.hack//Roots

Haseo starts playing and experiences PKers (Player Killers). After they kill him, Ovan revives him. Then almost all the players in The World start asking him about Ovan.

Haseo wants to learn more about Ovan's mysterious guild. At the end of the episode, he meets Ovan by a portal. Ovan asks Haseo to join his guild. Haseo responds by saying, "I'll think about it." and then walks away. After this, Phyllo, on his usual bridge, turns around and begins talking to Naobi, stating that it is a rare thing for him to come to town.

Haseo is targeted by many players who think of him as a legend because someone is spreading rumors about him. He is then invited to join the Twilight Brigade as well as the trading guild TaN. After spending some time with Shino, Haseo makes his decision to join the Twilight Brigade.

Shino takes Haseo to another Lost Ground, and later to level up. Sakisaka gets suspicious about why Haseo joined and why he talked to Gord about the guild. Later Tabby gets PK'd by Ender.

Tabby starts believing Haseo is a messenger for TaN, causing Haseo to leave the Twilight Brigade. Haseo is then seen by Tabby and Shino talking to a TaN member who called him.

During a meteor shower, Sakisaka's loyalty is put into question, as Ender attacks Tabby and him. The game experiences glitches, and Haseo displays a new ability when he arrives to help.

While investigating the Lost Grounds, Haseo experiences a major glitch in The World. Also, we learn more about the Virus Cores. On a team search with Tabby and Sakisaka, they find common marks in the Lost Grounds, where they had found virus cores. Haseo notices something weird about the lines, and the three mysteriously vanish.

Haseo, Tabby, and Sakisaka find out the lines they found are portals. Continuing their search of the Lost Grounds, Tabby and Sakisaka encounter a glitch, while Haseo is confronted by Ender. Haseo notices the multiple colors of the Virus Cores, in comparison to the pillars from one of the Lost Grounds. This news comes as a breakthrough to the Key of the Twilight. Haseo then finds another Virus Core.

The Twilight Brigade attempts to bring together all of the Virus Cores. Sakisaka is given the last Core by Tawaraya, while Gord and B-Set show up to help the Twilight Brigade as they are being attacked by TaN. The Twilight Brigade people are then transported to an unknown location, so Ender and her TaN subordinates follow to see where the Twilight Brigade people have disappeared to. (Known as "Melee" in North America.)

The Twilight Brigade fights TaN members while Ovan goes to find the Key of the Twilight. Passing through a door, Ovan steps into a trap (knowingly, we find out later) set by Naobi and the rest of TaN. Later, Shino threatens TaN by saying that she will leak certain illegal online activities, if Ovan wasn't returned. TaN then disbands, after they have decided that they would rather keep Ovan. So, Ovan is left captive, with his PC data being read by Naobi.

Gord is thinking of quitting the game. Because Shino gave the administrators the evidence of TaN's illegal activities, several TaN members are banned.

Shino disbands the Twilight Brigade. Gord and B-Set quit the game because Ovan is apparently never coming back. Haseo promises to stay with Shino even if there was no guild. Shino decides to wait for Ovan to return with Haseo.

Tabby Tells Haseo that Shino has gone to the Hulle Granz Cathedral (Grima Lowe in the Japanese version) alone. Haseo goes to make sure this isn't another trap set up by Naobi. But, he finds that Shino has been PK'd and her Character data is starting to disappear. So, he tries to contact her in the real world, but she doesn't pick up her phone.

Haseo blames himself for not being able to protect Shino. He then gets a call from Shino's mother but cannot tell her anything about her daughter's coma, because he knows that she wouldn't believe him if he told her it was caused by someone 'killing' her in The World. Phyllo starts spending more time with Hasea. Tabby then starts a guild with Sakisaka but he resigns and leaves to play a new game. This leaves Tabby all by herself in the game making her feel like she has no one but Haseo by her side.

Tabby meets two new members of The World. She helps them play the game but says she can't help them like Shino and Sakisaka helped her. Tabby then meets Kuhn when she goes to talk to Phyllo. Kuhn, understanding Tabby's problem, teaches the two brothers and Tabby about to level up efficiently in The World. Haseo, still angry about what happened to Shino at that mysterious Kite-looking guy, decides that he will stop at nothing to bring Shino back and get revenge on Tri-Edge.

