章 5: I Hacked the Game

"Let's log in again," I voiced as I positioned myself to lay on the bed with difficulty because of the weight I had gained.

It has been three years since Emberhorn has been released. I barely managed to cover the debt I had gotten into because of it during that time.

I had gotten into a relationship with Cleare after not visiting the Trial Quest map again. I couldn't allow myself to be swayed by a game character when such a loving girl had feelings for me in real life.

Although, our relationship had fallen apart quite quickly when my addiction to this game grew to an unhealthy level.

I quit my job three months ago, or rather, I just stopped going.

I couldn't find the willpower to go there.

Hell, I began streaming my gameplays in the meanwhile from my point of view to the Emberhorn community on Wtube, like many other streamers.

Considering I had the [Mythical Race] which had never gotten updated, nor any information added to it, I had an element I could grasp the peoples' attention with.

Which kind of worked.

I managed to hit ten thousand subscribers just recently and I've been making an amount that almost reaches my pay as a salaryman.

I know it isn't much, but it at least covers my expenses of being a shut-in.

Fwoom~

[Welcome, Player 612!]

The usual sound that awaits me entered my ears as I materialized into the forty-fourth floor.

The one where the world was currently still stuck.

I inhaled a long and deep breath of the cold air on what seemed to be a spring morning.

I swooshed down my hand in the air and the system menu popped up, I quickly clicked on the stats tab.

{ [Username: Nord]

[Level: 62] - [Stat Points: 02] - [Exp: 02490/10000]

[Race: Mythical]

[Job: Adventurer]

[Weapon: Mythic Killing Dagger(S-Grade)]

[Modifier(s): The Serpentine Slayer]

[HP: 1500/1500] -- [MP: 600/600]

[Strength: 102] -- [Agility: 102] -- [Sense: 85] -- [Vitality: 102] -- [Intelligence: 105] }

"Sigh, I really haven't gone way up even though I have the mythical race and an S-rank dagger since the very beginning."

I thought I was supposed to be damned OP and flow through these levels and floors with little to no difficulty.

Then, there are these fifteen-year-old kids and the likes being the ones to become the leaders of the massive guilds.

Maybe I failed at the game because I didn't study it properly and just went with the flow and what it offered.

I cleared quests offered to me through both the guild and the game system, went through the storyline we've unlocked so far up to the forty-fourth floor, and cleared dungeons of different sorts too.

So why am I still a nobody here?

I want to be seen.

I want to be noticed.

I want others to look at me in awe.

"..."

That was when it occurred to me.

"Should I try to hack the game?" I spoke my thoughts out loud as I rubbed my bottom lip with my fingers.

"Yeah, I definitely should." I felt a gurgling excitement rise within me as I thought of the countless possibilities of what I'd be able to do once I would get full control of my character and account.

Though I haven't mentioned this before, I was almost sent to juvie for hacking my local bank back in my underage days.

I was always a guy of computers, especially risky stuff such as that.

A simple life of going to the office and clicking and clacking away dumb numbers within a computer for such useless reasons that do not befit me is not my type of lifestyle.

The risky one where it is full of excitement and thrilling moments is my shit.

"Shall we get to working then?" I swished my hand down and the system menu appeared, I quickly clicked on log-out and was ejected from the game.

"So, how shall we go about this?" I voiced as I stretched my arms out before sitting in front of my computer and opening the browser.

I recalled some of the chatting servers I was affiliated with back in the day and some of them were still up and about.

Alas, they had all gotten soft about stuff.

[A Crystal's Shadow -- (Join)]

"He should be here…" I clicked on the button and was greeted with the usual front page.

[Noid: Hi -- 4:12]

[ChildKiller21: Newbie? -- 4:12]

[Noid: Yeah -- 4:12

Actually rejoining after a long time -- 4:13]

[ChildKiller21: Fuck off then -- 4:13]

[Noid: Is… Mister Smool still in the server? -- 4:14]

[ChildKiller21: Hes the admin of this server what business u got with him? -- 4:15]

[Noid: You could say I'm an old friend of his -- 4:15]

[ChildKiller21: i dont give two shits do whatever -- 4:15]

"Hmmm, I guess that gives me the green light that I can contact him."

***

[June: 11th: 2032]

[Smool: Here's the rest of the files, add your script on the identifier based on your game character after grabbing it from the game's %Appdata% folder and the %Localappdata% one. -- 22:04]

[Noid: Thanks, I'll reach out after I do so! -- 22:04]

Just like that, after learning and catching up with today's hacking methods and scripts, I and my online friend were finally done with trying to crack into this game's code and scripts that were connected to the online databases without causing any errors for them.

"We'll just grab this system data folder and drop it here," I drag-and-dropped the folder on the script-cracker file we had developed specifically for Emberhorn and after about twenty minutes of scanning, checking, re-editing, it was finally done.

I copied the re-edited folder and pasted it into the two app data folders and obviously clicked (Replace) when the pop-up that a file already named like that exists.

"Now, the game system which issues quests and defines our stats can be considered hacked, as for the data-issue files that connect us to the server… I should be using the file sent to me by Smool."

It was really helpful that Smool partnered up with me without causing any fuss about it, he plays the game himself, or so it seems.

Now, all that's done is to wait until these files are also re-edited and I think I may be ready to go.

***

[June: 12th: 2032]

[Noid: Smool, I think it's done… 03:42]

The sun was almost rising.

[Smool: I see, I'm also done on my side, altho i ain't logging in rn, i'm hitting the bed after scrolling through tikytok -- 03:44]

[Noid: guess I'll do the same -- 03:44]

***

[June: 12th: 2032: 16:56:02]

[The Company has decided to shut Emberhorn down for an indefinite time.]

[Shut-Down Notice: 1 Hour(s) Left.]