Lilia had to log off to get ready for her classes. Unlike JiYeong, Lilia decided to go to graduate school. Medical school, to be exact.

Lilia promised to message her when her first class was over. JiYeong responded that she would be on all day.

JiYeong did take a quick pause to wash out her cereal bowl and grab a cup of orange juice. When she returned to the computer she saw a new message. Opening the inbox showed that the message was actually a new quest.

Which was strange because new quests didn’t come through inbox.

Lady JiYeong,

“Lady?” She couldn’t help but snort. So ladylike sitting in her shorts and oversized t-shirt.

The Kingdom of Criesal, and all of Allumia is in danger. We are imploring you to join us in defending our Kingdom, and protecting our citizens. Should you choose to accept, we ask you to come to Whitewall and speak with Queen Adaora for more information.

Accept | Decline

She ran a hand through her hair, grunting when she felt her fingers snag on the braid from last night.

This was a strange quest, and an even stranger way of giving it, but JiYeong accepted it anyway, curiosity once again getting the better of her.

She warped to Whitewall as per the instructions, looking around the town a bit. It was surprisingly empty for there being a brand new event quest happening right now. Maybe it wasn’t a server wide quest. A new quest line for the Guardian class, then?

That would make sense. The letter was asking for her help defending the realm. Which meant there would probably be some kind of war. The vagueness of the letter was weird though.

Before heading to the castle she stopped by a merchant to sell some of her unneeded and unusable items, freeing up some slots in her inventory. JiYeong learned early on it was better to have extra space in your inventory, especially if you were starting a new quest. Unless specifically stated by the quest giver, it was hard to tell if you would get items as rewards, or if you would have to gather items during the quest.

Once she was finished selling she walked to the castle, still surprised at the lack of players around. If it was a new Guardian quest line, there should have at least been some players of the same class around getting the quest as well.

“Strange.”

JiYeong moved her character to the Knight guarding the entrance to the castle. Several clicks through the options given to her to get access into the castle and then she was waiting for the new screen to load.

The game didn’t give very many opportunities to go inside the castle. Most of the quests that had to do with the rulers of Criesal were given outside of the castle by the Knight.

Queen Adaora stood near her throne. She was beautiful; deep chocolate skin and sharp blue eyes that many associated with a clear sky. Her hair, almost black in color, fell in curls down her back and around her waist.

Clicking on her worried character didn’t give her much new information though, only telling her there was a possible threat to Allumia and that she was needed to help defend the realm.

Adaora’s expression changed to one of relief once she confirmed JiYeong’s willingness to help, and she was instructed to go to the Obsidian Outpost. There JiYeong would meet with a few of Adaora’s allies who were supposed to give her a better breakdown of what was happening, and what she could do to help. From there they would meet back at the castle to await further instruction.

JiYeong warped out of the castle, opening the map to check the distance from Whitewall to Obsidian Outpost. It wasn’t far at all. Close enough that she decided to ride a mount instead of fast traveling there.

Opening her inventory she found the whistle used to summon a mount; a large black horse with grey hooves and midnight blue streaks in its mane she named YeongGi. It was the first mount JiYeong had gotten from a dungeon and the one she used the most often.

The ride to Obsidian Outpost took all of two minutes. Criesal’s scenery was just as beautiful as the rest of the game. Since the Cherry Blossom was prominent in the Human Kingdom - white and blue instead of the usual pink blossoms - there were dozens of trees lining the road and Kli’oh River.

It was while she was getting ready to take a screenshot that the game crashed.

Of course that bothered her. The game never crashed. JiYeong had invested quite a bit of money building a computer strong enough to handle playing games like this.

JiYeong tried re-logging into the game. It acted as if it was going to load, and then went black before force-closing itself. After trying a couple more times she decided to call it quits.

⚔⚔⚔

Lils: What time did you get off BoH?

A text from Lilia greeted her the next afternoon.

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You: My game crashed about ten or so, after picking up a new event quest.

Lils: New event quest? What new event quest?

You: The one in Whitewall?

Lils: There is no event in Whitewall. They would have made an announcement or had a patch or something. Sure you’re not just making stuff up?

You: What? No. There was a quest. I picked it up. The queen gives it out.

Lils: Since when does the queen give quests?

You: I have no idea. I didn’t think she did but I went to the castle and there she was.

Lils: Huh...weird.

Instead of her regular phone messages, Lilia’s picture on Facebook Messenger popped up on her phone and JiYeong shook her head.

Lilia Lui: I take it since you’re on fb BoH still won’t let you on?

JiYeong So: It keeps force closing on me. I tried logging in this morning and when I got home just a few minutes ago and it’s still not letting me in. Is it working for you?

Lilia Lui: Yeah, it let me log in just fine. I’ll ask Zaos if he had any problems logging in.

JiYeong So: Awe are you guys playing together? How cute.

Lilia Lui: Shut up!

Lilia Lui: He said he hasn’t had any issues either.

JiYeong So: Weird. Maybe I need to redownload or something.

Lilia Lui: Who knows? I’m starving. Wanna go to the diner and grab something to eat?

JiYeong So: Sure, let me change real quick and then I’ll head out.

Lilia Lui: Awesome. See you in a bit!

JiYeong locked her phone, leaning back in the chair and letting out a huff. Why was her game being so weird? First the sudden quest and now it wasn’t letting her log in at all.

“Oh well.” She wasn’t going to worry about it too much, especially since there wasn’t much she could do about it.

After changing out of her work uniform, throwing on a pair of jeans and a loose fitting t-shirt, she left so she could meet up with Lilia.

The diner wasn’t too far away, roughly ten minutes walking. Lilia was already there waiting when she arrived.

