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Post: 67296023_1 created on Sun, 21 Nov 2010 09:54:49 +0000
Posted: Sun, 21 Nov 2010 09:54:49 +0000

MAIN THREAD ARRIVES!

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Welcome to the interest thread for the up-and-coming B/C shop Code Wars. Please stick around and chat with the staff, we like busy threads.

11/22/2010: IT opens!

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finish guild

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plan opening event

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finish art

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finish world building

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decide flatsale prices

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introduction

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Post: 67296023_2 created on Sun, 21 Nov 2010 09:59:49 +0000
Posted: Sun, 21 Nov 2010 09:59:49 +0000

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Follow the ToS

Pretty self-explanatory.

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Art/concept theft will not be tolerated

The story and all art in this thread and the guild are original and you will be reported if caught stealing.

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Keep the drama to a minimum

Just be nice to each other. We can all get along!

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No begging for a character

When the shop opens and we have our first flatsale, everyone will have an equal go at the characters. Begging will NOT sway us to reserve a character for you, and in fact, will make us less likely to consider you worthy of one at all.

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Post any questions in thread, or PM them to the mule

Any of the staff will be happy to answer them for you.

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Don't be rude to staff

Pretty please with a cherry on top?

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Please don't advertise your own shop

If you want to affiliate, great! We love affiliation! But please leave advertisements to your signature space, not the thread.

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Don't spam, page stretch, or otherwise disrupt the thread flow

Self-explanatory.

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rules

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Post: 67296023_3 created on Sun, 21 Nov 2010 10:00:35 +0000
Posted: Sun, 21 Nov 2010 10:00:35 +0000

••Sometime in the distant future

Computers have become integrated into human life far beyond what anyone could have imagined. Humans and programs alike can seamlessly hop between the real and the virtual worlds; sometimes it is difficult to tell what is flesh and blood, and what is code. As computers evolved to become inseparable from human society, so did viruses. Malware became more sophisticated, more proliferative, and more dangerous. The most destructive began mutating of their own accord and wreaking havoc their creators never intended; they developed artificial intelligence, able to execute their own commands and override those of their creators or of hackers attempting to stop them. In the midst of this chaos, a lab assistant at CoreTech, INC., the world’s leading computer integration software manufacturer, created two anti-virus programs with one purpose: to hunt down and destroy malicious programs that had gained artificial intelligence.

Elizabeth Nightingale was not a trained computer programmer; her skill came from her experience designing malicious viruses in the basement of her parent’s house as a teenager. She had begun her career as a hacker out of recreational interest and had stumbled into a nightmare. After inadvertently causing one of her viruses to mutate into an AI, she was arrested by the government. However, instead of going to prison, Betsy found herself employed at CoreTech under the supervision of a world-renowned computer scientist who had desired her expertise to help him design anti-virus software. However, she disagreed with his methods and thus set out to create her own anti-virus programs. She named them Abraxas and Xabaras, and together they formed the perfect debugging team. Both were AI, but were more advanced than any mutated virus, and quickly began eradicating renegade malware.

Abraxas and Xabaras’s successes propelled Betsy into international prominence, and underground hackers saw her programs as a challenge. A small group soon came together to design the most advanced malware yet seen. Abraxas and Xabaras attempted to debug and eradicate the virus before it could do too much damage, and were successful. But the victory came at a heavy price: Xabaras became infected with the supervirus’s coding and Abraxas was unable to debug him. Xabaras mutated into a supervirus himself and Abraxas was forced to eradicate her former companion. It was a heartwrenching battle, and though Abraxas was victorious, she was unable to completely destroy Xabaras. Thus Xabaras remained, a dormant piece of coding, waiting to be awoken and take revenge…

6 months later

Betsy sighed and rubbed her eyes. They stung from hours of staring at the monitors surrounding her station. Each of them displayed a loop of code that she had been trying to hack into all day. It stumped her; there were few programs that took her more than an hour to break, but she had been attacking this for the last 10 hours with no progress whatsoever. And it was vaguely familiar, as if she had seen it once before a long time ago. She had considered calling Abraxas back from her mission to help, but had decided against it.

She was sure the code loop was a virus, but it was obviously dormant. When she had discovered it, deep within Core Tech’s restricted files, a little voice had told her not to mess with it; she had ignored it and promptly downloaded the file to her station. Now as she sat gazing at the repeating sequence, she remembered where she had seen the code before: it looked exactly like her initial template for Abraxas and Xabaras. She leaned forward and, out of curiosity, entered the next string of code into the computer and hit enter. Her entire station went dead. Then, the monitor directly in front of her flashed to life. Two words hovered on the screen, two words that filled her with dread. “Thank You.” Thank you? Betsy thought. Thank you for what…

“For waking me up,” came a voice from behind her.

