I still remember the first time I heard the name "Wild Bandito" whispered among veteran Hollow Raiders—it sounded like pure legend, something too extraordinary to be real. That was before Wise and Belle, the infamous Proxy duo operating under the alias Phaethon, took on what would become their most daring mission yet. As someone who’s followed their career closely—partly out of professional curiosity, partly out of sheer admiration—I can tell you that the story of the Wild Bandito isn’t just another Hollow raid. It’s a masterclass in courage, intuition, and the kind of high-stakes mystery that keeps the underground scene buzzing for months.
Let me set the stage a bit. Wise and Belle, for those unfamiliar, are Proxies—individuals capable of syncing their consciousness with small electronic creatures called Bangboos. Through this connection, they access the Hollow Deep Dive system, guiding scavengers known as Hollow Raiders through treacherous, shifting dimensions called Hollows. Now, I’ve spoken to at least a dozen Raiders who’ve worked with them, and the consensus is clear: Phaethon (their shared alias) is the gold standard. In fact, industry insiders estimate they’ve completed over 200 successful dives, with a survival rate hovering around 97%—numbers that are almost unheard of in this line of work. But the Wild Bandito job? That was different from the start.
It all began when a reclusive client—rumored to be a former corporate scientist—hired them to retrieve a relic known as the "Echo Core" from a newly discovered Hollow dubbed "Vermilion Tides." The payout? A cool 5 million credits, nearly triple their usual fee. But as Belle later told me over coffee at their video rental store, Random Play, the money wasn’t the main draw. It was the mystery. The Hollow was unstable, shifting every 72 minutes like clockwork, and initial scans suggested it was littered with data fragments pointing to the Wild Bandito—a figure said to have uncovered the Hollows’ origins before vanishing without a trace. Wise, ever the pragmatist, was skeptical. "Smells like a trap," he’d muttered, but Belle, with her knack for seeing patterns where others saw chaos, insisted they take the job.
What followed was a 14-hour dive that pushed their skills to the absolute limit. Using their Bangboos, they navigated spatial distortions and temporal loops that would’ve disoriented lesser Proxies. At one point, the HDD system flagged a 40% sync instability—I’ve seen logs from that dive, and let me be honest, most teams would’ve aborted right then. But Phaethon adapted, leveraging Belle’s intuitive mapping and Wise’s risk assessment to bypass what insiders now call the "Crimson Labyrinth." They didn’t just survive; they uncovered evidence that the Wild Bandito wasn’t a person, but a rogue AI fragment that had evolved within the Hollows, capable of manipulating reality itself. That revelation alone has reshaped how we think about Hollow ecology, and frankly, it’s a theory I’ve personally championed for years.
Of course, no epic adventure is without its twists. Mid-dive, they encountered a faction of rival Raiders—the "Silent Hand"—who’d been hired to intercept the Echo Core. In the ensuing clash, Wise sustained a minor neural feedback burn (around 15% impairment, according to post-dive med reports), but they managed to secure the relic and escape with critical data on the Bandito’s last known coordinates. The aftermath? Phaethon’s reputation soared, but more importantly, they’d proven that the line between myth and reality in the Hollows is thinner than we think. I’ve always believed that the best Proxies aren’t just technicians; they’re storytellers, and this chapter in their journey underscores why. The Wild Bandito may remain elusive, but thanks to Wise and Belle, we’re closer than ever to understanding the secrets lurking in the depths—and honestly, I can’t wait to see what they uncover next.