There were few things better than being out on open waters with The Shoebill and Rock. In fact, the only way that Fenrir could think of for how to make it better was by doing exactly what he always did whenever he had free time, and that was by fishing with Rod.

Well, that was exactly what he always did whenever he had free time… and wasn’t spending said free time training with his friends and girlfriends, getting into political drama between different factions, building a fantasy submarine capable of launching missiles, and dealing with Kadi being Kadi. Then there were all the different things he kept on doing with his girlfriends both in-game and outside of it.

Really, Fenrir barely got to spend any time fishing anymore. That was why he had every intention of fishing while sailing to those islands that Eva noticed.

Speaking of Eva, both her and Cassiel were there on The Shoebill, too. They decided to leave Fenrir be for the trip so that he could fish with Rock at his side while they sat near the bow together talking about various things while keeping an eye out for the islands.

And because Rock was at his side, that meant Fenrir made sure to keep a single hand atop her head to pet her while his other hand held Rod.

That was when Fenrir thought of something.

Saya, Corwin, Rock, and Shogun all ascended into being actual artificial intelligences like Kadi. They might have been a bit more limited than her due to her implementing protections from them that they couldn’t get around, but they were every bit as real of an intelligence as she was. They were capable of leaving the game to exist outside of it, too, and often played other games together with the group.

Other people got very confused whenever Rock and Shogun would play multiplayer games, especially FPS games, and could hear the two, canid intelligences barking through the in-game voice chats. Of course, most people just assumed they were dogs barking in the background, but those who knew the two canids knew the truth.

Regardless of that, Fenrir looked down at Rod and realized that it was entirely possible he could have Rod turned into an intelligence, too.

Then again… he was dependent on Kadi for that as far as he was aware, and he wanted nothing more to do with her. Quite frankly, knowing that she was in charge of the world he was playing already made the game far, far less appealing than it ever was before. Had he not already accomplished so much and made so many friends, he most likely would have quit already.

But at the same time, it was thanks to the game that he met all of his girlfriends and made so many new friends. It was also thanks to Kadi that Saya, Corwin, Rock, and Shogun all got to become proper intelligences. Kadi was the one who gave them life.

Though, she also went and gave everybody a sort of pseudo intelligence so that she would no longer have to manually control everybody. It wasn’t as advanced as the previously mentioned four, but they were still independent because of that.

Remembering that made the world a bit more tolerable. If Fenrir had to walk around knowing that everybody and everything he interacted with was technically Kadi, he likelky wouldn’t have stuck with the game for much longer.

So, did that mean Rod already had an intelligence like that? If so, could it be developed? Could Rod eventually leave the game to exist in the broader world as well?

Fenrir didn’t have the answer to that question, nor most of his questions in general, but he did know that the weather was perfect for fishing at least. Clear and bright blue skies, a gentle breeze, and warming light from the sun that felt great without making him sweaty.

“Enjoying the weather, Rod?” Fenrir asked.

A single pulse from Rod’s gem told him that he was, in fact, enjoying the weather.

“Now if only we could catch something. I guess I better start reeling it in to make sure the bait is still attached in the first plac—”

The game might not have had officially listed skills anywhere, but Fenrir realized he must have gotten a new one recently when he instinctively knew that something was about to take the bait. He took his hand off of Rock’s head, causing her lift her head up and look out to the water, to tightly grip Rod with both hands in preparation for what was about to happen.

It was a good thing that he did, too, considering that whatever tugged on his line did so with almost enough force to tear Rod straight out from his hands even with preparing for it.

Fortunately, Rock was there, and Rock was—obviously—a very good girl. Such a good girl, in fact, that she knew to bite onto Fenrir’s leg to keep him from getting pulled overboard as he very clearly almost was by whatever got hooked on his line.

And due to Rock weighing several times what Fenrir weighed, that made it far more difficult for the catch to pull him overboard.

“Cass! Eva!” Fenrir shouted. “I—I could use some help!”

Hearing Fenrir call for help while fishing was even more surprising to them than the fact that The Shoebill was being pulled backwards.

“Want me to try zapping the water?” Eva asked Fenrir upon landing at his side, stretching out her thunderbird wing.

But Fenrir shook his head. “That’s too dirty.”

