"Anyway, the point is, I want you to agree to be assigned to my demo team instead of the sixth, but you'll have to work closely with Myles Blue," Lin Hao told her more cautiously.

"That guy…" Danika began, but she couldn't think of anything good to say. She still begrudged his casual deletion of Kit's baby, even if it had been an NPC that was causing the whole game system problems.

Devon Yu watched her with a neutral expression, but didn't suggest anything.

"Just challenge him to a duel and get it over with," Lin Hao complained.

Danika blinked at him and asked blankly, "A duel? In 'Living Jade Empire'? Why? Even if I won, it's not like he could undo it."

Lin Hao spun his chair around in a circle for a moment, and then stopped himself with one foot and asked, "Then what do you want from him?"

Danika shrugged, but she thought about it seriously. She didn't want anything from Myles Blue, except for him to understand what he'd done, but even if he finally understood he still wouldn't be able to change anything. "Nothing," she replied unhappily.

Devon finally spoke up, and pointed out, "You know, every NPC that gets created for this project will be deleted, just like all of the ones that are created in our work spaces to test things."

Danika opened her mouth, and then closed it. Her boss obviously understood her problem with Myles, and he was pointing out that character deletion was standard procedure in many circumstances. She not only couldn't argue, she'd casually deleted plenty of people and things while working out designs, and arranged the future demise of many characters in storylines.

"Kit seems to be doing well these days," Lin Hao offered, pinpointing the source of the problem from another angle.

Danika held up her hands defensively and said, "I know, okay? I understand, I just…" The two of them were used to her by now and waited until she finished.

The deletion of Kit Tay's baby had mostly distressed Danika because it had distressed Kit, but as he pointed out, Kit was living happily enough. Danika wasn't the only one who still held a grudge against Myles, she knew Shrubbery still held the deletion against him, and at first she had also blamed Danika.

Danika considered how Shrubbery seemed to have forgiven her. It wasn't because she had changed her mind, since she'd admitted from the start that it wasn't fair. Nothing had really changed. It was just something that seemed to happen eventually, the same way that she'd stopped avoiding MatchlessMinion after things had gotten awkward between them. She wished she had asked.

"…I don't know how to forgive him," she admitted reluctantly. "But maybe I won't be able to if I keep avoiding him. You know, I can work with someone I don't like."

Devon reached out and patted her head in a way that could have been seen as condescending, but from him was a sign of approval. "Good girl," he said with a pleased expression. "You won't be alone on the team, Takahashi and Paul will also be reassigned for the duration."

Danika occasionally wondered if his habit of reaching out to pat people was because he was blind outside of VR, or if he was just one of those people for whom touch was habitual, but she was never brave enough to ask. If it had bothered her, she could simply have changed her avatar's settings to disallow it, but she didn't mind.

Lin Hao objected mildly, "Even if they weren't, I'll be there too."

"Is Josh going to have to act as the head of the Seventh full time if you're going to work on this instead?" Danika asked doubtfully.

"He'll be fine, and it's not like I'm actually going anywhere this time. We'll just be logged into a different server, I'll still be in the same building and everything," Lin Hao replied promptly.

Danika would bet that Josh was going to be less than thrilled. Actually, she suspected that he was going to be disappointed that he couldn't participate in making the demos. His character, Logical Heart, had been working on the guild's new performance venue with MatchlessMinion and the others, but he probably wasn't going to have as much time to play if he was covering for Lin Hao.

That reminded her to ask Lin Hao, "Can you play for awhile tonight? The Witch gave me some seeds that are supposed to help ShinZing heal the beetles now that he's a witch, but having Silvam would be really helpful."

"Beetles?" Lin Hao asked blankly.

"For one of our guild quests," Danika explained.

She started describing their adventures so far, but Lin Hao shook his head in negation and told her quickly, "Maybe in a couple of days, but I still have a lot to set up here."

"Alright," she replied, without too much surprise.

"You didn't ask me," Devon Yu complained mildly.

"Does your character have a good healing skill that would work?" Danika asked with interest.

"Not at the moment, but you didn't ask," he replied with amusement.

She rolled her eyes at him expressively and he laughed aloud.

"You could choose a path and become a Jade Hand yourself," Lin Hao suggested blandly.

"Did the Jade Emperor tell you to suggest that?" Danika asked suspiciously, making both men laugh.

--

After her shift ended, Danika hurried to get ready to leave. She and Shinichi were finally going to the dinner with her father and his girlfriend that had kept getting put off. Since she'd teased Shinichi about how he'd probably arrive late, she definitely didn't want to be late.

Ryuske was waiting for her near the door, with a woman she'd never met. She seemed about the same age as Danika, and her attire looked more like business casual than most people would wear on a personal visit. She smiled as Danika approached but didn't step aside.

Danika was curious, but she just said, "Pardon me, I need to get past you so I can leave."

"No you don't," Ryuske told her with amusement. Danika frowned at him, and he explained quickly, "You need to take her with you."

"What?" Danika asked blankly, and then stared at the woman doubtfully.

After a moment she realized who the woman must be, just as Ryuske explained, "Sakurai is one of our security people."

"Oh no," Danika replied worriedly. Ryuske frowned at her, but she explained quickly, "I forgot I had to take someone. I didn't tell my dad that there might be extra people."

Sakurai chuckled and said, "Don't worry, I just need to deliver you safely. I'll give you my contact and you can just message me when you're ready to leave."