Haru trembled as Min patted her on the shoulder, mortified at what he just proposed.

The magus Balthazar scoffed. “You’re advising we send an infected mob into the game as a synthetic player in order to defeat this hacker?”

The professor adjusted his glasses with a smirk. “Precisely.”

“That’s ridiculous!” Balthazar hopped in his chair situated above them on a stage and pulled up the witch’s stats once more on the screen behind Haru. “Why, look at that power output. If she could have beat him before, she would have. Your credibility, and your job, is at stake here.”

Min shook his head. “I accept full responsibility.” He looked to Haru with a confident smirk, then back to the magus. “And your statement about her defeating this hacker before was false.”

“Are you calling me a liar?” Balthazar grimaced as he slid forward in his chair.

Another of the three magi, Melchior, raised his hand in an attempt to calm his peer. “Why don’t you explain what you mean?”

The professor nodded and turned to the display behind the witch and flicked his wrist. He pulled up a white paper, the rules. The dense text scrolled rapidly until coming to a stop suddenly.

“Section J, subsection 41 dot alpha dash 2, paragraph 12,” Min turned back to the magi in their seats on high. “—states that no mob shall be permitted to in-fight with those of equal classification for any reason. The system strictly enforces any such action by any means necessary, including forced misses…”

Haru began to think back to the fight when the infection pressed her to attack the demon’s core.

“…damage negation, or even physical diversion.” Min finished his statement.

The witch’s eyes shot open, realization striking like a lightning bolt to the head. It wasn’t the heat that swept away the laser beam. The professor was indeed correct. Those missed shots were enforced by the system itself, even in that demented dimension the demon created. She began to believe Min’s plan was actually sound.

“Oh that means nothing.” Balthazar forced a laugh. “This hacker could be anything they want.”

“I’m not sure that’s quite right.” Haru worked up the courage to speak.

Melchior looked to his third and identical compatriot, Gaspar with a cocked eyebrow.

Gaspar leaned forward. “Why is it not right? Surely this hacker can bend the game to his will.”

Haru thought for a moment, about the demon’s movements. How, in her encounter, the goal was to strip her companion Vernal of his second phase. Then, in the burning version of Waylander’s Wastes, his only moves were that of striking with his tendrils and using Vernal’s sabretooth stomp.

The witch took a deep breath to steel herself against the fear of talking to the magi. “I think the professor is correct. This hacker, for some reason even I’m unsure of, can only use the attacks of those he captures. He’s trying to become a boss encounter of some kind.”

The three magi looked at each other, clearly confused.

Melchior cleared his throat. “Even still, if we send Haru to fight this thing as a player, what’s to stop him from ramping up his power level to impossible levels?”

Min stepped forward. “Section K, subsection 4, paragraph 7.” He looked to the magi for a moment, then to Haru to finish.

The witch knew most of these rules, having learned them when she was temporarily removed from the game the first time. “Mobs of any classification cannot change levels or stats without first having gone through pre-production validation.”

With an enthusiastic nod, the professor continued. “If he somehow broke the safeguards and disabled the watchdogs that enforce this rule, he would have already skipped to the area which he desired to go.”

Balthazar hummed chirpily. “Then send her in. Let’s take this bastard down for good.”

Haru recoiled at the suddenness of being forced into this plan.

Gaspar groaned and held up his hand at his peer. “That is not how this will work.” He turned to the witch. “It is your choice to make.”

Now all eyes were on Haru. In the blink of an eye, it felt like the massive room grew to fit on the head of a pin. She squirmed, the pressure mounting to decide. She was afraid of the infection, wondering if it would eventually break her. There was also simply failing again against the demon, the fear of letting everyone down.

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But if she didn’t agree to go, who would take her place? They could end up in a situation like Leonora, where the demon could easily take them down by infection.

After a while of consideration, Haru decided. “I’ll do it.”

Melchior smiled. “Good. Then let us make preparations.”

Haru and Min departed, returning to the academy proper. He led her to a simple door which was labeled ‘No Access’. There wasn’t even a model for it, just painted onto the texture of the wall. With his keyring, he opened the inaccessible entrance. The label changed to ‘Room 101’. Then it slid open and revealed an unlit control room with darkened windows.

Inside, after closing the door, Min flicked switches on the panels and the room’s illumination flickered on with snaps and hisses.

“A little temperamental.” Min looked nervously at Haru.

Her doubt for the stability of the device must have been displayed prominently on her face.

“I—I meant experimental.” The professor corrected himself.

