“Yeah, well… I guess I was still really really angry with her so…” I awkwardly admitted.

“That’s understandable, considering what you’ve been through,” Jane, my therapist, told me over the voice call.

Miraculously, I had actually remembered the reason why I’d gotten the Stream Overseer upgrade yesterday and decided to open a few dozen private chats with each of the therapists who had come by the stream to vet them.

It took me a hot minute before I figured out how to properly micromanage it, but eventually, I was able to hold dozens of conversations over DMs at the same time, as long as I focused on separating what information belonged to what chat in my main thought process.

Jane had struck me as someone professional, with plenty of experience, yet genuinely trying to help. In fact, when I’d asked her, she’d told me that she’d gone down this career path with the sole purpose of helping people.

Obviously, she could have been lying, but so far, I had no reason to believe that.

“Is there anything else you wanted to talk about?” she asked.

“Well…” I hesitated. “It’s… about the Stream Overseer… I guess.”

“Mmm, I understand that it worries you?”

“Yeah, I… I don’t know. It’s like… I’m less human now? I don’t even know if I can say that considering I could already breathe fire and whatnot, but… yeah. I feel like… like I’ve changed something fundamental about myself…”

I hadn’t had a lot of time to actually think about the implications, what with my stream chat constantly flooded, but the thought had been in the back of my mind since I’d gotten the skill upgrade.

Sure, my status screen insisted on labeling me as human, but was that still true? What did it even mean to be a human? Was it even important at all? Was I just overreacting?

Despite only talking to Jane for about an hour after I’d had my breakfast, I felt like she helped quite a bit with my perspective on things.

Like assuring me that ‘humanity’ is subjective, and that the important thing was sticking to my ideals and moral values.

Even as we talked, I had a hard time not getting constantly distracted by something from the chat though. Even with John a fair distance away, looking at a rock, people were relentless with their spam.

Luckily, yesterday’s banning spree had helped me a ton to learn how to properly manage my thought ‘forks’. And although I was still struggling at times, I probably didn’t need to be worried about suddenly locking up like I had the first time.

I just had to be careful not to get distracted by something in the middle of a fight. That could be deadly.

“See you later, Nana. I look forward to our next session.”

“See you, Jane!” I smiled and waved even though she couldn’t see it and the call then cut off.

I took a deep breath and exhaled.

Yup, I really needed that. I felt so much lighter and less anxious about everything now. Sure, I was still worried, but now it at least felt like I could handle things. And if I couldn’t… Well, then I could ask for help. Things didn’t have to feel so overwhelming anymore.

Therapy was good.

“Alright… Better get started then.”

I left my crappy little shelter, stretched, took a peek at what chat was saying, grimaced, banned a few people, and then walked near John to stick my hands into his point of view to count down again.

“Goooood mooorning, my precious little Aquamarines! It’s me! Aoto Nana, your favorite galaxy brain girl!”

I giggled.

“For those who don’t know, I finally got the Stream Overseer upgrade yesterday, and that means that I can finally read all of your degenerate messages even if they come in faster than a normal human could handle. Truly, a worthy use of inhuman processing power.”

I smirked.

“Yes, that includes even your messages, JanitorSlayer54. Keep your nasty comments to yourself, okay?” I shook my head. “Anywho, we went to the dungeon yesterday and got back to the archer, whom I… uh, decimated. Not important. What I’m trying to get at is that my stuff wasn’t there.”

I grunted in annoyance.

“Some people suggested I try to think about some kind of lost and found room when I open a door, so that’s what I’m going to try today. Although, if that doesn’t work, well… I guess I’ll just have to live without my beloved bucket.”

I pouted.

“The map was cool too and I’ll definitely miss my naginata even if it wasn’t as useful in that dungeon… But, well. I can make do without all that stuff. I have backup weapons and more Ether to work with now, after all.

“But! I’m not going to try and beat the dungeon right now. Nope, not happening. First, I’m going to stop getting distracted and actually continue on my way to that tall building I saw before. I’ll need to cross the river for that, which should hopefully be easier with my new innate skills, and then we’ll beeline it straight there. And once I’m there…? Well, hopefully it’s not just another dungeon.”

