Chapters

This article contains SPOILERS for the main story of CrossCode. Proceed at your own risk!

This article contains SPOILERS for the a new home DLC of CrossCode. Proceed at your own risk!

All of the game's chapter summaries can be found here.

Prologue

Prologue: Shizuka
In an unknown area at an unknown time, a woman called Shizuka materialized. She demanded to know where her brother Satoshi was and why he was being held captive. As she moved towards her destination, she was interrupted by an obfuscated man who summoned enemies that blocked Shizuka's way. As she was an experienced fighter, she quickly disposed of the enemies and pressed onward, until she eventually found herself in front of a large building. At the end of a hallway she found her brother in front of a computer system. He seemed to be working on something as Shizuka was urging him to stop because of his poor health. However, Satoshi stated that it was already too late for him and as he finished his work he collapsped on the floor. Shizuka ran to him, but Satoshi's words rang true, and he passed in her arms.
-Encyclopedia Story entry

Chapter 1

Chapter 1: Awakening
Lea awoke in a strange environment. She couldn't remember how she got there or who she was. She had no time to think about her situation, as she was greeted by a floating display in front of her. It showed Sergey, who told her that her "initialization" was successful and asked if she could understand him. However, Lea couldn't talk. She wanted to, but her speech module seemed to be broken according to Sergey. Without delay, he asked her to perform some simple tasks to understand the "gameplay" mechanics. Lea mastered each task with ease, almost as if she already knew what to do. After finishing the final challenge she met Carla, who welcomed her to the "cargo hold". Without any explanation Lea had to fulfill several other challenges, none of them proving too difficult. Buth she also grew more restless, and once the final challenge was completed, Carla and Sergey promised to tell Lea everything as soon as they spoke with Captain Jet. The captain welcomed Lea to the ship, but stated that she had to leave as soon as possible, because and Avatar on board of his ship just "calls for darn trouble". Nevertheless he promised to teach her some tricks later. As Carla and Lea stepped outsied, it became clear that they were aboard a ship called the M.S. Solar. They moved ahead to the bow of the boat and Sergey explained Lea's situation. As it turned out, Lea was actually inside a game called CrossWorlds which takes place on a real planet. Lea is inside the body of an Avatar which is tightly connected to all her senses. Sergey went on by saying that they hoped to recover her memory by letting her play the game since there is a high chance that it might help. Carla added that everyone on deck except her is actually human and belongs to the maintenance crew of the game. After the explanation concluded, Sergey surprised Lea by giving her the ability to say certain words that he "hardcoded" into the system, ("Hi" in this case). They moved on and met the captain in the cabins, where he told Lea to get up to the balcony in order to start combat training. While the captain showed Lea special combat mechanics, they were interrupted by a mysterious man. As he floated in midair, he claimed that something was not right on this ship and quickly turned to Lea, identifying her as the source of the anomaly. He approached her and was about to "erase" her. However, he noticed something peculiar about Lea, and threw her on top of the cargo containers to "test her abilities and see if he is right about her". A Huge Hostile Crab appeared out of thin air and prepared to attack Lea. Sergey dropped in and told Lea to take on the enemy as the crab's stats matched Lea's. Lea took a deep breath, nodded, and prepared to fight the crab. After a tough fight, she came out on top and stared at the mysterious man floatin in the air He was overjoyed with the results of the battle, and was about to finally take Lea away with him. Thankfully, Captain Jet intervened and attacked using his Solar Fist, which disrupted parts of the man's arm. The captain quickly grabbed Lea and flew her back to the balcony, where she was told to escape back to the teleporter she awoke in. Together with Carla, Lea returned to the cargo hold, but was stopped by a display of the floating man who summoned enemies to stop her. The enemies were far abover Lea's level, so Sergey told her to just run to the teleporter instead of fighting them. Just before the enemies caught up with Lea, she stepped into the teleporter and exchanged on last glance with Carla before the woman activated it.
-Encyclopedia Story entry

Chapter 2

Chapter 2: CrossWorlds
After narrowly escaping the mysterious blue man on the M.S. Solar, Lea arrived at Newcomer's Bridge in Rhombus Square via teleportation. Sergey explained the tight security measures of that location, relieved because the blue individual would be unable to interfere again. He was also worried, though, because Lea had to pass as a real player. He promised to unlock new words for her soon to make that task easier. On the way to the Rhombus Dungeon, a last test for new players before arriving at the mainland, Lea bumped into a feisty redhead who was also a fellow rookie. Being a competitive lass, she instantly challenged Lea to a race through the dungeon which they both promptly started. They did not notice the trouble that folled them... Using the skills she learned on the ship and her own wits, Lea managed to beat the Dungeon while picking up new abilities along the way. In the meantime, Sergey was inquiring about the situation on the M.S. Solar and the identity of the blue man. While the crew of the ship was fine, he was unable to find anything about their mysterious attacker. After unlocking the largest update, the Circuit, Sergey finally added the second word to Lea's language: Her own name, "Lea". Twice as eloquent but still disappointed, Lea left the dungeon to talk to the girl who had challenged her to the race before and just barely beaten her. She introduced herself as Emilie, or Emilienator as her nickname, whereupon Lea used her newfound vocabulary to introduce herself in turn. Their friendly conversation was cut short, though, as a fancy guy named Apollo entered the scene seeking "justice". He accused Lea of cheating because her level was higher than usual at that point (thanks to the unplanned fight against the crab), and wanted her to atone. The situation was defused, however, as his friend Joern appeared and apologized for Apollo before leaving with the protesting vigilante in tow. Lea and Emilie moved on from the confusing scene by taking the Skyrails to CrossCentral, the main teleportation HUB of CrossWorlds. There, they took the only way to the mainland that was available to new players: The teleporter to the coastal town Rookie Harbor.
-Encyclopedia Story entry

