I run through the trees. I look for the paladin, but I can't find him. I call out his name, but he doesn't answer me. I search unsuccessfully for a map of the forest on my holo-bracelet, showing me where the bandits are. Then I see Marcel a hundred meters away, picking up logs with his red boots. I run towards him.

“Marcel, I need your help,” I say.

“What's wrong?”

“A friend of mine is in danger. Well, she's not a friend of mine. I don't really know her. But we have a lot in common.”

Marcel looks at me not knowing what to say.

“I have to find her before the paladin does. I know her lair is in this forest; do you know where there's a bandit camp?”

“Isaac, the forest is huge. It would take us all night to go through it, and there are many lairs and camps.”

There has to be a solution, a way to find it.

“Got it! Marcel, I need you to ask me for my grandmother's medallion mission.”

“I don't know … I don't think my father would like it. On Saturdays he checks my activity logs. I can get in trouble.”

“You don't have to finish the mission. You just have to start it, so that a marker appears on the map, and we know where to go.”

Marcel hesitates.

“Please, I wouldn't ask if it wasn't important,” I say.

“Okay, I'll do it.”

Marcel asks me for the bandit mission and I assign it to him.

“The camp is five minutes in that direction,” he says, looking at his holo-bracelet.

“Thanks, I owe you,” I say and run off.

“Wait! I'm coming with you. Since I'm going to get my dad mad, at least I can enjoy it, right? Besides, I have a few fire scrolls that I'd like to try.”

“We're not going to fight anyone. I just want to keep her from getting killed.”

“Well, maybe down the road we do need a fireball, like yesterday. You never know.”

I run after Marcel through the trees. Every hundred meters he looks at his holo-bracelet and we continue through the forest in the direction indicated on his map. In ten minutes, we reach a bushy area. After some searching, we find the entrance to a cave, along with two bandit corpses. Fighting noises are heard from inside the cave.

We are late.

We run inside. The entrance leads to a narrow corridor. As we advance, we find a trail of dismembered bodies. When we reached the end of the corridor, we come to a larger gallery, with a pond in the center, and several bonfires scattered along the sides. It smells of dampness and green wood. In the center of the cave, by the water, we see the level 93 paladin fighting the bandit captain. The level 40 dark elf fights with twin sabers. She moves as if she and the wind were one and the same thing, and her two white braids accompany her every move. The paladin tries to reach her with his greatsword without success.

The scene is like that of a dance, a choreography of movements that seems incredible that they were not rehearsed. Lance attacks with an uncanny speed for the armor he wears, and Hara responds to his every move rhythmically. She dodges each of his blows and swiftly swings her sabers, causing Lance's life bar to drop every moment, despite the difference in levels.

Marcel pulls a fireball scroll from his backpack, but I stop him. “You'd catch them both,” I tell him. “We have to prevent Hara from dying at all costs.”

Lance drinks a healing potion without stopping attacking, and his life bar increases until it's back to full again. He grabs the greatsword with one hand and one of Hara's sabers with the other. He gives her a shove with his shoulder that sends her tumbling into the pond. The dark elf screams in fury. She jumps out of the water, rolls on the ground, and sits up. She has lost a third of her life bar and one of her sabers, which Lance throws into the water. Hara looks at the paladin with fire in her dark eyes, and he smiles.

“Stop!” I shout, but they ignore me. The two of them run, one against the other, and restart the dance of blows and swings. Hara dodges most of the attacks, though a few hit her. Lance parries fewer blows, but his armor and higher level prevent him from taking much life.

The dark elf reaches a critical moment. The two combatants gasp, exhausted. They attack again, although now Hara's blows are somewhat clumsier. Lance's greatsword bites her in the side and takes a good chunk out of her life bar. She falls to the ground from the impact and loses her remaining saber.

Hara reaches out to retrieve the weapon, but Lance steps on it and kicks her in the face. Unable to dodge it, Hara is thrown backward and lies on the ground. She barely has a thread of life left.

“Lance, stop!” I yell. “You don't know what you're doing.”

Lance has the point of his greatsword at Hara's neck. Without letting her out of his sight, he turns his head and looks askance at me.

“Stop getting into my fights, blacksmith,” he says.

“You don't understand. Let her live, please.”

Lance raises his greatsword, ready to strike the final blow.

“She's abused!” I scream.

Lance stops his greatsword in mid-air.

“She's abused. Every time she is killed, our supervisor abuses her. That's why she fights like her life depended on it. Can't you see the fear in her eyes? What do you think she's afraid of? Of dying? Of you?”

Lance stops and steps back. He looks her in the eyes without saying anything and turns around with a contorted face. He walks toward the entrance of the cavern. He pulls out a scroll, raises his hand, and a teleportation portal appears with an electric buzzing sound. He crosses it and the circle of yellow light closes behind him.

