Book 9: Chapter 2:

Information gathering didn’t result in much. All of the NPCs Fenrir knew of in their settlement didn’t act any differently than before. They behaved as realistically as ever. However, there were some who seemed just a little bit… off.

One such NPC was a man who arrived just a couple of weeks ago and was quick to take up fishing for everybody. Some of the players would even go fishing with him and let him borrow their boats. Albert was his name. “Old Man” was what most players called him given his grey beard and bald spots that he often kept covered up with a straw hat.

Just like usual, Albert was getting ready to head down to the beach with his fishing rod and tackle box in hand when Fenrir called out to him.

“Hey! Albert!” Fenrir shouted.

“Ah, well if it ain’t the head man himself,” Albert replied. Even if Nell was technically the new queen of the region, most who lived in this particular settlement still considered Fenrir their leader. “Figure out what we’re naming this place yet?”

Fenrir stopped in his tracks and scratched the back of his head. Despite being months old, he still never came up with a proper name for the settlement. Everybody, players and NPCs alike, began to harass him about it since they wanted an easy name to use in reference. Some of them even began to jokingly refer to the town as Nameless. “We’re having a vote on it in a couple of days. If you have a suggestion, you can go drop it off at the center. We’ve got a box set up there.”

“I’m no good at coming up with names like that. That’s why I need you to hurry up and figure one out!”

“Don’t worry, we’ll finally have a name decided on in a couple of days.”

“About time! Anyways, something you needed? Something you needed?”

Fenrir tilted his head. “You alright?”

“Why do you ask?”

Fenrir and Saya looked at each other. They never heard him repeat himself like that before and he didn’t even seem to notice he did, either. “Did you hear that update from Kadi?”

“Update from who now?”

Just as the other NPCs confirmed, none of them heard the news from Kadi. “Never mind. How do you feel? Everything seem normal?”

“Sure. Sure. Sure. Everything feels normal to me! Well, I guess my neck is a bit sore. Probably thanks to how I slept. Woke up this morning with my neck bent all wrong. All wrong.”

“You could head over to the massage parlor. Might help your neck out.” One of the players who lived in the settlement started up a massage parlor. Fenrir was pretty sure that the player only did so for an excuse to touch players’ bodies at first… but it turned out that he just really loved to give massages. Him and all of his girlfriends had gone for massages already. Supposedly, a couple of players even tried to seduce the massage-loving player with no success. Fenrir had to admit that he judged him wrong.

“Ah, I’ll pass. Wouldn’t want to take up a slot. I’ll leave that to you young’uns.”

“Just look out for yourself. People are going to miss you if something happens.”

Albert waved his hands at Fenrir. “Relax! It’s just a little little neck pain.”

“Alright. Well, good luck with the fishing today. Don’t move your neck too much.”

“Worry about yourself, young’un. A man with as many wives as you has a lot more to worry about than an old man like me!”

Fenrir would have corrected him about his girlfriends technically not being his wives yet, but he knew it was pointless.

Then there was Saya who would have corrected him about not being one of said wives yet, but she also knew it was pointless.

Both of them ended up blushing a little thanks to Albert as the old man walked off toward the beach.

“A-anyways,” Fenrir said, “he was like a couple of the others. Kept repeating himself.”

Saya cleared her throat and nodded. “Yeah. If their code was changed, maybe they’re still adapting to it? Might be something that will clear up on its own in a little bit as they gather more data.”

“Is it possible for you to… I don’t know, access their code and look at it?”

“Kind of, but it’s not that simple. There’s a lot of data blocked from me that Kadi is probably supervising. The stuff I can find is, to put it in simple terms, strictly read-only.”

“Well, most of them seem fine. It’s just the minority that have verbal glitches like that.”

“We have a really limited sample size here, onii-wan. In areas with more NPCs, there might be more who are experiencing those mistakes than those who aren’t.”

“Theoretically, couldn’t you check anywhere in the world whenever you want?”

“Theoretically, yeah, but the overseer would never let me get away with that. Scanning somebody in front of me is one thing since it’s not really exploiting the game at all, but checking on other places in the world where my avatar physically isn’t? She wouldn’t approve of that at all.”

