.hack//AI Buster - Volume 2 - Chapter 2.6

.: 6 :.

Logged in as Albireo, I ran across the top of the castle walls. I had to hurry. The killer wouldn't stay in one place for long.

Looking up, I could see the large moon peak through holes in the clouds. But for some reason, the moon itself seemed blurry and distorted.

My eyes felt strained and my head ached. Looking at the 3-D screen was just painful. I couldn't focus. The doctor said it was exhaustion from eyestrain. It was an occupational hazard, I guess.

I shut my eyes for a moment and considered why a system administrator like myself had to log in as a character to debug something. In the world of programming, it didn't make sense. Did Harald include the debug function as part of his game design? Is that why he created the Divine Spear of Wotan? As long as I held the Divine Spear, I had to accept debugging as my primary duty.

But Vagrant AIs weren't really harming the system, were they? They weren't breaking any rules. Lytoris never harmed the system. It was the system that decided when to crea te and destroy her. System administrators merely held T he World together, ensured that things ran smoothly, but The World ultimately abided by its own rules.

I didn't have time to ponder chis further.

I switched to third-person pay. My avatar, Albireo, now wore silver plate mail, the official armor of the Cobalt Knights.

I leaned over the castle wall and scanned the area. I gasped ar what I saw.

On a wall below me were four dead female Heavy Axe avatars. Judging from their outfits and equipment, they were high-level PKK, or Player Killer Killers, those who hunted Player Killers.

They had tried to hunr someone down, but instead they were slaughtered. Their killer still stood over them. It had to be Tsukasa.

The moonlight lit the living and the dead in a soft, silvety glow.

The wall was too high to jump. Instead, I swicched back to first~pcrson POV and zoomed in on the gray Wavemaster for a better look at him. That's when I saw it.

Hovering over him was a strange looking monster, playfully swirling, like a dog running around its master. It really did look like a dumbbell! It was three or four yards in length with two golden globes connected by a central bar.

I turned my attention to the fallen characters and grew concerned. They should have logged out by now. Were they unconscious in real life like the Captain of the Crimson Knights?

Tsukasa could gate-out at any moment. I didn't have much time. I tried finding a way to get to him, but none was apparent. Finally, I called out his name.

"Tsukasa!" I yelled.

I was struck so violently, my eyes reflexively shut. When I opened them, I could see Albireo slammed against the castle wall. But how?

I stood up and gasped. It was Tsukasa and the dumbbell monster. They had somehow struck me from this distance.

Turning, I saw the third character in this puzzle, a humanoid cat wearing funny clothes, its ears sticking out of his funky hat. It resembled something straight out of a children's book.

Bowing like a gentleman, the cat introduced itself.

"Maha," it said, twitching its whiskers.

Maha's movements seemed too real, too fluid, for the environment. My intuition told me it had to be a Vagrant AI.

"Did you give Tsukasa that dumbbell monster?" I demanded.

"No." Maha uttered. "Don't bother Tsukasa."

I couldn't see Tsukasa on the castle wall below, and Maha blocked my path.

My hands, gripping the controls, starced to sweat. "I must stop him."

"Too dangerous," Maha warned.

Why would a Vagrant AI warn me, especially as I held the Divine Spear of Wotan?

"It's my job." I said.

"Yes! Albireo's job is to debug!" Maha replied.

A shiver went down my spine. Maha knew my identity. It seemed logical, then, that the cat might also know about Tsukasa and the dumbbell monster.

"Why is Tsukasa continuously logged in? Or was Tsukasa forced to stay online?" I asked Maha.

By now, CC Corp. had restricted Tsukasa's Internet access, yet he was still online. It just didn't add up; somehow he bypassed the system.

"How is Tsukasa still online even after the access restricnons? How is he concealing his location?" I yelled to Maha.

"Don't bother Tsukasa," Maha warned.

"Why are you protecting Tsukasa?" 1 responded in turn.

I targeted Maha with the tip of the Divine Spear of Wotan. The cat raised the hair on the back of its neck, like a real cat.

"Answer me, or I'll..."

Before I could finish speaking, every image in my FMD contorted before me. Maha raised its hand to summon something, which took shape above. It was a dumbbell monster!

But this one was different from the other; this creature resembled a semi-transparent amoeba with a liquid-metal consistency.

"What will you do if I don't leave?" Maha asked.

I could tell it wanted to delete Albireo. I was infuriated by the threat.

"You will be deleted!" I yelled, targetmg the monster.

The creature wriggled and howled like a beast. Spikes pushed out from the gel and closed in on Albireo.

I quickly selected "/delete" from the debug command list and struck at the creature. My dark-skinned avatar didn't hesitate to thrust his spear into its gelatinous form, but instead of dying, a flash of light exploded, followed by a shower of twinkling metallic fragments that floated through the air like snowflakes.

My spear was gone. Using one of its spiky tendrils, the dumbbell monster had shattered the Divine Spear of Wotan!

I looked around, but now everything had faded out, including the scenery. The World whirled around me and faded to white. As I fell, I saw a red moon morphing into a flower, the spider lily.