Taihaku meets Ovan which is perhaps the spark for Taihaku deciding to go to the Forest of Pain. Haseo hears that Phyllo encountered Tri-Edge and tries to get Phyllo to tell him more about the encounter. Instead of really answering his question, Phyllo tells Haseo that he shouldn't blame himself for Shino's coma. Haseo, angry at Phyllo and still blaming himself for Shino's coma, fights Phyllo and loses. After Haseo loses, Phyllo tells Haseo not to fight Tri-Edge because he will most likely become a "Lost One." Haseo then hears about the new quest called the Forest of Pain and decides to take it so he can become stronger and defeat Tri-Edge, effectively ignoring Phyllo's warning.

Tabby, still worried about Haseo, also joins the Forest of Pain event, where she meets, and becomes friends with Sabuto. Yata and Pi try to figure out if Phyllo’s close relationship with Ovan is because he is the only survivor of a Tri-Edge encounter. Taihaku and Haseo are participating in the Forest of Pain event. Pi tells Subaro to make contact with Haseo in the Forest and see what he does in there. Ovan fights 'Tri-Edge'. Taihaku gets to the end of the Forest of Pain and Tabby decides to retire from the quest and that she will wait for Haseo to come back on his own.

Taihaku gets his reward for answering the mysterious man question. Tabby waits for Haseo to exit the quest. Haseo makes it to the end where he meets Harald Hoerwick who asks Haseo to answer his question; how is his daughter? Haseo, just wanting to become more powerful, says he doesn't care about the man's daughter and is logged out of the quest (after getting his painful upgrade to his third form) about 30 seconds before the time limit of the quest ends. Haseo then appears in front Tabby, looking different than before because the shock of not answering the man's question somehow boosted Haseo to his 3rd adept rogue form, Flick Reaper.

Tawaraya returns as Tohta finishes up some business and finds out that there are merchants who buy rare items with real money and have driven up the prices in the game. He sets out to stop them. Meanwhile Yata continues to watch Haseo.

Haseo starts to lose his sanity as he is searching for information on Tri-Edge by asking PKs (and 'killing' then if the PKs don't give him the answer he wants). Saburo, trying to bring out the factor that Yata and Pi are interested in, fights, but fails. Taihaku talks to Phyllo about the Forest of Pain and Haseo. Tohta makes contact with Haseo this earning Haseo's trust.

Haseo fights Midori who easily dodges his attacks. Haseo wants information from her because she saw Tri-Edge and survived the encounter. He continues to PK PKs, frustrated that he cannot find anything useful about Tri-Edge. Meanwhile, Tabby and Seisaku start a guild to help Haseo and the PKs that he PK'es.

Tabby and her guild fail at their debut to heal people; Tohta makes them level up. Kuhn awakens his power as an Epitaph User and is scouted by Pi to join her guild, Raven. The Paw Pad Squad starts healing Haseo’s victims and Haseo doesn't stop them.

Haseo starts to PK the PKers hoping to come across Tri-Edge, who is after all, a PKer. Then, all the PKers band together to defeat Haseo. Meanwhile, Kuhn is introduced to Yata’s guild, Raven. The Paw Pad Squad goes to heal Haseo and his victims, but Haseo kills everyone indiscriminately, making everyone but Tabby leave the guild because they don’t want to help Haseo anymore.

Because of the incident involving all the PKers, Haseo gains the nickname “The Terror of Death”. Haseo refuses to listen to anyone or accept help because he is convinced that no he will be able to defeat Tri-Edge. Tabby is at a loss at to what to do, since Haseo doesn't want to listen to her. Haseo then meets Ovan, after arguing with Sakaki and Atoli. Ovan tells Haseo to go to the Hulle Granz Cathedral where 'Tri-Edge' will return to the scene of his 'crime' of PKing Shino. Haseo goes the Cathedral and loses his fight with 'Tri-Edge'. Then, Haseo is somehow reverted to level 1 by 'Tri'Edge's' mysterious power.

Haseo has, apparently, quit The World. Seisaku talks to Tabby who decides to stop relying on Haseo. Ovan tells Phyllo something shocking. Phyllo entrusts to Tohta a heavy burden. Tabby and Saburo talk about Haseo and life.

Haseo emerges from inactivity after his defeat at the hands of Tri-Edge. He encounters Tohta and learns that Phyllo died of cancer, making Haseo miss him. Haseo then meets with Tabby and she tell him her real life ambitions of becoming a nurse so that she can save Shino before Haseo. Once Tabby leaves and Haseo is left alone, the episode recaps the events during the series between Shino and Haseo. This leads to a scene in which Haseo sees a "ghost" of Shino, making his convictions to save her grow stronger. The episode ends with a brief glimpse of Haseo, his Xth Form from the G.U. games superimposed over his normal character and the avatar Skeith in the background. The image transitions back to the present Haseo looking into the distance, his determination renewed to continue his search for Tri-Edge and a way to save Shino.