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Chapter Text

Intro

Year 21xx
Tsukiko stretched and stepped into the teleporter.
If there was one thing she really appreciated about the technological progress that had been made in the last few decades, faster travel was it. While the magical world did have portals set between most of the major hubs, the mundane world had placed their own teleporters between nearly all cities around the world. With her duties taking her around the world, it meant far less time spent traveling...
“Welcome to T City, Taishou diàn xià.”
Tsukiko answered the greetings, noting that the official must have been part of the magical world – while she was well respected in the mundane world too, only the magical beings called her princess.

It was her first visit to the city, but since her family had been sponsoring the natural park that was opening, she had been asked to represent the House of Moon at the ceremony – and of course, like always when she was on the continent, she could feel that Ryu was already on his way.
The dragon had already enjoyed spending time with her when she'd simply been his treasure – but now that they shared a bond as Sky and guardian, he spent as much time with her as their respective duties allowed.
This was, of course, true of all of her guardians – the link between a Sky and their elements was one as profound as a pack-bond, after all.
But what she hadn't expected, when entering the city, was for familiar green words to lit her vision...

[New log entrance: Fate's update

welcome to Second Life
Summary: hey little Shadow!
So, this hero is optional, she has what is called a light destiny.
Still, this is a chance to meet people I think you'd like, and help them find their way in a world they'll enjoy. While most of them are mundane, they all have some latent abilities, that would partially be awakened during their journey.
Your hero is a nineteen-year-old named Feng Xiao Lan, who'll soon start her journey to adulthood and glory in the virtual world of Second Life, a new generation MMORPG that boasts a 99% reality level, by choosing a new identity as a male elf named Prince.
Enjoy!
Fate]

[New Grimoire entry: Destiny shades

All heroes don't have the same struggle ahead, I'm sure you've noticed.
While the road they travel is never easy, some may have to face more difficulties than others.
Light Destinies are when a hero has few chance to fail on his path, and the consequences are manageable.
Grey Destinies are for heroes who will have quite a bit of struggle ahead, and whose failure could impact their world in a clearly negative way.
Dark Destinies are when the chances of success of a hero are dim, and the consequences to follow drastic for their world.]

[New life Quest! A New Champion...
Goal: Enter Second Life
Reward: +10 000 XP per goal, +1 item-leveling token upon completion]

Tsukiko eyed the update, an eyebrow raised and faintly amused – clearly Fate had directly hijacked Chaos System to send her a message this time. With a shrug, she took her phone out. By the time she arrived at the House of Moon mansion in the country, she already had a game-set ready to use waiting for her, the diamond logo of the District-approved electronics on the gear proving it wouldn't short-circuit simply by being in direct contact with her youki nor reiki.

“Welcome to Second Life!” a cute dark red haired girl announced enthusiastically – then the smile was replaced by surprise, “What the...”
“I'm an omega waves case.”
“Omega... Oh, right! I've been briefed on this!” the girl nodded, “Talk about a day! Our first player ever was a girl who wanted to be a guy, and now my first omega case ever!”
The omega wave was the explanation the magical world across the world had chosen since the newest technology had started to play with the mind itself – because illusions could hide appearances in the real life, but when it came to the mind it was very different.

So Tsukiko stood with long white hair, golden eyes, nine tails waving on her back and all soul marks visible.
The girl was looking rather excited at the idea of working with omega case, and made a plethora of avatars spawn around them, all of them representing the Moon Hime under the traits of some of the numerous races available in the game.
“Can I look younger?”
“Sure, about how old?”
Tsukiko held out a hand.

“Why would you want to change a perfect appearance with a child's body?” the other protested immediately
“For fun, of course.” Tsukiko winked, “Plus, imagine the frustration of big bad warriors when they get owned by a little girl.”
“Oh... Sneaky and cruel, I like that! What name would you like?”
Before letting the ookami go, the girl that was helping her with the character creation reminded her that the game didn't allow re-roll and that the current character creation was permanent.
Finally, the white haired, emerald green-eyed, nine-tailed and fox eared child was ready to go.

“So, where do you want to spawn?”
“Mmm... Where did that girl that decided to be a guy go?”
“Er, Prince? Why would you ask?”
“Well, she seems like someone interesting.” Tsukiko shrugged
“Alright, who knows, maybe we'll see each other online then, I plan to drop and see her too!” the GM nodded cheerfully, “To Central Continent it is, then!”

Chapter Text

Chapter I

Tsukiko landed on the ground with a grace rather strange from her now young-looking body.
Looking around, some players were soon offering to help her – she dismissed the offers with an innocent, warm smile, far different from her usual facial expression.

[Goal update: find Prince]

The ookami raised an eyebrow, a bit surprised to see that Chaos Interface was still visible inside a game, but soon shrugged the fact aside. After all, a regular game couldn't put a godly-made one to the side, it seemed rather evident once she thought about it. She ambled easily toward the nearest training grounds – and the calm of the place was suddenly broken by a loud yell of pain, followed by angry shouts.
All from the same person.

Intrigued, she followed the sounds, and soon happened on a small clearing, crossed by a small body of water.
An elf was running around, several slimes in pursuit.
Eyeing a nearby slime, that was approaching her, the Moon Hime gave it a swipe with her clawed hands – putting the small monster half-life; another swipe and the slime was dead.

[Ding! Flesh eating slime has died!
Earned 25XP, a knife, a pouch]

Tsukiko pocketed the loot, and called Second Life's System, an Inventory appearing now that she had earned a pouch and her characteristics just nearby.

[Name: Luna
Gender: Female
Level: 1 / Race: Fox Beast / Job: none / Fame: 0
Health: 40 / Mana: 80
Strength: 6 / Stamina: 4 / Agility: 10
Intelligence: 7 / Spirit: 8 / Wisdom: 7
Charisma: 8 / Luck: n/a
Special skill: Claws LV 1]

Closing the System with a nod, she eyed the elf that was still running, and burst out laughing as a bite got him on the rump and made him jump, and turn around, madly hitting at the nearest beast, then the next. Mob group finished, he turned his head toward her, still looking mad, “Hey! Stop mocking me, this hurts more than I expected!” the angry tirade was interrupted when the elf realized that the one laughing at him was simply a little girl

[Goal update: create an adventure team]

“Sorry, sorry.” the small fox apologized, “You were just so funny running around like that. Why didn't you look for a group if you were afraid alone?”
“You're alone too!”
“I am.” a precise wave of the small knife, and an approaching slime was cut in two, “But I'm not afraid.” she completed, negligently juggling the low-level weapon
“What... How did you do that?”
A shrug, “Well, I'm trained in martial arts, and since the game is so similar to reality, real life skills can be used here too.”

“Wow...” the elf shook his head, “I can't believe I'm impressed by a small kid! Anyway, I'm alone because I want to prove I'm able to grow strong without being held by the hand!”
“That doesn't mean you have to be alone.” the young beast corrected, “You can fight side by side with other people too.” she reached her hand toward him, “Wanna try? I'm Luna.”
“And I'm Prince.”
They shook hands, and were soon keeping on hitting the slimes that were popping in the area. An hour later, both were level 10.

“That was great!” the elf crowed as he dropped against a tree, “I guess earning the level myself does feel better!”
“Did you just let someone else do the job instead of you before?” Luna asked curiously
“Well,” Prince shrugged, “It's rather common in quite a bit of MMO , you know... You find a good husband, and let him take care of you, and use a bit of magic to help from time to time.” he realized what he'd just said, “Not that I'd...”
“I know that you're the game first player, and the gift you chose.” Luna interrupted, “Apparently, we got the same GM during character creation.”
“And she just babbled? Is that even legal?”

“I think it was because she was surprised.” Luna reassured, “Because I'm a special case too.”
“Er? Why?”
“I have a condition named Omega Case. Some people, like me, have some different brain-waves. On a daily basis, it means we have to have specially reinforced electronics. Otherwise we fry them just by touch.” a shrug, “In VR games, it causes problems during character creation.”
“How so?”
“Well, when I was scanned to create my character, this is nearly exactly the appearance the scan end-up with.”

Prince's eyes opened wide at the affirmation, and suddenly, the GM's slip-up was far less important.
“So...” Luna jumped on her feet, “Let's get back to the city, we're ready for a job change!”
“Great. I'm going to be a warrior, what class do you plan to take?”
“I'm not sure. Maybe a druid, or a ranger...”

No sooner was the pair entering the village that someone stopped the elf, “Excuse me, I'm new, can I train with you?”
“Sorry,” Prince smiled, “but I'm actually a newby too!”
The girl's face changed as she realized just how attractive the elf she'd stopped was – and seeing how the situation was looking to be degenerating fast, Luna jumped between the forming mob of fan-girls and her partner, loudly proclaiming in her best little girl voice, “Leave my nii-san alone!”
The high-pitched voice and annoyed expression worked like a cold shower – hissing a low-pitched, “Run!” to the elf, she jumped forward
They took shelter in a small shop, eyeing in wonder as the girls were still wandering around, clearly looking for him.

“I can't believe they're that persistent!” Prince whispered, “How are we going to get out of here?”
The sound of a voice clearing loudly made him jump – he turned around violently, only to be faced by the shop's owner.
“Phew, it's only an NPC... Excuse me, where would I go for a job change?”
The merchant waved the question away, looking annoyed, “This is a shop, not some guide for newbies! Get out if you're not here to buy anything!”
Soon, Prince and the NPC were arguing loudly – and laughter was once more heard.
Only this time, it wasn't Luna.

