The Hacker - Aiden Mitnick

"This is the place. Are you ready to turn it on?" A man, who was wearing cheap armor and a dagger on his belt, was talking out loud. He was standing in front of an abandoned house. The house was in the city but isolated with no one else passing by.

"You know, if you want to be strong, why don't you play the game like everyone else, Aiden?" A voice of a man responded to him directly into his mind. "Just look at you… you are still level 10 after two years of playing. Hell, you did not even play the game. You spent all your time trying to hack this beginner area with nothing to show for it." He said, sounded frustrated.

"This time, it is different. Ever since this DVRMMO came out, many people have been trying to hack it and failed, and got banned. And you know how risky to hack this game. Once you get banned, you can never return to this game. So, I've been ever so cautious in doing over the years."

Aiden could hear the voice sighed after he said that.

"Alright, whatever. Do not blame me once you get ban, and when you do, I will enjoy Verse-Way without worrying about getting ban myself… For all the misdeeds you have done, I will watch you with kind eyes, Zell."

"Haha, don't kill me off just yet." Zell was his character's name, but everyone that knew him in real life just called him by his real name instead of his in-game name.

"Alright, whatever Aiden. I am starting the program. Hopefully, you did not make any error in your program since you only got one shot in this," With that said, he cut off his communication with Aiden.

Aiden Mitnick stood there patiently with a happy face. He spent so many hours and sleepless night for this moment. He remembered staying up for days learning everything he could from other hackers like himself. He even knew more about the games, then many other veteran players thanks to an exclusive group he joined.

Aiden was one of the 26 hackers in the group called Autolycus. When they first started, the forum was lively. Many hackers there presented their theories on how to hack the game, and valuable information about the world of Verse-Way that they found out through unconventional means. But over time, many of them got banned. Since they banned people through genetic DNA, it was impossible to make a new account. Thus, they have to give up the game for good.

Now Autolycus was down to only two people who were still trying to hack the game.

However, no matter what happened, the information about Autolycus would never be leaked. There was a saying that slowly molded Autolycus until today.

"For all the misdeeds you have done, I will watch you with kind eyes," Aiden said to himself as he recalled the saying. It was a saying whenever someone in the group got banned from the game.

Hackers were people society did not like to exist, and especially in the gamer community. If any information about them got leaked, many death threats would come to the members of Autolycus or even worse.

In the end, the only people who can protect them were each other.

"He should be almost done. I should get into position." Aiden went inside the cold abandon house. Since the game first launched day, this abandoned house had always been empty. No one knew the story on why, not even Aiden. Some said a developer who worked on i died, and no one else finished what he had started.

The only reason Aiden came here was to test out his hack. The hack only works at this specific place.

Aiden went down the basement until he stopped at one of the four corners of the walls. On that one corner, there was a thin crack going from the ceiling to the floor.

"If the program worked, I should be able to fit inside." He was not sure if his friend activated the program, or if it works. Nonetheless, he casually walked straight ahead like the walls did not exist. As he expected, he walked through the thin crack like it was a wide hallway — the space bend around him as he walked through it.

Once inside, there was only darkness. Aiden scratched his thin beard as he looked back at the crack behind him. It was the only light he could see.

"Where is this place? This reminds of a game where the character would clip through walls until everything turns black."

Aiden continued to walk into the depth of darkness. The program only allowed him to walk through the crack, but it did not help him after that.

After walking for several minutes, he could not see the light coming from the crack anymore.

Seeing there was nothing here, Aiden sighed.

"This is a dud. After all that work, there is nothing here." Aiden was hugely disappointed. "I should just play the game legitly after this and retired from hacking this game before I get caught…"

With that said, he brought out the game menu. The menu appeared in front of his face with a logout button.

Just as he was about to press it, he heard a slight humming noise.

"What is that?" He surprised by the sound after several minutes of walking in silence. The sound reminded him of white noise.

He waved his menu away and tried to look for the source of the sound.

He tried walking closer to it, but the volume stayed the same. It was like he was walking on a treadmill. He never felt that he was getting closer to the source.

"Is this a glitch? I will need to investigate this..." Aiden was not about to give up now. He obtained new information that could change how he approaches things. But the only information he got to work with was just the sound. He was no expert in extracting sound for information, however, he knew someone that could, but that person disappeared from Autolycus soon after she got banned.

"She did teach me a bit before she left, but hopefully that is enough to figure out whatever is happening here," Aiden said but did not feel hopeful in solving it.

He sat down to prevent any movement. The white sound was quiet, so he needed to be still to hear it clearly.

After listening for almost an hour, Aiden smiled.

"The noise is a pattern after all with sequences in it. But I do not know what it means? I need to ask an expert on this... I am going to log out now..." Even though Aiden could not solve it, he had obtained valuable information.

Just as he pressed the log button, he made a confused look.

"Why can't I log out?"