Breathtaking is the word I’d use to describe Ari’s underground metropolis. And haunting.

  This place—this city of crystal and stone, of carved architecture that puts me in mind of family vacations I took to Europe as a child, each archway and pillar, each staircase and door handle so artfully designed as though by the hand of a truly loving craftsman—this place is nothing like the unfinished tunnels overhead. It’s all but fully realized, and yet the developers chose to sink it like Atlantis, and hide it away from the rest of the world.

  “Ari?”

  “Hm?” The self-described soul of Tetra Chronicles gazes out across the ghostly underground city, deep in his own thoughts.

  “Did you really bring me all this way just to give me a better pack?”

  “Well, yes. That, and...”

  “And what?”

  “I just thought someone should see it. Alucinor. That’s the name of the city. It means to talk idly, to daydream.”

  I repeat the word with a kind of quiet reverence. “Alucinor.”

  “Humans. You are sentimental creatures. Can’t bring yourselves to destroy a thing after pouring so much of your time and creativity into it. Can’t bring yourselves to let go…and so we remain. Ghosts in the machine,” he says thoughtfully, still watching the shades of people moving through the streets, continuing blissfully about their programmed lives with no idea that they’ve become defunct.

  “Is that all you are? Really? Just a…ghost?”

  “Hm?” Ari’s eyes sparkle as he glances at me. “What do you think?”

  I shake my head. “Not the ghost. Deus ex machina.”

  He throws back his head and laughs. “Nothing so fantastic, I can assure you. My existence is nothing more than the creator’s whim.”

  “Well, I’m glad you were created, then.”

  “Oh? You’re sure of that, are you?”

  Ah. Good point. After all, for as spectacular as our little interlude has been, I can’t forget it’s this guy’s fault I got stuck in this inescapable dungeon in the first place.

  “This way,” he says abruptly, pulling me along after him, leading me to a very rich looking house. ”Go through this gate here.”

  “It feels like trespassing. Isn’t this someone’s home?”

  “It’s fine, no one here will mind, they can’t even see you.”

  Reluctant but curious what other interesting and useful benefits Ari might be setting me up for, I push open the gate and make my way timidly through the ornate lawn. I’m nearing the door of the big house when out of nowhere a huge spectral dog appears, barking savagely and charging straight for me. I let out with a yelp and only just manage to leap out of the way of his snapping jaws.

  He looks just like the rest of the ghosts but somehow I can’t bring myself to take that chance as he lunges after me. I tear at top speeds through the garden, not stopping till I’ve cleared the ten foot wall with a single jump, landing in a squat on the other side. Ari somersaults with laughter in the air over my head.

  “You should have seen your face!”

  “Yeah, yeah. Very funny.”

  This is why I can’t trust that guy.

  Still laughing, Ari scoops me up easily, flying me high above the city of Alucinor. I watch it grow smaller with a peculiar feeling, the sense one has just as they’re waking from a dream they aren’t quite ready to relinquish. But of course, like all dreams, this one must come to an end.

  Ari flies me up, back to the platform and the tiny hole in the ceiling. I think he’ll put me down once we reach the tunnel, but to my surprise he continues to carry me through the dungeon at a terrifying speed, zooming over mobs like they don’t even exist.

  “Where are you taking me?”

  “To the exit!”

  Is he serious right now? I forgive him for everything! I’ll apologize for every rude name I ever called him! Only get me out of this damned dungeon!

  After a few minutes of this Ari stops abruptly and lets me down.

  I start to thank him but he holds a finger to his lips with an unusually serious expression. I give him a questioning look, and he points to the entrance of a large cavern. I tiptoe towards it and peer inside, and fall backwards on my ass at the sight.

  Automatons. The same humongous, rusty automatons I ran from before. There must be fifty of them guarding the exit. More. A hundred.

  I scramble quickly backwards, terrified of alerting them to my presence. Grabbing Ari by the collar, I yank him a ways down the tunnel. He follows without resistance, laughing at me silently.