Chapter 3

Chapter 3: Into the World
Shortly after arriving in the cozy beginner's town Rookie Harbor the two were surprised by a player called Schneider, a friend of Emilie. He welcomed them to the mainland of CrossWorlds, also known as the Croissant, and gave them a quick tour of the city. This quickly led them to the Seeker-HUB which is where new players get an introduction into the background lore and main story of the game. As explained by the wise hologram, the players are on the planet Shadoon and are supposed to follow the Track of the Ancients as part of Operation Trackwalker. This means that they have to visit various temples of the Ancients, earn the power of the 4 elements and finally solve the mystery of the planet itself via a final challenge. After receiving permission to leave the town with the Green Leaf Shade and the option to consult the very informative lore-texts at any time, Lea and Emilie went outside to join up with Schneider again. The group then traveled to the town's exit, after which Schneider had to leave the two rookies because of his guild-duties. Thus, Emilie and Lea formed a party and took their first steps into CrossWorlds together. Lea and Emilie started their exploration of CrossWorlds by travelling through Autumn's Rise and interacting with the local wildlife. Shortly after they began exploring, they were reunited with the honorable player Apollo, who challenged Lea to a PvP duel, in honor of the Spheromancer-class. Before he left, Apollo told Lea to meet him at the entrance of Bergen Trail. As they arrived at Bergen Trail, Apollo made his presence known with another dramatic entrance and demanded his duel. After an uncertain outcome, he shared more of his wisdom and left. Emilie and Lea then decided to end the session and say their goodbyes, helped by the well-timed addition of another word to the latter's vocabulary: "Bye"!
-Encyclopedia Story entry

Chapter 4

Chapter 4: Dungeons & Guilds
After logging back into CrossWorlds, Lea and Sergey decided to move on towards the Bergen Village. But before Lea could even start to make her way up Bergen Trail, she was already contacted by Emilie who offered to join her party at any time. On the top of the mountain, Lea finally arrived in Bergen village and at the first real challenge of the Track: The Temple Mine. After receiving the key to it bundled with an explanation of its background, both Lea and Emilie were invited by Schneider to join his guild, the First Scholars. So they met their friend in Autumn's Rise to gain entrance to the guild's headquarters. In the small headquarters the two new players were greeted by the veterans of the guild, namely Buggy, Beowulf and their leader, Hlin who was thrilled about the prospect of new members. Still, the guild takes the lore of CrossWorlds very seriously, so every new member has to pass a quiz about background information found at the end of the Temple Mine. Emilie and Lea returned to Bergen Village to finally visit the Temple Mine, learn more about the Ancients and progress in the game. The instanced system of Dungeons prevented them from solving the dungeon together, so Emilie once again decided to turn it into a race. Thus, armed with additional motivation and the warmth of friendship, the two players entered the icy mine. For all its insects, machines, puzzles and insidious icy floors, in the end, the mine was no match for the two heroines. With the newly found Heat-element they were able to defeat their ferocious frosty foes and even the menacing mining machine at the end. As their reward (both the key to the next area and their needed information) awaited, so they returned to the First Scholars. While waiting for Emilie to finish the quiz, Sergey correctly assumed that Lea's limited speech would make correctly answering difficult, so it was decided to tell the guild veterans about it during their turn. They were very sympathetic with Lea and so passing was no problem. With the last hindrance out of the way, Lea and Emilie officially joined the First Scholars! And then, after a long and eventful session, they finally logged out.
-Encyclopedia Story entry

