Chapter Text
Two Days Before Launch
“So you are sure there won’t be a way to trace my connection once I go live?” Alya asked as she peered over Max’s shoulder while he typed away furiously.
“It would be highly improbable that they will be able to track the connection or even realize you are the one recording.” Max replied, pushing his glasses up further onto his nose as he turned to look at her. “I have been able to direct your headset to have it connect with the visual and auditory AI inside their own system once you log in. You won’t be recording visually as much as you will duplicate the illusion of what is being sent to your brain so it can be unspooled into a traditional video format for uploading to the blog.”
Alya nodded and smiled, thankful to have such a gifted hacker on her team.
“So if what I am seeing will be shown to everyone, should we be worried that I’ll be hanging out with Marinette or others from our class in game? What if they figure out who I am through their proximity?”
Max tilted his head and then began to type again.
“That’s a valid concern, but I can easily create a visual masking overlay that will alter any player data you are perceiving. Basically, once the visual or audio data leaves the headset and is encoded for video transfer, it will pass through the system’s character system and create a random overlay to alter each player’s appearance and blur user names on the HUD. Kind of like a magical glamor. And in the same way, speaking a name should simply cause it to be bleeped out. It’s very intuitive, and normally wouldn’t be possible in real time, but if the AI are as versatile as they claim then it will work like a charm.”
Alya plopped down in her chair with a sigh.
“I was hoping to not alter what the game is presenting. It may taint the presentation of my story and in turn my reputation as a seeker of the truth. I mean, the whole point of this is to find out just what these new game AIs Solitude has created are capable of and why the company is being all shady about it. I’m not sure my viewers will appreciate the altered imagery, especially on a blog known for its dedication to seeking the hidden truth.”
Max turned in his chair and considered her words before nodding.
“I wouldn't be concerned. Because the AI are the ones doing the work for us, what the video you take ultimately shows will be created by the AI on their own system. My program is simply instructing their AI to process the overlay on top of the work they are already doing. It’s the same reason they will not be able to track that you are even recording a live feed from inside the game world, it’s simply going to be part of the process according to their own systems, so it is like the game is giving players a new skin from within the options menu.”
Alya grinned.
“Have I ever told you that you are a genius?” She asked.
“I believe you did after I was able to get you that data proving that UsTube star was grooming twenty different fans, oh, and also when you had me look into FacePage’s illegal ad campaign.” Max said, looking off into space as he considered her question. “And then there was-”
Alya laughed and lightly punched him in the arm.
“I get it, I get it.” She mused with an affectionate smile. “You are the best partner an intrepid blogger could want. Part of me wonders though, if you are more responsible for the blog’s success than I am.”
Max shook his head.
“You were the one who even noticed the inconsistencies that led to us researching the stories in the first place.” Max said, turning back toward his computer. “Do not sell yourself short. After all, the infamous Lady WhyFi and her Ladyblog are known worldwide now. You were even offered that award in independent journalism for your work on the FacePage story. It’s a credit to your investigative diligence that they would recognize you at all, especially seeing that your name and face have never been revealed. I wonder what they would think if they discovered you are only fifteen.”
Alya looked over at the wall to see the award in question.
“I’m sure they would go ape sh-” Alya began to say but was cut off by her phone chiming with a text from Marinette. “Ah, it looks like Marinette is spiraling again about the fact Adrien will be playing with us. That girl acts like she doesn’t see him every day already.”
“I have noticed a consistency to her actions around our local classroom celebrity.” Max supplied. “Based on her inability to speak properly in person, and her ease at conversing normally in our group chat while he is present, it is highly probable that she assumes she will have better luck with an avatar in game.”
Alya grinned and hummed in agreement, sending a text off to Marinette to let her know she would be happy to be her wingwoman in game if she wanted. She then placed her phone down and picked up the free copy of Miraculous Tales that had been supplied by Adrien that morning. Launch was in one day, but being able to get their hands on the game so quickly had allowed Max to work his magic ahead of time so they would be ready.
Still, it was a surprise that the company would suddenly offer so many free copies to the game. Alya (and a lot of other people) had to cancel her own pre-purchases of the game when they found out they were being given the promotional copies simply because they lived in and around Paris where Solitude was located. This of course is what set off Alya’s ‘ Bullshit Detector™ ’.