“Fair enough. Well, there’s not much we can do about it aside from wait to see how things develop. At the very least, I don’t think we’ll have to worry about any of the NPCs here. They’re all friendly. Not to mention they’re all farmers or fishers.”

“You know… it’s possible that, when Kadi was controlling them, she made one look harmless but they’re actually a super powerful spy.”

“Great. Now I’m going to be worried about that.”

“That’s something you should keep in mind considering your position.”

“I know, I know. But, for now, innocent until proven guilty. I’m not going to get paranoid and look at all of them with suspicion. I’ll keep treating them as I’ve always been treating—wait. If Kadi released control… did I need to get souls for Rock and Shogun?”

“I told you, onii-wan. The NPCs aren’t real AIs… yet. If you didn’t give those souls to Rock and Shogun, they still wouldn’t be as smart as us, be able to join the Fiscord, play other games with us, and all that other stuff. They’d still be stuck here acting like NPCs with maybe an added verbal glitch every now and then.”

“Right. Well, like I said then. All we can really do is keep our eyes open and watch how things turn out. Hope that those verbal glitches fix themselves over—”

Fenrir was cut off when he felt somebody crash into him. Fortunately, the one who did the crashing was small enough to not knock him over or anything. He was a small boy, another NPC, who went by the name of Jackson. He was also one of the NPCs who Fenrir and Saya already checked up on earlier. Unlike Albert, Lucas was among the majority who had no obvious problems with his speech. Similar to Albert, he had a fishing rod in hand. “S-sorry!” the boy said to Fenrir. “Albert said he’d let me fish with him today!”

“I remember you telling me that when we talked earlier. I just saw him go down there, so I’m sure he’s waiting for you. Just try to watch where you’re running, alright?”

“I will! Promise! Thanks!” With that, Lucas ran off in the same direction that Albert went.

“Heh,” Saya giggled to herself.

Fenrir raised an eyebrow at her and asked, “What’s so funny?”

“You know I know exactly what you’re thinking.”

“R-right.”

Saya brought out her best teasing voice. “Onii-wan wants a little kid of his own to ride on his shoulders while fishing with him.”

“Don’t act like you don’t want one, too.”

Saya blushed just as much as Fenrir did when she was called out. “Well… it could be fun.” However, that blush was quick to fade. “But… it’s not like it’s possible for me.”

Having his dream called out wasn’t important. What was important was trying to make Saya feel better. “You never know. What if it is possible? I mean, if NPCs can get pregnant, then… it’s possible avatars could, too. Right?”

“They’re still just avatars. It’s not like we can actually combine our DNA or anything to make a kid. Even if another AI was created, it would basically just be a smaller clone of me. It could be affected by your mind like I am, but… it wouldn’t really be the same. I wouldn’t have to carry it inside me, it wouldn’t have our blood, and the overseer could snap one into existence at any time like it’s nothing. So, I think I’ll just live vicariously through one of the others.”

As much as Fenrir wanted to try and make her feel better, he couldn’t counter anything she said. It just wasn’t possible for an AI to have a child in the same way that a living, physical being could. Their only real option was to change the definition of what a child is.

But Fenrir knew that wouldn’t be good enough for Saya.

It was impossible and there was nothing he could think of to even inspire the slightest bit of hope.

Even so, he didn’t want to be depressing. Saya had already been through enough and he knew how much was on her mind. That was why he dramatically held his arms out before tightly wrapping them around Saya for a hug, lifting her up off of the ground and spinning around with her.

“O-onii-wan! What are you doing?!” Saya shouted at him.

“I’m spinning and hugging you at the same time!” Fenrir replied.

“But why?!”

“Because I can!”

Saya smacked him to try and get him to let her go, but she ended up giggling before long. It was only then that Fenrir finally let her down.

They struggled to stand still due to the vertigo from spinning.

“You’re such a baka, onii-wan,” Saya said, attempting to be pouty but smiling too much to truly act upset.

Fenrir’s smile matched her own. “I know. And thank you for the fanservice.”

“If you’re done spinning us around, shouldn’t you go check on your girlfriends? They’re probably wondering what’s going on with the update.”

