.hack // Roots

.hack//Roots is the prequel to the .hack//G.U. videogames. It follows the story of Haseo, a black 'Adept Rogue' (a class that can use multiple weapons) and member of the Twilight Brigade guild. In the year 2015, the CC Corp. Building burned down, and with it, most of its data for The World. By splicing data from what would have potentially been another game, CC Corp. created The World R:2 and released it in 2016. The main revisions of this release were that the game allowed for guild and PvP (player vs player) play.

Starting eight months before .hack//G.U. and finishing during the events of the first .hack//G.U. game, Rebirth, Haseo logs into The World R:2 for the first time and falls victim to the PKers (player killers) that reside within. He is saved by Ovan, who prompts him to join the Twilight Brigade.

The Twilight Brigade members are on a mission to find the Key of the Twilight. However, the TAN guild opposes this because they want Ovan's character data due to the device in his left arm and will stop at nothing to keep the Twilight Brigade from their goal.

The Twilight Brigade believed that the mysterious virus cores is a key to finding The Key of the Twilight and went into search for them. Once they had found all 6 of them, they headed out to use them in a one of the Lost Ground after learning there is a connection between it and the Virus Cores. This mission, unfortunately, was just a trap made by the members of TAN in order to investigate Ovan's strange character data. With Ovan gone, and no sign of the Key of the Twilight, the Twilight Brigade quickly breaks apart. B-set and Gord quit the game entirely, and Sakisaka and Tabby quit the guild, even though Tabby is still hopeful things will pick up. Soon after, Shino is killed within the game by a mysterious PK named "Tri-Edge". Haseo starts training, to get Shino back from her real life coma, and encounters a strange power within him, which, while strengthening Haseo, also slowly corrupts his mind, making him seem less sane than before.