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Fandom 100 MONO ga ~ ta ~ ri

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Squad141

The Purple Soul
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On the day of April 16th, forums across the world-wide web became ecstatic after a a few leaks of a new indie game were released on 4chan and other such places. Many saw this is as a simpler, if not better solution to the failed games of that year, like The Darkness, Little Nightmares 14, or SBURB. The game was from japan, but was soon translated into the title of 100 MONO gatari, or MONO, as the forum users coined it. Many theories spoke up about this game, some believing it to be from a major company trying different advertising tactics, others stating it was from this series or that. However, when this discussion began to die down, fuel was spontaneously added to the fire.

The game was uploaded without an author.

The original post-er had no other info on their profile, and the games title screen, even when translated, held no ownership of the game. There was no website, no author, no company.

It was soon after this time that for one reason or another, five teenagers ended up on the Uboa-Chan forums, a place where fans of the cult classic JRPG game Yume Nikki discussed the game possibly being from another game-maker who disappeared after giving a grand spectacle of a game to the public. The issue was, however, that no one could get past the menu screen, because a key-code was required.

Those five teenagers were you, obviously, but let's keep talking in the third person. They soon left the forums and discussed other things, like common interests, and their own lives. The search for the code soon was nearly forgotten, though this small friend group brought it up every now and again, after all, it was the reason for their meeting in the first place.

Now, we come to present time, on the day of August 31st, 20XX. Gyro had been hinting to many of you that he'd been in a better angle for chatting once the Feathered Serpent was close enough to the bays of Hokkaido, but he'd also been hinting at something. Be it hot, or cold, or windy, or chilly, sometime in the afternoon, you are invited into a group conversation on Uboa-Chan.


Hydraroll404: Hey guys, glad I finally got stable internet for a few months!
Hydraroll404: Sorry for keeping you guys in suspense, I couldn't really tell you on the little wi-fi I was getting.
Hydraroll404: Anyways
Hydraroll404: I figured out the keycode for Mono!
 
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99002a7d57fc421e39d5e94148362aeb03122b3dr1-251-294v2_uhq.jpgGyro couldn't have picked a better time to send his messages, as a certain young lady of a disreputable nature had just finished a rather entertaining morning.

For most of the morning she'd spent her time watching wrestling videos with one hand and using the other to carefully work on a project of her's she'd been attempting for some time now. Now usually this young lady's mornings were spent loudly tapping away at her numerous keyboards, but today was different. After one hell of a bathroom break, she'd noticed a distinct lack of edgy music leaking from the room next to her's. Recognizing what could very well be happening, she'd quieted down her morning routine so as to keep an ear out for a particular sound: The sound of the door beside her's opening up.

It was then that she pulled herself away from her keyboards, and sat facing the closed door to her room with one of her keytars lying across her lap. The young lady adjusted her glasses with a grin as she heard the telltale signs of something picking her door's lock. It was loud, uncoordinated, and so very hard not to laugh at on the spot. But as each of the tumblers were picked open, the young lady carefully hefted the keytar by its neck and reared back with it. The very second her door began to slowly creak open, she swung it forward.

The Keytar went flying, embedding itself into the door as it slammed shut from the force, the sound of someone collapsing outside prompting the young lady to burst out into a fit of laughter as she slammed a fist onto the armrest of her seat. After some frantic scrambling, footsteps began running to the room next to her's and soon the telltale sound of the door slamming shut reached the young Lady's ears.

"You're gonna have to try harder than that ya little bastard!!!" the Young Lady shouted before leaning back in her chair as the remaining giggles seeped from her lips. Only when they finished leaking out did she look up and realize she'd embedded her keytar into her door.

The Young Lady sitting in the middle of her room is none other than the infamous Sara Bellum. Of course, nobody who was actually in pursuit of her recognized her by that name. Now why would anyone be in pursuit of such a young, passionate darling such as Sara? The answer probably has something to do with the ominous assortment of computers and screens set up all over one half of her bedroom, many of which were running numerous programs and probably killing someone's power grid somewhere. Some screens displayed banking information, others were running automated response scripts, and yet further still were operating numerous bogus ads and sales across a plethora of sites all aimed towards snapping up the information of the ill-informed.

Yes, this young lady was a Cyber Criminal, but not just any Cyber Criminal. She probably made more every day by misleading and manipulating the online masses than most legitimate, honest workers could pull in a year, and that was exactly the point of it all. Sara wasn't the kind to slow down because of some binary understanding of Ethics or moral responsibilities, she recognized herself as a girl with a dream... a dream that needed a nigh-endless line of dumptrucks stuffed to the brim with money to make real. And unlike some fakers who would see certain dreams as impossible and just give up for something more 'realistic' Sara knew the benefits of being a real dreamer.

Such were the teachings of the various hardcore Heavy Metal bands she was a fan of, as what could be more real than a bunch of muscular loud guys destroying every window within a fifty mile radius through sheer vocal passion? Not a damn thing, that's what.

Turning to a poster of one of those very bands, Sara gazed upon the oiled up likeness of that Band's absolute dreamboat of a drummer: Mr. twenty-Six Six himself. Oh if only he wasn't such a rugged and silent beast of a man, then he too would probably dispel such auditory bliss as the singers of the band he drummed for: Iron Apocalypse. If Sara had more time to stew over it, she'd have pasted over most of their faces with Twenty Six Six's. After all, why have the singer be the face when you had a living mountain of muscle like that?

Yes, between the numerous wrestling videos she watched and the endless stream of Beefcake Metal Bands adorning her wall, Sara was fully aware that she had some inherent problem when it came to ripped dudes.

But can such perfection really be considered a Problem?

Pushing away from the poster, Sara figured that she should get back to business. Her gremlin of a sister had wasted far too much of her morning with her most recent attempt to sneak in, Sara had probably missed out on fleecing at least a dozen folks out of their retirement funds. Sara's older brother never took a break when he was doing his EPIC crime sprees, and he made a mint of it. Even when he stopped by to check in on them he'd always be on the phone probably orchestrating some kind of gang wars or big heists or drug stuff, now that was some damn fine work etiquette.

