Dean surveyed the village as he took his morning walk, status screen open. They’d made a lot of progress, more than he thought possible in three days, but nowhere near enough to prepare them for the orc eventual orc invasion.

The houses had been constructed out of spare wood. They were haphazard and looked like they’d collapse if someone breathed too hard. Thankfully, the only wolf in the area was part of another alpha wolf quest to unlock a new forested section of the map for building.

The blacksmith was also up and operational, though it was little more than a stone forge and an anvil laying on a tree stump. The only villager with the blacksmith talent had supplied the anvil and a few bars of iron ore, though Dean still had no idea where the anvil had come from.

He needed to unlock the mine, but it required clearing the top level of monsters. He’d thought about doing it himself, despite the risk, but thought it better to wait until his friends returned from exploring the area. If they didn’t return soon, he’d have to chance it. The village needed the resources and any delay just made it that much harder to prepare for the orcs.

The construction of the sawmill had nearly doubled wood production and created wooden planks that improved the quality of the finished building. While upgrading buildings felt like a waste of resources, at least until the game gave him to do so, it might pay off to improve any buildings that produced raw building materials if it meant speeding up production and improved quality.

Dean wanted to talk to Ryan before doing it, but he was running out of time. He sighed and shook his head. If they weren’t back by tonight, he’d make the decision on his own.

It all came down to time.

He didn’t have enough of it before the orcs would arrive and attack the village. It was still a level one camp, and he wasn’t even a fifth of the way to level two after three days. With five or six weeks before the orcs arrived, the village would only be at level two or three. He hoped the next level unlocked the spawn point and defenses. They were toast otherwise.

On the other hand, he had too much of it when his mind started wandering, usually thinking about the real world. He tried to squash the thoughts the moment they popped into his head, but it was becoming harder with only physical labor to keep him occupied. He missed his friends, talking to them helped more than he’d ever admit.

“Dean,” Cedric called, pulling Dean out of his thoughts. “We’ve got company.”

Dean looked towards the valley entrance and spotted a large group of people heading in their direction. Dean nodded his thanks to Cedric before setting off at a jog towards the group. As he got closer, Dean studied the group. They were players, that much was obvious from their outfits, though most were a mismatch set of armor and weapons. Despite traveling together in a large group, most of the players were separated into smaller groups with several paces between them. Probably individual parties traveling as a large group, Dean thought.

Dean met them halfway to the village. He spoke loudly to ensure everyone could hear him. “Welcome to Manetheren. My name’s Dean and I’ll be your friendly mayor today.”

“Is this a joke?” A tall, lanky player that looked barely eighteen with dirty blonde hair and giant nose demanded. “This is where we’re going to fight the orcs? It doesn’t even have walls. Torial would’ve been a million times better.”

Dean bit his tongue before he called the kid an idiot. Instead, he explained loudly, “Torial is scripted to fall. It’s doomed no matter what. But this place isn’t, and that gives us a shot to win. I’m not saying it’s going to be easy or that we’re ready for them right now. But I’ve got a plan and if you’ll trust me, I think we can pull this off.”

“Why the hell should I trust you?” The kid scoffed.

“Because I’m the man with a plan.” Dean growled, “And if you don’t like it, you’re free to leave and make it on your own.”

A notification popped up. Dean bit back a curse as he read it.

You’ve Unlocked a City Tenet

Tenet: My Word is Law

Your villagers are now afraid that they might be banished from the village if they don’t follow your commands.

Bonuses: -15% Loyalty Generated, +10% Production

He took a deep breath, trying to force himself to calm down before he said something that created a new tenet he’d probably regret down the road. Dean thought through each sentence before speaking, trying to word it in a way that wouldn’t create a negative tenet if something did happen. “Look, we’ve got a chance here, alright? But I need your help if we’re going to succeed.”

“What’s the plan?” A woman asked as she stepped forward. She was pretty, with raven black hair midway down her back and soft, pale skin that seemed to glow in the light.

Dean caught himself before he stared long enough to make the silence uncomfortable. “There’s something called affinities. It’s kinda like a natural talent in something. NPCs are only good one or two things, but I think we’ve got an affinity for everything. It means we can learn how to do anything.”

The woman raised an eyebrow, “You’re talking about building this place up enough to defend it in a month?”

“I am,” Dean acknowledged, “If everyone here agrees to specialize in something, we can build faster than any NPCs in the game. We don’t have a lot of time, but enough to build walls, traps and whatever other defenses we can come up with to stop the orcs.”

“I didn’t log into this game to get a job.” The kid complained, “I joined so I could fight.”

“And you will when the orcs arrive,” Dean glared at him but kept his anger in check. “Plus, the village has a couple of quests that require fighting, like killing a wolf and clearing out the first level of the mine. But that’s just to unlo-“

“That’s more like it.” The kid pushed past Dean, four of his friends in tow. “Better than a boring ass job.”

“Wait, only the first floor!” Dean yelled at the kid’s back. The kid raised a hand over his shoulder, flicking Dean off. Dean growled, “Frakking idiot.”

The woman laughed, “He’s been a pain since we started.” She looked back at the other players, most nodded in agreement. “He spent half the time complaining and the other half trying to acting like he was god’s gift to women. So, you need us to help with resources and building defenses? Anything else?”

“We’ll also practice fighting. It doesn’t level up the skills as fast as a real battle, but it’ll help.” Dean said.

