The first glimpse she caught of the place was that of the mud coming at her at full speed as she met the road face first after what felt like an hour of spinning in chaos. There was a thump, then a few seconds of nothing, then her senses coming back one by one as she slowly realized where she was.

She propped herself up, muddy water dripping from her chin, her oversized breasts cold and messy from being immersed in the puddle. She checked herself and verified that her equipment hadn’t changed a lot. She was still wearing the least feasible amount of clothing, as it fit the character she was playing, but now the top and loincloth were made of some thick, dark grey cloth instead of the immaculate white they had been in the Enchanted Forest. Her sword was still small and cheap-looking but now it was dented and stained from apparent use — the stains surely were from the blood of enemies or bandits killed long ago. In an afterthought, she also checked her hand: luckily, the Worldjumper was still there, wrapped around her finger like a modest lover.

She stood up just in time to avoid being run over by a man who hurried forward in his cart. She jumped aside, cursing. The man glared at her briefly. A glint of lust crossed his eyes in the first instant; immediately after that, he saw the sword, changed his expression, and looked away. The horse kept trotting at a good pace until the cart drove around a bend in the bumpy road and was lost from sight.

Sarah looked around.

She knew the place, because she had tested the scenario quite a few times.

It was the medieval village.

It looked a bit different from what she remembered, though — maybe the developers had been hard at work on it while she was testing other scenarios, or maybe the wave had “upgraded” the village, whatever that meant.

She had just formed a hypothesis about what was happening.

“The Game Master is changing everything all the time,” the faun had told her before hurrying away, frightened at his own words. The Sorceress had told her that nobody knew the nature of the Game Master. But she thought she had a good idea of what he was.

An AI, Sarah thought as she cleaned herself up as best she could and headed over to an inn she knew was nearby. The sky was covered with clouds; judging from the gloomy grey light that bathed the landscape, it was about midday. The Game Master is an artificial intelligence. The devs launched a beta version of the game and let the AI loose to change and upgrade the different scenarios according to its own judgment. That’s why I’m stuck inside a game that is visibly unfinished and I’m being pushed around between worlds like a ping pong ball.

If that was so, then the faun and the Sorceress were wrong: the Game Master had no evil intentions, he (or more properly, “it”) was only following a script that sometimes changed their world radically, like deleting a whole race or class of NPCs, moving landscapes around, and so on. It was just the product of an impersonal mind making modifications to the gameworld, not of an evil or mischievous being having fun or acting out of revenge.

The thought was discouraging, because it meant that there was no purpose at all in the Game Master so she couldn’t find him, punch him in whatever he had for face and force him to reveal where Mike was. She was at the mercy of the algorithm.

Oh well. I’m playing already so the only thing I can do is try to level up and see this through the end, she told herself as she eyed the inn in the distance. But right now, I need two things. And the first one is a beer.

There were people inside, some of them having a meager lunch, some others already drinking despite the early hour. She invoked Scrutinize and realized they were all NPCs. Some of them had names, but most were simply “Villager”.

“Welcome,” the innkeeper said, giving her an appreciative look. “Can I help you?”

“I would like a beer,” Sarah replied.

“That can be arranged,” the inkeeper said cheerfully, “as long as you have coin.”

Do I have coin? Let’s see.

She invoked the Inventory command. There were only two elements at the moment, both of them marked as active: the small sword and the Ring of Realms. There were also several counters:

$ 0000

Mana 0060 ($30/x)

XP 0210 ($10/x)

If she remembered correctly from her testing, she could refill her purse with money by just mentally performing the conversion from mana or experience points to currency, but the operation was not reversible, so she couldn’t turn coins into mana or XP if she made a mistake.

“I do have coin,” Sarah told the innkeeper, “only if you have good beer.”

The guy chuckled.

“The beer is good enough if your coin is good enough,” he retorted.

“How much?”

“Ten piece.”

Fuck. This exchange rate is gonna kill me, Sarah thought. I killed a fucking giant and I’m poor. What will I have to do to pay for housing or a vehicle? And she needed a vehicle. That was the second thing she needed after the beer. A horse. She shuddered at considering how much it would cost her.

She bought some coin with experience points. She had decided not to use any mana for now, since she figured out that being a non-magic class, she would not find it easy to acquire more. She could refill XP faster by punching and throwing stuff, she figured.

The relevant part of her Inventory changed instantly.

$ 0500

Mana 0060 ($30/x)

XP 0160 ($10/x)

Also, a brown, ragged purse appeared, wrapped around her waist through a leather belt. She felt the weight of the coins inside. Leaving aside the fact of their magical appearance, they felt exactly like a real purse and real, physical coins. Even after all this time, Sarah couldn’t help but being awestruck at how realistic the game was. Out there, lying in a puddle in the middle of the road, she had felt wet and cold, and she had even felt all the odors one could expect from a place like that. Now she hoped the beer tasted as good as a real beer. She really needed that.