So with her mind set on returning to the task at hand, Sara reached down to turn her wheelchair.

Oh, had it not been mentioned prior that she was in a wheelchair?

Well Sara reached down and turned her WHEELCHAIR towards one of the computers, rolling over to it as she decided to leave the Keytar in the door situation for later. As she rolled to one of the computers, she glanced to a nearby screen which showed her peculiar project that she'd been working on for some time now. What was on the screen was perhaps undoubtedly one of the most intriguing things the young girl had come across in the past half a decade, so captivating to her that she couldn't stop interacting with it no matter how many months passed.

So confusing yet alluring, daunting but enthralling, so-

Oh? It would seem that one of her online friends was calling the gang together.

Being a Cyber Criminal of her caliber, one would wonder why she'd have a particular group of friends she hung out with on the web. The answer was that she didn't, these were just the ones she tried to scam and set up the least. Having joined together over a seemingly random enjoyment of a single game, they kept in contact for a long period of time afterwards and Sara felt it would just be silly to cut them off at this point. Besides, some were fairly fun to play with without having to utilize her elite haxor skills and do the thing where she types on several keyboards at once while the data lines reflect of her glasses. Nah, she could mess around with Friends with far less unnecessary effort, and wouldn't ya know it the absentee was the one making the call.

Having been scarce lately due to whatever Dinghy his family operated being far from port, Gyro hadn't been a part of a large number of activities this particular group of friends had been up to lately. Though he said he'd be back in business soon with something big for them, there had been no specific date given.

So when he finally showed up that August Afternoon, Sara was more than willing to be the first to blindside him with the numerous happenings that he'd missed in the recent days, only for her hands to pause and her eyes to narrow at what exactly he'd typed

Hydraroll404: Hey guys, glad I finally got stable internet for a few months!
Hydraroll404: Sorry for keeping you guys in suspense, I couldn't really tell you on the little wi-fi I was getting.
Hydraroll404: Anyways
Hydraroll404: I figured out the keycode for Mono!

PumpingHeart: Uh-huh yeah, sure u did four-eyes :D
PumpingHeart: Solid attention grabber for ur stunning return tho, really coming at us like a dark knight from the shadows
PumpingHeart: If u were a lil more buff I might just be swooning over u right now ;)
PumpingHeart: Unless
PumpingHeart: 8O
PumpingHeart:
Did u get beefier while u were gone roly-poly?
PumpingHeart: I'd totally believe that quicker than u figuring out the keycode outta nowhere, bro ;P
 
While there wasn't really any special occasion Leo had given Rhea a heart shaped necklace while hanging out with her and now was involved in a chat session with her that involved cams, locked doors and closed curtains.

Honeygirl: Hope you enjoyed my "thanking you" for that necklace.
PoisonBullet: You know I did but you didn't have to do that. I got you that necklace because I wanted too.
Honeygirl: Oh I know sweetie, that was just a joke.


They kept talking for about five more minutes while also getting dressed before Rhea signed off.

Keeping his messenger open because he expected to hear from Gyro after a long time Leo opened the curtains, grabbed his sketchbook and began sketching the view of his room. He had been working on this sketch for quite a while and was nearly done.

He had made some decent progress when he heard Pesterchum's notifcation sound, yeah it was kinda an outdated messengerprogram but it did the job and he still preferred it over Pesterchum Enamel. Because of how focused he had been on his drawing it seemed he had missed almost an entire conversation between Sara and Gyro about him finding the keycode for Mono.

Like Sarah Leo was doubtful but found it more likely that Gyro got tricked himself than that he would lie about it.

PoisionBullet: Are you sure it's the real deal?
PoisionBullet: I mean I'm not as good with computers as Miss Metalhead and I don't to deal with any viruses or malware.
 
Ysdj3IH_4x.pngA young woman sits in her room, surrounded by packages and lists. Sitting next to her is a laptop opened up to Discord, by far her favorite chat client. The quiet tune of vocaloid covers floats through the room as the young woman counts and recount her packages. After all, she has to make sure she was sending everyone the right things! She was very proud of her lack of flukes and mistakes in this endeavor, and she was not going to mess up now!

This young woman is Phoebe Lee, also known as xXPhoenix_FlareXx online. As you've probably guessed Phoebe is one of the six teenagers who have been trying to figure out the Mono code, but were mostly just chatting. Of course, Phoebe had mostly forgotten about stuff, getting distracted by her mall business and the various servers she modded.

Phoebe peeled off another label and careful placed it onto the final box. She secured it with a bit of tape and picked up all of the various boxes, placing them into a bag to be dragged to post office later. There, that's all the packing for today. A ping came from Phoebe's laptop and her eyes lit up. Most of her notifications were turned off, mostly out of necessity (if everything was on all she would hear are pings). So that meant this was important! It couldn't be Ryan, he normally texted her and Posie would be asleep... Oh right! the group chat on Uboa-Chan!

Phoebe looked over the few messages. Sara and Leo were pretty skeptical, which was pretty fair. People had been searching for the keycode for a while, what're the chances that Gyro had suddenly found it? Pretty slim. Still...

xXPhoenix_FlareXx: Ooo, yay! Glad to hear you got stable internet, gyro! :3
xXPhoenix_FlareXx: and I think we should try the code!
xXPhoenix_FlareXx: imagine if it *is* real! we'd be like, the first people to figure it out! :D
xXPhoeniz_FlareXx: whats the worse that could happen????
 

Salt close up.png

"Are you certain?"

"Yes sir."

" Then do it gently, lest our hand is shown."

"If we were to..."

"You recommended this the last time, the answer is the same.

We gain from the trouble in the end,

Gently."

"Understood, sir."

