There was a huge wall of Travelers around me. They were crowded over a series of bulletin boards like the ones from [Camp Grey Skull]. Some clustered together to chat. More were arguing over the price of seemingly random items. I ignored all of them and read the rest of Xin’s letter.

My father found America strange. America was never an issue to me, I was born there. Now I understand how he must have felt. This place is also strange. It feels like everything around me is a dream. An illusion cast about for the weak minded. If I stare hard enough the layers peel away.

It scares me. It scares me until I realize that I’m not actually afraid, but part of me believes I should be. Does that make sense, Gee? I think I should be afraid, therefore I am. Yet fear has never once ruled me. Not once.

Did I run away from that first launch? You remember, right? I had called you on the phone and we spent hours talking about it. You were so tired. I didn’t sleep at all that night even after you had fallen asleep on the phone. I kept talking while you snored.

I hung my head and sighed. Of course, she would remember the one time I fell asleep on the phone. Xin had woken me from a dead sleep and unloaded. Normally she was very curt with her answers but something about the launch had her rattled. My fiancée chattered away for hours while I tried to utter complex responses.

Part of me is screaming so loudly. There’s this gap in time between the last moments I remember and now. Three years, Gee, this isn’t like being at Mars. At least there I expected to be able to call you, and for you to go through training and join me.

That didn’t happen, did it? This isn’t Mars.

Those last few moments were so fast, but I almost remember what happened. More like I see it, but don’t feel it. Gee, I think I died.

The message went on. I tried not to gasp while reading it. A few of the other Travelers looked over my shoulder to see what the fuss was about. Dusk snapped in their faces and completely confused a couple. Soon they left a small bubble around me and went about their business.

Voices above. This was insane to read. I tried to remember how Xin had written her text messages. This letter was a lot more formal than anything we had exchanged. That didn’t mean it was fake or written by a program messing with me, did it?

It was crazy to pin my happiness on a copy of the woman I had loved. Absolutely crazy. What would her father think of this? No, I couldn’t tell anybody at all. This had me on an emotional roller coaster and questioning my sanity. Subjecting anyone else to it would be asking for a trip to the asylum.

It was time to distract myself again. If I focused on the letter too much then the result would be a complete mental breakdown. A normal person would have asked how a computerized reaction of Xin knew memories from before Continue Online.

A strong hand grabbed the top of my head and turned it to the side. I was too distracted and didn’t even resist as Shazam came into view.

“Sorry. It’s me.” I tried to make sure she knew it was me right away. Shazam was probably used to dragging my autopilot around.

She gave a thumbs up then pointed off to the side. Past the walls of bulletins, there was a single room. A line was formed up outside the door and dozens of people were waiting to walk in.

“What’s in there?” I asked. That line was long, but it was moving.

Shazam pointed at me then to the room. She repeated the motion a few times. There was a symbol up above the doorway that looked like an infinity sign gone Goth if such a thing were possible.

“So I should go over there?” I stared at the picture up above and felt confused.

She nodded and pushed me off towards the line. I clutched Xin’s letter and tried to clarify what was going on.

“Is that the Porter?” I asked.

She stopped pushing and gave two thumbs up. If it wasn’t for her complete lack of facial expression I would have called the double thumbs up condescending. Like I had guessed something amazingly obvious and now was on par with a fifth grader.

I went to the line and reread Xin’s letter multiple times. People gave me a weird look when they saw Dusk on my shoulder. Shazam didn’t join me. She poked through the boards. Their contents were a mystery. I wanted to take a look after dealing with this Porter issue.

Time passed. I used a nearby wall to scribble out notes on how to respond. It was high school note passing all over again. A half hour later someone risked tapping on my shoulder. The person behind me coughed and pointed at the empty line in front of me.

“Sorry.” I put the letter up and hustled inside.

This felt oddly like a bathroom stall. There was a line of orbs. They were strangely out of place with everything else in Continue Online. Each orb was on a smooth pedestal and there was an alcove behind it.

Everyone else was walking up to them and placing their hands on the orb. One person crowded out through the doorway behind me and another came in immediately. Xin had written it, when in Rome, do as the Romans.

Putting my hands on the orb caused the orb to come to life. Deep inside the core a spark lit up. Light scanned over my body and lingered on the eyes, obliterating my vision. I blinked rapidly and tried to shake it off.

User: Hermes

Rank 9 [Blade Dancer], Rank 6 [Dancer], Rank 9 [Actor]…

Inside the alcove was a list that went on and on. It outlined all the same stuff that was in my character profile and had a few other giant glowing buttons. I twisted my face and tried to figure out what was so special about a Porter.

