Summary
: Welcome to Kamuidrome. Kamuidrome is probably my least favorite of all the chapters in The Silver Case, mostly because it really dates the game - there’s a lot of the 1995 film Hackers in it.
: It also kinda feels like Stephen King’s later works where he did a lot of “old man yells at technology” stuff, but it does have some points that are more salient today than they were in 1999.
: Most of Kamuidrome takes place in what’s basically IRC. The fact that the first person’s username is Helter Skelter is probably a coincidence, but that’s also the name of the tutorial boss in No More Heroes.
: Anyway, I’m going to transcribe these the same way I do the emails in the Placebo chapters.. for the most part.
: I don’t think I’ve seen a single SPLOOGEMEISTER in all the years I’ve been online. Anyway, I’m going to cut the last part of MonsterDong420 off because it contains a slur.
(Hugo)
: so youre running away?
: i mean,
: why cant you just talk it out?
: i wanna believe that
: since this is the internet
: people can come together!
: theres an even deeper connection than in real life.
: ive experienced it myself
: people ive met at offline parties
: were all really cool
: its because of people like you that people dont trust the internet.
: believe in the network!
: unpublicized messages are here!
: the power to connect people is here!
(oldman)
: believe in the net
: god is in the cables
: data transcends time
: and multiplies
: using billions of clones
: gives you undeniable proof
: and then people transcend the light
: This goes on for a good fifteen seconds or so.
: Big Dick is back from his vacation, and now it’s time to HACK THE PLANET.
Don’t misunderstand. I don’t mean it like that. I just mean, he wasn’t frigid, like you. Anyway, next time I see Kusabi, I’ll cheer him up a bit.
Anyway, to the point. I’m following an awesome case concerning the internet. All these charming ladies, who could be called “national assets”, have been disappearing left and right. Apparently it’s somehow related to the world of the underground. Some sort of club. It’s called “Ronny Rocket’s”.
Division XX, this is where their headquarters are. On the surface, it’s just a wholesome club. “Wholesome”? Do those clubs even exist? Whatever… anyway, I thought it may help.
I’ll probably see you again soon. Until then, keep living honestly.
: These chatlogs are formatted differently from the other ones. The way this works is that the user saying the lines is demarcated with a backslash after their name, and respond to people with a > after their name.
oldman/
I don’t get it at all
A middleaged woman who can’t come back to reality
Is this what people struggling with the gap of modern times looks like?
A parent’s duty to their child’s hope
They lose their roots and the parent-child relationship goes to shit
That means the family itself breaks down
It’s a really interesting truth
Do you all feel reality?
Sodom/
There’s lots of that kind of thing
The non-talk show-ness of it
It might actually be the best way
For these times now…
Grimes/
Sodom>
i agree
that style is all over
without a sense of despair
im so jealous
oldman/
but i cant rest easy… it doesn’t feel like a consolation
and is making samples of parents a sad thing?
a good thing?
nope, not for the person in question
its actually a really calm countermeasure
Halycon/
i really feel sympathetic
oldman’s views really get me in the heart
its not the sort of problem you can brush off as a ‘modern-day sickness’
with the branching off of psychological routes and the filing of medical records
the truth will be found
counseling is a deception
inside each and every person’s mind is the seed of truth
and each person has their own sickness
each one needs its own medicine
deception kills people
oldman/
Halcyon>
thats an exaggeration…
everyone is searching for their own place.
im gonna take off.
i wont be coming here again.
lets meet again someday, somewhere, everyone.
Neutral/
oldman, that’s a shame.
This BBS is going to get really quiet.
I think we needed you here.
Sodom/
losing friends, no mater what the form, is always sad.
oldman, please come back here someday.
JeffersonAirport/
you were light.
Grimes/
its gonna be lonely.
: I gave up on trying to learn Japanese, so I have no idea what kanji that is.
: If only he knew how bad the sequels were.
: Yes, I too would like some NEW DRUGS in what’s probably a blatant Huey Lewis reference.
: “Trying too fucking hard to look cool.”
: There’s a really big, really long text dump here.
