“Here,” Ryouta says, handing Alice’s phone over to her while holding a glass of water in his other hand to drink from.

“Thank you, my hero, but you should be more careful of where you drink!” Alice says.

“I thought you said you’d look the other way for me?”

“True, I did say that, but there are electronics in here! You could easily start a fire if you were to spill that water on them.”

“Are you forgetting what year this is? There are electronics in pretty much every room everywhere. You can’t just not drink water because there are electronics nearby.”

“Hmph. You should still be careful! You do not want us to all burn alive, do you?”

“Are you sure that’s not something you’d be into?”

“I enjoy erotic fantasies, my hero, not ones that involve dying in brutal ways.”

“Yeah, that’s fair. So, you gonna call your dad now?”

Alice nods her head and is already in the process of pulling up her father’s number in her phone.

“I’ll wait to see what’s going on then, I guess, before I text my landlord back,” Ryouta says, walking over to his computer to check on what’s happening in the world while waiting for Alice.

Unfortunately, since Cassiel is in his desk’s chair, he has to just sort of roll her away from the desk and then hunch over to use his computer.

It’s been a while since he last browsed the internet and caught up on news. With how depressing news usually is, he has been avoiding it for the most part lately, but he doesn’t want to be totally left in the dark regarding what’s happening in the world.

Of course, as soon as he brings up a news aggregator, he is met with article after article of just how depressing the world’s affairs are.

Another coastal city was officially evacuated because of rising waters. Air quality is decreasing and the oceans are growing more toxic as more permafrost thaws out and releases methane into the atmosphere. Record high temperatures have been recorded across the world again. Hurricanes are growing stronger and larger thanks to increased ocean temperatures. Another cleanup crew in Earth’s orbit trying to remove debris has been lost and added even more debris orbiting around Earth.

Yep. It’s all just as depressing as Ryouta remembers it being.

“Only good thing about all this shit is everybody’s too busy taking care of themselves to fight each other,” Ryouta says with a sigh. It’s hard to look at the bright side of things at times.

Fortunately, there are also aggregator websites specializing in pictures of cute animals and funny memes. One should always have a wholesome source of media to counteract the more depressing sources of media on the internet.

While Alice talks on the phone to her dad, Ryouta giggles at a video compilation of dogs bitch slapping cats.

It is nice to see the tables turned.

Dogs are so much better than cats.

However, he makes a mistake.

He scrolls down and looks at the comments of the video.

No matter what the year may be, no matter how technologically advanced humanity may become, no matter how enlighted the human race may grow, there will always be idiotic comments on the internet.

“The hell are you talking about? Filming a dog playfully slapping a cat isn’t animal abuse. I bet you wouldn’t be complaining if the cat was slapping the dog out of being a little asshole instead of just wanting to play like the dog wants to,” Ryouta grumbles as his fingers hover over the keyboard.

Don’t give in.

Don’t reply to that comment.

The world is shitty enough without giving a random shit on the internet a reason to reply to him.

With a sigh, Ryouta goes back a page to look for—

Wait, he noticed something interesting right before the page went back!

Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

He goes forward a page hoping that the video is still there in the recommended section.

Fortunately, it is.

Ryouta opens up the video and listens to the commentary over Fantasy Tales Online gameplay.

Two of the game’s biggest video creators, who go around interviewing important players and reporting on news related to the game, are discussing rumors that Ryouta is only just now hearing about.

“Some people are claiming that, as part of China pushing back against mass refugees to protect their cultural identity, that they are going to crack down on the type of media allowed. We’re looking at censorship reminiscent to that from the beginning of the century. What does this mean for Fantasy Tales Online? Roughly twenty million of FTO’s players come from Asia, predominantly China now, making it the largest source of players for the game we all love. FTO may already have systems to prevent players from seeing traumatic content, but those players still see religious symbols, symbols of death, and we all know that there is no shortage of sex and extreme acts in our game,” the first commentator explains.

The second one takes over from there and says, “Do you see the problem yet? Jenson Clark insists on the game having a single, shared server for all playerbases. He stubbornly refuses to cater to governments and censor the game, which makes us players all love him for that, but unfortunately, the world’s governments can still prevent access to the game if they want to. The Asian playerbase is split on the issue. Half of them are begging him to censor the game so that the government doesn’t block access to it, and the other half is telling him to stand up for what they all believe in and would rather stick a finger up to their government’s archaic, ineffective practices.”

