I sit in front of my computer at my desk, my chair tilted back with my knees pressed against the edge of the desk to keep me from falling forward. I watch the loading bar gradually fill with a light green color as I hold my phone between my shoulder and my ear so I can listen to what my mother is saying. Something about the New Year's Eve thing she's at, I believe, but I'm not paying very close attention.

“Hey, you're at a party,” I interrupt her. “Shouldn't you be, I don't know, hanging out with your friends? It's only a shot in the dark since I'm not too sure about what goes on at parties, but I'm pretty sure that's what you do at them.”

“I just want you to feel included in something other than that stupid video game.”

“Okaa, first off, I'm an adult now. If I wanted to feel included, I would have come. I'm old enough to drink, so I could have come to that party if I'd wanted to. Secondly, this game means a lot to my friends and me, so this update is a pretty big deal to us.”

I hear her huff, and I'm sure she's shaking her head. “Difficult as always, aren't you, Toby?”

With a chuckle, I mock her. “Obsessive and pointlessly worried about me as always, aren't you, Okaa?”

She lets out a noise of partial amusement and partial amusement. "You always get your way in the end... Have fun with your game, Hon. I'll stop by your place to visit tomorrow."

“See you tomorrow.”

I end the call and plug my phone in to charge it. As soon as I look back at the screen, an invite to a Skype call from my friend Serena pops up. I move my knees and the front two legs of my chair his the floor with a loud crack. I answer the call to hear the repetitious shouting of my name. I think my eardrums might shatter.

“What?” I ask.

“Toby, are you okay? Please tell me you're okay! I mean, don't say that if you aren't, just please be okay! You weren't hurt too bad, were you? It won't hurt you to play, will it? I don't mind putting this off for a few days if you need some time to heal!” The words spill from her mouth quickly and loudly—a surefire way to tell that she's worried.

I can't give her an immediate answer. I don't know how to reply truthfully. I move my right hand from the mouse and look at the nasty gash on my wrist. Yeah, that might hurt when I'm trying to move the mouse too quickly, rubbing it against the desk. But then again, it really shouldn't matter too much anyway—I kind of like the pain, actually. It'd be pretty embarrassing to say that outright, though, so it's not like I can tell her that.

“I'm fine,” I say finally. “The guy used a blunt pencil, but it didn't really hurt too much.”

“He used a pencil to slice your arm! Of course it had to have hurt! How could it not?! Toby, please don't lie to me. You're old enough to make them stop now. Break his fingers, break his hand—whatever, just do something! Why don't you?”

I can't help but chuckle, even though I've heard this question so many times before. “Doing something like that would take more courage and strength than I'll ever have.”

“D-don't say things like that...! You're the strongest person I know!”

“In-game, maybe.” I decide it's probably best to change the subject now. I don't want Serena worrying about me so much, especially not right now. “Hey, where's Ho Yung? We can't start without him.”

“I'm texting him right now. He said he got grounded because his parents found the porn under his bed. He started the download and turned his monitor off, though, so as far as his parents know, he's sleeping right now. He told me his parents are going to bed earlier than usual, so he should be on soon. He'll join the call when he's on.”

“I hope he gets on soon so we can play, otherwise I won't have an excuse for not answering if my mom calls again.”

“Growing up hasn't make us any more mature, has it?”

“Nope.”

Admittedly, even while I'm twenty-two and Serena is nineteen, we have yet to become adults. As does Ho Yung, but in his defense, he's still a minor—only sixteen. There's still time for him to grow up mentally, though at any rate, I doubt that will happen.

“Nope what?”

The new voice belongs to Ho Yung.

“Bokuta—” I try to begin, but he cuts me off.

“English or French, bro. I still don't speak Japanese, unless I magically learned a new language within the past day and a half.”

“Yeah, sorry. We were talking about how we aren't mature at all.”

“And actually, on that note,” Serena adds, “you hide the porn in your mattress, not under it. Or you put a fake bottom in your drawer and hide it under that. Is that necessarily against the law, do you think? Teaching a minor how to hide material meant strictly for adults in a way it won't be found?”

“You're not giving him the pornography directly, just telling him how to keep others from hiding it. Morally, that's probably wrong, but I guess if you're not saying Here kid, have some porn, it's not technically illegal.”

Ho Yung laughs. “As if I'd tell anyone anyway. And hey, Serena, would even get me toys if I asked her, right?”

“Of course. Why not? You would, too, right, Toby? I mean, if you weren't so shy about that? I don't think you could read or watch porn as it is, let alone go into an adult store.”

“E-e-e-eto...”

“Some of us here still don't know how to speak Japanese.”

“I-I don't like this topic...”

They both begin laughing quite hard at that. Yes, my embarrassment seems to be something they've come to find hilarious, and this subject is rather embarrassing for me if it isn't kept extremely vague. They'll even go as far as to talk about their certain interests or tell sexual jokes just to get a reaction from me. I swear, they have no boundaries... But it's fair to make a point that I choose to hang out with them, and if I truly hated it as much as I always say I do, all I'd have to do is stop talking to them.

“Fine, fine,” Ho Yung relents, and I'm sure he's waving his hand dismissively like he always does when using that tone of voice. “We've got more important things to do than screw around like this. My game's loaded. You guys ready to go, too?”

“Mm,” Serena hums, a typical way that she uses to give a yes.

“Yeah,” I say, clicking the Start button to launch the game.

The expansion was being developed for almost two years before now, and it was said to be the largest expansion so far. It was made known what the expansion would include—the level cap went from eighty to ninety-five, more spells would be added, the cap for skill points would be raised from one thousand to three thousand, there's a a new continent to explore, and a mysterious base would now be floating in the sky and the first to get to it would get any reward of their choosing. I doubt we'll stop playing before dawn.

