I hated leaving the room.

  The lobby was full of players who had come to see the infamous group that had downed a Dragon. At first, I thought it was a good thing. The more people we talked to, the faster we would find Billy.

  That wasn’t the case.

  The first night, Mei caught a thief trying to break into our room. I didn’t see what she did to him, but I heard his screams.

  The next day, Michael had his pocket picked. After that, we started traveling in pairs and left most of what was left of our money with the Mage Guild.

  None of the admirers had any useful information about Billy. Some had done a mission or two with him, but no one knew where he was or how to contact him. It took a week for my injuries to completely heal from the dragon fight. I spent most of that time looking through the info book. There was a lot of things about the game that I wished I had known before coming into the game.

  The door creaked as it opened. I reached under my pillow for the yellow sword hiding there. Fulgar Sectis was enchanted to deliver a blast of electricity when the rune on the hilt was squeezed. If someone else was breaking into the room, they were going to be shocked by what they found on the other side of the door.

  Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

  A friendly smile greeted me instead of prying eyes.

  Michael gently slid his dark fingers down the back of the blade. “Let’s point that somewhere safer.”

  I fought a blush as I replaced the sword under my pillow. “I’ll be happy when we can get away from this madness.”

  Michael sat down on the bed. “Johnnie thinks he may have a lead. One of his cousins might know something.”

  “Really?” I sat up. “I thought he already asked his cousin.”

  “This is a different one.” Michael sighed. “I’m also not sure they’re actually related.”

  I laughed.Johnnie called almost everyone a family title of some sort. It wouldn’t surprise me if he wasn’t related to any of the people he called cousin.

  “That reminds me." I picked up my info book and flipped to the back.

  Written in small print amongst all of the other disclaimers read:

  “In the event of a catastrophic system failure, the Game Masters may choose to terminate the game in the interest of player safety.”

  “Do you know anything about the Game Masters?”

  Michael shrugged. “A group of programmers came into the game to help with live updates.”

  “Do you know where they are?” I asked, “Because if we find them, then we could get them to shut the game down early!”

  Michael started to answer, but the door flying open stole the words from his mouth.

  Johnnie pushed his back against the door, sweat dripping down his face. “We gotta go!”

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