“Before I go kill the nightshade creatures, I need to ask one of those questions about something I forgot,” Pete told the mayor.

“Oh,” The mayor interlocked the fingers of her hands, resting them on her desk. She used her arms to support herself as she leaned forward. The tone of her voice reminded Pete of a psychiatrist about to help a patient. He wasn’t sure if it was sincere compassion in her voice. Rather, it seemed more like concern…like she understood there was a problem, a problem she would be responsible for solving. “What question is that?”

“This is embarrassing,” he inhaled, hoping they wouldn’t be harsh in their judgment of him. “I’ve forgotten how to close my prompt windows.”

The mayor stared at him, unmoving aside from for her eyes that widened each time she blinked. “You forgot…how to close…your prompts?”

“That is embarrassing.” The guard let out a deep belly laugh, arms over his stomach. “I’m not sure what is worse, forgetting how to close the prompt window or being stuck in those silly clothes.”

“You’re serious?” The mayor asked. She blinked a few more times before she continued. “You forgot how to close your prompt windows?”

Pete nodded, “it’s why I keep looking at you out of the side of my vision. I can’t remember how to close the prompts.”

“You’re not serious,” she let out a nervous laugh before forcing sternness into her voice. “Or are you?” Pete hung his head. “Moderators, you are serious.”

The guard continued to howl with laughter.

Pete hung his head. “I’m sorry. When the cat knocked me out of the tree, I fell. I don’t remember anything. I don’t even know the name of the land I’m in. Moderators,” Pete decided to adopt the word he’d heard both the mayor and the guard use before he continued. “I don’t even know the name of this world.”

He hoped using the terminology, ‘this world,’ wouldn’t confuse the others. Moderators, he realized, there are more worlds than this one and Earth. There is no way these are the only two. If that was the case, how many worlds were there?

“Well, this is a lot to take in,” The mayor told him. “Please, don’t feel judged. We can help. Let me answer all your questions.”

“He should feel judged,” The guard was turning red with laughter.

The mayor shot the guard a glare before refocusing on Pete and continuing. “The name of our country is Lakes. The world you are in is Round.” Pete began to realize how literal the names were in Round. “As far as closing the window goes, you look at the tab with the X, will the prompt closed, and close your eyes with force.”

The second she explained the processes, Pete closed the prompts, blinking his eyes over and over. The first prompt he closed was the one about slashing resistance; the last one he closed was about the fly giving him one experience point.

With his vision cleared, he looked back at the mayor. “Thank you so much. That was starting to give me a headache. Now, tell me. Where can I find these nightshade plants?”

The guard guided Pete to the same part of town where they’d met before. From there, they took the footpath that wound behind the cliff face and ascended. Along the path, at the hill's base, there were a few trees with narrow trunks. Yet, the higher up the mountain they went, the more trees there were, and the trees became taller, wider at the base. After only a few minutes, Pete felt like he was on a forest path. It reminded him of camping in the Rocky Mountains as a kid.

“The plants spawn at the top of this hill, near the outcropping along the cliff.” The guard explained. “For their own protection, they like to stay in a group. When you find one of them, you’re likely to find them all.”

“I see…Nick…that’s your name, right? Can I call you Nick?”

“It is my name.” The guard named Nick nodded.

“Okay, then, Nick.” Pete began, asking. “What about the plant that attacked the woman? Why wasn’t it with the group?”

“Sometimes, they get separated.” He shrugged. “Either way, they always find their way to town.”

“And you have to wait for them to go into town before you can kill them?” Pete asked.

“That’s where I’m allowed to kill them.” Nick nodded. “Good thing a pizzaman is here. If not, the creatures might have doomed the town to withstand their perpetual attacks until the end of time.”

“Good thing,” Pete agreed. He’d never received such praise while working as a pizzaman on Earth. He was beginning to like the town of Greenlake in the country called Lake in a world named Round. “I had one other question.”

“Grmmm…” Nick grumbled. “You talk a lot.”

Pete ignored the comment, asking, “Why did you arrest me? You can only do guard stuff inside the city. You threatened to detain me outside the city. Was that a bluff?”

