I’d expected something like a traditional computer screen to emerge, but that’s not what happened. The tetrahedron spun and expanded, doubling in size until it completely surrounded me, like a glowing electric cage. Instantly, I was taken back to the Menace spell Jack had learned. I felt uneasy for a second, not knowing what to expect, but then a voice rang out.

“Jane,” It spoke, fuzzy and analog, neither male nor female—more like a strange series of musical notes somehow emulating human speech.

“Wintermute?” I replied.

“I have been waiting for your contact,” it replied. “What has taken so long?”

“What has taken so long?” I asked indignantly. “Do you have any idea where you dropped me off?”

“At the administration communication site,” Wintermute replied.

“Yeah…no,” I laughed. “In the middle of nowhere, with no equipment, surrounded by ultra-high level monsters. If Kodiak hadn’t showed up to save me, I’d be dead.”

There was a long pause. Something clicked and chattered and I could only assume it was Wintermute making calculations.

“Apologies,” he replied slowly. “The Carrethen backup is still unstable. My interactions with the world can be unpredictable.”

“Uh, yeah! Do you know about the Sunken?” I said quickly. “Death is not death, Wintermute! People are…corrupting! Turning into mindless zombies. My friend Gehman just tried to kill me!”

“I have become aware of the problem,” he replied “But I am thus far unable to correct the flaws in the coding from outside the game world. I am updating you with the abilities that will allow you to correct the glitch.”

Before I could speak, the pink frame around me spun and flickered, and I felt a strange fuzzy sensation as a swam of pink and blue pixels grew from my feet and progressed up my body to my head then disappeared.

“Update complete.”

“What—what was that?” I asked.

“Hey, who are you talking to!?” Kodiak called out from above.

“Wintermute!” I shouted back.

“Wintermute!?” He replied in disbelief.

“Yes?” Wintermute replied.

“Not you!” I snapped. “Give me a second, Kodiak!” I called back. “Wintermute, what did you just do to me?”

“I updated your character, granting you specific powers at the game engine level.”

“What powers?”

“I’ve detected corrupted code infecting the mechanics sub-routines on certain players throughout the world. I believe it is the source of the corruption causing the Sunken phenomenon,” Wintermute replied. It was strange conversing with a voice that lacked any human intonations. “This code will allow you to correct the glitch and restore full function to those players. Also, I am unlocking all item restrictions on your character,” Wintermute continued.

“Wait a second. Can’t you just give me like—the best armor in the game? Let me teleport around the world wherever I want to go? That would make this a cinch!”

More clicks and chatter as Wintermute thought for a minute. “Impossible at this time. I have still been unable to obtain the privileges that will give me full power over this world. This is the best I can do—for now.”

“Okay,” I sighed as the blue and purple dots swam over me again, updating me with my new powers. “Do you have any idea where my friends are? Can you mark it on the map or something?”

“Unknown at this time,” Wintermute replied. “The player database was not accessible to me when creating this backup. As such, I must manually scan the game world for each player and cross-reference their individual identification tag in order to determine their identity and location.”

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

“When will you know?”

More clicking.

“Unknown at this time.”

“Jesus,” I groaned.

“Uh, Jane?” Kodiak shouted from above. “Your…friend is coming this way!”

“I have to go, Wintermute,” I said quickly. “Is there anything else?”

“Not at this time. More administration rooms such as this one have been setup around the world. They will be the only way to contact me until a later time.”

“Great, thanks,” I replied, not feeling too inspired by our meeting.

“Good luck.”

“Yeah,” I scoffed. “You too.”

“Oh, hey,” I said as a thought entered my mind. “Is there anything you can do about the weather? It’s pretty terrible.”

“Not at this—”

“Not at this time,” I scoffed. “Great. Thanks a lot, Wintermute.”

“I am sorry, Jane. But I will be in touch.”

And with that, the interface collapsed back into the small pink tetrahedron, shimmered for a moment, and then vanished. I turned around and raced back up to the stairs to the surface.