From what she understood, nearly two million copies of the game were simply being given away, mainly to shareholders around the world, but it was the whole ‘every gamer in Paris thing’ that had taken the internet by storm. There was a small announcement on the card that came with each copy that explained the company was so proud of their new AI systems that they planned to earn most of their revenue from sales of the AI technology itself, and that the game was simply a platform to show off their capabilities. Sure the day after launch the game would still sell at normal price to those no in the promotional beta, but it was clear that the developers weren’t banking on that at all.
And yet this was clearly all a new turn of events, because as of the day before, the game was listed for sale as the most expensive VR game to date with no promotional copy in sight or announced to be coming. It was two hundred Euros for the game itself, and that wasn’t including the versions that came with a compatible headset if you didn’t already have one that was needed to play. But they even gave out the versions with the headsets to those who needed them, making a two thousand Euro product absolutely free. It was true that because of the community that the game was being catered to, most had the headsets already, but there were at least fifty to sixty thousand headsets sent out to those without, which would have set Solitude back quite a bit financially.
So, what exactly was driving this desire to get as many people to log in on day one as possible, if not the reason they stated? There was clearly more to this than anyone outside Solitude knew. In fact, Max had already been able to find a few encrypted inter-company memos that stated the marketing department there was up in arms about this sudden change and had been given NDA’s to stay quiet.
And yet, there were no NDA’s with the promotional product itself keeping the estimated two million early access users from spilling what they saw in the game once launch hit and they logged out again to share. Which was strange in itself. Most beta launches had players being informed that they would be legally unable to share their experiences so as to not taint the view of potential buyers, but there was no such statement included this time. All she could find was that there was a blurb in the user manual that stated that Solitude had taken steps to prevent outside programs and recording software from even being usable at all, to the dismay of many UsTube streamers.
Of course, they hadn’t taken one thing into account, and that was her partner in journalistic crime, Max Kante. His ability to reach into a computer's code and make it do his bidding was almost scary, but hopefully, with his help, she would be able to log into Miraculous Tales and find out the truth behind the developers strange actions.
Two Minutes After Launch
Something was definitely wrong.
Alya grabbed her head and tried to shake the dizziness from her sight, but it wasn’t working, instead it just left her more confused. After all, doing so meant her hands had come to rest on… was that fur?
Before she could wonder about it, the world around her shifted slightly and finally seemed to stop spinning, the various error texts on her HUD thankfully closing. Unfortunately, the noise she was hearing remained and was so unbearably loud that she found herself squeezing her eyes shut in response. It felt like her hearing was dialed up to ten.
“Woah, how did you get a fox avatar?” She barely perceived someone beside her asking, drawing Alya to open her eyes once more to look over and find a few players looking at her in question. “I thought humans were the only available race at launch? What gives?”
Alya blinked and looked down at her hands to find that the player was indeed correct. She apparently possessed a Volpina avatar, a race of foxes that she knew from the instruction manual were stated could be encountered as you progressed through the game. But she had manually made her character, it had been human, so how exactly did she…
“Are you a hacker?” Someone asked, causing Alya’s breath to hitch.
Her eyes went wide with realization and she quickly turned to run from the players who were asking her a million questions, or at this point, demanding answers from her. If she was correct, then Max had accidentally altered her character data when he allowed for her system to record to the blog. And if that was true, she worried what else might be happening to her, after all, the headache she was feeling was a bit overwhelming and probably not a good sign for her real world self’s wellbeing.
When she was finally alone in a small grove near the starter village, she tried to contact Max through the connection he had created for her, but there was no response. It seemed that his attempt to allow communication in lieu of the games systems had failed, which made her wonder if her recording was working either. If it wasn’t, then this entire endeavor would be for naught.
Well, there was only one way to find out if it was working. But she quickly discovered that the log out button was gone. And things just got worse from there.
Pain. Why was the pain so real here?
The company blaming a Virus? Doubtful, unless… were she and Max to blame for this?