“So let's do this!” Ho Yung exclaims quietly. It's probably difficult for him to stay so quiet. I can't help admiring his restraint.

We log onto our usual server, and—

I can't breathe. There's a tight knot in my chest, and it feels like fire. Everything hurts. I think my head might explode if I don't disintegrate first. Biting back a cry of pain is impossible, it just hurts so horribly...!

“T-To-Toby!” Serena cries out. It sounds as if she's speaking through clenched teeth, and she's obviously suffering. What the heck is she thinking, worrying about me at a time like this?!

And...is this just a coincidence? No, of course not—how could it be? I briefly wonder if Ho Yung is going through the same thing, but I have no way of knowing, since he was disconnected from the call. What is this, anyway? God, and it's bad enough dealing with the agony without having to listen to Serena screaming for help.

Then she disconnects as well. Even if I have no idea what's happening with either of them, at least they both live with their parents.

My situation is an entirely different story. I live alone and there's no one around to hear me.

Just as suddenly as this whole ordeal began, it stops, and my mind is forced to succumb to dizzying, empty, cold blackness.

~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~

Everywhere is indigo, spotted with silver and splashed with violet. I don't know where I am or even what time of day it might be. I can't remember where I was before coming here, or if I've ever known anything except this mysterious place. I can only vaguely remember talking to others a mere few seconds ago, but I don't know who they were.

Was is all a delusion?

No, a memory from my past—that all happened years ago, decades... How am I still alive? That was centuries, millenniums, ago. Oh, those are daydreams, aren't they? Daydreams of a world more eventful than this one.

This is the place I've spent my whole life. I want to leave now. I hate it here—for twenty-two years, I've been stuck here despising it.

That's right, isn't it? I think so.

A soft clicking pulls my attention away from my thoughts. I turn around, now realizing I'm standing on a shiny black floor. It reflects everything that touches the surface.

Before me, there's a girl who looks more mature than her height—perhaps five feet, or a few inches shorter?—by itself suggests. Long, dark blue hair tied up in a ponytail, soft lilac eyes, a delicate and petite build, valuable-looking rings on her fingers, armor-like clothes of thick cloth dressing her body, leather boots on her feet, and a dagger at each of her hips. She looks familiar somehow, but I don't recall who she could be.

“You're here, too?” she asks.

“Who are you?”

She looks hurt for some reason. Why? If she should matter so much to me that it hurts to know I don't remember her, shouldn't I know who she is anyway?

“Didn't you get that question? It was different for me and Farion, but it was basically the same thing. I was asked if I would rather live in a world where I was stronger and I could protect you more, and Farion was asked if he would rather live in a world where he could be an independent man. We both said yes. What was the question you were asked?”

What kinds of questions were those? Why would anyone prefer another world over their own, if it meant being brought here? “I've never been anywhere but here. I think you're mistaking me for someone else.”

“I'd know Master's face anywhere!” She races across the glassy floor, jumping up and holding onto me by wrapping her arms around my neck and her legs around my waist. “Master is Master, and he will always be Master. In this place, Master is the one I serve. I could never mistake anyone for Master.”

I stumble backwards and nearly fall as I try to shove the girl off me. She has a death grip, as if her life depends on clinging to me. “What is your master like? I could help you find him.”

“Master's name is Elithero. Heroic. He's very heroic. He fights with magic. He strategically devises an attack plan before going into battle. He's so generous and fair, never keeping anything he loots to make money if me or Farion can use it. He keeps this world to shield himself from the real world, but he's so strong in that world as well, even though he doesn't realize it yet.

“In the real world, his name is Toby. He's not my master there, but I do everything I can to help him and defend him. It's harder there, though. I'm not strong like I am here. I still have my courage and ambition, but I always make the mistake of falling back on it when I know I can't rely on my strength. Toby is the one helping me through that. He always knows what to say at the right times to make me feel better about myself. He was the first beam of sunshine to come through the clouds covering my skies.

“You are Toby—you are Master!”

I know the name Elithero, and the name Toby. Elithero is my name in a fantasy world, and Toby is my name in the world I'm from. The woman holding herself close to me is Serena. She goes by the name Remehaine in the fantasy world, calling me by Master because she enjoys playing the part of the ever-loyal assassin serving beneath the mage that my character is, insisting that I—along with the other member of our three-man guild, Farion—call her by her character's name in the world of fantasy. And the other member of the guild goes by the name Ho Yung in reality.

It's a bit foggy, but at least I know who I am now, and I remember that I had a life before coming here. I remember my friends, my mother and father, and all the things that happened in my reality. I'm still trying to figure out where I am, but I have a solid foundation I can use to move forward now.

I put an arm around her and stroke her hair with my other hand. “Serena. That's your name. I know who you are now. Any idea where we are?”

“Don't you remember when we first got Trials of Courage? When we made out characters? This was the background, and the platform they were standing on is the ground here. But since everything here is code...I think we might be as well.”

“Right—I remember that now. But how do we get out of here?”

“I don't know. Farion disappeared when he answered the question, but I was brought here. Maybe because you weren't asked a question. I have a really stupid idea, but it's our last chance, so I guess it's worth a try.” She lets go of me and her feet hit the ground. She looks up at me, her lilac eyes reflecting nothing and showing no emotion, as if she's only a program. “Do you wish to live in a world where you could escape being addressed as she, where you no longer have to deal with your gender being made into a joke?”

It seemed, based on her question, the system targeted the people who dearly wished they could escape something in their life and asked them a question they couldn't possibly say no to. It might have been the players who made the decision, but at the same time, that was a sick way of going about trapping people. It was sick to be trapping them in the first place, really.

