“So what are you doing here? No one ever comes down to the sewers in Eirnir,” said Mynise.

“Ah, well, I was curious about that explosion awhile back that destroyed the town and… I was searching!”

Said the Boundaryless. Why anyone would pick a subclass that sounded more like an insult than a profession and a negativer as well was a mystery to me. They have good crowd control, at least.

“Probably just a mad game master. You’re wasting your time.”

“Why are you down here, Demos?”

She used my handle like she knew me. I didn’t mind that, it’s friendly. Maybe I shouldn’t judge her on her subclass choice alone.

“Checking on my work, I wanted to see if anyone scrapped it and stole the materials.”

It was partly a project, partly to keep materials hoarded so someone couldn’t just rip my building apart to build their own. That happens a lot.

“It’s really cool. What is it? Some kind of Rat Kingdom?”

She got it instantly. I think we can be friends.

“Yeah, how’d you know that?”

“There’s lots of rat people and rat monster walking around the lower levels…”

“You went that far? Why would you be searching down here for that long? No way you’re going to find out anything, especially down here.”

This place was huge after all. That I even met her down here was an absolute serendipity.

“I-I know! I was just angry, and lost, mostly lost.”

Seems like the hopeless type. Probably will end up in Wellness Central before too long.

“Actually, I saw your guild on your handle. They say on the boards there’s a troll named Ahgo around your guild hall. The thing is, I saw him in augmented reality too.”

“Ah, that sounds like him. I was wondering about him too, he’s been hanging around lately. He’s a hacker, I think. How else could he be ?? level like a raid boss? It takes a group to summon one of those, and they aren’t supposed to just wander around…”

Even in this griefing friendly game they wouldn’t allow raid bosses in or near towns. They designed them to take a whole lot of positivers and negativers at max level to create and even more classes to take them down. Having one just annihilate a city…

“Hey, that explosion that destroyed Eirnir, do you think it was Ahgo?”

“Oh no way that was definitely Ny-”

She shut her mouth, and looked down, her face sagged with her shoulders.

“Forget I said that or I’ll wreck the Rat Kingdom,” Mynise threatened.

That’s not the mystery I’m after. For some reason, all I could think about since I saw bigfoot the other day was bigfoot. It was exciting.

After spending so much time bored with the game building a massive rat kingdom under Eirnir, having nothing of worth in my life, I felt like I was alive.

I just noticed it. I really wanted to find him.

“I’ll forget it. Tell me everything about Ahgo and I won’t say a word.”

I was at the Havesiosi guild hall soon after that, after leading Mynise out of the Rat Kingdom. She was grateful.

“The thing is, there’s another hacker that just joined the guild too. Neither of them are in the roster, but they always hang around the guild hall for some reason! Both of them just kill me on sight, and I’m the only one they do it to! Everyone else just avoids them and just wants to change the topic, this new girl joined, and she barely comes by, but she knows something! I’m telling you! She’s probably the queen hacker! She controls them all, she’s using Iroas for his money in real life and in the game I bet!”

Boundaryless was a good subclass choice for her. I don’t know though, for some reason I like hanging out with her. Maybe it’s because I don’t talk, or I’m not as concerned about anything like she is, or I just find her entertaining. I’m probably the only one.

“Are you listening?”, she said.

“Yeah, that sounds tough. I want to meet Ahgo as soon as I can though, I’m not usually interested in… anything.”

I blame everyone else for having interests and caring about the things they were doing, meanwhile my Rat Kingdom still stood. Didn’t I care about that? It was something. I think I was just trying to distract myself.

Meeting Mynise and getting the information on Ahgo probably would have been boring to me. If he wasn’t suddenly in my room for no reason and could talk.

Isn’t it a miracle? How dumb. Miracles are dumb. But, this feeling, this is the feeling I was looking for, right?

All this time.

“That story you told me, I didn’t know hackers could do that, that’s insane. Why would he even be at Wellness Central?”, prattled the local fauna Mynise.

“Maybe he was interested in mental health?”

I almost laughed there. I’m in a rare mood today.

We were just wandering the guild randomly together, making small talk. I just naturally assumed he would show up. There were holes in the walls some places, like a fight broke out. Looked like someone stabbed a sword into the wall. I didn’t know guild Havesiosi was so brutal.

“What’s with these holes? Doesn’t the guild master take care of his guild hall?”

“He wants me to pay for them. I’m farming monsters for it. It's from Ahgo trying to kill me or chase me off when I get too close and try to talk to him. The black holes are from Kaub, the other hacker. She’s removing those on her own but it’s taking awhile, Iroas scolded her about that he said.”

“I was wondering what those were… that’s really mean, it’s only you? I mean, you’re talkative but you’re not that annoying, why would they do that?”

She looked happy.

“You’re the nicest person here, even if you said ‘not that annoying’ I’ll take it as a compliment. No, at least Kaub is killing Nyaa-chan too, I dated him in real life for awhile but he dumped me.”

“That’s strange. Why would the guild master let hackers hang around and kill his guild members over and over again, are you sure they joined the guild or is that Iroas guy just letting them run amok?”

“No, Iroas said they are a part of the guild. He won’t tell me anything more though, just redirected the conversation. He’s really good at that.”

There’s something admirable about that to me. Iroas might unexpectedly be someone fun.

We ran across a little girl painting on a canvas near a window. The sunset painted her red.

Kaub, class Magical Girl? Isn’t that a subclass? No subclass on her either. Of course she must be hacking. She was painting in a painters jacket with a palette and brush in hand, making a painting of the sunset. A beret would suit her nicely.

I stopped and whispered to Mynise.

“I’ll try to talk to her, she can’t kill me because of my class, I hope. Wait here, you don’t want to anger her for no reason.”