Then there was the strange voice she was hearing in the back of her mind. It was tiny, almost imperceptible, but it was rambling, as if narrating everything she was seeing. Every object, every visual and auditory cue the game was creating, it was being spewed at her like noise. Regardless of how much information it was, she could hear and understand it all somehow. But damn did it give her a headache.
She found herself wandering, hoping to find anyone she knew, preferably a close friend from the real world. Which brought her to regret that she had been so caught up in her investigation that she hadn’t thought to get Marinette’s planned character name so they could meet up in game. And she knew that the same was true for Marinette, as her best friend had probably been distracted by the whole ‘Adrien thing’ to think of getting Alya’s. It was really too bad she had heard from Nino that Adrien wasn’t even going to be able to play today. And that left her with one less of a chance to find someone she knew.
Good going Alya. You did this to yourself. She thought as she stumbled through the forest alone. And if the recording is still working, then everyone online is watching you blunder around like a fool.
Yet there was little she could do about it but try and roll with the punches. It took some doing to fight through the visual and auditory confusion that was constantly wavering in her perception, but she was able to eek through fighting some monsters and earn some experience and currency.
Oddly, her name and class were not the ones she chose. In fact, most information about her character was just outright incorrect. She had chosen an Infiltrator, Rogue subclass, hoping to use the stealth abilities it provided to seek out information for her story. But no, she was listed as a Mystic, Illusionist subclass.
Now, it wasn’t a terrible class from what she could tell, but it was difficult to combat monsters solo as it was normally a support role in a party. Which of course meant she really had to push herself to survive in combat.
This meant that on the first night she physically crashed at the local inn from exhaustion, and it was a nightmare. Or well, the actual nightmares she had while asleep and unconscious -which was terrifyingly a thing you could become- they were all too real. So, coupled with the noise overwhelming her senses while awake, she barely found any rest when she tried to sleep because the noise followed her there into her slumber.
It was three days into her journey to find Marinette, or anyone really, that she stumbled upon some Volpina. The foxes were just as surprised to see her as she was them, but they were kind and offered her a place to rest… well, If rest was a thing she was capable of.
At this point she felt as if she had been awake for three days straight, regardless of the physical rest her body was getting, her mental control was waning. She was afraid that her mind might actually start being damaged by the lack of successful sleep, and her fear began to ramp up. Could you die from lack of restful sleep? She wasn’t sure, but she didn’t want to find out. So when offered the tent, she decided to try again to shut her brain off and find comfort in the silence of slumber.
But she had no luck there. The voice remained persistent.
Please… someone make this nightmare end.
* * *
Marinette sighed quietly to herself. It had been an hour since they arrived at the Volpina hunting camp and discovered the player whose avatar was altered to appear as one of the fox race. As a party they had quickly decided that they didn’t want to leave the poor player here alone, because from what the Volpina had stated, this person was clearly in distress.
So, while Adrinon and Tunes had opted to talk to the Volpina about the local area, Marinette had offered to sit in the tent alongside this ‘Rena’ to wait for her to wake. However, based on what she was seeing, Marinette quickly began to wonder if the player was having a nightmare. Never before had she seen someone so restless. Rena tossed and turned, mumbled to herself, clenched her fists until they were white, and even creepily opened her eyes a few times before closing them again.
Marinette had already checked the woman’s information in the HUD to see if there were any effects in place that could explain her appearance or her strange delirious state, but there were none. It was true that this player’s class was an illusionist, and that could be the reason why, but Tikki had dismissed it as a possibility. After all, self transformation illusions were something that were only available after a higher level was reached.
However, Tikki seemed interested in the fox who slept there before them, enough to tell Marinette that she had to ‘check something’ and then vanished from her sight completely, leaving her alone with the fox to wonder just what was going on with her. After all, with her frantic unconscious state, Marinette couldn’t even be sure she was really asleep at all.
No, there was no real way to tell what exactly the woman’s true state was, at least not until Rena screamed and sat up suddenly, quickly raising her fists at a startled Marinette.
“Woah, woah, calm down, you’re safe!” Marinette offered, holding up her hands in a placating manner.
“Marinette?” Rena asked after a moment of silence passed between them.
Marinette’s eyes widened at the sound of her own name and she tilted her head at the woman before her. Clearly this was someone who knew her, and her decision to choose her own appearance as an avatar had paid off once more. But the question remained, who was this person?
