• Author's note: Hey all. well this is my first FanFic i have ever written. This is a .hack based FanFic but i do not own any rights to the .hack genre. This pretty much doesn't follow any of the story lines to .hack, so i think i am in the clearing, if not....whoops. Anyways, enjoy my first Fanfic..The Mystery Of The New Player!

    Logging in......

    Access Accepted......

    A swirl of light disappears from Pryce as he logs in. When he opens his eyes he looks around to see if anyone he knows is logged in also, but sadly does not find anyone. So, he shrugs his shoulders and walks into the town of Mac Anu. When he gets to the center he notices something odd, something that was never there before. When he looks again, he notices that there is an alleyway next to the Magic Shop. As he stands there looking at he notices that the other player haven't noticed the alleyway. So, after some time of starring at the entrance and having other people look at him as if he is weird, he decides to walk over to the alleyway to have a look, however, when he arrives at the entrance it disappears. Now, completely confused, he shrugs his shoulders and walks into the Magic Shop to buy some speed charms. When he walks out of the shop he sees the alleyway entrance again and walks toward it. He sticks his hand out to see if it is real and as he does some one appears behind him and taps him on the shoulder.

    "Excuse me sir, but what are you doing?" the girl asks.

    "Well, I was just checking out this alleyway here." Pryce said.

    "What alleyway?" she replies. When Pryce looks back to the entrance of the alleyway he notices that it is gone again.

    "But....what...huh...I swear there was an alleyway here!?"

    "You're funny, Anyway, my name is Luca. And what is your name sir?" she asks. As he stumbled back into the wall awe struck, he gave Luca the weirdest look.

    "You mean you have never heard of the expert swordsman Pryce, The King of Wolves!" he replied.

    "Nope. I'm new to The World. As a matter of fact this is my first time." As he regains his composure and straightens out his clothes, he looks at Luca and notices that she has the Wavemaster character type and by the looks of it the strongest Wavemaster weapon available.

    "May I ask you a question Luca."

    "Yes, what is it?" she replied

    "How did you get your hands on that weapon?"

    As Luca looks at her wand she answers, "I don't know it just came with my character class I guess."

    As he starts to recall his chat with another Wavemaster about his wand he sees Dante walk over to him. "Hey Dante, What's up?" he asks.

    "Nothing much.....who's your friend?" Dante asks.

    "Oh her this is Luca. Luca this is Dante." Pryce answered.

    "It’s nice to meet you Mr. Dante." she says.

    "Well hey you two it's getting late yawns I've got to go to bed, but before I forget, Luca could I get your member address?" He asks.

    "What member address? I don't think I have one." she replies. Dante and Pryce's jaws drop.

    "Everyone has a member address in the world." They both say. As Luca thinks about what her member address she recalls it suddenly and gives it to Pryce.

    "Here you go but I don't think that is right." she said.

    "Whatever I'll try it when I log back in. See you later." As Pryce is pulling off his headset he starts to ponder on all that had happened that day. "What is with that disappearing alleyway, and what is a newbie doing with such a high level weapon? I guess I will have to do some research on all of this." Grabs a cup of coffee and gets to work.

    The next day, when he logs back into The World, he tries to contact Luca and Dante. When Dante replies saying that he can't come today. As Pryce is waiting for Luca to reply he notices the same alleyway that he saw the other day. So he decides to walk over to it. When he reaches the alleyway he walks down it to see what is at the end of it. As he comes upon the end of the alleyway he hears someone calling his name so he walks back to the entrance and sees that it is Luca.

    "Hey Luca" he says still in the alleyway. When he sees Luca looking around to see where the voice came from he decides to leave the alleyway. As he walks out of the alleyway he notices that everyone is looking at him because he just came out of a wall.

    "Hey Pryce, how did you do that?" Luca asked.

    "Do what?" he replied.

    "Come out of that wall?"

    "What?! I didn't come out of a wall I came out of the alleyway that is....right....behind me...." Turns around and sees that the alleyway has disappeared As he scratches his head Luca asks him what he wanted.

    "Oh yea... I wanted to ask if you wanted to go on an adventure I just found this new area and needed a party. So you wanna come?" he asks.

    "Oh yes I'd love to." When they arrive to the Chaos Gate he says the password. As the light fades away, they both open their eyes they notice that they are in a fire field.

