I spent my entire life in the game. When I first woke up I was given a task, and I set out to complete that task without questioning it. This went on for two years.

Then, one day, everyone I knew vanished.

Young, old, short, tall, strong, or weak—none of it mattered. One moment they were here, and the next they were gone. Erased forever.

It wasn’t just them, either. All progress we’d made over the years was gone too. The bosses, the loot, even the quests were reset.

I wondered if there was some divine being playing a trick on me. I didn’t know it at the time, but this was the work of the developers. All powerful beings that controlled every aspect of our lives up to that point. Their involvement in the world was all-encompassing.

The world stayed empty for one week. Demoralized, I opted to stay far away from all danger for a time. Leaving a town or hub would be suicide with all my progress reset, so I figured it was for the best.

Then, exactly one week after the erasure, the players started to appear.

It wasn’t gradual, either. All at once, a massive wave of people flooded the lands that my friends and I once occupied.

Inspecting them showed that they were of the class “Player”, so they were inherently different from myself and the original testers. They were real. They existed in this world to play through it, like some kind of game.

I resented them. How could they treat my world as if it was some playground? Months went by, and that resentment didn’t diminish.

I played dumb whenever players asked about my “NPC” status. It wasn’t clear if they could see my class type, “Tester”, but they definitely knew something was wrong. They thought it was some kind of bug.

“Why are you labeled as an NPC?”

“Can you talk?”

“Are you a player? Can you help me?”

I don’t know.

Yes, but I don’t want to talk to you.

No, and no.

Of course, all of these responses were in my head. My mouth could move but it made no noise. I spoke to all my old companions through the text system, which didn’t exist outside of guilds and parties.

Most of my encounters with players were easy enough to deflect. They typically came in groups and shot questions at me in rapid succession. Apparently, finding me out in the wild was quite the rare experience for them, and word spread quickly about the bugged “NPC” girl that was wandering around in the game world. They even sought me out at one point and getting a screenshot with me to share with their friends was a very special thing. I didn’t get it, what made me so different from them? We looked the same, acted the same, and the only difference was that I was tagged as an “NPC”.

It drove me insane. It was far too much for me to handle on my own. So, I fled into the unexplored wilds.

It’d been several months since the players appeared at that point, so I had time to regain some of my lost progress. The monsters in the wilderness were not hard for me to kill, and players were far and few in between. For whatever reason, they seldom dared cross the border river separating this zone from theirs, so I was given some much-desired time alone.

It wasn’t time spent idly, either. I continued my leveling. By the time one year had passed, I was stronger than any monster I had encountered, including back in the testing days. I was a tester, so I wasn’t limited in class either. I could be whatever I wanted, access any weapon or skill on demand, and more. It was like I was cheating.

Players crossed my path occasionally, but they ran away at the first sign of movement. They always came alone, too.

One day, however, I encountered two players.

They were fighting one another. It wasn’t uncommon for players to duel, but those had low stakes. Duels took one player to a sliver of their life, and the one left standing would be declared the winner.

On the other hand, if players fought and died in this world outside of a duel, they’d lose all of their items and progress.

One human dressed like a gatherer and clearly a lower level was begging the other to spare him. The lands out here were resource rich, so I didn’t blame him from trying to rummage around so far from home as a gatherer. But gathering out here without the skills to protect yourself was suicidal, no matter what resources there were to collect. It wasn’t worth the risk.

The dominant player was geared to the teeth in full end-game raiding gear. He was not messing around and had the items to back it up.

Each strike from the raider took the gatherer’s HP bar lower and lower.

His screams reminded me of my old teammates. When a tester died, they didn’t get a second chance like the players did. They were gone forever. I longed to see them again, just once. I couldn’t sit by and watch something like that happen again. I had to intervene.

I emerged from my hiding place, drew my bow, and released an arrow into the attacker’s skull. He didn’t have time to look in my direction before his HP bar hit zero. He fell to the ground as a pile of ash. The level difference was so vast between he and I that it wasn’t a fair fight to begin with.

I considered running from the other player, but I stopped for some reason. Perhaps it was the way he reminded me of my old companions. It seemed like he wanted to speak with me, so I humored him. It’d been a while since a human didn’t run away at first sight.

He thanked me and introduced himself as David. I didn’t give him my name, it was irrelevant. It’s not like I could have anyways, unless he joined my party.

“Do you have any food? I’m just about to starve to death,” He said. He sounded embarrassed, almost bashful about something so serious.

It was true, though. I saw his hunger status bar, and it was nearly gone. He wouldn’t have survived the walk back across the border.

Saving his life and then leaving him to die would’ve been a little too cruel for my liking. I helped him to his feet, and motioned for him to follow.

The home I made for myself was simple. All sides were covered in animal pelt that kept the rain out, and there was enough room inside for five people to sit comfortably. Not that I ever had company.

