The Horror @ Level 31 by David Fullam Based on "The Whisperer in Darkness" by HP Lovecraft 1. (Found amongst the papers of the late Mr. Howard Lonbaud of The Supercomputer) Make no mistake, it was no quirk of fate that led me to venture from my home and journey to the system of New Mainframe for my ill fated meeting with the now missing and presumed deleted Mr. John Ostoo. I see now, that it was destiny, a destiny I dearly wish had turned out differently. What you hold in your hand is a full accounting of that destiny and of my correspondence and eventual encounter with Mr. Ostoo and his research into what lurked in the bowels of Level 31 of New Mainframe. This research led him to a fate I would rather not speculate too heavily on. But before we delve any further, first, a confession. I am not mad. In fact, I am quite sane, despite tales to the contrary. However, I often times wonder how I remained sane in light of my experiences. Of the things I saw and now know exist in places we cannot see, you will now read. "Someone must know the truth" As Mr Ostoo himself said. You may already be familiar with who I am. If not, then here is a brief introduction. My name is Howard Phillips Lonbaud and once I was a professor of Cyber History at the distinguished Supercomputer University. I was I believe, a good teacher. I had the respect of my students and my peers. It was a good time to be sure. While history was my profession, it wasn't my passion. Indeed, my passion was myth and legend, the myth and legend of our world. I have been credited with making the old tales popular again via my best selling data file "Of Users and Guardians, Myths of the Cyber World." It was truly the work of a lifetime. I spent more hours than I would like to admit to, poring over old data files and info discs peicing together the virtually forgotten "creation myth" of our people. Said myth (if you have forgotten) tells of how the Cyber World and all systems therein were created by an all powerful being called "The User." Some of the old texts tell of an entire race of Use! rs but most pointed to the fact that there was seemingly only one. According to the tale, the User created our world, it's many and varied systems and all that dwelled therein. The User was a most unusual being. At times compassionate and at other times brutal. It seems the User existed on a plane far removed from ours and lived by a set of values that would appear totally alien to us. There were tales of this being raining down upgrades upon the systems of our world. These upgrades would benefit the people greatly and seem to show that the user was a creator who cared for what he created. But other tales tell of the mighty cubes that the user would send down. These cubes would hold (according to the legends) games of immense difficulty and skill level that would envelop anyone who was unfortunate enough to be in the area where one landed. If the game was not defeated, then the area where it made landfall would be nullified as would anyone unfortunate enough to be caught up in! the game. If it was beaten, then the game would leave with no adverse affect on the citizenry or it's environs. Why the User would do this to his subjects is not clear. I myself speculated in my data file that the game cube was a form of entertainment for the User while at the same time it allowed him to test the power and resolve of his creations. The legends state that the cubes eventually led to the formation of a fighting elite called "The Guardians," warriors who were trained to protect a system from the game cubes. Their original function was to enter the cubes and defeat them although some texts indicate that the Guardians also became something along the lines of a peace keeping force in later years. These myths were among my favorites but I was familiar with the legends of other systems. I told you it was my passion and I made it a point to collect all data available about the legends of our world. If no one else would keep the legends alive, then I would. This is wha! t made me take notice of a story that came out of New Mainframe over a year ago. New Mainframe, as you might well imagine by it's name, was built in, on and around Old Mainframe. The original system was quite small but over time, it grew to rival the size and influence of the Supercomputer. Hence it's new name. But like any system that grows, there would be areas and levels left behind and forgotten and one such level was #31, one of the original system's oldest levels. Level 31 was left behind, the price of progress I suppose. It was at first a ghetto and then, as it's buildings rotted and collapsed, a ghost town. It's denizens long since moved on or deleted. Level 31 was a place that most in New Mainframe had forgotten about that is until the events of over a year ago. New Mainframe's Principle office registered a slight system tremor originating from the bowels of Level 31. The tremor was not enough to cause any real damage but it did finally get the citizens to talk about Level 31 again but not in the way you might think. The tremor's location made the populace remember a nearly forgotten urban legend that had sprung up in the years since Level 31 had been left behind. The legend told of a race of mysterious creatures that had taken up residence in the level after it's last inhabitants had moved out. People joked that whatever it was that lurked in the darkness of Level 31 must have been up to no good and left it at that. I kept up with the story and because of my background in history and myth was ultimately asked to write a short peice on the history of the Level 31 legend in the "Supercomputer University Times," our scholarly data file. This story was syndicated to other daily data files in all the known systems and was read by a great number of people, many of whom had read my earlier data file. Many citizens of New Mainframe emailed me later, complimenting me on my knowledge of the legend. But the most interesting letter I received bar none was a letter from one Mr. John Ostoo of New Mainf! rame. It was truly