It was patch day.

And he was babysitting Daniel. The level 1 ninja named Dawn Pickles that required (requested) a chauffeur while the rest of Daybreak Guild went off to gather materials to decorate the guild house.

One of the new features was that a guild house may now be set to public. This meant that any player could visit their humble log cabin. Except, the plan was to construct a brand new guild house that could be spacious enough to house more players.

Besides, they now had six players registered. Dawn Pickles was not the latest player to the guild. In fact, they had joined the guild prior to Madame Cheddar and Kelsy. He surely would have been a player near their level. If he actually played the game. This is why Gray didn’t count him.

His character was a human ninja named Dawn. Dawn had long flowing black hair and bright green eyes. He basically created a female version of himself. It wasn’t uncommon for people to play characters that were opposite of their gender. The goal of the character creation was to provide the player with that freedom.

The two of them explored Willowtown while Dawn got his bearings in the world. He stopped by a weapon seller.

“Why can’t I buy anything, Gray?” He asked.

“You need money.”

“Can I get a spot?”

Gray rolled his eyes. At least it wasn’t that time he asked him for a real 100 dollars. He gave Dawn an allowance of 10 silver.

“I wouldn’t buy anything random. Try to think of what your character uses or if there is any type of vocation you want to specialize in.”

“I bought an axe. Can a ninja use an axe?”

“No. Only daggers. You can refund an item if you bought it within an hour.”

“Lame….”

Dawn explored more of Willowtown. Jumping around the altar where most players had their beginning and climbing the quaint houses and chimneys. One of the local quests had the NPC talk about a golden gopher and the fallen city of gold that created them. It was the same quest that players search for a golden goose that laid brown eggs.

“You find that city of gold?”

“No, I think it’s just flavor text. Akira would know more about that. The golden gopher is a world event though. I don’t know when it pops.”

They hunted the low level mobs. Although Gray wasn’t a dps, tank, or even healer, being overleveled allowed him to perform every role. Meadow was able to heal Dawn to full health in a second. Gray practically one-shot every creature in their path.

“So this the game, huh? Seems kinda easy,” Dawn said.

“It’s cause I’m overleveled. It’s much harder to farm mobs that are your own level,” Gray explained. He blasted another slime.“So why did you decide to play a game today?”

“Got bored,” Dawn shrugged. “Let me try to do some damage.”

Dawn drew his dagger and slashed at one of the giant rats that was in front of him. He did a respectable 23 damage to the creature. Dawn landed a couple more blows before the thing died and he reached level 5.

“Cool,” Dawn planted the daggers on the ground and sat down on the grass. He let the wind carry some of his hair. “Kinda weird to not see the little marks on my arms. Hate those things.”

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After a moment, Dawn laid down the grass and interlocked his fingers behind his head. He just stared at the sky above. There was a roar of the Jinobo in the distance as the world event began. Dawn held a lazy gaze as he waited for nothing in particular.

“Are you done already?” Gray asked. “Gonna log off?”

“You want me outta here as soon as possible, right?” Dawn lazily turned their eyes up at Gray. “So you can play with your friends.”

“I’m sorry,” Gray crossed his arms. “If I’m being honest, I never thought you would play this game beyond the first day. You’ve never liked video games and well…”

“You know why I hung out with you, Gray?” Dawn asked.

“Cause we’re cousins.”

“We have a lot of cousins. You were the only one that talked to me. That really spoke with me. Everyone else would lecture me, even Uncle Steve gave me shit. Sat me down and told me how everything that I was doing was wrong.”

Gray sat down next to him. Daniel had never been this candid with him before. He would always go off with his friends before it was time to truly talk about something serious. That was his style.

“Now I’m clean. Actually clean and everyone gives me shit still. They look at me like I’m still going through it.”

“How am I any different?” Gray asked. “I have treated you the same.”

“Cause we’re here. Playing this stupid little game of yours. You didn’t even kick me out of your guild when I didn’t play for a whole month after I made my character. You know I was being a shit, but you still try.”

“I’d say all I did was the bare minimum,” Gray explained. The two of them were quiet for a moment.

“I like this…” Dawn whispered. “Laying down on a field of grass and watching the clouds go by. Euphoric.”

“Surprised you know what the word means,” Gray joked.

Dawn rolled his eyes and sighed.

“I can be poetic and shit. Blue skies. No wait, azure skies. Hold on, I’m cooking something up. What’s that noise.”

The two of them looked over to a creature that popped out of the ground. It was a small beady-eyed creature with golden fur. Then the two of them turned around to see an onslaught of players scrambling down the green hills.

“Get it!” Gray jumped and chased after the golden creature. Dawn shifted a bit to the left, but was otherwise content to lay on the ground.

Gray ran after the golden gopher when it burrowed into the ground. One could see a glittering outline of the gopher’s underground path as it zig-zagged to avoid Gray.

Dawn closed their eyes as the crowd of players ran past them to join Gray in the hunt for the rare creature.

The rodent eventually made its way to the world event space of Jinobo. The world boss and his opponents stopped fighting and watched Gray and others run by the battlefield.

Jinobo readied their next attack! One that would surely scorch the mortal adventurers that dared to challenge his hellish flames and lightning.

All players immediately ignored Jinobo and went after the golden gopher. For a moment, Jinobo, the 576thth demon of the underworld and amalgam of flame and bolt, looked sad. But Surely the developers of Elrin would not code their enemies to be sad. Surely, a demon lord would not be jealous of a lovable yellow rat.

“Sup, Gray!” Kelsy shouted. She was running alongside Gray.

“Aren’t you supposed to be with the rest of the guild?”

Kelsy shrugged.

All players on the NA server of Elrin Online seemed to chase the golden gopher. None of them realized that the sought after animal was making a giant circle. Soon it ended right next to where Gray and Dawn originally found it.

It came back to the surface.

This was the time for Gray to use his tricks. He pulled out the bag of zephyr and pointed away from him. He never tried this, but he hoped that the bag would send him flying forwards rather than upwards.

Gray’s theory turned out correct. Except the bag was more powerful than he expected and he slingshot past the gopher. He tumbled right back to Dawn.

Dawn opened their left eye. Still lazing in the field, the golden gopher jumped into their arms. The gopher disappeared and the world event ended.

The crowd of players halted there and left defeated. They went back to boring old Jinobo. Gray laughed. Of course. It seemed like the perfect end to the world event.

“You’ll get the gold you wanted. I think the reward for catching the golden gopher is 1000 gold pieces.”

“I didn’t get that. I only have the money left over that you gave me,” Dawn sat up. They produced a single coin from the inventory. A coin with a platinum center and gold outer ring. Dawn flicked it and caught it. Heads or tails. Heads was the cute face of the gopher themselves and the tails was that of a phoenix.

“Hmm. Cool, a legendary,” With those final words, Dawn logged off the server for the day.

Gray was left staring in the empty spot where his cousin was located.