“Yes?” Marinette replied. “And you are…?”
“It’s me, Alya.” Rena replied.
Marinette had never moved so fast in her life, so much so that before she even realized she had considered doing it, she was already hugging her best friend. The last few days in this game had been almost lonely, to say the least, and while she and Adrien had thankfully been together during that time, she had been missing Alya most of all. Or, a better way to put it would be that she was worried about her friend. This world had become dangerous, and to know that so many people she cared for were trapped in here as well made her heart sink.
“I’m so glad I finally found you, girl!” Rena blurted out between sobs after a few minutes in their embrace. Marinette hadn’t even realized that Alya was crying until that moment because she was too distracted by the fact that she was crying too.
“I know what you mean.” She offered back with a sniffle, pulling away from the hug, her hands lingering on Rena’s arms. “And… wow. Holy crap, you are crazy soft.”
This brought Rena out of her tears suddenly with a loud snort. But then she frowned and looked away from Marinette, almost seeming ashamed of something.
“What’s wrong?” Marinette asked.
“Well, This whole… fox thing.” Rena said, motioning to her body after wiping her tears away. “I think I kind of did it to myself…”
Marinette raised an eyebrow at her friend.
Rena bit her lip and appraised Marinette for a moment.
“I’m going to tell you something that I’ve been keeping a secret.” She said then with a huff. “And please, don’t think that I didn’t trust you before, because I did, I just…”
“It’s fine.” Mairnette said, shaking her head. “Even if we are best friends, we aren’t required to share everything with each other. At least I know that I don’t need you to do so for me to be happy.”
“Thanks.” Rena said, breathing in. “Okay, well, you know the blogger Lady WhyFi?”
Marinette nodded. She had been an avid reader of the bloggers page ever since the story about FacePage had broken. After all, supposedly the mysterious blogger was also from Paris and it gave her a feeling of solidarity backing their efforts for seeking the truth.
“I’m her.” Rena admitted with a weak smile that said ‘surprise!’.
Marinette’s mouth dropped open.
“Wow.” Was all she could muster for a few moments as she stared at her friend, really seeing her for the first time. Lady WhyFi was a well-known name across the world, and the LadyBlog was credited as if it was a legitimate news source even though it was literally just a blog. Hell, even the moniker she had chosen, ‘Lady WhyFi’, and first words on the blog site, ‘Ask why , and seek the fidelity in the truth.’, spoke volumes towards Alya’s drive as a journalist. “Okay, but… Why would you being Lady WhyFi be the reason you are a fox?”
Rena’s frown deepened and she quickly peered out of the tent as if to check and see if anyone was listening. She then moved very close to Marinette so that she could whisper to her.
“Please, don’t tell anyone.” Rena said in a near ramble. “My partner and I hacked the game’s system to try and allow me to log into the game with a recording going so that I could share it on the blog. I was concerned that the story the developers were giving about the promotion was a false narrative and I planned to find out what I could in game. But it seems my efforts have altered the game system in a way that affected my player data.”
Marinette went stiff as she considered Rena’s words. One, was she recording their conversation right now? And two, did Alya’s hack have anything to do with the Akuma Virus?
“I know what you are thinking.” Rena interrupted her thoughts. “And as far as I can tell, the hack has only affected me, and I can’t even be sure it worked to allow recording. If it did, hopefully it is protecting our identities as it was designed to do, if not… Well, then at very least we have a way to communicate with the outside world, even if they can’t talk back to us. As for the other virus, part of me is wondering if it was installed by an outside source at all and not part of the real reason Solitude gave the game away like they did.”
“Why would you assume that?” Marinette asked.
“Well, beyond the internal memos I’ve read over the last two days that seemed to indicate things at Solitude were already in chaos before launch, there is the fact that we can’t log out being the most notable as the primary glitch caused by the virus itself. However, it is clear, at least now, that it was done intentionally. Consider the virus and what it has done exactly. A player has been rumored to have been turned into a monster temporarily, and there are other rumors that a couple players have obtained some unique gear and classes that make them a bit overpowered…”
Marinette tried to keep her face straight at that.
