Crackdown!

International hacker organizations took several different forms. Some claimed to be messengers of justice, like "Anonymous," which sought to break into various government networks. Others specialized in attacking game servers, cracking software, or releasing pirated copies. There was no shortage of them.

The one that had announced its intention to attack Morning Star was one such pirate organization.

The organization held a very simple belief: the basic spirit of the internet was sharing, so all copyrights should be invalid, software should not be chargeable, code should be open source, and all attempts to profit through the internet should be stopped.

That was why the organization was also called "pirates." What they did most often was crack software, from office programs to games, and even operating systems. During the internet's wild-growth era, most users had probably used software cracked by these pirate organizations.

Of course, copyright regulations were much stricter now, and many software companies had gotten smarter as well, using methods such as online authentication and constant updates to restrict cracking.

But games and game consoles remained the worst-hit areas. After all, a cracked console meant never having to buy games again, and the console's price was practically insignificant compared to the price of those games.

Later, different game-console manufacturers adopted different strategies. Some strengthened their encryption and restricted hardware cracking. Some directly recruited certain cracking groups, turning them into employees and treating them to the best food and drink. Others simply paid protection money, spending several million to shut the big players up in exchange for several years of peace.

This time, those pirate organizations were naturally very interested in Morning Star's release.

Especially when they discovered that the device was not being sold overseas, and that the game did not even have an English version, they felt that