Chapter Text
He was an old, enigmatic hacker—
and 007n7 was too.
But in this twisted world, they’d been assigned different roles. 1x1x1x1 had become the bloodthirsty, merciless killer— the living embodiment of Shedletsky’s hate. And 007n7? He had taken the survivors’ side, desperately trying to rewrite his legacy.
Not that it mattered. The survivors never truly accepted him.
The only one who ever spoke to him without scorn was Guest 1337, and even that came with an asterisk—he didn’t remember the past. If he had… He’d hate 007n7 too.
No matter how hard 007n7 tried to earn redemption, the others kept him at arm’s length. They didn’t need to hate him out loud—their silence, their avoidance, said enough.
So he did what he always did: survived alone.
Out in the decaying streets, when killers roamed and traps snapped, they left him to fend for himself. Fine. He had his c00lgui, his clones, and enough brainpower to survive the chaos. But even he couldn’t avoid danger forever.
1x1x1x1’s goons had a habit of finding him. Dragging the monster’s eyes straight to him.
And yet… Strangely… 1x1x1x1 never struck the killing blow.
Of course, 007n7 didn’t know that. He assumed it was luck, or a glitch, or his cooldowns saving him. He had no idea that 1x1x1x1 had no real desire to kill him at all.
Because even if 1x1x1x1 was hatred incarnate, he still saw 007n7 as one of his own.
A hacker—retired or not—was a hacker.
And maybe, deep down, 1x1x1x1 respected him. Not just for who he was, but for who he’d become.
While others spat on 007n7’s attempts to be better, 1x1x1x1 watched. He saw the old hacker raising a son. Trying to stay clean. Trying to protect someone.
And that someone—c00lkidd—was a boy 1x1x1x1 had met before.
Wandering. Curious. Alone.
He never hurt the kid. In fact, he’d lead him back with a silent wave, sometimes even shielding him from killers far less forgiving—like John Doe.
He never told anyone about it. Never bragged. Just watched the boy return to camp, safe again.
But lately, he hadn’t seen the kid at all.
“Maybe the old man finally got him to stop wandering,” 1x1x1x1 muttered under his breath, dragging himself through the darkened woods, his form flickering from recent combat.
Fresh wounds lined his side—slashes from a dozen swords. But he didn’t care. He’d drawn blood from Shedletsky himself today. That was worth the pain.
Collapsing near a clearing, he grumbled and scanned the ground for anything he could use to stop the corrupted code from leaking out of him. He was too tired to stand. Too weak to shift.
But then—
ZAP.
A violent flash of crimson split the air. The forest flickered like an old screen. A jagged pulse of red light carved through the shadows, and with it came the hum of corrupted code bending reality.
007n7 teleported right in front of him.
The coolgui behind him crackled and shimmered—a fractured red glyph of a past life, still etc
held in every line of his being.
“…Oh,” 007n7 muttered, expression unreadable.
1x1x1x1 looked up, his voice a glitched rasp: “…You.”