A rush of adrenaline passed through me as the world disappeared. Suddenly I was in a dimly lit room. A single figure kneeled before me. It was Inethiel.

Wait, Raccoon said.

A wave of relief passed through me. He’d made it through.

The room lit up briefly and a spotlight shone on the ground next to Inethiel. A bluebird appeared in the space. It looked up at me.

I attempted to crouch down and only then did I realize I didn't have a body. I wasn't sure what I looked like actually.

We're a floating orb, Raccoon said.

Raccoon could hear my thoughts sometimes but not at other times. It was very confusing.

My menu and several other windows popped up and disappeared. The bird changed into a snail. Then it changed to a pig, a lizard, a frog, turtle, and it stopped on a worm.

Hmm, give me a minute, Raccoon said.

The spotlight in the room flickered and the animals continued changing.

What are you doing? I asked.

In response, the process quickened. Every five or so creatures the light would flash and then the process would continue. It must have gone through thousands of animals in five minutes. Eventually, it stopped on a raccoon.

It was pretty standard as far as raccoons went. A mixed flush of brown black and grey. I preferred Raccoon’s simple black and gray palette over it but it would do.

Larger mammals like these are very rare, Raccoon said.

Based on the volume of creatures he’s shifted through, he was right.

I guided myself to the little mammal. Yeah, but it's on my account, we can't play two characters at once.

Are you sure? he asked.

If I was the developer I wouldn't have allowed it. Then again I knew the Zix were sentient. After thinking about it for a moment, I decided it would be cool to let people's AI play with them.

That's what I'm trying to do, Raccoon said.

It was fine with me. Don't break anything.

I won't, he said.

A small sphere of light shot out in front of me. It bobbed in the air. Get close to Inethiel and I'll get close to the raccoon. We'll try and enter them at the same time.

Raccoon’s representation was so tiny. I did as he suggested.

Four… three… two… one… go! he said.

I dashed into Inethiel as fast as I could and hoped he did the same to his avatar.

My perspective shifted, and I was staring at the ground. The room brightened as a bed and a small nightstand appeared next to me.

I braced myself on the bed and pulled myself onto it.

Raccoon wasn't—

A loud thump came from below me and he crawled out from under the bed. He sat and rubbed his head. “Ouch, I feel pain here too?”

“Are you okay?” I asked.

Raccoon's eyes went wide when he saw me. “You look so much scarier.”

“You saw me like this before,” I said.

He shook his head. “There's something different. You're more real.”

How could I be more… realistic? Maybe he was just seeing things. I pinched my fingers together. The games menu popped up and I checked my stats. They were still buffed so I examined my inventory. The Zix sword was in there.

“Shit,” I said.

“What?” Raccoon asked.

I swallowed. Was it the same one as in my home server? I’d only ever had Kumo’s Fang on the live server so how had this transferred over? I was sure that the devs wouldn’t move it, willingly at least. “The Zix sword is still in my inventory.”

“The fox one that hurt me?” he asked.

He did mention it hurting him previously, and Ferret even cried after making contact with it. “I didn't know it would hurt when you touched it, otherwise, I wouldn't have asked you to examine it.”

“You really mean that?” he asked.

“Of course, I'm not an unfeeling monster, despite my current appearance,” I said.

Raccoon stood. “I'm working on that program to mitigate the flow of your emotions.”

His subject change was out of the blue.

“Will that make it hard for you to play the game?” I asked. “You can't just disappear whenever you want here.”

He shook his head. “Almost done with it.”

I browsed through my interface. It was nice being in the game. My life felt like it was finally getting back to normal.

The whole “doctors think I'm dying” thing loomed over me like a plague but if I ignored that horrifying fact, I felt better.

“Let's get the hell out of here,” I said as I got up. I didn't feel dizzy, which was good. The Raccoon’s shell wasn't in my inventory. I wondered where it went. So long as it was working I didn't care.

As I approached the door I debated if I should wear my disguise or not. Technically, no one could hurt me in town so I could go out as I was. High-ranked pickpockets could snag a few coins from you if you weren't careful so I needed to focus on what would make me less of a target for them.

People might be able to recognize my mask which could be problematic. Like all Harlequin masks, it had a unique design. Since I was technically famous, someone would probably recognize it.

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Then again, I'd evolved to a Wight, and seeing a new type of undead around would probably cause even more of a stir.

Cloak and mask it was.

While I donned the outfit, Raccoon trotted up next to me. “Ready?”

I took a few seconds to change my mindset channeling my current situation into my emotions. A small filtering of range dripped into my persona. I was ready to rip the Enlightened a new one.

Neither Darryl nor Molly were online but Aaron was, which was great because I had a ton of junk to sell.

“To the identifier and then the Grizzled Beard,” I said.

That was the goal but I first had to figure out where we were.

On the other side of the door, there was a panel with my real name on it. A hallway with half a dozen doors like mine led to a dead end on one side and the other led to an open room.

The room had panels along the walls giving it a hospital lobby feel. At a standing desk, a familiar girl fiddled with her interface.

“Jules?” I asked.

She looked up at me. “Can I help you?”

“It's me, Azerail,” I said as I pulled off my mask.

Her eyes lit up and she screeched. “Az!” She sped through the counter as if it wasn't there and solidified as she grabbed me. “Where have you been? No one would tell us anything.”

I hugged her back and fell out of character. “They have you working here?”

She nodded. “I'm filling in for someone. It’s another one of Dr. Stevens's locations.”

We backed up and she took my hands into hers.

“What do you know about what happened?” I asked.

She squeezed my hands. “They brought you in a few days ago and you were unconscious.”

“And what's this place?” I asked before I let go of her hands and took a step back.

Her eyes darted back and forth. “The comatose—” She covered her mouth as she gasped.

