”The bleeding seems to have stopped.” Isaiah stood up with a sigh.
”The others are looking over the this floor pretty closely, let’s take a peak at the fifth floor.” The fifth floor looked like an island paradise. It was hard to tell what nation this killing game was based off of, but some of the wallpaper seemed to be inspired by computer glitches. That or the floor was unfinished. It was hard to say for sure.
Much like the forth floor, the medical room was one giant room. But this one had a strange contraption in the middle of it. A pillar surrounded by coffin shaped pods.
”The flip is this?” Ice’s arms were trembling. It was hard to tell if it was from blood loss or fear.
"Weird. What do you think this is??" Alice asked, looking over the room. With Henry busy trying to uncover anything from the computer on the fourth floor, that left her and Isaiah to look around.
Soon enough she stumbled upon a folder, possibly explaining the weird pods in the room.
"Isaiah, come look at this!" she called over to him, reading through the folder.
”Hmm?” Isaiah stepped beside Alice.
”Neo World Project? What is this talking about?” And so they read. They learned about the killing school trip. They learned about the remnants of despair, the Neo World Program, and the future foundation’s involvement. The report was very detailed.
”It’s almost impossible to believe.” Isaiah was looking at the end of the report.
”Some nutjob computer was going to download itself into a bunch of people? Sounds like science fiction.” Ice looked at one of the pods a bit closer.
”If Davis is so smart, I wonder why he didn’t put us in these things. Would make running an infinite killing game a lot easier.” "Either it was too much of a risk to fail again, or our beloved mastermind was too prideful to try it and see." Alice suggested, shrugging.
"Then again, concidering there are multiple killing games, maybe some were unfortunate to be in these sorts of machines. Who knows, but let's not give him any ideas, yeah?" Isaiah turned his back to the strange contraption.
”If the beansprout was true to his word, this would already be over.” Ice walked away.
”We should show this to the others when they come up, let’s see if there’s anything in the other towers.” Alice nodded, following him.
"Right, let's go."
Henry had found a laptop to hook into the main database. While Zachary and Jezebel inspected the surface level, Henry would see if he could get to the deeper stuff. Things that Davis didn’t want them to know.
Henry did come across a large cluster of encrypted files. Hundreds of folders with names like INI_716B and INI_341A sprawled the screen. The files were massive, but it was difficult to tell what they were even for. There was no execute file or anything to suggest another program could read them.
"The hell...?" the pianist groaned in annoyance.
"Come on, there has to be a way to bypass the security on this thing, you've delt with crap like this before!" he talked to himself, in his attempt to break into the files. Even if he was focused, it wasn't hard to tell it was irritating him, just a little.
Deciphering encrypted files was no small task, even for a seasoned hacker. Henry had none of his software for the job, and it wasn’t like he could install a key logger on Davis’s computer anyway. If he wanted to get to the bottom of this, he was going to have to search the network for clues and see if there was a program that made use of all this data. The master folder was called “NEO_WLD_SAV.” it was his hope that this would help guide his search.
There weren’t a lot of computers on the network, active or otherwise. There was one called “SISTER,” which might have been used to controll all the carnage sisters, as well as the data center he was jacked into. There were a few other computers with names like “OFFICE1”, which were presently offline. Most promising was one called “NEO_WLD_PROG,” which was too curiously named to simply ignore. Though as soon as he
thought to click on it, a text window opened up. It looked like a command prompt, but messages were being sent to Henry.
A> Hey!
A> What's the big idea?
A> Why are you surfing the network?
A> There's not really anything interesting on the other computers. Just some old files.
A> Unless you include me. :)
Henry flinched when the text prompt opened up. Yet it turned into confusion when someone, or something started to talk to him.
"What kind of mind fuckery is this?" He hesitantly typed back.
H> Who is this? Certainly can't be that Monika chick, can't it?
A> You can call me Alter Ego.
A> Can’t wait to meet all of your friends. :)
A> But it’s too soon for that, and the other computers are off limits.
A> So you're going to have to stop here.
H> What happens if I don't?
H> And what do you mean by "too soon" to meet us??
A> Well, I guess I’ll have to take measures to ensure that you don’t.
A> But it would be better if you just listened to me, like we were old friends. :)
A> I mean I’ll get to meet you in person! This interface is a little limited.
H> Oh, fine. But you owe me for this.
A> I’ll see about getting you candy when this is all over :)
A> See you soon, Henry!
Henry stared at the last message from Alter Ego, ever dumbfounded. How did it know him if he didn't introduce himself properly?
"What the hell." Best to hold onto the laptop for a while, he thought.