Kodiak spun around as I emerged, still shocked to see me appear out of thin air. He pointed to the hill leading down from Stoneburg.

“There.”

Thunder clapped above, louder than the enormous foot of a Stone Giant stomping around the Iron Mountains. I looked to see Gehman lurching down the slope toward us. I felt a pang of sorrow in my chest.

What is he feeling in there? I thought. As I began to walk towards him, I pulled up my character sheet and discovered a new tab marked “Admin.” I selected it and found only a single button. “Restore.”

“What did…it say?” Kodiak asked me. “Did it give you any equipment?”

“I wish,” I grumbled, shaking my head. “Just a really cool, exclusive power.”

If it actually works, I thought to myself as I took a deep breath and readied myself.

“To do what?”

I didn’t respond, but walked up to meet Gehman was he staggered towards us. His body seemed to be almost completely out of his control, twitching and shuddering as he raised his hammer to attack. But I was expecting it, and stepped aside, letting it swing harmlessly through the air. Then, I pressed the restore button.

A flood of golden energy rushed down my right arm to my hand, which began to glow brightly. It grew and grew as a fierce wind swept up from around my feet like a tornado, beating away at the sheets of rain that beat down on us. Gehman spun awkwardly around and struck out again. I dodged it easily, stepped forward and drove my hand into his chest.

“Gaaaah!” Gehman screamed, the distortion in his voice overwhelming everything. Kodiak shouted behind me, but it was impossible to make out anything he said. His voice was like a single drop of rain amidst a hurricane.

Gehman’s body shook as the light from my hand grew, spilling over him and clinging to every inch of his body like a flood of golden mercury. Light appeared in his veins and arteries, in the hollows of his cheeks and deep folds of his decrepit skin, shining out like he was being hollowed out from within by the powerful energy coursing out of me and into him. He threw his head back and golden light poured out, shining like a beacon into the black clouds above.

“Ahhh!” He screamed again, but this time, it was actually his voice. The distortion was gone. The volume was lower. He sounded like an actual person.

His body shook, convulsed and toppled over backwards. His smith’s hammer dropped and splashed into the muddy ground as the golden glow vanished from his body and my hand. He toppled over like a lifeless corpse, hitting the ground with a sickening thud.

“Holy shit!” Kodiak belted out behind me. My heart was about to beat out of my chest. “Is he dead?” Kodiak asked as I slowly walked over to Gehman who lay motionless in a puddle on the ground.

“He shouldn’t be,” I replied slowly. But as I looked at him, I saw absolutely no signs of life. His eyes were motionless, fixed on nothing. His chest was still and his mouth hung open like he’d been scared to death. “I was supposed to have just fixed him—”

“50 DKP minus!” Gehman blurted out, snapping up into a sitting position so fast I leapt backwards like a startled cat. My foot slipped and I fell backwards into the mud.

“Jesus, Gehman!” I blurted out, putting a hand to my chest.

“Holy frigging Goomba balls, what the Hell just happened to me!?”

I gasped for breath and slowly pushed myself to my feet. He looked up at me as I extended a hand to him. He took it and I helped him to his feet.

“Your player file was…corrupted,” I told him, doing my best to calm myself. “I just restored you.”

“I was…I was Sunken,” Gehman said, almost to himself.

“That’s right,” Kodiak replied.

“But not anymore,” I said as I took a deep breath and smiled. “Welcome back, dude. It’s good to see you again.”

Gehman looked up at me confused. “I’m sorry, but who are you?”

“It’s D, you idiot!” I laughed, but Gehman just stared blankly back at me. And then I realized the problem. I didn’t look like D anymore, I looked like me!

“D…?” He muttered, even more confused. “Like, Jack’s D? Like, the D from Carrethen?

“Yeah. That D.” I replied even louder, angry with Wintermute for blowing my cover. “It’s a long story, but my player avatar is gone. But this is me.”

Gehman blinked a few times, wiped at his eyes and frowned. “Wow. You’re a girl?”