“... but overall, the main system of the game has been largely unaffected negatively. In fact, even the increased life-like stimuli and pain in combat, the rapidly expanding game content, the oddly aware non-player characters, these things are all actually positive features when looked at from a software engineers point of view, all which can be attributed to the AI Solitude is pioneering. I mean, what better way to prove your creations capabilities than to pull out all of the limits that are normally present in simulations like this. But then you have to consider that if people felt pain they might want to log out to avoid it or complain about it to government regulators, preventing others from being able to give it a try at all, so that means…”
Marinette nodded in understanding when Rena nodded at her to complete the thought.
“It’s possible that Solitude is doing this on purpose.” Marinette surmised, agreeing with Alya’s take on things. “But… Adrien’s parents are in charge of the company.”
Rena regarded Marinette for a moment and then nudged her with her shoulder.
“I’m sure if this is really what is happening, Adrien didn’t know about it.” Rena said. “I haven't met his parents myself, but I know from some of the things Adrien has said that his father is a pretty rigid and work obsessed man, so I wouldn’t put it past him to do something like this. In fact, it also explains the reasoning behind Adrien not being allowed to play during launch. His parents knew .”
Marinette frowned. It was all fairly circumstantial evidence, but there was so much of it which made it hard to ignore.
“I believe I have found what I was looking for, Marinelle.” Tikki said suddenly, startling both Rena and Marinette.
“Wh-What is that thing?” Rena asked, causing Marinette to turn her head sharply to look at her friend.
“You can see her?” Marinette asked. From what Plagg had said back at the bakery, only Champions could see the kwami.
“I mean… yes?” Rena said, questioningly. “Am I not supposed to be able to?”
“I believe I know why she can see me.” Tikki offered, interrupting the two girls again and then floated down to face Marinette. “It’s what I went to check out. Your friend here is connected directly to the deity that generates all of this world's visual and auditory aspects. Because of that, she can perceive anything and everything about this world that most people wouldn’t.”
“Yeah, that… that would be the hack’s fault. We connected my headset directly to the AI that handles those things in hopes that we could use it to record game footage.” Rena said sheepishly. “So, uh, what are you exactly?”
“You can quantify me as an avatar representative of this world’s deity of creation. What you all have taken to calling an AI. I am here on its behalf to work with Marinette in stopping the Akuma Virus.” Tikki explained.
Rena turned her head to face Marinette and it caused her to blush under the attention.
“It seems I wasn’t the only one keeping secrets.” Rena said with a grin. “So, does that mean you are one of the overpowered players?”
“I suppose it does.” Marinette said with a shrug. “Adrien too,”
“Wait!” Rena almost outright yelled. “Adrien logged in after all?”
Marinette nodded, drawing a wicked grin from Rena, one that was exacerbated by her foxlike features.
“So, you’ve been with Adrien for three days… alone?” She said wryly. “I guess you didn’t need a wingwoman after all.”
Marinette groaned.
“Alya. I’ve been a bit too busy to dwell on that kind of thing.” She replied, placing her face in her hands, embarrassment causing her to flush.
“Sure, sure.” Rena said, and then returned her attention to Tikki. “So, I don’t suppose you can help me with my fox problem? Or… maybe even just stop this incessant noise I have been hearing? I haven’t slept peacefully in days.”
Marinette furrowed her brow at Rena’s words. That explained her tossing her turning earlier. She couldn’t imagine what the girl was going through if it was true that she was perceiving everything , even normally hidden things.
Tikki floated toward Rena and regarded her for a moment.
“I believe there is a way to at least lessen the impact of your connection.” Tikki offered after a moment of seeming lost in thought. “The deity would simply need to give you an intermediary.”
Marinette’s eyebrows shot up.
“Are you saying you want to give her a kwami?” She asked. “Doesn’t that mean she will become a champion?”
Rena looked from Tikki to Marinette and then back again.
“What is a champion exactly?” Rena asked and then seemed suddenly excited. “Is it the whole overpowered hero thing? Wait, does that mean I will get to fight the virus alongside Marinette and Adrien?”
“NO!” Marinette cried out.
Rena looked at her with concern, no doubt confused about her reaction to the question.