    "Well ya ready to level up Luca?" he asked. She smiled and they headed to the first Magic Portal and went into combat. As Pryce took care of the monsters Luca was set to heal themselves of HP and MP. When they come up to the last Field Portal Pryce offers to Luca if she would like to fight the last of the field Portal. When she sets off the Portal she raises her wand and uses the spell Ultima. When she finishes the attack she looks back at Pryce to see him on the ground and asks him if he is alright.

    "Yea I'm fine." he replied. As they reach the last portal in the dungeon, Pryce notices some weird writing on the walls. When he walks over to investigate them he is teleported to an all white area. Confused at how he got there he hears a voice.

    "Welcome Pryce." the voice says.

    "Huh, Who are you?" he asks a little puzzled.

    "You mean you don't recognize my voice Pryce. I'm shocked, and a little insulted." the voice says.

    "Wait, now I remember that voice....Luca...Luca is it you?" he said.

    "Yes Pryce it is I Luca. As you could probably already tell I was not a newbie to The World because of my wand and my power. But I am not human either." says Luca.

    "But if you are not human then what are you?" he asks.

    "I am a program that was created to restore the balance between the real world and this world. My sole purpose is to find someone who can help me to do that and lend them my powers, so that they can restore the balance." she says.

    "But if you are supposed to fix the balance between the two worlds, then why do you need someone else to do it for you?" he asked.

    "My form in The World has become weaker and weaker. Every time I use my power I lose part of myself which makes it harder on my programming. So in order for me to restore the balance, I need someone who is strong and not afraid of death, and that person is you Pryce." she told him. As he listens to Luca with a confused look on his face, he asks her

    "So what exactly will happen to me when you give me your power?"

    "Nothing physical will happen to you, you will look the same but your strength will increase and much more will happen to you." she said. As he tries to take in all this new information, Luca says to him "Why don't you go and rest and I will contact you tomorrow and tell you more." As he is teleported out of the white area he finds himself in the alleyway that he has seen the past couple of days. When he walks out of the alley he logs off and starts to ponder on all that Luca had said.

    The next day, when he logged into the world, he found out that he had a flash mail from Dante stating that he wanted to talk. After reading this he heads out to find Dante. When he couldn't find him, he received another flash mail from Dante stating that he was in Hidden Forbidden Holy Ground.

    When Pryce arrived at the area he entered the church and found no one there. Confused by all of this, He sits down in one of the pews and waits awhile. After waiting for an hour he gets up and heads to the exit when all of a sudden the doors slam shut, trapping him inside the building. As he looks around, with his hand on his sword, he hears a voice calling him. When he looks around he doesn't see anything. Then from out of nowhere the statue of Aura starts to glow.

    It says to Pryce, "Do not be afraid I am here to warn you."

    As Pryce slowly walks toward the statue he asks, "What do you need to warn me of?"

    "I am here to warn you to stay away from Luca. What she says is not true. She is a program yes, but she was created to destroy the link to both worlds and trap the players spirits within the game. I am here to tell you to stay away from her. Do not do anything else with her because she will just keep on manipulating you until the time is right for her to fuse with you and destroy the link."

    "What are you talking about? Luca is nice, she would never do that." he said.

    "Don't judge a book by its cover Pryce, even though she seems sweet and innocent, she is really evil. She will stop at nothing to get what she desires." the voice said.

    "No it's all lies." Pryce says as he falls to his knees, covering his ears at the same time, even though the voice is still communicating.

    "Listen to me Pryce...."

    "No, you don't know anything about her. She is nice and kind. Maybe...maybe you are the one who is evil." When he finishes saying this a strong gust of wind lifts him up into the air and sends him flying into the wall so hard that he is rebounded into the back pews.

    "HOW DARE YOU SAY THAT I AM EVIL!!!! SEE WHAT I MEAN SHE HAS ALREADY CORRUPTED YOU. SHE WILL STOP AT NOTHING TO GET YOU READY TO FUSE WITH YOUR BODY AND DESTROY THE LINK!! You must not let her do that." As the voice calms down it reveals it's true form, and heads toward Pryce. As pryce slowly comes to, he looks up to see a young girl floating next to him. "Pryce just try not to listen to anything that Luca says." the spirit girl asked.

    "All right I will try." he says as he goes into an unconscious state. When he comes too, he finds himself in a Grunty pen.

