The quest board was divided into two sections; the first was official guild quests which were written on small index-card sized sheets of vellum, written in impeccably elegant handwriting, while the second was quests that were put up by individuals, which were generally on cheap paper, and oftentimes hard to read as the questgiver might well be semi-literate at best. The players who were milling about seemed for the most part, to ignore the unofficial quests.

“Aw, geeze,” Laurel said, turning her head.

Curious, I had a look, and saw a trio of men who had just entered the guild and were headed to take a spot in the queue to see a guild attendant. That in itself was not interesting, What was unusual was that save for their helmets, they were completely nude!

Your perception skill has raised by 1! (003/500)

Man! I don’t want to skill up from seeing that!

But as if drawn to him, my eyes moved to another man who didn’t seem the slightest bit surprised that was holding what appeared to be an eyeball made of energy that was aimed at the trio.

A moment later, four guards stormed in, weapons drawn. The leader of them scowled and shouted, “You are disturbing the peace. Submit or face the consequences!”

The three men grinned at each other and turned to the guards, taking quasi-martial poses. “Nude force Alpha will never surrender!”

The guards nodded and within a few seconds had struck them down.

“Damn,” I shook my head in amazement. There are always idiots in online games.

That fourth person who had been spectating deactivated whatever it was he was doing, and wandered outside, apparently happy with the outcome.

“Damned ViewTubers.” Nathan said as he approached the board.

“Yeah, anything to make a buck I suppose,”

I noticed Laurel becoming super still, which I recognized as the start of a seizure. I pulled her to me and held her tightly. A few moments later, she relaxed somewhat and kissed me on the neck as she whispered, “thank you.”

“Well guys,” I Began, “Did your guild rep offer any interesting info?”

Nathan shook his head, “Not me, but I am honestly surprised at the AI this game has, she was really sharp.”

“Ah, no. I think she wasn’t an NPC,” Laurel noted.

My eyebrows rose, “No?”

She shook her head emphatically, “Pretty sure she is an employee of the game.”

“How did you come to that conclusion?” Nathan said, crossing his arms.

“Ah, ok. Remember when we asked the guard about a coffeehouse? He got real still when we asked him something unexpected, right?”

I nodded, she was right!

“And when I was in my interview, my attendant was very professional and intelligent, but I noticed her eyes dilated in reaction to me, as well as a few other tells,” Laurel grinned, “She was attracted to me! Clearly she was trying to hide it, but I could tell.”

“You go, Ladykiller,” Nathan socked her on the shoulder gently.

Laurel grinned, “Who da best?”

Nate and I replied, “You da best!”

“Ah!” I plucked a quest from the board which read ‘Goblin subjugation’. “I found our first quest!”

Laurel and Nathan both got a pop-up when I took the quest, which shared it with them.

Goblin Subjugation

Rank F

The goblins have been raiding local farms and small villages, they must be stopped

Rewards for this quest are dependent on the number of goblins subjugated.

(waypoint added to map)

“Cool,” Nathan nodded.

“Yeah, but let’s sell off and regear.” Laurel said, reaching down and feeling her belt pouch’s fullness.

“The end of market street right?” I asked.

“Yeah, let’s go.” Nathan said, striding to the swinging doors that led out to the bright morning traffic and exiting.

***

The merchant, Henning was nearly in tears as Nate relayed a historic tale of sacrifice and heroism that revolved around the bear pelts he had produced from his inventory. It was indeed a privilege to see a master huckster ply his art. Even I got a little misty eyed when he solemnly explained how his father finally,after years of planning,got his revenge on these bears for killing his mother, but tragically died in the process, necessitating the sale of the pelts to cover the funeral expenses. It was unbearably emotional. It was also 100% bullshit, very moving bullshit, but bullshit nevertheless.

At this point, the merchant wanted to adopt Nathan as his own son, but Nathan sadly had to reject his offer, but not before accepting more than triple the original offer for the pelts.

With sad goodbyes, and promises to return, Nathan led us back to the plaza, with us fully equipped and a jingle in our pockets.

Nathan grinned, “Like I said, I know my way around a word.”

At that, we all started laughing.

***

I had been chatting with Laurel about the adventurer’s guild when it dawned on me, I had no idea what the name of the town was! I didn’t expect a sign that read ‘Welcome to _______’ or anything, but you know, the NPC’s could have at least mentioned it, right?

Argh. OK. Anyway. We had been traveling for about a day and a half and had set up camp as nightfall was creeping up on us.

(Guys.)

Laurel brightened, “Chen! What’s the word?”

(I have …news)

“That almost sounds like you omitted the word ‘bad’, Chen,” Nathan said as he dug into a piece of mutton.

(That’s because I did.)

“Oh shit. What’s up?” My attention now fully on him, my hands stilled, the piece of wood I had been whittling now forgotten.

(There has been some …accidents. Some players have died. It’s being covered up, but it’s my job to know things.)

“Well, do you know what happened?” I asked.

(As far as I can tell, when people die, they’re forced logged out, but since the log out function has been disabled, the players in the pods have gone brain-dead. They’re completely blank. If it weren’t for the pods themselves, they’d just have …stopped.)

“If we die in game, we’re going to really die?” Laurel plopped down onto the grass.

Shit. Those three idiots who were running around naked really died for a video stunt.

“We need to tell people!” Laurel jumped to her feet, looking frantic.

(NO. You don’t. How are you going to explain how you know this information? If you bring any part of what we’re doing into public knowledge, the company will pull your plug for secrecy.)

“Holy shit, did you just threaten our lives, Chen?” I asked, shocked.

(It wouldn’t be me, Jose. I have people above me too, you know. And if they think the situation has gone sideways, they might send someone for me as well.)

I sat, unable to comprehend the gravity of our situation. We were, for all intents and purposes, really in a foreign world that is full of monsters that want to kill us, with the bonus of potentially being the targets of other players who want an easy kill. And that was not good news.

Our campsite had gone completely quiet, save for the sound of the crackling fire. I sat there, staring at the fire long after it had died into the wee hours of the morning. Suddenly my body refused to move, in fact, it was almost as if time had stopped. I couldn’t even move my eyes, yet I remained conscious through some indeterminate amount of time. Then a pop-up window appeared in front of my eyes.

System update in progress.

Please be patient while the update loads…