Chapter 5

Chapter 5: The Ancient Desert
After logging back into CrossWorlds Lea and Sergey had a conversation about a mysterious dream that she had. It was seen as a potential sign of her memory returning, which would help to make sense of her convoluted situation. Lea went back to Bergen to take the elevator down to Maroon Valley. Along the way she got an unexpected call by another member of the First Scholars, the Hexacast C'tron, who asked to join Lea the next day. At the entrance of the desert that is Maroon Valley, Lea was once again joined by Emilie. The usually carefree Pentafist was distraught about real-life events, because the thrilling adventures in CrossWorlds made her miss group assignments in college and thus brought down the wrath of her fellow students upon her. She continued to talk about her problems all the way to Ba'kii Kum. Upon arriving in Ba'kii Kum Lea and Emilie, feeling much better after talking about her worries, went to the local Quest HUB to accept the quest necessary for entering the next dungeon, the Faj'ro Temple. This quest was given by the Ba'Kii Kum Eldress and involved slaying a nefarious Sandworm. However, since Emilie still needed to catch up with her assignment, they decided to quit for the day. As Sergey was preparing to log Lea out of the game, she interrupted him, demanding answers about her current condition. Reluctantly Sergey explained that she is in a coma, to her shock and surprise. Despite the dire situation he ensures her that her condition is stable and that regaining her memories through continued playing might help her to wake up again. Then they agreed to log out. After logging in again, Lea invited her new Hexacast friend, C'tron, to her party. Together they decided to solve the quest of the Maroon Tree. During their travels together, Lea not only experienced his skills in combat, but also his fascinating knowledge of biology and other fields of science. After some hard-fought battles they were able to defeat the leader of the Earthworms, Ti'im, and collect its valuable digestive essence that will nourish the precious tree. Upon leaving the cave they also ran into Emilie, who, after a short introduction to C'tron, proceeded to solve the quest herself. Meanwhile, Lea and C'tron returned to Ba'kii Kum, to finish the quest. After completing the quest, though, Lea was once again confronted by Apollo, who was accompanied by his friend Joern. After an array of banter, and Emilie rejoining the fray, a new duel was agreed upon, right in front of the Faj'ro Temple. After fighting their faithful duel, and earning enough of Apollo's respect to be called by her proper name, the challenge of the next dungeon was waiting for the group of three. Making their way through a flood of formidable foes and bothersome bubble-based braintwisters, they were able to acquire the element of cold and bring down the boss, a gigantic moth with lasers (much to Emilie's dismay). After defeating the boss, the way was free to acquire more Ancient knowledge and have a well-deserved hug between the girls on the top of the temple. Then, before logging out, Emilie asked Lea about her life outside of the game, which the latter was unable to answer. Thus Lea's speech issues were also finally revealed towards Emilie, to her shock. Emilie did, however, take it rather well and promised to try and get information out of Lea with yes-no-questions. Then the group of three logged out for the day.
-Encyclopedia Story entry

Chapter 6

Chapter 6: Raids and Ruins
Following her return to CrossWorlds, Lea was instantly informed by Sergey about her three day long absence due to technical difficulties. He apologized but also implemented another useful word to her vocabulary: "Wait". This was supposed to become useful for signaling new information for Lea to share and immediately used to clue Sergey in on another dream that Lea had. Through an array of questions Sergey was able to deduce that Lea had dreamed of a yet unreached place, but a call from Emilie and C'tron interrupted further investigation. Worried about Lea's absence they asked her to meet them in Rookie Harbor to continue their adventure together. At the fountain in Rookie Harbor Lea was met by her two friends and an exciting announcement: They would participate in a raid together with the rest of the First Scholar! For that Lea would need to solve a mandatory quest in Autumn's Fall. Despite having already solved it, Emilie and C'tron gladly agreed to accompany Lea again. The group traveled through the vivid lands of Autumn's Fall, received the quest from an Ancient statue and followed a colorful bunny to finally defeat it and receive the Green Seed Shade. Said Shade was needed to proceed towards the jungle area called Gaia's Garden, though of course their attendance was needed at the raid with their guild. Lea, Emilie and C'tron reached the raid area called Para Island by going through an underwater cave in Autumn's Fall. There they met up with their high-level guild-comrades Hlin, Buggy and Schneider, who explained the event to them. The event was split between two paths, one for higher and one for lower levels. The teams on both paths had to destroy colored pillars in sync with each other to proceed and fight many enemies along the way. The raid was going well, when the group neared the final stage with excitement. Alas, a sinister force interrupted their enjoyment... Instead of following her friends, Lea was forcefully pulled out of the raid by the malevolent machinations of the Blue Avatar, who teleported her to a secluded mountaintop in Bergen Trail. There she was forced to face him in single combat to give Sergey time to somehow find a way out of that convoluted situation. Escape was in sight after Sergey was able to create an exit portal but the mysterious Blue Avatar was able to yet again block Lea's way. Wary of Lea having outside support with control over the environment he stopped giving her a fighting chance and instead proceeded to capture her with his seemingly omnipotent abilities. Thus Lea was dragged away to an unknown location...
-Encyclopedia Story entry

