How It All Goes Down
- Hiro's world freezes momentarily as the data processes—that is one loaded hypercard. There's a whole library in there, and a programmed Librarian to help him sort through it.
- Juanita warns Hiro (again) to stay away from Snow Crash, and also from Raven; then she bounces.
- Da5id is finally free to talk, so he and Hiro chat for a bit about programs and stuff. Da5id says Juanita also warned him about Snow Crash and Raven (who, it turns out, was the big dude at the door).
- Then Da5id holds up the hypercard of Snow Crash, which says on it to tear for a free sample. Just for kicks, since he's got enough antiviral stuff in his system that nothing can hack it, Da5id tears the card. A naked female daemon appears and shows him a scroll. All Hiro can see is the white fuzzy stuff like when a television screen shows static.
- Da5id freezes, then recovers, and they snidely discuss the fact that all he saw was a pattern of black and white pixels.
- They wander around, commenting on this and that (including the beaming orange hair of a Nipponese rapper called Sushi K), and Hiro notices that he's getting disapproving look from a traditional Nipponese (a.k.a. Japanese) businessman.
- Suddenly, Da5id's avatar disappears, and there are only colored lights in his place, which the bouncer daemons (gorillas in tuxes) toss out of The Black Sun.
- In case that didn't sink in: Da5id is the world's most famous hacker and owner of The Black Sun—he practically founded the Metaverse—and he just got thrown out of his own establishment by his own programs after suffering a system crash.