Ryouta recalls his conversation with Serra from last night. They’ve been talking almost all day long via Fiscord, but he can’t stop thinking about last night’s revelation. She lives in the same city that he does. With several million people living within the city’s limits and new buildings being constructed constantly, she could be anywhere. His apartment’s balcony got its first use earlier today when he decided to stand out on it and just look over the city. Thousands of people passed by through the streets below. Was Serra one of them?

It also got him thinking about how many other people he’s met online before. As low as the odds may be, he doubts that she’s the only one who lives near him that he’s come across. How many others have there been? With how popular Fantasy Tales Online is, there is most likely several thousand people playing it who live in this city. It's weird to remember just how small the world truly is and that somebody he meets online could be his neighbor.

Now, with the sun having set and lying on his bed, it’s been twenty-four hours since he killed himself as Fenrir. Time to immerse.

A single light is left on in the corner of his room this time. The last thing he needs to do is trip in the dark and break something after waking.

“Processing memories,” Saya’s voice says. A floating progress bar quickly fills up with green. “All done! Welcome back, Onii-chan! Woah, Serra really was talkative. How come you didn’t tell her you lived in the same city as her?”

Ryouta looks down at his hands. They’re large and masculine once more. He’s Fenrir again.

“I thought it’d be weird if I said anything. What if she worries I’m going to stalk her now that I know her name, what she looks like, and live in the same city as her?” Fenrir replies.

“We both know that’s not why you really didn’t say anything, stubborn Onii-chan.”

“You’re in my head, so I’m sure you can figure out whatever the real reason might be. Hey, what happens to you when I’m not synched up to the headset?”

Saya pouts before moving on to answer his question. “I’m dead! Just kidding, but I’m only really active whenever you’re synched up. Part of me is stored in your brain, the other part is stored in the headset’s hardware, and the software installed on the headset is what brings the two parts together to work!”

Fenrir leans forward to poke her nose. She makes a shy yelp before quickly covering her nose with one hand and batting his hand away with the other. “Wha-what was that for?!” she shouts, stomping her feet.

“I never tried touching you before, so I wanted to see if I could,” he explains. At least he learned that she feels every bit as realistic as a real human does. He was able to feel the warmth of her nose, the little bump in the tip of it, and her soft skin.

“Would you like to enter Gaia if you’re done harassing me, baka Onii-chan?”

“The cringe is reaching new levels if you say both of those things together.”

“But you still like it.”

“In the word’s of Serra, you have no proof, no evidence, and I deny everything.”

“Hmph. Do you want to play or not?”

Fenrir gives his tsundere-imouto-assistant a thumbs-up. She sends him through the same process of swirling colors and shapes as the first time he entered the world of Gaia, and now he finds himself standing atop the exact same patch of grass that he was when he started. A breeze carrying fresh air brushes against him and makes his ears twitch.

It’s only been a few seconds and he’s already a hundred times happier than he was in reality.

Serra was able to find a picture of the game world’s map online, zoomed in on the region where they started, and tried circling the area where she believes that her and Bonekraka are in. Fenrir remembers seeing the picture she sent him, but he can’t actually remember any of its details. It’s all a blur to him now. “This memory blocking thing is a pain sometimes. Guess I’ll just follow the coast until I can find that village again,” he explains his plans out loud to nobody in particular. The walk is going to be boring without the rest of his party. Serra said she’d log in to keep a look out for him, but Bonekraka and Oleander aren’t available for the night.

“Wait, how come I can remember what Serra said about meeting me, but not the map she showed me? Shouldn’t I not remember anything at all about plans made outside of the game?” Fenrir asks.

“Only stuff that would give you an unfair advantage over other players, Onii-chan! Like I said before, it’s all up to my discretion. I don’t believe that knowing what she said about waiting for you gives you an unfair advantage over other players, but remembering the details of an out-of-game map would!” Saya explains.

Fenrir can only imagine how annoyed some players must be by this. There are plenty of players who need to know the exact mechanics and workings of the games they play, yet they don’t get any such thing here. They likely believe that it’s bullshit and unfair to not have a complete understanding of every mechanic. How is damage calculated? What decides if a player instantly dies or not? How much experience do players gain from various tasks and enemies? It is pretty confusing to play a character that the player barely knows anything about. All they know is what they can see and feel.