"Have a good day, Chairman."

*Click*
What a fine day.

A fine, fine day to be a certain young man who was standing alone in his room, the light from the sun gently carressing his face from the window nearby. but he had no time for these gentle caresses from a sultry lady known as the sun, no, he would not linger in such a moment of tender warmth, he had a business to run. A purely legitimate business, with no problems that needed sorting out in the slightest.

Everything, is fine and dandy.

But wait.

Was everything truely fine and dandy?

For his phone had started to light up with notifications! The young man plucked up his phone once more and examined the message that so rudely interrupted his moment of introspective.... Actually he cannot even pretend he wasn't doing anything truly worthwhile. Ah!

Well well well, would you look at that, his friends are speaking about something that has them abit baffled.

Mono... he had a couple questions asked about this strange case they discovered a while back, no info was found on it, only that which was given by the producers of this game. "Game" being the speculative word... it was more or less a curiosity, that even his... Associates could not quite crack. In truth, out of the bunch of these fellow young friends he expected the hacker to have broken into the thing by now...

But no, it was the sea dweller.

Well, you've monologued mentally for the audience long enough, best to... Ah... errm... How to.. Ah yes like this. You really should spruce up your knowledge of these chatting... things...


(Due to RN night or day mode, this will go unedited for color. In truth, that also seems highly in character for Osvald)
OsvaldSalt: Good day.
OsvaldSalt: I see you have brought back fruits of your labor.
OsvaldSalt: I shall admit, I have not thought about that enigma in sometime.
OsvaldSalt: Please, enlighten us about your findings.
OsvaldSalt: And do tell us how you have come across this.

Yes that should be friendly enough conversation, most definitely friendly. Do you expect this to go anywhere? Not particularly, it was a disappointment awhile ago, and in truth you are more than willing to imagine it'd be one now.

OsvaldSalt: By the way, Heart, about that situation I had mentioned.
OsvaldSalt: There is no need to bother, thank you for help regardless.
OsvaldSalt: Re-compensation should be yours shortly for any trouble and your aid on the matter.

You figure this was a better place than any to mention it, even if the others shouldn't really know about this dealing... Just a bug needed to be crushed, no big deal in the end.
 
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Hydraroll404: ...
Hydraroll404: Well, ignoring whatever shady business you guys are up to again
Hydraroll404: I'm not kidding! I've tried it out myself, and I got past the menu.
Hydraroll404: And the theories were true, it was a team-based game! Surprisingly, it requires an internet connection.
Hydraroll404: You guys still have the versions downloaded, right?
Hydraroll404: Once you pull it up, give me a shout and I'll give you the word!


 
OsvaldSalt: This is a perfectly simple consultation about an issue
OsvaldSalt: That I've been having.
OsvaldSalt: Our friend here is a very clever young lady, we are lucky to have her.
OsvaldSalt: But yes, I do believe I still have it installed, unless there is any updates to the program, it should be up to date.

You look over to the computer and press the button upon it's face to turn it on. The beast roars like a lion at first before calming down to a soft pur, aaah, the things money can buy... if only it wasn't here collecting dust. Metaphorically, you treat it like any of the other priceless artifacts in your household... You pause to look at the direct linked T.V to your vault camera, still sealed perfectly, not a thing out of place. You eye the intact roman gladius that is front and center in a display case through your birds eye view of your enclosed collection.

Ah, you always be filled with the desire to take it in hand and swing it around, but that wouldn't be good for it's long term health... Though you no dobut imagine it, if it had a degree of sentience, wouldn't mind metaphorically stretching it's legs, even in the hands of a utter amateur.

OsvaldSalt: Well?
OsvaldSalt: You certainly like keeping us in suspense don't you?
 
xXPhoenix_FlareXx: Omg yes! we finally get to play it!!
xXPhoenix_FlareXx: lemme check if I still have it on my computer....


As you looked through your various folders you got a notification on your phone. Oh, it was Ryan, he wanted to know if you were busy. You sent back a cheerful reply, of course not! Plus you always had time to chat with one of your best friends! A second later you phone started ringing and you quickly accepted the call and put it on speaker.
Ryan: Hello..?
Phoebe: Hi Ryan! So why did ya call me?
Ryan: Well..
Phoebe: Unless you just wanted to say hi, that's great too!

Ryan: Uh, no I did have something I wanted to say
You click through your computer, checking a few folders. Hmm, where did you put it... Maybe you deleted the game by accident? No, you're pretty good at keeping track of that stuff. You decided to check your recycling anyway. Outdated reaction images, games you never play anymore, but no Mono. Did you accidentally shove it in your memes folder? Reaction image? Rom hacks? Future avatars? No...
Ryan: So y'know the thing I'm making for ar-Posie? I picked out some patterns
Ryan: But I need her to choose which one she likes best

Phoebe: If you got discord, you could ask her yourself
Ryan: Yes- but- I- Could you just tell her to check the google doc?
Phoebe: Hah! oh my god, I'm sorry. I just forgot you're sharing stuff with her through a google doc
Phoebe: You'll really find any excuse not to get a discord account, or sign up for literally
anything
Ryan: Yeah- Well- Shut up
You open up discord and send Posie a quick message. She should be up soon, so you'll probably get a reply in like... half an hour. You don't mind being the messager, but you really really wish they would just talk! You've tried convincing Posie to text Ryan, but she despises texting for... some reason. And Ryan is way to worried about the idea of interacting with people online to make an account. Oh well, you'll get them to talk someday. After all they'd probably be pretty good friends. You finally find a folder called "one hundred :?" You stiffle a laugh and a curse. Very cute title, but not very good for organization. You open it up and start the game.
Phoebe: Seriously, get instagram or discord or something!
Phoebe: I'm sure you'd find tons of cool people to talk to!
Phoebe: And you've always wanted someone to talk about constuming with

Ryan: I'll think about it
Ryan: Well, I should probably go...

