(25. August 2051)

Frogger took a deep breath, then another one for good measure. His hands clutched around the bouquet of S-rated herbs. He selected only A and S-rated plants. Thankfully, they looked nice like everything in the Cetviwos, the Virtual Reality app that ran in his DIVE-pod. His mind drifted back to the recipient of his bouquet, who looked especially nice and was the grooviest girl he'd ever met. Not that he met many girls. He was so thankful that she agreed to meet him. Okay, she just had to walk a few steps from the birthday party they were currently attending, but still, she said she'll come.

Frogger had selected a quiet spot on Riverstones Island. The pool pike was just 20 meters away, but a strip of forest separated them from any bathers. The thermal springs warmed the brook's water and the flat stone on which Edelgard, his toad companion, sunned herself.

*Croak, croak! Croak* (Stop pacing, start singing! Females will converge to your voice automatically.)

Although Frogger valued the advice of his companion, he would skip this one. Toads had different mating rituals than humans.

Then, Mia appeared.

Froggers blacked out and could only stare at her. Her perfect skin was as pale as the belly of his favorite toad, her stride more graceful than the gait of his favorite gecko. Her nose was so straight and more majestic than… okay, his companions hadn't much to offer in the nose department. Maybe he liked Mia's nose because it parted her face like a mountain ridge the swamp.

"So my skin is toad-like, my gait reptilian, and my face like a swamp?" Mia summarized, her sweet voice as even as ever.

Only then, Frogger realized he'd said everything aloud. He froze. Should he nod or deny everything? He pressed the herb bouquet in Mia's hand.

<I Wish The Ground Would Swallow Me>

Only when the earth surrounded him could he breathe again.

"It's alright, Froggy. I don't mind. I'm kind of used that my favorite people compare everything to amphibians or home appliances." Mia's voice was muffled but cut straight through the ground and his ears to his heart. He was one of her fav peops! "You do have many qualities I'm hoping for in a partner. I like that you are passionate, honest, dedicated, and successful."

Frogger let the spell go and rose from the earth. "Really?"

"Really! I'm also looking for somebody who completes me. Maybe that is too much to ask. But at least, I like to have good communication and that we work well as a team. So I have thought up a first date experience that would test these aspects."

Frogger vowed to listen to the recording of this conversation again because after Mia said date, the rest of her sentence faded into nothingness. Wait. She mentioned something like communication! Bad, bad Frogger! He messed up! She wanted communication, and he didn't even manage to listen to three sentences in a row!

"Are you alright? Did I break you?" Mia sounded more amused than concerned. Somehow that relaxed him a bit.

"You did!" He exclaimed. Oh, double no! Why was 'I Wish The Ground Would Swallow Me' still on cooldown! "I… I…"

"Take a minute to compose yourself. We have time until someone will miss us at the party, so no hurry."

Mia was the bestest of the best! He rewatched her last sentence and took another deep breath. "Okay. I processed what you have said, and I would love to go on a date with you. What have you planned?" Frogger never felt prouder of himself. He managed to speak a few sentences in a row to the girl he liked without embarrassing himself. And she wanted to go on a date! With him! Or did he misinterpret something in his enthusiasm? Oh no, he probably did! Maybe she just wanted his help to date Little Hero?

"Great! The new KingdomBuilding Server will open soon. Why don't we play as a Pantheon for a week? Sure, we have to take shifts, but we could spend time together as well. I thought maybe 8h sleep, 8h single shift, 8h double shift."

That sounded more like a full-time job than a date. Waves of disappointment crashed into him. Was she only after a gaming partner? Did she want to exploit his feelings for cheap labor? Did he care? Eight hours a day for a week together with Mia! Wait, with the time dilation of the Cetviwos, that would be 14 days! He wanted her to exploit him so badly!

"Sorry, I'm not much of a romantic. I know the suggestion is a bit extreme… would you prefer another first date?" Mia asked, as poised as always. "A movie? Minigolf? I've never dated before, so I'm kinda in the dark about this."

Frogger instantly cheered up. That didn't sound like she was after the groovy KingdomBuilding achievements. At least not primarily. He felt ashamed that he even suspected her. And he dated before, even twice! For once, he was more experienced than Mia. "No, no. Let's build a kingdom together." He grinned his broadest smile at her. "I'll take the week off."

"Great!" Mia smiled back at him, and his stomach fluttered.

