Ace woke up gagging, leaning to the side and vomiting up all the water she’d swallowed.

“...ugh...” she moaned. Every damned inch of her hurt. Breathing made her aware of crackling ribs. The light shining in her eyes was painful, and every word her mind managed to cobble together took too much effort.

Wait... light? Her thoughts snagged on that, and for the next few seconds she wasn’t sure why, but then it hit her. When she and Saul had entered the den, it had been night. How many hours had passed...?

“Jinn? Mars! Mars, come here, she’s up!”

That wasn’t a familiar voice. Or name. They knew hers, though, so she was at a disadvantage. They weren’t calling her Ace, and that meant the nameless voice, or Mars, had to be one of the other testers... or maybe MS5 was around, and she’d let the fact slip.

Jinn closed her eyes and gathered her flagging energy. She needed to figure out what was happening, or at least have some information before . First, touch. Under her pounding head felt nice. Soft, yet firm. She was warm, which was nice. And suspicious. But that cocoon was spread evenly about her, and there was a slight weight to it as well. Finally, under her was a firmness that certainly didn’t feel like wood, stone, or, right up on her fuck no list right now, water.

Scent was a bit better at helping piece together what was around here, and the smell of roasting meat helped her body feel a bit more normal. Cooking smells, a slight fragrance of flowers, and the closer odour of vomit. There was also a heavy presence of dust, she found out as she sneezed—each reaction set off fireworks in her head.

“Jinn?” This was a fresh voice. Male-sounding. Deeper. “Don’t try faking, your eyelashes are fluttering. It’s easy to tell you’re awake.”

Damn. If that was going to be the case though... Jinn squinted, the light causing her to groan. Next to her was a blurred outline. Tall, even when sitting down, and thick, almost rectangular. There was also a halo of gray around their head.

“Sorry!” chirruped the earlier voice. “I’ll get the curtains.”

The light dimmed, and with that, Jinn was able to fully look around her. First was the person at her side. His clothing was an odd outfit, long jeans patched with leather at the knees, and a blue long-sleeved shirt with leather at the elbows. A bit professor meets scavenger. The aura she’d seen earlier resulted from sunlight striking their black hair and beard, and his hooded eyes must have been because of a mutation, since they were ruby red. She still didn’t recognize him, though he had a light brown body that magnificently combined offense and defense.

Muscular shoulders, defined chest, and a thick waist. If someone wrapped him in chains and he had gills, the man could have worked as an anchor. As it was, Jinn mentally noted that he’d be a hard opponent to go up against; a blow connecting from him would have a lot of heft behind it, and he’d simply soak up any damage done to him. Not a person she wanted to piss off right now, when wet paper was tougher than her.

Satisfied that the person next to her would not reach out and stab her, Jinn concentrated on their surroundings. The three of them were in a building, an old cafe if the scuffed black-and-white checkered tile was anything to go by. She was indeed on a type of bed, a mattress placed between vinyl red booth seats, with—yep, pillows!—and a blanket. A pretty comfy place, all in all. Home sweet cafe.

“Here, I’ll take that blanket and wash it,” said the high-pitched voice she’d heard first. Peeking out from behind the man was a teen, probably around a younger age of ten or twelve. Straight red hair, freckles scattered across their nose, and skin an interesting shade of pale green; they were still coltish, all limbs, and thin enough that beer coasters looked stronger. Their clothing comprised an oversized t-shirt and a pair of shorts. Great for running away quickly, but not much else.

They reached forward and tugged the corner of the messed-up blanket. “It’ll be better to get the smell out before it sets into the fabric. You—”

“Talk to her and get her up to speed?” the man chuckled, moving so the kid could get the blanket. He took the opportunity to grab a nearby bucket and give it to Jinn, just in case. She settled it in her lap. “Sure thing, Kay.”

Wait, Kay?! Jinn jerked upright and immediately vomited again, thankfully right into the bucket.

“You might need to do that a few more times to get it all out,” cautioned the deep voice. “You don’t need to get pneumonia. I know it’s nasty, but don’t suppress the notion when it comes.”

Jinn wiped the side of her mouth. The fuzzy nastiness wouldn’t go away, no matter how much she scraped it with her teeth and tried to spit into the bucket.

“Water.” She was still in an unknown place with unfamiliar people. “Please.”

With a creak, the mattress lifted. Eight steps and then there was a clink. A quiet gurgling sound. This place wasn’t that wide, and they had a supply of bottled water.

“Here. I’m also giving you a bowl to rinse and spit the first sip.”

That was kind. She took the bowl in one hand, the water in the other, and had to rinse her mouth out twice before it registered as clean. Then she drained half the cup before her stomach complained.

