Nikola's night was not a peaceful one.

While she had experienced dreaming in her life, all of her dreams had been scripted; the same images, the same themes. Tonight, the outline of a gaunt, screaming face with shocks of lime all around it was haunting her dreams and it repeated:

I have a sister,

I have a sister,

I have a sister!

It kept going, skeletal and persistent, circling her as she just kept trying to kill the Lion Boss.

A golden suit of armour appeared in the blackness and punched through the ethereal face. It dissipated, revealing a masculine figure, amorphous but with equally golden hair. "You don't even know if I had a sister. You didn't even know anything about me."

And then, the worst of them: a soft, female voice that bobbed on the edge of audible.

"I watched my friends die. I watched them die and then you let me die too."

Nikola's eyes shot open at the sound of a giant lion paw crushing each of them, exploding them into bright, powdery dust. It was so resounding it ripped her back into the real world.

She opened her eyes, her chest tight, like her clothes were too constricting.

The sun hadn't even risen yet. The sky was still a dark, murky crimson. And yet... there was a soft light being cast across her comforter.

When she looked over to check where it might be coming from, she saw Ven scrolling through her Red Box, her candy red eyes wiggling back and forth as she scanned presumably a wall of text.

Nikola checked on Luke and Violet. The two were still asleep, resting their fatigue away. She doubted her own Energy Bar was full yet, but her own mind was playing tricks on her, keeping her from sleeping her way to optimal performance. She sat up in bed slowly, peeling the covers off and readjusting her clothes.

She let out a breath she hadn't known she'd been holding in. Her tense muscles began to loosen. "You are awake," she breathed softly in Ven's direction.

"Yes. It was the time I always woke up and looked around the room, and I haven't been able to get back to sleep."

Nikola glanced over the room; different from the one the former prisoner was used to, with no bars or concrete to be found. She wondered if Ven was also having trouble with the softness of the bed. "I also find myself going to do the same things I would do when I was an NPC. Each morning, I still catch myself going to grab my notebook. I would go out and write down everyone's schedule, following a new person each day. I no longer need to do such things now that I've left my village."

Ven gave a slow nod. "And why would you do such a thing?"

Nikola grinned a wide grin, almost nostalgic. "To learn how many people would miss them if I killed them."

Ven stared at her enviously. The freedom to simply roam combined with the ability to kill whoever she wanted... what a luxurious life. "You will be a valuable ally in the fight against the Violet Queen."

"I will." And she would be even better when she figured out how to do what Snootyalligator01 was asking her to. On that note, she scribbled in the air and pulled up her own red rectangle. "What have you been looking at in your menu?"

"I am studying," replied the Mage, her bright crimson eyes narrowing, "stats, classes, races. I found the screen that describes itself as a 'tutorial' and have been reading along. Combined with the knowledge I now have that we are involved in a Liberation Game, I've come to the conclusion that we're living in a simulation and have been our entire lives. I'm fine with it, by the way."

You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

The Butcher's eyes widened. "You are... fine with it?"

"I am. At least this way, I can use the realities of this simulation to my advantage. First, I will level up, and then I will use my magic to burn the Violet Queen's castle down. Or her face off. The details are unclear. The suggested enemy to farm in this region is the Slime. I'm ready to go farm slimes when you are - but I will be angrier the longer it takes." Ven nodded matter-of-factly and continued reading down the page.

Unbelievable. Ven had already figured out that they were mere programs in a game, and she was fine with it? Just from the tutorial?

What kind of latent genius was this? Nikola herself had had to rely almost entirely on a male outsider to explain the game to her, and she still wasn't 'fine with it'. Then again, what was keeping her from accepting it was her variety of worldly attachments, of which Ven had none.

"We will need to awaken Luke and Violet to discuss our next steps."

Ven began to clap her hands together, which caused the two of them to bolt upright. "Done."

"Whu--" Violet flipped the blanket of lilac strands out of her face, bewildered. Luke sat up from beneath the covers and looked confusedly for what had awakened him.

"Ven and I wish to speak to you."

Violet frowned deeply. "But the sun isn't even awake," she complained, gesturing at the still-dark sky. A quick check of her menu revealed that it wasn't even 6 AM yet.

"No, this is good," Luke decided as he moved his fingertips through his hair. "This way we'll be awake before most of the other people here." He stood then, stretching his tired arms.

"Saaadness," the purple-haired girl whined, but she flipped her covers off and started moving toward awakening despite her opinion on having to be up before the sun.

Luke and Violet crammed into the small attached bathroom to freshen up, and as they did so Nikola and Ven read through their menus, Ven continuing to drink in aspects of the mechanics and Nikola trying to learn to manipulate those same mechanics.

She navigated to her Butcher character sheet, or lack thereof. She knew from looking at her Rogue stats that this was where her Butcher information should be, but instead it was a seemingly infinite blackness with neon green text. There were brackets everywhere, and so, so many numbers.

She knew from when Luke asked her to find the word 'Butcher' that there were some bits seeded inside that she could understand, so she started there. She scrolled back to the area she found the word in, and when she did, she checked what lived in the text around it.

Certain elements popped up multiple times. Butcher, Crunch, Crunching Cleave... an inkling urged her to check her Rogue sheet, and from what she could tell, everything displayed there was in a similar order: her race and class, then her stats, then her class skills.

So... could she learn what each of the sections meant if she used her Rogue sheet to help?

Luke and Violet returned, no longer in their pajamas and with their hair primped and tucked away. Violet's was in a braid and the parts of Luke's hair that were matted from the pillow had been brushed out and moistened.

"Do you want to talk over breakfast?"

"We just ate," Ven growled. Did these people eat before and after sleeping? No, that would be ridiculous.

"Uhhhh... I don't know how to tell you this, but it's time to eat again," Luke informed her with a shrug. "But talking strategy in public rubs me the wrong way. Let's just eat some rations, on me, and stay in here to talk."

But as he was settling his butt down on his bed, a powerful dinging noise rung out and shook his brain.

"Whoa," Violet breathed, gripping her forehead at the sudden sound. "Do you think that's a morning announcement?"

"Only one way to find out," he said as he pulled up his menu. He noted that both Ven and Nikola had already had theirs up.

[GOOD MORNING!

Players of the World of Wills, it's time for your first Morning Announcement.]