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Anime shoot-’em-up malware holds your files at ransom until you can beat the high score

Touhou Seirensen - Undefined Fantastic Object

Malware is nasty. If your computer is infected with ransomware, your files can be held hostage. Often, the person who infected your rig wants you to pay a fee to get your files back. They don’t generally want you to get over 200 million points on a shmup’s hardest difficulty setting, but here we are. 

Get your fix of huge eyes in the best anime games on PC

Rensenware, named after shoot-’em-up Touhou Seirensen – Undefined Fantastic Object (yes), forces PC owners to take on the game’s Lunatic level to free their files. Score 200 million points or you lose your stuff forever.

The ransomware was developed by a Korea-based undergraduate student as a joke that got out-of-hand. Now it’s been infecting computers for real after they released it to GitHub. They’ve since issued an apology and released a way to bypass the near-impossible task required to cure your PC.

As if there were any clearer warning about the dangers of anime. Well, anime and ridiculously punishing and niche arcade games.