CBF part 4: A Computer-Based interactive Fiction For You and Your Friends

This is part 4 of A Computer-Based Interactive Fiction For You and Your Friends. For an introduction, see CBF 1, CBF 2, CBF 3.

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Welcome back, Computer User #1. The road has been hard, the road has been long, the road has been bland and runny like proper English gravy should be. But you made it. This alone is cause for celebration.

Two children look at a computer; they are celebrating. Photograph by StartupStockPhotos

You are logged on to the Internet using Mr Odorman's computer in the reception of the main building. Gaia, the spirit of the Internet, welcomes you. You decide to use this opportunity to its greatest advantage, and hack into the upcoming exam database by heading cyber-south.

$ ls /usr/odorman/exams
roman-fire.txt
sigkill.txt

$ cat /usr/postgres/exams/roman-fire.txt
Roman fire is basically napalm and you can make it by
mixing styrofoam with petrol.
- Mrs Bileman

Congratulations, you now know all about Roman fire! You have reached Level 1 in Delinquency.

• Petrol Capacity increased to one. You can carry one litre of petrol.
• Lighter Capacity increased to one. You can carry one disposable lighter.

$ cat /usr/postgres/exams/sigkill.txt
Computers are good at executing programs, but they are also
good at crashing. By sending the "kill signal", you can crash a
running program. You need permission to crash a program, but
if you don't have permission an ADMINISTRATOR PASSWORD
or PRIVILEGE ESCALATION EXPLOIT will let you.
You can find privilege escalation exploits on the CINDERNET,
which you can find cyber-down-a-dark-alley.
- Mr Odorman

Congratulations, you know all about signals! You can now send the "kill signal" to a running program, as well as accessing the Cindernet.

Armed with your new knowledge, you swagger back to the cyber-centre like a county sheriff entering the saloon after a hard day protecting the public and incarcerating minority groups.

There's a new sheriff in town. His name is justice. Photograph by StockSnap

Back at the cyber-centre, you start thinking about the Internet, and the promise of free access to all the world's knowledge for all people. If people have access to knowledge, will it allow them to make better, more informed, more compassionate, and more rational decisions? Or will it just give them more ammunition to justify their ill-informed pre-existing biases? Can we have knowledge without teaching the wisdom to interpret knowledge? Perhaps this Internet is too much of a good thing. Perhaps the risks are too great, and man is not ready to know. The sky is not for man.

You know now that you must destroy the Internet.

$ delete internet
delete: /bin/internet: Permission denied

$ kill -9 internet
kill: Permission denied

Damn, it's protected! Not even a kill signal will destroy this monster. You'll have to find an administrator password or a privilege escalation exploit if you want to delete it.

So many cyber-choices, so little cyber-time. Photograph by spirit111

Word processing, including essay writing, is cyber-north.
Games, including multiplayer Doom Nukem, is cyber-east.
Databases, including student records and locker assignment,
  is cyber-south.
Geography, including a map of the school, is cyber-west.
Black-market, including the Cindernet,
  is cyber-down-a-dark-alley.

What would you like to do?

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This is an attempt at democratic interactive fiction. By commenting, you can help choose Computer User #1's next step – and his or her fate. The most popular comment, for some arbitrary definition of popular, will be used as Computer User #1's next action, and I will create a new post describing the results of the action.