It was my turn to have my heart race. Was she really taking me home? It felt like more than a tour. Could NPCs even do that?

“I’m right over here,” she said quietly before pulling the door open.

Inside was darkness. She flipped a switch and a room lit up that was out of place in a fantasy world. It wasn’t quite the same as my home though. It felt more like a museum. She had a kitchen complete with a refrigerator I had only ever seen in pictures.

“Why do you have a toilet?” I asked after peeking my head in her bathroom.

She pulled the door shut. “We have them for the same reason you do. The system believes we need to experience the same things as you so we can feel more human.”

“Interesting,” I replied, glancing at the twin bed in her bedroom. “What else can you do that humans do?”

She closed that door too. “Like I said, we can do all of the things you do. Even that.”

“Do you have to pay to take off your underwear?” I asked, trying to suppress a fit of giggles at my silly joke.

She stuck out her tongue. “Not only am I free to disrobe when we please but I can help you get around having to pay as well.”

“How?” I asked, wondering how else she could hack the game for me.

Mary looked down at my pants before shaking her head. “Nope. I’ll tell you when the time comes.”

“What?” I asked, not getting what she meant for a second. “When do you…oh! Okay. I can wait.”

“Good boy,” she smiled.

“Do, NPCs, err, is that something you can do?” I asked.

“Duh!” She replied, her tone rising in annoyance. “I told you we experience everything you do as a human. Everything.”

My mouth must have been hanging open because she pushed it shut. It was amazing how the shy woman who ran off when our hands touched found such confidence. She gave me a tour of her house, even though there wasn’t much left to show. Each of the rooms were very basic. The bedroom had a twin-sized bed and a nightstand along with a small closet. The living room had a couch and a loveseat. I half expected a television considering how modern the decor was.

The kitchen was something else. The refrigerator was a novelty. The concept of storing fresh food in the house was antiquated. Food was powdered and only rehydrated when it came time to be processed. That way harmful elements normally present could be filtered out and replaced with more nutritious supplements. Mary’s fridge had several wrapped cuts of meat. I recognized the raw chicken and beef. There was also a summer sauce and a slab of bacon. Fresh eggs sat in a bowl on the top shelf next to a glass carton of milk. Her vegetables were stored in a crisper drawer down below. Preparing it looked like it would be a monumental task.

After the tour, she sat on the couch and patted the spot next to her. I sat and she took my hand in hers. “What do you think of my house?”

My first thought was about how tiny her bed was but I decided not to bring that up. “You said you like to read about my world but I don’t see any books.”

Mary smiled and swiped her finger through the air like a magic wand. Rows of text from a steamy love scene appeared in the air between us. She blushed and swatted them away.

“I can also access audiobooks from your world,” she explained.

Her mention of the audiobook triggered something and a sultry voice came out of nowhere. “And then he caressed my…”

She swiped again and the voice abruptly vanished. “You weren’t supposed to hear that.”

“So you read those kinds of novels, huh?” I teased.

She leaned into me and laughed. Then she swiped open another menu and her home faded and was replaced by an intersection with people walking across an intersection.

“This isn’t live,” she explained. “They’re videos stored in the archives. We can call them up to get an idea of what it’s like to be human.”

I followed as she walked with the other pedestrians.

“I always wished I could talk to them,” she sighed. “That’s why I’m so happy I get to meet real people like you.”

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

“What about the other players?” I asked. “Surely, you met more of them before I came along.”

She sighed. “Most of them don’t pay much attention once they find out I’m just a waitress. I can’t tell anybody if I’m involved in any quests unless they are on the quest.”

“So you do have a quest!” I exclaimed triumphantly.

She puffed out her lower lip. “I’m not telling. You’re the only one that liked me without the quest.”

I suspected lots of people would like her if they got through her shy exterior. There was no way I was the only one who would want to get to know her better. Hopefully, she would tell anyone who she met next she was taken. It would break my heart to discover she offered the full dating experience to anyone who asked her out.

“What are you thinking about?” She asked, standing in front of me when I stopped walking in the middle of the street. “Also, you should move. Even though this is just an archive, you can still get hit by the cars.”

“I was thinking about dating you,” I replied truthfully as I allowed her to frogmarch me to the other side of the road. “I’m the only one you’ll go on dates with, right?”

She blushed. “Are you asking me to go steady?”

The way she said that was cute. It felt like she was a teen having her first relationship.

I nodded, and she threw her arms around me. “Of course I will!”

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Mary showed me several other archives. Most of them were videos of people doing everyday things but some were unique.

