The Krampus – a horned, anthropomorphic child-stealing monster from Alpine folklore – has been unexpectedly spreading joy among the gaming community.
The Krampus has had a good cop/bad cop dynamic going on with the much-loved Saint Nicholas for centuries, according to a story spread to keep Germany’s children in line around Christmas.
Every year, on the eve of St Nick’s December 6 feast day, well-behaved children find their shoes filled with toys by the cheery old saint himself. Meanwhile, as the legend would have it, those who are naughty are instead beaten with birch sticks and thrown into a basket by the Krampus and then transported down into the underworld.
According to a post published on Reddit on December 20, the Krampus expanded his traditional sphere of punishment beyond Germany’s kinder and is now meting out justice to cheating video game hackers.
The part-goat, part-demon (and all terrifying) Krampus was recently spotted stepping out from the underworld into cyberspace to eviscerate a hacker cheating on level 25 of the renowned title, Call of Duty.
Video footage of the Krampus in action was uploaded to the CODWarzone subreddit board to the delight of honest gamers. In the clip, a cheating hacker using an aimbot and an unlock tool is shown being ‘taken out’ by a dark, horned monster.
After a brief pause, the hacker self-revives, only to then be permanently destroyed by the roaring digital embodiment of Europe’s most famous festive beast.
The post received a 96% upvote rate among players of the hit video game, with many showering praise upon the Krampus for his efforts.
“In mythology, Krampus scares and beats naughty children. Today, we see it for real,” commented Reddit user Xill_K47.
Gamers who viewed the footage joked that the Krampus was, in fact, Call of Duty’s new in-game anti-cheat software, Ricochet.
One player, going by the Reddit handle Supertrash17, commented: “It would be epic if instead of banning flagged hackers, Krampus would only go after them. Continuously. There must be a way to program that.”
The episode shows that even the oldest concepts can help in the modern battle against cybercrime.