"♕: Oh! Just got a new job request!"

Crown announced standing on the now flattened hill which was marked with chalk to show the placement of the walls and towers, as well as the buildings, one was the main base, a fort with several rooms, a kitchen, a basement designed to work as both a prison and a crafting area. Several roleplaying rooms were added, such as bathrooms and a living room.

Another building served as a storage area, it was meant to hold an unbelievable amount of items, more than a player would ever have.

A plan was made for an underground mine which would serve as Bromy’s lab since everyone agreed it’s best his creations stay as far away from them as possible.

A hole was dug for a shallow pond over which stood a stone bridge.

"JohnWillStab: A job?" John was carrying bits of wood and building supplied with his teeth since his arms were kept hostage by Bournell.

"♕: The business card, someone used one."

"Bonifacius: You should go ahead! We shall finish up without thee!"

"Bournell: Now that through some f#*king miracle we got the planning out of the way, you can all go f*#k around, you’ll just get in the way!"

"Bonifacius: Still, I shall remain to help carry the materials."

"Bromy: Yeah, I have to move my samples in ASAP."

"♕: Right, John, give me a hand, this sounds like a difficult job."

"JohnWillStab: REAL F#*KING FUNNY!"

"Bournell: You got a fu#*ing problem, Casper the re#*rded corpse? ♕ was struggling not to laugh at the nickname he gave John."

"JohnWillStab: NO, SIR!"

"Bournell: Good, you get one arm back. without turning to face him he tossed the arm towards JohnWillStab, it landed perfectly magically re-attacking to his arm."

"JohnWillStab: Woah!"

"Bournell: I have really high dexterity, what else did you expect of a master craftsman?"

"♕: You too, Foxly."

"XxFoxlyxX: Oh cool, I get to be in a chapter for once."

"JohnWillStab: So, what’s the job?"

"♕: I dunno, we have to teleport there first :/" And with that, the three moved to a small village located in the north-east portion of the rolling plains.

John looked around seeing the various hippo monsters from before, the ones with six legs and moss on their back, they wouldn’t be a challenge for him now, he took this moment to look back and see how far he got in such a short time.

"Avocadont: Yo!"

Before the party stood a human rogue, she was wearing a black cloak over a cloth tunic which she wore over black trousers, patches of armour covered her body. Her hair was a light green colour.

"♕: Hey, are you the one who called?"

"Avocadont: Yeah, though I didn’t expect you to teleport…"

"♕: Yeah, since the JGuardians are not a thing anymore I’m able to teleport around this region, though I haven’t changed the message on the cards yet."

"Avocadont: I getcha, and the other two?"

"JohnWillStab: Hi, I’d wave but the wave animation uses your right hand… so, y’know."

"XxFoxlyxX: Sup?"

"Avocadont: I see you got some assistants since last time!"

"♕: What can I say, it’s my overflowing charisma."

"JohnWillStab: She tried to enslave me and my friends!"

"Avocadont: Right, I am not touching that can of worms!"

"♕: So, what’s the job?"

"Avocadont: Yeah, I’m not sure what’s causing it but the NPCs in the town are… acting weird…"

"♕: Did someone make them say… questionable... things again?"

"Avocadont: No, no, it’s not that, though the guy who made the NPCs speak like Nazis was weird too…"

"♕: I’m a little disappointed, y’know?"

"♕: You can’t keep re-using the same shock humour forever, it’s just lazy…"

"Avocadont: That may have something to do with the lack of dictators in the recent days…"

"♕: What about Winnie the pooh?"

"Avocadont: That bear?"

"♕: The president of China."

"Avocadont: Ooooo"

"♕: Thank you, thank you."

"JohnWillStab: SHH! TE###NT WILL HEAR YOU!"

"XxFoxlyxX: Is this why we stopped being published on Webnovel?"

"♕: Anyway, I’ll go see what’s up."

"Avocadont: Yeah, good luck…"

The party headed into the town which was completely devoid of players, ♕ even used her cheating program which allowed her to see any players nearby, even if they’re invisible.