Chapter 7

Chapter 7: Isolation
After another dream Lea reawakened in an unfamiliar room and with Sergey as her only contact. After searching for a way out to no avail, she was visited by a man named Gautham, seemingly an old acquaintance of Sergey. Though Lea was not able to remember him, he somehow recognized her from a long time ago. He offered her a way to pass the time by allowing her to go outside. By leaving the room and building, Lea saw a completely unknown area of barren lands and crimson waters, only known as the Vermillion Wasteland. The area is completely unknown in the official CrossWorlds release and Sergey only remembers it vaguely from the early production days and thus deduces it to not be part of the official playground. Before further assumptions could be made, however, Schneider appeared out of nowhere to greet Lea. He appeared to be stuck as well and was just as confused as Lea herself. No teleportation nor communication was possible to the outside of these wastelands. At a loss for alternatives, the two formed a party and decided to play along with the vague tasks they were given. In the local Quest-HUB they received the task of visiting a certain Southern Trial Building after finding a way to open it. Said quest had very lackluster lore, only talking vaguely about an unexplained Project Red, which the two snarkily remarked upon. They followed the instructions regardless, opening the building by activating cryptic devices around the region. To their shock, however, they were faced with a high-level opponent inside the building which would have been way out of Lea's league. Thankfully with Schneider's help it was not an impossible task. After that fight, they entered a mysterious room that neither of them could clearly recognize, though Schneider noticed a vague familiarity. Not knowing what to make of this, they handed in their completed quest. After getting a dissatisfying congratulation at the Quest-HUB Schneider decided to finally log out before realizing that he couldn't, neither normally nor by manually removing the Cross Gear. Panicking he tried to get information from the other residents and the powerful guardian entities of the area before attacking the latter in rage. His rampage however was short-lived, as even the high-level player was no match for the local laser of death that soon rained down upon him. After respawning and musing about the benefits of respawning after death, Schneider admits that he lost all of his memories about his life outside of the game, just like Lea. Determined to solve their situation they decide to return to their rooms for sleep. After returning to her room Sergey admitted to being employed by Instatainment ltd, the company developing CrossWorlds, and thus having access to some of the development documents. He further explained that the Vermillion Wasteland is an area that was never finished and thus should not be available to normal players. Upon vaguely noting that the other players were not in a coma, unlike Lea, she became suspicious. Instead of clarifying Sergey quickly rushed Lea to log out. Lea reawakened from another dream, this time involving both Sergey and Gautham, among others. Upon learning this, Sergey explained that he, Gautham and a certain Satoshi, allegedly Lea's brother, were all working for Instatainment ltd together 5 years ago. Everyone except Sergey vanished 4 years ago though, until Sergey found Lea alive, but in a coma. After reiterating that learning the truth behind all the ongoing mysteries would be the secret to Lea's reawakening, he urged Lea to reunite with Schneider outside outside. Upon reuniting and visiting the Quest-HUB the pair was surprised to not even get a proper quest. Instead they were supposed to wander the area for the day. Schneider gave Lea a tour of all the interesting landmarks he found while exploring. The last was a mysterious tower, that residents of the area supposedly enter without returning. With additional unease in their hearts, they returned back to their rooms. As that uneventful day was about to end, Sergey explained that Lea's entire existence inside of CrossWorlds is unofficial which why he can not work with the authorities to solve their problems. The next day, when they were about to head out, Lea got a surprising visitor, as an angry Shizuka appeared by violently storming the place. In a dramatic confrontation she revealed that Lea is, contrary to Sergey's previous explanations, not really human but instead a highly-advanced AI-copy of Shizuka. Shizuka then blames Lea for her bad situation before leaving. Traumatized and shaken over Sergey's past dishonesty, Lea cut off the connection with him and slowly went to reunite with Schneider. Visibly shaken, Lea's inner turmoil was easy to notice for Schneider. They still continued by starting the next quest, which once again involved a Trial Building they had to enter. After holding her despair inside during the quest, Lea finally collapsed, crying, when they were about to enter the building. Schneider decided to take a break and instead talk about their circumstances and feelings. Upon calming down again, they decided to return to their rooms and leave the quest for another day. Lea, still angry at Sergey, rejected his apologies and logged out. On the fourth day, Lea woke to the sound of silence, as Sergey did not greet her. Instead she met up with Schneider to finish the quest from the day before. After facing another powerful foe inside of the Trial Building, they yet again entered a mysterious unknown room that looked strikingly like a messy apartment. After some exceptional examination, Lea was able to deduce that it was in fact Schneider's real-life room, much to his embarrassment. To recover from the shocking experience, Lea and Schneider took another break at the lake, where the latter started to talk about things he started to remember, like working in an IT company. After more bonding over the meaning of life, gaming and interior design, they handed in the quest and returned to their rooms. Lea tried to reestablish contact with Sergey, but he didn't answer. So she ended the day as it started, in silence. Day five started with another surprise, as Lea was interrogated by an unknown man in a business suit, who asked about outside help before leaving without getting an answer. As Lea tried to regain her composure, frightened, Sergey suddenly started talking again and instructed her to quickly reunite with Schneider and make for the mysterious tower. Their plan to escape was finally beginning. Together with Schneider, Lea managed to sneak past the guards of the tower and finally made it inside. Upon entering, though, they got split up again, because the tower was actually an instanced dungeon. Sergey urged her to keep moving, since he had devised a plan to reunite her with Schneider and leave together. By performing a little hacking magic he allowed her to break through the walls of the instances in search for Schneider. On her way to find him, though, Lea came upon a threatening that seemed to be torturing one of the resident players. Any potential investigation was prevented by the reappearance of the Blue Avatar, however, who promptly started chasing her with powerful enemies. After passing a few rooms, Lea was finally confronted by a seemingly invincible Snail-boss that she was only able to overcome with more hacking help from Sergey. Lea reunited with Schneider and, after breaking a few more walls, the two made their way outside to what looked like a rather mundane dock. However, before they could finally reach freedom, Schneider's movement was blocked entirely, preventing him from moving on. Reluctantly, Lea left him behind to flee alone, but was again stopped by her persistent pursuer. At this point none other than Captain Jet entered the scene to blast the Blue Avatar with his weapon and carry Lea away with his Jetpack. Thus the escape was successful, but only for Lea... Being back on the cargo ship Cargo Ship M.S. Solar after a long time, Lea was finally reunited with people like her fanboy, his colleague and, of course, Carla. She was not happy, however, knowing that Schneider was still trapped in the clutches of her former captor. Under the eyes of Jet and Carla, Sergey finally apologized for keeping Lea's situation a secret and started to describe the events that led to her journey. He explained how Shizuka's brother, Satoshi, developed a highly advanced A.I. while working on the player-avatar connection of CrossWorlds (the CrossCode). Said A.I., also called an Evotar, was supposedly so advanced that it could perfectly mimic a person's memory and feelings, among other things. Lea is exactly that... an Evotar of Shizuka. But since Evotars often permanently malfunctioned when confronted with the truth, Sergey was reluctant to tell her the truth and instead made up that rather cliched coma-story. Lea, however, was able to accept her nature and remain stable. Sergey, however, reiterates that Evotars should not officially exist on the Playground to his knowledge, because, while Satoshi was eager to continue the research on that topic, it was not something their employer, Instatainment ltd, was interested in. That is why, in frustration, he, Gautham and Shizuka left the company and broke off al contact with Sergey. He concluded that they must have found someone with administrative access who supported them with the means to continue behind the back of their former employers. After Sergey's long explanation, Lea, with her ultimate fate still in question, went on a walk around the ship. There she was used for water-based avatar experiments and also met a charming young child called Isabelle, whom she played tag with. After that delightful diversion from the recent dramatic events, Sergey reappeared to talk to Lea about her future. He had a plan that would involve creating a place for Evotars to live, as soon as they found Satoshi. With this goal on their mind he proceeded with the logout.
-Encyclopedia Story entry