I left Mynise who was looking lonely. I’m sorry, it’s just the truth.

“Hello Kaub. I was wondering if you saw Ahgo anywhere, I’m looking for him.”

She didn’t even move as I approached, just gave me a furtive glance. She kept painting.

“I’ve never seen you around. What’s your name? And why did you come with Mynise?”

“Demos, can’t you see my handle? I just happened to meet her at my Rat Kingdom.”

“I had that handle part explained to me but I still don’t see it. What Rat Kingdom?”

“It’s this place I built. It’s gigantic, spans most of the sewers under Eirnir, filled with a rat king and his army of rat people.”

She smiled while still painting.

“Sounds cool. I’d like to go sometime. Where’s Eirnir?”

“Aren’t you a hacker? Anyone playing this game should know how to get to the Peacer starter town.”

“Well, I’m living here. I’m not playing a game. It’s kind of hard to explain but, just imagine I’m like a monster.”

She grinned while focusing on her painting. Why do I get the feeling that there’s more to this? There’s definitely more!

“Are you roleplaying? I’m not going to tell anyone you’re hacking, I just saw Ahgo running around in augmented mode, I didn’t know hackers could do that, or play as monsters.”

“No, we’re just monsters. I don’t know what a hacker is. This girl summoned us, so now we’re just living here. It’s not hard to understand at all. Isn’t it a normal thing in your world to live in another world, in your minds?”

‘Your’ world?

“So, are you saying that you can move about the real world like we move about in this game world?”

“Not me, Ahgo figured out how to do it though. I’m too scared.”

She was still painting. I’ll change the subject.

“I see. That sunset’s really nice. It looks like you used a single brush stroke layered on one another to get the full picture looking like that. You could probably sell this for a lot of money.”

“Thanks, I’m really proud of this one. However, Iroas and Nyaa-chan are rich, that’s good enough right?”

I feel bad for them.

“Mynise was saying that you were killing her and Nyaa-chan, I can understand Mynise, but why Nyaa-chan?”

“So you understand about Mynise too, huh. About Nyaa-chan, I’d like to know too. I have a good idea already, but it’s easier to just kill him on sight. He’ll be fine anyways, that’s what’s important.”

“You were worried about killing him? Like hurting him as if he were a real person?”

“I didn’t know about the nature of this strange world when I was summoned. It makes me a little sick thinking about it, that’s why I try to paint as much as I can.”

She looked a bit sad. Why go this far with the act? If she was really trying to fool me, couldn’t she have stopped a long time ago? Maybe this isn’t roleplay. Too many factors, too many strange parts. I’m no smartie, but my instinct is telling me something ridiculous is going on. I’m excited.

“Kaub, who are you talking to?”

I turned around and got my vision entirely dwarfed in green fur. Bigfoot! I looked up. It’s Ahgo.

“Hey there Ahgo! Actually, I met you earlier today, in the real world, you were on my bed?”

“He came here with Mynise. I think he’s not a bad person, don’t kill him, yet,” said Kaub.

What, are you planning to shut me up? Even if you kill me I won’t die you know that!

“Mynise ran when she saw me. I’m starting to feel bad about the murdering. Kaub, how about we leave her alone for a bit? It’s no good to bully someone just because they’re annoying us. Using crowd control should be enough, taking our frustration out on her will make us weaker,” said Ahgo.

“Sure, I’m still going after Nyaa-chan though. I’ll clean up properly this time,” said Kaub.

Ahgo moved me aside carefully, I think it was carefully.

“This one’s much better. I would have made you court painter for this in my kingdom,” Ahgo complemented her.

“Um…”, I said. They seemed rather close. I felt like I was intruding.

“Don’t ignore him, Ahgo. I think he really wants to see you. He said something about a Rat Kingdom he made himself,” said Kaub.

“A kingdom? Of Rats? That he built himself?”, Ahgo said looking at me with his three eyes, his voice rising in astonishment three times.

“I, uh, I’m curious about, bigfoot,” I said gesturing towards Ahgo, “and, uh, you guys really aren’t hackers?”

Ahgo was laughing uproariously while Kaub kept painting dutifully, she was grinning a little.

“I’m bigfoot? I saw that! I saw that on the board! It was hilarious! People searching far and wide for a creature that looks just like me, but brown? How strange can the real world be! Earthlings are so strange!”, laughed Ahgo.

“Where’d you see that Earthling term used?”, I asked. It was probably some old movie.

“Ah, the program name you mean? I was merely fooling around with the device I was given, there were so many options I was just absorbed with seeing how many there were. Earthling felt like the perfect term to call you people of the real world, I felt akin to that creature that was visiting in his ship from space. You have a kingdom?”

I was so blindsided by his response I answered automatically.

“Y-yeah it’s in the sewers of Eirnir and I have a rat king and army and it’s really huge.”

“So you are not a king then?”, Ahgo asked stunned.

“I just, built it.”

“How interesting. Alone?”

“Yeah, alone.”

“Is this common in this world?”

“Pretty common, yeah.”

“Huh. How will I ever get used to this ridiculous world?”, Ahgo looked to Kaub.

“So, I get the part where you’re intelligent monsters, who summoned you and how did you get into the real world?”

“That, I see. Do you promise, on your kingdom’s name, to not tell anyone? I’m afraid it’s already a little late, but it is very dangerous for us already. I’ve made a mess of it already, and it seems to only be getting worse,” groaned Ahgo.

“Dangerous? Sure, I uh, swear on the Rat Kingdom’s name. I was just curious after all.”

Ahgo told me the truth that I sought as Kaub painted.

My first real adventure in Mental World Online was finished.

It was exciting. Thanks, Ahgo.