“Thank you,” Jinn said, reluctantly giving him back the remaining water and bowl, also letting him take the bucket. She laid down on the mattress, watching as he walked back to the countertop to put the items away. Neat, kind, and patient. She would have guessed MS5 if the woman ever switched genders.

“Eh, don’t thank me yet. You don’t know how much trouble we’re in.” He came back, dragging a small stool, and sat on that. “You up to talking, or do you need more sleep?”

“I want to know what the fuck is going on.” Jinn frowned. “Where am I? Who are you?”

He laughed and held up his hands.

“Yeah, you’re good to go. Kay will be pleased.”

“The only Kay I know is customer support with OMR. They’re not here as a player, which makes me a little suspicious of your young friend.” Who wasn’t in the room anymore. What if the blanket had been a distraction from their true motives?

“Jinn, I’m going to be honest. I suspect you’re suspicious of everyone.” He crossed his arms over his chest and leaned back, legs in front of him. “Shut up for a few minutes, let me explain things, and then you can ask questions.”

She frowned, but nodded. He still had all the advantages here, and now was not the time to push buttons.

“Good.” A smile split his beard. “I’m Mars in OMR, but my tester name is Genki. You should know me, we’ve had a run in before.”

Genki? Jinn tried to think about any testers she knew by that name. With all the games that continually came out, there were enough people that she didn’t remember—oh. She drew in a sharp breath. Great, she’d been saved by someone she’d fucked over in Ladders and Bombs. A quick glance showed that his smile had only gotten bigger, morphing into a shit-eating grin.

“Yeah. I’m the noob you dropped five bombs on, then looted my stuff before throwing one last explosion at my corpse.”

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A bit too late to apologize for that... she settled for a sheepish smile.

“It’s fine,” he said, chuckling and waving a hand. “All’s fair in war, love, and video games. Feel free to call me Mars since we’re still inside the program.”

Jinn groaned, the reminder bringing her headache to a tight crescendo.

“Nothing’s changed?” she asked.

“Well...” His tone changed as he hedged. “There have been some recent developments, yes. But nothing you’d call helpful, I think.”

This was not the time or place to withhold information. She narrowed her eyes at him.

“Spit it out.”

He stood up, pacing the width of the diner and muttering under his breath. Finally, he stopped at the edge of the mattress.

“What you said earlier isn’t correct. Kay, the kid currently washing the blanket, is the same customer service Kay.”

“...fuck.” She shut her eyes and tried to digest that “wonderful” news. The only person on the outside that had seemed to care was now in here, trapped with them. That meant they couldn’t reach out to anyone else for help, though maybe… her thoughts trailed to a faint hope. “What about Kay’s family? Do they have one?”

“They don’t bother Kay at all during testing, launch, and the two weeks following launch.” He let out a snort. “Apparently they can get a little testy, and it’s easier for all concerned to split without contact for that time period.”

“Shit. So, that means we can’t count on any ‘where is Kay’ surprise help from that end.”

“Agreed.”

Jinn’s mind kept tumbling over that fact. She and Genki were testers, but Kay...

“Is this your base?” she asked, looking around. It didn’t seem lived in, no piles of items to use later, no NPCs walking in and out. It was too quiet. Briny Breeze has always been buzzing with sorting, farming, testing the water purifiers, all that fun stuff to make it a decent base.

“No,” said Mars, sighing. “An asshole warlord overran me a few days before testing was supposed to stop, and I’ve been on the road ever since. Kay happened to find me a few days ago, and they were the one that spotted you floating on the lake. I was going to leave you since you already looked like a corpse, but they told me to go out and grab you.”

“Thanks for not leaving me for dead.” That sparked the thought she had earlier. “Did I die? Or is this game in permadeath mode now?”

Mars shrugged.

“No idea. To be honest,” and here he let out a snort of laughter, “I didn’t even realize there was a problem. I thought they had added to the testing period, or something like that.”

Crap. Jinn cleared her sore throat and winced; not at the pain, but at the answer she was pretty sure she was about to get.

“Genki. How many years have you been doing this?”

“Three.”

Jinn rubbed the bridge of her nose. Absolutely fucking perfect. She was stuck with a baby tester and customer service rep, which meant neither of them was going to be good at pumping up their stats... though that was probably moot since VICA was still offline. Something to check again, at any rate.

“VICA. Show xp.”

Mars cocked his head to the side, and Jinn shrugged.

“Sometimes the systems will come back on at the strangest times, and if a person’s lucky enough, they can exit.” That’s what two other testers had told her when they’d been trapped.

“It won’t happen this time, though.”

Jinn looked to where the voice came from; Kay was half-standing in the doorway, their small hand curled around the edge.