“Yes,” I respond softly.

“And I promise I'll kill anyone in this world who says she about you.” With a smile, she begins dispersing into bright purple.

Sparks of neon blue fly from my hands as my body does the same thing—all the tiny, glowing particles swirling into the sky and intertwining with the purple sparkles. For a moment, I feel pleasantly numb, and I kind of wish this could last forever.

~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~

“Miss Remehaine, it's going to be just fine. He's waking up. I'll give you some time with him, all right? Just call me if you need anything.”

It takes me a moment to realize what's going on and where I am.

I'm inside a video game I've been playing with my two closest friends. That's where this is. The exact location, I'm not sure.

Yet somehow, I don't mind being here. I'm not panicking about how this is possible or wondering what the people in the real world—but isn't this world completely real as well now, if we've somehow ended up here?—are going to think about this. As a rational human being, I should care a bit more, shouldn't I? Has this shift in realities also shifted my way of thinking?

“Are you okay, Master?”

The voice belongs to Serena—or should I be calling her Remehaine now? I suppose that's a trivial thing to be thinking about right now, though.

“Y-yeah, I think so,” I mumble, rubbing at my eyes as I sit up.

Her eyes go wide and she covers her agape mouth. There's a look of wonder on her face, and she looks purely amazed and delighted. She jumps on the bed and throws her arms around me, one of her knees between my legs and the side of her head pressed against my chest. “You have...you have the right kind of body now... I'm so happy, Master! I'm so happy! That means no one can make any more jokes about it! This must feel so good for you, for everything to be right... It does, doesn't it? Please tell me it does, Master! I want you to be happy!”

I laugh softly, looking down at the mirthful young woman embracing me. This doesn't make any difference to her own body, so it's amazing to see how excited she is about it. For the ten years I've known her, it's always been like this—she treats even my smallest victories as her own, and she always has a smile to share whenever I'm happy.

“Yeah, it feels really good.”

She runs her fingers through my hair and looks up with a cheerful expression. “I remember when I first met you. I watched you walk down the sidewalk from the swing-set. Such pretty hair, going down to your waist, with those pretty dresses. I would always wonder, Why does that girl always cover her chest like that? And then one day, I decided to ask you. You looked down at me and asked, Have you ever heard of a thing called dysphoria? I told you I didn't, and you smiled down at me and told me I wasn't allowed to tell anyone else, so I promised. Then you said to me, Sometimes girls are born as boys and boys are born as girls. I was born as a girl, but I'm a boy inside. Dysphoria is when you feel like you were born with the wrong parts.”

“I was so nervous telling you that, you know. It was scary. You could have told anyone, but you didn't. I was surprised to see how angry you looked when I explained that people didn't accept others who were like that, and you promised to get strong so you could fight the people who found out about my secret and bullied me for it. That's how our friendship started.”

“I was the first to know you didn't like living as a girl, the first to see you after cutting your hair and dressing in masculine clothes, the first to hear you gush about starting hormones, and now the first to see you in this form. I feel so special, Master.”

Remehaine looks like she's the happiest girl in the world, beaming up at me like that. I can't say I didn't expect something like this—it's always made her life a little brighter when she's the first one to know something about me. I don't know why, but whatever reason she has to be so happy about it, there are few things I love more than seeing her like this.

My attention immediately goes to the door as it flies open so hard that it hits the wall with a loud bang. Standing in the doorway is Ho Yung—er...Farion, instead, right?

“Dude!” he shouts, slamming the door shut with his foot and coming over to sit in the chair beside my bed. “Dude, you've been out for a week! I was really starting to worry about you. And I was kinda worried about being here, but more worried about you.”

“I'm fine,” I say in the most reassuring way I can. “But speaking of, after everything that's happened, how are you keeping yourselves from panicking? I mean, I'm no psychologist, but...this isn't a game anymore, so it should be a big deal.”

“Not panicking?” Farion snorts. “I was was freaking out too bad to see straight at first. It took until yesterday for me to be able to actually calm down enough to think. Besides, I could ask you the same thing, bro.”

Remehaine scoots herself back and holds my hands gently. “And I was calm the whole time. It's scary, but I can't serve you if I'm not thinking properly. You're the reason I could remain calm even while everyone else was frantically trying to figure everything out. Surely you'll need my support here, Master, so I'd never forgive myself if I let my judgment be clouded at a time like this.” She cocks her head slightly to the side. “What about you, Master?”

I don't actually know how to reply. I have no idea why I'm not screaming, shouting, trying to figure out what could be going on and how any of this is possible. “I don't actually know. I think I like how this place makes me feel. It doesn't make any sense, no, but I feel a little more confident, as if I can do anything now. It's going to be weird, getting used to being a few inches taller, but I guess it's a small price to pay, considering how much more fitting this body feels.”

“Master is happy like this?” Remehaine's cheerful expression turns into a hopeful one. “Master has more confidence here? You're smart enough to get us out of here if you take a position of dominance—you can manage doing that here?”

I nod. I know I can do that here. Maybe it's from the different body, or from the magic I can feel flowing through me. Either way, I'm going to find a way to get everyone out of here. “Yeah, this is great. I'll get us all back into the world we're from—I promise.”

“That's kind of too much pressure to be putting on yourself,” Farion objects, looking just slightly concerned. “I don't mean to be harsh at all, I swear, but you're the guy who cried over the Christmas episode of Girl Meets World.”

In just a second's time, one of Remehaine's daggers is at his throat and the other is pressed against his chest. “When Master says he can do something, we are to listen and follow orders. We do not question him because he always knows what he's doing. Master is Master—he can do anything if he puts his mind to it.”

“This isn't a time for fighting,” I tell her, grabbing her shoulder.

