404: Reality not found

*This chapter is a continuation of the story 404: Reality Not Found.

Our alliance, ZHSq, had claimed nearly all the land surrounding the mountain. Every inch of it was ours, save for a small piece of territory to the western south. There, a narrow river divided the land, connected by a single, fragile bridge. On the far side of the bridge stood four disconnected towers, seemingly abandoned.

As usual, it was me and EHHHSAN, tirelessly building, expanding, and claiming new ground. When we spotted those towers, we thought they were ours for the taking. Back then, we weren’t as experienced as we thought we were. In our minds, “capturing” meant just that—taking control. We didn’t know it actually meant burning them down and rebuilding in their place.

So, we set fire to the nearest tower, expecting some kind of “capture” option to appear. That’s when she noticed us. Her name was DanSun, and she carried herself with a confidence that immediately caught my attention. She acted like a leader but not in a domineering way—her presence was warm, reasonable, even welcoming. She messaged me with a simple: "Hey, I see you."

The conversation that followed was direct but surprisingly cordial. She asked about the towers we were burning and mentioned that one of us had scouted her alliance’s main fort as well. Then came her question: "What’s your intention?" EHHHSAN and I were immediately struck by her presence. She felt mighty, someone who could easily lead others, but also someone worth recruiting.

However, the matter at hand was the bridge and those towers. I explained to her that we needed to claim just one of her disconnected towers to connect our territory around the mountain. To my surprise, she was open to negotiation. Instead of reacting with hostility, she allowed us to take the tower without a fight. In fact, she even offered to let us claim the others.

DanSun was part of an alliance called ONU, which had been under constant attack from a much stronger alliance. They were struggling. I saw an opportunity—not to exploit her weakness but to convince her to join our team. She hesitated. She granted us the towers but didn’t make any further commitments. Still, we stayed in touch. I updated her about our progress and the status of the towers we were “claiming.”

We were still figuring out how to properly capture territory—our solution was to burn the towers down and rebuild them from scratch. After that, there was silence for a while. I couldn’t tell how long; my perception of time was warped by the amphetamines. Days blurred into nights, my energy endless but my focus fragmented.

Then, out of the blue, she messaged me. Let’s say it was two weeks later, though it could have been more or less. "Can I join your alliance?" she asked. I tried not to show how much it meant to me, but inside, I was thrilled. A strong player like her, so similar to us in spirit, could change the trajectory of ZHSq entirely.

Back then, we were only about six real people. The rest of our alliance roster was padded with inactive members for the sake of appearances. EHHHSAN was just as excited as I was. We both knew DanSun could be a game-changer. I welcomed her into ZHSq, and soon after, our territory around the mountain grew even larger. Other players began to notice us and started joining, sensing the momentum we were building.

DanSun was active, friendly, and fit right in. She was Italian, and her charm quickly won over EHHHSAN, though neither of us ever said it out loud. Meanwhile, we were waiting for someone else—JoeDoe, a Polish player like me. He was still stuck in another region, waiting for the cooldown period to relocate to ours and join us. JoeDoe was a crucial addition to our growing alliance, but for now, we had to bide our time.

By then, ZHSq had grown to about 25 members. We played daily, organizing raids on hiveminds, building towers, and simply hanging out in alliance chat. The atmosphere in ZHSq was democratic and friendly—a place where people genuinely connected. Some, like me, even lived in it, in a way.

DanSun’s presence made us stronger, no doubt about it. Her activity and leadership pushed us further than we’d thought possible. In those days, I was proud—not just of what we had built but of who we were becoming. Our wait for JoeDoe became another chapter waiting to unfold. But for now, we focused on our daily tasks, building our empire and deepening our friendships.