UEHARA, Kamui
Estimated Criminal Record:<12:1975 Age 16>
Assassinated Makoto Ishihara, Mitama City Mayor.Around the same time, Shin Yanagi, president of Sumikawa Corp., the recycling business assumed to have bribed Nakahara, was also assassinated. Sumikawa Corp. had, as a recycling business, grown really fast, but a soil survey of the surrounding site showed that they had been engaging in the illegal dumping of PCDD.
: PCDD is a longer name for a group of chemicals known as dioxins, which are a by-product of certain types of industrial activity. They don’t degrade naturally, and wind up in meat and fish.
: Dioxins are known to cause all kinds of health issues, and are heavily regulated in the United States.
<12:1976 Age 17>
Assassinated Yukio Hata, Vice-Minister of the Kanto Ministry of Justice.According to the Weekly Narc, Hata reassigned Chairman Kimura of the Non-performing Loan Processing Organization. The investigation by Entertainment Realty, Inc., with close ties to Vice-Minister Hata’s family, became complicated.
<12:1977 Age 18>
Residence: Kanagawa DistrictAssassinated 5 male junior high school students.
Those five students had kidnapped and violated a 17-year-old female family restaurant employee, later dumper her into Kawasaki Bay. This case became very topical with the reporting of the victims’ real names, due to the relationship between the Juvenile Act and the HC Unit.
<12:1978 Age 19>
Assassinated Church of Psyentology Representative Toshiki Sato.With 45,000 members, the Church of Psyentology between 1987 ~ March of 1988 forced its members to use contraception and refrain from giving birth as part of the cult’s doctrine. Also, the poisoning case that occurred at the same time was also assumed to be part of the cult’s “research” activities.
: You know, I’m not so sure you can fault Kamui for that last one, especially if they’re where Cognitive Psience came from. And now.. the important part.
<12: 1979 Age 20>
Silver Case
“Dispute among the Kanto Big 3 NGO Parties”Nonprofit Regional Citizen Group TRO/CCO Confederation Chairman Ginji Nakane was on his way to a symposium recording when he was assassinated outside the front door of TTV Station. Cause of death was stabbing by a sharp metallic tube-like object.
The assassination occurred on 12/7, the day of publication of corrections regarding the election of the new district mayor, a dispute between the FSO and the TRO/CCO.
The perpetrator, Kamui Uehara, was immediately arrested upon commission of the crime. It was decided that he had acted alone and that the hit had been contracted, but the contractor was never found.
: This is what’s on the timeline on the game’s website. It’s called “Silver Case” because the people Kamui killed at that time were all elderly.
: You know, Kusabi’s method of solving crimes by going “I bet Kamui did this” is looking more and more sane as the plot goes on.
Due to this, he gained the nickname ~Angel of Absolute Zero~.
: Wait, they all happened in December.. is Kamui a SNATCHER?
: Uh-oh, I think this kid just found QAnon and also possibly shit himself.
: Big Dick has a new email.
From: junk@kipple.ne.jp
To: The Main Character
Subject: bookendIt’s been awhile. Looks like you’re still alive, that’s good.
I thought I’d warned you. I said to stay away from Morishima. You met with him, didn’t you? That’s no good. Although it may have been by chance, you shouldn’t be meeting with him. Do you know why? I know this is sort of weird, being right in the middle of the story, but you and Morishima are actually the same person. You share the same DNA, the same body.
Just kidding. This isn’t a cartoon. But anyway, Morishima is dangerous. I’m thinking of killing him. Just look at him. Something about him just pisses me off. I’ll let you know once I’ve properly shot him to death like a dog.
: I mean, that was kinda obvious given that Tokio isn’t a chinchilla.
: This entire upcoming segment feels like an exposition dump combined with some kinda dated views on the internet.
: “Up to here, the report is the same as the previous month.”
: “We don’t need the introduction… so, what is it?”
: “The number of missing persons has increased exponentially this past month. There have been 15x more reports than last month.”
: “Are they related to Internet crimes?”
: “Definitely.”
: Let’s talk about this a bit. The idea of “cybercrime” was a big headline maker in the late 90s, even if a lot of it was just sensationalism.