She turns her head to look at me, but doesn't move the blades. “B-but he—”

“It doesn't matter. We have to focus on the issue at hand. I'm going to take this world as my own, and I'm going to play God here. I need your help to assume absolute power, otherwise I won't be able to get us out of here. I still need your cooperation, even if I'm more capable here.”

With a nod, she puts her weapons away. “Very well. I trust you to make the right calls.”

“I don't doubt you,” Farion insists. “I just don't want you to get overwhelmed.”

“That's not going to happen.” I open my Friends List and scroll through it. Several of the names are gone, but there are four names I'm thankful to see—Dencelina, Meilin, Tejayra, and Nevanas. “There are some people I can call up for help. You remember the guild we would partner with sometimes, right?”

“The Fairy Garden Cake Party?” Farion questions, and Remehaine nods.

“It looks like their leader, the vice leader, and their raid and dungeon manager are all still here. We could partner with their guild like we used to.”

“We'll be working with Meilin again?” He looks a bit excited. Even if he tried to keep it from being obvious, it had always seemed he really liked her. She would scream into her mic and panic about not having enough Mana or about having to use the bathroom in the middle of a boss fight, and while he complained about how annoying she could be, there was always something more than irritation in his words.

“Seems you're looking forward to spending your time with her again.”

Nothing relating to sex could ever get to him, but that simple statement is enough to cause a heavy blush to spread across his face. His response is an immediate confirmation, and I can't help but laugh.

“Sh-shut up!” he snaps, glaring at the ground instead of at me. “It's not like that! All she does is whine about her Mana running out too fast so she can take all our potions!”

“Meaning there's no reason for you to get flustered over a little bit of teasing.”

“It's no big deal,” Remehaine puts in. “We already knew you liked Meilin from the start. Maybe you should just tell her.”

“That would be stupid! She's our substitute healer whenever we go into dungeons! That's it!”

“Then there shouldn't be any need to shout for you to get your point across.”

“Apparently there is, since—”

“I'm sorry to cut this argument short,” I interrupt him, “but I have some more important things to deal with. If you don't mind, I need you both to be quiet.”

Neither of them say a thing as I begin a call with Dencelina. It rings once, twice, three times, and I'm beginning to wonder if she's going to answer at all.

Then I hear her voice come through, and I can't tell if she's afraid for me or excited about me being stuck here as well. “Elithero! You're here! Oh my God, you're here!”

“Yeah, and I see Meilin and Tejayra are here, too. How have you guys been?”

“Well...” She sighs. “I can't say it's been the easiest. For me, at least. I've been looking into what limitations we have now. Meilin hasn't done anything besides eat and let around and ordering Tejayra to get her more cake and candy. She's going to make herself sick, if that's a possibility.”

“My character ended up vomiting when I needed to clear out my bags. I couldn't sell or delete the cookies I got during the Christmas celebration, so I made him eat all fifty-five of them. Apparently, that lowered the stats for about an hour, too.”

“That worries me... What a way to die in a video game—too many sweets.”

“I'm sure she'll be fine. But what about Tejayra? He's always seemed to be pretty delicate, so that concerns me.”

“Quite the opposite, so don't worry about him. He's an adaptable young man. It hardly even took a minute for him to revert back to his usual self, and he was even able to smile and laugh. He may seem shy and fragile around more popular people he doesn't know very well, but he's quite resilient. So far, he's spent his time trying to help keep others from panicking.”

“Especially the girls, I assume?”

“That's correct. I'd never expect any less of him, honestly.”

“Oh, thank God.” That wasn't to say I hadn't been concerned for all of them, but he seemed far more fragile than the others. It's nice to know they're all okay, and even more so to know Tejayra hardly took any kind of hit from everything that has happened.

“He's bringing us closer to ending ask this feverish chaos, which is good.”

“Speaking of calming down all the chaos, I need to ask a favor of you.”

“Yes, anything at all. You've yet to put forth a bad idea.”

“You need to contact the leaders of the top five most popular guilds, aside from mine and your own. If any of them have lost their leader, go to the next one. Tell them all to come to the Meeting Hall in Balinus Valley at eight o'clock, and bring Meilin and Tejayra. I'll reserve a place for is there. It gives us only about an hour, but the sooner this gets arranged the better, so I'm sure we can do this if we try.”

“Yes, of course. I'll get right on it, just count on me.”

She hangs up and the window in front of me for the call disappears into bright neon blue sparkles.

“So the Cake Party still ranks as the most popular guild?” Farion asks, sounding pretty impressed by that. “They've had that position for, like, three years now.”

“We've had our place going between third and forth,” Remehaine brings up. “Then again, with Master leading us, that's to be expected.”

“Hey, hey,” I interrupt, “there are more important things then this. We need to reserve a room at the meeting hall. Remehaine, you're coming with me. Farion, I need you to contact Nevanas and tell him to join us as well.”

Remehaine and Farion both got to their feet, backs straight as they each raise their hand to their forehead to salute.

“Anything for you, Master.”

“Yokai, Elithero-sama! Er...I'm saying that right, aren't I?”

I tilt my head and raise an eyebrow. “So you do speak a bit of Japanese.”

“Well, I mean, it's only natural with how much time I've spent with your mère. Ugh, it doesn't matter anyway! I'm busy.” He swipes down the menu and begins going through it to call Nevanas.

Remehaine grabs my hand and pulls lightly. “Do you need help getting out of bed? You've been asleep for quite a while, and it seems sleeping in the game has almost the same effect as sleeping in the real world.”

I shake my head as I push the covers away and get up. I'm a little dizzy, and it takes a moment for me to get my balance. Remehaine grips my hand tighter—refusing to let me fall—and guides me to a door on the other side of the small room.

