North Star Development · hacking track
MAINFRAME · LEVEL 3 · CORE VAULT
Hunters float over the traces. Fill the bar and the alarm goes: every hunter glides at you until the clock runs out. Pull a fuse and a section goes dark. Three ports, one of each lock, then a wave of eight.
Connecting to the mainframe…
Move
W A S D move · drag to look · Shift run (loud) · C crouch, and crawl in a duct · W into a riser to climb · Space jump, catch a ledge · W pull up · C drop
Hack
Port 03-A is the octave: the port sings, you play it back on a one-octave keyboard (A–K white, W E T Y U black); only the first note lights. 03-B is a 5×5 grid, the core is five reels. Under alarm the grid and the octave play in the dark. The descent gate at the exit is two locks: boxes that light in order (the higher your hacker skill, the longer they stay lit), then tones hidden on a grid — find the pairs by ear, five chances.
Watch
A hunter floats high — crouch under it while it looks away. Touch one and you burn. Alarm: break the line and hide (a dark trace, a dark section) until the clock runs out. They never climb a floor. In the wave room, the red fuse drops every attacker in its section, once. In the wave: F purge, short arc in front of you · Q decoy, they chase the pulse.