“James?” The teacher called out to him.

  James woke up with a start. “Um, 33?”

  She sighed. “James, I wasn’t asking you a question. Just wanted to make sure you were awake.”

  “O-Of course I am.”

  “Sure,” She turned back to her electronic whiteboard and continued teaching. A few people around him snickered, but James didn’t really care for them. He had other things on his mind. He looked back out of the window, a few drops of rain bouncing off the glass, before leaning over to Grey and whispering to them.

  “I’m sorry about what I said yesterday. I was…way too harsh.”

  “I’m not the one you need to apologise to,” they replied, not even their eyes moving to look back at him.

  “Settle down, James,” the teacher barked. “Do you want a decent job or not? Anyway…”

  James sighed, leaned back, and kept watching the rain, trying his best to listen to the teacher’s hypnotically boring voice.

  >>>

  The rain had picked up by the time lunch had come around and James had made his way to the cafeteria. He spooned out his food (he couldn’t tell what the food was, he just assumed it was edible thanks to last year’s lawsuit) from a metal tray and took his seat at the same table they always sat at. The rain pattered down on the window behind him, as the few brave students who had chosen to eat outside darted under the metal roof that covered the outside tables.

  James sighed watching it all. Very soon he’d be leaving this all behind. He knew what he wanted to do with his life, but no idea how to get there. His life was careening into the unknown, both in the physical and digital worlds. Frankly, he was glad. School hadn’t been a particularly happy place for him or his friends. James probably could have joined the popular cliques if he wanted to, being quite attractive and effortlessly athletic even when he spent all his time playing video games, but he has chosen to hang with the weirdos instead. He’d never really known why he was so firmly stuck on just being with those three people, but he’d always been content with a small friend group regardless, even back in the orphanage.

  Amelia was the first person to show up, quickly making anyone else sitting nearby budge up to make room for her.

  “What are they serving today?” She asked as she sat down, “Gruel or poison?”

  James put the allegedly edible substance into his mouth and chewed on it, trying to figure out the flavour. This was unsuccessful.

  “Just gruel this time,” James replied.

  “Ah, so they’re improving,” Amelia sat down next to him. “I’m the first person here for once. Mr. Heathers held back Grey for a while.”

  “Grey got detention? That’s a first. What for?”

  Amelia shrugged. “Something about ‘not respecting him enough’. Like he deserves it. Asshole doesn’t teach shit. I was gonna complain but Grey said no.”

  “It’s just for a lunch break, Amelia. Not much point getting hung up on it.”

  “That’s exactly what they said.”

  Amelia picked at her food a little but didn’t eat much.

  “Not hungry?” James asked. She shook her head. “Yeah…yeah, I get it.”

  Both of them paused before Amelia started talking.

  “I’m sorry for how I acted last night. I was panicked, I didn’t mean to-”

  “I’m sorry too,” James replied. “I came on aggressive and cold. I have no idea what happened to you, it was wrong to think that you had it better than me somehow.”

  “Ok. Thank you.” She smiled back. “So…what happened to you?”

  “I watched Draconautis kill you all, Knight Oblivia popped out-”

  “Wasn’t she the edgelord in the bar at Heartily?”

  “Yeah. That’s why she was there, she must have fought off Draconautis and then ran back to the bar.”

  If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

  Amelia thought for a second. “If she’s strong enough to fight him, maybe we should get her on side.”

  “I don’t think so. She seemed pretty annoyed at me and ran off. Come to think of it, I never even saw her fight Draconautis, I blacked out before then. And then, I…”

  James paused, wondering if he should tell Amelia what happened next, but she smiled knowingly.

  “You made out with an elf girl, right?”

  He blushed and she laughed. “Don’t worry, I did too. I don’t remember the context, I just remember that she…thought I was you?”

  James looked confused. “Why did she think that? Does she just go around kissing random people hoping it’s me?”

  “I think you should appreciate the fact that there’s a digital elf girl who wants to make out with you all the time.” Amelia smirked. “If you don’t care for her, I’d be happy to shoot my shot.”

  James laughed. “Sure, I’d be your wingman. Now we need a way to get to her that doesn’t involve dying. Speaking of which…yeah.”