Phoebe: Okay! Bye!
Ryan: Bye.
Finally the game boots up, and you look at the title screen that's been mystifying hundreds and thousands of potential players. And now you're about to be one of the few players to well, actually play. You snap the bracelet that holds your lighter, and you light a candle, for good luck of course! You click back over to Uboa-Chan and reply to the group conversation.

xXPhoenix_FlareXx: Okay! just opened it up
 
99002a7d57fc421e39d5e94148362aeb03122b3dr1-251-294v2_uhq.jpgSituation?

Sara wasn't exactly positive what it was that her online friend was referring to, and leaned back into her seat to ponder. He'd given her some kind of task that, no doubt after their usual stint of her perusing his files and him lecturing her on the informality of such an act. For a kid who practically oozed funds, he had more than enough resources to beef up his cyber security whenever he found her writhing and flailing about in his systems. Going up against some of the best firewalls and syntax scramblers that money could buy just got more fun each and every time!

Of course, she could probably do far more damage if she really put her mind to it, many of her breaches of security often equating to pranks and gaffs aimed to rustle her acquaintance's very prim and proper jimmies. Leaving a far more destructive trail throughout his network was possible, yet nowhere near as rewarding as the back and forth they had going on now. While pretty much everyone in this particular group knew how much of a badass elite Cyber-Criminal she was, he was the only one who routinely sought to utilize her capabilities. Honestly, if he were hella ripped and a total acolyte of Heavy Metal he'd probably be way hotter, the cut-throat businessman thing he had going on just didn't do it for her.

But what was it that he'd asked her to do last time?

Sara retraced her steps, wheeling herself over to another computer so she could go through the events of yesterday. Utilizing her vast capabilities of cybernetic infiltration and manipulation, she had a habit of pranking her friends through a variety of means. And she soon remembered quite fondly the events of yesterday, where she'd spent two hours queuing up as many printers as he had in whatever mansion he lived at to print over four hundred copies of legendary Bodybuilders. Each and every one of them lovingly decorated with hearts, as any rendition of such fine specimens of muscle should have.

Surely all he needed was inspiration to push him towards developing a far more epic physique, and all that stuffy rich-kid junk wasn't going to cut it. What could be more inspiring than the greatest symbols of male physique over the years? It was a perfect plan, and sure enough Sara had decorated over a dozen images of the many Dorian Yates' and Ronnie Colemans of the world, set and ready to be printed out en masse for her good pal. Of course, it didn't take long for anyone who knew her to recognize who could be behind such an act, so she did some work on her super interesting and fantastic project for about ten minutes before getting the notification she'd been expecting.

What she hadn't been expecting from such an exchange was an offer for her to 'Busy herself Elsewhere' Instead. Apparently an Associate of his needed a little bit of negative reinforcement after making a move that was less than ideal for some. usually Sara didn't go for preemptive ends to interactions, but she'd been far too curious not to follow the throughline he'd offered. And so she sought out this little associate of his and proceeded to have her fun. Sure, she also had tight security on her dealings online, but she didn't have anywhere close to the familiarity with Sara's efforts that Ossie had.

The only problem?

She'd finished with her fun yesterday night, and just now he was telling her to call it off? Sara wasn't so sure she could course correct even if she wanted to. She shrugged before wheeling back over to the original computer.

PumpingHeart: It isn't shady at all!
PumpingHeart: Just Ossie introducing me to a friend of his, and me gettin to know them
PumpingHeart: Ain't nothing to even think over, though I should prolly mention that I already finished up with that whole thing and can't really stop it at this point.
PumpingHeart: As for the game tho


Sara took a moment to lean back away from her screen into her chair before turning her attention to the ominous going's on of the screen right beside her. The super intriguing and eye-catching things displayed on it leading her to turn her chair to face it. It lit up her face in a mirage of shifting lights and undulating texts, and brought a grin to her face as she examined it closer. This was a project that she'd been hounding over for months, something that she didn't bring up to anyone specifically because she'd wanted to keep it all to herself at first. But upon hearing that G-Man somehow came across the Keycode for it, she couldn't help but look it over even more.

Before her was displayed MONO, or the code for it to be more exact.

The very moment it was discovered that none could enter without a Keycode, Sara had flexed her fingers and set to work on what she had initially assumed would be some underground company's half-assed cyphers. But then minutes turned to hours, and hours soon turned to days, now here they were months later with her still unable to break in. And it wasn't because the code was simply hard to break through, oh no no no.

It was because the code the game had as security made not a single bit of logical goddamn sense.

Seriously, if literally anyone else were looking at the same screen as Sara right now, they'd see a nigh-incomprehensible assembly of code and data randomly mix-matched together and tossed about. Mathematicians would shudder and everyday logistics experts would have heart attacks en masse. But it was even harder for Sara, who was competent enough to recognize and understand what it was she was looking at.

Because it made even less sense.

Programs that made sense looked as though they were split apart and jammed into one another, and there were so many overlapping and crisscrossing that isolating the single line keeping the game locked was nigh impossible. Just by looking at it, one could be forgiven for assuming that there were ninety different security clearances needed to enter the game. But they'd be hella wrong, half of those clearances were just for unlocking another, and the other half didn't unlock any at all. Many just led to more dead end programs that didn't even have anything to do with the keycode. In fact, most of the junk she had before her didn't have anything to do with the Keycode. As far as she could tell, most of them didn't have anything to do with anything, they were literally just there to exist.

But that wasn't even the strangest part, as there were also those... odd things in the code.

Sara couldn't recognize what exactly these codes were, but they weren't false security measures and they weren't just inoperative garbage like the rest. They were running something, but didn't line up to a single one of the coding languages Sara knew. As far as relating to the locked game, they had nothing to do with bypassing the Keycode, but Sara found herself drawn to them again and again.

