I entered a city in this world for the first time. Sure, in the game, I had done that countless times, but being here in person made it different. It was nothing like taking a bus or a train over to another city. This was a magical fantasy city.

Unfortunately, I had no time to enjoy the moment.

“Dude… what the heck are you doing? We don’t even know who or… what she is! Also, what the hell? Since when do the NPCs just understand when you speak normally?” Krieg whispered to his companions as we walked through the city gate. My big ears could hear it all, though.

“Don’t you get it?! This is the start of some huge event! Has to be! Some suspicious girl with a glitched name at the city gate? There was no question we had to help her in to start everything off!”

I both questioned and thanked the robed guy’s decision-making abilities. What in the world was he doing, pretending to know me and even vouching for me? I could be a dangerous criminal for all he knew.

Or rather, what I was about to do totally qualified as a crime. Spreading panic was a crime, right?

Well, they still believed this was all just a game, I suppose. They wouldn’t think of committing crimes inside a game as real crimes, would they…?

Either way, I needed to find a way to get away from them. I didn’t want them asking questions. Unfortunately, it wasn’t as easy as running into the forest this time. I had to get creative.

Once we were out of earshot of the guards, the robed guy – the greatest peach melon or whatever – spoke up. “Sooo, nice to meet you. I’m Josh.”

Now he was introducing himself?

A bit out of order, don’t you think?

“Hi…” I replied without turning around or taking off my hood.

“Sorry about him. He can be a bit pushy,” the deer guy said.

“It’s fine… thanks for helping me in –” I said in a low voice whilst looking around. A moment later I spotted what I needed. “ – but this is where we part ways.”

“Wait, what?” I heard the Peachmelon behind me.

Before they could try to surround me and catch me, I dashed into a sprint, heading for the dark alleyway I had been eyeing.

“Hey! Wait!” the deerman shouted.

I ignored them and continued right into what was a dead end in the game. A stack of boxes blocking the way. There was an invisible wall on top of them that players couldn’t pass through. Fortunately, that wall didn’t exist for me.

I jumped up, landed on the lower box, and with nimble movements I could only dream of in my original form, I scaled up the box wall and gracefully landed on the other side. Fortunately, there were no people around to see my little stunt. Just a cat making a startled cat noise and running off.

“Aww, man… Guess that’s it for this event. I wonder when we’ll meet her next?” I heard the peach melon say on the other side of the boxes.

“You know, this is really fishy. What if the next event is us getting arrested for letting through a criminal?” I could hear the deer man say.

“Oh shit… Welp, at least it will be interesting,” Krieg said.

I heard a sigh from the deerman, before their voices got too far from me to hear them as they walked away.

I felt a little bad for them. But I really didn’t need their ‘help’ getting into the city. I would just have to wait a bit and then register at the guild.

…

Actually, now that I thought about it… When registering, the receptionist could see your name. I remembered back in the day, she’d looked at the enchanted slab, and said your name out loud whilst nodding. Even if you didn’t introduce yourself.

So if I had waited and registered, they would totally know something was off when they saw my name.

Huh. So the trio had actually saved me.

Well… I guess I owed them an apology. But I couldn’t afford that right now. I had a mission. I didn’t know what reaction the devs would have to my message, but I couldn’t hide forever. I wanted answers and this was the relatively safest way to contact them.

I looked around my landing spot and found myself in a maze of alleyways behind the various houses. I quickly recognized this place as the area for that one ‘find the runaway cat in the maze’ mini-quest.

Once again, I wondered why so many things seemed so awfully convenient and game-like if this was a real world.

It took me a few minutes to find my way out, but once I did, I re-emerged into another street with the trio nowhere to be found. A few dozens of people filled the streets, but nobody paid me any mind.

I looked around and noticed a couple of food stalls lined up further down the street. It reminded me that I hadn’t eaten since breakfast. Mom had probably prepared something for me to heat up in the microwave, but…

In the game, since there was no sense of taste, food was only good for healing up. But with the real me being here, I wanted to at least try out the food of this world.

Luckily, past me had planned ahead and included some currency among the smuggled items. So after letting my hood down to appear less suspicious, I pulled out some coins from my bag and approached one of the stalls.

“Hello… Um, I’d like one of these meat skewers.” I pointed at a random one.

“Sure, coming right up! That’ll be… ten Rin,” the man said with an enthusiastic smile.

I handed over a ten Rin coin and he handed me the skewer I pointed at.

“Say, miss. I haven’t seen you around here. Are you a traveler?” His attempt at small talk caught me off guard.

“Uh, yes. I just arrived in this city… I wanted to try the food here.”

He let out a hearty laugh. “Of course, I hope it’s to your liking!” I smiled back at him awkwardly. “Where do you come from, by the way?”

Earth. “Um… It’s quite far away. You probably don’t know it.”

“Mmm, sounds exciting. I was born and raised in this city and rarely leave it.” He gave me a wry smile. “Anyway, I don’t want to keep you! Good luck on your travels! Stop by again!”

“Sure!” I returned the smile and went on my way.

It was a bit odd. Both the guards and then this stall owner. In the game, they had very simple dialogue. Like they were just NPCs. But when I approached them with the real me, they suddenly got very talkative. Could everyone in this world tell players apart from other people? Had they learned to just go through the motions when talking to them? Were they being forced by the developers…?

Elyssa, at least, said she’d begun thinking about things more after meeting me. So maybe, having a real person talk to them lifted the curse?

If that was the case… I should limit who I speak to. As much as it pained me, if I freed too many people from their curse, the devs would definitely notice. And who knew what they would do then?

I sighed.

I didn’t have much choice. The announcement was the first step. Eventually, though, I would need to speak with them on equal terms.

I would need to pretend I was a godly being like them.

BottledChaos

Hey everyone! I hope you're having a good day! Personally, I've felt a bit stuck lately so I'm trying to figure out how to get unstuck again. Hopefully soon™. Also, obligatory patreon reminder.