. Looking around, I noticed three other pendulums forming a perfect square.

Tick-tock, tick-tock.

Whoever designed the area spent a lot of time programming an exceptionalleve! of detail for this part of The World-an area of cyberspace with over fifteen million regisrered players speaking ten different languages. But since none of those registered users were allowed here in the Sacred Zones, why would someone spend so much time designing this level of detail?

There were a few flaws, however. There was no obvious light source, but that was the advanrage of cyberspace. The rules could be bent. Of course, they could be bent to your advantage or disadvantage.

I stood before a railing that was only waist high. Beyond the railing was the church's altar. I wanted to study the altar's derail more closely, but couldn't. In reality, it would be easy to climb over rl1e railing, but that wasn't allowed here-just one of the many cyber "rules" dictating that the programmer is God and the laws of physics are code.

The four pendulums swung in perfect unison.

Tick-tock .. .

It reminded me I didn't come here to sightsee. I had business to attend ro and I was sure my soldiers, at least those who were real, were growing impatient.

I quickly moved down the service hall where I found the members of the Cobalt Knights waiting for me.

They were stationed at each of the building's four exits, creating a blockade. Each knight wore plate mail and was armed with a long, sharpened spear. It was standard material, reminiscent of medieval Europe and conmlon to most I Role-Playing Games, or RPGs.

One of the knights stepped fotward, "We've been expecting you, Captain."

"Do you have the NPO" I asked. NPC stands for Non-Player Character, in other words, the background people such as merchants, innkeepers, barmaids, etc. They are computer-controlled avatars who are necessary for the world to seem real. Occasionally, one formed a little too much consciousness and no longer acted within its programmed parameters. That's when I was called in. "We've sealed off all escape. She's trapped."

I moved closer to find the object of my mission. Even though I'd been briefed on the target before Iarrived, I was taken aback when I saw her. Standing in the center of the room, surrounded on all sides by menacing knights more than twice her size, stood a little girl. She looked to be around twelve or thirteen and was dressed entirely in red. Even her platinum-blond hair had red streaks running through it. Her skin was pale, almost translucent, and I noticed sh e wasn't wearing any shoes.

"You're slire it's her?" I asked.

"Absolutely. She matches the description and she does n't appear to be a cheat." Cheats arc modified characters who break the laws of the game. An example of a cheat might be someone who always hits whatever they swing at, even when the game mechanics would dictate a miss.

"What should we do, Captain?"

She turned toward me, her eyes wide and innocent. At the same time, her expression betrayed her realization: she was caughr in a web she couldn't escape.

"Are you going to delete me'" H er voice was as sweet and innoceent as her face. I ignored her.

"Have you shielded the area?"

"Yes. Both gate-in and gate-out fUnctions from the Chaos Gate are disabled," reported the knight.

"What about regular players?" I asked, checking up on whether he'd read the area specs.

"None in this area. We've confirnl ed that."

"Good. You've done your job well."

"Are you going to delete me?" she repeated. I turned away and addressed the knights in a loud voice.

"According to regulations, this NPC 's recognized as an irregular Non-Player Character that is not in the specification of the Japanese version of The World." It was tech jargon for "prepare to attack."

With a sudden clang, the knights lowered th eir spears and stepped forward. They moved in perfect unison.

I switched to debug mode, which is only available to system administrators, and urged my knights forward.

"Are you going to delete me?" she asked, trying not to sob.

"Don't pretend to be human. You won't fool me with your girlish charm. You're a Vagrant AI and you'll get what you deserve."

"I'm what?"

"You're garbage! Bad code. Damaged data. The Cobalt Knights correct mistakes like you."

Her dress fluttered in slow motion, something that could only happen in movies or cyberspace.

"I'm a failure," she whispered.

"Delete her." Instantly, two knights stepped forward and launched an attack. A blinding flash of white light shot forth from their spears. When it dissipated, the girl was impaled.

Tick-tack, tick-tack.

I listened to the pendulums swing in the background. The girl's body faded and disappeared after a few seconds. One of the knights reported: "Subject 'delete' completed.'

"Good." I nodded and approached the two knights who blocked the front entrance of the church. One of them was a new recruit to the Cobalt Knights. This was his first assignment.

You did well, recruit."

"Thanks. What kind of area is this, anyway?"

"You're in the Zone: Hidden, Forbidden, Sacred."

"How COlne there aren't any monsters or treasure? There's harcUy anything!"

"It's a Sacred Zone. It's different from the other areas of The World."

"Yeah?"

"Have you heard of Epitaph of the Twilight?" I asked the recruit.

"Uh, yeah, I think so. Isn't that the novel that The World is based on?"