A party of four elves had just entered, three boys – and a girl. Prince lowered his head quickly, not wanting a repeat of the previous incident, while Luna intervened, “We were only looking to do a job change when nii-san was mobbed by a group of really rude girls.” she eyed the lone female of the group suspiciously, “You're not like that, are you?”
“What?” the girl waved her hands, a bit taken aback by the assertive tone, “No, of course, don't worry!”
“Because treating someone just like a piece of meat really is an ugly attitude, you know.” Luna casually insisted, “But if you're not like that, then nii-san doesn't have to be afraid of showing you his face, uh?”
“No don't worry!” the elf waved her concerns away, “I don't like it when men do the same, it would be really hypocritical of me to fall so low.”

Luna nodded, satisfied, and turned toward Prince, who had been listening to the exchange – and had somehow felt just as targeted by the insistent words as the other woman. He hadn't realized that being good-looking could be so annoying.
Reluctantly, he raised his head, seeing the moment when the female elf saw him – and the tremendous mental effort it took her to keep her calm after ogling him. But keep calm she did, and instead she waved, not really trusting herself to step forward, “Hi, I'm Snow-White Rose, and I'm a magician.”
The girl herself really was beautiful, Prince noted – no wonder she had said she understood the terror of fangirls, or rather fanboys in her case.
“Legolas, archer.”
“For Healing Only, a priest.”
“And I'm the strongest warrior, LilStrong!” the last elf introduced himself

“Well, I'm Prince, and this is Luna...”
“So you were looking to change your job?”
“Yeah, I'd like to be a warrior, and Luna is looking to be a druid or a ranger.”
“For the warrior class, it's pretty straightforward, you just have to gather ten Wolf Fangs and bring them to the fighter's Master, near the city center.” LilStrong explained, “We were about to go and grind wolves so we can go together if you'd like.”
“For the ranger class, you'll have to gather ten Boar Tusks.” Legolas added, “It's not too far from the wolves, so we can show you the way at least. You take them to one of the lookouts of the city on the forest entrance.”
“And the druid job is with the same lookout, only you have to gather Black Feathers from the crows.” Rose completed
“Well, let's start with the wolves, then.” Luna shrugged, “It'll give me the time to choose!”

¤.¤.¤

“Ah! Scary!”
Luna sighed at the familiar sigh of Prince fleeing, a wolf in pursuit...
“What is he doing?” Legolas wondered
“Nii-san takes some time to get fired up.” Luna stated rather matter-of-factually as she sneaked toward the nearest beast, knife in hand

[Ding! New skill learned: Backstab LV 1 (offensive ability, +25% damage when not targeted)]

“Wow,” LilStrong whistled, impressed, “You're good, sure you don't want to be an Assassin or a Thief?”
“No, I already know how to be a thief or an assassin, this is why I want to change from what I'm used. But I didn't expect to gain that ability simple by using something similar...”
“Uh. You must have played a lot on World or Life, uh? The game system is different here, you can learn about any skill by using it, but your Job skills will be easier and level up faster.” For Healing Only explained, “But if you really want some change, you should go for Druid rather than Ranger, just like Rogue it's pretty similar to Thief and Assassins' specialties.”
“Maybe I'll do that then.” the white haired girl nodded, thankful for the advice

“Still, you' brother's Agility score must be really high to outrun a wolf.” a wince – as Prince's feet had caught in a pebble, sending him to the ground
A painful yell latter, and the elf was enraged...
“Well, here he goes.”
Indeed, now that rage had surpassed fear, one wolf after another was being brought down easily – because on top of his rather high Agility, Prince also had a good Strength score, and apparently some creativity as he was clearly using real life cooking skills to chop the mobs in pieces.

[Ding! new skill learned: Continuous Attack LV 1 (offensive ability, each successive strike gains +5% dam up to 2 times)]

“Woah! He's really got a lot of potential as a warrior!” LilStrong commented excitedly as the wolves were destroyed in mere moments, blood flowing freely
“Who knew grinding wolves could be so thrilling?” the bloodied elf commented with a smile
“A Bloody Elf...” Rose was the one to whisper, torn between hiding her face from the butchery and staring at the beautiful, blood-stained silhouette
Oblivious to the reactions he was sparking, Prince was already coming back toward them, a wide smile on his face, “This was fun, thanks for buffing me For Healing Only! I'm set for the wolves fangs, so where to now?”
“We're looking for crows.” Luna stated
“You're going to be a Druid then?”

“With your fighting prowess, I doubt we'll need two close-range fighters.” Luna shrugged, “This way, I'll have your back with my spells.”
“Alright.” Prince nodded with a smile – it was rather strange, he mused, to be the one trusted at the front
The fact that the so young-looking Luna was also still planning on doing her part of the work was a bit humbling too, the elf had to admit.
The crows – were far larger than their real life equivalent, which made hitting them easier, but also far more dangerous than expected, with their sharpened talons and gleaming beak.

Luna was very adept at singling one of the mob and ending him before the rest of the flock caught up, making her fight appear far more controlled than his own had been.
“We've got to get you out of the habit of running first, attacking later.” the young nine-tailed was sighting as they grinded the few beasts they encountered on their way back to town.
“But it's scary!” Prince whined, sounding like the younger of the two

[Ding! System notice: Job change successful
Learned 3 new skills: Strength Boost LV 1 (passive ability, permanently raise ST by 5%)
Haste LV 1 (boost ability, self, raise AG by 25%, 10 MP per use, lasts 10 sec)
Inferno Slash LV 1 (finishing move, fire attribute, add 50% fire damage to attack, 30 MP per use)]

[Ding! System notice: Job change successful
Learned 3 new skills: Taming LV 1 (wild life skill, beast, tame a beast up to level 15 making it your ally, 100 MP per use, one beast limit)
Harden Skin LV 1 (spell, ally, harden the skin and absorb 10 Dam, 10 MP per use)
Wild Shape LV 1 (transformation, self, take an animal shape, 50 MP per use, lasts 30 sec]

“So, let's see what we've got with the Job change...” Prince wondered, delving into his pouch at the same time as Luna, “A black dao? How lame!” he complained loudly, before eyeing Luna's own loot, “Er.. Never-mind, did you really just get a tree branch for your job change?”
“It's a druid's staff.” she corrected serenely, “We're still low-level, so you shouldn't really have expected anything extraordinary...” then eyeing his sword, “Even if this blade does fell pretty powerful, seems like you got lucky in the draw...”
Prince was surprised by the affirmation – but wasn't given the time to answer, as a foot had violently encountered his back, sending him to the ground.

“I told you to PM me, blockhead! How dare you ignore my words?”
“Er... who're you?”
“You...” another strike landed, while Luna enjoyed the show, “I'm Lolidragon!”
“Lolidragon? How come you're here, aren't you a...”
A foot landed in the Prince's face, stopping him before he could complete his sentence.
“I'm actually a hidden GM, so don't you dare tell anyone!” she hissed in a low voice, before finally noticing Luna, “Oh! You're here too, so you did manage to find the idiot!”
“I did.” Luna confirmed, “So, are you here to hang out?”

“Correct! Since I'm actually a regular player in terms of benefits, I can at least enjoy myself while playing... So I thought I'd party with bishie over here!” she explained, latching on Prince's arm
The elf sent a panicked look toward Luna, wondering why the little girl wasn't saving him from the clutches of this fan-girl...
“Fair enough.” said little girl commented, crushing his hopes, “We've just done our Job change, I'm a druid and Prince's a warrior. What about you?”
“Eh! Only the best job ever to make money!” the red-haired elf answered with a broad smile, “I'm a thief!”
“How can a thief be useful in a fight?” Prince wondered grumpily

“Alright, I'll show you!” Lolidragon answered easily, eyeing a nearby wolf and closing in on him, so discretely the beast never even realized his life was coming to an end
“Oh wow!”
“And now, let's go training!”
And train they did, the hidden GM actually having some rather good advice about the game she seemed to know inside-out. Until, as they were taking a break, a nearby wolf started to suddenly change form into Lolidragon's back.
“Watch out!” Warned Prince just as Luna jumped forward, shape-shifting from a nearly human-looking little girl, if one ignored the tails and ears, to a full-fledged nine-tailed fox

If the fox was as big as the wolves they'd been fighting, it was still clearly young – but more importantly, it managed to drag Lolidragon out of the way a second before the attack hit her
“Few, thanks Luna, Prince. I hadn't realized we've wandered in the Boss Area.”
Luna didn't answer, not able to talk in this form, and instead jumped back to attack.
“Is she mad?” Prince wondered as he dodged a strike

“No, she's right, we've already caught the aggro, he isn't going to let us go just like that.” Lolidragon contradicted while swiftly climbing a tree, “Good luck, you're the warrior Prince!”
“What!”
“You can't expect a thief to attack head-first!” she explained
With a sigh, Prince raised his sword, jumping toward the large beast whose heels Luna was nipping at – the Boss caught his blade in one hand, far stronger than him, just as Luna jumped back, Wild-Shape fading out back to her regular appearance.
Stumbling on the ground, she still waved her staff toward the warrior, green mana swirling around her as she called, “Harden Skin! Wooden Style!”
The boost settled around Prince – and not a moment too soon, as the gigantic wolf had just laughed away the 2 HP kick from the warrior and answered with a 100 HP damage that was partially mitigated by the wooden skin spell. Taking advantage of the fact the beast was focused on Prince, Lolidragon jumped in, aiming at his neck...

“We've got to target weak points!” she affirmed as the Boss took 30 more damages
Luna had already sent the only spell she knew toward Lolidragon, before shrugging her staff on her back and taking back the knife she'd used before her job change, sticking the small blade in the back of the beast's knee
While the damage dealt was minimal, it did take the heat off from Lolidragon, who'd been keeping the attention on herself while Prince was chugging some health potions. And apparently, drinking the potions had also given him some time to think, as he shouted, while running back toward them, “The eyes!”
Lolidragon jumped up the beast's back, as Luna kept on dancing between his strike – and just as Prince was attacking again, the thief dropped into the Boss's face, planting her dagger into one of his eyes before being thrown violently against a nearby tree.
Taking 300 HP from the Boss in one strike.