“How the hell did you get in here?” asked Jinn. She sat up again, moving the pillows behind her so they would prop her up. “You were supposed to message me before things went this fucking wrong.”

“I know,” Kay said. Their face looked miserable.

“She’ll need to know too,” said Mars, nodding to Jinn.

“I was sending you information from my end, but... I guess I did something suspicious. A friend of mine in the IT department told me my messages were being redirected, but couldn’t tell me anything more than that over the phone line. I was going down to his floor when I overheard a couple of people talking in the break room, which wasn’t supposed to be occupied. I listened in and overheard them toasting their success in planting one of their own agents as a tester and sneaking another person onto the IT floor to upload their program.”

Kay stopped speaking, stepping closer to Mars and attaching themselves to his hip in a giant hug.

“When Kay was in the hallway,” continued Mars, since Kay stopped speaking. “They were caught eavesdropping. Long story short, even though they kicked the guy in the dick and ran, they were captured, tied up, and gagged.”

“Fuck.” No wonder Kay was still feeling the effects. Having that happen in a game was bad luck. In real life? Traumatic.

“I thought they were going to kill me.” The teen wiped away tears from the corner of their eyes. “I was dragged into the nearest testing facility and forced to start up the game.”

“You could have just clicked the menu,” said Jinn. “Every game has a place to exit right at the beginning. Devs know people change their mind, so it’s there at the start too, just in case someone’s not interested.”

“It wasn’t there.”

Jinn was speechless. Every game she’d ever entered, every single one she’d tested, that option had been there.

“I tried to stall,” said Kay. “I took as long as possible choosing how my character looked. I figured that someone might be able to exit if I was making the game run as it should have. I was still looking through options when I received a countdown, and I woke up in OMR.”

“We can’t trust that anyone made it out,” finished up Mars.

No... No, they couldn’t. Which meant that everything they could do had to be done from inside the game. And that meant they needed to continue playing.

“Let me make sure I understand what’s going on.” Jinn kept her voice slow and steady. “First. Something’s been uploaded to the game, which makes it impossible for us to log out or contact the outside world. That’s also what probably shut down VICA and is not letting anyone access menus and all that.”

Kay nodded, her bangs swaying.

“Mars, you don’t have a home base or any other supplies than what’s gathered here, since another warlord took over your place.” Saying the profession aloud brought another piece of information to the front of her mind. “Was it LMFS?”

“I don’t think so,” said Mar, shaking his head. “But I don’t know. I couldn’t stand against their forces, so when I fled, I wasn’t exactly looking for the commander. It could have been another NPC.”

She nodded, even as she wished he had identified the leader.

“And finally, we still have no idea about permadeath, or any other negative changes to OMR.”

“That about sums it up.”

“What were you doing on this side, anyway?” asked Kay, coming over to sit on the other side of the mattress. “You made your base at Briny Breeze, and it would have taken at least a week for you to have walked over here.”

Jinn shuddered as faint memories of too much water, being helpless, and almost drowning, resurfaced.

“I found a limited use shortcut. Wait... you remember the map?” She leaned forward and grabbed Kay by the shoulder. “That’s right! You’re customer fucking support! What else do you know? Quick, Mars, find some paper and pen. Kay’s going to write down everything she remembers from this game.”

“I should have thought of that!” Mars got to his feet and lunged for the cash register at the end of the counter.

“Why?” asked Kay, looking between the two of them, their eyes wide. “What’s going on?”

“You are going to be a tremendous help,” pronounced Jinn, grinning wide enough to hurt the sides of her face. “Why didn’t I realize this before? Mars and I have only the knowledge we’ve gained during our testing period, but you! You have everything else! How long have you been working on OMR?” She waved her hand to keep Kay from answering the question.

“Jinn’s right,” added Mars, coming back over with a spiral-bound notebook and a pencil. “You know where to go, which locations to avoid, and maybe even a better place to build a base at!”

“That’s not all,” continued Jinn, leaning forward. “What else do you know about the game? How many mutations are there? How many other testers are still alive? What were the last locations of those testers?”

Kay grabbed the notepad and started writing information. Jinn opened her mouth to add another question, but the teen shook their head.

“Don’t distract me, let me focus on what you’ve asked so far.”

Jinn nodded, holding out a hand to Mars. After staring at it for a few seconds, he took it and helped her off the makeshift bed.

“Let’s leave them to handle that,” she whispered, nodding to the back door. “We need to talk about game stuff. Food, shelter, and water. Getting a settlement together, which means deciding what we want for defense and how big of a population we’re willing to deal with.”

There might be two adept warlords out there, or possibly just LMFS, but without knowing more about respawning—or a possible lack of it—gameplay going forward would be a run of “You Only Live Once.” And that required precise planning.