Hara is on the ground, her eyes closed. She screams, jumps up and grabs her saber. Before I know it, she's on top of me. She grabs my shirt collar with one hand and I feel the edge of her weapon on my neck. She's breathing fast and her dark eyes convey anger. I know I'm one step away from death.

“My name is Isaac,” I say. “I know you don't know me. We met for a moment yesterday in the waiting room.”

She seems to judge me with her eyes. I notice the contempt in her eyes. After a few tense seconds she grunts and releases me. She holsters the weapon and reaches knee-deep into the pond to retrieve the other saber.

She crosses the pond and walks away towards one of the bonfires.

“Yes, I can tell that you're close friends,” Marcel says sarcastically beside me.

“Come on,” I say to Marcel as I walk toward the dark elf. Whether I like it or not, I have to talk to her. She is the first person I've met who's in my same situation, and I'm not going to miss the opportunity.

Hara is sitting by the fire. Marcel and I sit on the other side. The dark elf has left the two sabers against the cave wall. She has taken off his boots and is drying her feet in the warmth of the fire.

“I know Gabriel is forcing you to be with him,” I say.

Hara looks down and grunts. She holds her boots tightly over the flames.

“Who is Gabriel?” asks Marcel.

“Gabriel is our supervisor,” I reply. “We are not normal NPCs. When we die, we go to the waiting room, where Gabriel is in charge of checking that we do our job well. At least that's how it is in my case. In Hara's case, Gabriel does more than that.”

“He forces me,” Hara says coldly, staring into the fire. “Again and again, every time I die”

Marcel's face contorts. The dark elf's eyes show only anger.

“He does something to me with his tablet,” Hara says. “He has control over my body, over my emotions. He overrides my will and forces me to do what he wants. He forces me to pretend to enjoy it.”

“I'm sorry,” I say. “I didn't know. It's not an excuse: I should have known. I should have realized. What can we do - can we report him?”

“You still haven't figure it out, have you?” she says.

“Isaac is right,” Marcel says. “We have to do something. We can't let him go on like this, and we can't let him get away with it.”

“Nothing can be done,” Hara says. “That's the way it is in our contracts. We exist to obey each and every one of Gabriel's orders. We belong to him, in body and spirit. We are his.”

“It can't be”. I resist believing it.

“Isaac, how long have you been in the Game?” Hara asks me.

“A week.”

“I estimate I've been a month,” she says. “I think when I realized the truth I'd been around about the same as you are now.”

“What truth?” I ask.

“Haven't you wondered why your memories of the real world aren't accurate? Why do you have instant reflexes within the Game, and a perfect visual and acoustic memory, but instead you are not able to recall your mother's face?”

My mother. Images of hundreds of mothers run through my head, each one different. They take care of hundreds of children, all different and none of them are me.

A dark circle surrounded by yellow light appears by the water in the center of the cavern, and an electrical buzzing sound. Someone is teleporting.

“It must be that idiot Lance,” says Marcel. “I'm going to smash his face in.” Marcel gets up and approaches the pond. Inside the circle a human figure begins to outline. The light is extinguished and is replaced by a figure dressed in white. Marcel steps back and the figure moves forward.

“Gabriel!” I shout.

It's Gabriel, in his white coat and horn-rimmed glasses. For some reason, even though the coat and the glasses stand out in the medieval fantasy world of the Game, I can't help but feel a chill.

Marcel, without a second thought, punches him in the stomach. He goes right through him and falls into the water on the other side. Gabriel turns and sighs. He takes out his tablet and taps something on the screen. Marcel remains motionless on his knees in the pond. I try to go to him, but I can't move either.

“Hi Hara. How are you?” says Gabriel, looking at her with hope on his face. Out of the corner of my eye I see Hara sitting on the ground, her head bowed.

“Wow, what a surprise,” Gabriel says. “I was coming to see why Hara wasn't coming today, and I think I've found the cause. I see you’ve been reunited. How nice, I'm glad. Now you can have each other. We can all be happier that way, can't be?”

He looks down and fiddles with the tablet.

“Isaac, I see you broke up the fight,” he says, fiddling with the tablet. “I told you your mission in the Game was not to sympathize with the players.”

I remain silent, helpless. Hara stands motionless beside me by the fire.

“You're Marcel, aren’t you?” He says, turning to the dwarf. “I am Gabriel, Isaac's supervisor. I'm sorry that you got caught up in this situation. Maybe I should keep you out of it, but I think it will be better for everyone if you're present, to avoid confusion.”

“Pig. You are a rapist,” it is Marcel who breaks the silence, still on his knees in the pool.