After that, Prince did let the giant wolf regain his balance, dark blade dancing wildly – and finally, with a call of “Inferno Slash”, the Boss was taken down.

[Ding! System notice: Prince as killed the Wolf King
Prince level up: skill level up Inferno Slash LV 2
Lolidragon level up: skill level up Back-stab LV 6
Luna level up: skill level up Wild Shape LV 3
Black Saber level up]

“Wait a minute... Did your weapon just level up?”
“Yep. This game is really strange, even the weapon can level up...” Prince commented
Lolidragon interrupted him rather abruptly, “Only Growing Type weapon level-up! They are really rare, and you just looted one by changing Job!”
“Er...”
“Your weapon leveling up means it'll always grow stronger with you.” Luna calmly explained

“Oh! So no money wasted on better equipment!” Prince realized, letting himself fall on the ground near Luna and Lolidragon, “Still... It was really great!”
The thief smiled happily, “Yeah, that was fun...” she admitted easily, having become impressed by the warrior's ingenuity during their time training – Prince truly had an innovative way of thinking, and once he got over his fear, it made him a fearsome opponent – probably because he was so unused to the conventional Warrior style in MMO that he didn't let himself hampered by preconceived notions

¤.¤.¤

Tsukiko hummed happily as she logged out after they'd shared the loot from the Boss, and settled on a meeting point for the next day.
“You look happy, bambina.” a familiar voice commented
“Ryo.” she greeted her mate with a smile, “Fate's pointed me at a new hero.” she announced
“A third one? In one life?” he stated, rather surprised, “So, tell me more about it...”
She did, telling him about Fate's message and explanations, before going on her day's adventures in-game.
“I hadn't expected a game to still be fun, what with Chaos Interface.” she admitted, “But I did enjoy myself.” a smile, “We should play together sometimes.”
It was the next day that she was surprised when, while she was going over her last appointment of the day, a familiar sound echoed, visibly heard only by her...

[Ding! System update: Lolidragon is connected]

Stunned, she accessed Chaos Game – only to find that indeed a new System Tab had been added to the Interface, one aptly named Second Life System.
The data of her avatar in-game were available – Stat, Inventory, Friend List... and a connection option.
The Moon Hime found herself impressed once more by how Chaos' powers seemed to be able to adapt to any change – and when the appointment was over, she did try the connection option, feeling herself taken directly to the virtual world where her two friends were waiting.

“Luna! Lolidragon!” Prince waved happily, having apparently logged on at the same time as the wolf princess
“Well, now that we're all here, how about taking a look at the loot we got yesterday?” the thief suggested – or rather ordered, as she was rather forceful
Seeing as it was a good suggestion, all three headed to the NPC that provided identification service – the boots they'd looted provided an Agility boost and were handed to Lolidragon, the gem was a Focusing Jewel that gave a Wisdom bonus and was soon installed on Luna's staff...

And the egg, that was handed to Prince, was soon hatching...
“What the...” Lolidragon eyed the new pet, just as confused as the other two despite her GM status, “Must be a bug or something...”
“Looks like a bun...” Luna added, just as surprised
“It's not just any bun!” Prince corrected enthusiastically, “Look at this shape! Smell this aroma! This is a Meat Bun!”

[Ding! New pet named: Meat Bun / Level 1
Health 50 / Mana 20
ST 3 / STA 5 /AG 10
INT 6 / SPI 7 / WIS 10
Skill: Dough Beating Technique LV 1 (offensive ability, 10 MP per use)
Aroma Release LV1 (control ability, attract mob, 30 MP per use, lasts 20 min)]

“I can't believe a Meat Bun as a higher Intelligence score than me!” Prince wailed loudly, making Luna laugh
Lolidragon was more serious, unsettled by the unexpected pet.
Still – there was nothing to be done except report the strange event, which she resolved to do when they logged off.
So the trio headed back to the training ground, leveling up and training the new addition to the group at the same time.
Meat Bun was surprisingly useful as a pet, its offensive ability able to get the attention of mobs from afar, and the control one even helping them lure the area Boss easily, despite the fact it was usually pretty hard to find.

Within a few days, Prince had already drastically changed.
“You know...” the warrior mused, “Maybe it wasn't just because I was annoyed with my brother that I decided to get a male character and be a warrior, maybe I really was tired of hiding behind people and wanted to do things by myself for once!”
A sigh, “I like fighting wildly, yet I don't want to be called a violent woman. I like to be able to swear without people telling me I'm not ladylike enough, not pretending not to get dirty jokes in order not to be called vulgar...”
“Then it's good that you've realized it, but Prince...” Luna eyed him seriously, something rather rare since she really was using the game to let down her hair, so to speak, “If this is how you feel in real life, then maybe things need to change in your normal life too. You aren't supposed to feel so constricted by rules, not in today's society.”

Prince didn't answer for a long while, then finally nodded, “Maybe you're right.” a shrug, “But I don't know if I'm ready to face it in real life. For now, this is enough...”
“You know,” Lolidragon commented, “You're right. I'm really brash even in real life, but even if I act as if I don't realize it, I know some people talk. Well, no more! Let's create our legend Prince! Let's be Second Life's strongest players!”
“Yeah, I don't need to be anyone's wife to kick ass!” the warrior nodded enthusiastically
It was more Tsukiko's smile than Luna's on her face as she eyed the two women, one of them in the body of a man. She hadn't realized, with how cosmopolitan the Magical World, and especially the Japanese District was, that out in the mundane world some people were still so hung up on old-fashioned ideas...

Fate had been right, she mused – even if she didn't know yet how Prince's destiny would come about, and her help wasn't necessarily needed, she did enjoy the young woman's company, just as she did like strong-headed Lolidragon.
She was looking forward to where their ambition would lead them, in Second Life, just like in the real world.

Finally, after nearly a week of leveling in the beginner area, Lolidragon and Luna managed to talk Prince, who, while far more courageous than before, was still really cautious, into leaving for one of the bigger cities of the continent.
“So, why Star City?” Lolidragon asked as they leisurely strolled in the European-like medieval city
“My brother is already here, so he's been talking about all the best hunting spots and all...” Prince smiled wickedly, “Who am I to pass up on such good intel!”
With the good-girl front crumbling day after day, the warrior was revealing a very sharp character, with an innate instinct in fighting that made Luna smile in anticipation, and the ability to easily take advantage of people's weak points if needed.
Such weak point, apparently, as her twin brother's loud mouth.

The trio settled on a rather high-end restaurant, the 99% realism of the game meaning that not only players had to feed themselves in-game, but the quality of the food could greatly change from one place to the other. With this being their first foray out of the beginner area, it was also their first chance to get a taste of the better food, since only basic snacks had been available in the newby city.
So, of course, the trio had decided to splurge.

Managing to make the waitress snap out of it – they hadn't realized that the fact that weren't NPCs in the big cities meant regular jobs would also be manned by players – they placed their order, only breaking their front once the girl was gone. The front was something they'd been forced to come by – between Lolidragon's good looks and Prince's own incredible charisma, they were attracting attention everywhere they went, and the thief had had to coach the warrior about how to appear unapproachable, in order not to be constantly mobbed by fan-girls.
Luna herself was playing the bratty little sister, and the beauty-duo were acting as a couple while in the city, and the fact that it was even necessary really maddened the white-haired girl.
Sure, games were made to enjoy a life you couldn't have in the real world, but it didn't mean people had leave to let go of any common sense and act life beasts in heat!

“Wu Quing, with the six of us and yourself, the Raging Dragon Valley should be no problem!”
“Uh, that's LilStrong.” Prince recognized – indeed, a familiar group was coming down the stairs, with three new faces among them
The warrior froze as a tall, handsome human in traditional Chinese clothes smiled and answered, “Since friend Broken Sword and friend LilStrong insist, then I Wu Qing shall not further refuse, and will join you as part of Team Rose. Let us work hard together from now on!”
“Crap!” Prince whispered, “That's my brother!”
Meanwhile, Rose had recognized them and was waving happily, “Luna, Prince, long time no see!”

“Hey Rose, LilStrong, For Healing Only, Legolas, found some new teammates?”
“We have! Broken Sword is a warrior, Fairsky is a thief, and we've just recruited Wu Qing, another warrior.” LilStrong nodded, “How about you?”
“This is Lolidragon, she's a thief too, and,” a wink, “nii-san's wife!”
“Eh!”
The loud protestation came from Fairsky, who blushed red as the rest of the two teams eyed her strangely
Wu Qing was looking rather annoyed – and Prince explained in PM that it meant her brother was thinking of him as competition. Competition! For the girls!

“Keep that up, and I won't cook dinner for you tonight...” she mumbled in annoyance on the team chat, making her two partners laugh
But Fairsky wasn't done, “Are you really together?” she asked forcefully
Well, time to get out of the situation, Lolidragon mused, “Oh, look at that our food has arrived!”
“Indeed. Let's hunt together again, when your team-mates are a bit more clear-minded!” Luna added sweetly – making Rose sweat-drop, as she understood clearly what the little girl meant

After all, she had nearly been a victim of Prince's overwhelming beauty too – and only Luna's sharp words had healed her before it was too late, instead letting her find a new friend in the outrageously gorgeous elf.

¤.¤.¤

After enjoying the feast they'd ordered, the trio strolled toward the city's exit to go and find the nearest training ground, when Lolidragon stated, “We should think about making a team.”
“A team? What's different from the party we're currently in?” Prince asked
“Well, since it's permanent, we won't have to invite each other each time we're online.” she explained, “Plus it'll allow us to take Quests in the Adventurer's Guild that offer good rewards and XP gain, not to mention we'll need more people by the time we arrive in higher level area.”
“So, what are the requirement?” Luna asked
“We've got to have five team-mates to create a team.” the thief answered, “Plus there's the registering fee at the Guild too.”

