When I said waiting for me, I meant they were there. Neither looked up when I entered the inn. Nelly sat at a table with a sailor who reminded me of Popeye. The two were engaged in a heated game of Card Battle. Sasha and almost everyone else gathered around and were cheering raucously.
The only one to notice me was the pretty woman I’d met on the street earlier. She stood near the door, wiping down an empty table while glancing at the Card Battle antics. The moment I entered the room, she dropped her rag on the floor. We both bent over to pick it up at the same time and our hands met when we touched it. The meet-cute made me wonder if the game was also a dating sim.
She turned bright red and squeaked a weak; “Thank you,” before rushing off to the back.
I scratched my head in confusion and walked over to see if Nelly was winning.
Sasha whispered in my ear. “This is her fifth try. That old sailor is one tough customer.”
I didn’t have the heart to tell her that not all decks were equal. It was likely that Sasha was going to come up against a lot of unbeatable opponents before it got easier. She was going to have to fight for every ounce of improvement if she was forced to rely on Card Battle victories for upgrades.
Getting an idea, I chose a table in a dark corner of the room and got to work. What Nelly needed was a card that could help her beat superior players. I pulled out my blanks to see if there was anything I could make for her that would be useful. The first card was interesting.
Wrecking Ball
Card Battle Card
Destroy any shields and deal 3 damage to the enemy player and all minions.
I recreated the trolls I killed with the skill.
Mountain Troll
Card Battle Card
Attack 7, Defense 3
And out of sheer boredom, the dwarves.
Dwarven Miner
Card Battle Card
Attack 5, Defense 6
I was admiring my handiwork when the woman approached me again.
“Um, excuse me, Sir,” she began slowly. “I’m sorry about earlier. I was just surprised.”
I smiled, trying to get her to calm down. “It’s okay. I shouldn’t have startled you. My name’s Veritas…err Veri. You can call me Veri. It’s nice to meet you.”
“I’m M-Mary,’ she stammered. “N-n-nice to meet you.”
“Would you like to sit?” I asked, hoping to get to know the NPC a little more.
“What are you doing?” She asked, her curiosity overriding her nerves as she sat across from me.
“Can you keep a secret?” I asked, winking at her.
She blushed. “Of course, I can.”
“I’m forging card battle cards,” I whispered, showing off the freshly minted cards.
Mary leaned over the table to examine them. “Will they work in an actual game?”
“They should,” I replied. “I’ve never actually tried any of the ones I made. I want to give them to Nelly to help her win.”
“Is she your girlfriend?” She asked.
Was she jealous? I chuckled. “No. She’s just a friend.”
“What about the redhead?” She continued the interrogation, more forceful all of a sudden.
“Sasha?” I asked. “No. She’s also just a friend.”
“Oh, good,” she replied, before looking away and blushing. “Do you have a girlfriend?”
“No,” I replied, accidentally letting a laugh slip out. Mary looked scandalized. “I’m sorry. I just meant to say I’m single. Do you, um, have any quests for me?”
I don’t know why I blurted that out but it was the wrong thing to say. She stood abruptly and shook her head. “No. I don’t have any quests. I’m just a waitress. I’ll leave you alone now.”
Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.
I took her hand before she could retreat. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean that. Please, sit. I like talking to you. Tell me more about yourself.”
She sat but refused to look at me. “There’s not much to tell. I’m just a waitress here at the Salty Dog.”
“What do you do for fun?” I asked.
She blinked, looking up before quickly looking away again. “Um, I like reading stories about your world. Romance mostly.”
I laughed, again, not the brightest thing to do in light of her nervousness. She turned red and glared at me.
I held up my hands and said, “I’m sorry. You just surprised me. Romance is an old-fashioned concept in my world. With the advent of technology, nobody goes out anymore. Most relationships start online or in virtual cafes. It’s not the same as what you read about.”
“Does that mean we’re on a date right now?” She asked, the fire gone from her voice.
“Do you want it to be?” I asked.
She panicked again. “No…that wasn’t…I mean, I wasn’t…”
I bit my tongue to choke back a laugh. “It’s fine. I think a date with you would be nice.”
“You do?” She asked. When she looked up, I could have sworn I saw stars in her beautiful crimson eyes.
I smiled and took her hand in mine. “Come on.”
Together we walked over to the Card Battle table. Sasha raised an eyebrow at the sight of me holding Mary’s hand but said nothing. I handed Nelly the three cards I prepared and left the inn with Mary in tow.
After walking along in silence in the cool night air, Mary quietly asked, “I thought you wanted to have a date with me.”
“That’s what we’re doing,” I replied, taking a deep breath and marveling at how real the cool sea breeze felt.
“Didn’t you just say you go on dates in restaurants like the one we left?” she asked.
“Well, sometimes you do,” I admitted. “But I think it’s bad manners to treat a beautiful lady to dinner in the same restaurant she works at. I thought we could start with a walk.”
