yep, i've been using a different computer while you fix mine

looked like some virus called huntinality 2.0 got onto your system and installed a bunch of weird stuff

it was making everything show up with a weird internet 1.0 aesthetic and preventing you from accessing a bunch of modern websites

i think i managed to get rid of all that stuff, but you should like... not just install everything you come across lmao

i remember when you showed up at my door the other day

you were frantically rambling about how your computer crashed just as you were about to unbreak the internet?

and that some random people named fred or whatever were depending on you?

i was just like... omg what are you talking about? everything is working fine

how can someone just break the internet lmao

epilogue

A few days later...

well i think i figured out the final answer

whoa really? thought i made that puzzle super hard

the answer checker just like... disappeared

I didn't think that was something it could do.

hey, what if we... just made another version of the device?

oh yeah we should have like blueprints for the device on our personal huntinality accounts right?

Ah, that's right. Our personal accounts have access to special versions of our web pages that contain information we could use to assemble a new device.

iirc, fred, this doesn't include you b/c you once again did nothing for this

cool, so we just need all of you to log into huntinality and get this stuff right?

ohhh man do i even remember my password tho?

oh god what i have no idea what high school me set my password to

...Unfortunately, I'm afraid I don't have mine on hand either.

...okay so nobody remembers their password?

oh hold up i think the three of you left reminder hints for your passwords in case something like this happened

lemme see if i can just paste those on this page

ah yes! beta tester, you should be able to deduce our passwords from this information

aren't these your passwords? why do i have to do this?

I have unyielding faith in your puzzle-solving abilities.

answerChecker

ANSWER CHECKER?

wow you did it! you got everyone together!

i've gone ahead and started a group chat for all of us

ah yes, it's time for the dramatic revela

i'm sure you've already figured it out by now

as skilled puzzlers, you've no doubt tried randomly anagramming my name, Friemd, and realized that it unscrambles to make I'M FRED

...because that's who i am! fred haring, CEO of huntinality 2.0

fred get over yourself, what are you doing

oh yeah right, i was hoping all of you would figure that out for me

isn't there a device on your personal page that's powerful enough to undo all of this?

here, beta tester, lemme give you access to my page...

as a word of warning, there is a super secret password to the device that can only be cracked by a legendary puzzle solver

theBoard

The Board

You are indeed in the presence of Brick Zander, l33t h4x0r.

hey i'm a beta tester from huntinality 2.0

i was told to assemble the huntinality 2.0 board and you would know how to fix all this

Ah, so you would like to call upon my genius.

All your base are belong to me. You can leave it to me.

The internet is not merely a big truck. It's a series of tubes.

Brick

ugh i really don't have the time for this

uh isn't this super urgent? we like broke the whole internet

Scarlet

Ruby

oh thank god you have the same username on this old messenger service

did you... just tell our system to <a href="/story/disrupt" class="text-blue-600 visited:text-purple-600 underline">DISRUPT THE INTERNET</a>?

you just like messed up the entire internet

we need to get in contact with the higher-ups at huntinality 2.0

unfortunately i don't know their usernames off hand

yeah well i don't know their old usernames i mean

i know the board used to run an old website back in the day before they started this huntinality 2.0 stuff

maybe you can investigate their pages and figure out their Pigeon messenger usernames...

are we sure this will work? how do we know they used Pigeon

looks like scarlet, ruby, and brick have pretty detailed webpages so i'd start there

urgent

URGENT READ NOW

hello beta tester! thanks for agreeing to help out with huntinality 2.0

i'll be your point of contact throughout this experience

so we've got a few features for you to play around with. it looks like it's just a bunch of puzzles, but your work here will be defining the future as we know it

just be careful though... our system is like REALLY powerful

as long as you don't tell our system to do anything too destructive, we should be good

Chat