I paused and pursed my lips.

“Yeah, it’s probably going to be a dungeon in the end as well, but a girl can dream, okay…? Anyway. One last thing that I keep forgetting about. Quests!”

I clapped my hands and brought up the quest screen as I dismissed John.

“I completed the good night’s sleep one with my absolutely awesome base over there.” I gestured at my crappy shelter. “And that now leaves me with two open slots for more quests. Might as well accept some of them. Sure, I might fail them, but so far, it hasn’t been a problem. So… let’s see what quests we get this time!”

Generating new quests, please wait…

While the system did that, I picked myself up and began walking toward the city dungeon again while interacting with chat. The whole chat now, not just a few select people. Although, obviously, I only had one mouth, so I often just sent direct messages to some of them instead.

The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

Just as I arrived at the city gates, the quests finished generating.

New quests generated:

Variety dungeoneer (side quest)

Lost and found (side quest)

Mysterious structure (side quest)

Follow the stream (side quest)

“Okaaay! Three new quests and one repeat. What do we have?”

Lost and found:

(Time left: 2h, 59m, 43s )

A dungeon ate your precious items. Get them back!

Rewards - 2SP

Penalty for failure - 4SP debt

Accept as Side quest (10 days)

Decline

I narrowed my eyes.

“Well, that’s convenient. That’s exactly what I’m about to do… Except the system believes it might take me ten whole days even though I’m right here already…?”

That was one of the things chat had noticed with the quests. They tended to give me an ample amount of time to actually complete them, but never an excess amount of time. Generally speaking, as long as I actively worked on the quest, I would probably succeed.

Jeofffff: sounds fishy

Jeofffff: don’t trust it

“Yeah, I don’t. Hmm? You think I might need to beat the whole dungeon to get my stuff back? Or do some kind of extra challenge for it? Ugh, I hope not. That would just be mean… Let’s shelve this one for now.”

Mysterious structure:

(Time left: 2h, 57m, 58s )

You noticed a strange building out in the distance. Travel to it and figure out what it is.

Rewards - 1SP

Penalty for failure - 2SP debt

Accept as Side quest (3 days)

Decline

“Oh, hey. I was gonna do that anyway. Probably why the duration is so short and the rewards so paltry, huh? Eh, it’s still free skill points I guess. What’s the last one?”

Follow the stream:

(Time left: 2h, 57m, 46s )

You found a river in this desolate world. If you follow it, you’ll inevitably find the ocean and perhaps something more…

Rewards - 3SP

Penalty for failure - 5SP debt

Accept as Side quest (21 days)

Decline

I narrowed my eyes.

“Hold on… Is the system literally telling me that there’s cool stuff on the coast…? Or is this bait? Either way, wow. It’s probably really far away if the time limit is this high.”

Probably at least a few days of non-stop walking. I wasn’t looking forward to when I would inevitably have to do that…

Because if there really was something on the coast, then I probably would.

Irid123: finally more lore?

“Eh, I guess I can try finding the ocean at some point if I start getting desperate for more clues. For now, I’m going toward the tower anyway, so…”

‘Mysterious structure’ Side quest accepted!

Main objective:

   Travel to the mysterious structure in the distance.

Side objectives:

   Explore the mysterious structure.

Rewards - 1SP

Penalty for failure - 2SP

“Huh. Well, I was going to explore it anyway.” I paused. “Unless it’s like a super difficult dungeon, I guess… Ugh, it’s going to be a super difficult dungeon, isn’t it? That’s why it’s a side objective at all!”

I grumbled to myself.

“Whatever…”

From the remaining three quests, I wasn’t entirely sure which one to pick. Obviously, if I could get my stuff back, I would pick that one, but my hopes weren’t too high.

Speaking of…

“Well, let’s see if there’s an easy way out here then, chat!”

I entered the dungeon, ignoring the rush of feelings, and headed straight for the guardhouse again.

“Open–” I wished really hard to get into the lost items vault and get my stuff back. “–sesame!”

I wrenched the door open and stared inside with wide eyes.

Then I deflated with a groan.

It was just the stupid dining room.