“This is the bathroom,” she says, opening it and letting go of my hand. “You can clean up and put on your usual gear, then we'll get going. I made sure there are towels and soap. If you need any help at all, you just have to say so, and I'll be glad to help you.”

I give her a nod and a small smile, and I can tell she's extremely satisfied because of that. I thank her and go in to get ready.

This world's leader is about to assume authority, alongside his guild and the Fairy Garden Cake Party.

2: Chapter 2

I sit at the head of a long, wooden table. Four chairs are set up on either side, and one on the opposite end. Remehaine sits to my right, and Farion's chair to my left is empty as he waits by the gryphon-handler to greet everyone as they arrive here.

“I'll take out anyone who dares oppose you, Master,” Remehaine says, looking up at me with her eyes narrowed slightly.

With a smile, I ruffle her hair. “Listen to their positions first, okay? I know everything about this game and I've always been a good strategist, but other people can make good points, too. I'm not perfect, so I can make mistakes just like everyone else.”

She huffs and crosses her arms, evidently unwilling to believe anyone can make points I've overlooked or haven't considered, or ones that counter any of my ideas. She sits quietly and says nothing else. She's always lived up to her position as an assassin with an undying devotion to her master—even in real life. I can't help admiring that.

There's a fairly loud click-click-clicking as Dencelina enters the room. Her tight golden curls bounce as she walks, and the lenses of her glasses reflect the moonlight shining in from the windows. Her businesslike pastel pink outfit looks even nicer on her now than when that body was still only a character model.

“So what are we all gathering here for?” she asks as she takes a seat at the other end of the table.

“You're the one who will be doing most the talking. All I'll be doing is giving an introduction. You said you were looking over differences between the game now and the game before the whole incident. I haven't had the time to do that yet, so I'm putting you in charge of it.”

“Ah, a quest given by the great Elithero—I won't disappoint you.”

Next to join us is Tejayra, donning a traditional samurai outfit, colored white and blue, with a particularly unfitting pastel yellow scarf around his neck.

He waves, fairly shyly, as he takes a seat to the right of Dencelina. “It's nice to see you're here with us, Elithero, along with your other two guild members. Dencelina says it's probably going to take a person like you to figure out this whole mess, and I trust her judgment Perhaps it's wrong to say that you're the only one who can, but you're the only well-known player left here who can.”

I'm not sure where this high pedestal came from or why people insist on placing me on it. It makes no sense, really—I'm merely a strategist who thinks ahead before doing anything in the game. Then again, I can only recall twice when I've been wrong, I've died only six times in managing to reach level eighty, and somehow I've made it pretty well-known—or perhaps it's thanks to Remehaine—that I'm pretty intelligent. That's surely why, but still!

“I'm planning on doing my best,” I promise, “but I don't think I could ever do this without your help.”

“Then I'll do everything I can to help you! Just be my questgiver and I'll do everything you ask of me!” He looks both elated as well as incredibly determined. I'm lucky to have the Fairy Garden Tea Party cooperating with me so easily.

“Guys!”

The cutesy voice calling from the doorway belongs to a young girl—only nearly thirteen years old, and terribly sensitive, naive, and innocent for her age—who would often times tag along when Nevanas would go out questing with my party. It's sad she's stuck here as well.

“Katyluuna!” Tejayra exclaims, turning around in his seat. “Nice to see you made it!”

“I'm terribly sorry,” Nevanas apologizes. “I do hope it's all right that I've brought Luuna along with me. She insisted on coming.”

“No worries,” I say. “She stuck to you like glue before all this, so I can only imagine how clingy she must be now.”

“Not that there's anything wrong with that!” Tejayra adds quickly, looking a bit worried as Katyluuna stares down at the ground with a guilty expression. “I'm sure he's just concerned about what's going to happen if you two get separated. I can't say I'm not concerned for you as well.”

“Even if that is the case, don't be so blunt with children,” Dencelina scolds with a huff. “They're developing, so they're still fragile.”

Nevanas pulls out the chair beside Remehaine and scoots it back in once Katyluuna sits down on it. He stands behind the chair and leans against the back of it. “Clearly neither of you are teachers nor parents, are you? Children don't need adults to sugarcoat everything, they need adults to be blunt with them. Not harsh, of course, but blunt.”

“Master is never in the wrong, anyway,” Remehaine hisses, crossing her arms. I can't help worrying that her stubbornness is going to get her killed.

“Your loyalty never ceases to amaze me, Remehaine. You've yet to break character, even now. I must ask, are you even role-playing?”

“The only role-playing I do is call him Master. And of course, I'm not really a killer. Other than that, no, I don't role-play.”

Nevanas, even with his talent at never allowing his cheerful and slightly mischievous aura to fade at all, looks vaguely fascinated for a brief moment. “My, my, you are quite devoted to him, aren't you? Are you planning to become anything more than friends?”

She blushes deep red and waves her hands frantically while shaking her head, and I can feel my cheeks getting slightly warmer as well.

“I-i-it's nothing like that!” she insists. “We've just been friends for a really long time, and I've always wanted to protect him!”

“Ah, I see,” Nevanas says thoughtfully, smiling in a way that makes it clear he doesn't completely believe her. I can't really blame him for thinking that way, but what she said is true.

Remehaine changes the subject as quickly as she possibly can, and the rest of the time spent waiting is wasted on idle chatting, about how different our real selves are, what kinds of things we liked to do, what our families are like—things that are fairly trivial things as of current.

Once everyone is gathered around the table, Farion and Meilin are close behind, and they take their respective seats.

