'Not A Villain' Webcomic - Kleya checks up on the state of the word with D.

‘Not A Villain’ Webcomic – Page 205a

Another two paneler...

22 Comments

When you say left hand…do you ‘our’ left or … ‘her’ left?

Haha. I meant hers. Fixed it so it makes more sense. Thanks for the heads up!

So far, your depictions of Reality do not paint a pretty picture.

I can see the amount of detail you’re giving this part of the storyline. Can’t wait to see where it leads!

Ooooooh, does this mean that there is massive volcanic eruptions going on and recking the world? o.O

Wrecking. Like Wreck-it-Ralph.

D didn’t record any that shot ash into athmosphere this time. Progress!

Ok, magnetic poles moving, volcanic eruptions, earthquakes (we heard about those when the server crashed a while back) , that’s all consistent with a natural event. Normal solar flares would also be much worse with a weakened magnetic field. (Those were also mentioned in the server crash scene.)

So, assuming Brandon/The Dude is wrong about Kleya hacking the geomagnetic field, it looks like the sequence of events (based on hints in both the web comic and the book) is:

1- TENka invents The Game
2- Kleya becomes one of the top players, ends up working for TENka, designs some of their systems, and has access to an experimental neural interface.
3- The magnetic poles undergo a rapid shift. This is a natural event, but with devastating consequences. Some people have enough time to relocate to protected Cities. Others are trapped Outside.
4- The Game continues to work, and people start to use it to connect, including Outsiders (those not able to get to a City).
5- Kleya ignores the Ending completely, being in a protected environment, and continues trying to beat everyone at the Game, including people who are trying to use it just to communicate.
6- Kleya gets banned from the Game, and goes berserk. She hacks her way back into the Game, possibly with the help of D. This may also be when Deconstruct Me gets involved.
7- TENka objects to Kleya continuing to try to dominate the Game, and tries to block her access, including sending real world officials, probably to take away her neural interface.
8- Kleya escalates by hacking into the Cities (possibly with Deconstruct Me) and sabotaging computer-controlled life support systems. People die as a result.
9- The Cities declare Kleya Public Enemy Number 1, and send more and more resources to try to shut her down. Kleya also escalates further, hacking various systems to turn on soldiers. Within the Cities, anti-hacker sentiment erupts, and many (real or suspected) hackers are lynched.
10- Kleya’s mother tries to stop her and is killed. Kleya finally stops.
11- L.i.F.e. is created as a non-Game environment for social connection. (if this happened earlier, Kleya tried to take over L.i.F.e as well, possibly refusing to treat it as a non-Game safe space.)

So here’s a question that occurs to me as I wrote this… Was there ever a human hacker group called Deconstruct Me, or is that really D?

I have to wonder how you got that series of events.

Little clues here and there – in one of the first comics it indicates she hasn’t played the Game/practiced since before the ending. That implies it was already in place before the world fell apart and people retreated there.

Most of the clues are from the main comic, some are from the Annie storyline, some are from notes in the Kickstarter project and book, and a few are drawn from scientific references about magnetic pole shifts, which have happened many times historically. We know specifically that the Game existed before the Ending, and that people used it to connect after the Ending, until the non-game version was created (L.i.F.e.) We know that Kleya has a history with the Game prior to the start of the story. Bandit and Dr. Grace refer multiple times to her hatred of losing. The TENka symbols on her current gear point to a close connection with the Game development–this system probably works much more effectively than a Kido unit, but Sandra doesn’t even mention it, so they must be rare. We know that hackers in general, and Kleya in particular, are blamed for many deaths. We know that Kleya’s mother tried to stop her, and that both Kleya and Bandit blame Kleya for her mother’s death. Bandit denies that hacking had anything to do with disruptions of the geomagnetic field, but he doesn’t deny that Kleya was able to hold off an attack by armed forces.

In an ordinary situation, I don’t think hackers could be responsible for so many deaths, so I assumed that the hacker attacks were after the Ending, when many people would be dependent on the protection of Cities, which evidently involve a lot of technological maintenance.