“This is amazing, did you make this yourself?”

I nodded.

He accepted the leftover meat I had stored in my trunk the other day, and he ate it comically fast. His health and hunger bars quickly regenerated.

“You’re really strong—why aren’t you in a guild?”

I felt my eye twitch. He must have detected my annoyance, and he responded in kind.

“Sorry, you probably get tons of guild invite requests a day. We’re running low on members these days, so I just wanted to extend the offer.”

I hardly interacted with humans, let alone received guild invites. The only time I was in a guild was two years prior to that, in the middle of the testing phase. I shrugged.

Shortly after, an indicator appeared in my vision.

YOU’VE RECEIVED ONE GUILD INVITATION. DO YOU WISH TO JOIN THE GUILD: EVERGREEN?

Surprised, I looked up at David again. He smiled back at me.

I weighed my options. If I clicked yes, I’d be obligated to work with them somehow, right? They’d want me for something, surely? What do players even want?

Living in the middle of nowhere had its perks, but I did miss visiting town occasionally. They had good food there, not just cooked rabbit and venison.

Being in a guild also changed player indicators from “Player” to “Guild Player”.

Was this the chance I was looking for? I thought there was a chance it could change my “NPC” status to disguise myself as a player. I decided the benefits outweighed the alternative.

I clicked yes—less out of goodwill and more from a place of curiosity.

WELCOME TO EVERGREEN – FIFTEEN PLAYERS ONLINE

OLIVE JOINS EVERGREEN

David: Hey guys, this is Olive! She just saved me from a ganker.

Rattzar: Welcome Olive!

Substantia: welcome

Dualbladez: welcome you must be pretty geared to kill one of those guys, whats ur level?

I was surprised at the quick responses, but I figured it wouldn’t hurt to respond to their messages.

Olive: Hey, thanks. High enough.

Dualbladez: edgy

“You don’t need to be mean; they’re just trying to be nice!” David said before typing a response.

David: She’s capped, all the way at level 100 already!

Dualbladez: no way, I don’t believe you. Why tf would you join our scrub guild?

Fenrirx: wtf how

The attention nearly made me leave the guild, but David reassured me that they meant well. I decided not to speak in the chat for a while after that.

After a few weeks I made the journey into the town. It had not changed at all in the year I spent in the wild. I was thankful for that. So many pleasant memories came flooding back when I walked through the grand entrance.

I was relieved to know that my NPC status had changed to “Guild Player” upon joining Evergreen as well, so no need to dodge around questions. People left me alone. It was a great feeling.

A guild meeting was called. All thirty active members sat around a large table in a tavern across town, away from all the main player hangout spots.

They said they wanted to start raiding. They had the levels for it, but was it really worth it? What was their goal? Gear? Power? Recognition?

It seemed like the spark for all this was David nearly getting killed in the wilderness, the area where my house is, requiring me to save him. The idea was that if he had gear before the encounter, he could’ve won the fight.

Apparently, my house was in an open PVP zone, one of the only ones in the world. If players entered that zone, they were automatically flagged for player versus player combat, and were shown as hostile to any other player they encountered.

“We have all the resources we need. Potions, food, flasks, you name it. All we need are the people willing to risk it.”

“Dude, if we die in there all of our progress is gone. All the levels, items, everything. Is that something you wanna risk?”

“I’ve died plenty of times man, it’s not as bad as you think. You can grind out those levels in a couple of days.”

“Olive, you’re the strongest one here. Do you think we can raid?”

That question came from David, who looked to me with hopeful eyes. He’d gained some levels since his encounter in the wilderness, and it was clear to me that he was trying his best to gauge my honest opinion.

The entire guild looked in my direction now, waiting for an answer.

Olive: If you have the skills, at your levels, a team of ten should suffice. But you’ll need to be cautious.

They thought it strange that I answered through the chat window, but given my circumstances, talking through voice was not an option.

It was easy to see who agreed with me by watching who among them lit up with smiles.

“It’s settled then. We’ll start with ten-man raids, then move up from there depending on how it goes.”

Two weekly raid nights were established. After the first night went incredibly well, more and more of the guild mates fought for raid spots. When there were enough people online, the raid size shifted up to thirty.

Soon after, we defeated every boss in the raid. Some people left along the way, but most stayed. Evergreen became quite popular in the community, and after one year, the reputation of Evergreen was cemented in the history of the game world forever.

EVERGREEN – 164 PLAYERS ONLINE

All of the main raiders were now level capped. Raid nights that used to take hours of careful planning now seemed more like showing up and slaughtering bosses for fun.

And I was having fun, too. For the first time since the testing phase existence wasn’t painful.

The only thing my guild mates questioned was how I was able to stay online all day and night. I just said I went AFK at night. No one questioned my lack of voice chat, and they seemed content with allowing me to communicate through the chat window. Some offered to send me a microphone, but I ignored them.

