-- Log Start: User AT1067
A log has been started regarding the actions of user AT1067, hereby referred to as "Merrick", due to R&D concerns about database exposure. This log includes personal information and detailed accounts of Merrick's actions outside of Dungeons Below and should not be used for any purpose other than protecting Mouseion's assets.
Notice: While it cannot be confirmed with Mouseion's resources, Merrick should be considered awakening to the true nature of the system.
After coming into contact with key system resources, he was knocked unconscious and forced to spend time offline. During that time, a crime was reported by Merrick at a local convenience store where he witnessed the aftermath of an armed robbery. Once medical services arrived and the authorities were on the scene, Merrick proceeded to research crime in his neighborhood and then was in contact with a cyber criminal to get information about the criminal organization supporting the majority of crimes in his area.
For several hours, Merrick's computer systems were encrypted. It is impossible to tell if this was crypto-malware deployed by the cyber criminal or if the cyber criminal assisted Merrick in obfuscating their communications.
The next day, Merrick's system came back online and he resumed playing Dungeons Below. It should be noted that all of his systems except for his mobile phone and laptop have returned to their previous unencrypted state.
Several of the names that came up in Merrick's investigation into his neighborhood have been brought in for questioning by the police. A few arrests have been made, including the perpetrator of the armed robbery at Merrick's local convenience store.
It is unclear if Merrick was related to these arrests or if he is even aware of them.
End of log. --
Alex leaned back in her chair after reading through the log. It would become a problem if Merrick, the user in question, ended up uncovering the truth. If he was the one who informed the police, then what would stop him from doing the same to Mouseion? Though he would need to go to much larger authority than just the City's Police Department to get anything done.
Either way, Alex's primary goal was to stop him from accessing the system's core functions. He had already come in contact with System Resources. That was bad enough but Alex held out hope that he either did not understand what he was seeing. Either that or Merrick had interpreted the System Resources as a part of the game and nothing more. That would be the best outcome for now.
Alex's own investigation turned up only bad news, however. The original developer who had built the Elemental Cage, as well as the Dungeon inside of it, was nowhere to be found.
Before publishing the code to the game's library, the developer had removed all comment blocks and so even after reading through hundreds of pages filled with dozens of lines of code, Alex only had the vaguest idea of how exactly they had implemented the Core Functions. It was clear that it was split into four sections of the dungeon but her attempts to divine the identity of those four sections were also unsuccessful.
She had copied down the appropriate sections of code from the live environment and tried to run them as a test, but without querying the database directly, Alex was unable to see proper results. Her last resort was to try and run the tests against the live environment. Even though she knew that was a terrible option that no one should even consider, Alex was tempted.
As she readied the test, however, the system itself alerted her to something she had not expected.
--User currently interacting with System Resources
Applying test conditions may result in data corruption--
Alex pushed away from her desk, the wheels of the chair rolled along the floor as she slowly spun in an arc to look out the window at the city that normally loomed behind her like impending doom.
"Where are you?" She was thinking of the developer.
The city was vast, each district seemed to be as large as other metropolises. Her eyes scanned from East to West. The Residential District with its cookie-cutter apartment buildings and shotgun houses. The Old Quarter where an ancient hill was dotted with antique manors.
Then the Stockyards, which was little more than a commercial behemoth of warehouses, shipping lanes, train yards, and docks. From her perspective, each district was separated by the towers of the Financial Quarter. Mouseion's building was just one of many. There were a few more districts but of all that she could see, Alex's eyes floated upward toward the horizon.
A technological marvel hovered just beyond the Stockyards over the bay. A mass of circuitry, earth, and metal floated in the air suspended by modern miracles. It was a restricted area that had appeared a few years prior and due to a government contract being awarded to a separate department of Mouseion, no one outside of the company was allowed access.
Alex stood up and walked back to her desk, her mind still on the floating miracle. She tapped the corner of the desk to activate the voice commands and said, "Search entry records of Port Brave for any anomalies since the launch of Dungeons Below."
--Searching--
--One result found--
Alex viewed the result and accidentally slammed her fist down on the desk in frustration, shattering the surface. That explained why there had been no public record of the developer she had been looking for. They had entered Port Brave the day after publishing their code.
With her desk ruined, Alex left her office and headed for a certain bookstore.