“Damn… I remember this place. It looks exactly like the Golden Woods. Except that I can also touch the trees and feel them,” Frank said, mesmerized by the sensations the game didn’t have. 

Casey took a deep breath and then slowly exhaled. “The air is so nice here…”

They acted exactly as I had when I’d first discovered this. I felt a bit like a veteran showing newbies around. It made me smile.

“Right now, we are in an area that’s untraversable for the players. We could go over there –” I pointed toward the road. “– but then we could run into players,” I explained.

“Hmm? Is that a bad thing?”

“Yeah, well, theory number one,” I replied. “Don’t want us getting reported to the devs as bugs to fix…”

“Right…”

“And also, players can still view our status. And for some reason, my name is a garbled mess of moving letters.” I shrugged. “It’s probably gonna be the same for you.”

“Oooh, shit. So we are like a glitch in the evil devs’ game! Scary. But also cool. It’s like a horror movie! Except that we are the horror monsters!”

“So whether it’s a game or not, the system they made can’t identify us…” Casey muttered.

“Yeah, I, uh, actually tried to use the announcement system of the game and saw my own name. It was really weird… I can show you when we return. I still have the form.”

“Cool. I wonder what it looks like.”

With that, I gripped the portal, closed it again, and we set off to meet Elyssa.

Unlike every other time I’d visited her, there were no interruptions or sudden meetings with players, and we quickly reached her cabin.

“Oooh, this place. I remember coming here exactly once in the game.”

“To learn the skill. Yeah, I know.” I rolled my eyes. “Everyone does that. Come here once and then never again. Can you imagine what it’s like for her?”

“Huh… Well… I mean… I thought she was just a bunch of computer code, you know?” He scratched the back of his head. “She even acted like it. How was I supposed to know?”

“And if theory number two is correct, then at the time, she was just computer code,” Casey supplied.

“Well…” I frowned, still feeling strange thinking about it. “I guess, you’re right,” I admitted.

With that out of the way, we approached the cabin, I double-checked to make sure there were no players in sight and knocked on the door.

A few moments later, the door opened and a familiar face emerged.

“Ah, hello there again!” Elyssa smiled at me, before looking behind me at my friends. “Oh, are these your friends you told me about?”

“Yeah.” I nodded. “Elyssa, this is Frank and Casey.” I gestured to them. “Frank, Casey, this is Elyssa.”

“Hey there! Nice to meet you!” Frank waved at her.

“Hello,” Casey added.

She nodded and opened the door wide while stepping aside. “Come on in! There’s a lot to talk about.”

We did as she said and she closed the door behind her. I immediately noticed there were three extra chairs at her table. I had promised to bring my friends, but I guess I hadn’t told her how many friends that would be, huh?

We got seated while Elyssa kept her smile on me. “I’m glad you still feel more comfortable like that even though it’s not your true form,” she commented on me being in this form.

“Yeah.” I smiled in return.

“Wait, what? It’s not?” Frank asked.

“No, my dear.” Elyssa shook her head. “I’m not sure why, but I wasn’t able to bring out your friend’s true form. Instead, she turned into this one, which I’m still not quite sure what it is. All I know is that it’s at least closer to her true form than the one she inhabited before.”

“Uh, yeah. I forgot to tell you guys.” I scratched the back of my head.

“Waaait, you’re acting as if ‘a true form’ is like… a thing.”

I sighed, remembering my own doubts when Elyssa had first brought up the topic.

“It is,” I said. “I don’t really understand it myself yet, but… Like I said, I feel better when in this form. Like, somehow, it’s more correct than my normal one. Even though it’s not really my true form…”

“Right…” Frank slowly said, still clearly skeptical.

“That aside, I was really looking forward to your visit today,” Elyssa grinned. “You wanted to bring your friends here to prove you aren’t a divine being, didn’t you?”

“Wait, what?” Frank asked, confused.

“And then the announcement. Did you try contacting the gods as you said?”

All eyes were on me now. I could only scratch the back of my ear… and then quickly switch to the back of my head.

“I… tried. I got to the board and filled out the title… then got interrupted and had to teleport out.” I sighed. “I think that’s a good thing, though. I was a bit too rash trying to do that.”

“Hmm? Why do you think that?”

“Well, we talked about –”

“Wait, wait, wait, hold up!” Frank interrupted, prompting us to look at him. “What was the thing with a divine being? Is, uh…” He pointed at me and stopped for a second. “Is Renee here a divine being or something? What does that even mean?”

Elyssa’s eyes lit up at that. “Renee? Ooh, have you found your true name then?” She glanced at me. Before I could say anything, though, she continued. “Well, my dear, I was convinced your friend here is a divine being because she came from the same world gods do.”

“Gods?” Frank frowned.

“The devs,” I supplied.

“Oh… Wait, but wouldn’t that make us –” He pointed between himself and Casey. “– divine beings as well?”

Elyssa nodded. “It may. However, when I thought about it, just the world she comes from might not be everything.” She raised her hand and started listing things off on her fingers. “I also couldn’t bring out her true form, meeting her opened my eyes and enlightened me in an odd way, and lastly, she’s the only one who can see these portals… right?” She glanced at me.

“Yeah… Well, I haven’t met anyone else who could, at least,” I confirmed.

“There’s probably more, but everything I mentioned points to her not being a regular mortal.”

“So…” Casey spoke up. “About the whole… being enlightened thing. Are you saying that you… um, always acted the way you did before you met… Renee?”

Elyssa nodded. “Yes, that’s correct.”

“Even as a kid?”

“I was never a kid.”

That stopped Casey in her tracks… and made me and Frank widen our eyes as well.

“What… do you mean?”

“Ah, well… I do remember my family, but my earliest memories are me being in here, teaching the first wanderer the true form skill.”

So… either someone had messed with her memories, or she had literally been an NPC programmed with memories of her family.

“I… see…” Casey replied.

Why wasn’t Elyssa disturbed by all this? Was she so used to the NPC life that she didn’t even question it? Or was there more going on?

“Anyways!” Elyssa clapped her hands. “As I said, one of the oddities about Renee here is that I couldn’t bring out her true form. I wanted to see if it was possible with you two.” She chuckled. “This must be the first time where I’m the one pushing to teach it.”

“I… uh, yeah! Sure! Let’s do it! Just please don’t turn me into a caterpillar!” Frank stood up, instantly switching to energetic again.

Elyssa chuckled again. “If a caterpillar is what you are meant to be, then that’s what you will become,” she said as she stood up and stood in front of Frank.

“Now then, close your eyes and focus…”