Chapter 8

Chapter 8: Through the Jungle
Right after Lea logged back in on the Cargo Ship, Sergey instructed her to go back in the Cargo Hold, the room where her journey began. There another teleporting landmark was erected that would allow Lea (but no one else) to freely travel between the Cargo Ship M.S. Solar and the official Playground. Carla joined her to see her off on her way back to meet her friends again. Right after arriving at CrossCentral Lea spoke with Emilie who seemed quite angry and wanted to meet "in person". So Lea went to the guild-HQ of the "First Scholars" to clear everything up. Emilie was very frustrated with Lea, though, who was unable to explain the convoluted events to her friend. Then the situation got even more complicated as Schneider came in and Lea suddenly hugged him, to the irritation of both him and Emilie. Embarrassed and confused, Lea fled the scene. As Lea was brooding by herself Sergey suggested that the Schneider in the Wastelands was most likely an Evotar, just like Lea, which would explain the confusion of the Schneider in the guild-HQ. Still embarrassed and unsure of how to set things right Lea was unwilling to return to her guild and so she instead travelled to the next location on her path: Gaia's Garden. Arriving in the thick jungle Lea was immediately confronted by an old acquaintance: Apollo, who was dead-set on having another duel. Also, his friend Joern accompanied him. After another hard-fought battle between Spheromancers it was decided, mostly thanks to Joern's suggestion, to form a party of three to face the challenges of the jungle together. Thus, this new constellation of two Spheromancers and a Quadroguard continued their journey towards Basin Keep, the rising city between the trees. In the bustling city of Basin Keep the group visited the mayor who was involved in a heated argument with a Shad called K'tara. She was beseeching him for help against a horde of aggressive cats that invaded a part of the nearby Shad-village and warned him of the Shad-residents becoming angry at the human settlers, who they hold responsible, but to no avail. Seeing that she would not get help from the mayor, she left the office. The seekers talked to her and agreed to help the Shad, in return for safe passage to the next two Temples of the Ancients, the So'najiz Temple and Zir'vitar Temple, which were blocked off by Shad protestors. And so the group followed K'tara to her village and took care of the feline pests that were seemingly corrupted by some Track-related force. With the obstacles to the next dungeons out of the way, the group decided to part ways again and log off for the day. Lea returned to CrossWorlds after another dream that hinted at the location of Satoshi and Gautham. Immediately she got a call from C'tron who wanted to meet with her to run the next dungeon together. Once they met up though, it became clear that it was a ploy to have Lea and Emilie talk again. Though Emilie was still frustrated about Lea's sudden disappearance, they were able to reconcile quickly after it became clear that Lea had not vanished on purpose and missed her friends a lot. Finally together again, the original group of three, Lea, Emilie and C'tron tackled the two dungeons of So'najiz Temple and Zir'vitar Temple together, of course continuing their racing tradition. Those dungeons were again filled with perplexing puzzles and menacing monsters, but equipped with the newly acquired elements of Shock and Wave, no challenge proved too much for the trio. Thus, with a small pause in-between to meet the rest of the First Scholars again, both dungeons had been solved. Just as the group was about to enter the last dungeon of Gaia's Garden, the majestic Grand Krys'kajo, Shad protesters once again blocked their path. Thankfully, with the help of a friendly scientist, the root of the Shad's plight could be solved, which finally allowed passage towards the large tree. Unfortunately, C'tron had to leave due to obligations in his life, so he would not join Lea and Emilie during the race up the tree. Instead Apollo, whose friend Joern wanted to take it slower himself, dropped in to show his skills. So the new group constellation raced and beat monsters, puzzles and even a cheeky ape riding a whale along the way, until they finally reached the top and claimed the Shade to finally enter the last area of the game: Sapphire Ridge!
-Encyclopedia Story entry