Prince was about to answer when a loud and familiar voice interrupted them, “Hold up, you three!”
Confused, the trio turned, to see that indeed, the human thief from Team Rose was the one calling to them.
“Yes? Is something the matter?”
Hands on her hips, with a fierce expression that didn't match her rather delicate silhouette, she glared at them, eight hulking guys suddenly appearing beside her, “The way is mine to clear, and the tree is mine to cut; for you to pass through here... With the bishie you must part!”
Everyone in the area was stunned.

Fairsky stomped her foot, “It's simple, Prince! I want you to dump your wife and become my husband! I'll feed you, house you, equip you, clothe you, I'll even add in an allowance!” a winning smile, “Don't worry, I definitely have money! I can give you 50 000 gold now if you like!”
Lolidragon, who was still maintaining her cool facade, was clearly struggling not to burst out laughing – Luna had no such hold back, and did laugh loudly, just as the surrounding passersby who'd stopped to watch the drama.
“What do I do?” a panicked Prince asked on the party chat
“Bah, you turn her down, what can she do in broad daylight?” Lolidragon answered easily
Luna wasn't quite as sure – the girl in front of them had a stubborn air around her that wouldn't be talked down that easily.

“I'm very sorry, but I have no intention of leaving my wife, so please look for someone else.”
Fairsky was incensed – even more so that Lolidragon was looking completely unaffected by the discussion, examining her fingernails with a bored look on her face.
“That's it! Send her back to the rebirth point, boys! I'll give you 50 000 golds!”
With that, any doubt the thugs could have was gone – and they rushed toward the trio.
“How dare you do something like that in plain view!” Lolidragon seethed, now furious, as she dodged one of the thugs.
Around the three of them, the people were growing restless – but any inclination to help was cut short by a vicious, “If anyone dare to help, I'll have you killed back to level one!”

“Prince...” Lolidragon whispered, getting visibly afraid
“Don't worry, if worse comes to worst, we'll die together and retrain. It's just a level-loss after all.”
This seemed to reassure the elvish thief, who gained back her usual bravado, daggers sliding in her hands
“I'll ask you again, Prince... Will you be my husband? Come with me and I'll let Lolidragon go.”
The affirmation made Lolidragon snap – but someone had grown annoyed first, “Even if my brother did leave Lolidragon behind, I'd never approve of you.” Luna snapped coldly – the happy-go-lucky little girl replaced by someone far colder, and dangerous
“Kill them all.”

[Poisonous MeatBun used!
Thugs A, B, C, D, E, F, G and H successfully poisoned, -20HP/s, duration 2 minutes]

As MeatBun successfully returned to its owner's hand, the warrior dashed, Continuous Attack activating in an attack Prince had stolen from an old manga's main protagonist
“Nine-headed dragon strike!”
Thug A let out a blood-curling scream, the ten consecutive slashes hitting his pain sensors nearly at the same time, and he turned in a pillar of light, back to the rebirth point – even if the pain setting of the game was only 30% of real sensations, it was still high enough to still feel pretty bad, one of the numerous reasons why Prince was so reliant on his Agility, the warrior despising pain at a nearly phobic level.

Prince eyed his mana bar, and turned toward a second thug, nabbing him with a fierce kick before Luna surged in, finishing the downed man with a dagger unhesitatingly planted in the heart. Lolidragon wasn't to be outdone, throwing daggers each finding their target, adding new poison damages, on top of the ones dealt by MeatBun.
With two of them downed in less than a minute, the thugs paused their attack, eyeing the trio dubiously.

“If anyone thinks he can survive my nine-headed dragon strike, I invite him to try.” Prince stated coldly, while Luna was methodically cleaning her dagger and Lolidragon juggling with her throwing knives
“Bah! We'll see how you fare when we're attacking together!”
With that, the five surged toward the trio once more, spurred on by the thought of gold.

What followed was an all-out brawl, and while the trio had a clear advantage in Agility, helping them dodge the attacks, the situation was far from ideal for Lolidragon, whose abilities mostly relied on discretion, and Luna, whose only attack power were a few spells too dangerous to use in a brawl, her tamed Crow great as a lookout and at kitting but useless in such a fight.
Of course – while her job wasn't one for fighters, in a game so reliant on reality, her centuries of experience as a fighter weren't gone, and with her annoyance at the situation, she had soon downed another player.

She had just cut a fourth one's in the back of the knee, making his left leg unusable, when a loud voice echoed, and a tall silhouette barged in on the fight.
“ENOUGH!”
The newcomer was a wolf beastman, dark matte grey fur covering his body, nearly two meters tall, with the muscular body of a berserk.
“SCRAM UNLESS YOU WANT TO BE SHREDDED TO PIECES, LOWLIFES!” the wolf roared
The thugs, now only four, shared wavering glances, then shrugged and scrammed, just as told – after all, they hadn't expected the fight to be as hard as it already was, and even gold wasn't enough motivation now that the numbers were evened around the table.

Fairsky paled even more as she was left behind, tears gathering in her eyes, “Do you really love Lolidragon that much, that no other woman would do?”
The warrior wasn't given the chance to answer, as it was his in-game little sister that stepped forward toward her with cold fury in her eyes.
“I despise girls like you.” Luna stated, “Do you think you'll always have all you want because you can throw money around? Why would anyone want to be with someone so ugly inside?”
“Bah! You're just jealous!” the other protested – before being dragged toward the small girl brutally
Neither Prince and Lolidragon, nor the rest of the people around them, heard what was said – but the next moment, Fairsky had gone even paler.

“I... I'm sorry, I didn't...”
“The problem doesn't lie in who I am, or how much money any of us have, it lies in your attitude. I am ashamed to see someone act like this. This isn't because we're in a game that coercion and an intention that is as good as rape are suddenly acceptable.”
The people around them were muttering now, the words having struck quite a few.
“You are a beautiful girl, Fairsky, you don't need money to get people to like you, on the contrary.”
With that, the girl's tears finally came out, and she bowed deeply, “I'm sorry, Prince, Lolidragon, I don't know what came over me. I think it's better if we don't see each other again just yet.”

“That... was a bit harsh, wasn't it?” Prince asked as Luna skipped toward them, the serious expression already fading from her face
“It may seem so, but better a harsh wake-up right now, than a worst heart-ache later.”
Prince nodded thoughtfully, thinking over the words – and startled as a gentle light enfolded him, healing his wounds and refilling his HP bar.
“You're a priest!” he realized, stunned
“Yeah, I'm a beastman priest.” the wolf nodded, smiling shyly, “A bit unusual for a beastman, I know...”
The trio shared a glance, admiration rising for the only player who'd dared interfere in their fight – and that despite the fact he clearly wasn't a fighter.

“What's your name?”
“I'm Ugly Wolf.” he answered with a self-depreciating smile
“You're not ugly.” Luna contradicted
“Luna's right.” Prince nodded – because even if he did find the player's appearance rather ugly, he hadn't cared about how ugly or beautiful the man was when he'd barged into their fight, “Thanks for helping us, Wolf-gege.”
If the beastman was surprised at the familiar nickname, that as good as made him the little group's elder brother, he was even more surprised by the next sentence that came out of the warrior's mouth, “Well, we were looking for some team-mates, if you're interested?”
Just like that, the trio became a quatuor.

¤.¤.¤

“Still,” Lolidragon sighed a bit later, “this really proved the fact we need more team-mates.”
“What the rush, with Wolf-gege we're not too bad off for the training area of the zone?” Prince pointed out
“You! You're the problem!”
“Eh?”
“We managed to get rid of Fairsky's thugs rather easily, but who knows how many they'll be next time something similar happens!” she eyed the male elf “And let's face it, something similar will happen sooner or later, Luna may be good at making people regain their common sense, there are still far too many players for her to pound basic courtesy into them all.”

The comment made Prince eye the little girl – who was happily eating a candy from her perch on their new priest's shoulder. Lolidragon didn't seem to have noticed – but it didn't escape the warrior that, hadn't Wolf-gege irrupted when he did, the little girl would have been more than able to destroy the remaining four thugs by herself.
Just how much was she really holding back by keeping to her job as a druid, when she clearly had such extensive martial arts training?
After all – Luna was the only one who'd never died in all of their battles...

Still, this was a game after all, and not using her real life abilities didn't hurt anyone, so he pushed the questions to the side, deciding that the nine-tailed fox would talk to them if and when needed, and focused back on Lolidragon.
While he wasn't too afraid for his character's virtue thanks to his in-game little sister's hidden strength, they had been talking about creating a team after all...
“Well, let's train together for now, and keep an eye out for more team-mates.” the warrior suggested, “If by this time next week we haven't found anyone else, we'll worry about looking more seriously.”
Lolidragon nodded in agreement, and the four friends did spend the next few days fighting together, adapting their dynamic and strategies to the new addition among them.

Wolf integrated himself easily with the strange trio – he was after all just as odd himself, having been adventuring alone despite being a priest, and as such having quite a few well-honed fighting skills, and having admitted to becoming a priest only because the mage temple was too full of people waiting for a job change.
It was on the third day, as they were grinding skeletons, that a high-pitched scream made all react – and within seconds, they'd found the origin, a cute, rather young-looking girl chased by a pair of flaming skeletons.
Prince jumped into the fray with a combo of Raging Inferno and Continuous Attack – before Wolf reminded him,
“They're immune to fire!”
With that, he switched to regular attack, swiftly dispatching the two mobs.

[Ding! System announce: Prince has PKed Doll's minions Flaming Skeleton, -100 Reputation]

“What! When did I do that!” the warrior protested loudly
“Little girl, did you offense someone?” Lolidragon wondered
“I didn't...”
“Then why were those Flaming Skeleton chasing you?” Wolf asked
“They were mine...” she mumbled
“Wait. You are Doll?”
“Yes...”
“You're an angel necromancer?”
“Yes...”
“Then why were you screaming for help?”
“It can't be helped, it was my first time summoning them, and they looked so scary, so I ran, but they kept following me!”

