"Dataless" (Written by Seeth)

I will write this down to warn everyone that every day they should be on the lookout for everything that seems suspicious to them. For a while I dedicated myself to researching how viruses work, not just digital ones, since I had learned that there are also things like that that affect many more electronic devices. I will not try to explain what viruses are since it is an extensive topic and would take too much time. One night in November I had free time, since the heaviest period of exams had ended. I had all my time to myself.

I spent many days watching videos, chatting on forums and more about modifying programs through an external source. Thanks to a publication, I managed to find out that a forum dedicated to uploading video games had been quickly edited to remove some that had been classified as undesirable and dangerous. I asked in the post the reason why they were removed. Some answered me that it was because they did not pass the quality standard of the forum, others that the games did not even open and the last one contained files. I looked for the forum link to try to contact one of the moderators and especially try to get the program that contained those files with bad intentions. I managed to enter the forum, luckily it was in Spanish so it would not be a problem to communicate with a moderator.

After a few days they responded to me. It was just a message saying, 'We don't quite understand why you would want a file like that. Are you sure you want it?' I told them yes, it was just for entertainment purposes. After a few weeks a link arrived with an attached message: 'Here you go, if it is for your own use you are free to use it. Please remember that re-uploading this to our forum is not permitted and we are not responsible or any damage.' I downloaded the file and transferred it to an external memory. I had a virtual machine prepared so as not to take any risks and to be safe I turned off the modem so as not to compromise the entire house network. I wouldn't know what kind of program I could find. The root folder of the game only contained a couple of notes with descriptions of changes to the game and the executable icon was blank. When it opened, to my surprise, it was a Sonic game.

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I'm not particularly fond of that character, but I've played enough to recognize that the main screen belonged to the first game. Below the title was the name of the author. It seems that he just wanted to make his own version of the first Sonic, but giving it a personal mark. So I started playing. It started calmly, it seemed to be a simple port, although the physics had the sensation of being harder in the movement, but it was normal.

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A game trying to imitate the origin could never match it. I also suffered from a slight delay when pressing the buttons so I had to be much more cautious with any of my movements. When I finished the first level I noticed something strange. The sign had Eggman in a green suit. Sonic, as he crossed him, his eyes turned into a small ring. It was too fast, I couldn't notice it in detail and it didn't let me return either. Sonic barely touched the sign, he kept running.

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At the beginning of act 2 there was something new. The sky seemed to have a sunset color. The author took the trouble to put a day and night system with each act.

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I continued through the level, it was just a palette swap of the background, but this time I went slowly at the end to try to verify if what I had seen in the previous act was true. The same green Eggman and apparently Sonic's eyes would not change until he touched the signal. I went slowly and could notice the sudden change in his pupils. In the next act it wasn't very noticeable, but I could see the intention to set the level at night. When arriving with Eggman, as was happening, his suit was green and could withstand more hits than I remember compared to the original game.

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When I touched the button on the capsule to release the animals, I expected Sonic to just change his pupils, but no. Sonic stood still, turning his head. It seemed like he was looking at me.

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He stayed like that for a long time, until his pupils returned to what they were before, but this time he looked at the floor, crouched down and touched the ground. When this happened, he watched me for a moment while something resembling a kind of water current expanded across the ground.

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Unexpectedly, the left part of the level began to float while Sonic continued to move forward with a smile. Before I could continue watching the terrain begin to float throughout the area, there was a transition that took me to the next level, Emerald Hill.

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As far as I remember, this level is from the second game. There was nothing extra, it was just the default level until the end with the same brother, but in the background you could see how the sunset began.

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When he moved on to the next act, there was permanent change. Sonic already had the pupils from before and something that was probably there but I hadn't noticed: the life icon had the same smile that Sonic made at the end of Green Hill.

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Upon arriving with Eggman, the sky was ready for dusk and, as on the previous occasion, it held out longer than normal.

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Upon defeating Eggman, I went towards the capsule, but it didn't have any animals. Instead, Sonic jumped to the side and did the same as with the previous level, touching the ground and leaving with a smile.

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At that moment, I heard footsteps in the hallway of my room. It was my mother, she had returned from work. He turned on his computer that was in the living room. I left my room to go talk to her. He asked me why I had disconnected the internet since he had things to research for his work. I responded with another question: 'You haven't turned on the modem, have you?' He answered yes, he had done it a few minutes ago. I told him I turned off his computer, that the files were in danger. She asked me why her documents would be at risk, but I didn't get to answer her as I was more focused on closing the game.

I didn't pay much attention to the screen, I just wanted to close the virtual machine, but it was too late. When I wanted to close everything, the game automatically opened, at the same level that I don't even remember what it was. Enough. He knew what to do in cases like this. I opened the task manager to look for processes that seemed out of place. In total, there were about 15 processes that did not seem to be from Windows itself, but 3 with the same name caught my attention since they were the ones that were using the most memory. Each one had a name written on it: 'Dataless'

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I was scared, those processes could be like a bomb with three wires to deactivate it. If I closed the wrong one, it was saying goodbye to my computer. I trusted my luck and closed the second one. Doing so executed an action in the game itself. Sonic made a victory pose as if he had won the act, while a sign came out that had 'Sonic got what he wanted' written on it.

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After the act completed tune finished, the computer rebooted. I made a serious mistake, I should have disconnected the internet cable in the first place. This program is one of those that can bypass the defense of using a virtual machine. When the PC was turning on again, the message that the Windows installation disk was missing appeared. I didn't have such a disc, I had no choice but to take it to the technician to remove this thing.

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When I was going to remove the cable from the source, Sonic himself appeared on the screen, but in complete darkness. He just looked at me with that annoying smile. I have to be honest, it caught me off guard giving me a scare.

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One detail I noticed was that, next to Sonic, on the side of the screen, a message appeared: 'Don't try to look for me.' I don't understand what he was referring to. I left my room and went down the stairs to make sure my mother's PC had not been affected. Unfortunately, she called me to tell me that something happened with her computer. An error message appeared when running Windows. I feared it, that same annoying Sonic also came out, it expanded through the cables. I took the time to explain everything to her, she understood me, but told me that it was urgent to get them fixed. A few days later, I started receiving phone calls and messages intending to extort me. I just ignored them since I knew it was due to my ineptitude, plus the messages were not even in my language. Until my mother told me that her credit card has been used repeatedly for purchases without sense. He had understood what the message of 'You got what you wanted' meant.

I have spent several hours with my mother in meetings with the bank to reverse all those transactions, but I can't stop thinking about something: this is the minimum damage that his complete stranger can do to us. Who knows what other information of ours he has and what he would be capable of.

Edit Report
Pub: 11 Mar 2024 22:06 UTC
Edit: 09 Apr 2024 19:06 UTC
Views: 257