A Midsummer Night's Dream

It was a fine Sunday and the sky was clear as four young teenagers huddled indoors, eyes glued to the computer screens in front of each of them.  These teenagers were best friends who were addicted to the online game they were currently playing.  Their names were Lysander, Helena, Hermia, and Demetrius.  They were so obsessed with the game that when they played it, they weren’t even aware of their surroundings.  It was a happy and peaceful gaming session until Demetrius suddenly shouted “What happened? Where did all my recorded progress go?” Lysander looked up in surprise.  

“Lysander, you must have taken it when I was going to get a glass of water...I demand you to give it back this instant!” Demetrius stated.

“Why would I take your progress? I was playing the game just as fairly as you do. It must have been Helena...she always tries to scam people in the game, so she must have taken your progress!”  said Lysander. 

Trying to keep the peace, Hermia cut in and said, “We can figure this out later, so let’s all just calm down.”

But Demetrius was not willing to calm down. “I spent so much time on this game, and I’m going to get to the bottom of this,” he said.

And so the teenagers kept arguing about who did it, and that destroyed their bond. 

10 minutes before…

Oberon was the boss of the HPFJ foundation, which stands for “Hacking People for Justice.”  Their job was to hack into people’s accounts to steal and delete inappropriate online content, such as cyberbullying posts or scams. His main hacker, Puck, was extremely skilled at this job, and had helped Oberon solve many cases with his wit and humor.  

That day, Puck was feeling a little mischievous. As he was checking over people’s accounts, he stumbled into Demetrius’s account and found out his and his friends’ videogame obsession. How funny would it be, he thought, to delete his progress and see his reaction…. 

30 minutes later…

Half an hour had passed, and the four friends were still arguing with each other, trying to find the culprit.  At one point in the argument, Demetrius was so angry and annoyed by his friends that he tried to delete their accounts in revenge.  He was no match for the three obsessed gamers against him, and so he eventually was overpowered.

Meanwhile, Puck, with popcorn in hand, was spying on the ruckus through Demetrius’ webcam.  All of a sudden, Oberon burst into the room, grabbed Puck’s popcorn, and chucked it out the window.  “I was looking into your file and found out that you were hacking into a random person’s account and deleted his progress in a game,” said Oberon. “Did you hack without my permission?”  

“Yes sir, but did you see their reaction after that? At least it was entertaining…,” answered Puck.

“You foolish kid. Didn’t I tell you that you shouldn’t randomly hack people? And yet look what you have done...this is the opposite of what our organization is meant to do!” said Oberon.

“Perhaps this is just their fate!  After all, they might be destined to turn against each other,” said Puck.

“Stop talking nonsense. We need to come up with a plan to stop their argument,” said Oberon “Maybe we can even them all out, and make them all lose their progress. Then, they will perhaps have the same feeling as Demetrius does, and will be in his shoes. They may apologise to one another, and reconcile!”

“This is an excellent plan, my lord.  We shall start at this instance!” said Puck.

Meanwhile… 

“Ahh, what happened?“ shouted Helena.

“What happened, Helena?” asked Hermia.

“My account got reset!” said Helena “Demetrius!  You must have done it when I was not looking, to get us back right?  How dare you!”

“Wait, my and Hermia’s account have been reset too,” said Lysander.

“Who did it?  Demetrius must have done it to have revenge!”  said Hermia.

“No, I DID NOT,” said Demetrius.

And once again they began arguing and blaming each other.  This was even worse than the last fight, and they started to behave strangely and act extremely aggressively.

Back in HPFJ… 

“Oh no, this situation is getting worse....what should we do?” asked Oberon. “What should we do?”

“Hm. Maybe we should delete all their data, to teach them a good lesson!” answered Puck.

“ARE YOU STUPID?  You saw their reaction when they lost their accounts!” Oberon thought hard. “Hmm, what if we gave them admin in that game? That way, they will become much happier, and hopefully be friends again,” said Oberon.

“No problem sir, your wish is my command!” said Puck.

At Lysander’s house…

“Wait, what happened? It suddenly says that I am now the co-owner of the game...and look, there is a message,” said Hermia. 

The message on the screen read: 

We are very sorry if you suddenly lost your accounts for the last hour. That is simply because you have been chosen to be the new co-owners of the game, and this will allow you to obtain admin commands.   

Again, sorry for the inconvenience, and we wish you all continue to support our game.

-from the devs.

“Wow, I cannot believe that the developers actually made us co-owner of the game!  Oh, and Demetrius, sorry about that, I really thought that you hacked my account,” said Lysander.

“I am sorry for blaming you too...I was just too angry,” said Demetrius.

And the four best friends came back together into their squad, this time enjoying their new ability to have admin command.  After that day, they became even better friends than before, and understood each other even more.  While the game continues to strengthen their bond, who knows if Puck will ever strike again…