“First time?” The man next to me asked. I glanced over and saw a man who had to be nearly fifty standing there happily. He was seriously wearing what amounted to silk pajamas. The man had one hand halfway down the backside of his pants scratching.

I ignored the possible innuendo and answered “Yes.”

“Some of us whittle down our interfaces and never look at anything outside of the Porters.” He said. The man grumbled and switched which hand was on the orb and which was down his pants scratching.

“Why?” I asked absently. Above my character information was a menu of sorts. One said ‘social’ and another read ‘mail’.

“There’s a theory that you get high gains that way.” He seemed dissatisfied with the scratching based on his continued grumbles. While he was chatting, I focused on the menu options to one side. A small keyboard popped up in front of me.

“Any actual proof?” I asked. His idea seemed rather interesting. Beth had said something a while ago about one of her friends using a scroll to read everything. There, there was clearly a box for adding someone to a friend’s list.

“Not an ounce, but it’s fun to go all natural in the game. It’s a change of pace from the real world, you know?” He said.

“I can see how it might be.” I scanned the list of names resulting. There was a whole wall of them with basic information and titles. One of them was a Rank sixteen All-Star mage. That had to be my niece, Beth.

“Yeah. All that technology out there and we’re drowning in it. Anyway, I’m done, enjoy the game.” The man next to me shrugged and walked off while holding his pants with one hand.

“Bye.” I waved with one hand and finished typing out my message. Hopefully, this text would make sense. After a moment of hesitation, I pressed the final button.

Friend Invitation Sent to Player: Thorny

Message Text: Guess who finally found a Porter? I’ve been completely lost for days. I’m in some town called [Tyr’s Thumb]. I hope I did this right. - Uncle Grant

Okay. One task was completed. Now I had to figure out how to get my glitch reward. There had been another menu option for ‘mail’, that would be my next stop.

The old man next to me was traded out for a girl with a rainbow colored mohawk. She was far less talkative. At her belt was a series of small axes. I guess there really was a play style for everyone.

I shook my head and focused on the floating menu in its alcove. After a few moments of scattered concentration, I managed to get the mail pop-up to respond. If this room had been more private than perhaps this would have been done sooner..

Mail Received!

Would you like to open (2) letters?

“Well, yeah,” I muttered. Of course, I wanted to open these letters and see what was in them! Receiving two was already more than expected. The first one opened with a bit of fireworks and a sound of coins rattling.

Reward received for Project: Casino

Received: 394 Gold, 43 Silver, 10 Copper

I whistled slowly. It had been around two months in-game and someone had already figured out how to set up a Casino? Not to mention they seemed to be rolling in cash. I vaguely remembered that my percentage of any earnings was going to be amazingly minimal. Yet here it was, entirely too much gold.

The accountant in me had run the numbers a long time ago. It was one of the tasks that kept me entertained while functioning as William Carver. One gold coin roughly equaled ordering an exquisite lobster dinner for two plus gratuity and wine. Doing the math, it was almost like someone had handed me nearly five thousand dollars.

My eyebrows kept going up as the realization hit me. Two months of game time and if there was a way to convert gold to real money that would be a little bit more than a heavy month of work on the outside world. All that and I had just said some words to a Voice. This wasn’t even from me hunting high-Rank items or farming specific spots.

“Neat. “ Finally I shook it off and went for letter number two. The mohawk girl still stood there poking at the air. On the other side was a mountainous man who had to be half fat and half muscle. He was chewing on some toothpick that looked more like a nail.

Reward Received: Glitch Found and Reported

Right, as if I had found it myself. This should have gone to Shazam for kicking me into it. Still, I wanted to know what was going to happen. The pop-up box tied to this latest message shimmered for a moment. There had been other text on there about a sizable stat increase. Now it read completely different.

Received: [Howard’s Phylactery] Ring durability: Frail (Repairable) Details:

Howard was a famous Wizard who sought to overcome his own weakness. He found a way to bleed away his life small bits at a time and store the energy for a rainy day.

The Traveler may choose to sacrifice part of his health once per day.

Upon reaching zero health, the ring will replenish the health based on prior stored totals

This amount cannot exceed 100% of the Traveler’s health

Can only be used if actively equipped, does not function from inventory

Can only restore health once per month

I jerked my head to one side in confusion. Was this a ring that acted like a second chance at life? What had that shimmering been all about when the message was abruptly replaced? Were the Voices behind this somehow? It wouldn’t be the first time they interfered in my player actions. But why give me a ring like this? Were they worried that I was too frail?

