Do Not Download the Lambda File

(This story was inspired by a Medium internet user who actually went onto the dark web out of curiosity, but the whole development of the tale is part of my imagination.)

In a small city on the Adriatic, a young boy named Marco, a computer science student, was intent on learning more about the dark web. He had always been fascinated by that dark and scary place, from how people talked about it, and he decided to try to get in. Aside from having to mask his online identity to avoid the risk of being attacked by countless viruses, he wanted to see for himself why it had such an aura of mystery.

Marco was a tireless student of the web. He wanted to know everything, and before anyone else, so often after dinner he would lock himself in his room, in front of his PC, trying to explore that unknown territory. His parents were worried; he was now spending more time in front of a computer than on school books or with friends his age. What his parents completely ignored was that Marco would have a brighter future than his classmates, precisely because he was already studying applications that would serve him in the immediate future to enter the working world. Most companies, in fact, were looking for someone who knew and understood the various mysteries of the internet, websites, and computer programming — jobs where a professional could earn a very good living and get…