But isn’t that the point? In a way, stats and skills exist in reality and humans have no way of knowing what they have unless they learn it themselves. Some might have bonuses to music and art, others might have naturally higher strength and speed stats, some get special perks like insane flexibility, and so on. Humans can learn skills and improve them through practice, but no stat window is ever going to pop up and tell them about it.

This game truly is the most realistic one of all time. At least it’s fairer than reality since everybody starts off equally.

Fenrir continues thinking of such things as he heads down the coast. Fortunately, when he comes across more of those oversized crabs, they passively go about digging in the sand like they were when the party found them.

What are they digging for anyways?

He stands to the side and watches the crabs dig. They notice him and give him a curious look, but when he stays still and doesn’t attack, they go back to digging.

The crabs dig hole after hole for nothing in return. Maybe it’s just an idle animation with no purpose? Oh well. He doesn’t want to spend too much time here since Serra is waiting on him. “Alright, good luck to you two. I hope you find whatever it is you’re looking fo—”

One of the crabs taps on something beneath the sand. It sounds hard. Fenrir watches the crab as it immediately digs down its other claw to assist the first one. A few seconds later and a massive shell gets pulled out from beneath the sand!

Hundreds of pink, slimy tentacles no thicker than pencils begin frantically waving out from the shell’s opening, desperately attacking the crab holding onto their shell. Alas, it proves useless when the crab effortlessly cracks the shell in half and holds the exposed core up to its mouth. Fenrir is able to get a quick look at what’s inside of the shell. It looks like all of the tentacles are attached to the same fleshy mass hiding inside of the shell. This is confirmed when, upon the crab devouring the fleshy mass, all of the tentacles go limp.

The tentacles kind of look like worms. Fenrir has an idea, but it’s going to have to wait until later. Getting his rock and meeting up with Serra is more important right now. “Thanks for the tip,” Fenrir says, giving the crab a quick pat on the claw before jumping back to avoid its attack. The crab clearly doesn’t want to be interrupted while eating.

Fenrir eventually spots the wooden buildings of the village on the beach. Time to get back into the grass and sneak. Whether it’s real life or any other video game, crouching in tall grass is always a great way to sneak around.

He gets close enough that he can accurately line himself up with the building where they ran from. He wants to try and follow the exact path that they took. Turning away from the village, he looks into the field and… oh. Well, that makes things easier. Multiple trails lead through the field. Grass is bent down, heavy footprints are embedded in the dirt, and one particularly wide swath of grass has been brutalized. Looks like Bonekraka’s size is good for something other than making himself a huge target.

Following the tracks makes finding the site of his death easy.

Somebody is already here.

“Really? These fucks didn’t have anything on them? God, the guys weren’t joking when they said these fags have nothing on them,” Richard groans before smashing Fenrir’s pack-shell against the ground.

Rock was in there.

“I wouldn’t be down to zero respawns if that bastard would’ve just let me fuck his girl, and not kill me! No fucking girls come out here! How am I supposed to get a new respawn? Damn it, I should have listened and been more careful about my lives,” Richard shouts, kicking Fenrir’s remains.

All Fenrir can think about is how Rock was in the pack-shell.

“Are you really that upset about a rock, Onii-chan?” Saya asks.

“Not just a rock, my Rock,” Fenrir thinks back to her.

Richard is wearing what looks to be the leather armor he died in last night, but he has a new sword. Bonekraka should still have his old one.

Fenrir looks around for the spear. It isn’t anywhere to be seen, so the others must have taken it back already.

Like a wolf stalking his prey, Fenrir lowers his body and circles around through the grass to the back of Richard. The grass is just barely tall enough to hide Fenrir as long as Richard stays distracted by kicking what little remains of Fenrir’s last life.

Prowling like a wolf on causes that bestial urge within him to surface again.

He’ll need to be quick. The only way he’s going to win is if he takes Richard by surprise again. Fenrir steps forward.

Richard spins around from the sound of a twig being snapped behind him.

Their eyes meet. Richard goes for his sword, and Fenrir goes for the pounce.