: As an example, Wired magazine covered a story about a “web assault” on the Pentagon in 1998.. even though it was really just an unsophisticated DDoS attack on the Pentagon’s web site.
: There’s also this one from 1997, where a hacker group got into Yahoo’s front page and claimed they had uploaded a “logic bomb” that would destroy the internet unless Kevin Mitnick was freed from prison.
: Most of the actual “cybercrime” was theoretical - things like a German hacker group discovering how bad ActiveX was, or two researchers from Columbia University inventing the concept of ransomware.
: That’s not to say some of it wasn’t real, though. A few months after this game released, a hacker going by “Maxus” hacked a CD seller in Connecticut and stole a database of 300,000 credit card numbers.
: “Actually, that’s not so far off. The number of domestic ‘internet circles’ is said to currently be at about 100,000.. and among those, about 10,000 of them are what’s known as “Bohemian”, or non-fixed websites.”
: I have absolutely no idea what he’s talking about, and I don’t think Suda did either.
: “Bohemian? I’ve heard of that before.”
: “Criminal and harmful websites that constantly move.”
: “Yeah… the kind of counter groups that exist in any category.”
: “So a bunch of criminal assholes, huh…”
: Oh, okay. NOW I get what they’re talking about. I talked about this a bit in the Persona 5 Royal LP around the end of the Futaba arc.
: They’re talking about 2channel (also known as 2ch). If you don’t know what it is, it’s a massive Japanese-language text board that spawned out of old-style BBS sites (like the one we saw earlier).
: It was created by a guy named Hiroyuki Nishimura, who also currently owns 4chan. Wikipedia claims he created it while in college in Arkansas.
: The idea behind it was that by having a Japanese-language social media site hosted in the United States, the site could get around Japan’s defamation laws, which are much stricter than those in the US.
: While that alone isn’t really cause for alarm (Pixiv also does this), the site pretty quickly got a large following of racists and other extreme right-wing groups, which continues to be a problem today.
: “Laws and restrictions don’t apply in that world. In reality, there are things happening similar to actual witch hunts and sponsored murder threats. They’re all methods to bring in more people.”
: “I just don’t get it… why would stuff like that be possible on these networks? You can’t see the other person’s face, you don’t know who they are… what’s the point in bringing in people like that?”
: “They actually can figure those things out, though… accessing one of these sites over telephone lines, and you’re connected to this net the moment you enter. With an invisible thread…”
: “After that, you just rake all the users in…”
: “Exactly. Pulling people in from across the Internet is pretty common practice these days.”
: “What a scary world.”
: “Say no more. I’m not interested.”
: “Chances of crimes originating from these ‘Bohemian’ circles are extremely high. Most net-based crimes come from these ‘Bohemian’ circles.”
: The way he says ‘Bohemian’ in quotes makes me think of all those dumb shonen battle anime where they call everything a proper noun that’s also usually in German.
: “So they’re hotbeds of Internet crime…”
: “A girl who was traipsing around those hotbeds completely disappeared.”
: “Girl?”
: “Yeah, she was a high school student. I used some of my more trusted connections to trace her movements.”
: At least we know Nakategawa didn’t kidnap her, because she’s too old for his tastes.
: “You mean the Department of Intelligence, right…?”
: “No, not just them. I searched all over and her life came into relief. This is the tale of an imaginary girl.”
: This sounds dangerously close to an Allanson Monologue, even though it’s a full decade too early for that.
: “She had a magical device in her room which would allow her to travel all over the world, and this device made her dreams come true.”
: Isn’t this just the plot of Serial Experiments Lain?
: “She had lots of friends. Some of her friends even wrote her letters in English. Even more than her classmates, her nation-less friends who sent here these letters were important to her.”
: “She could trust them. She was able to open up to them about problems she couldn’t speak to others about, and secrets she had kept locked away, deep down in her heart.”
: “The girl believed that this magical device would make anything possible for her. Then, one day.. when she had thrown her body and mind completely into this device, she found the darkness.”
: “For this girl who had been gazing into the light of the magical device, she couldn’t believe her eyes. Her friends who were like fairies, and their meeting place which was like a garden of flowers, neither of them were anywhere to be seen in this darkness.”