As soon as Frogger was free, he logged into his favorite virtual space, his druid grove. A pond was in the middle. Cody, his golden frog, liked to hang out there. Edelgard preferred the grassy area in the east. Salazar, the fire salamander, had built his kingdom in a geothermic patch in the north. In the west was a bit of coast that only his reptiles liked. The only thing that one could call an actual grove was the swamp area with a few twisted trees.

Frogger went in a box with a treadmill. Falling into a lazy jog, he opened the Kingdom Building Game's (KBG) bulletin board. The first thread looked promising: "The 10 things you have to know before starting".

1. Only start when a new server opens up

Everybody is on the same timeline on one server. You don't want to be in the stone age when other players have firearms.

The info was too advanced. Frogger needed a different thread, something like "Kingdom Building For Dummies And How To Get The Girl". He went back to the main page. After he skimmed over the pinned threads, he found "KBG Basics":

The Cetviwos Kingdom Building Game is a turn-based strategy 4X (abbreviation of Explore, Expand, Exploit, Exterminate) Game. The goal is to create an empire from a stone-age village.

Every month the Cetviwos opens up a new planet on which all the fresh players start. While you can play as a solo-player or Theos, it is also possible to play as a group with up to five Theoi.

"That's what Mia suggested! We will be two Theoi playing together!" Frogger told Edelgard. "The other things sound like your typical buildup strategy game. I've played a few on my mobile. Though, I don't know how they would integrate the virtual reality aspect."

The game begins with the selection of a species and race. Then the Theoi get teleported to their starting location. In the first three hours, the Theoi can explore their surroundings and place their Pantheon. This building represents your central administration hub and attracts settlers. If it gets destroyed, the game ends for the associated Theoi.

Frogger grew excited about the species part. He hoped Mia would be open to playing with an amphibian race. What if she didn't want to? Now he hoped there were no amphibians in the selection. He refused to click on the link until he had a better picture of the game.

The first month of the game is turn-based. While the time flows normally during the turn, between turns is a time skip. It can be anything from one hour to 5 years. Look at your Global Time Table for the specific time flow.

After one month, the planet will be integrated into the Cetviwos universe. Then the game changes to a real-time strategy game.

Frogger had heard about that part. An acquaintance had boasted that he was the God-King of an entire planet and traded and went to war with other planets.

After the players place their pantheon, NPC settlers of their chosen race will arrive. It is the duty of the Theoi to guide them into building a civilization. The players have two major research options to further their population, the Theology and Philosophy (TaP) Tree and the Magetech Tree.

TaP research increases either the power of the Theoi or the enlightenment of the people. Magetech research raises either the technology or the magic level of the civilization.

"Now I have more questions than before, but I don't mind." The Dummy-Text was a bit longer, but Frogger couldn't contain his curiosity and clicked on the Species link.

*croak* (The impatience of the young.)

A page with a huge table opened up. The rows contained the species like Human and your typical fantasy selection like Orc, Dwarf, Elf, and many more. Each entry had a bonus and a malus. The columns displayed the elements Earth, Water, Wood, Fire, Metal, and Air and had a bonus and a malus as well.

In the Cetviwos, all races were elemental. The players were called Earthlings, and the human NPCs were Waterlings, Woodlings, Firelings, and Metalings. One could distinguish them from players because of their skin and hair color. Because Frogger's avatar had green hair and eyes, sometimes people confused him with a Woodling NPC despite his sandy color skin. Usually, Woodling's skin had either a greenish tint or was brown. He didn't mind. He even tried out whether he could issue quests. That experiment had earned him a beating.

The content of the tables were Xs and 0s and signified whether that combination was valid. One couldn't choose Earth humans as population, probably because that race was reserved for players, nor Air humans.

Frogger scanned the list until he found "Beastkin". It offered a link to another table with all kinds of animals.

"Deerkin, Dogkin, Donkeykin, Dragonkin, Duckin, oh come on." Frogger laughed. He scrolled down to F, ignored "Flamingokin," and finally reached Frogkin.

"Yes! There you are, my cuties! A bonus to Fertility and a malus for Environment." Frogger looked up what that latter meant. He found that Frogkin only thrived in areas with great access to freshwater. Well, he knew that before. Earth, Water, and Wood were the available races.

*croak* (Choose Toadkin, we are vastly superior)

"They have a bonus to Magic and a malus to Happiness. I couldn't agree more." Frogger smiled at his crumpy companion.

*croak*! (Slander!)

Still grinning, Frogger added Salamakin and four Reptilekins to his list of preferred races. Now, he had enough variety for Mia to choose from.

Frogger was looking forward to their first date.