Nick turned to Pete, “moderators, you don’t remember anything, do you?” Pete shook his head, so Nick continued speaking, both men walking side-by-side up the narrowing, muddy pathway. “When someone breaks one of the rules of the moderators, it is a person’s civic duty to detain them. The moderators would have granted anyone the authority to arrest you at that moment.”

“I see,” Pete understood, pushing his shoulder blades back to stretch as he walked. “You happened to be the one that saw me kill the plant, so you were the one that detained me.”

“The girl you saved saw you, too,” Nick said. “If I didn’t detain you first, she would have.”

“Seems ungrateful of her.” Pete finished stretching his shoulders.

Nick rolled his eyes. “No one upsets the moderators. They rule this world.” Nick stopped, extending his arm in front of Pete, forcing Pete to stop next to him. “Wait, I see them.” Using the same arm he’d used to stop Pete, Nick pointed to a clearing ahead of them and to the right.

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Sure enough, five of the creatures roamed the area. They didn’t walk like regular animals. In a way, they reminded Pete of a doll or puppet in a television show, bopping up and down with each step. All the while, an offscreen puppeteer moved them from one position to another. Only, these were real. There were no strings.

Their arms hung at their sides as lifeless vines. When he noticed their hands, he saw each creature had a different number of clawed fingers. Some had three fingers to a hand, one had at least twenty. Their leaves remained flat against their bodies. It allowed Pete to see their round, red heads with clarity.

The names above their head and level indicators showed that four of the five were level one. The one with lots of fingers was level two.

He didn’t know how he didn’t realize it before, “their heads are tomatoes.” Pete whispered, resisting the urge to hum the theme song for Attack of the Killer Tomatoes. It was an old cartoon he used to watch. The cartoon based itself on an even older movie.

“Do you think you can kill all five?” Nick asked. “In the mayor’s office—when I checked your status—your hit points weren’t at full.”

“Do you have something that can get my hit points back up?” Pete asked. “A potion or something?”

Nick muffled a laugh, no doubt to keep the nightshade monsters from hearing him. “A potion. That’s funny. What makes you think I can afford something like a potion? You’ll have to sleep back your HP like the rest of us.”

“What do you mean the rest of us?” Pete asked. “Is the only way people get their hit points back by sleeping? Or are there potions?”

“There are potions,” Nick continued to stave off laughter. “They cost 500 len a piece. No one in Greenlake can afford to spend that much on a single item. Though, I hear Wanda’s sells them.”

Pete considered Nick’s words, wondering if he should rest before taking on the plant monsters. Before he made the decision, he needed to ask Nick one more question. “Do you know if the nightshade terrors link when you attack one?”

“Link?” Nick lifted an eyebrow. “What does link mean?”

“If I attack one,” Pete clarified, “will the others attack me in response?”

“Only if they see you,” Nick told him.

“Good to know.” Pete made his decision. “I am confident I can fight them now. Wait here.”

“One way or another, this should be entertaining.” Nick smiled at Pete as Pete snuck off the path, moving through the bushes, inching toward the clearing where the plants wandered.

All the while, he observed the plants, wondering if there was a pattern to their movements. He hoped he’d see something he could exploit. If he could predict their actions, he could ambush them one at a time without drawing the others' attention.

Unfortunately for Pete, there was no repetition, no model which allowed him to guess where one might move. The actions of the plants were beyond erratic. He wasn’t even sure what motive they had for their meandering.

Pete came to the clearing’s edge, a thin layer of foliage between him and the creatures, and he waited, watching as the big one stomped by his hiding spot. The one Pete had fought before was shorter than a person, but the big one appeared taller than a human. He could hear its spindly feet crunching over the forest’s detritus, composed of dry, dead leaves with some small, broken branches.

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Pete had killed the previous plant with one slap, but he wasn’t confident he could do the same to the large one. So he let it go past him, waiting for one of the smaller ones to draw near. Before that happened, minutes passed, and they felt like hours.

