01.29 - Why Do You Think the Wired Was Born?

“Plan to assassinate the Emperor?” asked Rogue, pondering for a moment. “Not quite, but if you screw this up, it might have about the same consequences.”

“What?” asked Luc in disbelief. “What the hell are you all up to?”

“He’s joking,” said Uriah in a casual tone that quickly turned serious. “But we could get in trouble for this, so don’t tell anyone about it.”

“Tell anyone about what?” Luc asked again.

“We’ll get to that part soon,” said Uriah. “But I’ve got a few questions first. You’ve familiarized yourself with your new Wired account, right?”

Luc nodded. “The interface is pretty similar to all the other devices. The handling is pretty intuitive too. I haven’t gone too deep yet, but I can find my way around stuff, and…”

While Luc was still talking, Rafe returned with Gabe from their latest round around the building. They signaled that all was clear and no one was around.

“You’re familiar with the standard content filters too, I assume?” asked Uriah.

“More or less,” said Luc. “The content libraries have tiered access. Most of the material is available to all users, since you have to be at least thirteen to get an account anyway. But certain content is age-restricted.”

“And you do know what happens if you share such content with unauthorized entities?” asked Rogue.

“Possibly fines, maybe temporary or permanent account restrictions, among other stuff. Wait. Don’t tell me you guys…”

Rogue had a bright smile on his face.

Of course. If there were rules in place, Rogue’s first course of action would be to play around and try to bend or break them without consequences. Business as usual. Luc should have figured as much. The real question was why the others went along with it. Uriah siding with Rogue wasn’t unusual. But for Gabe—and especially the timid Rafe—this course of action seemed out of place.

“What kind of content are we talking about?” asked Luc. “And why the hell are you all conspiring with Rogue?”

“You’ll see soon enough,” said Uriah.

“We’re talking about…” Rogue paused, lost in thought for a moment. “Something like that one magazine you hide under the false bottom of a certain drawer, though quite a bit more spicy.”

“How—?” Luc turned slightly red. “How the hell do you even know about that? I should accelerate you into the nearest wall—this time with full force.”

“Hey, don’t crush the hand that’s about to feed you,” said Rogue. “This is worth our time. As for why: You seem more on edge than usual. You didn’t get anywhere with Vega during midsummer and probably won’t anytime soon. You don’t get to town. And even the thought of dating Sascha, Rem, or Mirai is icky. We get it, you know.”

“Yeah,” said Uriah. “Just get it out of your system. We should all be in top condition for the Hunter Exam.”

“Plus,” said Rogue, “we couldn’t do this before you got your account. At least not without leaving physical traces. Our parents aren’t that stupid.”

“So you want me to believe that you found a bypass for the content restrictions?” asked Luc, with more than just a hint of skepticism.

“Life finds a way,” said Rogue. “There are certain Subcircuits on the Wired. Let’s just say not all the administrators are up to speed. Others have found methods to embed hidden content on a Subcircuit. Most of those require an account and are invite-only. Let’s just say we have our sources.”

—

Luc had returned to his room and was using headphones to listen to music from an audio-focused Subcircuit. He was about to go to sleep when a notification about a newly received Signal arrived.

He opened his Notification Board. The Signal’s sender was Rogue. Luc immediately recalled the conversation from their conspiratorial meeting earlier that evening. It was the promised invite to one of those Subcircuits.

Luc hesitated to even open the Signal’s contents for a long five minutes.

This wasn’t a good idea. He had just received his new account. Going against the rules right from the start could mean trouble. That said, Rogue and the others had a point. He’d been distracted during training. He already had his secrets. And who gave the rule-makers the authority to decide what he could and couldn’t do? Wasn’t the whole idea of the Wired to be connected to all aspects of the world?

His train of thought continued for a while longer.

Then Luc finally finished registering to the Subcircuit.

At first glance, nothing seemed out of place.

It was just a regular forum, filled with unfunny jokes, gaming cheats, hot takes and bad opinions on even worse movies, discussions about bands—both popular and independent—and a lot of cat pictures.

That would have been Luc’s first and last impression, had Rogue not filled him in on the secret.

There was a certain publicly available tech support subforum within the Subcircuit.

Everyone, registered or not, could browse and read the topics there.

To post, one needed a registered account—only available by invite from another user—and had to agree to the terms of service.

Nothing out of the ordinary there either.

It was hidden in plain sight.

This special version of the subforums link to the terms of service was only available to registered users.

Following it led to the place Rogue had praised to the high heavens hours earlier.