Doll, it turned out, had a rosy vision of the necromancer job, considering herself on a journey of discovery for the true meaning of death, and an instrument of love and justice.
Needless to say, the team had gained another strange member.
Still, Doll, despite being a bit naïve, was also fantastic at her job, able to summon no less than eight regular skeletons, and four flaming ones.
With that, they had, if not a balanced team, at least enough members to register as an official team – which raised the question of their name. After nearly two hours of bickering, the NPC waiting for them to settle on something sighed, “The only thing you are is weird!”
And thus, Odd Squad was born.

[Goal update: enter the Adventurer's Tournament]

Doll had really bonded with MeatBun, the pet spending nearly as much time with the necromancer than his owner – and Wolf had even coached the young girl into teaching the strange pet a new attack.
Thus, for the next few days, their training pattern took advantage of MeatBun's ability to attract mobs, followed by some poisonous daggers as needed, then Prince, boosted by the pertinent spells by Luna would charge in, taking the aggro, while Doll's skeleton would either assist him or protect the team as needed and of course, Wolf would heal them all.

Their weak point was violently pointed out when while farming panther, the Boss suddenly spawned, just as Lolidragon had gained the aggro of a group of regular mob.
Being attacked on both sides, the team didn't last long – Lolidragon dying first as she had been a bit too far for Wolf to heal, then Prince, despite Luna rushing in under Wild Shape to help him and finally, with the warrior gone, Wolf and Doll followed.
Luna found herself the last – and the druid let her regular ability take over once more. Knowing that she could access Chaos Game in Second Life, and log-in without the gaming material, she had no wish to see what kind of problem her dying in-game would cause to Second Life's servers.

A second of focus, and the youthful appearance was replaced by her regular, twenty-year-old-looking body, green eyes fading back to gold and furry ears replaced by nearly elvish tipped ones.
The long, dark blade of her coming of age weapon dropped into her fingers – and the Boss was no more.

[Ding! System notice: Luna has killed the Wind Cheetah
Luna level up: skill level up Battojutsu LV 12 (offensive ability, x2 dam when attacking a weak point)

She eyed the loot, picking it up to share with her team later, then paused.
She hadn't been sure up until now, most of her abilities available, but dampened in her Luna form – but there really were souls she could feel in the game.
With the regular players, she only felt the echo of their soul, since only their mind made the trip to the virtual world. But right now, there were complete souls she was feeling, in the game.

Noticing that most of the team seemed to have logged off, something not too surprising as dying in-game was apparently a very uncomfortable experience, she called Black Flames to her, and stepped through the portal that opened, toward the nearest soul.
Several trips later, some of them as far as to the other four continents, and she was sure of it. Somehow, quite a few of the Bosses and even some regular NPC had a mortal soul - human souls, for the most part.
With a frown, she logged-off and started researching the company that had released the game. A few moments latter, she stumbled on Lolidragon's true identity – the girl was the president's own daughter, not simply a hidden GM – and more importantly on a scandal that had nearly stopped the release of Second Life completely.

Apparently, Long Dian, the main creator of the game, had used the alpha-testing phase to conduct unethical experiments on some people – leading to the death of several dozen of people. The same number of souls she was now feeling inside the game.
The Moon Hime sighed – as the sister of Death, it was her duty to ensure that souls found their way to Death's Islands when their time came. But those souls trapped in Second Life had been cut from their body early, and as such she wasn't supposed to make them cross-over just yet. On the other hand, could they really be considered alive when they'd lost all sense of self?
In the end, it was the last of the lost souls she'd stumbled upon that made her stay her hand for now.
Because she remembered clearly thinking that the merchant with whom Prince was always arguing in Newby City felt nearly alive...

While the Moon Hime was having her unexpected revelation, Prince had been having his own encounter.
A demon, with deep amethyst eyes, the most beautiful man he'd ever seen apart from his own avatar and blasted brother – those had been the warrior's own words. The man was also a bard, a rather strange choice of Job to go with his race, and the warrior had stumbled upon him while he was entertaining the crowd in the city by playing the Guqin – and most importantly, he'd shamelessly flirted with Prince.
Who'd been in heaven – until Lolidragon, who'd just logged back, reminded him by PM that he was currently male. His latest crush was gay.
While the warrior didn't have anything against that, having his hopes crushed in one swift strike made him rather annoyed – and the demon bard was the one to pay for it, swiftly sent back to rebirth point...

¤.¤.¤

Awhile later, all were assembled in a pub, going over their earlier defeat.
Doll and Lolidragon were stunned when the little white-haired girl dropped the loot she'd collected earlier to share – both Prince and Wolf seemed somehow less surprised.
“What?” Prince shrugged at the two other females of the team, “I knew she held back a lot, she was with me during our first ten levels, and using a blade.”
“She moves like a seasoned fighter.” confirmed Wolf easily, “I'm not too bad in taekwondo, but I've also tried my hand at a few other martial arts, I can recognize someone trained when I see them.”
“It's a game.” Luna stated at the interrogative stares of their thief and necromancer, “Doing things the way I know from real life wouldn't really be interesting, would it be? But I didn't want to die, Prince always complains about how unsettling it is, so I compromised...”

After thinking about it an instant, both were forced to agree – and really, who would complain about more loot?
“Still,” Lolidragon mused, “you must be really good in real life in order not to need the class bonus.” a shrug, “Anyway, back to the topic... Why did we lose so badly?”
“Because we lack a long-range fighter.” Wolf commented, “Luna's spells are good but not that powerful, they're more made to control the fight than deal damage, what we'd need would be either a powerful AoE, or a good burst mage.” he went on
“Having both would be ideal.” Lolidragon nodded, “Let's head to the Adventurer Guild to recruit.”
The trip was – fruitless.

From the multitude of candidates, which even once whittled down still amounted more to an army than a team, nearly all disappeared after Lolidragon and Prince announced they were a couple – and the last of them were gone when the warrior explained in excruciating details that he considered Doll just as much a sister as Luna, and would protect their virtue without a doubt.
It was a dejected group that went back to training, choosing the zombie training ground to avoid another disaster like with the felines – after all, zombies were slow, so they should be able to help anyone as needed.
It was, of course, without considering Odd Squad's luck.
“It's the Zombie King, run Lolidragon!”
The thief took off immediately, her Agility taking her farther away from the Boss – and her team-mates.

“Fuck! We should have recruited an archer, no matter how annoying they were!”
“Supersonic soul-chasing arrow!”
A translucent arrow streaked through the air, hitting the Zombie King and making him turn back toward Odd Squad – or rather, toward the bard that had just taken the aggro. Prince groaned, “You!”
“Me. You'll have to protect me, I'm afraid. A bard isn't built to survive such rampage.”
“And if I don't?” Prince bit out
“Then I shall die at your hands again.” the demon easily answered, “But that's find, let it be revenge for stealing that kiss.”
Prince groaned – he really didn't want to help the bard that had annoyed him so, but he wasn't cruel enough to let the man die when he'd just saved Lolidragon.

A black dao was drawn, Luna's skin hardening spell, now up to Stone Skin, washing over him, followed by a nature damage boost from the druid.
Doll's first two Flame Skeleton were already dust to the ground, but had slowed the Boss enough for the team to be ready to fight – and Prince jumped in.
The demon, a moment taken aback – having visibly expected them to leave him to his fate – was now reacting too, adding a characteristic boost to the warrior, who immediately took advantage of it, then of the slowing down of the Boss that followed.
Lolidragon had caught up by this point, Back-Stabbing the Zombie King, that stumbled directly into Prince's fiery Nine-headed Dragon Strike – then an Earth Spear was growing out of the ground, directed by Luna's magic.

Within moments, the potential catastrophic situation had been turned around, and the Zombie King disappeared, leaving only loot behind. The Light of Glory, a growing type wand was given to Wolf, the gems shared between Lolidragon and Doll, Prince taking an enchanted necklace and Luna shared the high-level crafting material with the bard.

Then, everyone was thanking enthusiastically the bard, and within moments, despite Prince's loud protestations, he was invited in the team.
“How could you invite a pervert into the team so shamelessly, Lolidragon!” the warrior protested loudly
“You're right.” the thief nodded with a false serious air – but giggling along, “How about this... what's your name?”
“Guiliastes, but you can call me Gui.”
“Yeah, so Gui, you have to swear not to do anything unspeakable to Prince.”
“But of course! His beautiful and noble majesty should only be gazed at! I'd never dare perform anything shameful on his highness' person!”
As a last hope, Prince turned toward Luna.

The small white fox hadn't yet taken her now usual place on Wolf's shoulder, but was instead just in front of the bard, making him drop to her level by forcefully grabbing his robes. After gazing at the intrigued orbs for a moment, she nodded seriously, “He's good to go.”
The warrior elf let out an inarticulate scream of frustration, and gave up.
“Well,” Wolf commented, “With our current team's make-up, we should be good to try some harder training-ground. The Raging Dragon's Valley should be ideal. The mobs are magical beasts, so there's a higher chance of rare drop, and quite a few quests of the Adventurer Guild can be completed there.”
The team, now counting six members, headed to said training ground.

[Aroma Release used!
All mob in the 250 meters range are attracted to MeatBun]

“Wow, I didn't expect that many of them...” Prince commented, eyes wide, “Will you be able to handle it Lolidragon?”
The thief looked rather pale, but nodded resolutely, “Don't worry, I won't fail!” she swore as Luna and Gui were boosting her – she was soon creeping toward one of the numerous mobs attracted by MeatBun's ability, Back-Stabbing it in the butt, the highest place she could reach, and doubling back toward them, running as thought Death itself was in pursuit
Which wasn't too far off, given that she'd successfully grabbed the dragon's aggro.
Gui didn't waste anytime, firing two arrows, calling two more dragons to them – Prince rushed into the fight, focusing on one of the three targets while Doll's dragons held off the others and Luna was savaging a fourth beast.