“What does this mean for the future of FTO? Well, for one, more than a third of the game’s playerbase might be gone soon. The game’s most powerful factions could lose the majority of their members overnight. A poll concluded that roughly sixty percent of the Augus Empire’s players are from Asian countries with forty-seven specifically coming from China. The expansionist nation may find itself on its back if its enemies push back against it.”

“FTO’s competitors will grow in popularity as well. Fantasy World Ultimate, FTO’s China-born competitor, is more than happy to censor the game to comply with its country’s laws and I’m sure they’d hungrily take in any refugees from FTO. I’ve played it myself, and while it’s not a bad game, there’s no reason to play it when you’ve got FTO which is literally superior in every single way. And cheaper.”

“Between the resurgence of sci-fi MMOs, the potential crackdown from China, other governments raising issues with the sort of content that the game allows, and complaints about FTO feeling more like a second life than a game, is the golden age for FTO already over? The game isn’t even more than a year old if you don’t include alpha and beta testing, yet it seems like there is already a plethora of issues threatening its longevity. No game in the history of gaming has been as controversial as FTO on a global scale, and now we’re learning that there is punishment for disobeying international—”

“My hero! My father would like to talk to you,” Alice calls out.

Ryouta pauses the video and walks over to the bed. He had no idea that there was all of this new controversy surrounding Fantasy Tales Online. Sure, he knew that some countries and certain groups were upset about the game letting anything be possible within it, but he didn’t expect governments to actually try stepping in to deal with it.

“Is everything alright?” Alice asks.

“Yeah, I’ll tell you what’s going on after this,” Ryouta answers, taking the offered phone from her hand. “Hello?”

“Ah, Ryouta! How are you?” Will asks.

“I’m doing good, thanks. How about you?”

“I am doing rather splendid myself!”

Ryouta cringes when he remembers Thelmes’ overuse of “splendid.”

“The wife is spending the day appearing on various shows, so I have the manor to myself at the moment! Well, the servants are still here, of course. I am considering taking a few of them out golfing,” Will continues. “Do you golf?”

“Uh, the closest thing I’ve ever done to golfing is putt-putt,” Ryouta answers and hears the older man laughing on the other end of the call.

“Close enough! I shall have to take you golfing sometime.”

Alice covers her mouth and giggles when she hears her father’s voice talking about more golfing over the phone.

“As for today, it has come to my attention that you are facing an issue,” Will says.

“Yeah. All of our girlfriends are here, and the neighbors complained, and I’m technically only supposed to have myself here, so I’ve got to make the others go home and hope that the landlord doesn’t mind Alice staying here as a guest for a while,” Ryouta explains.

“I have also heard that your current living situation is very… modest.”

“One bedroom, one bathroom, and a kitchen attached to the living room.”

“Dear lord! How could you live in such small accommodations? I knew that your apartment was small but not that small!”

Ryouta wonders if this man has no idea that his tiny apartment is actually considered a pretty great deal compared to what most people have. “Aha, yeah, now just imagine a man and three women trying to live in it.”

“On my authority, I forbid you from living in such impoverished conditions! You, my dear daughter, and your girlfriends require a much finer home! Tell me, Ryouta, do you prefer city life or would you like something more rural instead? Suburban? I could also arrange for you to all live off the grid if that is your preferred lifestyle.”

Ryouta cringes at the idea of living off the grid. He needs his electricity and internet. “I… kind of like city life since I’m so close to everything, but I’ve always kind of liked the idea of living out in the country.”

“Hmm. I shall give you all time to consider where you would like to live. Twenty-four hours should be more than enough to decide. Call me back as soon as you have decided!” Will says, hanging up the phone before Ryouta can say anything else.

“That sounds like it went well!” Alice says.

Ryouta looks at her. “Uh… I guess you could say that? He… told me that we’ve got twenty-four hours to figure out where we want to live,” he says.

“Then I suppose we should hurry up and decide!”

“Are we really going to move into our own place already? Isn’t this like, really fast?”

“Consider it an adventure!”

Ryouta sighs and hands Alice’s phone back to her. “I guess we’re moving then. It’s not like I’m attached to this place anyways.”