They were doing something, Sara just couldn't figure out what. And for the past few months deciphering what the hell they were had been an exemplary side-project for her. And this was all just the stuff she found trying to get around the keycode, the idea of there being more beyond was almost flooring.

From this alone, she recognized that whatever the hell MONO was, it couldn't have been some indie game or odd marketing strategy. The levels of coding going on inside was on another level that Sara wasn't sure could even be attained by natural means. Those mystery codes shouldn't even be functional, and yet there were clear indicators that they were influencing something.

And while she'd have loved the bragging rights of circumventing the keycode all on her own, she couldn't deny that G-Man's claims were too enticing to ignore. This game was something more, something that she found herself far too intrigued in to let doubt slow her down now. She already had the game open, had left it running on that particular machine for a while now so she could run diagnostics on it.

Eyes still locked to it, she ever so casually leaned a hand over to another keyboard and typed a reply:

PumpingHeart: I already got it open and ready, G-Man!
PumpingHeart: Would'a been fine crackin' it myself, but whatevs
PumpingHeart: Go ahead and show us ya fancy keycode
PumpingHeart: Don't matter if it works or not, you're gonna be telling us where the hell you got that code from.
PumpingHeart: Ain't nobody scamming any of you punks unless its me, got it!?!
 

xXPhoeniz_FlareXx: whats the worse that could happen????


Leo could think of a thing or two, even though he didn't keep any private material on his pc since he became acquainted with Sara. He didn't believe she would blackmail him or anything, but it just would be awkward for all involved if she found any of it. On the other hand if Gyro said it was real he was gonna take the chance,

He started looking through his maps and found MONO pretty easily. While installing it though it turned out there were updates and patches he had to deal with since he basically ignored the program ever since he got it.


PoisionBullet: It might take me a while, have to get several updates first.
PoisionBullet: Do you mind though if I share the KEYCODE with Rhea and Sam?


Honestly he was sure Gyro would be fine with it but for all he knew that code would put everyone who used it on the same team or something, he had heard enough of Sara's rambling about MONO's code that even he was able to understand it was messed up.
 
Hydraroll404: Yeah...
Hydraroll404: Tbh, I think just the five of us was lucky enough.
Hydraroll404: There's only five spots available per team, apparently
Hydraroll404: You'll see it when you log in.
Hydraroll404: And for Sara's question
Hydraroll404: You'll never believe it, but I actually met one of the devs!


Gyro proceeds to post an image on the conversation showing himself and another man of Japanese descent, who was painfully average. He was about average height, wearing glasses, and a T-shirt and slacks. The only noticeable feature was an ID card that hung around his neck on a lanyard, which was covered by a reflection nearby. The location was obviously a dock and apparently market, with many people walking in the background, with the bottom of the letters FEA, obviously near Gyro's home/boat.

Hydraroll404: He was walking by, when he mentioned the game to one of the vendors nearby.
Hydraroll404: I asked him if he was a fan, and he told me he had worked on the team!
Hydraroll404: Apparently, I'd been the first person to ask him about Mono, so he gave me a boon
Hyrdaroll404: The Keycode!
Hydraroll404: And obviously I wouldn't tell you guys if it didn't work. I tried it the moment I got back on the Serpent, and it fully functions!
Hydraroll404: The code itself is 祟り
Hydraroll404: 祟り門
Hydraroll404: Damn language keys
Hydraroll404: Tatari-mon
Hydraroll404: There we go!
 
OsvaldSalt: It appears to be an immensely fortuitous coincidence.
OsvaldSalt: You say nobody even has once asked him about the game?
OsvaldSalt: And he was mentioning it.. Just within ear shot..?
OsvaldSalt: Despite the fact the world may strike me down for the irony of me stating it.
OsvaldSalt: Is that not extremely.. Whats the word...
OsvaldSalt: Shadey?

Thankfully, your required language study comes in use in other ways... And really, you are wary of most things that have an ominous name, espeacially one that has a japanese root, since from what you know of their history and culture, evil things tend to be particularly evil. Not so much like how an evil fairy would pluck out your teeth in repayment for you leaning upon their log home to rest.

The japanese mythological evil tends to be massive storms and curses that turn you inside out, or into a spirit with an giant eyeball in it's anus. Though the last one is hyperbole, the spirit is recorded, and is... at least humorous.

The Haunting Gate...? Actually.. Perhaps... perhaps its because the icon is a ghost?

Ah, it should be fine.

OsvaldSalt: Since i'm nearby my computer, I believe I shall enter it in.
OsvaldSalt: If we end up at another password wall,
OsvaldSalt: I shall be most disappointed.

Now, despite the fact he is extremely cool about it all, the rate at which he hops onto his computer and works his computer to open the program, well, lets say he was most definitely not excited. Not in the least.

Now where... Ah, there it is, he squinted as the light coming in from outside seemed to glare off the screen, as if the sun were desperately battling the machine for attention. He struggled on, getting to the prompt to enter the password... Now lets see... hmm.. No sense trying to screw with it. Best he enter it in english first.

Typing away, the sun got worse... Truely annoyingly so!

Finishing, he lets out a soft sigh, like how one needs to get up from what they were doing to let the dog out. He pressed enter and stands up, walking towards the window and drawing the curtains, shading the room from it's demanding presence. Now all that lit up the room, was the many lights of electronics, the computer screen and a set of lamps above.

if this were to dissappoint him, he may have to use that photo as a lead to find people linked to this game...
 
As your computer turns, and converts the letters into input, and activates functions within the program.

After a few seconds, the screen updates, and a very simplistic live of text appearing to you.

WELCOME, MR. SALT.

YOU ARE THE SECOND PLAYER.

BEGINNING ROUND...

PLEASE USE PROVIDED MATERIALS TO DRAW A CIRCLE AROUND STARTING AREA.

A small white arrow appears in the bottom right corner pointing off to he screen, and onto the desk which was previously illuminated by the sun.
Lying there, is a perfectly chipped piece of chalk.