“Yeah. That’s a good idea. Want to come with?”

Saya shook her head. “I’m going to try and do a bit more investigating on my own. Maybe go and talk to the NPCs who sounded fine earlier and see if I can catch any errors if they talk for long enough. Maybe they’re all experiencing these problems, but we just didn’t keep them talking long enough to catch it for most of them.”

“That’s a good point. Alright. Let me know if you find anything out.”

Saya raised a hand up to her forehead to give him a cute little salute. “I’ll do my best!”

“You’re too adorable.”

“I know.”

Following a playful wink, Saya ran off with a swishing tail behind her.

“Looks like Operation: Cheer Saya Up was at least a little bit of a success,” Fenrir said to himself.

“Don’t forget that I’m still in here with you,” Saya said within his head.

Right, Fenrir thought. I always forget that whenever your avatar leaves.

“Dumb dumb onii-wan. Also… thanks. Obligatory hmph.”

I’ll obligatory hug the heck out of you later if you keep on giving me tsundere fanservice.

“Hmph! It’s not like I want to give you tsundere fanservice or anything, baka! Hmph! Hmph, hmph!”

Guess I’ve got to cuddle you so hard that the universe explodes now.

“Hmph!”

Fenrir knew that Cassiel wanted to take the others out for some training, so he walked toward the main entrance to the town. They probably went to one of the fields far enough away from the city where nobody would be disturbed from Azalabulia’s explosions and where Serra could feel confident not being watched by any potentially judging eyes. As bold as Serra could be, she still had some shyness in her. Especially when it came to practicing new things around people she didn’t know.

Though, Fenrir wouldn’t actually get to see any of their training since he intercepted his girlfriends right as they were about to come through the main gates.

“Hey! Done training already?” Fenrir called out to them.

“Yeah,” Cassiel answered. “After we heard that update, we thought we’d come back and see if you’re in yet.”

“Why’s that? You could have kept training. I was about to come looking for you.”

“It sounded like a big deal and we thought you might know something about it. Or Saya might know.”

Nell’s tail flicked with a bit more energy when she heard Saya’s name.

Unfortunately for them, Fenrir sighed and shook his head. “We don’t know what’s going on. All we know is that they’re controlled by the overseer anymore, they’re more than classical NPCs, but they’re not quite AIs on their own.”

There was more to tell them, so Fenrir found a spot where they could sit together and talk about everything that he and Saya figured out. There wasn’t much else to talk about, but he did go over the specific instances of NPCs experiencing verbal glitches.

The girls had more questions than they started with by the time they got done listening to everything Fenrir said.

And, of course, while they were sitting down around a table, Serra ended up crawling underneath it only to pop back up between Fenrir’s legs, climbing atop him to use his lap as her throne. She made sure to tease him as he explained everything by being very deliberate about where she grinded her rear against. Especially when she felt his crotch press up against her.

Serra was just as interested in everything going on as everybody else, but was also Serra, and it was only natural for Serra to do Serra things.

Then there was Eva. While most of the girls seemed to have about the same level of curiosity, Eva was on a much higher level as she practically shook with excitement. She was the first one to speak up once Fenrir was done going over everything. “Oh man… the Scholars must be freaking out right now! It sounds like the overseer is running some sort of test. If she’s running a test, then I promise that the Scholars want to participate and do a whole bunch of tests on their own!”

“Should… should I be worried about what they might be doing to NPCs?” Fenrir asked.

“Oh, no, don’t worry. They’re still ethical… in the sense that they care about consent. You know, sure, they might be curious about their reception to pain if they lose a limb or two or four, but they would only do those kinds of tests with consent. Basically, absolutely anything goes as long as there’s consent.”

“That didn’t make me feel any less worried.”

“It’ll be fine. Promise. They’re good people there. They’re all kind of crazy, but they’re the good kind of crazy. The kind of crazy that would break the hand of anybody trying to grope you without consent before asking you if you want to try out their homebrewed booze made out of fairy dust, fermented eggs, and some sticks they randomly picked up in the forest.”

“Wait, are there fairies in this game?”

“Yep. Some of them are down by the Scholars HQ.”