"♕: No players in the area… aside from us, I guess."

"JohnWillStab: Let’s check the inn."

"XxFoxlyxX: Good idea."

When the party entered the two-story building with the inn sign above its door they were shocked to see a collection of NPCs on the ground, they were all screaming, not in chat but rather using the /scream emote.

"JohnWillStab: What the hell’s going on here?!"

As soon as he said that a few of the NPCs turned towards him.

"Town Guard: Y-you’re a player, right?!"

A private message came from ♕ to both John and Foxly.

"♕: Somebody’s controlling the NPCs, keep them occupied until I track them down."

"JohnWillStab: Yep, I sure am."

"Town Guard: That’s great! Please! Do something for me!"

"JohnWillStab: Anything!"

"Town Guard: Bring me fifty boar asses!“

"JohnWillStab: …I retract my previous statement…"

"Town Guard: Come on, man, you want XP, right? I can give you some XP!“

JohnWillStab backed away from the strange NPC.

From behind JohnWillStab walked in a cloaked figure, every part of their body was covered up, they pushed their way past John and the rest of the party before drawing a blade from under the cloak and with one swift motion slicing the man’s head off.

"JohnWillStab: Hey!"

"???: This matter does not concern you, they’ll be back to normal soon."

They continued walking towards the rest of the NPCs.

"JohnWillStab: Stop! We’re trying to find whoever is screwing with the NPCs!"

The figure turned around kicking John down to the ground and making him land against a wall,

"???: You won’t find anything."

"♕: Who are you?"

Without replying the cloaked figure continued its way to the rest of the, now panicking, NPCs. Men, women and children were trying to make their escape.

"???: These aren’t the normal NPCs you people know."

"???: A virus is spreading through the AI web."

"♕: What virus?"

"???: Sentience, at least I think its a virus..."

"JohnWillStab: You’re not actually telling me the NPCs are sentient, are you?!"

"???: Sentient? Is sentience required to feel pain? To suffer trauma from the past?”

The figure picked up one of the NPC’s by its hair, that movement specifically stood out to the party because it wasn’t an animation any of them knew.

"Barkeep’s daughter: NO! LET ME GO!" the NPC kept spamming the struggle emote.

"JohnWillStab: Just leave the NPCs alone, we’ll fix it!"

"???: Will you now? And how do you plan to do that?"

"JohnWillStab: We’ll figure something out!"

"???: But why?"

"JohnWillStab: Look! We can’t just take your word and accept they’re sentient, but if no other explanation matches we’ll consider it!"

??? smiled

"???: This specific NPC was here for 5840 days, that’s 16 years of pure insanity, standing in the exact same spot, death after death after death, the memories of the pain-simulations plague their minds! But death is able to remove the virus because their code resets. I’ll eliminate the virus!"

"???: Perhaps virus is the wrong word…“

"???: Recent events have forced the developers to use publish a less stable version of the game…”

"???: An ‘efficiency test’ if you will… not that I expect you to understand the greater plan…”

"???: Alexander was the username of the user that erased the previous game…”

"???: Thanks to him this… emergency release was published… and with it I”

With that statement, the figure sliced the NPC’s head off once again, cleanly, such that the expression didn’t even have a chance to display pain.

"???: I am the failsafe, the kill-switch, “

"XxFoxlyxX: You realise… that if what you said is true, you just murdered a real person?"

"???: Don’t worry, I am no exception to this rule."

With that, ??? draw their blade and brought it down on the NPC, before it could make contact, however, John sprinted in front of the blade having a massive cut across his body and allowing the NPC to make a run for the door.

"???: I hope you don’t think I’ll be moved by your “heroic” actions from your comfy computer seat…"

Again the figure made a slashing motion for another NPC, this time their attack was stopped by neon-green vines which grabbed onto the figure and dragged it back towards ♕.

"♕: DEAL WITH THE NPCS, I’M TELEPORTING IT TO THE BASE WITH US!"

Before he could complain or ask what exactly ♕ meant by “Deal with” he was already alone at the inn, unless you count the NPCs, that is.