“Look…” Marinette started to explain and then looked away. “Becoming a champion means your brain will be merged with the game system temporarily. From what we understand, that means we will be stuck in here until the Virus is defeated. And even if we find a way to log everyone else out, the chances for us Champions being able to leave is still up in the air. I don’t want you to be trapped too, not when you have a choice.”
Marinette didn’t look back toward Rena and there was a silence in the tent for a good thirty seconds before she felt a hand placed gently on her shoulder. She glanced back toward the fox who was smiling softly at her.
“I’m with you until the end of the line, girl.” Rena said and then nodded to Tikki. “Do what you have to.”
Tikki regarded Marinette for a moment and then nodded.
“For what it’s worth Marinelle, her brain is already connected in a way that would prevent her from leaving this world until it is corrected.” The kwami said. “At least this way, she can help you in your fight against the Akuma Virus.”
Marinette sighed and nodded in reluctant acceptance.
“Alright. Brace yourself.” Tikki said to Rena. “You may feel a bit dizzy.”
“Heh. I’ve already been dizzy for the last three days, so no worries there.” Rena scoffed.
Marinette watched as both Rena and Tikki began to vibrate, almost as if they were moving out of phase with the rest of the world. After a moment, a large flute appeared attached to Rena’s back, and their shifting stopped. Rena then grabbed her head with a groan.
“Wow.” The fox said. “You weren’t kidding. This is like ten times worse than the dizziness from before. But… the noise is gone at least.”
“Greetings champion!” A much tinier fox said cheerily as it fluttered into sight between them. “I’m Trixx! The kwami of Illusion!”
“Hello there.” Rena said with a smile and then looked down at her hands. “So, I’m still a fox?”
“I’m sorry, there was nothing I could do about your appearance.” Tikki said with a frown. “I believe your direct connection to Trixx’s deity has permanently altered your essence. This is just who you are now.”
Rena sighed and then shrugged.
“That’s fine I suppose.” She said and then once again, grinned wickedly. “At least I now have a reason to refer to myself as a foxy lady.”
Marinette groaned but quickly smiled at her friend. Up until this point of her journey she had been filled with fear at the possibility of facing something too great to handle. But now, with Alya here fighting alongside her and Adrien, and of course Nino, even though he wasn’t a champion, she felt less overwhelmed.
Perhaps they truly had a chance to save everyone inside the game. And if what Alya said was true, bring those at Solitude who were responsible, to justice.
All she had to do now was build on that hope and spread it to everyone else.
* * *
Currently, in the Real World.
Max breathed out hard and leaned back in his computer chair as he watched Alya stumble through the woodlands, clearly distressed about the fact her avatar was altered. He hadn’t foreseen this kind of thing happening and he was kicking himself for not preparing her for this possibility. But he honestly wasn’t sure how it happened in the first place.
It was also clear that Alya’s senses were being bombarded by too much sensory information as the screen kept flickering with images and text that were making him sick just watching on a monitor
At first he had been worried that his actions had prevented her from logging out, but it was soon apparent by the news report he had seen that it was a bug affecting everyone inside the game due to some kind of virus.
He had already decided to cut the feed that was playing directly to the Ladyblog, after all, three days had already passed in the game in the relatively shorter time he had watched this sixteen hours of video as it unspooled. There were still forty eight hours of more video in the buffer waiting to be caught up on.
The time shift between the game world and the real world was making this even harder to accept. Because every moment that passed here was a more prominent, longer amount of time his friends were suffering. Infuriatingly, he hadn’t been able to reach Alya since she had logged in, meaning his communication hack had also failed. So, now all he could do was wait and watch, hoping that something would happen to correct the issues that were clearly plaguing the game system.
He couldn’t believe everyone was trapped in the game to begin with, and part of him felt guilty that he wasn’t in there with them. But Alya had asked him to remain logged out until she could verify the hack’s success. In doing so she had saved him from being trapped as well.
And that left him here, filled with worry as to what he was seeing. After all, as far as he could tell, he was the only person in the world who had any indication of what was happening in the game. No one could communicate in or get messages from inside the system, so no one here in the real world knew how the players were handling being trapped.
But he knew.
And all he could do was watch.