When I returned home, Mom still wasn’t home.

I pursed my lips in concern even as I automatically transformed into my not-true form.

She had been working more and more lately because of the project deadline and I was getting quite concerned about her health.

I checked my phone for any messages from her and found none.

With a sigh, I headed to my room to change out of the dirty and torn clothes I’d worn during today’s… adventure. I briefly eyed the closed portal inside my room and couldn’t help but feel trepidation when seeing it again.

The portal in Casey’s room had nearly gotten me killed and this portal wasn’t any safer. Worst case scenario, I would get deleted by the devs while inside.

I shook my head.

I promised myself a break. No thinking about the stupid portals. No entering them. No pondering the implications of giving life to fictional worlds.

After getting changed, and throwing the now-unusable clothes into the garbage, I sat down on my bed with a sigh right before my phone chimed. I frowned and pulled it out to see a message in our group chat from Casey.

I opened it and saw a photo accompanying the message. It was a picture of Frank’s hands holding two chess pieces. One white pawn and one black rook. The photo was zoomed in on the very visible scratches on the two pieces, revealing blue material underneath the pawn’s white paint and red material making up the rook’s insides.

‘The edit both worked and didn’t work…? I guess I can’t edit what already exists, but I can change something we haven’t observed yet?’

I blinked.

Holy crap.

That was… incredible. That meant Casey really did have god-like power over that world, even if it wasn’t absolute.

Just what could she do with a power like that? She could write-in a secret stash of gold or magical items somewhere where we hadn’t been to yet and then just go there and take everything. She could adjust the magical laws of the world in a way to make it easier for us to use magic. She could create characters who would then come to life.

I breathed in, before closing my eyes and letting out a sigh.

That was all amazing, but I promised myself some time off, dammit. Even if I wanted to go back to her place and do all sorts of experiments…

No. We had all the time in the world to explore the possibilities later. Heck, since I’d left the portal open, I was sure Casey, Wi, and Elyssa were going to do some experiments of their own. In the meantime, I would relax.

…

Now, how was I going to relax, exactly? My usual fare would be killing time by browsing the internet, watching videos, or playing games.

I flicked my eyes at the portal again and managed to cringe only slightly this time.

The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

Speaking of games… Ever since I’d discovered the portal’s true nature, I had only logged onto RLO just to transfer items. So how about… playing the game normally? Just for fun? Or heck, maybe I could go to the new area and explore it without putting my real self in danger this time?

It felt like such a weird idea to play the game normally after everything, but…

Why not?

Not like the devs knew the character I was using belonged to the ‘Glitch girl’, after all.

I stood up from my bed, started up my computer, and was soon logging into RLO just like I normally would. My character still stood in the Golden Woods where I had left her, so I first navigated her back to my home base, an inn room in Redaghoul.

And then I remembered the blog post which had been the whole reason for today’s and yesterday’s events. With everything else happening in Wiland, we had never ended up checking it out.

I pulled out my phone and went to the devs’ blog post to read it. It was more or less what I had expected. Words about a strange unknown bug that caused NPCs to behave strangely and an announcement to release a patch for it – as well as some fixes to the bugs in the new area – next Tuesday.

Reading it with what I knew now, there was zero indication that the devs knew that I had accidentally made RLO real.

Speaking of which… Did the same editing rules that applied to Wiland apply to the game world? Could the devs actually ‘update’ the parts of the game I’d touched? How would they even be blocked from doing so? Unlike a novel, this was a specifically defined world via computer code, not vague descriptions in a text document.

I shook my head.

I was thinking about the damn portals again. I just couldn’t help it, could I?

Well, whatever. I suppose thinking about them wasn’t a big deal, as long as I wasn’t tempted to dive inside one and get myself killed again.

Back to the game.

I decided to gear up – after quickly buying replacements for everything I had smuggled to Earth – and head to the new bubble area. I was a little underleveled for it, but I didn’t mind if my player character died. Unlike me, she could respawn, after all.

I went through the same route we’d used with Frank a couple of days again. I used the withered Iris to teleport to the Undead Ruins, fought through the skeletons there, and proceeded toward the bubble. The skeletons actually dropped items when defeated by my player character, I noted sardonically.

When I reached the cliffside overseeing the bubble, I once again realized just how designed the spectacle felt. It should have been obvious that this was just a game.

Now, unfortunately, I hadn’t done the necessary quests to access any water-breathing equipment or potions, so I had to wait a little bit for the bubble to switch back to air mode again.

I didn’t particularly mind. While I waited, I went to the wiki and began reading the quick guide for one of the quests I was missing.

As I read, my phone rang.

I pulled it out and saw Mom’s number. I accepted the call.

“Hello?”

“Renee…” the voice on the other side rasped.

A chill went down my spine as I stiffened.

“Wha– Mom?! What’s wrong?”

“Sorry honey…” She sighed. “I had a bit of an accident at work today… They had to take me to the hospital.”

I sucked in a breath as my eyes widened.

“What happened?! Mom! Are you okay?!” I practically shouted as I got off my chair and began pacing around.

“I’m… alright. The doctor said I just collapsed from stress. Nothing too serious.”

I couldn’t help but cringe. I wanted to kick myself for not having foreseen this.

“They want to keep me here for a few more hours… Sorry, I don’t think I’ll be able to make dinner today. Could you fix something for yourself on your own?”

“I…”

I stopped and my head whipped in the direction of my closet where I hid all of the items from RLO. My battle dress, my katana, all the other junk I had smuggled to Earth, and most importantly, the healing potions.

I was going to tell Mom about the portals anyway, wasn’t I…?

“Which hospital are you in? I’m gonna come,” I declared.

“Renee, you don’t have to…”

“No, I want to,” I insisted as I opened my closet, got my clothes out again, and rummaged around to grab two vials of the healing potions.

Mom sighed and reluctantly told me which hospital she was in.

Once the call ended, I quickly got changed, stashed the potions into my fanny pack, and left the apartment with a renewed sense of determination.