Good evening everyone,
An unfortunate set of events were set in motion shortly after the polls closed on Sunday night. Apparently two hackers entered the system... one with a familiar name: AREM. He made himself know to the citizens and warned of an impending doom. When I noticed the election results were fluctuating, I immediately suspected AREM and went to demand an explanation. He simply replied "1115100040" and then I discovered my administration power had been removed. Moments later, I was imprisoned in the Town of Odyssey jail system and was unable to post or reply to private messages. I continued to suspect AREM was the hacker who had done this and wanted answers.
However, over time it became clear (as it did to most of you) that AREM was simply warning of a future event that would take . Eugene and Whit managed to stop the voting fluctuation, but they were unable to free me from my prison where I had no way of being released. Another hacker was in the system who was controlling the board, and the significance of "1115100040" became clearer as time marched on. It is a timestamp used by the phpbb system, to calculate the current time. "1115100040" was to occur at midnight on Monday evening, when the board was taken over by our other hacker: Bennett Charles. Charles declared martial and The Town of Odyssey became The Town of Bennett.
Unfortunately, despite our efforts to stop the vote rigging, Bennett still managed to get his hands on the votes themselves and used his influence on Mayor Faye to declare him the official winner of the election. In doing so, his position as Mayor was legal and binding, and he sent out a virus to take out his greatest foe: AREM. But AREM left two clues to lead the way before his destruction. He created a key to access Bennett Charles' files: a coded user account that would grant access to the real election results. There was also another account created which was filled with enough money ($150,000) to free me from the prison. Unfortunately, AREM could no longer help the members of the board in solving these riddles and members were left to figure them out for themselves.
The board was in utter chaos, members announcing their disgust in what they were seeing. Bennett ruled with an iron fist and outlawed everything from avatars to signatures and put an end to the money earning system. He also prevented access to any posts from members former lives and made things miserable. For that, I apologize. Thankfully the members of the board were able to rally together and decipher the answers to the riddles. Chandler was the first to break into Charles' files and view the results, while Trent, Elf, Sonuna, David O, and Eugene Blackgaard solved the final clue and released me from my digital jail. I promptly restored order and sentenced our villain to prison. I only regret I couldn't do it sooner.
The Results
But what about the election? Surely this is the most important thing to be revealed! Well, as many of you now know, The Top Crusader and Eugene Blackgaard defeated Mellow and Elf of Rivendell by a margin of 56 - 33. 89 votes were cast, a tremendous number for our fair town, and both parties should be congratulated on terrific campaigns and a wonderful month leading up the election! Mellow, Elf, may I personally invite you to run in future elections and wish you both the best in the future.
The Top Crusader and Eugene Blackgaard, congratulations! Effective immediately, you two will be appointed the new Mayoral Staff of The Town of Odyssey!
Perhaps you can do a better job than I when it comes to keeping out bad influences.