Orikanyo Orikanyo
 
Osvald turned back to his computer and....

Salt close up.png ....

Chalk...?

And the computer...?

His hand hovers over the chalk for a moment, before he eyes the room. There was no chalk here before, the computer was speaking to him directly and the alarm system was still armed... And noteably not active. Even his computer, with it's sophisticated technology, was not automaticly having a shitfit, technical term, about what was currently going on... He'd call it clever for reading the owner name of the computer and playing all cute and mysterious...

But... The chalk...

The only chalk he owns is far and away from here... And definitly none in the building.

But here it was, it's cheeky appearance dictated to be used by the screen...

Humph...

Well well... Guess he may as well play along for a little bit... He already passed the Haunting Gate, he may as well see it to the end... Papa didn't raise no quitter after all. He graps the chalk, testing it with his fingers, it felt like chalk, smelled like chalk, hr wasn't about to taste it. So... Well... Best he get on with it.

If he was going to jump into a death curse game he may aswell be punctual about it.

Grasping the chalk with practiced hands he began with a circle, it was not a perfect circle, given he was human and inable to make one, but his hardwood floors would appeeciate a cleaning later.

After he was done summoning the devil of course, its only proper that he should.

Basic curtousy.
 
While Leo didn't share Osvald's knowledge of language or Japanese culture he agreed that it sounded shady. Still if Osvald, the most likely target of any schemes in their group of friends, was willing to risk it so was he.


PoisonBullet: "Sucks that I can't share the code but oh well."
PoisonBullet: "They'll understand."


Checking back on the updates he saw it would take about another five minutes, time he killed by checking on a few webcomics. Before long it was his turn to enter the code.


PoisonBullet: "Hey Sara, just in case how much would it cost for you to fix my computer if something does go wrong here?"


Despite his reservations Leo typed in "Tatari-mon " and waited to see what would happen.
 
xXPhoenix_FlareXx: I agree with ossie, it is pretty suspicious
xXPhoenix_FlareXx: Are you sure you didn't run into a yo-kai??


While Japanese mythology wasn't your field of expertise, you did know a lot about mythology in general. It came with witchcraft, you can be as eclectic as you want or do as much chaos magic as your heart desired, but knowing why specific items had specific meanings was pretty important. Also you had a mythology phase in elementary school. But that's besides the point. The dev guy didn't look weird, but that didn't rule anything out. Tons of entities disguised themselves for one reason or another. Well, you weren't about to mess with spirits unprepared!

You went over to your self and pulled out three items. The first one was a journal. The cover was blank expect for the words "Property of Phoebe Lee" the P being replaced with the symbol for phosphorus. Or at least it seemed blank, if you angled the book just right you could see sigils and phrases written in a pearlescent off white, almost unnoticeable. It was your Grimoire, the book that held every bit of research you had done, every spell you knew and every almost supernatural event you've experienced. It also had all you sigils, which you might need soon.

The second item was a charm. Iron wire twisted into the shape of a heart around a piece of obsidian and strung on a red ribbon. It was your protection charm, and it had taken forever to make. After several hours of failed attempts and pinched fingers you had decided that no, you are not doing stuff with wires. Not in a million years. You slid the necklace over your head and tucked the charm into your hoodie.

And the final item was a candle, just one way more protection oriented than the one you had lit a few minutes ago. You set it next to the other candle and light it. Okay, that should be it. You click over to Mono and entered "Tatari-mon". Time to start this game.
 
As you finish the small circle, a disconcerting noise beeps from your computer, and the chalk around you turns into gas, floating up into oblivion.
The screen has updated to one with red text.

ERROR: INSTRUCTIONS NOT FOLLOWED.

SPECIFICATION NEEDED: PLEASE CIRCLE ENTIRE PLAYING AREA IN CHALK, FROM EXTERIOR OF PLAYING AREA.

SPECIFICATION NEEDED: PLAYING AREA SPECIFIES BUILDING OF PLAYER.
Orikanyo Orikanyo
- - - - - - - - - -
As your computer works, and converts the letters into input, and activates functions within the program.

After a few seconds, the screen updates, and very simple lines of text appear to you.

WELCOME, MR. EADY.

YOU ARE THE THIRD PLAYER.

BEGINNING ROUND...

PLEASE USE PROVIDED MATERIALS TO DRAW A CIRCLE AROUND PLAYING AREA.


An arrow at the bottom of the screen points at the floor, where a small paintbrush has appeared, along with an inkwell.
Venchi1986 Venchi1986
- - - - - - - - - - - -
As your computer works, and converts the letters into input, and activates functions within the program.

After a few seconds, the screen updates, and very simple lines of text appear to you.

WELCOME, MS. LEE.

YOU ARE THE FOURTH PLAYER.

BEGINNING ROUND...

PLEASE USE PROVIDED MATERIALS TO DRAW A CIRCLE AROUND PLAYING AREA.


A ballpoint pen is located under the guise of an arrow on the screen, blinking periodically.
GamerKitty205 GamerKitty205
 
Oh. Oh no. That pen definitely was not there before. Unless... You look over to your desk. Nope, all of your pens are in the pencil cup. After a moment of hesitation you pick up the pen. It doesn't seem particularly odd. It just looks like a ballpoint pen. It isn't even a fancy fountain pen.

You stand up and survey your room. What do it mean by playing area? Well, obvious the area you're playing in, but do you get to just... decide? You contemplate drawing the circle around your room, but that seems a bit... small? Maybe? You honestly have no idea, but the bigger the better, right? Your entire house should be big enough. You grab your laptop and walk downstairs.

Hmm, you wonder how your supposed to draw a circle in your house. There's too many walls and pieces of furniture to make a connected circle. Wait! You can just make the circle outside. You leave your house and after a few minutes of trying to figure out how to write on grass you decide that you can just write on trees and fences and whatever. After a few minutes you make a vague circle shape, sure there's a few holes in-between the trees you wrote on, but it surrounds your house and most of your backyard so it should be good enough. You look back at your laptop.
 