A long time must have passed. Someone at the door coughed and I jerked out of the reflection abruptly. They weren’t looking at me or commenting on anything. It was a reminder that this place had a huge wait line. There was nothing else in here for me right now anyway.

It was hard not to stumble out of the door. The gold had been enough to confuse the heck of out me. Getting a ring like that as part of my reward was another layer of crazy. It was also extremely neat.

“Shazam?” I searched the crowd for my silent guardian.

Dusk yawned in my ear before carefully digging a claw into my shoulder. It wasn’t enough to hurt me, but it was certainly attention-getting.

“What’s up, Dusk?”

The small dragon flew off. I stumbled through the crowd after my darkly scaled pal. For the first time since the [Messenger’s Pet] had started following me, Dusk actually landed on someone else's shoulder. He was sitting with Shazam and staring at a wall of poster board items.

Shazam was wearing a dress. The [Messenger’s Pet] kept looking at his own feet as he moved around. Dusk was clearly trying to be careful about damaging Shazam’s clothing. Most of her shoulders were uncovered save for two dark blue straps. From this angle, it was clear that most of her back was uncovered from the clothing’s cut.

I tilted my head while trying to reconcile the woman in a dress with the one wearing armor. There was an amazingly different aura between the two images. She looked amazingly regal and almost seemed to have a glow. My head shook back and forth slowly.

Charm Resisted!

You have resisted an area effect charm skill. Ability to blink properly restored.

What? She had some skill that triggered a charm just because I stared too long? The dress alone couldn’t account for that. Shazam had no expression on her face but still managed to have a friendly pose. Her hands were moving around expressively at another man who wore a giant, feathered cap.

His hands rapidly moved back. It looked like a far better version of the pantomiming that Shazam and I engaged in. Clearly my game needed to be stepped up. Anything that would better communicate with her. Learning baby signs for the words fish or black wasn’t very helpful in a real conversation.

I stood nearby and stared at the wall of pictures with their descriptions. My hand reached closer to one of the postings and a system message displayed.

“Oh. Neat.” I muttered to myself.

There was a series of pop-up boxes telling me that it was possible to refine the search. It was strange to see a virtual sort of auction house interface overlaying the old fashion notice boards. Maybe they could only go so far in maintaining realism in a video game. Or maybe all these options could be trimmed down like the older man in the Porter said.

I looked around a bit. Indeed, some of the players were pulling down the actual notices then pinning them back up. Others were standing nearby poking fingers at the air. It seemed that each shopper could choose a different level of immersion even in a place like this.

There were walls of items resulting, but I pressed a few buttons and trimmed it down. Finally, there was a wall of digital items displaying in front of me. All of them were gambling related. I figured there would be something in here of use. It was that or stare at player crafted chest pieces for hours.

“A deck of cards?” I set eyes on one category that was a bit more interesting. They actually looked like the perfect type of item to pick up for a traveling player. “These prices are all over the board.”

Dusk chirped from Shazam’s shoulder. I gave her a wave and she returned the greeting with a thumbs up.

“I’m looking at decks of cards.” It felt like I was repeating myself, but Shazam had just arrived. “So we have something to pass the time with. Maybe you can teach my autopilot to be a card shark.”

“You know this man?” The man in a feathered hat sounded clear but soft. I turned away from my wall of gambling items to inspect this newcomer. He was a bit shorter than I which meant Shazam towered over him.

“She’s been helping me on some quests,” I stated for us. Shazam gave her thumbs up and then signed a wall of words to the man in the feathered hat.

“Arnold Sizeler.” The man put out a sizable hand. He was small but had giant palms.

“Hermes.” I reached out and shook. A year in face to face customer service had made some reactions automatic.

“Hermes? Interesting.” He said while signing at Shazam. It felt extremely weird having a conversation where they were clearly talking about me, but I couldn’t hear it.

“You’ve been traveling together for nearly a month now?” Arnold raised an eyebrow at Shazam. She gave a thumbs up which caused him to look at me and smile.

“That sounds right.” I waved my hand at the bulletin board. It was unlikely that he could see everything on my interface. ”I was just trying to find something to keep us busy.”

“In the gambling items?” Arnold Sizeler looked at the board. Shazam turned as well and started poking at the various pieces of paper. She must use the manual interface style.