“But… if it’s strong enough to pull the entire ship, don’t you think we should deal with it before it might damage it?”

“Did you just call The Shoebill an it?”

“Sorry, her. Before it might damage her.”

“Thanks. And unless it actually tries to attack her, we’re going to fish this bastard up the real way. Right now, we’re fishing. If it attacks, we’re fighting.”

Cassiel sighed and crossed her arms over her chest. “Then I think we should let you handle it yourself since you want to fish it up. It’s not very real fishing if we help you. Isn’t fishing supposed to be a one-versus-one sort of thing?”

“Well… yes, but—”

“I think Rock should let go so you can be pulled overboard, too.”

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Fenrir looked down at Rock, who was the only anchor keeping him onboard, and said, “Please don’t.”

Naturally, Rock would never even think of that. There was no way she would ever let go of her master to let him get pulled overboard by a mysterious beast within the ocean.

“Rock,” Cassiel said, “I’ll give you some gems when we get home if you let go.”

Rock’s ears twitched and her tail froze as she looked up at Cassiel.

“Please,” Fenrir whispered to Rock. “Don’t give in to that witch’s foul temptations.”

“A witch?” Cassiel asked. “If I’m a witch then I should act like one. Don’t you think?” She looked at Eva.

Eva smiled and nodded. “Of course! I mean, I think that being a witch is more of Aza’s thing, but that doesn’t mean you’re not allowed to be one, too. Maybe you should place a curse on him to give him eternally wet hair? Then he can smell like wet dog for the rest of his life.”

“I—I think we would be the ones who suffer from that more than he does.”

“Hmm. Good point. Alright, then what about… cursing him so that he can’t get hard anymore?”

“We all lose in that case.”

“Well, we can still use toys.”

“Good point.”

Betrayed by everybody Fenrir knew and loved, he had no choice but to pour all of his strength into fighting against his caught prey as hard as he could. At least Rock was still serving as his anchor even if she did seem ready to let go of him at any second if it meant being treated to some gems.

But alas, the beast Fenrir hooked was not one meant to achieve victory over in the sport of fishing.

Everything stopped moving.

The Shoebill was no longer being tugged backward through the water, nor was it being propelled forward via wind against its sails. Instead, it sat still in the water as Fenrir reeled in… an empty hook.

That was when gamer sense kicked in for the trio of humans aboard. A situation like the one they were in was almost always the prelude to some sort of major fight or event happening, and they all got ready for it even if there was no other reason to suspect a fight yet.

“Go below deck, Rock,” Fenrir ordered. If anything happened, he didn’t want her to potentially get knocked overboard in the middle of the ocean. There was no saving her if that happened as she would sink straight to the bottom and be almost impossible to find, not to mention potentially be impossible to reach.

Rock didn’t hesitate to listen as she was well aware of how dangerous the ocean was for her.

“Too bad Ilo hasn’t been around lately,” Cassiel said. “We might know what’s going on if she was.”

“Yeah,” Fenrir replied, “haven’t seen her for a couple of weeks.”

Eva, keeping her head on a swivel to look around for even the slightest sign of danger, said, “Maybe she went on an extended rowboat hunting trip?”

Fenrir laughed a little at that. “Maybe. But shit, even the wind has died down. It’s completely still out here now.”

“Good thing we have Tab’s engine,” Cassiel said.

“We should probably go get it turned—what’s… what’s that?”

Fenrir pointed to the distance behind them, causing both Eva and Cassiel to join him in looking exceptionally worried at the sight of what was coming toward them.

“I… I think that could be called a rogue wave,” Eva said, taking a step back as the massive wave approached them.

“Go get below deck,” Fenrir ordered the girls as he placed Rod back on his side to take up the helm, igniting the engine with the lever that Tabitha built in next to the ship’s wheel.

“I don’t think outrunning it is going to work.”

“I’m going to turn into it. I… I think that’s what you’re supposed to do in situations like this. You turn into it and ride over it before it crests.” While the engine kicked into life, Fenrir pulled another lever that automatically rolled up the sails to take away as much drag as he could.

Cassiel didn’t sound too convinced of his plan. “Do you have any idea if that’s going to work?”

“I saw it in a movie once. I think.”

Cassiel and Eva looked at each other.

“I’m… going to go join Rock,” Cassiel said.