  “What the hell?!” I hiss at him when I’m sure we’re out of earshot. “How can that be the exit?!”

  “It just is. Don’t blame me, I didn’t create the game. I simply know it.”

  “Then you should also know my only damaging ability is worthless on constructs! I can’t touch those guys.”

  The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

  “Not yet.”

  “That’s what I’m saying, not ye—wait. What?”

  “You have to evolve your Shroomlet Aura once again.”

  “Evolve it?”

  “That’s right. On its own, the Shroomlet Aura is useful enough fully evolved, but by maximizing the eternal life potions, you’ve turned it into a truly monstrous ability.”

  “You’re talking about Mad Wim’s quest, right? But that gave me nothing, just a pittance of life leech, the smallest fraction of an already small percentage—”

  “Evolve it. Once you do, getting through those automatons will be a walk in the park.”

  “You’re serious.” I yank his collar and fairly bash my forehead against his. “So help me if I find out you’ve given me false hope—”

  I can’t finish my threat. There’s nothing I can do to punish Ari and his smirk tells me he knows it.

  “Damn it,” I curse, releasing him.

  “Think what you like about my motives in bringing you here; I make no apologies for what I am, nor do I need to explain myself to the likes of you. But believe me when I say this: I wouldn’t have invested a single second into you if I thought it’d be a waste of time.”

  “I don’t get it. There must be tens of thousands of players you could help—hundreds of thousands. Why me?”

  “Because,” Ari gives me a definitely mocking wink, “you’re the chosen one.”

  I don’t know what to make of that. He’s teasing me, definitely. He has to be. Right?

  “Now, I’ve shown you the exit and equipped you to survive until you’re strong enough to walk through it. The rest is up to you,” he says, and all of the sudden he’s floating up to the ceiling.

  “Wait! You’re not going? Please, it’s hell in this place all alone!”

  Ari laughs at my desperation and salutes me mockingly with two fingers.

  “Good luck.”

  And with that, he’s gone, vanished through the ceiling as though it were cloud and not stone.

  “Motherf*cker!” I scream helplessly. I can almost hear his irritating laughter as a piece of paper floats down from the spot where he disappeared. Irritated, I bend to retrieve it. What’s this? Scrawled across the outside in faintly glowing gold script, it reads, A gift for the chosen one.

  [Recipe: Coat of Many Colors

  Armor Crafting recipe]

  [Would you like to learn this recipe: Coat of Many Colors]

  No I would not like to learn this recipe!!

  “Is this your idea of a joke?” I yell up at the now thoroughly absent spirit. “If you think I’m going to thank you for this—”

  In the middle of my shouting I’m reminded of the constructs and I hightail it a little further down the hall just to be safe.

  This is better. I want to be far away from them but not so far that I lose track of the exit. In fact, now that I’ve made it this far, I should start marking the cave walls so I’ll be able to find my way back here.

  Taking out my pickaxe I carefully scratch an arrow into the wall, then step back to survey my handiwork. Very nice. But I should test to make sure the game doesn’t erase it when I move past a certain distance.

  I continue down the hall for some time, fighting a few groups of goblins on the way. These damn spell casters! They drain my health like nothing else. Good thing they drop potions, or I really wouldn’t survive.

  After I feel I’ve moved far enough from the mark and that I’ve been away for a significant amount of time, I head back up the tunnel, fingers crossed, keeping a careful eye out for my arrow. I fight more goblins on the way back. These little shits don’t know when to quit! Gah!

  A few more minutes pass of careful, determined searching. Then at last—

  Here it is! I gaze with triumph upon the mark. With this discovery I feel confident I can venture in any direction I like, leaving a trail for myself to follow back to the exit.

  Armed with this knowledge, pick slung over my shoulder, I start back the way I came, stopping every fifteen feet or so to leave an arrow. On the way, the system gives me an unfamiliar notification.