She was holding back far less as they progressed in level, Prince had noted, instead managing to incorporate her martial art knowledge with her Druid job, resulting in some odd combination.
But most notably, she'd become fearsome with her Wild Shape, the white fox kit shape she turned into cute but also ferocious.
All in all, the grinding was very successful, and soon the whole Team was working on the mobs, harvesting the materials wanted by the Guild – skin, sinew, bones...

“Where are the dragon's parts?” Prince protested loudly, “Wolf-gege you said...”
“This one is a female.” the priest pointed out, surprised by the warrior enthusiasm
Luna snorted at the misunderstanding growing, and decided to take pity on all involved, “He's just happy about the monetary value, Wolf-gege.” she explained, “Nii-san really enjoys afternoon tea in that very expensive inn in Star City.”
Gui stopped his motions, “So no tonic soup?”
“What? No! We've got to sell them!”
The rather embarrassing conversation was interrupted by a feminine voice, tone rather arrogant, making Prince froze with dread at the idea of a new psycho fan interrupting.
“Hold up, you guys!”

¤.¤.¤

Guessing at the complicated expression on his face that he was about to do something stupid, Luna dug an elbow in her pretend brother sharply, and answered with a smile, “What can we do for you?”
“How did you gather so many mobs?”
“I'm sorry, miss, but it's a pet ability...” Prince shrugged, reassured that it wasn't yet again someone who wanted his virtue
“What. Did. You. Just. Say?”
“Er... It's a pet ability?” Prince repeated, not understanding the sudden wrath of the short human mage in front of him

The angry mage stomped toward the nonplussed warrior– and under everyone's stunned eyes, proceeded to kick him between the legs.
The elf shuddered under the unexpected pain, tears gathering in his eyes
Gui was the first to react, knocking the offender to the ground, “I don't know what's your problem, but no one gets away with treating Prince like that!”
Immediately, the rest of the mage's team-mates rushed, a dark elf blond warrior leveling his long-sword toward the bard, “Release him.”
Sensing the tension rising, Odd Squad took their weapons arms, ready to defend their team-mate.

“What's her problem?” couldn't help but ask Prince, still just as clueless as the rest of his team minus Luna
The mage was struggling in rage under Gui's grip, “I'm not a girl you fuck-haired sissy! Can't you even tell a guy from a girl? Let me go!”
“Calling Prince a sissy when you were the one bratty enough to hit another male in the nuts?” Gui smiled coldly, his demonic origin suddenly clear for all to see, “I'll let you go when you turn into a pillar of light.”
“Let go of Ming Huang!” the black elf reiterated – following through this time with an attack that would have taken a good portion of Gui's life, hadn't Luna been ready
The warrior's eyes widen, not having expected the druid to deflect his attack – with a blade of her own, to top it all.
But Luna was annoyed too by now.

Holding back in front of the mobs, even if it sometimes led to her team-mates' death, was one thing.
An all-out battle breaking because a brat was throwing a temper tantrum? Her smile was just as cold as Gui as she pushed the warrior back, inflicting a good deal of damage and giving her team the second necessary for all to jump into the fray.
Lolidragon seemed to disappear in the shadows, coming back out near the healer and viciously stabbing him, putting the unsuspecting priest half-life before she got nabbed by an arrow from their archer – but Wolf was already healing them.
Prince had taken over from Luna, battling their warrior, and Doll's skeleton were rushing toward the other team's thief.
All in all, the two teams were rather well-balanced – but for the glaring exception that was Luna.

And the nine-tailed fox was making her presence felt, having swiftly buffed both Lolidragon and Prince and now spamming Earth Spikes, making the ground unsafe for the enemies, distracting them from their opponents.
Gui and Ming Huang were facing off, the girly looking boy having the advantage of clearly being a damage dealing specialist – but the long incantations needed to cast his more powerful spells were constantly interrupted.
Unfortunately, the five players realized they were in a bad situation and jumped back from the fight for a moment, focusing on protecting their mage so he could finish his incantations.

Odd Squad went all-out against them, the archer's arrows stopped by Doll's skeletons, Lolidragon's superior agility letting her wilt at the other thief's HP bar little by little while dancing between his more damaging strikes. Gui was boosting everyone once more, as was Luna, since their spells had had the time to run out, and Prince was heading the assault against the weakening warrior.
Boost done, Luna slipped into her Wild Shape, mangling the healer – and with that, four of the five enemies fell one after the other, only leaving Ming Huang behind.
The mage was smiling as Gui finished him off with a last Sonic Arrow – as he felt his last spell activating before he was sent to the rebirth point.
“Heaven's nine wrath!”

The sky above the victorious team turned tumultuous, and suddenly, a dozen of bolts of lighting flashed around them, hitting them all and finishing them off...
When the spell ended, only Prince was still standing, in the middle of the area where the AoE had struck, having barely survived thanks to Wolf's last healing spell. The warrior gazed at the empty landscape, in shock.
A small hand landed on his shoulder, “Come on, nii-san, let's head back to town, Wolf-gege and the others must be waiting for us.”
The warrior's eyes widened as he realized he wasn't alone, and he grabbed the little girl in his arms, unable to let go for a moment. In Luna's face, it was Tsukiko's eyes that warmed as she answered to the hug warmly, realizing the other needed it.

The high level of realism of Second Life was such that despite knowing his team-mates weren't really dead, the girl hiding behind the mask of Prince really was as shaken up as if she'd lost her comrades.
Letting the warrior slowly calm down, Luna grabbed him by the hand, taking them back to Start City – and if the travel time was faster because they'd stepped through the shadows somewhere along the way, well...
Luna wasn't telling, and Prince was still too out of it to notice it.

While the warrior and the druid were making their way back to the city, both teams had nearly started to fight again straight in the rebirth point, before being stopped by the city guards, and the others – who'd finally introduced themselves as the Dark Emperor Team – had issued a formal challenge toward Odd Squad.
“Formal challenge, my ass! We won, and their bratty mage can't accept it!” Gui grumbled, still incensed, “He called me a pervert!”
“And they said Doll was an odd necromancer!”
“And we've lost all our materials for the quests...” Wolf sighed
“What! That's it, let's accept the challenge!” Prince shouted, finally snapping out of his dazed state at the statement – all that money lost!

“Don't worry, I grabbed it all before coming back.” Luna corrected
“Never-mind the losers, then.” Prince shrugged, calming down just as quickly
“Actually,” Lolidragon contradicted, “I think it could be good to accept.”
“Eh?”
“Well, they want to settle things in the Adventurer's Tournament next month. It's a good occasion for us...” a smile, “Because if we win this, not only will our team become well-known, but we'll also win a piece of land...”
“Right.” the warrior smiled, “Let's do it then! Let's create not only the legend of Prince, but the legend of Odd Squad, all together!”

Luna was eyeing the timetable of the tournament “I'm afraid this isn't something I'll be able to help in.” she admitted “You'll have to find someone to replace me, I'm sorry...”
“Eh?” five voice echoed in protest
The small white fox shrugged, “Sorry, real life cannot be stopped...”
“Oh... You'll be back though?”
“Of course.” a smile, “I should be back halfway through the Tournament, I'll be cheering for you.”
“Well then, let's find a mage.” Lolidragon nodded decisively, “After all, we can only be six by team for the Tournament, but nothing forbids us from being seven the rest of the time...”

“Excuse me...” a shy voice interrupted the loud thief, “I couldn't help but hear you, and well,” the rather cute human girl tilted her head, “I'm a human mage, with a primary in fire and secondary in earth, and I don't have a team... I'm level 38...”
The members of Odd Squad immediately started to interrogate the stunned human girl – but somehow, the more questions they asked, the more... normal she seemed to be.
“Well, welcome to Odd Squad, Yu Lian.” Wolf finally concluded with a smile
Making the girl blush.

The team let out the breath they were all holding – the girl was just as strange as the rest of them in the end, of course Odd Squad wouldn't have found a regular member...

Chapter Text

Chapter II

Even if she wouldn't be taking part in the Tournament itself, Luna still trained with the rest of Odd Squad during the month leading to the event – and somehow, the angelic looking girl always seemed to always come up with the more hazardous training ideas, making all of them go through a crash-course about how to avoid all kind of attack, notably by setting her pets on them...
Wolf had been rather impressed by her ideas, while the more lackadaisical Lolidragon was often complaining about the training.
They'd all been told not to hesitate to practice during real life – not only by reading up on fighting techniques from old manga and video games, like Prince already did, but by making their body go through their moves even in real life.

“What's the point?” Prince protested, “I mean, there's no way my real body can keep up with what Prince can do!”
“You may not be as limber or strong, but your mind is the same here and there.” Luna explained, “And it's your mind that does half of the job in a fight.”
The warrior had looked unconvinced – but a few days later, he'd logged-on excitedly babbling about how he'd tried some move while cooking, and they had really worked.
The rest of the team couldn't help but wonder about their warrior's kitchen's state...

Wolf had taken to Luna's suggestion that nobody got stuck into their Job, but branch out of it, with enthusiasm, having already grown used to fight and heal from the long time he'd spent without a team. Never had a priest had so many offensive abilities, and the little white fox seemed to particularly enjoy coaching him in new ways to painfully end people with his bare hands or his staff.
Lolidragon had drastically improved her stealth, reading up on ninja to find her inspiration – and the various ways in which mobs and other players died around her without even realizing she was there were truly terrifying.