"Yes. It used to be found on a German home page several years ago-before the Pluto Kiss."

"What do you mean ... used to be?"

"It no longer exists. But the story begins with a scene set in this area, the 'Navel of Lake.'"

"Navel of Lake?"

"That's the name of this area. Didn't you do your homework?"

"Uh...?"

"You were supposed to read the area specs before you logged in. You were supposed to have everything memorized. What the hell's wrong with you?"

"Oh yeah, I read it!" He wasn't convincing.

"And ... ?"

"Well, in the old version of The World, it wasn't three words, but the name of the area done in three letters, right?"

"You're half right, but not making any sense. Next time, try paying attention to your assignment. Until then, I'll give you a short h;story lesson:' I sighed. Recruits.

"Instead of selecting three words to enter an area like we do now, we lIsed to select t1u'ee letters to enter an area. This is back in the old version of The World as well as in the beta version, called Fragment, neither of which was ever released."

The recruit nodded.

"Now we refer to this area as a Hidden, Forbidden, and Sacred Zone. But it used to be called Navel of Lake."

The recruit shook his head slowly. He looked around the church, taking in the details as I first had. None of the background objecrs were recycled or repeated as is so often done to save time. Instead, every detail was carefully chosen and mapped in 3-D. I wondered how many CG artists had heen hired to render the image of the church alone before the area was completed. For commercial game software this was extravagant.

"With so much complexity, this place must be important to winning the game, right? But-and I admjt I didn't read I h'lt carefully-what event takes place here?"

"Nothing."

"Nothing?"

"Nothing. This area doesn't even allow monsters to appear. Therc arc no hidden dungeons, secret passages, no traps to disarm nor treasures to discover. Nothing happens here,"

"Then why waste so much ti111e creating it?"

"Apparently, there used to be events here."

"In which vers ion?"

"Beta. But it wasn't anything important. It had nothing to do with winning the game."

I heard some of the other knights mutter that they'd never heard of that before. Suddenly, I realized I was the only one present who had played the older versions. Was I really that old?

"Ghost of the church," I announced.

"Huh?"

"When Fragment was online, there was a rumor among the play testers that a ghost appeared inside the church."

"You mean a ghost character?"

"Apparently, it looked like a man in his thirties. Obviously, we don't know what the operator looked like in real life, but that's how the avatar appeared. His face was gaunt, with green eyes, and he had wild, wavy white hair. It was rumored that he always appeared upside down,"

"Say what?"

I shrugged.

"So what did the ghost do?"

"Nothing. That's the strange part. He just appeared in this church. He didn't say anything, do anything, and no spells or attacks seemed to affect him."

"Huh?"

"It's all speculation."

"You mean a rumor."

"That's what I said. After the beta test was completed and the final version of The World was released, the ghost of the church was no more."

"Was it a glitch?"

I breathed deeply. Didn't they teach these recruits any history? Maybe today they focused more on theory and code. I was about to continue when I saw something move in the lower corner of my perspective. Instinctively, I followed the movement. I couldn't believe what I saw.

It was the girl.

Her image was reflected on the smooth, polished surface of the 'floor. She was floating above us, near the ceiling. Somehow, she'd escaped being deleted. But how was that possible?

"She's above us!" I shouted.

The knights, not expecting danger, were slow to react. She wasn't. She headed for the door.

"Cover the door;' I ordered. "Cover all the exits!"

How could she fly? Unless there were staircases or ladders, characters weren't allowed to move up or down on the simulated 3-D map. Flying was against the rules of the game, but that didn't seem to stop her from defying the game's gravity.

The knights were reacting too slowly. She was going to escape. I only had one chance. I placed my target over her and toggled the debug command. Luckily, she was still in range. I swung my spear.

There was the familiar bright flash of white light that enveloped the girl. And then ...

Static spilled into my ears with a deafening roar. The game image impossibly scattered and melted. As the girl disintegrated into the white flash, instead of disappearing, she transformed into a ball of red light.

It wasn't possible. I had landed a direct hit, but she wasn't deleted.

"Stop hed" I cried out.

But it was too late. I watched helplessly as the ball of red light sped past the knights li ke a bullet from a gun and shot th rough the open door of the church.

I chased after her, but compared to her lightning-fast speed, it seemed to take me fo rever to get to the doorway.

When I arrived, I tried to target her, but she was too fast, too far away. I watd1ed as she streaked across the sky.

The church was on an island in the middle of a lake. The strip of red light shot straight up into the twilit sky, and then erupted like a burst of sUlllmer fireworks.

A shower of red sparks sprinkled across the sky as I muttered in disbelief. "She's gone."

Behind me, I heard the pendulums swing.

Tick-tack, tick-tack ...