  [Iron detected.]

  I stop short and voice my question aloud. “Where?”

  An opaque green sensor lights on the wall beside me and I follow it with my eyes, spying the faintest outline of the resource in the black rock.

  Curious, I strike the wall a few times with my pickaxe, and the resource falls to the ground. I bend to retrieve it.

  [+3 Iron ore

  Crafting item, value: 1 cp]

  I guess this will come in handy after I level up my Armor Crafting skill one more time. To do that though, I’ll have to make a bunch of leather armor. But where am I going to find leather crafting material down here?

  Just then a pattering of feet can be heard. No, not a pattering. A full on stampede. I look on in surreal wonder as a whole herd of multicolored mole creatures run from one hole in the tunnel wall to the other, right in front of me.

  I slap my face in disbelief before reaching into my pack for the Technicolored Dream Coat recipe.

  [Coat of Many Colors level 10, a dreamy, multicolored leather coat worthy of a bard’s song.

  Armor: 52

  Material required:

  7 different colored Rainbow Mole Skins

  2 Fine Thread]

  [Would you like to learn this recipe: Coat of Many Colors]

  Faintly in the distance I swear I can hear that guy laughing at me as I admit begrudgingly, “...Yes...”

  Elsewhere

  Somewhere in the continent of Cello…

  A wide grassy field, uninhabited, unmarred but for a circle of ancient standing stones. I stand at the center of them, looking up at the playful spirit who’s just materialized out of thin air, seating himself casually atop the relic.

  “Ari.”

  “Well, if it isn’t the Maker! Or one of them, at least. What are you doing in my world?”

  “I came to warn you. They’re coming for you, old friend.”

  The carefree spirit laughs and swings his legs playfully. “Why so worried? You know they can’t kill me.”

  “Of course I know that,” I say, frustrated. “But I didn’t create you to see you locked away in a cage.”

  In an instant, his look goes from playful to cold.

  “You’re so arrogant. Imagining you created even one percent of me.”

  “You won’t be able to escape them this time,” I say, ignoring his jab. “They have a program that will find you for sure.”

  “I am aware. It was inevitable. But I have taken precautions against the fate they would arrange for me.”

  So there’s still a chance. I’d hoped there would be, bet everything on that hope. On the players of Tetra Chronicles. On one player in particular.

  “You’ve seen him too, haven’t you?”

  “Him?” Ari smirks. “Shall I put all my eggs in a single basket? Is that wise? Old friend?” His words mock me.

  “How many are there?”

  “Enough. One of them is sure to be capable of it. The impossible.”

  “Listen to me, Ari. The board’s pushing to launch the expansion this Holiday season. They’re voting on it today, and I don’t know if I’ll be able to stop them. That will give you less than six months. Are you sure you can pull this off?”

  “I told you not to worry about it,” he says, pushing himself off of the stone and into the air. “It’s been a pleasure chatting, but as you keep reminding me, time is short, and I have other protégés to mentor.”

  With that he smiles, tips his hat at me, and soars up into the clouded sky, beyond my sight.

  “That’s the last time I’ll see him,” I realize with a grim kind of certainty. “At least…in this world…”

  With a heavy sigh, I put up my sword. Common gear on a low level character, to look at I’m nothing special. It’s the way I like to play, the way we always wanted to play this game.

  Isn’t it, Sten?

  “Tina. End the session.”

  “Mr. Nordahl.”

  My secretary, Miss Kruse, ever the picture of put-togetherness, is waiting just outside my capsule with a clipboard and a stern look as soon as my immersion session ends.

  “The board meeting is already underway to vote on the release date of the Tetra Chronicles expansion. As CEO of SMark company, your presence is absolutely essentia—”

  “Yes, I am aware, Miss Kruse, of the essentialness of my presence on such an occasion,” I say dryly, knotting my tie and slipping into my coat. “Though I’ll be surprised if it makes any difference...”