Chapter 9

Chapter 9: Searching the Night
Directly after logging in, with Lea still standing in the spacey ending room of the Grand Krys'kajo, Sergey suggested to visit Sapphire Ridge and explore the area until she remembers the way to the hideout of his former colleagues. Suddenly, though, Lea was greeted by C'tron, who just finished the dungeon himself. He asked her to join the First Scholars for an important meeting. At the guild-HQ the First Scholars talked about going on another raid and also invited Lea. Though she wanted to join, she had to refuse the request on Sergey's advice, because a raid would bring the risk of being captured again. Though disappointed the guild was understanding and Emilie offered to explore Sapphire Ridge with her. After travelling to the yet unknown area from Autumn's Fall, Emilie swiftly complained about the return of her most dreaded kind of foe: Bug-like creatures! Regardless Lea had to move on and travelled to the Cave Inn where she got hints on how to receive the Meteor Shade, needed to finally enter Rhombus Square. Following the hints, Lea met up with a Vagabond south of the Cave Inn and received 4 Trials to test her worth. After solving these, she met with the Vagabond to get tested in single-combat. A honorable victory later she was able to move forward and obtain the last shade, also reuniting with her friends, Emilie, C'tron, Apollo and Joern. Together they accepted the Meteor Shade and agreed to visit Rhombus Square together. As Lea stayed behind, Sergey contacted her and said that they should take a look at the cave in the North of Sapphire Ridge, because it was the last place they had yet to visit. And since their investigation is still unofficial, it had to be done alone. Lea was able to recognize certain locations in said cave and, with Sergey's support, uncovered a hidden entrance to a location know as the Old Hideout. Though it seemed abandoned at first Lea was quickly confronted by Shizuka who was determined to not let her pass. So a PvP-battle erupted between the original and the copy. After many rounds of fighting, Shizuka's brother Satoshi noticed the noise and instructed her to let Lea inside. Reluctantly she followed his orders and so Lea was finally able to meet the genius who invented the CrossCode. Satoshi already expected that Lea was assisted by his old friend Sergey and prepared a holographic projector for him, so he can directly speak with everyone in the room. With communication established, and under the protection of some virtual anti-surveillance noise, Satoshi and Sergey started to share their information with each other. So Satoshi began explaining why he left Instatainment ltd with Shizuka and Gautham and what happened afterwards: After they were unable to convince the company to support their Evotar research they were approached by a man who called himself Mr. Benedict Sidwell. He showed interest in their research and generously supported them with anything they needed, including testing environment directly on the Playground, first in the Old Hideout and later also in the thus unused Vermillion Wasteland, which they later dubbed Evotarground. They made swift process and, after a short time, were able to develop the first functional Evotar, derived from Shizuka's avatar: Lea. As more and more advanced Evotars were developed, questions about their purpose and future arose, especially once it became clear that Sidwell really aimed for a system that would also replicate a person's memories to gather intelligence on the players of CrossWorlds. This could be achieved by creating an Evotar from the target and then allowing it to roam the Evotarground under supervision to regain their memories. Those can then be gained through interrogation... often involving torture. Satoshi, Gautham and Shizuka protested against this unethical misuse of their work and wanted to stop but Sidwell was able to effectively blackmail them into submission. Their lives were basically in his hand, a fact that everyone realized. So instead Satoshi developed a plan to oppose Sidwell indirectly. The Evotar Server, which hosts the memories of all Evotars except for Lea and keeps them in existance, can only be accessed directly and by Avatars with a special key. Because of that Satoshi faked a critical malfunction on Lea and made Sidwell connect her with the server on the pretense of fixing her. Seemingly unable to fix her Satoshi was tasked to dispose of her, but instead he smuggled Lea, still in possession of the key she was given for the connection, into the official servers and made sure that Sergey would find her. In the end these actions led to Lea entering CrossWorlds and finding Satoshi, just as planned. While Satoshi and Sergey were talking about a potential plan to foil Sidwell's plans, Lea and Shizuka spent some time together outside. Although Shizuka was still frustrated over her convoluted situation she realized that Lea was not at fault and so she apologized. Then the two grew closer by bonding over stupid horns and cool scars. Back inside, the group talked about involving Gautham in their plan, though Shizuka assumed that he would be too obsessed with shaping his own world to be reasoned with. It was also revealed to Sergey and Lea, that Gautham was in fact the one controlling the blue, orange-clad avatar that hunted Lea in the past. Still, Shizuka agreed to reach out to him. Since Sergey and Satoshi have agreed on a plan, it was time for Lea to leave. It was agreed to meet again in the Old Hideout once preparations were completed, since they will need a group to execute their objective. After leaving, Lea went to the Old Dojo to uncover the secret path towards the Vermillion Wasteland. Then she returned to the HQ of the First Scholars to log out.
-Encyclopedia Story entry

