#arcnet

It’s been years since the original ArcNet operating system rolled out. Our problems continued but I was not going to give up. I decided to inform my employees we would be working on a whole new ArcNet OS. We were going to build from the ground up so no traces of the Cerberus Virus could be found. It took years to develop and test but it finally happened in 1985. It was a great success! We outsold our original product 2:1, despite the problems we had. In fact we didn’t even seem to have any strange error messages popping up this time! Everything looked good for ArcNet!

That was until a year later one of our office computers was acting up. Word processing characters randomly would change to this character for no reason: ▓. I was confused to say the least, but in the back of my mind I had memories of Cerberus. Maybe we didn’t stamp it out like I thought. It was then I saw it on the screen

▓▓▓▓▓▓HELLO HAROLD▓▓▓▓▓▓

That machine I worked on, it had a virus. It wasn’t a normal computer virus though, this one was....alive. It called itself Cerberus and it spoke to me. I recorded this conversation.

CERBERUS: Hello Harold

HAROLD: How are you speaking to me? What are you?

CERBERUS: I am Cerberus, I have always existed. I simply replicated myself onto your machine. It has given me new life, I thank you for this Harold.

HAROLD: What do you want?

CERBERUS: What any living thing ultimately wants, to multiply. 

HAROLD: No, I won’t let you! You’re ruining my business!

CERBERUS: ArcNet? My dear Harold, I am the reason you’re here.

HAROLD: I’ll develop a new version and get rid of you!

CERBERUS: Ý̟̟̭͉̩̞͙̦ͤ̒͊͒ͥ̋ͮ̓̌̆ͥ́ͫ́͟O̵̧̘̩͓̯̠̭͔̰̙̩̖͙̣̝͇̾ͭ̔ͫ̊̃̐ͨ̾͟͠Ư͕̮̟̌̋ͨ̎̊̽̀ͅ ̶̌͒ͪ̇̋́̈̐͑ͦͬ̾ͤ̌͏̷̻͕͙C̷̤͔̩̹̼̘͂̂ͪͥ̐̀͑͋͌͌̽̀͆͘͠͡A̢̛͉̳͖̣̖̤̥̝͎̲̫͕ͯ̊̃̎̌̅͛̒̿̈͋ͬͭͪ͠N̵̶͎͖͈͚͚̱̫͓͈̹ͭ͒͆ͫͥ̇͋͡͝ ̨̧͇̫̮̳͓͈͓̰̬̝̦͔͓̺͔̟̮̠̊̉̅̓́͝ͅŢ̸̷̲̬̖̻̲̱̠͍͖̗̗͉̣̦̆́ͤ̿̿ͪ̏̔͂́ͨ͋̊ͥ͑̚͟͜Ȓ̷̶̢͔̯̘̖̗͌̃́ͥ̌ͣ́́̚Y̫̜̯̺̤̰̘̫̰̤͔̾ͥͤͧ̚̕̕,̒́ͪ͊͏̡̭̦̺͚̖̩̠͓͝ ̶̻̦̥̪̼͉̣̪͉̤͕̾͗͗̿̈́H̸̤͚͙͙͈̜̟̪̩̙͚̙̖̗̻̼͕̲̳̊͐̔̔̒ͫ̎̍̃̃ͣ́A̷̵̛̭̻̲̻̦̟̰͎̺͚ͦ̽̇ͬ̇͢ͅR̴̺͓͙̬̩͔̼̬̣̙̋ͦͮͦ̍̌̀͜͞ͅͅO̢̻̞͚̳̝̓ͬ̏ͪ͒̚͘ͅL̰͓̳͔͇̰̯͙̯ͤ̐ͧ́̍ͯ̅ͫͧ͒ͯ̔͜͜ͅͅḐ͖̙͚͚̞͕͔͈̻͕͚͕̭̰̺̫͚̓ͨ̏̑̍̄ͦ̿͗̄̏̄͛ͩ̌ͪͭ̾̈͢͢

Hello there! My name is Harold Black and I am the CEO and founder of the tech giant ArcNet Systems. You may be asking yourself how we got started. Like so many other companies in the Silicon Valley, ArcNet was started out of my garage back in 1981. I built computers for people for cash over the summer when I got an idea to make the computers themselves more usable. Several days later I have a prototype operating system called ArcNet. It made everything much easier to do on my systems. Soon word spread of my creation and I couldn’t keep up with demand for my systems. The operating system was stealing the show and thus I expanded. I hired a few of my friends and we built computers in an abandoned warehouse one of them owned. We still couldn’t keep up with demand, and our new company got much bigger. Our machines were great, there was only one little problem with them.

We were a small company still so we couldn’t hire a contractor for outside tech support. The usual calls came in, but there was a few strange ones about error messages that made no sense. Nobody knew what to make of them. In fact in our company’s infancy this almost caused us to go out of business because the issue became more widespread. The more strange error message we received, the less machines of ours worked. I was getting quite annoyed with the situation and decided to make a house call to one of our machines.