Betsy spun in her chair to find a man standing near the entrance to her station. “Xa-“ was all she could utter in shock before she slumped in her chair, dead.

The man sauntered forward and felt around for the dead woman’s pulse. Not finding one, he smiled to himself and pushed her body out of the chair. He sat, and on the working monitor pulled up Abraxas’s profile and current mission status. Xabaras leaned back in the chair, gazing up at the familiar face serenely smiling down at him. It’s good to be back…

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The world of Code Wars is Earth in the distant future. Technology rules just about every aspect of daily life, to the point where humans are more like cyborgs than people. America and England are the two main stages for this story, as they are the world's twin superpowers. Together, the two countries have managed to make for their citizens an almost utopian society, but seem to have forgotten the rest of the world. Other countries rot, and their hate-filled people use second-hand technology to spawn malicious viruses with one purpose: to destroy America and England. Terrorism is taken to a whole new level, but fortunately for both countries their lead programmers can create advanced anti-virus technology to combat the malware pouring in from all sides.

Despite the disparity in wealth between the two superpowers and the rest of the world, most people have access to organotechnology, or computer chips and codes that can be directly inserted into the human body. Some simply improve regular body functions, or attributes like strength or speed. Others, like chips implanted in the brain, allow people to go online and access websites as fast as their brains can fire synapses. Buildings have coding in them, as well, which make it possible to access their in-house networks no matter where you are. Codes and chips integrated into buildings can also store programs responsible for atmosphere control and janitorial duties, among other things. As such, even buildings and people are vulnerable to corruption, and it becomes the duty of Level 3 anti-viruses to interact with infected places and people in real life to debug them.

With Xabaras's return, foreign and domestic malware become more potent than ever. Xabaras reaches out to hackers from other countries for help, and slowly begins building himself an army. It is beginning to look like a virtual war may soon be unleashed...

If you choose to become an anti-virus, you will start out in CoreTech's network and explore outwards. Because they are the leading integrated systems manufacturer in the world, they have access to a virtually infinite number of other company and municipal systems, meaning that as you evolve you will have extensive opportunity to explore and gain experience. And if, along the way, you encounter some malware, well...you know what to do.

If you choose to become a malware, you will begin in the malware forums. Creators swarm to these underground boards to trade ideas and help each other build stronger, more advanced malicious software. You will interact with other malware, and perhaps form alliances to complete corruption missions. As you evolve, you will be able to hack your way into more advanced systems and confront the anti-virus programs waiting for you. The more you take out, the better.

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story

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Post: 67296023_4 created on Sun, 21 Nov 2010 10:01:21 +0000
Posted: Sun, 21 Nov 2010 10:01:21 +0000

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Anti-virus software comes in one type. They have one goal: to eradicate malware. They are equipped with all the skills and tricks needed to tackle all types of malware. The more advanced the stage, the more effective they become. Anti-virus software have high stamina, as they are often outnumbered and must eradicate different types of malware at one time. They are also quick, faster than any malware. Unlike malware, they must return to their creator for updates, as new malware is created every day.

Although anti-viruses come in one type, each has special attributes: for example Abraxas is a stealth anti-virus, while Xabaras was a brute anti-virus. By working together, anti-viruses maximize their ability to efficiently eradicate viruses. As an AV owner, you may choose which area your program will specialize in. The classes you can choose from are listed below:

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Brutes

These are the tanks of the anti-virus world. They take all the hits while a stealthier teammate sneaks up from behind. At advanced stages they have almost limitless stamina, much to the frustration of malware. They can also pack quite a punch, if goaded into attacking.

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Stealths

These are guys are sneaky. While the rest of their team is distracting a malware, they look for the backdoor or loophole in the code that will let them enter the program and eradicate it. They are very quick and nearly impossible to catch. And once a malware realizes what has happened, it's too late.

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Protectors

As their name would imply, protection anti-viruses specialize in ensuring the safety of their comrades. They have an arsenal of debugging, firewall, and scanning techniques at their disposal that make them the bane of malware programs everywhere. A particularly high-level protection anti-virus makes it virtually impossible to eliminate an AV team.

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Attackers

Attackers are the most well-rounded class of anti-virus. They have good stamina, they're pretty fast, and they know a few protection techniques themselves. They're like the cornerback in football: a flexible insurance policy in case the stealth can't or is prevented from finding a loophole.

Malware is usually home grown, and as such more malware populates the virtual world than anti-virus porgrams. They come in many different types, each with specific abilities. Malware do not team up as often as anti-viruses, but alliances are not unheard of. If you decide to become a malware creator, the type you choose will be pre-assigned to the program, so think hard about which type you'd like before entering a prompt.

