Fresh New Antivirus

Ch. 24 - Fluff and Lore

Snasy groaned at the idea of cleaning ... but Spiffy had a point. They were the reason the place was such a mess - it was only right they did something to fix it.

Then they had an idea. An insane, stupid and fleeting idea that just might work. An idea that had them smirking devilishly. This could be really cool.

"... I don't like that expression." Spiffy said.

Excitedly, Snasy grabbed Spiffy's shoulders and exclaimed, "I'm gonna try something."

"Aaaand I don't like how you said that." Spiffy concluded.

Placing their hands on their hips Snasy looked from each face of those present and declared, "I'm gonna change the house textures back to default - we can skip cleaning!"

Frisk and Chara were filled with varying levels of curiosity and confusion. Perhaps a little concern as well.

Going through the files on their second monitor, their in-game self seemed to have summoned a window of code in front of them ... with more things accessible; a lot more things accessible. It quickly wiped their childish glee from their mind.

It was like all the things their computer didn't have the capabilities to host were embedded into the simple looking purple hologram. Everything could be found, including but not limited to the very SOUL data, which included basically everything about that person; too much to reasonably read and more than they would be comfortable too.

The AI mapping was insane and had it been run on a computer (even several hundred military grade), Snasy is sure that even just with Frisk and Chara interacting the mainframes would melt in a few hours. In comparison, what showed up in the computer files was a massive simplification of what and who they are - just as how the pixels hid the true details of what was happening, there was a lot more to the true code.

It was as if the literal code of an actual universe were at their fingertips ... and it was.

They scrolled down and saw a list of AU's, copies, Outcodes unexpanded - you name it. The only place accessible to edit was where they were currently at; The True Void - Fresh's House. Though editing a person required 'direct soul access.'

Snasy resolutely decided not to mess with anything they didn't understand, and even a lot of things that could. They were curious and lazy, but not stupid. They don't even want to risk a misclick just viewing some of the stuff.

Just like with the whole situation, Snasy decided not to examine their feelings too deeply on the matter, lest they break down much like Spiffy had done earlier - though Snasy was almost sure a few breathing exercises weren't going to be nearly as effective.

Good thing their childhood was 'kind' enough to drill in the skill of compartmentalisation and an ability to stutter emotions into more workable chunks to cope when things got overwhelming. The thought was a bitter one. It was something that even Spiffy didn't need to know.

"Wait, wait, wait." Spiffy signaled a timeout, bringing them from their spiraling thoughts. "We agreed to no hacking when we didn't know this was a legitimate alternate reality. I'm pretty sure it should go double now that we do know."

"Spiffy." Snasy said, being very serious. "I'll be careful. I promise."

There was no way Spiffy could know just how serious they were with that.

Seeing how much a Hacker could affect this world had scared them a little. And the fact that Snasy wasn't the only one with access? ... what ... would others be willing to do with the power? Would they even know the impact of what they were doing if they couldn't see the game from the game's view?