Digital ghost

digital ghost

You are fighting a digital ghost.

Your watch pops up some code you haven't seen for years, from a computer you barely remember. As you puzzle over it, it compiles into the ghost in the machine.

Only it's not in the machine anymore because you recycled it years ago. Instead, it's in your face.
Your opponent attacks ...

Hit messages:

• The ghost crashes into you. It hurts like the dickens and you get a '1' stuck in your teeth.
• The ghost drops a floating point on your head.
• The ghost buffets you with a gust of wind from a particularly chilly corner of Usenet. What's a Usenet? (ice) damage

It hits you for X damage.

Critical hit message:

Your opponent has a critical hit! It hits you for X damage.

Miss messages:

• The ghost crashes. So now you know what happens when you get an afterlife in your screens of death.
• The ghost tries to drop a floating point on your head, but you dodge between the digits.
• The ghost opens a portal to Usenet, allowing you to relive the sci-fi flame wars of years past.

Fumble messages:

Your foe fumbles! It takes X damage.

Victory! You beat up your foe and win the combat!

You gain (?*Level, cap 250) experience.

You got an item: forgotten meme (See Notes)
You got an item: data fragment (See Notes)
You got an item: spilled tea (See Notes)
You got an item: yesterday's news (See Notes)
You got an item: pinched penny (See Notes)
You got an item: half a clue (See Notes)
You got an item: unfinished road snacks (See Notes)
You got an item: Astral junk bonds (See Notes)
You got an item: scratched SQUID disk (See Notes)
You got an item: interstellar VCR instructions (See Notes)

Known resistances/weaknesses

Verified to have no resistances or weaknesses.

Locations

• haunted computer
  

Notes

• Only one item drops at a time, depending on the softwares that are running:

Software	Effect	Drop
Astral Stock Exchange software	Betting on the Stars	Astral junk bonds
Destitute Dick's Penny-Pincher Program	Financial Prudence	pinched penny
Garcia's Traffic Avoider software‎	Seeking Solitude	unfinished road snacks
GigantoFirm LookOut Calendar	Prepunctuality	spilled tea
IMyself blog software	On Camera	scratched SQUID disk
MacRuff's Mercantile Monitor software	Targeting Trouble	yesterday's news
personal copy of the internet	Surfing for Lulz	forgotten meme
registry cleaner software	Cleaning Registry	data fragment
S.M.A.R.T. software	Got S.M.A.R.T.	half a clue
S.U.I.T. Software	T.a.I.L.o.R.	interstellar VCR instructions
TH Editor software	Cool Coding	???
Vlad's Decryptonomicon software	Enables decryption of some items in your Computer Lab.	data fragment

References

• The image is based on a ghost in Pac-Man.
• The first miss message refers to the Blue Screen of Death.
• Some Usenet newsgroups were infamous for their flamewars.