“Dammit… Yeah, I guess the dungeon is literally telling me to come beat it to get my stuff back, isn’t it?” I shook my head. “Oh, well. I tried. I guess I’ll have to come back for this later.”

I closed the door again, narrowed my eyes, and looked into the distance at the castle on the other side of the city.

“Wait for me, bucket… I will rescue you one day,” I whispered in a dramatic tone.

GeorgeDoshington: im sorry nana your bucket is in another castle

I snorted.

“It better not have teleported my stuff to an entirely different dungeon. That would suck.” I huffed. “Well, I guess I’m done here for the moment… No, I’m not going to try and speedrun this place, ugh. I can barely beat the third enemy.”

I shook my head with a sigh.

“Let’s get out of here, chat. Time to finally cross that river.”

trelipideliberitation: finally progress!

I felt the relief wash over me as I exited the dungeon again, and then finally, after a whole week of loitering around this place, I set off, following the river upstream once more.

Jeofffff: rip shelter

“It’s fine.” I waved my hand. “I can just set up a new one if I run into another dungeon… Actually, that’s exactly what I’m going to do from now on. If I find a new dungeon, I’ll make a basic shelter somewhere nearby just in case.”

Although, in hindsight, staying in the city part of the dungeon would have probably been safe. Unless there was a second time limit, after the reset one, that kicked me out completely or something.

Well, better safe than sorry. For instance, I very much doubted the spaceship dungeon would have been safe to sleep in at all.

After about an hour of walking, I reached a spot where the river felt calm enough for me to finally try and cross it.

Sure, I could have done it at an earlier part of the river, but again. Better safe than sorry. I was not going to take unnecessary risks again and end up sick or injured for days out here in the wilderness.

“Alright, chat! Let’s finally cross this thing!”

GeorgeDoshington: human skipping stone lets gooo

Jeofffff: goggles

I ignored George and nodded to Jeoff’s comment.

“Yeah, I was going to do just that,” I said as I pulled out the goggles out of my backpack and put them on.

I walked down the river bank, glanced around the rushing river nervously, and then dipped my toe into the water.

It felt like sticking my toe in front of a running fan.

I nodded to myself and then finally stepped into the river entirely. The stream kept wanting to blow me downstream, but I took my time and carefully stepped forward, slowly sinking my legs, my torso, and finally my head. Subtle use of hydrokinesis also helped with not getting swept away.

Water filled my lungs, but it felt like air.

AotoNana: This will never not be weird.

Still, it was nice that I could still communicate with chat this way even if I couldn’t talk.

AotoNana: Okay. Time to finally test this skill!

I concentrated and mentally prodded the complex structure in my mind tied to the part of me that was shaped like clothes.

It was by far the most complex skill I’d ever had access to. Parts of it felt similar to Quick Fetch and others were kind of like Hydrokinesis, but as a whole, it would be like comparing a rocket engine to a car.

I wasn’t entirely sure how it worked in detail, but I didn’t need to know that to use the skill.

I glanced into the distance at the other side of the river, concentrated again, and then flipped the mental switch to use the skill.

The following sensation made me feel like I was riding inside dozens of different roller coaster carts at the same time and they were all going in different directions. All while underwater.

I inevitably stumbled and fell on my face when I finally arrived at the end of that teleport and couldn’t stay on my feet because of the currents.

AotoNana: Ow.

AotoNana: That was not pleasant.

I rubbed my forehead, focused on hydrokinesis to ease the current’s effects on me, and stood up at the bottom of the river again.

Irid123: you alright?

GeorgeDoshington: that was trippy

AotoNana: I’m fine.

AotoNana: I just didn’t expect it to feel so weird.

I glanced around and spotted the place I’d wanted to use to climb out of here. From then on, it was a little awkward, but I managed to successfully clamber out of the river and onto dry land.

As soon as I did, I coughed up the water that was still in my lungs, took off the goggles, stood up, and looked behind me.

Since there were people suggesting that I’d mixed up my directions and came out on the same side I’d started, I squinted my eyes and quickly found the tree on the other side of the river I’d marked with my crappy knife.

“All good, chat! We’re finally across the river! Let’s get going now!”

Finally, after over a week, I began walking downstream, toward the mysterious building again, silently hoping that it was more than just another dungeon.