“Is this a movie?” I asked when we appeared in the middle of a shootout between soldiers in white armor and a scruffy smuggler and his furry companion.

She giggled. “Yes! These are fun to visit. Humans have such vivid imaginations.”

“Yes, they do,” I replied, marveling at the fact that the NPCs had better entertainment than I did. “Are there a lot of movies you can play around in?”

“Aya recreated pretty much all of them,” Mary replied. “I can’t interact with anyone in them though. Not by myself, in any case.”

“Can you if you have more people?” I asked.

“There are some scenes I always wanted to recreate,” she replied.

The world faded once again and when it returned I noticed something was very different. We were animated. A pair of dogs waited patiently in an ally beside a closed door. Suddenly, it flew open and they perked up. A chubby man with a mustache set a bowl of spaghetti on an old crate. A love song flared in the background as the dogs shared the meal. It culminated in them slurping the same noodle and coming together in a kiss, followed by one dog pushing a meatball to the other with its nose. I knew the scene from my childhood.

“So you want to eat spaghetti?” I asked, knowing that wasn’t what she wanted to try.

“No…I…” she stammered before punching me in the arm when she saw the expression on my face. “You know full well what I want.”

“Can we turn into dogs?” I asked.

“Well, yes,” she replied. “But I don’t see why we’d want to.”

“Do you want to push a meatball with your nose as a human?” I asked.

We both erupted into fits of laughter. The dogs continued their meal without any notice.

When the scene didn’t end, I asked, “Shouldn’t the movie move on to the next scene?”

Mary shook her head. “It doesn’t work that way. This scene will play out until we stop watching. If you wait long enough, the dogs will leave the owner of the restaurant will take out the trash. Then nothing else happens. I used to be curious but I’ve seen it all now.”

“This is amazing,” I muttered.

“Is there any scene you’d like to try?” She asked.

“I don’t care,” I admitted. “I’ll watch anything as long as I’m with you.”

“Oh,” she replied with a smile. “Well, we can…”

“I know!” I exclaimed, causing her to stop. “Let’s do this scene. I did promise you dinner, after all.”

“Do you want to be a dog?” She asked.

I pulled open the door. “No. I think a normal human date will be fine.”

She laughed and walked in as I held the door like a gentleman. Having a normal human date had more than one meaning for her. Since the chef couldn’t interact with us, I made a heaping plate of spaghetti along with several meatballs. Even though the scene didn’t call for it, I also got us silverware.

Mary picked up her fork and helped herself to a bite. She watched me expectantly to see what I’d do. Since I knew where this was going and wanted to try it myself, I fished out a long noodle on my fork and offered her one end. Then I took the other in my mouth and slurped. She did the same and the noodle got shorter and shorter.

It culminated in our lips touching and I felt a spark radiate through my entire body. Was I falling for an NPC? The concept felt wrong and so very right at the same time. Mary had a dreamy look in her eyes when we parted.

She looked down at one of the meatballs that was conveniently on her side of the plate. Using her fork end not her nose, she pushed it over to my side. I laughed at it and picked it up with my fork before taking a bite. We erupted in another fit of laughter. It was, by far, one of the best dates I’d ever had.

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After dinner, Mary turned the scene off and we found ourselves back in her living room.

“What do you want to do now?” she asked.

I glanced into her bedroom at that tiny bed and she shook her head, whispering, “Let’s save something for the future.”

I nodded my agreement. “I hope I will know you long into the future.”

She smiled. “You will if I have my way.”

We chatted for a while after that. I only felt the need to end the date when sunlight peeked in through the window. I jumped to my feet and headed to the door. “I totally forgot we’re heading to Permafrost today. Maybe I should tell them I can’t go.”

“Why not?” She asked.

“Because I want to stay in this town,” I replied. “With you.”

There were still more quests in Kingstown. Maybe I could complete them all for a special achievement.

She giggled. “You don’t have to stay here. Now that you’ve visited, you can fast travel back anytime you want.”

“That’s right,” I said, elated at the memory of that feature. “I forgot about that.”

“You can also invite me to your house again,” she whispered.

“There is one more thing I’d like to do before I go,” I whispered back.

Still whispering, she replied. “What’s that?”

“I’d like to kiss you,” I whispered.

She giggled again. “But you already did?”

Before I could object, she jumped up on her tiptoes and pressed herself into me, giving me a long kiss. I pulled her close, losing myself in her. At that moment, I forgot we were anything but two people who had found each other.