“If you all could please remain silent until I ask for your input, that would be greatly appreciated,” I begin, standing up. “I am Elithero, leader of a guild I'd rather not name for the sake of seriousness. I understand you all are surely shaken up from all that's happened, but try thinking of it as more a vacation than anything else. We all agreed to this. It was an unintentional agreement, but the only reason any of you are here is because you heard that question, and you thought, Yes, that kind of life sounds far better. I was hesitant to place the blame on anyone at first, but after some consideration, it makes no sense to answer that question with a yes and not expect something like this to happen. You find yourself in the actual fabric of the program and you say yes? What kind of answer is that unless you absolutely loathed that aspect of your life? What kind of answer is that if you're asked that while inexplicably trapped inside a world that should be impossible to touch? What else did any of you imagine would happen if you gave an answer like that while inside a network of nothing but code? All of us are at fault for what's happened to us, and there's no way to deny that. Dencelina and I may be working to find a way out of this, but unless you cooperate and deal with reality as it is now, it's not going to happen.” I sit back in my chair and motion to Dencelina. “And the rest goes to you.”

“I am Dencelina, leader of the Fairy Garden Cake Party. I have been looking through—” She cuts herself off as she glance over at Tejayra. His face is completely flushed and his entire body is trembling. Dencelina sighs and points to the door. “I'll get you caught up afterwards. I suppose I shouldn't have given you the option of coming.”

He nods curtly as she stands up, bowing and apologizing before quickly leaving the room.

“Terribly sorry,” she apologizes. “He struggles with a bit of an issue in real life that seems to have carried over. He'll be just fine, but I'd appreciate it if none of you approach him later on.” She adjusts her glasses and continues.

“Anyway, I have been going over the changes that have occurred within the game, and I was surprised to see how little it changed. Naturally, there are several alterations, some of which are incredibly significant—however, it runs more similarly than I would have thought.

“The classes still are exactly the same, along with the rules on what materials you can and can't wear. You now can equip any material regardless of class, though it can hurt your abilities in battle. For example, if a Healer wanted to begin dressing in chain mail armor, there's nothing that prohibits it, but movement would become difficult and it would be as much of a disadvantage to that Healer as it would be for a Protector to wear cloth armor. You are now also able to undress completely.

“Outfits no longer have the one-size-fits-all rule, to an extent. It's no longer necessary to partake in a Trade to give someone else your things. Instead, you can remove it from your Inventory and give it to the person physically. For it to fit them, they must put it into their own Inventory for it to automatically size itself to fit the person it now belongs to. You can either equip things and remove them either manually, or through the Character Gear or Inventory options.

“Physical strength and abilities here are entirely reliant on your class and stats here. For example, I am weaker than Farion because Farion is a Protector and I am a Mage, though Meilin is stronger than Katyluuna because despite Meilin being a Healer and Katyluuna being a Mage, Meilin is a far higher level.

“Skills also appear to have more perks than just making a little extra money, some experience, and more quests now. While you still have the option to use the Skills Menu to look through all the things you can do or make, you can also use your Skills to do other things. For example, if you put time in leveling up your Cooking Skill, you can still make food with exotic things like spider meat and moonfruit, but you can now also make more normal foods like hamburgers or spaghetti. If you have your Cooking high enough, you have the potential to make it by with a restaurant or fast food joint. And if you've leveled up your Inscription, you're no longer bound to writing specific letters, forging handwriting, copying books, and deciphering Runes—you could be a novelist or journalist now with that Skill, and the higher it is, the higher the value placed on what you write and the more likely NPCs are to read or purchase them.

“Now onto a few things that are a little more important. For one, eating is now a necessity. Not only do you experience hunger pangs after a while, if you go longer than a day, your Health and Mana begin regenerating significantly more slowly. If you go longer than a two and a half days, then it begins consuming your Health more quickly than it allows it to replenish, and you'll die after two to seven days, depending on how high your HP is. Potions won't do any good if you're losing HP because of a lack of food.

“And my second point makes me question whether or not this is still merely a game and not at all real—food and beverages appear to run through your body the same way they do in real life. Not in the sense that consuming excessive amounts of sweets is going to make you sick, but in the sense that I do hope none of you mind the lack of proper, modern-day plumbing here. You've all figured that out by now, I'm sure, but it still is an important thing to note.

“Thirdly, bathing and sleeping both appear to be necessities, just as in the real world.

“Fourthly, no physical disabilities carry over. If someone is paraplegic, deaf, mute, or have any other physical disadvantage, they won't suffer from it here. Mental disabilities, however, still remain present.

“And finally, please try not to take too many hits in battle. Unless you have a bubble around you, than the system isn't going to absorb the damage. It's going to hurt depending on how much damage is dealt from the attack.

“Anything else I haven't mentioned is an unknown, so if anyone else has anything to add, please do.”

The only person to raise a hand is someone who goes by the name Deritan, a blond-haired, blue-eyed Archer, clad in a fairly fancy-looking green, yellow, and white leather outfit.

“What is your contribution?”

“I have two—one about death, and the other about pets. Once you die, your spirit will be taken to the nearest cemetery. It's basically the same, you either find your body and don't suffer a penalty, or you choose to revive in the graveyard and have your HP and stats lowered by twenty percent for fifteen minutes—but now it comes with the sick punishment of suffering through the feelings of the lowest point in your life and having to watch yourself live through the most self-destructive thoughts you've ever had. If you die once, you relearn the pain and relearn how selfish and pathetic you could be. If you die a hundred times, then you'll relearn a hundred times. It comes with a fear of dying right before your soul is released, even if you've already gotten used to defeat, and once you're dead, the only thing that will be able to pass your lips is a desperate cry for your actual life to end already. It's the most painful thing fathomable, both physically and mentally. Don't fight unless you're sure you're willing to risk it.