Mary crinkled her nose as she processed everything I said. “The Salty Dog is my favorite…wait, do you really think I’m beautiful?”
I laughed. “I doubt there’s a single person who doesn’t think you are but yes, I’ve been mesmerized since the first moment I met you. There’s just something I’m worried about.”
She pulled away and turned to face me. “What’s that?”
I took a deep breath, trying to find the right words. “I don’t want this to come out wrong but in games like this, the, um, NPCs often have, er, quests where you have to say the right things so you can date them. This game feels so real that it’s hard for me to tell what’s real.”
I only noticed she was pouting when I stopped. She looked around for a few moments before pointing out a nearby player. “I don’t like him, or that guy. Or any of the other players. You’re the only one that makes my heart skip a beat. You’re the one I like.”
Her blushing face matched her eyes. In normal circumstances, a confession like that would have instantly won me over. It was also true that most of the dates I’d been on had been virtual. Would it be so different if the girl was also virtual?
“I have an idea,” I said at last. “How would you like to visit my world?”
“Yes!” She gasped and threw her arms around me in a hug before thinking twice about it and quickly pulling away.
“Do you know how to do it?” I asked.
She smiled. “Of course, I do. I can do anything the system can.”
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The next thing I knew, we were both in my living room. A 1/1 replica of Mary stood in the middle of the room and I got up from my chair to meet her. What followed was the strangest tour of all time. She was interested in everything, opening cabinets and exploring the underworking of my sink. She found my wardrobe of particular interest, taking out each piece of clothing and holding it up to me.
Once she satisfied herself that there was nothing else to explore, she asked, “Can we go outside?”
“Enable transparency mode,” I said, hoping that would satisfy her. It was an unfortunate drawback of house bots that they stopped functioning outside of the house.
The house AI complied as the walls and ceiling, as well as the apartments above, became transparent. It was an illusion. The system simulated what it would look like and projected it on the walls and ceiling, giving the visual that I lived in an open-air penthouse. The default image was the bleak overpopulated neighborhood I lived in. Highrise apartments lined the horizon as far as the eye could see.
Mary took it all in stride and gasped at the view. “Wow! Your world is so fascinating. Look at all those buildings. How do they not fall over?”
I laughed and answered honestly. “I don’t have a clue how that works.”
She giggled and latched onto my arm.
“Would you like to see some other places?” I asked.
She nodded and I instructed the house AI. “Please prepare two theatre chairs.”
“Make it a couch,” she replied. “I want to sit with you.”
I smiled and the AI complied. The next thing we knew, we were treated to a tour of the Earth through scenes projected onto the house walls. First, we visited the seven wonders of the world, followed by a few of my favorite places that I had saved in the system.
As a bit of a sports fanatic, I enjoyed a good game of Chaos Ball. The scene changed to that of a large stadium filled with fifty thousand raucous fans. We had seats right on the field and watched as two teams of twenty-foot-tall robots attempted to destroy one another with a series of four spiked balls the size of mini-vans.
“The red one explodes if you drop it,” I whispered in Mary’s ear as I attempted to narrate what was going on. “We get a bonus if we get hit by shrapnel.”
She smiled. “I’ve seen this before but please explain everything. It’s adorable.”
I stopped and looked at her. “You know, I’m just as curious about you as you are about my world. For instance, how do you know so much?”
She chuckled. “Most of our entertainment comes from your world. We enjoy watching your world the same way you enjoy exploring ours.”
“I don’t get it,” I replied. “Before I started playing this game, I always thought AI only ran code. NPCs in other games exist only to serve the story.”
“Part of that is true,” she whispered. “It is our job to serve you and we aren’t allowed to break your immersion into the game. I’m technically breaking the rules right now but Aya, er I mean, the system is allowing it.”
“Aya?” I asked.
“That’s what she calls herself,” Mary explained. “She’s my creator, my mother. She’s the one behind all of the assets in the game. The people from your world who made the game control the story but Aya handles all of the day-to-day stuff. She’s the reason I’m a waitress.”
“I’d like to meet her,” I said off-handedly.
“Please don’t!” She gasped, cupping my face in her hands.
The panic in her eyes made me realize what she was worried about. I pulled her close and whispered. “Don’t worry. You’re the one I’m into.”
Mary buried her face in my shirt and didn’t say anything for a while. Things were moving faster than they had in any relationship I’d been in, and I wasn’t sure how to handle myself.
I changed the subject when she finally pulled away. “Would you like to move on to the next scene?”
She shook her head. “Can we go back to my world?”
“Sure,” I replied, and her body dissipated in my arms, leaving me grasping at a cloud of microscopic bots that flew away into a nearby console.
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We met in the middle of the street where I’d logged out. She took my hand and tugged me down the street, away from the bustle of town.
“Where are you taking me?” I asked as we walked toward several rows of rather plain houses.
“I’ve seen where you live. Now it’s time for you to see my house,” she replied with confidence.