    "What...how did you get in here!!" The Grunty Keeper asks.

    As he rubs the back of his head he answers, "To be honest sir I don't know."

    "Well just don't let it happen again." As Pryce gets up to leave he feels something tugging at his pants. When he looks down he notices that a Grunty is latched onto his pants asking for food.

    As Pryce bends down to give the Grunty some food the Keeper says "You can have him if ya want; he was left here by someone long ago and they never came back to get the little guy."

    "Really that's sad, but if you are telling me I can have him I will take you up on that offer thanks." he says, picking up the Grunty and sitting him on his head. When he walks out of the ranch he realizes that he is in Dun Loireag. All of a sudden he heard a lot of people screaming and hollering at a fight that is going on between two player characters. When he reaches the fight everyone in his way parts so that he can get by.

    "What is going on here?" Pryce says. When the two who were about to fight look up to see who asked them that question, they fell over backward scared. As he looks around and sees that everybody around him has a scared look on their face, the two who fell get up and run away. "What was that all about?" he thought. He walks over to the Chaos Gate and warps to Mac Anu. When the light fades from around him, and he opens his eyes, He sees that everything in Mac Anu has been destroyed. "What the hell happened here" He murmured. As he walks around looking for people who are not unconscious, he sees Dante and Son Rey. As he removes all the wreckage from them both he asks them "What happened here?"

    As they both slowly come too, they answer "From out of nowhere something came and destroyed the whole town and they were looking for....for...." they both said as they passed out again. When he tries to snap the two out of it, he lays them both back down and gets up and walks away looking for more people. After looking around for an hour, he gives up hope and heads to another server.

    When he enters Lia Fail, he sees Oukana. When she walks over to him, she notices that he has a sad look on his face. "What's wrong Pryce?" she asks.

    "Go to Mac Anu and you'll see." he replied.

    So as she heads to Mac Anu and returns she says "I didn't see anything wrong. Was I supposed to?"

    "What but it was destroyed?!" he said. And with that he grabbed Oukana's arm and warped to Mac Anu. When he opens his eyes he sees the same thing he saw when he warp here before. "See it's all destroyed!" he said.

    "Uhh.. No it's not Pryce. Nothing is wrong with the server." she replied. As he runs into the center of town still holding onto Oukana's arm he shows her where Dante and Son Rey are laying unconscious.

    "See look at the two of them. They are passed out." he said to her.

    "Pryce there is nothing there. It is just an empty space." she said. As he lets go of her arm and backs away, he runs to the area where the alleyway was, he runs down it and heads to the door at the end. When Oukana follows after him a minute later, she sees him run through a wall. Meanwhile, as soon as Pryce entered the door he got teleported to Hidden Forbidden Holy Ground. When he entered he saw that the doors were still shut and the area where he had been flung to and landed was still damaged. As he falls to his knees, he mumbles to himself "What is wrong with me?"

    "Pryce, the reason that you can see everything differently, is because you have a new companion with you and it is he who is showing you everything differently." the voice said. As soon as the voice said this he looked up at the Grunty that was still on his head and wondered how this Grunty could be doing all of this. Then from out of nowhere the same force that sent Pryce into the wall earlier, sent the Grunty into the wall, and as it fell to the ground it didn't move.

    "Why did you do that?!" he said.

    "Pryce, draw your sword and take a closer look at the Grunty." the voice said. As he did as he was told, he found out that the Grunty was none other than Luca.

    "Luca?!?! What....why?" he sputtered.

    "I need you to help me Pryce. You and me are the only two who can fix the balance between the worlds." Luca said.

    "Pryce, do not listen to her she is evil I know trust me and don't go with her." the voice said.

    "How do I know that you are not the one who is evil here? And Luca, how do I know that what you say is true." He asked them.

    "Pryce if you believe that I am evil then I will show you my true form. I was trying to hide it from you but maybe once you see me you will change your mind." she said. With that said, a bright light enveloped the room. When the light faded, there stood a young girl. As soon as Pryce's eyes adjusted he realized who the young girl was.

    As Pryce's jaw drops the young girl speaks, "Yes Pryce it is I, Oukana." after a few seconds of silence, Pryce regains his composure and says,

    "Ou...Ou...Oukana?!?! But how? Why? Wait....what?"