  Amelia sighed and nodded. “Alright, let’s get this over with.”

  She quickly and bluntly explained what happened to her and Delarius at the top of the Tower of Night. James didn’t talk or ask for elaboration, just nodding until Amelia was done. He paused for a bit before asking any questions.

  “I’m surprised about Delarius acting out,” He said. “He didn’t react at all to Draconautis on my go around. Wonder what broke the AI?”

  “The AI is allegedly very advanced, I’m not surprised there’s crazy reactions,” Amelia replied. “Still…I want to help him now. Even if he’s just an NPC, there’s something there.”

  “If Kabletech managed to create sentient AIs, this would be one hell of a way to find out.”

  “Sounds on brand,” Patrick said as he took a seat.

  “What took you so long?” James asked.

  “Queuing.”

  “You’d spent that long queuing for that stuff?”

  Patrick shrugged. “Gotta eat. Anyway, what are we talking about?”

  “Dying horribly to dragons,” Amelia replied.

  “Ah. Yeah, that. Anyway, let’s talk about something nicer. I talked to Grey-”

  “Are they out of detention yet?” Amelia asked.

  “No, this was before that. Anyway, they suggested we play a D&D one shot tonight. They’re DMing. We’re playing at the usual place.”

  “Is Grey ever gonna tell us where their house is?” Amelia pouted.

  “Damn,” James said nostalgically. “How long has it been since we played any tabletop games, let alone D&D?”

  “I played a few online in VR,” Amelia said. “The last time I played one in real life was when you were running.”

  “Ok, how do you play tabletop games in VR?” Patrick asked. “Why not play video games at that point?”

  “That’s like saying you shouldn’t watch plays because movies exist.”

  “You lose so much not being around a table!”

  “I’ll thank Grey when he’s out of detention,” James interrupted, before Patrick's rant really got moving. “Thanks, Patrick. I appreciate it.”

  “So, after that’s done…” Patrick paused, wondering if he should really ask this, and then went ahead and did it anyway. “You guys going to grind on Sable?”

  “Nope,” Amelia said. “Not tonight. Screw that. Just gonna sleep.”

  “I might,” James said. “No clue. See how I feel when I get home.”

  “Grey implied they will tonight. I might too. Dunno yet.”

  All of them went back to eating their food, or at least trying to, in silence. They all knew the question they wanted to ask, but none of them knew how to answer it properly. Patrick was the one who forced them to.

  “Do we have to keep playing?” He asked. “Like, this game’s leaving you guys kinda traumatised. There’s a whole ass conspiracy around it. What happens if we dig too deep? Do we end up…y’know…”

  “Disappeared?” Amelia asked. Patrick nodded.

  “Maybe I’m underestimating the danger,” James said, “but I wanna see where this goes. Whatever we’ve found, I don’t think anyone else has ever done before.”

  He paused, looking out of the window as he thought to himself.

  “There’s so many MMOs we’ve played, we’ve beaten some super hard bosses, but we’ve never been the first to do anything in a game. We never found a speedrun trick or beat a raid boss or glitched into a dev room before other people did. We’re in uncharted territory here, and although I should be scared…I’m kind of excited too. The only scary bit is what happens to you guys.”

  Patrick nodded. “Yeah, I know. That’s kind of how I feel too.”

  Amelia’s eyes darted around the room, unable to look at either of them or properly convey what she felt. James hated when he was right about her.

  “Let’s not think about that right now,” James said. “D&D classes for this evening, go!”

  “Barbarian,” Amelia said.

  “Truenamer,” Patrick added.

  “Alright, I’ll go with Cleric,” James said.

  Amelia glared at Patrick, “Really? That class again?”

  “Look, I like the lore!” He replied incredulously.

  “Has one of your Truenamers lived for a full campaign?

  “It’s a one shot! Besides, we’re only 3rd level. The class works at that point.”

  James smiled. “Alright, fair enough. You’d better pull your weight, though. My dice luck probably hasn’t improved.”

  The group laughed, finally at ease after last night’s events, and moved on to talking about less important things than Sable Online.