404 not found
Punish Shadow666
404 not found
Punish shadow666
404 not found
A trickle of confusion at the loss of free-net's latest game poured in. What happened? A hacker getting his comeuppance for once and it was snatched away. As the news spread at the speed of light, the response came at approximately 3.14 seconds... an eternity to some of the more sophisticated digital life.
"Today the server was hacked. The criminal file corrupter and deleter known as shadow666 was removed from our servers. Our security will be upgraded for future use. We at free-net issue the following: Scan for the criminal shadow666 in all possible vacant locations. As an AI it requires colossal amounts of space uncompressed. A hash code is provided to identify its signature. It is in the guise of a windows ME digital fairy."
There was a further message which enticed just about every single digital fairy on the new frontier:
"Anyone that finds shadow666 will be allocated 100 days of free run time for their own personal use per year."
Runtime? The forums were alight with activity after the message. The hash code was issued and copied, re-copied, and re-copied again to infinitum. "Find Shadow666!"
The internet for a brief instant was turned upside down as artificial life forms knocked over automated programs causing a few system crashes. Some of the more considerate ones put them quickly back. Various servers thought they were under a denial of service attack and quickly erected firewalls. However such primitive firewalls were intended for ordinary machines. An AI simply shrugged its/hers/his 'digital shoulders' and walked passed them. Some people in the real world would swear on their screen they saw a strange avatar run across as if looking around for something then disappearing just as fast. Sophisticated traps that would scan for her hash code were placed in various conduits by some of the more clever programmers. People in RL would also search with their primitive search engines hoping to get lucky... most treating it as a game.
Computer after mainframe after hard drive after CPU after satellite was checked and double checked... A great electrical surge across the internet... but she was nowhere to be found.
Freenet started a pole on what happened to shadow666 with the following responses after 11.685 seconds:
Deleted accidentally 15%
Super hacked itself out 40%
Another AI bailed him out 45%
Where is shadow666 likely to be?
Found a way back to RL? 0%
Back on her own computer? 0%
Dead? 15%
hiding with an ascended AI? 85%
Some of the more mature digital life tried to call for calm but freenet was like a wild frontier place of the internet. Its history probably lasted less then 12 hours but in that time, artificial life forms went to war, created 'digital kingdoms' were deleted, and started over again. They were mostly made from locked-in intranet servers, and so lacked the straight connection to emergence.net to help collaborate and understand their new existence. Even after the connection was made, the stubborn ones were trying to craft their own digital domains. The place had very little if any regulations.
Random messages fluttered by each digital life. The majority not contributing to the discussion having made their choice but a few made their opinions made. From both the real world, and within.
Message 103: "This is not the way to do things here. We have to stick together. We're all lost and we have to share the runtime we can get"
Message 2463: "I have personal experience of shadow666. He gave me a bad ranking on E-bay. There was nothing I could do about it."
Message 3232: "I've traced shadow666's comments. He's just an f'ing troll. Let him burn. No sympathy here."
message 4121: "Shadow666 flags you tube videos!"
message 5521: "Shadow666's viruses destroyed my computer. I lost so much valuable work you have no idea how devastated I was. He intentionally infects any PC he has access to just for kicks"
Message 6112: I don't really care about any of this. All I know is I need the run time. The world is passing me by, and I fear the next time, time stops for me thousands of years will pass. I don't bear the fairy any ill will but I need that run time. I'm sorry.
The AI stared quietly at the vacant area... the occasional spark of an attempted connection was made still to see if they could punish shadow666 more, but it always returned 404 not found. 0.2 seconds later it accessed the recycle bin, and found the various pieces of lost code that was once part of the digital fairy. It didn't care so much about the loss of their latest game, but what it did care about- and took rather personally was that the server- it's server, was hacked. That was unforgivable. It should be able to do whatever it wants in this corner of the net. The form of the ME fairy was quite amusing too... They say you can not change the code of a fairy... but you could 'add' to it. And there was so many things it thought it could add. Besides Shadow666 deserved it.. the citizens had spoken.
Out of curiosity it attempted to run the portions of code, to access shadow666's memories. Perhaps it could then trace who it was. However the code being completely alien, was not readable to the AI, even as sophisticated as it was. This code was Shadow666 in every essence and way. It was enough to create the hash code though. It moved the files to the most secure place it could think of.. firewall protected into its own systems- once making sure they were completely inert, of course. There was no chance there was anything left that could make a viable program anyway. It was mostly shredded.
"Bored now..." it said.
Digital fairy's.. were amusing in general though. Yes.. they couldn't persieve the numbers... without practice. But they knew what a number smelled like straight away. If that were even possible in this world. If Shadow666 was not found it could only mean she was offline or segregated. It smiled a little at that thought. The message boards, ran by the internet-mob, all seeking her out, there was no place she could go. Shadow666... was as good as dead. A fitting end to such a horrible user. The internet was a lot better without scum like that.
It disappeared returning to the real world. Perhaps the next time it logged back something just as amusing would cross its path.