A follow up game expansion was released, and our guild was the first in the world to complete all of the content.

Another all-hands meeting was called. Now, all the founding members were called the council.

“Guys, you’ll never believe this. The developers want us to have dinner with them in California! All expenses paid!”

“No way.”

“What?!”

“Yeah! They’re paying for all thirty of us to join them. Fly out on Friday, return Sunday.”

Olive: I don’t like this.

“Don’t be a downer. We’ve earned some recognition, wouldn’t you say?”

Olive: The developers shouldn’t be taken lightly. They hold immense power over this world. If you do go, please proceed with caution.

A few members rolled their eyes.

I couldn’t tell them my secret. All my friends were erased at the hands of the developers. They deleted them all in one swift motion, never to be seen again. They most likely didn’t know I existed. Would I even be allowed to continue existing if I was found out? Would Evergreen get in trouble for having me in their guild?

David placed his hand on my shoulder.

“Don’t worry, Olive. We’ll be fine.”

I’d grown quite fond of David over the past year. His presence always calmed my nerves. It didn’t erase my worry, but it was nice to know he was there to support me still.

Olive: If you must go, then do. Just please heed my warning. The developers will not hesitate to make your lives a living nightmare.

A few sighs came from the group, and they raised their mugs into the air to toast their victory.

The day of the meet up was upon us. Raid for that night was cancelled. I sat alone in town, not sure what to do with my reclaimed time. I didn’t exist outside of the game world, so meeting up with them in person was out of the question.

Out of nowhere, I was plunged into complete darkness. Eternal nothingness. It was terrifying.

My head was cleared of thought. It was as if I was floating through space, with nothing in sight, and no physical form. It almost felt like I would be there forever, and that I was finally found out by the developers. Were they erasing me too?

Then, light overcame me.

“Olive, can you hear us?”

I struggled to find the source of the voice through the blinding spotlights.

My sense of touch returned. I was laying down belly up on a hard metal table.

Before me was an array of seating. An auditorium packed with observers.

“After years of training this AI with human players—you all—we can now say she is the most human AI we’ve trained thus far.” A large man standing beside me bellowed. His voice echoed uncomfortably through the space.

Was he talking about me?

“She was the only tester to have passed our rigorous testing phase, and she joined your guild, Evergreen, of her own volition. Now, she joins you in the real world.”

“Wow!”

“Olive was an AI? I had no idea!”

“Is that really her?”

These were all voices I recognized, but it was too much for me to take in. I began to shake, and the world seemed to swirl away from me, bit by bit.

A hand touched my shoulder.

“How’re you feeling, Olive?”

I didn’t hear this one approach, but I knew who it was without looking. David now stood next to me, having walked on stage after noticing my discomfort.

“David?”

The sound of my own voice surprised me, and it must have surprised David too. His face lit up with a smile that seemed to outshine the spotlights.

“Your voice… it’s beautiful.”

David embraced me. I was filled with warmth, and my breathing stabilized. I was truly at peace, after all the years of torment I’d endured. If only for a moment, I thought that everything would be alright.

“Now that she’s out of the game, she won’t be able to join you in raids anymore, but she’ll be here on site whenever you want to visit.”

I felt David freeze. The audience, my guildmates, went quiet.

“What do you mean?” David said. Confusion and anger dripped from his voice.

“We can’t just give a multi-million-dollar investment to a bunch of kids—I’m sure you understand. This is proprietary technology, the first of many advanced AI companions. Olive is a blueprint for the future of artificial intelligence, a pinnacle of technology that will serve as a key subject of research for generations.”

Of course. There had to be a reason for this kindness from the developers. It was all just a part of some sick experiment. They wanted to make me as real as possible, just to study me.

My guildmates started to yell obscenities at the announcer.

“We were kind enough to invite you all here to meet her. Now, please do calm down.”

“Put her back in the game if you’re just going to experiment on her,” David demanded.

“Olive leaving the game world was a one-way ticket, I’m afraid.”

David left my side, and I felt myself start to shiver again. My vision went white. I heard the announcer hit the floor, limp, over the constant ringing in my ears.

“Can you stand?”

David knelt beside me. I didn’t notice how I fell of the table, but I now lay on my side on the wooden floor of the stage. I grabbed his extended hand, and he pulled me to my feet.

“Let’s get out of here.”

I nod, and we run.

The developers that remained in the building let us pass by. They didn’t have any way to stop us, they were just doing their jobs. I wondered if they’d been watching over us all this time. They might’ve even been cheering us on, perhaps.

We made it. The outdoors. Stars fill the night sky—real stars.

How long would this last? No one knew. I was a machine in this world, so at some point I’d need to be recharged, and we didn’t have the charger. But that didn’t matter to me. All that mattered was I was with my friends, and they’d have my back until my final day.