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Trojans

Like their Greek namesake, Trojans appear to be harmless programs, disguised to dupe the user into running them. Depending on their stage these guys can do a lot of damage and can penetrate pretty much any system without detection.

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Worms

Worms target systems with lax security. They are not as good at infiltration as some of their peers, but when they get in they certainly do a great deal of damage. They are faster and less clumsy than viruses, as they can replicate without attaching to an existing program. Whereas viruses can be discovered and stopped before an damage has been done, by the time a worm is found it is already too late.

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Adware

Adware are the fashionistas of the malware community. They have no extraordinary power themselves; rather they act as facades for their malware partners, allowing worms, virsuses, and others to penetrate into a system. They are experts in deception and distraction, and they frustrate anti-virus software to no end.

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Keyloggers

Keyloggers are the thieves of the malware world and are interested in one thing: personal information. And in this day and age an advanced stage keylogger with access to human brain chips is a very, very dangerous thing.

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Viruses

Viruses are the brutes of the malware world. They are clumsy and not too good at penetration, but they pack a harder punch than any other malware. Viruses will attach themselves to the nearest program and replicate. They spread via any internet network, but can also be transferred between devices through CDs and external storage hardware. Anti-virus programs dread true viruses, as they are the hardest malware to remove.

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Abraxas

Abraxas is the only stage 4 program currently in existence. Other anti-virus programs look to her for guidance, and she's become a rallying point for those wishing to take down malware. Because she is in demand from corporations and governments all over the world, she is constantly busy and must delegate less complicated tasks to her subordinates. However, as a creation of CoreTech, she must return there for daily updates to keep up with the ever evolving and expanding list of malware. Abraxas specializes in stealth and protection systems: if there is even the tiniest backdoor or loophole in a program she will find and exploit it. With Xabaras's return and Betsy's death, she has begun recruiting a veritable army of anti-virus programs to help her eradicate Xabaras and his legions of malware once and for all. Above all, she must prevent him from reaching stage 4...

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Xabaras

Originally designed as an anti-virus whose skills would compliment those of his twin, Abraxas, Xabaras is a powerhouse specializing in brute-force attacks. He has limitless stamina, and with enough time can hack into any program. As a supervirus, this quality is enhanced to the exclusion of almost all others: he is merciless, acts on impulse, and can fly into rages that will destroy every program in his vicinity, friend or foe. His own followers fear him. His only goal is to regain is stage 4 status and destroy Abraxas; he has not given much thought as to what he'd do should he succeed.

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Vriest

Shop NPC

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characters

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Post: 67296023_5 created on Sun, 21 Nov 2010 10:02:06 +0000
Posted: Sun, 21 Nov 2010 10:02:06 +0000

••

Binary Code

Your program is only a fledgling at this stage, and though
it has AI it does not venture far from its creator.
Your job is to complete the code and prepare it for its duties
in the big, wide world. It can function on a basic level. If
malware, it can penetrate simple security and corrupt the
most rudimentary files. If anti-virus, it can begin debugging
crude malware.

To evolve:

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Activation

Your program can now take on human shape, and
its actions have a much bigger impact on surrounding
programs. It has also gained access to more restricted
areas, and can penetrate deeper into computer systems.

To evolve:

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Assimilation

Your program has become almost completely
independent of its creator. It can now penetrate
organotechnology in humans. Depending
on your faction, your program can either
infect or protect living people

To evolve:

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???

Few programs have ever reached this stage. Currently
the only stage 4 program is Abraxas, and she sees to it that
no malware ever evolves this far. Will your program make it
to the ultimate stage?

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stages

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Post: 67296023_6 created on Sun, 21 Nov 2010 10:05:22 +0000
Posted: Sun, 21 Nov 2010 10:05:22 +0000

Acquiring a flatsale is a pretty simple, one month process. When flatsales become available, you will be asked to write to one of 3 or 4 available prompts. There is no length restriction, but please don't write a novel. You will have 3 weeks to write and when finished, you should PM the prompt to the Code Wars mule. The staff will then take 1 week to judge and pick winners. The winners will receive critique and then be able to make journals and RP with their characters. It is important that you take the critique we give you on board, as we want you to develop the best character you can!

Tentative flatsale price will be 40k.

Semi-custom programs will be available when the staff feel like it [sorry]. They will have a set price [need to figure that out], and you will be able to pick your faction and certain attributes. You may also pick a color scheme, but beyond that V i r will design the rest.

Custom programs are available through questing. You may make a quest thread at any time in the Quest subforum, and throughout the year we will pick the ones we like the best to become real character. We will announce upcoming custom picks 1 week before they become available so you'll have time to really spruce up your character and thread. Bribing for customs begins at [price]; please send your bribes to the Code Wars mule. Keep in mind that a high bribe will not necessarily guarantee you a custom: your character must be enticing to us.

