Not by any stretch of the imagination is my life normal. First my biology declared it wanted to be different. Then I learned I was a hacking prodigy. Then I corrected my vision, but obtained synesthesia in the process. Then I saved Eden and the whole of the K-Project network. Then I found myself talking to something from a different world and possibly universe, and I've barely even started to deal with that by the time I found out that not everyone appreciates what I did to resolve the Eden Incident. Which happens to have been just now.

There's a guy with some political power, and top of his agenda is hackers. He doesn't like them. He thinks they should all be jailed, some of them possibly even killed for their crimes. He even thinks that we would have been better off if I hadn't hacked into-and successfully fixed-Eden, that the professional programmers could have fixed the problem.

But it's never been made public. Those that do know are keeping it to themselves, and for good reason-rumors state that he has his own private mini-military, and that he uses it to silence those that speak up against him. They've never been proven, but no one wants to find out if they're true.

That cue to leave an hour and a half ago gave me my first real insight on his plans, as in I was called to hack it in the middle of upload. Needless to say, it's not good. So I sent the guy a message through an anonymous email: "Why do you fear us?"

He responded by trying to open voice chat. I let him.

"You steal information and you change data, in an era where data is important to stay as it is set."

"I don't do it like that. I have an honest job, hacking is just a hobby. I love what I do."

"Well I can't stand it. I don't like what you do."

"Then understand that I do, and I'm not about to have my freedom squashed because of irrational hatred."

"I have no tolerance for cheaters. You cheat the system like you own the place. Zero tolerance."

"Here's me not caring about what you think. If you can't tolerate us, then you'd better learn to withstand us, because we're not going away anytime soon."

"Not if I can help it."

I scoff. "Don't you know your history? Mass extinctions can come, wave after wave if you want, but empty niches will always quickly refill."

He fell silent at that. He ended voice chat within seconds. Which ended my call to action, but the real problems had only just begun.

Author's Note

Well, that was certainly something else! But what was it, exactly?
Well, there's a huge chapter next. It originally began with a section dealing with a quick jaunt back into the hacker's world, and this was it. But it was taking so long, and I didn't want to leave you guys hanging, so I split it in two. This is the "Without Horse" segment, and it's alternatively numbered so that other run-ins with this mysterious opponent will be ensured. You will not want to skip these; this is a subplot, but it will eventually have major repercussions on the main story. Same goes for any other subplots I decide to do.
To make something clear really quick; when you see text in color, it's usually either a hyperlink (link to website) or a character speaking to another character, but not face-to-face with them; that is to say, they are using either the network or magic to communicate. However, if the speaker is physically there while the one being spoken to is the one using special means of communication, the text will appear normal black...usually. Sometimes, I color something just for the sake of quick differentiation...you're a smart bunch, I can trust you to figure it out.
I'm sorry I couldn't get the actual chapter up, but hang in there for another day or two. I've been plugging away at it, and it's almost done. I hope you are enjoying, have enjoyed, and will enjoy this story.
Until then, good lives for you all.