When they reached the crowded market square that lay at the center of the human capital, Danika was extremely glad that fairy dragons could fly. People obviously tried to avoid pressing up against Aishin's tall dark avatar, with its somewhat tattered but concealing clothes and various bladed weapons, but he was still practically elbowing his way through the crowd.

On the north side of the square rose sturdy stone walls, protecting the highest tower in the city. Most of the south edge was faced by a large cathedral, that Danika felt clashed with the depiction of the Jade Emperor in his elaborate oriental robes above the entrance. Other deities and dragons gazed out at the crowd from their own nooks.

The east was bordered by what Danika could only describe as shopping malls. The large buildings were covered in signage for various kinds of shops, and they loomed nearly as tall as the cathedral. The west held a series of raised daises, round platforms with a standing portal at the center of each. The area was separated from the market square by only a series of raised flowerbeds, but no vendor had crossed that insubstantial line.

The market itself was crammed with vendors selling from elaborate carts, narrow tents, plain tables, and even mats laid on the ground. In some places people were struggling to maintain lines in front of popular merchants, in others the merchants were struggling to attract the attention of any passerby.

Aishin slowly forced his way across the square toward the permanent shops, and Danika fluttered erratically along behind him. Her progress was frequently disrupted as interesting displays and characters caught her attention. Fortunately their party menu provided the little compass for relocating Aishin when she lost sight of him.

The center of the large building full of shops that they entered was, to Danika's surprise, occupied by a tranquil garden with tall stands of bamboo that reached toward the open sky overhead. The quiet garden was almost a physical shock after the tumultuous noise of the market square. Flights of stairs rose on every side of the garden to balconies lined with shop fronts.

Aishin entered the garden space before turning to Danika and saying, "Getting here took a bit longer than I hoped, so I have to log off now and I might be a little late in the morning."

"Ok," Danika replied quickly. "Maybe I'll sleep in a bit tomorrow!"

"Ok," Aishin agreed, and flashed a grin at her as he logged out.

Danika decided to explore the shops on the first floor before logging out. She quickly discovered that she didn't really need to use her menu lens to tell the difference between the NPCs and the players here. The players would point and talk, or even just stare at her with wide startled eyes as she zipped past, but the NPCs greeted her the same way they did every other customer who entered their shop.

The first floor seemed to be occupied by outfitters of various sorts. The shops sold mostly armor, clothing, and bags. There was one shop full of amazing hats though, they had everything from bonnets to conical wizard's caps and elegant top hats.

Most of the merchants had apologized that they had no gear that would fit her, after their standard greetings were complete, but the hatter offered, "Our elemental series of hats might fit you."

The hatter directed her to a small rack of miniature headwear. Danika giggled over the miniature acorn shell helms, glossy spiked shell caps, and little silken flower bonnets. She even tried on one curly snail like shell in rainbow hues. It made her look like she had a colorful pompadour, which was amusing, but not a fashion she wanted to sport.

She logged out in a cheerful mood.

--

Danika slept well, and woke up at her usual time despite having set her alarm later. While she brushed her teeth, after eating breakfast beside her window, she opened the first layer of "Living Jade Empire" on her phone. Danika stopped brushing and stared at the notification with dismay.

It read: "Living Jade Empire is currently offline for maintenance while our first major update is applied! In the meantime if you will allow your mobile device access to your step counter or gyroscope, you can complete this mini quest for 10 Karma! Thank you for your patience." A timer ticked away beneath it, showing that the game was expected to come back online about noon, and below that was a progress bar for the mini quest.

Danika finished brushing her teeth in a rush and then submitted a complaint through the bug report section. She didn't really expect it would be answered, since it wasn't really a bug and they were probably receiving thousands of complaints.

To her surprise she received a reply before she finished her exercises that read: "From the honorable celestial servant of the first class, Hugh Brant, fifth among his rank, serving the Jade Emperor in the maintenance of the Living Jade Empire: Thank you for your feedback, your idea of solving this issue by accepting GPS locations from registered parks, care facilities and hospitals in addition to step counts has been accepted and the quest has been updated. Please reload the game application."

Danika restarted the game application. The progress bar for the mini quest now had four marks evenly spaced along it, and the quest description had an addition that read, "or allow your device to report your GPS location and collect four time stamps at these registered locations:" The following link included not only the types of places that Danika had suggested, but many merchant locations that were affiliated with the company that had produced "Living Jade Empire."

Danika tried sending a message to Aishin, and discovered that thankfully the messaging system was still functioning during the update. She sent: "I'm going to go out for a while and try to complete the mini quest while the game updates, but I may not be back by noon."

Aishin replied so quickly that Danika was certain that he already had his phone open on the same screen: "I've already started it. Don't worry about rushing back, I'll wait for you."

--

Danika heaved herself over the edge of the VR-medi pod at 12:23. She was afraid that she'd have to wait for her system to install an update before she could log in, but apparently all the changes had been made on the server side of the game.

She logged in to discover a dark screen with a system notification that read:

"Every portal fee has been reduced to 1 Karma, and a login bonus of 1 Karma per day has been established."

"Permanently available quests have been added in addition to the individualized quests that the game will continue to generate. The first series of permanent quests will feature the most requested subject: messenger animals. The first person or party to complete each of the new messenger animal quests will gain a golden version of the animal as well as the usual version!"

"To relieve the extreme crowding in the racial capitals that has not naturally reduced over the past month as our developers expected, we have upgraded several towns for each race to be suitable for novice populations. Every player currently ranked as a novice may choose below to enter the game at either a recommended town, or at your previous location."

Danika hesitated before choosing to log in at her current location. She was curious about the recommended town and took note of its name: Windbur.

Aishin was waiting in the center of the bamboo garden. He'd obviously updated his outfit, as he was now dressed in an undamaged version with a silkier sheen to the cloth. Danika silently pouted a little that his pretty face was almost completely covered again, and wondered if it was because of the people who'd called him a rich brat.

He smiled at her and the expression stayed on his face. She could tell by the way his cheeks lifted and his eyes crinkled. She zipped up to him and declared excitedly, "You're not playing on your phone today!"

"I'm not," he agreed laughingly. "I'm at home and playing on our full motion console. Ready to go catch some fairy mice?"