I nodded.

We stared at each other for a moment before Julia's eyes teared up.

The place where my tear ducts should be swelled and I looked away.

I guessed that this was a sort of hub for people like me who played this game. If that was the case this was probably the doctor's office in the real world. If I squinted hard enough I could see the resemblance to the lobby I’d been in with Kevin a few days ago. It was dilapidated except for Julia’s desk and a few broken chairs.

Anyone who was gazing through her eyes would be able to learn about my situation. Unless the area had privacy restrictions. A quick check of my interface didn’t indicate what it was set to. I hoped that swapping to the live servers would change my connection issues since this was where Kumo was trying to get me to go. The menu did show a log-out option though which was relieving.

“A-are you okay at least?” she asked.

Our eyes met and I lost it. It wasn’t okay, none of it was okay.

She hugged me then and we sat on the ground.

Though I couldn’t cry, I held her and dry sobbed into her shoulder.

Julia and I weren't super close friends. She'd come to a birthday party or two of mine but we were mostly “Doctors office lobby” friends.

Either way, I welcomed the affection.

Raccoon scurried past us toward a door. He glanced at me and dashed through a cat flap built into it.

I remembered that the rerolls for pets were limited just then. He must have hacked the system or something to get the pet he wanted.

Julia didn't seem to notice his crossing.

“I need to go,” I said while pulling away. She had a habit of keeping me talking for hours and I didn't want to leave Raccoon alone that long. If he was willing to hack the game for something as simple as character appearance, who knew what else he would do?

She blinked a few times. “Why?”

“I only have a limited time to play,” I said.

The longer I was in here the more pressure my parents would put on the developers to enable Raccoons connection to the Qweb. Which meant that I did have a limited timeframe.

She helped me up. “What are you going to do?"

“Sell some equipment at Aarons,” I said.

“No, I mean…” she said as she gestured at my body.

I shook my head. “I can’t do anything or talk about what happened. Parents rules.”

“I think I’m going to make a character for this game,” she said.

“What? Really?” I asked.

She nodded. “Aaron plays and you tell me about this place all the time.”

“It can be pretty gruesome,” I said.

It wasn’t like I didn’t want her to play because I did need more in-game friends but she didn’t like stuff like that.

“I’ll make a shop like Aaron or something like that,” she said.

I gave her another hug. “I’ll make sure to visit every time I’m in town.”

She wiped away her tears. “Say hi to Aaron for me.”

A part of me felt guilty, I enjoyed talking with her.

“When you get a character let Aaron know and I’ll send you a friend request,” I said.

The game had protections built into it so you couldn’t friend them unless they were there with you or if you were connected in real life. Since my interface was disabled we would have to meet up.

She nodded.

I strode to the door Raccoon left through, put my mask and hood on, opened it, and walked out.

The light hit me like a truck causing a sharp tone to pierce my brain. I pressed my fingers against my temples.

Through the torturous tinnitus, I saw Raccoon fall over and grab his head.

It stopped after a moment but it seemed the implant pain was back in full swing.

Raccoon sat up and groggily glanced up at me. “I’m going to have to fix that.”

“Get in line,” I said. “Doctor Stevens is already trying.”

He shook as if his coat was drenched and stood up. “I know a lot more than he does.”

I didn’t doubt it. “You ready to go?”

“Yeah,” he said.

I tapped my fingers together three times and the town map popped up. After marking the location with a little house icon I selected the identifier hut and a path showed the best way to get there. Unfortunately, the devs wouldn’t implement an AR path so we had to go off of landmarks and street names. Our location was pretty far off from the hut but it wouldn’t take us very long to get there.

While we walked I noticed something odd. There were a lot more people with cloaks and masks like mine around. They weren’t perfect replicas but they were pretty close. However, the colors were an exact match. Was I popular enough to create a trend?

It seemed that I wouldn’t have as much of a problem blending in as I thought.

Pets were everywhere. Some were hopping alongside people and others wandered freely. I nearly stepped on a lizard while turning a corner.

“Watch it!” it said in passing.

After it was out of earshot I asked Raccoon, “Did you hear it speak?”

“Yeah,” he said as he tried to keep up. “Do you have to walk so fast?”

I smiled. “Getting tired?”

“It’s not funny,” he said.

We slowed to a stop. “You can ride on my shoulder if you want?”

He sat on his haunches opening and closing his hands. “I didn't know it would hurt to walk.”

“I think there’s a callus system in this game so it’ll build up over time. It shouldn’t hurt as bad after that,” I said. It seemed like a reasonable feature, I wasn’t human and didn’t have problems like that.

Suddenly Raccoon’s size reduced by nearly half. Along with the change in height his features altered as well. He looked like a younger version of a raccoon.

“You shouldn’t do that,” I said.

He looked up at me. It was only then that I realized just how cute he appeared.

“Why not?” he asked.

“First, this is a game where you work for the things you want. Second, when you look as cute as that, everyone will want to pet you. And I know you don’t like to be touched,” I said.

“Give me your arm,” he said.

I reached for him and he climbed it settling on my shoulder.

“I like how I look,” he said.

“You’ve been warned,” I replied.

Identifier huts were common around town but I preferred Victor’s place because his prices were low and he didn’t ask questions. Before Molly properly introduced him to me I didn’t even know his name.

When his shop came in sight I sighed in relief. Then I noticed the line.

“Damn,” I said.

Raccoon shuffled his feet. “We have to wait?”

“If we want to make some money then yeah,” I said.

Of all the people there I was sure Victor would be able to pick me out amongst the individuals with imitation masks on.

My stature had changed but his appraisal was high enough to identify my low rank gear at a glance.

I took in a deep breath, put on my undead persona, and stepped into line.

***