    "Pryce as you have probably just figured out, I am an Non-Playable Character. My creator programed me to look for the one who was going to be the link to either destroying the Link between the two worlds or creating one that will never be able to be touched by any hacker or program." with that she gave Luca an evil look.

    When Pryce Turns and looks at Luca he asks her, "Now do you have anything special to tell me or show me?"

    "No, Pryce why would I..." as she was saying this Pryce to gave her an evil look.

    "Fine, I have one thing to show you." She raised her wand and shouted out the command, "Capture" and after she said this Pryce was tied up and hanging in midair. As Pryce is trying to get free of the spell, Luca uses her magic to teleport him to her lair. "Well I guess we will see each other again Oukana" she said as she teleported away.

    "Pryce, I will be there to help you." Oukana mumbles.

    As Pryce still struggles to get free, he feels heat surrounding him. "Huh, why is it so hot?" he thought. What Pryce didn't know was that he was over an active volcano in the world.

    "So Pryce, are you going to help me or do I have to kill you permanently?" Luca said to him.

    "I will never help you. You are bent on destroying the game world and the real world." he replied.

    "But Pryce we are both the same, we have the same goal, we both want to fix the link between the worlds." she said. Then all of a sudden he hears another voice but this one is in his head, and it says "Pryce do not let her corrupt you. Do what you must to get out of there. I am not able to help you. You must do this on your own." then the voice disappears from his head. With that he gets a sudden boost of strength and is able to free himself from the ropes that bind him. After ge is freed he jumps to the opposite side of the volcano, ready to fight Luca.

    "Pryce you disappoint me. I thought that we were made for each other. You and me working side by side to create a new world that you and I would rule together forever, but it doesn't look like that is going to happen. You leave me with no choice then..... I MUST DESTROY YOU!!!!!" after saying this she raises her wand and sends a bunch of fireballs at him. As Pryce doges them he draws his sword and his eyes glow blood red. When the last Fireball comes at him he knocks it so hard that he sends it right back at Luca which ends up hitting her.

    As the smoke clears he hears someone laughing. "Pryce you think you can defeat me that easily, well I think not." she said. Then all of a sudden Pryce is teleported out of the lair and is in the alleyway once again. With his sword still drawn and his eyes glowing blood red, he walks out of the ally and sees that everything in Mac Anu is back to normal. So he sheaths his sword and his eyes go back to their original color. When he looks around he sees that everything is just the way he remembered it, but when he tries to log out he can't.

    After trying for about an hour to log out, he gives up and decides to seek help. When he gets to the Chaos Gate, he starts the say the password for Hidden Forbidden Holy Ground but is stop when someone starts yelling out his name.

    "Pryce......Hey Pryce where are you?" When Pryce notices the voice he heads to where he heard the player yelling his name.

    Upon arrival to the player he says "Hey Son Rey, what's up?"

    As Son Rey turns around, he asks Pryce "Where have you been? I found this new area and i need a party."

    "Well, it's kind of hard to explain where i have been, but I am up for an adventure." As the two of them walk to the Chaos Gate they meet up with Dante.

    "Hey Dante, do you want to come with us?" Son Rey asks him. As Dante looks up at the two of them he shrugs his shoulders and joins the party. 20 minutes later, they all come back to Mac Anu laughing at how weak that last monster was. As the other two leave, Pryce walks to where the alley way is and notices that it is gone again. When he tries to log out again he successfully makes it out and goes to sleep.

    5 Days Later

    After five days of work Pryce decided to get online for awhile. After he logs in he notices that something is not right. After looking around he notices that every player is like a zombie. "What the hell?! What’s wrong with everybody?!" he thinks to himself. Then all of a sudden he hears a very familiar laugh, but can't quite remember who the player is.

    "Welcome Back Pryce, have you given my offer some thought?" the voice said. Pryce knew exactly who it was.

    "I am never going to join forces with you Luca. Even though you say we are the same, we are exact opposites. You are bent on destroying the connection to The World while I want to protect it. That is what make us different." he said.

    "Tch......Pryce, I am ashamed. How could you turn your back on a friend? Hm?" she asked him.

    "Luca, you are not my friend and you never have been!!!" he told her.

    Then from out of nowhere Oukana appears standing next to Pryce, and says, "Pryce if you want to protect this world then I will give you my power. If not then I will leave and not come back. The choice is your Pryce, choose well." After she said this he looked over to her and gave her a quick smile letting her know that he was determined to save the worlds. And with that Oukana started to transfer her power. While she transfered her power, a bright light shone around the two of them.