“What are they like?”

“Bloodthirsty monsters who will tear your throat out without a second of hesitation. And no, I’m not joking since everybody always thinks we are when we tell people about them.”

“Do they look like… tiny girls with wings?”

“Sure… in the sense that they’re tiny, mostly female, and have wings. They just also, you know, have mouths that take up half their face with an interior that looks like a shark’s while having creepy hair that is always flowing around them even when there’s no wind to be blowing it. Oh, then there are their nails which are almost as long as they are tall. Seriously, they’re terrifying. They don’t taste that good, either.”

“You’ve… you’ve eaten them?”

Eva placed a hand on Fenrir’s shoulder and looked him seriously in the eyes. “It would be wiser to ask me what I haven’t eaten.”

“What haven’t you eaten?”

Eva held up one hand and began to count with it. After sticking out only two fingers, she seriously began to struggle with thinking of more things she never tried eating. When she finally did stick a third finger out, she retracted it a second later.

“Never… never mind,” Fenrir said. “I’m afraid of the implications if you don’t list what I hope to hear.”

Eva nodded and stopped. “It’s good that you can hold back your curiosity. There are some things out there better left forever unknown. I can’t personally relate to that, but I know there are others who discover things they wish they never did.”

“Your curiosity is OP, Eva.”

“That’s the sweetest thing you’ve ever said to me. I’ve fallen in love with you all over again.”

“My turn!” Nell declared, raising her hand. “I wish to fall in love with you all over again now, my hero!”

“Is this on-demand love revival time or something?” Fenrir asked.

Nell nodded with an eager smile. “It is by my decree that this is, in fact, now that time!”

“Alright. Then… I’ll pretend to be an orc for you the next time we’re in bed?”

Nell swooned and brought a hand up to fan her face in an overly dramatic fashion. “Goodness, my hero. I expected you to make me fall in love with you, not in love and lust at the same time!”

“My turn,” Serra said.

Fenrir narrowed his eyes at her. “You’re all seriously going to make me do this, aren’t you?”

“Yeah. My turn.”

Fortunately, Serra would be just as easy as Nell. All Fenrir had to do with Serra was hold her by her hips since she was already on his lap and push her down against his crotch to bump her in the exact right spot.

A soft moan left Serra’s lips in response before she nodded. “Good job. You pass.”

“Alright. Who’s next?” Fenrir asked, looking at Cassiel and Azalabulia.

Cassiel was quick to point at Azalabulia before she could even say anything.

“Wa-wait!” Azalabulia said. “I don’t know if I’m ready yet!”

Fenrir cleared his throat regardless of Azalabulia’s readiness and then said, “Azalabulia, Dark and Twisted Sorceress of Bahamut, would you set this world ablaze with me as we tread a path so dark that none may follow?” I want to die. I want to die. I want to die. I want to die. Somebody please kill me for actually saying that.

“No can do, onii-wan. Also, I saved that and am going to play it back for you at random times when you don’t expect it. Or right after you do something really cool and feel proud of yourself,” Saya mentally chimed in.

As embarrassed as Fenrir might have felt for saying that, at least Azalabulia was squealing like an excited fangirl, rocking side to side on her stool which ended up shaking her napping, draconic companion off her shoulder. Fortunately for the tiny dragon, he slid down her front, over her breasts, and ended up planting his head down into her cleavage.

Fenrir couldn’t help but to feel a little jealous. I want to be you, he thought as he stared at the dragon.

While any other man, and all of Fenrir’s girlfriends, would have loved to be in the dragon’s position, the dragon himself didn’t share the same excitement over having his head sandwiched between Azalabulia’s breasts. If anything, the dragon was quick to suffocate between them, panicking with his limbs flailing around in the air above her breasts, and then pushed down against them to pull his head out from her.

The dragon took a few deep, heavy breaths once he was safe.

