“Hey guys? Mason? Lumen? Anybody seen Dvorak?”

“The bunny?” Aubrey shook her head. “He didn’t make it.” She motioned with her spear towards a pile of bodies. Kyle ran over and pushed some goblin corpses out of the way. Underneath, Dvorak lay on the stone floor, eyes open and unblinking.

Kyle expected to feel a flash of panic, but no such feeling came. He was concerned for Dvorak and fearful of the pain he must have felt, but he was sad in an analytical way, not a frightened way. It was wrong.

He looked at the other corpses littering the floor. Bodies with pink lines or dots on their chests or faces. A bloodless massacre. It was wrong.

He looked at the surviving players. One spearholder was huddled in the corner, crying. Aubrey had her hand on his shoulder, comforting him. Others were staring into the cavern, spear-hafts on the ground, rubbing their pink-line wounds with haunted expressions. It was wrong.

He heard laughing, and turned to see Mia and Lumen emerging from the darkness, talking excitedly. Mia said something Kyle couldn’t make out, and Lumen guffawed loudly, slapping his knees.

And suddenly, that seemed the most wrong of all.

“Excuse me!?” Kyle said, motioning to the wounded men and women. “Could you be sensitive here? We’ve got people here who were fighting for their lives moments ago, and you’re acting like this is some sort of party!”

Mia stiffened. “You’re falling into that trap too?” she said. “Kyle, this is not life and death! Those people will respawn. There’s nothing wrong with what just happened. Except that these people are newbs that don’t know how to handle themselves!”

Aubrey stood to her full four-and-a-half foot dwarvish height and walked towards Mia. “Maybe it’s worse than life and death. At least in real life, you only have to die once. Here, we can die over and over. Maybe even once a day.”

“Yeah, so? What’s the problem?”

“It hurts!” Aubrey shouted. “We’re suffering the pain of death over and over. We are might not die, but we are getting killed.”

“Pain?” Mia asked. “You’re just complaining about a little pain? Look, pain is your body’s way of saying something’s wrong. In real life, it’s scary and uncomfortable because it could be permanent. Break a leg, and you’re in a cast for months. Chest pains might mean you’ve got a heart attack or whatever. Here? Here, it’s all fake.”

“Doesn’t feel fake,” Mason muttered.

“It is, though,” Lumen said, with an understanding grimace. “Pain’s just another signalling mechanism. Feel a stab from the side, it means there’s an enemy there. Dull ache all over means you’re low on HP. It’s just part of the interface. In the game I play professionally, I don’t even need to look at my HP bar anymore; I just feel how hurt I am. I mean, you don’t complain about it when your screen flashes red, do you? It’s uncomfortable for a while, but you get used to it.”

“You get used to it?” Aubrey said flatly. “To dying?”

“Well yeah, of course,” said Lumen. “Have you ever played a spinejack game?”

Mason shook his head.

Lumen suddenly looked concerned. “Have… have any of you…”

Lumen looked around at the faces of all the players, seeing looks of incredulity, outrage, or pain. He finally made eye contact with Kyle, who shook his head solemnly.

“Wow,” said Lumen, rubbing the back of his neck. “This must be a real shock to you all. I mean, I’m used to it. These days, I sometimes have to remind myself in real life that pain is actually bad. But… wow. For you guys…”

“Bunch of newbs,” Mia said, crossing her arms.

“Spinejack games are only, like, six years old though,” said Mason. “And the jack itself is super expensive. They’ve made, what, a couple hundred thousand total? And it comes with a disclaimer a mile long. I can’t even use one. It’s in my contract with the Rams. They don’t want to risk losing a linebacker to a botched operation. I couldn’t play if I wanted to.”

“But that’s the way E-sports are going,” said Mia. “So you’d think if you joined an E-sports tournament, you’d be ready.” She shook her head. “You’re green. Newbs. Never even died yet. Completely unfit to be here.”

“Then get us out,” said Aubrey, fire in her eyes. “We don’t want to be a part of your world. None of us knew what we were agreeing to. We’re here against our will. Get us out.”

“Yeah, sure,” Mia said dismissively. “As soon as possible. But that involves touching the crystals. So, once the pain dissipates, if we could maybe pull ourselves together and keep going…?” Lumen reached out his hand and touched her arm. Mia pulled away and looked at Lumen, who shook his head.

“Without the spear wall, you guys probably aren’t safe,” Lumen said, turning back to Aubrey. “Just go. Our party can handle this cave. Adrianne is awesome.” He grinned. “She pulled aggro like a champ. Kited like two dozen gobs as I picked them off. If any wised up and came for me, she’d shank them in the back. Just beautiful.”

“You ‘picking them off’ is what got us in this mess in the first place,” Aubrey said bitterly, pulling one wounded but live player to his feet. “I bet these goblins have a two-part AI pattern; stay alive, and deal as much damage as possible. You proved to them that avoiding the spears wouldn’t keep them alive. So once they knew they were going to die, they flipped bits and tried to deal as much damage. If you had left well enough alone…”

“I mean, we won, right?” Lumen asked, then grimaced and looked at the the struggling players getting to their feet. “I mean… I guess…”

Kyle had had enough. “Look,” he began, looking at Dvorak’s body. “It’s pretty clear we’re entirely separate people here. Lumen and Mia are just different from us,” he said bitterly. “They’re going to evaluate risks differently. They’ll expect different things from us. They won’t value life, or pain. In fact, this explains a lot. Mia’s not unfeeling. She’s just… culturally insensitive. And impatient.”

“I guess,” Mia said, thinking. “I mean, come to think of it, if I imagine that you’re an NPC, things make a lot more sense.”

“So you’re coming to terms with your cultural differences by dehumanizing us?” Aubrey said sourly. Mia shrugged.

“I mean, I think that’s going a little far,” Lumen said, glancing back and forth between Aubrey and Mia. “NPCs don’t think or feel. Kyle does. Obviously. They’re… they’re real people that act like NPCs. Sometimes.” He looked towards Kyle, almost apologetically.

“I want to go to that crystal anyway,” Kyle said. “Another level in spellcraft’s going to be useful, both to build the town and to make spells for people like Mia who are on their way to ending this whole thing.”

“That’s going to be hard,” Aubrey said. “There’s still that goblin king up ahead, and we don’t have enough people left to make a spear wall.”

“As if I’d ever do another escort run ever again,” one human spearwielder said bitterly. He threw his spear to the side. It’s clattering echoed down the hall as he walked back up towards the cavern entrance.

“We might not need a wall,” Mason said. “Mia and Lumen can probably take care of things by themselves. I’m competent enough not to get in the way, at least, and Kyle can just throw fire from the back. Aubrey could… actually, Aubrey doesn’t need to touch the crystal, does she?”

“Yeah, we can make it through without her,” Kyle said, nodding. Aubrey didn’t object, her face flint.

“God, I hate escort quests,” Mia said, rolling her eyes.

“Look,” Lumen said, “Could you just maybe stay back here for a bit? Adrianne and I will just handle stuff up there and come back and get you after we clear a path to the crystal.”

Kyle, still bristling at being called an NPC, nearly objected on principle. But Mia and Lumen killed two dozen goblins between the two of them, and Kyle could hardly aim his thrown fire straight. “Fine,” he said.”Thanks for the carry.”

“No prob,” Lumen said grinning. “And thanks for all you do! Like, we’ve got a city now! That’s not… that’s not something I’d have done!”

Lumen’s compliment felt forced and hollow to Kyle. He didn’t respond. Mia left, and Lumen turned to follow, shrugging apologetically.