Chapter 10

Chapter 10: The Final Raid
Waking up after a bad dream, Lea was about to begin her preparations for the final confrontation with Sidwell, when she met C'tron in the HQ. He told her that he will not be able to play in the next few days because of real-life responsibilities, but also assured her that they could still play together on that day. DIDN'T MEET WITH INVESTOR / FAILED TURING TEST Lea also learned that Beowulf was meeting an old friend in Rhombus Square, who later turned out to be an Instatainment ltd shareholder and huge enthusiast of A.I. technology. Sadly Lea was not able to meet up with him. Talking to him might have shaped the future for the better. MET WITH INVESTOR Lea also learned that Beowulf was meeting an old friend in Rhombus Square, who later turned out to be an Instatainment ltd shareholder and huge enthusiast of A.I. technology. She was able to meet up with them and arrange a meeting with said friend, a man called Ivan Vestorovich, to convince him of the worth of the Evotar technology, so he could help them create a future for all Evotars. After Lea was finished with her preparations, she met up with Shizuka and Satoshi again to discuss their plan to storm the Vermillion Wasteland. Sergey and Satoshi divised a way to crash the Evotar server by subjecting all the resident Evotars to a certain field effect, which will result in a torrent of data that should overload the server. This would give Lea enough time to access it directly, before Sidwell could do so and delete everything. However, the plan would require the help of a group of players, which is why Sergey planned to involve Lea's guild and trusted friends, the First Scholars. Shizuka, on the other hand, was instructed to relocate her actual real body to not become Sidwell's hostage. With the course of action clear, Lea was logged out. Reawoken and equipped with two more words, "Meet" and "Thanks", Lea called all the members of the "First Scholars", except for the absent C'tron but also including Apollo and Joern, to the guild HQ's meeting room. There she connected Sergey to the Holo Projector so he could finally explain Lea's full situation to everyone. Though everyone was very surprised about Lea's revelation of being an A.I. it did not diminish their bonds and so they were eager to help with the plan. After meeting up with everyone in front of the Old Dojo in Sapphire Ridge, the group entered the Vermillion Wasteland through the secret tunnel and started their operation. After splitting into groups, they herded the scattered Evotars towards Lea, who used the power of the Orbital Deathlaser to subject them to the server-disturbing field effect. In the end, with the help of the dramatically appearing Shizuka, even Schneider's Evotar was saved from the clutches of shady Sidwell's sinister schemes. However, Sidwell still had an unexpected ace in the hole: Though he could not properly access the Evotar server itself, he was able to just destroy it by resetting all the Instant Matter of the room it was in, thus making it fall to certain destruction. In an unexpected twist, though, Gautham foiled Sidwell's failsafe method by hijacking the Environment server and taking control over all Instant Matter for himself. Driven by his own sense of honor and desire for competition, he offered Lea access to the server... if she was able to beat the final challenges he prepared for her. After overcoming a final array of fierce fights and perplexing puzzles, Lea was able to fight Gautham's avatar forms and defeat them. With his thirst for challenge finally quenched, Gautham realized that the world he constructed for so many years has only brought misery to its inhabitants and will now finally disappear. Disillusioned, full of guilt and with seemingly nothing to live for, he committed suicide by jumping from the tower to his death, to Lea's and Sergey's horror. Still shocked by Gautham's demise, Lea walks on to the Evotar server and has one final confrontation with Sidwell. He tried to pass off his motivation as mostly business and the intention of making large sums of money with the information gained from the interrogated Evotars. He did, however, display regret over Gautham's death and seemingly held fond memories over his time spent with Lea in the Vermillion Wasteland. Expressing some joy over seeing Lea ultimately be free and succeed, he left the scene. Sergey was furious over Sidewell's actions, that took the happiness of his three friends and even the life of Gautham, but Sidwell was unable to hear. So Lea finally accessed the Evotar server and secured the data. After accomplishing their goal, Lea returned to the others and told them what happened. While everyone was glad that the plan succeeded, Shizuka was mourning the death of her old friend Gautham, despite of how deranged he had become. With the situation solved, it was time for Sergey to now contact Instatainment and fully explain everything. However, for this to happen, Lea had to leave the game indefinitely. So everyone decided to play the game together with Lea one last time, before saying goodbye. And thus Lea and her friends traveled to all the locations of CrossWorlds they shared their adventures in. Then, in the end, they met again at the Old Hideout to have a heartfelt goodbye with lots of hugs. Afterwards Lea logged out for the final time, leaving her fate in Sergey's hands. In the following time Sergey worked tirelessly to try and convince his employer, Instatainment ltd, to allow the Evotar project to continue in an official manner and giving the Evotars a way to live. Several months after Lea logged out, he was finally able to inform the guild about the situation of their absent friend and the fate of the Evotars as a whole. BAD ENDING Sadly Sergey was unable to convince Instatainment ltd of supporting the Evotar project. This resulted in the ban of Evotars and the confiscation of all related data, which also destroyed all hope of Lea's return, to the sorrow of her friends. If only our heroes were able to convince someone influential to support their goals, the decision might have turned in their favor! < THE END > GOOD ENDING Thankfully, and in no small part thanks to the passionate support of Mr. Vestorovich, Sergey was able to convince Instatainment ltd of the merits that the Evotar technology brought. So it was officially approved for Evotars to live on the Playground which means that Lea will return in the future! The members of the guild were overjoyed by the prospect of seeing their dear friend again. < THE END...? >
-Encyclopedia Story entry