....

............

...................

Excuse me...?

OsvaldSalt: This is going to take some time.

Encircling your mansion with chalk... Great. Just what you wanted to do on this fine... Actually you don't remember what day it was. Huh, odd. Either way, with a soft sigh you exit your rooim and begin traversing the halls. Around you as you walk doing the corridors you are examined by the unfocused eyes of paintings that your father had collected during his life time, you have a tie to most ancient artifacts, but him? paintings, many paintings. Some macabre, some nice and light, some just plain ghoulish.

Oh all the things you'd like to see in the middle of the night is not one of the magnificently horrid landscapes of H.R. Giger. While his art is truely, TRUELY unique, it is also not very pleasant, and does not help one who has to traverse a immense mansion at night in a lightning storm.

What? You thought Salt had no such thing as fear?

He is only human after all.

And that humanity is what shall be making him encircle his whole damn house in the chalk...

Oh what a lovely scenario this will be if it somehow meant his damned bedroom.

Or it'll come up with some lackadaisical excuse such a "play area too big" or some drivel like that.

If he wanted to contact the devil he surely could come up with a better way than this?

Hes tried and failed once before, for consultation purposes thank you, the communication between damned beast and humanity in regards to the true worth of a soul has been nonexsistant at best. How is one to know how much a soul is truely worth on speculation or trusting a word of a singular agent of hell or heaven alone? That'd be like judging the price of a gold bar on what a hobo says in the street in return for a sandwich.

First of all, help that man living in the street hes cold and hungry, get him a job and a place to live for abit to get his life together! Second of all, he has no knowledge in regards to the worth of the gold to no fault of his own. It's good to sell, sure, everyone knows gold is worth alot, but how much does it REALLY have in worth?

The soul is gold, true worth is not known, but it is kn own it HAS worth.

But in a situation in which he had nothing, he'd take a sandwich over gold, you can do more with a sandwich. Therefore, it has more worth in that scenario. yes it can be traded for more sandwiches but come on we're doing this mental exercise in a vaccuum thank you...

Ah yes, the foyer, took awhile to get here, two arched staircases leading down to the bottom floor with a fountain admist it's middle, the fountain isn't turned on, so, no water spouting about but it's still flowing to keep it clean. Saltwater, of course. Atop the fountain is a statue, not made of salt, was a rather well done copy of the statue in Paris of the same make. The archangel Michael defeating Satan in the war of the heavens. Your mother quite liked statues, no less problematic at night, but this piece was always nice to see, made of marble and a copy due to the fact you definitly couldn't just take the thing away. Plus, it was too big.

From what you know of the archangel hes a protective figure, worshiped by those of whom are to protect and seek protection. He has a place in Jewish, Catholic and mentioned once in the Quran. An avenger and a protector.

Ah, no time to busy yourself with such things, best you get to doing your duty...

Thankfully, or rather not, your place of living is surrounded by a gate and fence... A fence that is also containing a rather large garden... that you need to walk around...

Bugger...

This better be worth it!

Exiting the gate, you close it behind you, it locks with a metallic thunk and clack of the electronic latches, you feel the eyes of your security Ai on you, possibly wondering what you are doing like a impressive and curious dog.

You'd opt for actual dogs, but... Well... You prefer them to be happy as pets to good families than... Well.. guarding this place. Plus, animals are dirty. Machines are clean. ish.

....

You stare at the long walk around the place ahead of you, and sigh once more...

Puting the chalk to the stone brick wall, you begin to walk through the grassy path...
 
As you finish the majority of what can barely be described as a circle, a small beep can be heard from the program.

INSTRUCTIONS COMPLETE.

WAITING FOR OTHER PLAYERS...

TIP: HAVE ALL NECESSARY EQUIPMENT CAPTCHALOGUED AND/OR EQUIPPED. MAKE SURE ALL LOVED ONES ARE IN SAFE AND STABLE LOCATIONS. IT IS ADVISORY TO MOVE INDOORS.
 
Hydraroll404: Time?
Hydraroll404: Did something come up?
Hydraroll404: I've been staring at this Player Count screen for a few hours and nothing's happened.
Hydraroll404: Got connection issues or something?
Hydraroll404: And I'm sure the dude wasn't a spirit or something.
Hydraroll404: You can't see it because of the reflection, but he works at a local IT company in Hokkaido.
Hydraroll404: Asked my dad and everything, it seems legit.
Hydraroll404: And I mean, I haven't had any bugs yet, I'm sure we'll all be fine.
Hydraroll404: Any news on your guys' side?
 
OsvaldSalt: Need to make a chalk circle all around my home.
OsvaldSalt: If you don't know, that is a very big place.
OsvaldSalt: If this ends up causing my home to be haunted they will have to fight for supremacy against the already present specters.
OsvaldSalt: They have been there a long time, so I am certain they will succeed.
OsvaldSalt: Devil you know is better than one you don't after all.
OsvaldSalt: I am a quarter of the way done.
 
You stare blankly at the screen. What. This just keeps getting weirder and weirder. You quickly go back inside your house. Might as well start with checking on your parents. You wander around until you find yourself in front of your parent's room. The light is on and you can hear sounds that are probably a TV show? Yep, some kind of mystery. Well, you don't know anywhere more "safe and stable" than their own bedroom, so that's done. Well... loved ones would most likely include your friends and all the family that don't reside in your house. Then again that's outside the playing area so maybe not? You sigh and go back to your room.

xXPhoenix_FlareXx: Oof, that sucks :(
xXPhoenix_FlareXx: hopefully you won't run out of chalk before you finish!
xXPhoenix_FlareXx: oh, and i just finished the marking out your playing area thing
xXPhoenix_FlareXx: but I think I need to wait for everyone else?