unique, to say the very least. Dear Mr Lovecraft, Hello. My name is John Ostoo and I am a citizen of New Mainframe. Like many of my system, I read with great interest your article on the legends surrounding old Level 31. I must tell you that I am a fan of your data file "Of Users and Guardians." It's a great work and deeply appreciated. I too am a student of folklore and myth and was very impressed with your knowledge of the Level 31 story. But because you are a sprite of a like mind, I felt I needed to pass along to you some information about Level 31 that I have recently aquired. I write to you because of your work in the field of myth. You will understand, at least I hope you will. You see, what I am dancing around here is this, there really is a race of mysterious creatures living in the depths of Level 31 and I have the proof! Now before you dismiss me as a virus or a madman, at least listen to the facts. I was by trade, a private investigator, recently retired. One of my last cases found me in the charge of a husb! and and wife, looking for their lost son, a young sprite named Ron Uleo. The trail that I found led me to the fact that the young sprite in question was recently deleted. The authorities ruled that it was self deletion but I have my doubts. Those doubts surfaced from a series of diaries the young sprite kept. His trail led me these diaries and after perusing them, I decided to keep them for myself. I know that I should have turned them over to his parents but found that I unable to do so after reading the strange stories within. It seems that the recently deleted was in fact an agent of these strange creatures and acted as sort of a contact to the outside world. His extensive notes told about the history of these creatures, what they are and where they come from. It seems that these creatures come from another universe parallel to ours, a place called "the Web." These beings have come to New Mainframe in order to mine some kind of mineral that they cannot find in native territ! ory. They shun the contact of other beings and are sensitive to light. Therefore they have taken up residence in Level 31 where they can work in the dark in secret. I believe that whatever they were doing caused the slight tremor felt in New Mainframe awhile back, perhaps it was a mining accident, I don't know. In his diaries, young Mr. Uleo alluded to their long history. It seems they have been here for a lot longer than we would have suspected. Their presence predates even the urban legends that have sprung up around them. These creatures were content to leave us alone as long as we did the same for them. As you pointed out in your article, there are stories of those who ventured too close to Level 31 and were never heard from again. There is truth to these stories. I believe they eliminate those whom they feel know too much. The creatures would rather have their presence remain a secret as it suits their purposes. The diaries indicated that there are a great deal more of t! hese beings in the Web, so many in fact that they could retaliate against us if we uncovered their activities and tried to drive them out of the system. This leads me back to the young sprite and his diaries. They indicate that these creatures have of late become interested and curious about we inhabitants of New Mainframe and are working to create secret outposts in the system in order to study us closer. To that end they have recruited citizens of the city (like the late Mr. Uleo) to act as their agents, in order to keep them abreast of all that goes on here. His diaries state that amongst their number are a very small handful that can actually imitate Binome and Data Sprite form and that this type of Web being has already infiltrated our society. Because only a small, select group of these creatures have this mimicry ability, they have ventured forth from Level 31 on ocasion to recruit sprites and binomes to be their civilian agents. To what ends these things are working t! o, he did not know but he was ultimately fearful of their plans (whatever they were) and this fear was far more powerful than whatever it was they promised him in return for being their lackey. The diaries were so compelling that I have decided to investigate the matter further in order to uncover just what the web creatures' agenda truly is. I have taken the liberty of transcribing the diaries into a data attachment that is included with this email. I want you to read the young sprite's words for yourself so that you may make up your own mind. My mind however is already made up. I am convinced that his story is genuine and that these creatures are making secret inroads into New Mainframe. Now I wish to discover why. I felt that I needed to tell someone and you seem to be the logical choice. I have yet to turn over any findings to the Principle Office because I feel that the diaries of a young sprite who committed self deletion will not carry enough weight as evidence. I will ! not reveal anything to the authorities until I have sufficient proof of the creature's existence and what they are up to. Sometimes myth can come true. I will of course keep you up to date on whatever I find. Read the enclosed diaries. Someone needs to know the truth. Sincerely yours, Mr. John Ostoo. New Mainframe. Now I ask you, how was one to react to such a letter? Was this Mr. Ostoo pulling my leg and including me in some kind of huge practical joke? Or was he the victim of some prankster? You wouldn't think that an ex private investigator would do or fall for such a thing, would you? He did, as he wrote, include the diaries of the young man, scanned into a data file attatched to his letter. I decided to peruse the diaries of the late Mr. Ron Uleo. I detatched them and stored them to my computer hardrdive where there were later printed out for me to read. And read them I did. The story inside was quite troubling. To be continued. --David Fullam ----------------------------------------------------------- davfull@attglobal.net -----------------------------------------------------------