    "Pryce you made the right choice, with my help and your strength and will we will save the world together." she said. As the light faded a man in all white appears in front of Luca.

    Luca stumbles back because of Pryce’s sudden appearance, and says to her "Luca, the time has come for me to destroy your programming for good and make sure that you never come back." he says.

    As Luca looks at the man in all white she asks him "Are you Pryce by any chance?"

    He answers, "I am Pryce! And now enough chatter, stand up and be ready for battle." Luca now puzzled by what Pryce had just said, stands up and gets ready to fight.

    "Heh....you just made the wrong choice Pryce. NO ONE CAN DESTROY ME!!!!!" she says trying to taunt him. As Pryce stands there unaffected by her taunt, she starts to cast her strongest spells at him. While Pryce remains unharmed, he focuses his power and energy to his new weapon that he has now acquired after fusing with Oukana. When Luca finishes her barrage, and the smoke clears, she see Pryce standing there unaffected by the spells, and with that she goes back to using her more powerful one hit KO spells. But nothing that she tries works.

    "Luca, you say that you can't be defeated and that you want to rule both worlds but, how can you mange that when your spells are so powerless?" he says.

    With those words Luca went berserk. She starts summoning creatures to destroy Pryce but when he notices this he summons his guardian. As his guardian takes care of all those summoned, Luca charges at Pryce and starts to attack him using her wand and feet. With each blow that was dealt Luca was getting weaker and weaker. Then all of a sudden Pryce extends his arm and grabs her wand.

    "You will have no more use of this Luca." he says as he throws her wand far away from her. Now that she is defenseless and weak without her wand, she slowly backs away from Pryce as he starts to walk toward her. "Luca, Because of all the crimes you have committed before you met me and up to now, it is time for me to destroy you once and for all." he says as he draws his sword and his eyes turn blood red.

    "Please Pryce spare me, I am sorry for everything I have done and I promise not to do it again. Just let me live!!" she said begging.

    As Pryce puts his sword away, Luca looks up at him, smirks, and says, "You fool. I will destroy the both of us and then I will be the only one to come back!" and with that she self implodes and as the explosion engulfs the area around the two of them, they both fade away. As the program resets itself, the first thing to be re-created is Luca.

    "I have done it, now that I have gotten him out of the way I will rule both worlds forever!!!!!!" Then from out of nowhere she hears a familiar sound as if someone is being re-created.

    "You thought you could destroy me with that. Let me tell you something, I am now a far superior program than yourself the only way to destroy me is if I wish to do it. But that will not happen until I am finished with you. Oh and one thing I forgot to mention, you are being infected with a virus as we speak." he says to her.

    "That is all a lie!! I am not infected with a virus and I will destroy you!!!!" she said out of pure rage. As Pryce smirks he raises his left arm and watches it as it changes into a massive weapon.

    "Well looks like I have channeled enough energy to it now." As the energy blast charges at the tip of the weapon, Luca tries one more last ditch effort to take control of the situation and rule both worlds. So she uses most of her strength to summon the most powerful creature in the game. When the creature starts to charge at Pryce he lets off a shot big enough to kill the creature in one hit. Luca, now scared to death of Pryce's unbeatable power, tries to get the strength back and use the Ultima attack but by the time she has collected the energy Pryce had already let the shot off.

    As he watched her Player Character deletes, he looks to his arm and says "Thanks Oukana, without your power none of this would have ever happened. And with that he himself faded away from the world and all of his data was transfered into a guard program to defend against any threat that might enter the system.

    As The World rebooted and began running again after the battle that had just taken place, every player noticed that something was different. They all had a sense of protection over them. Even though no one will remember Pryce or anything that happened, He will always be there to protect the players along with Oukana.

    AN: Well that is the end of this part of the story. But I am going to give you a little teaser on the next story that is soon to come. So without further adieu here it is:

    5 years later

    With the world protected for five years there arrives a player who is in all black clothes. As he walks through the streets of Navel Monte, he notices a lot of players are staring at him. While continuing on, a new player by the name of Lex, walks up to him and asks the stranger what his name is and if he would like to be friends. "My name... My name is Pryce and I would like to have some friends again."