“The topic of pets is far more brief. The only way to put your pet in a kennel is to purchase one and have a specific piece of land for it. That piece of land can be a guild meeting room or just a random place in the back of an alley. You can keep more than one pet in a kennel if it's large enough, but there's no guarantee that they aren't going to kill each other.”

Dencelina looks vaguely disturbed, and I can't blame her. I hadn't been expecting something so gruesome. Then again, it appears this expansion was created by an extreme sadist.

“Thankfully, my Healer is more dependable than she seems...”

With an indignant sigh, Meilin crosses her arms and feigns an irritated expression. “Excuse you, Miss Guild Master, but are you saying that I usually seem lazy?”

“Of course not. I'm saying you usually are lazy. There's a bit of a difference.”

“You kind of are, but hey, I'm sure you've got plenty of stamina as compensation!” Farion calls from his place at the table, causing a snort of laughter from Remehaine.

“Can you even do the things that would put a Healer's high stamina to good use...?” Meilin wonders out loud, sounding genuinely curious.”

“Yeah, it's possible,” a Necromancer by the name Sorero puts in, a small smile on her lips. “Just as good as it is in reality, too.”

Katyluuna cocks her head to the side curiously. “What are you guys talking about?”

In reply, Nevanas leans down and whispers something to her.

With a cheerful smile on her face, Meilin gets up and walks over to Farion, telling him just loud enough for me to hear, “I'm sure I could show you sometime. I've got my own room in our Guild House, so...”

“She's loud any annoying—I don't like her!” Remehaine teases, mimicking Farion's voice the best she can.

“I request silence!” Dencelina shouts, pounding one of her fists against the table. “We've come to the conclusion that no one else has anything to add, and so, I'm turning the spotlight back to Elithero. Do you have any questions?”

Sorero raises props her elbow up on the table and twirls her index finger. “Me. What's your guild name? You said you weren't going to say it for the sake of seriousness, but I'm guessing this meeting is pretty much over, so you can tell us now. I mean, I was told you're the leader of one of the most popular guilds, but hardly anyone checks the rankings.”

“Well,” I explain, “we have the sadomasochist, the total pervert, and the one with a violence streak. It was intended to just be a three-man guild, so we decided to call it At Least We Aren't Republicans.”

The Necromancer begins laughing, along with two of the other three leaders present. Meilin looks both insulted and amused, as if she can't decide whether she should get upset or laugh.

“See?” Remehaine prompts. “If you think any of us are bad as it already is, there's a friendly reminder that we could be a lot worse.”

“I'm a republican,” Meilin pouts.

“And that's why we can't have nice things like free will,” Sorero giggles. “It's because people can do things like that with it.”

“I request silence once more,” Dencelina commands again, far more calmly than the first time. “All of this off-topic chatter surely marks the end of this meeting. You will all be given at least a twelve-hour notice when we decide to hold the next one, and if any of you find a reason to call together another meeting, please contact Elithero or myself and we'll get everything in order.”

Everyone gets up and leaves. Deritan gives a curt goodbye, Sorero obnoxiously waves and blows kisses as she exits backwards, and the third leader—a Protector named Ysindra—quickly and quietly leaves with his head lowered.

“Um...I just realized something,” Katyluuna murmurs worriedly. “Tejayra still isn't back yet... Do you think something might have happened to him?”

A worried glint suddenly lights Remehaine's eyes, and she jerks forwards and grips the edge of the table. “That's true... He's all right, isn't he, Dencelina?”

Dencelina chuckles softly. “Don't worry about it. It's one of the few traits from the real world that carried over. He's a master at socialization here, especially when talking to girls, but he seems to have a problem around more popular individuals.”

“So that's why he was shifting around so nervously... I was going to ask, but that might have seemed a bit rude.”

“If nervously means the same as trying desperately not to wet himself, then yes, that was the case.”

Meilin smiles affectionately. “He's so cute trying to avoid an accident.”

If I'm not mistaken, Remehaine looks a bit angry at her. “Stop talking about it—that's disrespectful to him! It's not his fault if he gets nervous like that...”

“She makes a fair point,” I say with a small shrug. “I'm not saying that you necessarily should shut up about it, but I do agree that it's a bit disrespectful. I wouldn't doubt it's embarrassing for him. Do, please, take what Remehaine said as a suggestion.”

She climbs up on the table, pulling her daggers from their sheaths. “It wasn't a suggestion, and if you think it was, feel free to test that.”

I can't say that this is all that appalling—to me, at least. She seems to have a strong attachment to Tejayra, something like the one she has to me. At least she feels no need to be quite as protective over him as well, though. However, Dencelina looks mildly shocked, Meilin shields herself behind Farion, and Katyluuna ducks beneath the table. Farion looks like he wants to grab her leg and yank her down, though, and Nevanas does nothing but grin and laugh.

“Hey, calm down!” Farion snaps. “Meilin didn't really say anything wrong! And this is her we're talking about—it's not like she's going to be rude or anything on purpose!”

“Such words of defense for someone who claims not to like her much...” Nevanas muses, feigning an expression of thoughtfulness and curiosity. Or perhaps he really is wondering about it—his curiosity matches that of a cat, so he wonders about every little detail he isn't entirely sure about.

Remehaine lets out a small sigh and gets back down, very reluctantly returning her daggers to their places at her hips. “Maybe I overreacted, but be more careful about what you say next time. There isn't always going to be someone around to stop me or make me rethink my decisions.”

It's impossible not to chuckle at her extremity. “And I warn you—don't take those words lightly. I can promise you she will rip your throat out if no one stands in her way, though I can't promise that I'll be the person foolish enough to come between her blades and the person she's angry with.”