“Hi JiJi!” Lilia quipped when she came within earshot. She still had a Hawaiian accent, having only moved Michigan to go to school.

“Aloha, dongsaengie.” She replied, giving her a salute.

“Why do you insist on calling her that?”

JiYeong shrugged, looping her arm through Lilia’s. “Because it annoys you. So, what are ya buying me today?”

“Um, excuse me. I’m the poor grad student here.” Lilia feigned shock, a hand going to her heart.

“Oh please. Your parents pay for your schooling and you just work for fun.” She scoffed. “I’m the one who has to work a million jobs just to pay for her apartment.”

Lilia giggled, walking to the counter. She ordered for both of them, two burgers, a basket of fries to share and two pops.

After paying they sat at a booth, sipping on their drinks.

“Still no luck with the game?” Lilia asked, straw in mouth.

“No. Really annoying.”

“Your game almost never crashes.”

“Yeah I know. I built that computer specifically so crashing wouldn’t happen.” She slouched in the chair. “It happened almost as soon as I accepted that quest.”

“Oh yeah, the mystery quest that no-one but you seemed to have gotten.” Lilia folded her arms on the table, twirling a piece of her blonde hair around a finger. “I asked Zaos, since he has a Guardian too if he got the quest and he said he hadn’t seen anything.”

“Well, there goes my theory of it being a class specific quest.” She paused to take a sip of her pop. “What’s weirder is it came in my messages too. I never get quests like that. It’s always by an NPC.”

“Yeah, that is weird.” Lilia hummed. The waiter brought them their food, and Lilia thanked her before pushing the basket of fries toward the middle. Almost immediately she was reaching for the basket and was popping a fry in her mouth, letting out a breath when it burned her tongue. “Ouch! That’s hot.”

“I told you, you gotta stop sticking food in your mouth as soon as it gets here. Usually things are hot.” JiYeong chastised, sitting up and reaching for her burger. Her stomach had begun growling on the way over, having not eaten anything since going to work.

“Oh! So I finally hit level 50 today on my Botanist.” Lilia said around a mouth full of food.

JiYeong made a face. “Oh nice. What’s the next big quest for you then?”

“Uh…I gotta gather a bunch of high quality ingredients for some chef in Blackmeadow. Like 99 of each.”

“Holy crap.” She swallowed her mouthful of fries, reaching for another few. “What ingredients do you need?”

“I think I need maple, mint, cocoa beans, peppercorn, snails…” She took another bite of her burger, trailing off.

“Geez, so much. The heck is the chef making?”

“No idea. Probably something for a banquet.”

“I think I might have a couple of those in high quality, if I can ever get my game to work.”

Lilia shook her head, chewing on another fry. The basket was almost empty, and their pops were finished off a while ago. “Nah, it doesn’t count. Zaos already tried.” She drummed her fingers on the table, half a fry hanging from her mouth. “By the way. Zaos asked about you. I told him about your computer problems, but he says you’re just avoiding joining his guild.”

“Zaos knows full well I’m never joining his guild. He’s been asking for the last two years, my answer isn’t gonna change.” JiYeong went to take a sip of her pop, forgetting for a moment that was empty. “Want more coke?”

“Oh, please.” Lilia smiled, holding out her cup for her to take. “Thank you ma’am.”

“Don't make me fight you.” She warned, leaving the table to fill the drinks back up.

“So why don’t you join Zaos’s guild, Lils? You talk to him enough, and I’m sure he asks you just as often as he asks me.” JiYeong asked her when she returned to the table, full cups in hand.

“He does.” A light blush dusted her cheeks. She suspected there was more to that statement than Lilia was letting on. It was pretty obvious her and Zaos liked each other, and they flirted often enough. JiYeong didn’t understand why they just didn’t become a thing. It wasn’t as if Canada was that far away from where they lived, and both of them had enough money to visit each other if they wanted.

“And? I’d think if anyone, Zaos’ guild would be the one you’d join.”

“I told you, I’ll join a guild when you do. And since you haven’t, neither will I.” Lilia said, obviously relieved she hadn’t asked about the blush clear on her face.

“Don’t let me keep you from being with your lover.” JiYeong couldn’t help but tease.

“He isn’t my lover!” Lilia squeaked. Her face reddened when she realized she was a bit louder than she’d intended to be and that she was drawing attention. She sank in her chair a bit, pouting at a grinning JiYeong. “We’re just really good friends you jerk.”

“Sure you are. Really good friends who spends most of their waking moments talking to each other or playing with each other.”

“I spend just as much time talking to you!” She threw a fry at JiYeong.

JiYeong laughed, finishing off her burger and stacking her tray with Lilia’s. “I'm just teasing you Lils.” She glanced out the window, making a face. “It’s getting dark. We should probably head out so we aren’t walking in pitch darkness.”

“Ah yeah, don’t want the boogie man to get us.”

JiYeong made it back just as the street lights were starting to come on.

Even though she didn’t really think it would work, JiYeong went to turn her computer on anyway, hoping that Allumia Crossing had stopped being weird and would let her play.

Surprisingly enough the game actually got past the loading screen, and the familiar sight of Whitewall appeared. She let out a breath, happy that the game hadn’t gone completely off the deep-end. JiYeong really hadn’t wanted to reinstall the entire thing. Despite having a decent computer, it still took hours to download and patch the game the first time she installed it.

The fact that she was not in Obsidian Outpost like she should have been hadn’t dawned on her immediately.

Actually, the first thing JiYeong noticed was that she had a new notification icon in her mailbox. Figuring it was from Lilia or Zaos she opened it.

Before JiYeong got a chance to read it though, she felt a sudden gust of air. The screen flickered for a moment, and then everything went black.