You look at the other half of the tip. Right, equipment. What would count as necessary equipment? Hmm, you're just going to start with stuff you might need later. You captchalogue scissors because snapping those bracelets can be difficult and you also captchalogue your grimoire, you don't want to lose that. What else would be helpful? You recaptchalogue your lighter, and grab a few others, one that looks like a deck of card and one that looks like a sword. You'd rather not lose them.

xXPhoenix_FlareXx: It also says to get all necessary equipment??
xXPhoenix_FlareXx: But I have no idea what to get ._.
 
Sara hadn't been responding...


But there was a very reasonable explanation for that, as not long after Gyro had explained the odd circumstances of him running into one of Mono's devs, Sara had heard the front door of her apartment being thrown open. Usually she would just associate such things with her sister, as the little gremlin had a habit of indignantly throwing doors open and closed loudly to garner attention. But this was different. Compared to the pathetic slams her sister managed to accrue, the force of this strike had wound up causing something to shatter. Even the walls shook a bit, with a grunt of distaste accompanying them.

These were the telltale signs of her older brother being home, which immediately threw up alarm bells for her. Her brother rarely came home, as his life was far too occupied with being a super epic criminal running gangs and shady syndicates of dealers or something cool like that. The girls could go months without him showing up, and the fact that he showed up just now the moment she obtained the Keycode for MONO was nothing less than eerie for her.

She would've loved to get right onto investigating that mysterious code, but knew that it was customary to at least greet him now that he was home. Briefly looking back to her computer, Sara wheeled herself over to her door, briefly wondering whether he'd ask about the keytar embedded in it or not. She shrugged it off, figuring that she could just leave it for if he brings it up, and rolled out the door to the rest of her apartment.

It was dim beyond the confines of her room, with most windows having their curtains drawn and the skylight above long-since painted over. Couldn't give any federal agents any openings in case they were tracked down after all. But because of this, Sara initially had trouble seeing from the doorway. Their individual bedrooms were arranged on the sides of the living room, which was split into a kitchen unit. Sara's in particular was aimed directly at the front door, which made it easy for her to retrieve the plethora of packages she ordered regularly. But it had never been so dark before.

It quickly became apparent what the reason for the unusually high levels of darkness were today, as beside the front door was the broken lamp that was usually left on in the day. Hunched over it was the massive form of her big brother, which blocked her view of the door as he angrily pawed at the broken lamp. Apparently he'd knocked it over on his way in. Given how agitated he usually was when he came back, this was most definitely not what he needed at that moment.

Sara: Hey Bro! Glad to see you back again!
Sara: Bet you made all kinds of fat stacks, eh?


Big Brother's head leaned up at first, but he didn't look to her. Instead he sighed and rose to his full height before pulling off his filthy gloves and setting them on a nearby coffee table.

Sara: Yeah, shame about the lamp or whatevs, but I know exactly who to call for an even better one!
Sara: Bonus, we ain't gotta pay a dime for it. There's about twelve different chumps online who'd gladly donate whatever funds I need.


Big Brother didn't respond at first, merely grunted before pulling out a cigarette and lighting it before bending down and hauling the broken lamp through the living room. He dragged the broken lamp into his room before locking the door behind him, which made Sara sigh as she leaned back in her chair. Life as a super criminal must've been really stressful, as it was the same routine every time he visited. He'd mope around his room for a few days, come out and be more talkative for another two then be off again with little fanfare.

She'd have to wait for him to relax before she could enjoy another thrilling tale of evading pursuit and making bank.

As she turned towards her door again, she glanced towards another door that been haphazardly painted black and covered in white symbols. Perhaps it would've looked cooler if the symbols didn't still have the watermarks from the websites they were printed from, but Sara wasn't about to give her sister the benefit of the doubt. The little gremlin didn't even have the decency to come out just to say hey to her super criminal gangster brother. This was only one of the many reasons that Sara was an objectively superior sibling, but she wouldn't focus on that now.

She had a mystery that needed seeing to.

While mulling over the nature of the Keycode's vernacular could've been revealing, Sara instead turned her attention to the code once more. She'd never intended to enter the game first, not with all these crazy syntax stuff going on behind the scenes. Having moved the game over to its own computer separate from all her important machines, it was free to release whatever madness was contained on the system with no added risk.

PumpingHeart: Sorry guys, my badass bro showed up and needed the greetings of his awesome lil sis.
PumpingHeart: Since none o' ya'll up and died, guess its safe to run on something
PumpingHeart: Though if Lil Leo's worry comes true, I could always send ya'll one o my beasts to replace whatever comps ya wreck. They come prepackaged with all kinds of fun! LOL


Just as she was about to enter the game, she looked over its code one more time.

Something had changed.

Many of the more odd lines of data were now active, moving in unusual ways that Sara couldn't accurately describe.

Gyro's story about running into the dev had been beyond suspicious to Sara the moment she'd heard it, and the fact that many of the others agreed was no surprise. Now the Game's code seemed as though it was altering itself, and the only reason Sara could come up with for such a change was that is was responding to others entering the keycode. Between the ominous way Gyro had just stumbled upon one of the Game's devs, the convenient arrival of her usually absent brother and the drastic changes of the game's code were piquing Sara's curiosity more and more.

Outside her window, she could hear ole Brutus start barking at something outside. She'd cheer him on in a bit, now was the time for mysteries and maniacs.

So she entered the code: 'Tatari-mon'
 
As your computer works, and converts the letters into input, and activates functions within the program, the code begins to shift...

After a few seconds, the screen updates, and very simple lines of text appear to you.

WELCOME, MS. BELLUM.

YOU ARE THE FINAL PLAYER.

BEGINNING ROUND...

PLEASE USE PROVIDED MATERIALS TO DRAW A CIRCLE AROUND PLAYING AREA.


A small glowing arrow appears on the screen, pointing at a can of spray-paint that was now inexplicably in your lap.
GrieveWriter GrieveWriter
 
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