: “In this darkness lived nothing but greed and evil and hatred. The girl was afraid. But she was also strangely drawn to it… pat of her wanted to see this horror. So she gathered her courage and dove right into the mouth of this demon.”
: “The girl felt a whole new world there. It was thrilling for her.”
: “The thrill got bigger and bigger. The darkness lured the girl out of her house with a love potion. She ventured out in to the world outside.”
: “She bought trendy fashion magazines and the sort of sexy clothes she’d never worn before, got all dolled up, and went out. The neon lights felt warmer than usual.”
: “Yes… the girl had finally awakened.”
: “She became hopelessly lost and tried to pass the time. She must have been trying to find a place where she belonged.”
: “Even though she recognized the darkness, she was pulled in by its sweet trap. She may have even been waiting for this trap.”
: This whole thing sounds like Nakategawa read one of those garbage detective novels the library always has and then tried to write his own.
: “On the last day, the girl spent the entire day sitting in front of her computer. She gazed at the animation flowing across her desktop, laughing heartily.”
: “She was in a trance. She waited for hours. In her pitch black room, the red modem lights shine suspiciously. Her eyes glittered.”
: This case would’ve been a lot better if Kusabi showed up halfway through this and tells Nakategawa to shut the fuck up.
: “And that is the truth of this case.”
: “What do you mean ‘truth’? What happened to the girl?”
: “After that, she disappeared.”
: “A mysterious Internet kidnapping… I can see the headlines now.”
: “So what you’re trying to say is, ‘Find the girl!’, right?”
: “That’s right…”
: “Do you have any leads?”
: “None…”
: “Nothing? What the hell? Naka, quit fucking around and tell me. Who was involved with this case?”
: “I was personally asked to take it on.”
: The police couldn’t find anyone else more qualified to track down a teenage girl.
: “Who’s gonna get involved in a dangerous case like that? Count me out.”
: “Sorry, but that’s not really my thing, either. Those cyber-whatever cases are a bit…”
: “This is a problem… you’re all detectives, yet choosing the jobs you take on is…”
: “Right?”
: “OK, I’m taking off.”
: “Alright then, Timrod. I’m giving this one to you. It’s my background job, so please don’t make any mistakes. Worst case scenario, you’ll get killed. This isn’t just a threat.”
: “Alright then, good luck.”
: Naturally, as soon as I knew this chapter involved Big Dick going to a club full of hackers, I asked Salty Vanilla for an artist’s rendition of what that might look like.
: Big Dick is ready to either hack the planet or become a Shin Megami Tensei protagonist, or both.
: Speaking of Shin Megami Tensei, I found out that Soul Hackers 2 has Mara locked behind a day-1 DLC paywall, and there has never been a better way to get me to not buy a game. No Mara, no buy.
: The “going underground” subtitle is probably a reference to a Japanese alt-rock band by the same name.
: Moving around in here gets us some optional dialogue.
: It’s not immediately obvious what you have to do, but you have to face the direction you were facing when you first entered and use the flyer from Nakategawa.
: “You can’t just do whatever you like around here, you know. You get that, don’t you? You some kinda detective? What do you want?”
: “Don’t be falsely accusing me of anything now. The stuff I sell is clean.”
: “You trying to say I’ve been spreading these around? Huh? Don’t be spreading weird rumors and shit. I’m all on the up-and-up. I run a tight ship here, so don’t be bringing weird shit like this in to my staff…”
: “I don’t know what this flier is, but it’s one of those things, yeah? Something having to do with ‘net crime’ or some bullshit, right…? What a waste of time. You can’t put restrictions on fliers.”
: “People need to be allowed to just pass them out wherever, right? I’m running a business here. If I started giving out information… you get me, huh?”
: “Hold on… one of the younger ones was saying something about fliers. This… it’s got an address on it. That’s all I got.”
: Oh man, it’s such a dark web site that you can’t even see the address. I like to think it’s actually a link to Goatse.
: “People will start getting freaked out if we’ve got military-looking types hanging around. You really stand out, you know.”
: Next time: more overly 90s hacker shit, giant pointless chatlogs, and old men yelling at technology.