I met my friend in a server dedicated to a sandbox survival game.

It was a simple game, almost stupid in a way, but that's not important.

We were both around the same age. Middle schoolers bored out of our minds during long evenings, and we clicked fast.

Our chat started off with building tips, then turned into jokes, then slowly became something more steady.

He always had new mods to show me, obscure YouTube channels, playlists filled with glitchy, ambient music.

His screen name was simple.

A two-word combo followed by a number.

He never changed it.

And after a while, I stopped being curious about it.

We never read voice chats, just text, but that didn't really bother me.

In fact, I kind of liked that unique aspect of our friendship.

But then, a few months in, he started to pull away.

He left servers, quick group chats, said everything was becoming too managed.

That was the word he used.

Managed.

Said he hated feeling tracked and sorted.

So, he messaged me and asked if I'd ever heard of the Deep Web.

I told him I heard horror stories, stuff from YouTube or Reddit, but never looked into it. He told me most of that was fake, sensational garbage for clicks.

He said there were real communities out there, ones that hadn't been chewed up by algorithms

or rules or sponsorships.

Real internet.

He said he'd found a forum and he wanted me to see it.

...