Chapter 11

Chapter 11: Homestedt
Lea awoke after several months and found herself to be in Homestedt, a small village for Evotars within CrossWorlds - constructed officially by Instatainment. After a meet and greet with several friends, including Satoshi and Sergey in his new avatar, it was time to awaken the next resident: Schneider's Evotar, Luke, who seemed rather surprised by the whole situation. Soon Lea and Luke learned that the First Scholars had organized another raid, the same one they hadn't managed to finish last time. Looking forward to tomorrow, Lea spent her first night in her own home. In the morning, Sergey surprised her by adding a few new question words to her vocabulary: What, Where and Who. Soon after this, the raid at Para Island started, this time without any unexpected interruptions. Still, it seemed that Luke didn't quite enjoy the event as much and ended up in a rather bad mood. After the raid was completed, the group took some time to talk with Luke about his troubles. It turned out he wasn't quite ready to enjoy his new life in CrossWorlds as he felt a lack of purpose. Hlin quickly pointed out that Instatainment was planning to employ Evotars for future activities within CrossWorlds. Feeling better overall, Luke and the others called it a day. Just before logging out, Emilie mentioned an old friend who missed the raid and hadn't been seen for a long time: C'tron. It was at that moment that Sergey came out with the truth about C'tron: he had been cooperating with Sidwell. Back before they planned to storm Evotarground, Sergey contacted C'tron about this and made an agreement to not tell Lea about it, as long as C'tron didn't get in the way of their plan to rescue the Evotar Server. However, things got even weirder, because as it turned out, they found an Evotar of C'tron on the same server they rescued. C'tron's Evotar was awakened but barely remembered anything. Lea went to different places with him, revisiting memories both of them had together. Just as C'tron started to remember things, he quickly ran away to the hidden entrance to Evotarground. He and Lea both learned that it was closed down. At this point, C'tron admitted that he has been involved, that he worked with Sidwell and spied on Lea and the others. He also fully understood his own situation, being an Evotar himself. Despite his past, C'tron was invited to live in Homestedt as well and even got his own house. Sergey explained that he hoped to learn more about Sidwell as C'tron remembered more of his past. C'tron understood and was thankful they took him in.
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Chapter 12

Chapter 12: To the Beach
The next morning, Lea was surprised to meet Apollo and Joern, who returned from their vacation. As expected, Apollo challenged Lea to a final duel. They both agreed to hold it after they completed the new area that has just been added to CrossWorlds: Azure Archipelago. After a pleasant walk among sandy beaches and plenty of battles, Lea was ready to take on Apollo in Rhombus Square. After the duel had concluded, Lea returned to Homestedt and was surprised to find C'tron together with Satoshi. C'tron admitted his connection with Sidwell and felt apologies to Satoshi were in order. He also mentioned that he remembered getting the job offer from Sidwell via email as he was a student, doing the work as a side job. Lea felt that something didn't sound right about this. Suddenly, Sergey gave Lea a call, telling her he was with Jet at M.S. Solar and they'd love to meet Lea as well. Following his invitation, Lea returned to the cargo ship, seeing Carla and the others again after many months. As Sergey talked about Jet's past job in intergalactical logistics, Lea suddenly remembered a few details about C'tron and Sidwell, suspecting there must be a closer connection between the two. After the pleasant visit, Lea returned to Evotar Village and decided to drop by at C'tron's place. Struggling with her speech synchronization, Lea tried to explain to C'tron his connection to Sidwell that she seemed to remember, pointing out that they both made the same hand gestures and knew certain hand signs. However, C'tron didn't go along with Lea's trail of thought, even purposely acting like he didn't understand what she was trying to communicate. As they both ended at an impasse, Sergey quickly dropped by to help Lea getting to the truth. Finally, C'tron admitted that he was not just working for Sidwell, but that he indeed must have been Sidwell himself, because he had his memories. However, this didn't quite explain his fear of betraying Lea and the others back when they played together. Something didn't quite fit.
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Chapter 13

Chapter 13: The Final Dungeon
In the next morning, Lea was awakened by her old self: Shizuka. They both decided to drop by at their brother's house and see what he was up to. Unsurprisingly, Satoshi was stuck deep in his work as usual. Shizuka wouldn't have it and convinced him to take a break and visit Azure Archipelago with her. At that moment, Lea learned that the Final Temple was planned to be released later that day and quickly got a call from Emilie telling her that the First Scholars were planning to run the dungeon together. Lea joined and even managed to drag C'tron with her, who was still feeling down about yesterday. Everyone joined the masses at the entrance of the Ku'lero Temple to enter the dungeon just as it opened. After a very long playing session, Lea reached the end of the temple and learned about the Secret of the Ancients: a portal to a new world and the setup for the new expansion "CrossWorlds - New Horizons", which was still in development. Soon afterwards, she caught up with everyone else who completed the temple - except for C'tron, who seemed to have dropped out and returned back to Homestedt. Emilie and Lea decided to drop by at C'tron's place. C'tron explained that he wasn't feeling up to running the temple and also opened up to Emilie, telling her about his connection to Sidwell. Emilie, being very surprised, tried very hard not to be too angry at C'tron and instead asked about his personal feelings toward the whole thing. C'tron confirmed that he indeed felt bad for what he did. At that moment, he suddenly recalled a detail about his past that was painful for him to remember. An event that took place in Evotarground. Seeing C'tron suffering like that, Lea and Emilie called Sergey for help and asked him if it was possible to visit Evotarground one last time, to try to find the location of his past memories and help him remember. Sergey was concerned about going against Instatainment policies, but reluctantly agreed due to the urgency of the situation: Instatainment was planning to destroy Evotarground in the near future. Thus it was decided that Lea, Emilie and C'tron would embark on a final trip to Evotarground, hopefully learning the full truth about C'tron.
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