Eva, however, had another idea. “I might be able to zap the engine to give it a boost. I have no idea if it’ll work, and Tabs is probably going to want to kill me for it later, but… I might be able to overcharge it.”

Fenrir didn’t bother questioning how that would work and instead nodded to Eva as he turned The Shoebill toward the incoming wave. “Just don’t break it.”

“No promises.”

With that, the plan was set in motion. The Shoebill charged toward the wave while Eva ran below deck to the engine, extending her thunderbird wing once more so that she could give the engine a little zap of lightning. When that not only didn’t break the engine, but produced a minor but noticeable boost in power, she decided to increase the strength of her lightning to give it an even bigger boost.

“It’s working!” Fenrir shouted from above deck as The Shoebill surged forward with more speed than it ever had before when using only the engine. “Just give it small boosts every few seconds so you don’t overwhelm it!”

So far, everything seemed good.

But then as The Shoebill got closer to the wave… Fenrir realized just how utterly massive it was, and he saw just how steep of a wall of water he was going to have to climb with her if he wanted to get over it.

“Scratch that! Give it as much power as you can!” Fenrir shouted.

Eva immediately followed the command, increasing the intensity of lightning that she zapped the engine with each time. Meanwhile, Cassiel sat on her knees and held onto the whimpering Rock.

“It’ll be fine,” Cassiel whispered to Rock. “It always is. You know how it goes.”

“Hold onto something!” Fenrir shouted as the ship began to tilt upward at the base of the wave. He had the wheel to hang onto and Eva was able to brace herself against the back of the stairs so that she could still be within reach of the engine to continue boosting it, but Cassiel and Rock were less fortunate. All there was for Cassiel to try and grab onto was a hammock, but that meant leaving Rock to slide back on her own, and she didn’t want to abandon Rock like that.

Unable to think of any other option and with various boxes and barrels sliding down the deck toward them, Cassiel used her body to shield Rock from harm as they slid down the deck followed by anything and everything that wasn’t secured to the floor.

Then when a small bump in the wave tilted the ship even more for a second, it was enough to practically fling Rock and Cassiel into the air. And given just how heavy Rock was, that meant they went falling and fast.

“We’re almost up!” Fenrir shouted, unaware of the chaos occurring below the deck. Going by the fact that he just heard something loud crash down there, though, he was able to tell that something went wrong.

It was made even more obvious when the engine died.

Rock and Cassiel crashed into Tabitha’s prized, custom engine, smashing it which allowed all of the compressed energy within it to burst out with a small explosion that tore a hole through the back of The Shoebill.

If it wasn’t for Eva’s quick thinking in using her tail to wrap around Cassiel and Rock as she held onto the stairs, the two might have fallen through the hole where the engine used to be. Instead, she was able to hold onto them for long enough that Cassiel and Rock could pull themselves to a part of the wall where there wasn’t a hole.

But without any power, The Shoebill lost its only way to get up the wave.

“Is everybody alright?!” Fenrir shouted, still unaware of exactly what happened. Then, when he noticed that it suddenly grew dark, he looked up only to see the wave’s crest above him. “Shit.”

The wave collapsed onto The Shoebill, completely drowning her within its water and rendering her invisible beneath its surface.

When Fenrir next opened his eyes, he expected to see the ceiling of his bedroom back in Nameless since that was where his respawn was set to. Instead, he saw the same clear, blue sky from earlier.

Fenrir leaned up in a hurry and immediately regretted it as his entire body felt sore, not to mention that he must have been severely injured given just how dark his vision started to get.

But more importantly, he shouted out, “Rock!”

If anybody was in danger, it was Rock. Sure, she might have been an artificial intelligence who could exist outside of the game, but she technically didn’t have an in-game character. She had a body that she controlled, but it was more or less on the same level as an NPC. If she died in-game, that avatar was forever gone even if her intelligence would, presumably, persist outside of the game.

Yet, he received no response from anybody nor anything as he shouted.

And then, looking around, he realized what situation he was in.

He was alone, on a sandy beach, with a shattered plank stabbing into his abdomen, surrounded by debris from The Shoebill with no sign of the rest of her, his girlfriends, nor Rock.

Fenrir looked back at the ocean, which was perfectly calm again, and sighed. “Fuck.”