“Bring it,” she said, throwing ten piece at the innkeeper, who picked them up with expert reflexes. A prompt appeared briefly in her field of vision, notifying her of her spending.

-$ 10

So now she was at 490. She hoped a horse wouldn’t be too expensive.

“I guess you’re going to the Castle,” the innkeeper said as he put the beer in front of her. It looked good, the foam overflowing the jug and running down the side.

“I guess,” Sarah replied, gunning down the beer. The man was right: the Castle was the place where she would have the most chances to improve her skills and level up. On the road, in the inn, or even in the village itself she could face some bandits and maybe get some physical skills by chopping wood, transporting cattle, or building a house, but the Castle was definitely the place to be if she wanted to progress faster. And she couldn’t wait to find Mike, so she needed to progress as fast as possible.

Oh my god, this is the best beer I’ve had.

“You know what? The next one is on the house,” the innkeeper said. Sarah wondered whether he was impressed at the speed with which she had gulped down the whole jug or at the... big jugs her character featured. She accepted the offer anyway, and in no time her provision had been replenished.

Right when she was helping the liquid find a new home inside her, a new prompt filled her field of vision.

TASK: Meet the Golden Knight at the Castle

The medieval village is just a small part of this realm. Common people are always coming and going, doing business and trying to get by. But the real action is elsewhere. The Castle is where the power resides and also where all kinds of threats an intrigues can be found. Go there, find a way in, and talk to the Golden Knight. He is perhaps the single most important person in this realm right now. And he may have an offer for you.

Reward on success:

- a chance to join the Golden Guard

- 100 XP

- increase in Intelligence and Charisma

- potentially: Diplomacy skill

There it was. A concrete reason to go to the Castle.

That bit about the Golden Knight being “the single most important person in this realm right now” intrigued her. Surely there was a king or regent? A queen? Courtiers, barons, royal advisors and other political orchestrators? A high priest? Something weird must have happening for a knight to be more important than all those other people.

“I will need a horse,” Sarah declared after downing the second beer. “Do you know where I can find one?”

“Oh, it will be a pleasure to show you mine,” the innkeeper said. “I have three, and you can rent one for a day or two.”

Sarah’s voice acquired a sharp tint.

“I don’t want to rent a horse. I want to buy a horse.”

“Oh, in that case...” the innkeeper said, leaving the words lingering in the air as he waved at her to follow him to the back. Sarah knew exactly what he meant: in that case, it won’t be cheap.

The horses were at the stable. All three looked acceptable to Sarah, who didn’t know a lot about mounting. She had tried to ride a horse once, when testing the immersion in this scenario, but she had given up after her buttocks met the ground one time too many.

Now, she had no other viable option.

She pretended to examine the horses carefully like an expert, but she thought the innkeeper would surely notice that she had no idea what she was doing. She wanted to keep the appearance of knowledge so he wouldn’t take advantage of her and raise the price.

“How much for this one?” she asked, pointing at the only black horse of the bunch. The other two were brown.

“Ah, Tristan. Good choice,” the innkeeper said in a tone that sounded sincere enough, but who knew. “I will be sad at parting with him. But I like you, so you can have it for only four thousand coin.”

I should have known.

“Four thousand coin is way too much,” Sarah said. The innkeeper eyed her suspiciously.

“Are you planning to stab me with that sword and ride away on one of these?”

“What?”

“Nah, just kidding. It looks like you’ll have to rent a horse, eh? But I’ll tell you why, because I really like you.” Sarah had the impression that the man shot a quick glance to her general chest area when saying that. “You can rent Tristan for only four hundred coin, and take him with you for as long as you like. Once you have defeated the monster or whatever is your mission in the Castle, you’ll have enough coin to pay for it, so you can come back and give me the rest. How about that?”

There’s no doubt that the game is very realistic, Sarah thought scornfully. Boobs have as much power here as they do in real life.

“I’ll take you up on that offer, thanks,” she said, putting four hundred in his open hand. She was actually grateful, even though she wondered if this lecherous innkeeper would try to get some other favour in the future in exchange for his generosity. If so, he was mistaken.

-$ 400

After a few more inconsequential words, Sarah climbed on Tristan and hit the road. The Castle could be seen from where she was, but it was very far away; it would take her the best part of the afternoon to get there. And then she would have to figure out how to get in. At the other side of the magnificent ramparts was the Golden Knight, and with him, the key for her next steps in this world of mud and steel.