Since Azalabulia was completely unaware of what just happened and still in fangirl mode, the dragon needed a new spot to rest. First, he looked at Cassiel’s chest. It was large enough to potentially pose the same problem. Then there was Nell. Nell’s chest was smaller but still potentially deadly. There were Eva and Serra who were small enough to not be threats, but their shoulders were too thin for him to comfortably rest on. So, in the end, the dragon set his eyes on Fenrir’s chest. Perfectly flat and safe. On top of that, Fenrir’s shoulders provided significantly more area for him to rest on, so he jumped over to Fenrir’s right shoulder and curled up atop it to resume his nap.

Scratch that. I can’t be jealous of you when you’re this cute, Fenrir thought as he reached a hand up to scratch the scales atop the dragon’s head. The little dragon even released a pur-like noise to show his gratitude for the scratches. It was impossible for Fenrir to remove his finger from the dragon’s head after that. So, while still scratching the dragon, he looked at Cassiel and asked, “Are you ready? I know exactly what’s going to blow your mind and make you fall even deeper in love with me than ever before.”

Cassiel raised an eyebrow at him and crossed her arms under her chest. “Uh-huh. You seem awfully confident. I’m not going to—”

“I love you, Cassandra.”

Cassiel’s cheeks were quick to ignite as her eyes widened from surprise. His attack might have been simple, but it was direct and honest. No amount of defense could have prepared her for such a powerful strike at her heart. So, with cheeks that were blushing far more than she could have expected from his simple declaration, she covered up her face and lowered her head. “Tha-that’s not fair,” she whined. “You made me expect something outrageous after everybody else…”

“What can I say? I love you. I want nothing more than to make you happy, and I know that the best way to do that is by being serious and honest about my love for you. So, I’ll say it again. I love you, Cassandra, and I’ll love you for the rest of my life.”

Cassiel lowered her head more and more as he continued, her blush quickly extending to her neck and ears under his relentless barrage of attacks that could instakill even the strongest of overpowered raid bosses. “That’s—that’s enough! You can—can stop now!”

“But I want to hear you say it back.”

“Fine! I love you!” Cassiel shouted. She was more than loud enough for other players nearby to hear. “I love you from the bottom of my heart, you jerk! And I can’t wait to spend the rest of my life with you! Just—just stop talking already! I wasn’t ready for this and it’s too embarrassing to suddenly hear all that!”

Just as Cassiel requested, Fenrir stopped talking. In fact, everybody did. It was only a couple of moments later when she opened her eyes to see why everybody was so quiet that she saw the other players around dead in their tracks looking their way. Everybody was blushing at that point.

“Nope,” Cassiel said.

Her body went limp a moment later, her forehead smacking against the table in front of her.

“Did… she just wake?” Fenrir asked.

“It would look like it, my hero,” Nell answered.

“Should we check on her?”

“Probably not. I imagine that she is currently screaming into a pillow and needs a few moments to cool down. That being said! Now that I heard such a passionate declaration from you, I would like to redeem that for myself, too!”

“Same,” Serra said.

“That would be nice,” Eva agreed.

“I… I’ll pass,” Azalabulia said. “I wouldn’t be able to handle it anywhere near as good as Cass did.”

“Well,” Fenrir said, “that just makes me want to start with you.”

“I—I’ll wake before you even start!”

Fenrir pouted at her before realizing something that seemed unfair. “I already gave all of you fanservice. Isn’t it my turn to get some?”

Nell clapped her hands together and said, “Wonderful point, my hero! If you do not mind waiting, would you allow us to prepare ourselves first? At the very least, I would appreciate it if you were to give me a moment to prepare so that I may give you the best service possible. Also, we should do this in our house.”

After all the concerns caused by Kadi earlier, enjoying some fanservice from his girlfriends in the privacy of their in-game home sounded like a perfect idea to Fenrir. “Sounds like a great plan to me. Serra, mind getting off?”

“In front of everybody?” Serra asked, looking back and up at him with a smirk.

“I honestly don’t even know how to reply when you say things like that. You’re too good at this.”

“A kiss is good enough.”

If that was the case, Fenrir was happy to lean down and plant a kiss on her lips.

Unfortunately, by leaning down to kiss Serra, he rolled the dragon off from his shoulder. The poor dragon ended up faceplanting into the ground, betrayed by Fenrir’s shoulder and now without a home he could trust.

The life of a tiny dragon was a hard one.