Doll's latest skeletons were looking more and more scary, and no longer bound to humanoid form but branching into beasts forms. The poor girl had been terrified the first time she'd summoned her skeleton beast – and had nearly fainted, only staying awake because of Luna.
Given how scared the girl still was of her main fighting force, Luna had taken to surprise the girl by making illusions appear regularly around her – some looking just like her regular skeletons, others far scarier.
The cute necromancer had eventually grown so used to it, she barely batted an eye with her own invocations anymore – this newfound fearlessness, crossed with her still overly cute and girly attitude, made for a very strange combination...

Gui had proved to be the most brilliant of the team without a doubt possible, taking to all of Luna's strange yet effective suggestions. His supportive abilities had grown tremendously, but he'd also worked religiously on leveling his few offensive abilities, in order not to be helpless.
Prince also had to be ordered not to kill him, as the bard incessant flirting was making him rather murderous...
In truth, all the team thought it was the warrior's way to prevent himself from growing too fond of the bard – because even if he was rather extravagant about it, it was evident that Gui wasn't lying about his feelings, even if it may have started off as a joke.

Both Lolidragon and Luna understood why Prince was doing it – after all, the bard had all but admitted to him to being gay in front of him. And as male as he was in-game, Prince still was a female in real life, and felt that letting herself grow to care about him would only set her up for heart-break.
Lolidragon had interrogated the bard early on when he'd integrated the team – and he'd admitted to not caring about a person's gender, even if he'd never had a relationship with a male before. The thief hadn't insisted anymore – with the man as good as proclaiming himself bisexual, if something was meant to happen, it would happen.
She still didn't say anything to their warrior, rather amused about how clueless Prince appeared about his feelings, or Gui's.

Luna hadn't interfered either – Gui wasn't a fanboy, he really liked the personality behind Prince's front, and that was good enough for her. She'd encouraged their warrior a few times to think about sharing his secret with their team, but Prince wasn't ready yet. She didn't doubt that in time, the girl would grow enough to share her secret, and then she'd realize that the other's growing feelings weren't based on her gender.

Yu Lian, on top of leveling up her current spells and expanding her repertory, had spent the whole month flirting non-stop with an oblivious Wolf– until the rest of the team, fed up with the two, had tied up the beastman and delivered him to the nearest church.
The two had become a loving couple, the wolf finally accepting that despite having the overly beautiful Prince and Gui in the team, the human mage really did like him...
They had also managed to learn the identity of Dark Emperor's sixth team-mates – thanks to Prince's brother bragging about it in real life.
Apparently, Wu Qing had left team Rose, as he resented their friendship with Prince – whom he'd unilaterally decided was his nemesis – and had found himself thrilled with the team who had proclaimed themselves Odd Squad's sworn enemies.

Since this was where she'd unlocked her latest Life Quest, Tsukiko had decided to take steps to stay in T City for a while, to the Elder Long's delight – and she knew most of her elements and pack-mates were getting curious about her latest hero.
Still, as heiress to the most prosperous of the four lands that made magical Japan – the District – she was busy, and so her timetable had to be adjusted to let her stay out of the country for an undefined length. Even if, between technological and magical progress, she could manage most of her duties from afar, or simply drop by for a few hours...

The young goddess had also summoned Wrath to ask her Holy Servant to interrogate Death about the strange case of the souls that had somehow transmigrated to Second Life, as she couldn't go herself, still banned from Death Islands in her mortal body, ever since she'd taken care of the fallen Holy Servant Enma.
The deity agreed that the situation was rather odd, as it seemed that becoming NPC had worked like a botched reincarnation – their memories weren't completely gone, but simply buried in the data that made them NPC. It also seemed that each death and rebirth in-game made the souls evolve like living through a life would, which meant most of the these souls who had been humans, were now more fitted for youkai and spirits.
More interestingly - while the human soul weren't mature enough to cope with the dematerialization of their body, the older souls were different, able to apprehend a different kind of life.

“You mean... That they may be developing awareness again, in the game?”
“That's what Fate seemed to be hinting at.” Wrath nodded as he shared the result of his discussion with Shadow's elder brother
“So...”
“So it would be better to wait for your current hero to go through her destiny first, because we may be interfering in Fate's schemes otherwise.” Wrath answered, clearly quoting Death
Investigation done, Tsukiko had taken a few short jobs around T City – cleaning up the area of the minor corrupted being hanging in the area, before finally catching up on the matches Odd Squad had already won while she was busy.

[Goal update: win the Tournament]

¤.¤.¤

The first team they'd been against, Perfect Princess, had been made of a mage human girl and her five suitors.
Needless to say, Prince, with his recent awakening about how he was tired of the expectations heaped on females, had also realized that he liked less and less the girls who played up the damsel in distress' role, and made people fight for them like the mage did.
There was also a bit of jealousy – five dedicated men for one girl, when Xiao Lan herself hadn't even managed to land a boyfriend IRL in her nineteen years of life!
So naturally, when after the five men had been destroyed, the mage had tried to turn up the charm to be spared, and offered herself as a wife for the elf, Prince had snapped.
Never letting go of the cold smile Lolidragon had coached him to always wear, Prince had cut the Perfect Princess in pieces.
Watching the match replay, Tsukiko had broken into laughter, as the commentator used for the first time the nickname which would soon become famous – Prince, the Bloody Elf.

They'd also met with Team Rose, Prince PMing Luna about the encounter – and explaining how Fairsky seemed to have actually taken the nine-tailed fox's words to heart. She had admitted shyly that while she still greatly admired Prince's gorgeous features, she really didn't know a lot about the elf, while the rest of her team could speak fondly about the few times they'd partied up together in their lower levels.
So, the human thief had apologized and after announcing that they were in the Tournament too, asked that whatever the results, the two Team meet up later to do a few quests for the Adventurer Guild together.

Odd Squad had agreed, and spent an amicable meal with Team Rose, Lolidragon taking delight in recounting some of the most embarrassing situations Prince had found himself stuck into because of his good look, leading to his latest cold and untouchable persona when outside the private circle. The red-haired had eventually let slipped the fact she wasn't really in couple with the warrior – and tried to make the other team believe Prince and Gui were actually an item, concluding with a dramatic, “There is nothing we can do. Because Prince... he actually prefers men!”
Which – honestly wasn't wrong, but the warrior wasn't admitting to anything, as any relationship in-game would be based on a lie, since no one but Lolidragon and Luna knew he really was a girl.

The seven next preliminary matches had been easily won by Odd Squad, making the public slowly take notice of the strange team. Their next notable match had been against Team Phoenix, a favorite of the crowd since the Tournament was held in Sun City, their home base.
Tsukiko laughed watching the replay, spotting the exact moment Prince had spotted the six men whose beauty was so vaunted in the area, and decreed them unworthy. As much as the girl was growing up as Prince, she still was a teen – and her beauty sense had become even harder to satisfy since she herself had grown used to be considered one of those most desirable male.
Objectively, the six proud fighters weren't as ugly as Xiao Lan had clearly deemed them in one disdainful glance – but between herself as Prince and Gui in Odd Quad, and her own brother's own success as a heartthrob, they did look second rate.

Still – physical appearance put aside, the team was probably the strongest they encountered in the preliminary round, boasting four warriors and a legendary Phoenix pet.
The first exchange of blow hadn't been going in Odd Squad favor – then MeatBun's Machine-gun Meat Attack was parried by a torrent of fire, and Prince had a taste of the grilled meat that resulted of the strange combo.
The warrior love of food was already legendary among the team – but this time, he had no problem convincing the rest of their team-mates that they needed that Phoenix.
A bet later, and a fired up team was destroying the stunned Team Phoenix.
Never underestimate the motivational power of food...

Of course, with their team's bipolar luck, once the new pet had been bound to Gui, the Phoenix had refused to perform the attack that had resulted in the roasted meat, it's current level of loyalty at 50% since it had just changed owner. Which really was too bad, the ookami mused – she hoped the bard hurried and raised his pet's loyalty level, because she was really curious about how good it could be, after having witnessing her team's reaction to it...
The other unexpected event had been MeatBun's new talent as a level 40 pet – the bun could now talk, and was calling Prince “mama”.
Never a dull moment with Odd Squad!

By the time Luna logged-on, the team was about to enter their next match against Team Hell's Murderers, and looking by his wobbly expression had let the talk about how frightening the opposing team was getting to him – even if the spectators wouldn't realize it, she knew their warrior well enough by now to spot the true feelings hidden behind the Prince's front.
“Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome Hell's Murderers's leader, the Blood-Soaked Demon King! This frost mage loves skewering people, and is doubtless this terrifying team's most scary member!”

“Skewer? What, so all we have to worry about is a hole in the stomach?” Prince realized, making the announcer pause, “Wow, here I was fearing he'd make a scarf with my intestine, or rip my heart from my living chest, or crack my skull open and use my brain as a pin cushion...”
Luna laughed loudly – and Prince tilted his head, spotting her as she'd been able to come to the contestant part of the Arena thanks to her status as a member of Odd Squad.
“Imouto!” the warrior greeted enthusiastically – after having deduced from her calling him nii-san that she must be Japanese, he'd asked her about the word for little sister to further the ruse about them being real siblings
“Did you watch too many horror movies again, nii-san?” Luna asked sweetly – it wasn't the first time the warrior terrified himself after watching one too many scary late show

“Maybe... I mean, they are full of interesting idea! Like in the one I watched the other night, there was this guy who skinned his victim then dropped him in a pool of hot sauce...”
“Where are you going to find a pool of hot sauce?”
“Huh, you're right... Too bad... Then how about making a rope with their intestines and hanging them with it?”
“I don't know if the rope would be strong enough. Maybe if you braid them?”
“Good idea! Do you know how to braid? I'm really bad at it, my hair are rather short...”
“I'll show you later.” Luna promised
“Great! Sill, not fast enough for a fight, I guess... What about shoving by blade up their...”
“Think about your poor blade!”
“Right.”