She shrugged, “Sounds like you’ve got this figured out, more or less. Where can I help?”

The others nodded their assent, making Dean sigh in relief. He counted the number of players as he assigned them, forty in all without the idiot and his friends. He sent a dozen to kill the wolf, and split the rest up between the woodsman, stone quarry, mine, and building crews. They didn’t count towards the building assignments, either because they were players or hadn’t sworn loyalty to him, and Dean planned to keep it that way.

Dean received a notification that the first level of the mine was cleared partway through, and another about the second level an hour later. He wasn’t surprised that the idiot hadn’t listened. And Dean couldn’t ignore the cleared mine levels. Deeper levels promised better resources. He made sure to pull up the mine and select command his miners to build a new mine shaft in each level.

Dean tried to work, but now that the first group of players had arrived in the village, more were spotted often enough that he finally had to assign someone else to take over. He probably could’ve continued if each group didn’t require him to explain his plan, convince everyone to help, and deal with anyone that complained.

A commotion near the mines drew his attention. Dean ran over, though he knew what had probably happened. Sure enough, one of the kids had emerged from the mine with his health bar blinking red. He was alone.

The kid sobbed as he explained what happened, “We were clearing out the mine. It was going fine. There were only big ants on the first few levels, really easy to kill. But Clint insisted we keep going deeper.” Dean guessed that Clint was the idiot, but let the kid continue without interrupting. “It wasn’t a big deal until the sixth level. We cleared it out just like before, but there was this big room right before the end that had a bunch of weird sacs in it. Clint said we should collect ‘em because they might be valuable, but they exploded when we touched ‘em. There were hundreds of ‘em in each sac. They killed Clint in seconds. I tried to help, but it was no use. There were too many of ‘em. That’s why I ran.”

“What hatched? Ants?” Dean asked slowly.

The kid shook his head, “I don’t know what they were. I didn’t get a chance to scan any of them. They looked kinda like scorpions though.”

“What’s your name?” Dean asked, trying to sound soothing. Even if this kid had been part of Clint’s group, it was Clint that had been the idiot. Of course, Dean thought, the others had followed his lead so it was partly their fault.

“Daniel.” The kid said. He looked up at Dean pleadingly, “You have to save my friends. Please, you have to help.”

Dean laid a hand on the kid’s shoulder, “Your friends have probably respawned in Torial already. There’s nothing we can do.”

“But that Asian guy said the orcs were going to attack it.”

Probably Shiro, Dean thought. “Yeah, he did. It’s possible the orcs haven’t gotten there yet. If not, then you’re friends can make their way back here.”

“Really?” The kid said hopefully. A thought struck him a second later, “But, what if the orcs have already taken it over?”

“They haven’t.” Dean said. Shiro had said the siege would last a month. “Not yet. But Torial might be surrounded by now, and your friends unable to escape.”

“What do we do? We have to help them.” The kid started crying again. “I only joined because of them, you know? Because they were all excited to play and I didn’t want to be left out. But this is messed up, man. If I knew I’d feel pain in here, I wouldn’t have joined. I just want to go home.”

The last of Dean’s anger crumbled as the kid started sobbing louder. Dean knelt beside Daniel, and said as soothingly as possible, “Daniel, right? You go by Danny?” The kid nodded. “How old are, Danny?”

The kid answered, causing Dean to sit down hard. He’d just assumed all kids had been logged off when the game was hacked. But Danny was in middle school, maybe a freshman in high school. Dean couldn’t remember how old each grade level was, but realized it didn’t really matter at this point. The kid, an actual kid, was stuck in the game way over his head. Dean lied to the kid, making a promise he knew he might not be able to keep. “Hey, Danny. It’s going to be alright. I promise.”

“Really?” The kid gasped between sobs.

“Yeah,” Dean said, “Tell you what, what’s your favorite subject in school?”

“Science.” Danny said, his sobbing subsiding.

“Alright, then I need you to do me a favor. I need you to learn everything you can about alchemy and start making as many potions as you can. We’re going to need them once the fighting starts. Sound good?”

“Yeah,” The kid wiped his nose and grinned, “I can do that.”

Once Danny stopped crying, he headed down to the river to wash his face and start picking herbs. Dean sat there long after the kid had left, running a hand through his hair as he wrapped his head around the reality of the situation. For the first time since the hack had happened, he thought about the real world and what it must be like for everyone out there. That kid’s parents were probably worried sick about him. Every player in the game was probably in a hospital bed somewhere, hooked up to machines and being tube fed nutrients with family members sitting around the room.

Dean had been concentrating so hard on the immediate danger, the orc invasion, that he’d almost forgotten about the bigger picture. Were there more kids in the village putting on a brave face because they thought they had to? What about the adults? The only reason he wasn’t having a mental breakdown was that he kept pushing the fear aside, had concentrated on the work he needed to do. Hadn’t Ryan met up with a couple religious leaders and counselors about this issue? He’d have to talk to Ryan the moment he got back from exploring to set up some kind of counselor’s group.

The sun was hanging on the horizon when Dean was finally torn from his thoughts by shouting. He glanced up at the edge of the forest, spotting Ryan running across the open field with the others following. Dean got up and started walking that way, planning to talk to Ryan, but all thoughts of the real world fled his mind when a dozen grayish-green creatures charged into the clearing after his friends.