“I’m not really good at sewing or painting. A deck of cards is small and easy to use.” I said. None of the trade skills sounded fun. Anything that deviated from traveling seemed counterproductive as [Messenger of the Voices]. Digging up ores, chopping trees, or picking plants also sounded boring. Those players who cared enough to engage in gathering were brave.

“Are you good at card games?” Arnold asked.

“I like to think so. My entire dorm back in college played almost every night.” I said while reminiscing. Most of us tried to outsmart each other in various versions of poker. It was an accountant pastime and killed a few hours between mind-numbing homework assignments.

“Oh really?” He signed a lot. I raised an eyebrow then went back to my auction board perusal. “Shazam, Mistress of Games, says there’s no way you could ever beat her in any card game of your choice.”

“We’ll see.” I did have a huge minus to all gambling skills so she probably would win. Oh well, it was better than staring at the grass. “Is that sign language?”

“Yes.” Arnold Sizeler moved his hands towards the much taller woman. He smiled and laughed happily. “She also says you’ve been traveling with her for weeks and are still a terrible communicator.”

“I’ve been distracted,” I said.

“A quest?” Arnold asked. He and Shazam exchanged a few more words with their sign language.

“Oh yeah,” I said. My lips pursed to one side. “I seem to always have some weird quest.”

“Anything to do with your similar titles?” He asked. Shazam started waving her hands rapidly which made the feathered man chuckle. “Oh? It does?”

She firmly thumbed down.

“Fine, fine. I’ll ask nothing more about that.” He put both arms up in a gesture of backing off. Shazam stared blankly before the exchange of signs went back and forth again.

“I’ll leave you two alone. I have many more deals to get in place before I can call it a night.” He bowed to Shazam and turned towards me. I waved goodbye as well. Arnold tapped a finger on his lips then pointed towards me. “Oh, before I go, a question.”

“Sure.” I shrugged. Dusk leapt over to my shoulder and dug in with his claws. The poor little guy must have been stressed sitting on Shazam’s shoulder without hurting her.

“How long do you plan to travel with Shazam?”

“Until she gets tired of me, I guess.” I didn’t know a lot of people in-game. The idea of hanging out with the hand wringing Miss Yonks or Jacob and his asinine commentary was not attractive. My niece hadn’t responded to the message yet, not that I knew what would happen once she did.

“No plans of your own?” He asked.

“There’s some war thing coming up that I’m looking into,” I said. Thinking about my friend invite at the Porter brought to mind her guild event thing.

“Oh? You must mean the succession war for Telliari’s throne.” Arnold said. [Telliari] was a large kingdom covering the land south of [Haven Valley]. It might be neat to wind my way back around to see how things were in William Carver’s old town.

“I haven’t got all the details yet,” I said. This other quest with Requiem had distracted me. That wasn’t even mentioning Xin’s existence.

“Well, both sides are hiring a number of mercenaries. It’s what I’m actually here trading for. Wars aren’t cheap to fund.” Arnold smiled happily.

“War rarely is.”

“At least it’s all digital. Most of the fighters will be travelers as well, so hopefully the general population of Arcadia will remain unharmed.” He tipped his hat back a bit and looked up at us.

I thought about Mylia and her orphanage. Maud and her gaggle of children passed through my mind. This town was full of war fortifications. While I personally hadn’t run into it, the conflict had likely torn entire kingdoms apart in this game world. Finally, the only choice left was to shrug.

“Well, it’s a week away, if you hurry then you should be able to pick a side and gather some benefit. I’ve thrown in with the Prince myself.” Arnold raised an eyebrow.

“I don’t have a side yet.” I shook my head. Arnold and my niece both said this was going to be a huge event. The idea of war against an army players was a bit off putting. Requiem Mass was only excusable because it was a quest to help Xin.

“How about you, my lady?” Arnold asked. The hands waved back and forth. “Still refusing to fight other players?” He asked out loud for my benefit. “That’s understandable, player wars are one of the reasons I stay here and manage money. It’s quieter.”

They signed back and forth a bit more while I made a few small purchases. A new shirt, pants, some low-Rank items that would help me stay clean out there in the world. Shazam carried a lot of gear, but I couldn’t rely on her forever. It was hard to balance my backpack's weight load against the [Light Body] skill but these shouldn’t push it too high.

“Hermes, I wish you luck. Shazam, lovely as always.” Arnold wrapped up his conversation and gave us a bow. Shazam returned his farewell by waving.

