Fresh New Antivirus

Ch. 75 - Running Diagnostics

"... so how much ya knows about Hacker-bros, broski?" Fresh asked Ink.

Ink's eyelights sifted through various colors and shapes. "Pfft- of course I know all about Hackers! ... But hypothetically if someone may have forgotten a thing or two, how would you summarize?"

Fresh stared at Ink but wasn't exactly surprised.

"Hypothetically." Ink emphasized.

PC raised a hand and asked, "What is Hacker-bros?"

Surprisingly it was the Grillby that answered PC as he guided Ink away from behind the counter. "... A Hacker can refer to a person with the ability to forcefully modify Code after bypassing protective Firewalls."

"Huh." Snasy pondered. "Putting it so plainly like that makes me wonder what's different between us and regular Hackers."

Ink hopped onto a stool and ordered a chocolate milkshake, before spinning in his seat while trying to keep the group in sight.

"What do you mean?" Zane asked Snasy. "Accessing Code is way easier as a Mod. Still need to do a mini-game but there's no actual programming."

Grillby having successfully led Ink out from behind the bar, accepted the order, however first made his way to the entrance where he flipped the Open sign to Closed as well as shut the blinds.

"Wait- so it didn't start that way for you?" Snasy asked.

"Nope."

"Huh. Weird."

"I only got it changed to puzzles after being isekai'd." Tiffa added.

The sound of the blender went off as Grillby prepared Inks drink.

Congod was looking around the room in confusion. "Were Nick and I the only ones who actually put in a job application?"

Congod looked to Nick for confirmation, however her ghostly avatar froze with a loading symbol before she disconnected from the poor connection.

"Pfft- abandoned." Ink said, accepting his milkshake and no longer spinning.

"You're being paid?" Spiffy asked.

"Well ..." Congod slowly turned away from where Nick was. "Right now it's sort of an unpaid internship thing, but every two weeks I get a work evaluation to decide if I get a pay raise." Congod stated.

"... you got scammed." Zane said.

"It's not a scam, it's passion." Congod defended, mock offended and gripped his chest.

"Full on swindled." Zane doubled down.

Snasy gave Fresh a look like WTF.

"Don't look at me, broseph." Fresh held up his hands in surrender. "I was lit created two days ago, I ain't got no idea about this unrad unpaid intern buis. We can circle on back to that after we up and set up a more tight moderating structure-"

"Yeah sure. Let's circle back to pay after we accept doing the work." Zane said, half joking.

Fresh's shades read ...-...

"... from your POV I be a radical fictional character in a swag digital world on your computer, broski." Fresh pointed out. "I don't think I be the homeslice you should be up and asking about currency that impacts your reality, bro. That person skedaddled." Fresh said, referring to the Server Owner.

Zane opened and closed his mouth before replying. "Fair point. I'll Make a note to track them down."

Somewhere, the Server Owner felt their sins crawling on their back.