Numbers 5-8 partially depend on what Kleya and others have said about her character. She hates to lose, so if non-players showed up in the Game, she would probably fight and defeat them as a matter of course. She was fairly young at the time of the Ending, and is still emotionally immature. I could very easily see her refusing to back down, no matter what crisis the rest of the world is dealing with. Normal policy in this case would be to ban the user, and I just can’t see Kleya being able to accept that. The rest follows.

I could certainly be wrong about the timeline, especially if Kleya did have something to do with causing the magnetic pole shifts, but I think it makes for a better story if that part happened on its own, but Kleya’s reaction to it was its own disaster.

My reading of events is that Kleya’s showdown with the army happened before the Ending. Of course, I might be wrong.

There also the question of whether or not Kleya volunteered for anything she did with Tenka. Did they just decide to fix this experimental computer on her one day, without her consent, which sent her into a roaring rampage of revenge? Which ended with a showdown against the army. Perhaps during which the Ending happened, leading people to believe she did it?

Her causing the End of the World, or causing the Hacker War… both are very meaningful things to atone for, the first is more grandous, the second more personal. It depends on the flavor what would suit her best, and I’m sure our good author has planned it out very well.

Personally after reading both theories, I agree with you, I think Kleya’s group were at least connected to the downfall – people seem to hate Hackers so much it seems like they’re connected with the End.

That sounds like it’s very close to the plotline, whatever it is, I’m glad Kleya didn’t cause the end of the world – and it’s just as meaningful path to redemption if she caused everyone to want to kill all hackers which killed most hackers, but not her…

I think that what happened with the army was that she used that thing on her spine, which seems to be some kind of telekinesis device, to defeat them.

I believe that by the looks of things 3 probably happened after 8. Just from what I have read and remember. Other than that; yea that looks about right considering Kleya apparent age. Most likely this happened within a several month span, hence why so much hate is directed at her.

I can understand how that series of events could occur to someone but I don’t think that’s very close at all to what our author is attempting.

Well, glad to see I was right, ships are so nice for disappearing on, submarine is still possible but I have reservations there. GU food, it can keep you alive just about indefinitely just about anywhere (though you’ll probably regret it eventually).

Hmm, this does change my view of what The Ending was. I’d been assuming a hacker driven corruption and shutdown of critical systems (Dr. Grace’s comments about the virus had me thinking of something like Shadowrun’s Crash virus and Crash 2.0). But now with a pole destabilization and atmosphere damaging eruptions, I have to wonder if this is just a coincidence or if someone was playing with tech they really shouldn’t have (Tesla was brilliant, but some of his ideas would very likely have doomed us all, broadcast power chief among them that I know of).

Maybe the polar destabilization, and volcanic eruptions were a result of the ending. I have my theories about what occurred. But will wait until I have more information to say anything.

That’s a great timeline, but given the level of hatred against the Hackers they were probably at least partly tied to the end events that led to the Ending.

Dunno…All it would take is for people to be convinced that they were tied to the Ending.

Really, all it would take would be for people to be convinced that hackers had been responsible for a lot of deaths and destruction. In a way, I think hackers would be in for even more hatred if they caused trouble after a global natural disaster. That’s a time when it’s important for people to work together, or no one is likely to survive.

Aaaaaanyway if ash is no longer being deposited into the athmosphere at alarming rates it should only take like a decade (or a few) for things to get properly warm again. Yay!

That sounds like a long overdue natural disaster happened (pull shift) do to a large gravitational disturbance (planet x theory anyone) the strength required for of which could EASILY trigger super volcano eruptions on the side of the globe the gravity welling object passed by. the only thing hackers could possibly have to do with it is sabotaging mitigation responses or perhaps merely delaying them and claiming credit to instil fear for power.

Not A Villain Webcomic

Webcomic of a semi- reformed hacker trying to redeem herself in a post- apocalyptic world she may have created.

‘Not A Villain’ Webcomic – Page 205a