Gabriel takes off his glasses and wipes them with the bottom of his coat. He has a sad face.

“Marcel, I don't think you're quite clear on what's going on here. I'm sorry for the misunderstanding, but no one here has raped anyone. I would never hurt Hara in the first place. It's just ... it's complicated. Let me explain it to you.”

He approaches Marcel. He helps him up and out of the water. Marcel clenches his fists and glares at Gabriel with hatred.

“Both Hara and Isaac are not people. They are AIs. Artificial intelligences. They're computer programs, designed to control their NPCs. It's a new feature we're testing to incorporate into the Game in the future.”

He approaches Hara and holds her chin with his hand. He lifts her face and strokes her white braids.

“When Hara and I are together,” he says, “it's no different than when a player decides to blow up an NPC, as it seems to me someone did not long ago, isn't it?” he says as he looks at Marcel. “There is no collateral damage. They are not people, and therefore do not suffer. Their feelings are just numbers, variables in a computer program.”

What's this about me not being a person? That can't be true. I sit at the edge of a cliff in my head.

“No!” I scream. “What's this about me being an AI? I am a person. My name is Isaac, I live in a house with a hardwood floor, and I have two cats. A black one named Colonel, and another white one named Socks.”

“I'm sorry, Isaac,” Gabriel says. “A pity you have to find out like this. You have left me no choice. Let me show you what I'm saying so you understand.”

Gabriel puts on his glasses and types something on the screen of his tablet.

“What color did you say your cats were?” he asks me.

Suddenly I don't remember them. I try hard, but I can't. What color were they? What were their names? It's as if they don't exist. As if they are dead, and I can't remember them at all. I feel an emptiness, as if a part of me is missing.

Gabriel keeps typing, and more and more memories begin to fade. My mother, the bulling I suffered. I don't know who I am, I don't know who I've been. I haven't lived.

“Get out of my head!” I scream.

I don't remember anything that hasn't happened in the last week. I start to shake.

“Don't be nervous,” Gabriel says. “Wait, this will calm you down a bit.”

He touches something on his screen, and I feel calm. I am at peace. Why was I angry? Gabriel is my friend. Maybe one day I can show him my cats and we can pet them together. My cats? Where are my cats? My cats don't exist. They're not real. They never have been. My mind goes into a tailspin again.

“Give them back to me, please,” I whisper. “I'll do whatever you want, but give them back to me. Give me back my cats.” I curl up on the floor, hugging my knees.

“Okay,” he says. “I think that's been enough.”

Gabriel types on the tablet and the memories come flooding back. Blurred, as always, but there.

“There have been other AIs before you,” Gabriel says. “Hara and you are the eighth and the ninth version, the only ones active right now, the only ones that have thrived. The first ones were a failure, many of them went into an infinite loop until they got to the situation of realizing they weren't people and we had to pull the plug. So, in the later versions to facilitate self-awareness we decided that, as much as possible, we would try to make the AI believe it was alive, at least initially. We made the IA believe it was a human connected to a machine. That helped make the implantation in the Game.”

“Isaac, I'm sorry, but your memories are not real. Your cats don't exist. Well, they probably exist or have existed, but they were never yours. To create the sense of the past, we used a neural network that learned by pulling collections of data from the internet. Among that data were cat videos from millions of people arround the planet. So, the algorithm decided that, of all the possible pasts, you would have one in which you would be obsessed with your cats, and have been bullied by your classmates at school. It's all a made-up story. It's not real.”

Gabriel puts the tablet in his pocket. Marcel looks at me with wide green eyes. He says nothing. I lower my head.

“Well, I hope everything is clear, and there is no more confusion,” Gabriel says. “Isaac, Hara: please do not ignore the contract you were programmed for, otherwise they will force me to pull the plug. The developers are not happy with the project. They have prepared an update that will replace you with standard NPCs. Right now, I have convinced them to drop it, but the board is pressuring me to implement it now. They want to cancel the AI program, and I'm doing everything I can to stop them. I want you to know that I love you. To me you are like my creations, my children. Please don't give them any more reasons to eliminate you.”

He approaches the pond, and a circle of yellow light appears.

“I'm leaving,” he says. “Marcel, I'm sorry for the inconvenience this misunderstanding may have caused you. Isaac, please continue with your missions and focus on your NPC duties. And to you, Hara, I look forward to seeing you again soon in the waiting room, okay?”

He turns and smiles. He crosses the circle and disappears. Hara trembles sitting on the floor.

My whole life is a lie. I am not a person. I am an artificial intelligence, a computer program created to simulate behavior. My emotions are lies. My memories are lies. My cats do not exist, they are just images that someone has put in my head to make me believe that I am a person, to act more convincingly.

My name is Isaac, and I don't exist.