“Speaking of foolishness,” Dencelina says, rising to her feet and heading towards the exit, “I believe there's something I need to tell you, Elithero. In private.”

I get up to follow her, curious as to what she had to say and why she couldn't say it in front of everyone else. Most likely it was pertaining to a subject that would cause panic, or something she wasn't certain about.

Once Dencelina leads me to an empty room, she locks the door and turns to me.

“Tell me, if you were the one to develop a game or an expansion to a game, and it was something like this, what would you do? Would you leave any traces that you were the one responsible? Any traces at all?”

“Yeah, why not? I'd never even create something like this anyway.” I reply with a shrug. “But...I don't believe someone who would develop a world anything like this would leave any traces that they hold responsibility for taking away the lives of so many people. It could render them powerless, even if they took steps to 'guarantee' that they would retain full control over this prison.”

“Good, thank you. I've asked several others about their thoughts on this, and each of them gave the same kind of response, aside from one. For that reason, I believe the person who created this place made quite a terrible mistake, whether it be out of carelessness or foolishness. I've found traces of some type of involvement in this, and so far, I've been able to figure out some things about who is behind all of this. They are somewhere in here with us, for whatever reason I haven't figured out. My hypothesis is that they changed this world the way they did to make it the ideal place for them to live. I believe this person desired a place where they could still feel large amounts of pain, desired a place where they could experience emotional torment at any given time only to feel significantly better mentally once it was all over, desired a place where the rules and popular thoughts of general society had no real hold. What better way of doing that is there aside from finding a way to get inside a video game?”

Her ideas are probably far better than anything I'd be able to find. She had, in the real world, desired to have several different jobs, each of which would require her to be able to do thorough background checks, piece information together in the most logical way possible, or to pick up on even the smallest clues. Her dedication to those things is thankfully proving to be rather useful here.

“And you're certain about this?” I check. I don't doubt her, but she's just as human as I am, and very capable of making mistakes.

“Don't worry about a thing. I make sure to check everything at least three times, and five times if the results don't seem right. It's tedious work, but it's not unpleasant. Just leave this all to me—I'm not stupid enough to make the same mistake three times. There's more than enough for you to tend to without having to bother with my work.”

“Of course. I completely trust you.”

“Oh, one more thing, Elithero. We're going to have to find a new meeting room soon. We can't rent the one we just used forever. It costs money, and while my guild is rather wealthy, it's going to begin making a dent in the funds after a while. Might you have a suggestion?”

“Princess Crossyen Demihart Mariana Otesrett Tamaritana Shi'i, the daughter and only child of the king and queen ruling over the nations of Balinus, Clador, and Laistren.”

“Her whole name is only mentioned in the first scene, once in the game, and on the wiki, and I know for a fact you never use the wiki. People don't just remember names like that.” She lets out a small laugh. “But what about her?”

“If we could befriend her, it's quite likely she could get us a meeting room to use at any time, free of charge.”

“And of course you have a plan for this, I assume?”

“Of course. In the story of the game, the princess desires to be a Mage, though gave up on her dream of that happening and now wishes to be a Protector. The three things getting in her way are her parents, her laziness, and her tendency to give up when things get difficult. Her parents know of her potential, and discourage it out of fear that she could attain enough power to overthrow the kingdom and claim it as her own. She is apathetic towards those who attend the extravagant ball, taking no interest in the higher-ups who attend. Even so, she never turns down a dance, and never forgets the face of someone who has danced with her. She never takes the same man's hand twice, simply because she craves differences, and because her parents insist she find someone she wants to marry. And since January is considered the Month of Renewal, there is a ball held every Saturday night to celebrate the coming of the new year. I'm going to attend and I'm going to ask her to dance.”

“You can't possibly think you're can do this on your own, can you?” Dencelina cocks her head to the side.

“No, of course not—that would be no different than planning to fail. I'm taking you, Tejayra, Meilin, my two guild mates, and the party Katyluuna would play with before. I'm considering taking Sorero as well, because there was a small bit of information stated on the side, that the princess has yet to choose a husband both because the men here bore her and because she has no interest in men. Sorero is rather beautiful, and I checked her account profile. There's an option to give sexual orientation and gender, and Sorero is pansexual female in real life. I could hand the princess off to her once I'm finished talking to her. How does that sound?”

“You're the strategist, not me. If anything, I'm the one who should be asking you for approval before I do anything. Now hurry along—we both have a lot of work to do.”

“Yes, of course.”

I wave as I leave the room, and I accidentally bump into Katyluuna. She stumbles backwards, almost falling.

“I-I'm sorry!” she apologizes quickly, staring down at the ground. “Um, Nevanas has a really high Listening Skill, and I was curious, so I wanted to try it, too... But I promise I'm not good at it, so it cut in and out! I didn't hear a lot of what you were saying!”

I chuckle and get down on her level, ruffling her hair. “It's fine. But in case you didn't hear, I need you to call your friends for me. It's very important. Mattheisse and Breanette leveled up their Tailoring, so they're going to need to make outfits for everyone I'm deciding to take along.” I quickly go through my Inventory and select a notebook and a fountain pen. I scribble down the names of everyone they need to make outfits for, rip out the page, hand it to Katyluuna, and put the items back. “Their deadline is four thirty Saturday evening. I'll need you make a special kind of food, too, but it's an extremely rare recipe so I'll have to make a copy of it to give to you. Do you think you can handle this?”

She nods, smiling up at me. “I'll do my best!” She waves and runs off, most likely to find Nevanas and tell him all about how much responsibility I was willing to give her. She seems so proud that I assigned her any tasks at all.

And now I have to explain the plan to everyone I'm bringing along, and come up with the best way to speak to the princess.