It appeared in Dragon Riders of Malm first. Right in the starter town, just where your character lands on its dragon for the first time. Before they gained 'control' of the situation, new players were being sucked down into the entrance of the data-eating dungeon. It was merely a black square. Fine and without detail, but it had this sense of gravity that made you want to touch it. They said it couldn't have been much higher than your head and about as wide. More like a featureless, black outhouse or a large void stone. Everyone of Dragon Riders of Malm thought it was an event. Malm was known for having forceful events. And since contact with the brick resulted in teleportation to a dungeon which proved to be impassible very quickly, it drew more and more people. Then people started dying. Or worse; falling into comas. The GM's of Malm were able to move the starting location for the game. The player deaths and real deaths slowed considerably. But there was no clear way of stopping this data eating thing. Dragon Riders of Malm was the first to fall. It was as if all data regarding the game was gone. It couldn't be accessed from outside servers. Characters within the game during its disappearance reported their immersive devices, such as NerveGear and the new MindPortal, simply shut off. When they tried to log back in, they were transported to another game; Pale Forests Awakened. And just like Dragon Riders of Malm, Pale Forests Awakened befell the same fate. Two more entire worlds have been destroyed since then; Magiqua, a mages-only game and FloraxFuana, an MMO where characters take the shapes of various animals and plants. Webs of the strange data-eating monsters permeate throughout several worlds. Though death by one of these data-eaters is not imminent death, it is still risky. Few characters risk fighting them and those that do, they almost always return with data corruption. The tower has been missing ever since the death of Flora&Fauna, which reported over one-hundred fifty deaths. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Der Monde; Fileds of l'Ahntia Isaac, better known as Palanayukei in this world, stood on top of a large hill. Violet mountains cascaded behind him and red grass glittered across the vast fields below. Wylia, or his Wind Nymph, sat on his shoulder, a green aura emitted from her body as the sun dipped below the horizon. Far off in the distance, data-eaters, or DE's as he called them, roamed over a hill. The data-eating tower has yet to be seen since the death of Flora&Fauna and many fear that it may be in one of the larger games as Der Monde, Blood Moons, or even Sword Art Online. The search has been on for several months. Palanayukei headed down the hill, watching his map closely as he encroached on the DE's to ensure nothing attacked him from the flank. Golden words appeared across his visor "Der Monde; Fields of l'Ahntia" it read. The starter area for many Der Monde players. There's no better place to destroy these things than in the starter areas, he was trying to rationalize the risk he was about to take again. Closer to the beasts now, he hid behind one of the bulbous trees dotted along the field, he drew two crystal wands. One black as night, the other radiated white light. "Beim ehren meida, Beim ehren meidi," I wish one, I wish two "gonn deim Ehrt" from the earth. "Alu ehren foia" And one from flame. Two large stony golemns grew out of the ground. Grass donned on their forearms and shoulders. Out of the air, a small child made entirely of flame appeared. He showered each of them with another spell Thu Eyla, for protection. Though the Data Eaters dideat data, they fell just as any other monster did, with a few hard knocks. "God, I shouldn't do this," he mumbled to himself as he rounded the tree and his three summons headed for the closest data eater. . . |Next person should help me kill the Data Eater/DE to help get the story rolling! ;) |

Victoria rarely left the boundaries of her game Blood moons. She had established far too much in her vampiric homeland. However, the threat of a data eating virus made her leave her usual hunting ground. She made her way to the world and game of Der Monde. On the fields of l'Ahntia, she found what she assumed was her first data eater. It matched the description of what an info broker had informed her it looked like. She could see that her prey was being hunted my anther. She watched the man as he summoned a series of golems. She smiled. This player could do magic she couldn't. It meant that he could at least be a useful distraction. Victoria moved to a location where she had a good line of sight but a safe distance from the data eater. She stood and held her bow in her left hand. She raised her right hand and said, "Cast on!" A magic circle floated in front of her. "Fire 1" she drew a simple fire rune with her empty right hand. Then waved her hand like hitting the reset on an old typewriter. The fire rune merged with the spell circle. "Light 1" She drew a rune of light and added it to the circle. "Wind 2" after drawing a wind rune. She added it to the circle and said, "Exist!" The spell circle collaped leaving a floating ball off ghostly fire. She quickly raised her bow and fired three arrows through the fireball at the data eater. As the arrows passed through they ignited with magical fire. As the arrows made their marks, they exploded in blue flames.

Nova flew swiftly and silently through the open sky of ALO, a small group of angry players hot in pursuit. She knew that what she had done wasn't exactly sportsman-like, however it was the groups fault things ended the way that they had. The agreement was that she would help them find the treasure room in a dungeon they were raiding and she would receive a very valuable piece of the prize. Well she had done her part by using her skills as a treasure hunter to lead the party to the treasure trove they had been searching for, they however thought they'd change the terms of their deal once the treasure was in their hands. What they hadn't expected was for Nova to outright PK the leader of the party and take her pay by force. Now they chased her out of spite for being a better fighter and taking back what was hers. Diving toward the ground, Nova disappeared into a network of underground tunnels. She would lose them where her illusion magic worked best, in the darkness. The tunnels would force her and her pursuers to land, giving her enough time to find somewhere to hide. Feet hitting the ground lightly, Nova took off running as quickly as possible down the dark corridor not waiting to see if the party was still following her. As expected, the group hesitated at the entrance, hitting the ground a littler harder in their rush to go after her. They took off after her but it was already too late, Nova had found herself a crack in the wall to wedge into. "­Þik sér óvíss grœnn lopt" (Wrap us in opaque green air). A green light encircled her avatar, making her invisible to the eyes of those who passed her, Nova resisting the urge to laugh as they barreled passed. Waiting until the sound of their footsteps disappeared, Nova broke her concealment spell and took off toward the entrance. Once able to fly again, Nova raced toward Spriggin territory where'd she be safe from outside attack. Once locked in her room, Nova collapsed on the bed and sighed. She caught her breath and sat up, swiping the air for her menu. Nova was slightly surprised to see a message waiting for her, figuring she must have missed it during her trip to the dungeon. "Trouble in paradise huh?" She sat back, reading the message over again. "Guess I'm taking a trip to Der Monde."