"Welcome to Noewehre(TM), the Ultimate Game World" briefly flashed across Pamela’s vision before her heads-up display appeared. The familiar icons for health, magic, and readied items glowed in their usual places, but a new, very exciting one stood out: BUILDER MENU. Slightly giddy, she activated it and a menu unfolded, offering her options like [create], [teleport] and more. With these, the builders, the "gods" of the game world, could make anything they imagined: new creatures to fight or befriend, quests for players to run, even entire new cities. She’d been a player for more than a decade, and although her character-building skills were top-notch, what really made her stand out was her role-playing prowess. No less than two of her characters had ascended to godhood, with entire priesthoods of players dedicated to their worship. This was why the creators of the game had chosen to give her the ultimate reward: becoming a builder. 

She looked around the little village square in the starting town. She noticed a couple of new characters milling about, some standing alone (probably checking their stats, she thought), while others had congregated in small clumps for some impromptu RP. She approached a group consisting of a big green troll wearing the basic Barbarian outfit, a mustachioed male human carrying a lute, and a female gnome with the unmistakable pointy wizard hat on her head. Her visibility was set to builders-only, so only a fellow creator could see her at the moment. The players were oblivious and engrossed in their conversation. They’d formed a party and were talking out of character on the private channel. Pamela felt a little uneasy about it, but was also exhilarated about her new power to listen in.

"I’d forgotten how expensive it is to play Wizard," the gnome woman said with an older sounding male voice, with a distinctly Southern US accent. The name was floating over the character. "What beginner's quest was it that gives two hundred gold?"

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"Wow, you haven't played in a while, huh? None, any more. The rats in the pub basement one used to, but they nerfed it to just fifty ages ago," said the troll named . The player sounded like a teenage girl, although she couldn’t place the accent. Something British, Pamela guessed.

"We could do the graveyard zombie uprising quest; that’s probably the highest reward at the moment. One hundred fifty gold and a guaranteed magic item," said , the bard. His voice sounded like his character looked: a man in his early twenties, probably, with an accent that might be Australian or possibly New Zealander, Pamela thought.

"What, so I can get one-shotted? That one’s recommended for at least level three characters," replied. 

The players bickered back and forth, seeming uncertain of what to do first. Pamela recognized the situation from her own uncounted new characters she’d made over the years. Sometimes the decision paralysis would lead to players' logging out without even attempting to do any quests. Well, let’s see what I can do with these guys. She opened the builder menu and chose [create], [creature] and then quickly navigated the database of available mundane and magical beings built into the game until she found what she needed. A location marker appeared, and she placed it behind a tree, then triggered the spawn. A little fairy with butterfly wings appeared there, fluttering in place. Pamela selected [possess] in the menu and immediately her point of view switched to the flying creature. Time for an ad-hoc beginner’s quest, she thought, and flew over to the group of adventurers.