Custom programs will also be available through auctions. You will be able to fully design your own character through all 4 stages, should yours make it that far.

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attainment

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Post: 67296023_7 created on Sun, 21 Nov 2010 10:06:02 +0000
Posted: Sun, 21 Nov 2010 10:06:02 +0000

Events will be hosted in the thread as well as the guild. Look here for thread even listings, and in the Events subforum in the guild for guild events. Participating in events will allow your program to evolve. If you impress the staff, you may also win special prizes, or even a semi-cutsom program.

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There are currently no ongoing events.

Missions will be posted in the Missions subforum in the guild. As your program evolves, it will become eligible for more complicated missions, and you may even be able to form alliances with others to complete special tasks. Depending on your faction, missions will be assigned by either Abraxas or Xabaras, so make sure you check up on their threads often! When new missions become available an announcement will be made below.

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There are currently no available missions.

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guild, events, and missions

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Code Wars generated a random number between 0 and 1 ... 1!

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Post: 67296023_8 created on Sun, 21 Nov 2010 10:06:27 +0000
Posted: Sun, 21 Nov 2010 10:06:27 +0000

The battle system will rely on the random number generator. Each stage has a certain amount of HP, which also determines the range of numbers they can generate.

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Stage 1: 20 HP, can generate number between 1 and 10

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Stage 2: 40 HP, can generate number between 1 and 20

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Stage 3: 80 HP, can generate number between 1 and 40

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Stage 4: ?? HP, can generate number between 1 and ??

There are item shops in the guild where you can purchase items that will increase your HP, expand the range of numbers you can generate, and give you one-time super abilities that may swing the battle in your favor.

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battle system

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Post: 67296023_9 created on Sun, 21 Nov 2010 10:07:12 +0000
Posted: Sun, 21 Nov 2010 10:07:12 +0000

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We adhere to the Daisy Code

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Please keep track of your RPs, Missions, and item purchases in your journal.

The staff would like to keep up with everyone's progress, but we don't want to go hunting for it! Organization is always a good thing.

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You may only have one character.

We recognize some people like to have more than one, but we feel that takes away from the characters, especially if you spend much more time on one than the other. We think with one character you'll be able to get the most out of this thread, and that your program will get all the attention and development it deserves.

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There's a lot of technical jargon in this B/C

Yeah but most of it is a loose interpretation seeing as we don't actually know that much about computers. And in your roleplaying you don't have to be technically correct. If you use things like "mainframe" and "network" and "glitch" we'll know what you're trying to say.

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Is this a templated shop?

Nope! Each stage will be customized with your character's growth in mind.

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Will bribes be accepted for flatsales?

Nope, sorry! The only things that should matter in a flatsale are your level of creativity and your own talent. Allowing folks to have an advantage just because they've got some extra money to swing around just wouldn't be fair.

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Will you be taking/ever take RL money for semi-customs/customs?

Also a no! We'd like to stick to gaia gold transactions, sorry.

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What are these "abilities?"

They're just general commands that your program learns as it evolves. They aren't meant specifically to be attacks, but you can use them as such. Also, feel free to tailor each new ability to your program as you wish; you can also use some and not others, it's really up to you. Additionally, you may buy custom abilities in one of our item shops.

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Are you hiring staff?

Not at the moment, sorry

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How often will you have events?

As often as we feel like. There will be opportunity for guild members to suggest events as well.

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Do I have to roleplay and join the guild?

Roleplay is a requirement. We'd also like you to keep a journal of your RPs and your program's daily life, so the staff can keep track of your growth. As for joining the guild, it's not required but really if you expect to get anything out of this you should.

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I don't have a program yet. Can I still join the guild?

Sure! There's a special subforum for people questing for a program, but keep in mind that you'll only be posting when flatsales become available. If you don't have a program please do not post in the regular sections of the guild.

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I've completed all the requirements to reach stage 4, but you won't let me evolve. Why not?!??!

You haven't impressed us! Stage 4 programs, as stated, are almost non-existent. Your RPing and involvement in the story and your character must impress the staff. We're not going to give the best stuff away that easy. Additionally, having really awesome rps and/or extensive involvement with your character could earn you special items ;D

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How does this "going into the real world" stuff work? Do the programs actually walk around?

Yes! Before, though, it was a bit of a rarity for malicious programs to evolve far enough to remain stable in, or even enter, the real world before they were dealt with-- and even then, the real threat was to people in powerful positions, not everyday folk. But since Xabaras' return... the game just might get a little more dangerous.

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Will there be an equal amount of anti-virus and malware programs up for sale?

No. There will always be more malware than anti-virus programs up, because that's how it is in real life. But don't worry, anti-viruses are more than equipped to even out the playing field.

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