He walked off and I stared at Shazam. “Terrible communicator, huh?”

She gave a thumbs up I hung my head briefly and tried not to laugh. The dress hung about her shoulders while clinging to her curves as she moved. I looked away before the game made me resist another charm effect.

“Well, thanks for putting up with me. I’m sure it can’t have been easy.” I said. My own hands went back to the auction house display and poked at a few more items. “Any suggestions on a good deck of cards?”

Shazam turned to stare at the wall. Her arms hung to either side while she scanned over various bulletins. Finally, the woman reached out and grabbed a few notices down from the wall. A nearby Traveler protested as her hand dragged something over what he was looking at. She just glared at him and the other player blinked a few times before shrugging.

I tried not to chuckle and focused on the items she had brought up for my attention. They were all different decks of cards. The cheapest one was a deck of cards similar to the one I had seen before. Way back in the room of trials.

“So you don’t use the interface for auctions?” I asked. How she managed to pluck out deck fliers from the wall was beyond me. There were ten or twenty thousand items hanging around. Not to mention the people behind me yelling about their wares.

Shazam gave me a thumbs down then poked at two of the sheets.

“Between these two huh?” I said. Both were expensive. Not that money was an issue at this point. We spent most of the last few weeks hunting for food or working off of whatever supply Shazam had gathered. My Hermes character was mostly in her care while I dealt with Requiem Mass.

I was half tempted to flip a coin, but honestly there was enough gold to buy both and still have some left over. The items plopped into player inventory and gold vanished accordingly. Hopefully no one else nearby heard those cash register noises.

Shazam wandered the boards while I inspected the items. I trusted her enough to buy the items without too much investigation. The first one seemed to be a deck of cards following Continue Online’s unique take.

Instead of diamonds there were footprints on each card. Instead of a spade there was a scale of some beast, probably a dragon. The third suit was a small fire hovering over a brick. I wasn’t sure how the final two suits of a tooth and sword hilt fell into things. While I was turning them over looking at the numbers and other pictures Shazam tapped on my shoulder.

“What?” She ignored my questioning tone and reached over to grab all the cards. She threw them all into the air.

“Ahh!” I managed to catch a good number of them as they fell. It was actually surprising how many were in my hands by the end of the scramble.

[Coordination] + 2

[Reaction] + 2

“Why?” I looked at the system message and got confused. Scrambling to catch flying cards had resulted in a bonus? My head shook back and forth.

Shazam gave me a thumbs up and then tapped the card’s case three times. All the cards vanished from their landing spots and reappeared inside the case. She handed it back slowly.

“That is so weird,” I said.

“Variance bonus.” Someone near me said with a grump. I turned and saw the same old man from before standing nearby in pajamas. “First time doing anything new gives a bonus.”

“Thanks.” I shook my head in confusion. Had my confusion been so evident than some nearly random person had to comment on it? Judging by Shazam’s double thumbs up the answer was yes.

“Mh.” Pajama man was still holding up his pants with one hand. He stood staring at bulletins much like Shazam did. There was no sign of his using a digital interface.

I took the pack of cards back from where Shazam had it pinched in her palm. People bumped around us to get closer to the auction board. A much shorter man was walking a path while shouting out nearby.

“Anyone interested in buying unique mats? I gots a seller who has access to rare items from a private region.” The extremely short fellow shouted. I looked down briefly to see a man who was clearly grumpy. “If anyone’s interested just let me know. I’ll be logged on for hours.”

I raised an eyebrow at Shazam.

“What region is it?” A Traveler near me asked the short follow hawking his specialty wares.

“Can’t say! But I gots access to unique goods, recently my supplier got drops from a special mob nicked The Biggest Butthole. I gots the stats written down for anyone interested.” Said the short man. It took me a moment to realize how angry his commentary made me.

Somehow Requiem Mass was sending items to another player and making gold from them. A whole series of things clicked together at that moment. The entire reason I was on this quest was because the Voices were upset at Requiem Mass. This guy was selling them under the guise of unique goods.

“Shazam,” I muttered. The other Traveler turned and waved her hands in a questioning motion. “I need to talk to that short guy over there.”

Her head turned to look at my target. Her hands waved at me with that vaguely questioning tone. I took that to mean Shazam wanted a reason for helping me.

“He can help my quest,” I said. Shazam didn’t even hesitate. She grabbed the small man and literally hauled him off to the side of the bulletin boards. Our tiny captive protested, complained, and tried to claw at her hands. All of it failed and we reached a vaguely secluded area.