He could feel the adrenaline spurting through his body. His muscles tightened; his hands were shaky; he could feel his energized heart thumping with a resilient vigor and steady rhythm. Pump. Pump. Pump.

Then, a small one neared his direction, and the others were on the opposite side of the clearing. He felt confident they wouldn’t see what he was about to do. “Here goes nothing,” he whispered, hopping out from his hiding spot. He landed straight-legged, shoulders square, facing the plant, and it froze in place.

He used its hesitation to his advantage, raising his hand high over his head and swinging it down, whacking across the plant's crown.

It dropped in a slump as prompts appeared:

You attacked. You caused 131 damage.

You defeated Nightshade Terror! You gained 39 experience points!

You received one tomato.

You gained .2 slapping proficiency.

Pete smiled. By his math, he was one experience point away from leveling up, but he knew he couldn’t celebrate yet. With two quick—albeit forceful—blinks, he closed the prompts, returning to his hiding place behind the bush.

When another small one neared, he jumped in front of it, his hand raised and ready to strike…

…It didn’t freeze in place like the other. Instead, it attacked him, flashing its clawed hand in his direction, tearing through the fabric of his shirt and cutting across his stomach.

In an instant, he felt a sensation unlike any he’d ever felt before. It was a combination of numbness, pressure, and pain all at once. He winced, and a prompt appeared:

Nightshade Terror used slashing tendrils. Critical hit. Received 17 damage.

“Crap,” Pete grunted, doing the math in his head. He was down to 8 hit points. One or two more hits would be the end of him. He’d have to kill the plant in front of him, flee, and come back for the other plants later.

His eyes fell upon his opponent, and he chambered his hand. But before he could slap, the creature opened its jack-o-lantern mouth and shrieked. It was an awful, high-pitched ringing sound like a tornado siren. The other three plants turned toward him and sped in his direction. Their arms reached out like zombies in search of brains. Within five seconds, they’d cross the clearing and be on him. He knew he needed to get out of there.

Pete swung his hand across the plant. Before it dropped…before he knew if he’d killed it or not…before any prompts appeared…he turned and began to run. His abdomen hurt, but he tried to ignore the pain.

It reminded him of playing lava monster at recess. He was the only one left alive; all his friends were after him. Of course, in lava monster, they wouldn’t hurt him if they caught him. The only consequence was that he’d be the lava monster at the start of the next game. These plants chasing him was much worse. If they caught him, it would mean his end.

Two elongated strides into his escape, Pete saw a new prompt appear:

You attacked. You caused 98 damage.

He took another stride, and a second prompt came:

You defeated Nightshade Terror! You gained 40 experience points!

He continued to run as other prompts came:

Congratulations! You gained a level!

As this prompt appeared, a chime sounded, and the pain Pete felt in his stomach disappeared. The instantaneous nature of it confused him. How did he go from feeling so much pain to feeling fine? It was like being sick with a temperature and the worst case of the flu one second and fine the next. It went against the laws of biology. What happened?

Did leveling up restore my hit points? Pete wondered. In many of the games he had played, HP would return to full every time a character gained a level. He needed to check his status sheet to make sure.

While still running, he pulled up the status screen and looked at his HP… … …it was full, and it maxed at a higher number than before. A sigh of relief escaped his lips. He wanted to look at his other attributes, but he knew that would have to wait. He blinked the status screen away, and a final series of prompts appeared:

You received three tomatoes.

You gained 3 slashing defense.

You gained 3 light armor proficiency.

You gained .3 slapping proficiency.

He blinked away the prompts as he slowed to a stop and turned to face the monsters that chased him. The level 2 plant had separated itself from the others, and he stood in place, still and waiting.

As it brought its arm back to swing at him, Pete dove to the side, rolling to his feet:

Nightshade Terror used slashing tendrils. Missed.

Pete lunged, swinging his hand across the monster:

You attacked. You caused 70 damage.

You defeated Nightshade Terror! You gained 77 experience points.

You received three tomatoes.

You gained .5 slapping proficiency.

You gained 2 running proficiency.

Pete made quick work of the remaining two tomato plant monsters. With the threat neutralized, he took the time to look at his status sheet.