The individual known as the Chosen One, having just finished talking to everyone in the Forest Village, was carefully swiping through all the newly collected social quests. There was nothing particularly interesting - some fetch quests, a couple of monster slayings, one or two that looked like they might end up being chain-quests to better gear.

Not that the Chosen One had any problem with gear. Thanks to the shop exploit, the whole party was rolling in everything the game had to offer. Even their armour was the best that could be bought at this level - the Hero looked down, watching the way the firelight played over their frankly ridiculous muscles.

Everything in this world was so realistic! The dev team had really knocked it out of the park this time. Hell, the Chosen One had even found themselves forgetting this was all make-believe a few times, it was that immersive. Especially the NPCs’ AI.

The player looked at the half-elf healer standing by the edge of a bonfire. She was watching the forest folk dance, all wide eyed and shy, like she’d never been to a party before.

Would the devs have programmed a tutorial character to experience such genuine seeming amazement? And that hint of being overwhelmed, was that supposed to tug on players’ heartstrings and make them want to protect her?

Not that they would be able to use her as a valid party member for much longer. The other companions had been leveling up, but she had stayed stuck on level five. The only growth she’d done had been when she’d touched the pedestal and received the healing spell. Given how badly the system had glitched from that particular decision, the Chosen One had almost expected the game to be unplayable after that. But instead the AI had adapted, and carried on.

The Chosen One had never met a video game character like her before. Even the weird glitches with the other two companions were relatively understandable, compared to the stunts she’d been pulling. That conversation in the Forest Temple where she’d been looking for pressure plates…

It was almost frighteningly human.

If you had asked the Chosen One two months ago whether or not video game characters could be your friend, they would have scorned the question. Even with all the advances in technology, and neural learning networks, at the end of the day it was still just a computer program. It was still just a video game. It wasn’t real.

But this was starting to feel a little too real.

These were characters in a video game. They were designed to entertain (or insultingly pander to, Chosen One thought, looking at the glitched out “sexy” wood elf companion) and be part of an experience. They were explicitly created to elicit certain emotional responses, to give a skin of narrative to what was just a game. Even the player’s inability to access the companions’ skill trees was a game design choice, to try and force you into interacting with your companions more. No doubt they all have individual quest lines that would need to be done later on -

But not the healer. She was hardcore glitched out. And hadn’t that caused endless amusement and work?

The Chosen One knew they needed to talk to the healer more. Find out what was chugging along under all that dynamic dialogue options. But a part of them hesitated.

Because if they peeled back the layers, and worked out exactly what it was that was making this glitched out character act in such a human way… it would ruin the illusion. Otherwise the Chosen One would have just sat the character down and drilled her with questions, seeing exactly when she repeated herself, noting every constructed nuance and dialogue tic.

But instead … instead they wanted to continue. They wanted to see how this all played out, how this glitch broke the world around them in new and exciting ways.

After all, it was all just fun and games!

...Wasn’t it?