Shazam lifted him in the air and held him against the wall with both hands. Her head nodded towards me then our captive. I stepped up and stared into the short man's eyes. They were a deep brown.

“That weapon you were talking about, what was it?” I asked.

“It’s a fist weapon. But don’t thinks dragging me off is gonna lower the price.” He licked his lips and looked anywhere but at us.

“Oh? How much?” I nodded and pretended to be interested in the price.

“Your bid gotta be at least four hundred gold.” He looked me up and down and sneered. My clothes were pretty low end on the price scale.

“And this came from what monster?” I asked. Days on the road and being able to groom my autopilot likely didn’t help the impression. At least I wasn’t standing around holding up silk pajamas with one hand.

“A unique mob called The Biggest Butthole.” The short man replied while trying to swallow.

“And Requiem Mass gave this to you?” I dropped the name of my least favorite player. Requiem Mass was even worse than SheHulk at this point.

The small man went absolutely white. “I don’t know where he is! Please don’t hit me!”

The flailing continued for quite some time. Our little corner of the auction house was starting to get gawkers. Shazam was expressionless as always, but their attention bothered me.

“He tried to cut me out of some business.” I waved happily to a Traveler nearby. The man stared at me and the shorter person. It must be confusing as hell to see an Amazon of a woman wearing a blue dress holding a little person against a wall.

“What else?” I asked. There was way more to this than just a simple sales transaction. Requiem Mass was the type to milk every ounce he could from a situation.

“I find people willing to buy and charge what I can, I only gets twenty percent! It’s not worth this! I dunno you. Let me go!” The protesting went on and each time my mouth opened to ask the shorter fellow a question another excuse came forth.

Maybe [Morrigu’s Gift] could turn into a boxing glove and the man could be popped in the face. A bell to ring over his head? A gong? None of those shapes had been tried yet. I ran through a series of possible choices and follow up questions while Shazam idly held the man up.

“Hermes? Can you put my friend down? He and I have some business to finish.” Someone nearby said. I turned to look at the newest visitor to our little interrogation.

“Arnold?” I questioned. We had just parted ways recently and now the traveler and his feathered cap were back. “Why do you need him?”

“This fellow is suspected of trading in-game goods for real money. It’s part of my job to find these people.” Arnold shrugged and signed towards Shazam. She gave a much slower response since one of her arms was being used to hold up the little man.

“Wait you’re, you can have a job in game?” I was completely thrown off now.

“I get a substantial reward for handling these sorts of situations.” Arnold had two rather beefy looking nonplayer characters on either side. They seemed to be cut from the same mold. Both were huge walls of muscle that probably had extremely low [Intelligence] scores.

He stepped in closer and the two giant goons sidestepped in with him. Our little alcove had very little room to move. Shazam set her expressionless glare on the two goons and they took a step back in unison. It made Arnold chuckle.

“I’m not even supposta be in dis town! My scroll haywired all over and the game dropped me here.” The man in Shazam’s grip was still giving out a whole series of excuses. I filed the latest one away with a sigh.

It was too coincidental that someone selling drops from Requiem Mass’ plundering would happen to show up in the same town as I. There was clearly a lot of meddling from above in today’s events.

“I’m done with him.” I waved a hand dismissively.

“Shazam, my dear? Do you mind if I take care of our diminutive friend?” Arnold asked while stepping in closer. She shrugged and dropped the man.

Arnold and his goons swept in and took over. I exited our corner of the auction house and leaned against a wall. This was too many things to take in at once. Which one had been the biggest shock?

Xin’s letter was intense. The gold from my Casino payouts was neat. A stat bonus from catching falling cards barely ranked. Topping the list was Requiem somehow coordinating with other players to sell Continue Online goods for real money.

My mind went through the math again. Even if digital goods were far cheaper than real world equivalent this was still a lot of money. That one weapon from The Biggest Butthole had a bid of four hundred gold. Requiem was being far too clever, and somehow the Voices expected me to bring him down.

Warmth radiated out from inside my tunic. There was a message coming in from the Voices. I undid the cap and slid out the small parchment. The note was simple and frightening.

Hermes,

When you’re ready. You need only remember my question and give me an answer. Would you kill a man? Not only in here, but out there?

-

What? Why was a letter signed with a smiley face? That wasn’t even a name! I tried to think about all the Voices that I had run into during my time playing this game. There were a lot, but only one fit the bill.

I swallowed again and felt a clammy chill crawl over my skin. Today had been very busy.