He sat at the chair of the control panel and started to go through a sequence of steps outlined in a note stuck on the wall. Slowly, more lights and sounds filled the room with each button pressed and knob turned. Haru grew worried at the complexity of these features, and how it might affect her.

But Min started to look a little dismayed as harsh noises overpowered the pleasant ones. “Alright, you know what? I did mean temperamental. Definitely needs to warm up to the idea of being in use again.”

The witch watched carefully and reminded herself that people were depending on her, repressing her growing unease. Finally, the room on the other side of the glass in front of the control panel lit up. There were tracks evenly spaced across the wide floor. The walls lined with white tile, stretched higher than it should have for being on the first floor.

“There, there we go.” The professor cheerfully chuckled. He punched a button, and the sealed door near the control station parted open, allowing access to the inner chamber on the other side of the window.

Jumping to his feet, Min beckoned the witch to follow. “I’ll show you around.”

Min outlined how the tracks were to mount chairs for NPCs to use in order to play the game. Lining the near wall were several of these seats, which he pulled one down from the disorganized pile and locked in place, center of the room.

“Now, when you’re in there,” the professor started, “it might seem a little strange at first. You’ll be a player so doing things will be much different than how you do them now. It will take a little getting used to.”

Haru grew nervous but took a deep breath to calm herself and nodded.

Motioning to sit down, Min then rushed into the control room and pushed a few buttons before returning.

As Haru took her seat, four panels, two on each side of the room, parted and four nurses walked in. But they weren’t normal nurses, their polygon count was much lower. These were alpha helpers, from when the game was still in its prototypical stage. The witch hoped this contraption was more stable than the rest of the server during those times.

The nurses strapped Haru into the chair, which unsettled her greatly.

Min crouched down, to look at the witch eye-to-eye. “The only thing different from being a real player is that if you de-level, your surrogate will be defeated. Everything else will be as if you’re legitimately playing the game.”

Resolute, Haru nodded. When a player died, they lost a certain amount of experience points depending on their job’s level. If they fell below zero experience points, they would go down a level. The room for error was even lower now.

Min’s voice grew serious. “They’re going to have to exit maintenance soon. By the time you’ve gone through character creation, there will likely be players returning already.” He looked around the empty room, his voice echoing. “We can’t afford a second surrogate. This is your only chance. If you’re defeated, it’s game over. For all of us.”

“I understand. I won’t lose.” Haru’s voice trembled. Of her many recent failures during this whole ordeal, pretending to be fearless was the latest one.

Min smiled warmly and stood up. After patting her on the shoulder, he retreated to the control room.

With a hiss, the exit sealed. From overhead, a semicircular device descended behind Haru. The nurses rolled a cart next to her, containing three unfamiliar items. With a jolt, the chair sprung into motion. As the witch rolled down the track, the nurses used the objects on her, a red capsule, a blue torus, and a green pyramid. She didn’t know what they were.

Entering beneath the suspended semicircle structure, one of the connecting rods bumped her witch’s hat off, sending it tumbling to the ground. Strapped in, Haru couldn’t retrieve it, and gasped at the sight of it lying there.

An airhorn went off overhead as the mysterious assembly descended around her. The nurses retreated into the wall. Then tiles that once revealed the NPCs’ entryways returned to their original position, sealing the room completely. Haru looked around, nervous.

Overhead, a bright white light ignited, flooding Haru’s vision. Hisses and snaps accompanied the machine’s growing hum.

Min’s voice echoed over a tinny loudspeaker. “We’re all counting on you. Good luck…” His voice was overcome by the growing roar of the device and snaps of lightning dancing between the various layers of the semicircular components.

Suddenly, all grew quiet. Haru’s vision went dark.

For a moment, the image of the city of gold returned, parting the darkness as a lighthouse illuminates the nighttime sea. She could see more details now, gems of various colors were embedded in the surface, glimmering in faint sunlight.

Then the image disappeared, and her inventory opened once more. This time, there were two tabs, one for normal items, and one for key items. In the key items was the Mark of Patientia, which was highlighted.

Her inventory closed. All was dark again. She was alone in perfect silence.

Then cheerful, hopeful music started playing, horns and drums playing a marching song. The image of a beach panned across Haru’s vision. Plankers and skallywags roamed around, as they would normally on Waylander’s Wastes. It was a peaceful sight.

A button appeared in the center of her vision. It was labeled ‘Create Character’.

With the flick of her wrist, Haru pressed it.