By this point, the sound of retching was heard, and Lolidragon threatened, in a rather weak voice, “No more Prince, Luna, the fight's already won!”
“Huh?”
Indeed – where the opposing team had stood, only a pool of vomit was left...
“Everyone this is your commentator, Xiao Li! Due to the excessive violence of contestant Prince and fellow team-mate Luna, the opposing team has forfeited and fled to the restroom. Odd Squad is the victor. On a side note, the committee has made an official demand to the Bloody Elf to abstain from such crude comments in such a public event as there are children present.”
“It wasn't that bad, was it?” Prince mused, “I mean Luna was alright, even Doll seems alright.”
“It was bad.” a pale Wolf contradicted, “You know Doll had grown used to scary situations during our training... And Luna is Luna.”
“Hey!” the little protested as she had approached the rest of the team now that they were off the fighting stage

¤.¤.¤

Since the fight had ended swiftly, the organizing committee had moved up the match originally scheduled for the next day, so Luna moved to the side while the rest of the team was once more in the middle of the arena.
The public sounded a bit angry about Prince's earlier performance, if the muttering were to be believed – and Luna noted that her name too was coming up frequently, not something she had expected given that she'd just arrived. Who knew simply having a conversation with her team-mate would result in such an uproar?
The opposing team, Team Spirit, was literally made of elemental spirits – a flower, grass, tree, rock, water and wind spirit, and as none of them were over level 50, they still were in their natural form rather than the nearly human one they would unlock later on...
“Somehow I'm having trouble getting motivated for this fight?” Prince admitted, eyeing dubiously the items in front of them, “I don't think a tree or a puddle have intestines, do they?”
“Nope.” Lolidragon confirmed

Luna frowned – it was probably from her real life expectations, but even if they hadn't met a lot of them in-game, it seemed just dumb to her to underestimate the spirits because of their appearance.
She refrained from saying anything – for one, the match had already started, and she doubted creating another commotion so soon after the previous one was a good idea, and for a second, maybe it would teach a valuable lesson about underestimating their opponents to the team.
The grass spirit had immediately entangled their warrior, leaving Lolidragon to fend off against the stone spirit – Wolf was apparently fighting against the wind, and Doll's skeleton had trouble keeping the tree's roots from lashing out at their owner, leaving the water spirit free to harass Yu Lian with column of water, while the flower, who apparently was their healer, flooded the arena with a mass healing spell aimed at spirits.
Luna raised an eyebrow, amused, as she realized that the spell was speeding her recovery rate too, despite the fact she was full life. Not only Chaos Game was accessible in Second Life, but apparently Second Life must also be able to access some info from Chaos Game, probably from the time she'd turned to her real form in-game, as it was treating her not only like a beast-girl, but also like the elemental spirit she also was IRL...

The match hadn't had a good start, the team having clearly not expected the efficiency of their strange-looking opponent, and being the warrior, Prince was the one paying for it – because with their very effective crowd control abilities, Team Spirit had managed to split Odd Squad and keep their priest busy, and now the bloody elf's HP bar was steadily descending...
Luna winced – the situation could still be saved, but it would be difficult, her own team-mates not paired against the easiest opponent. Thankfully, they seemed to have realized it as Prince exhorted Lolidragon to stop trying to save him like she'd been doing, putting herself at risk – and with a forceful call of “Nine-headed dragon strike!” the warrior rushed at the tree spirit, jumping in the air to avoid the grass that was rushing for him – and leaving himself open for all attack.
Prince turned into a pillar of light – under his team-mates' stunned eyes. But he hadn't gone alone, tree and fire not making a good mix.

“Don't freeze!” Luna couldn't help but shout at her team
Having grown used to her torture training session, her voice made the five remaining team-mates snap out of it. Then, Gui's eyes grew cold, followed quickly by Lolidragon, Doll and even Wolf and Yu Lian.
“Fire Phoenix, as your master, I command you! Burn those fools who dared kill my true love into the deepest fire of hell!”
Luna eyed as the fire beast answered the call, loyalty finally growing for its partner – at the same time, Yu Lian had called all bets off, calling a massive earthquake, the kind of AoE she avoided up until now in order not to mess up the arena and Doll was starting the incantation for her largest summon...
“Inferno from the darkest pit of hell, blaze upon the mighty undead creature, Bone Dragon! Incarnate as Hell's Inferno Dragon, and descend upon the human realm to aid your master and destroy all that stands in the way!”

Not to be outdone, Lolidragon and Wolf had managed to swish partners, the thief outrunning the wind itself, while the beastman relied on basic physic to destroy the stone spirit – because fire or water may not do anything against stone, but both combined easily made it crumble into dust and go back to rebirth.
“Wow...” Prince mused as he dropped on the bench Luna was on, distractedly handing her one of the bags of dumplings and a bottle of cider he's purchased on his way back from the rebirth point.
“Forfeit!” a small wavering voice shouted as the Inferno Dragon further destroyed the arena Yu Lian's earthquakes had already started to weaken
The flower spirit, lone survivor of his team, fled the arena on these words, while the commentator announced Odd Squad's victory.
That day, a new stone was added to Prince's legend.

The bloody elf, so terrifying he scared even murderous killers, with a fallen angel of a little sister, was even more dangerous dead than alive...
And just like that, Odd Squad had cleared the preliminary and accessed the main Tournament.

The first match of the main Tournament was held the next day.
“Our first opponents are called Ascending Dragons.” Lolidragon explained “Their fighting strength is pretty average, they were lucky in the draw and didn't meet any strong opponents during the preliminaries, so they should be rather easy to handle.”
Prince nearly froze as they entered the arena – and whispered to Lolidragon “Er... is it considered unfilial to beat up your own parents?”
“Nah, your twin didn't recognize you, no way your parents would!”
“True. How could those two that are away 200 days a year for yet another honeymoon could recognize me...”
Meanwhile, the lovey-dovey couple in the middle of the other team were eyeing Prince, commenting loudly enough to be heard by Odd Squad “Dear, doesn't that super hot guy look a bit familiar?”
“Er? Yes, he does seem familiar. Maybe a neighbor?”
“Fight start!” the commentator announced

“Let's finish this quickly, we've got to catch a plane home!” Xiao Lan father's commented, loud enough for all to hear, once more
The girl hidden beneath Prince's appearance sighed – once more, they were spending a small fortune on luxury transportation when a teleporter would have been much quicker, and cheaper...
“Ah, But I won't have you for myself at home...”
“Don't worry, I've trained Xiao Lan well, she'll take care of the chores! That' way, I'll be able to spent all my time with you!”
Prince's temper snapped nearly audibly.
Needless to say, Ascending Dragon Team was swiftly destroyed after that, the rest of the team picking up on their warrior's mood easily.

¤.¤.¤

Tsukiko was rather surprised when the next day, Fan Leng connected earlier that she'd said. It was her first day to university, she'd warned Lolidragon and Luna, and as such would probably not be on-line until later.
Clearly, plans had changed.
Curious, Luna checked that she hadn't anything urgent pending and connected too – right at the same time as Lolidragon.
“It's a disaster!” Prince wailed loudly as he realized that only the two girls in the known about her true identity were present, “Gui's my teacher in History of Chines Literature! And apparently he thinks that Yang Ming is me!”
“Yang Ming?” Lolidragon repeated, nonplussed

“Wu Qing, her twin brother.” Luna clarified, having easily guessed, “It's not that bad you know. You can either admit to who you are, or deny being your brother, which is true, and close the topic. No one has any right to pressure you about your real life identity, and I frankly doubt Gui is dumb enough not to realize that once he stops and thinks a bit.”
“Yeah, apparently he's some kind of 200 IQ genius, he's barely older than us!”
“Besides, we're bound to see Wu Qing in not too long, since Dark Emperor is in the Tournament too.” Lolidragon added with a shrug, “When he sees him, he'll realize it's not you.”
Under the two girls' reassurances, Prince started to calm down.

So, when Gui arrived a few moments later, and right after having greeted the warrior just as enthusiastically as usual, asked, “Prince, are you still a student?”
“I am.” the warrior admitted calmly, “But honestly, I don't want to be pressured about my identity in real life, that's not why I play Second Life.”
The disappointment was clear in the bard's eyes, and Prince added, uncharacteristically gently, “I'm not saying I won't ever tell the team anything about me, but frankly, right now, I like Prince more than my real self, they are really different.” at that, the demon's eyes widened in understanding, “Luna made me realize that I'll have to change things in my real life too, but I don't think I'm quite ready for that just yet.”

Gui was far calmer than usual when he nodded – and Luna though this probably was the real life Min Gui Wen who was bleeding through, “Right. I won't deny I'm curious,” he admitted truthfully, “But I'm very different from real life too, so I can understand. I won't pry.” he promised, “But I hope you'll have faith enough to tell us more soon.”
“I hope too.” Prince couldn't help but admit
The rest of the team had arrived by the end of the talk, and Luna noted that Yu Lian looked a bit uncomfortable at the topic, glancing between Wolf and Doll uneasily – even Doll herself looked rather lost in thought...

“Well! Our next opponents are Team Rose!” Lolidragon announced loudly, breaking through the rather unusually contemplative team
“Eh?”
“Well, it was always a possibility, what with both of our Teams having advanced through the preliminaries.” Yu Lian reminded a dejected Prince
“But I don't want to fight against friends...”
“Prince.” Luna's voice rang rather authoritatively, “Stop this train of thought right there.” the warrior eyed his little sister, wondering what she meant, “Do you think Team Rose is weak?”
“Eh? Of course not!”
“Tell me... How would you feel if your friends decided to go easy on you?”
“I...” the warrior thought about it a moment, “I would think they look down on us.” he realized, “I want to have a good, fair fight with them!”

Lolidragon sent a thumb up to the young fox, as Prince's fighting spirit was fired up.
“Precisely. Giving our all in battle against them is a proof of respect, not a sign of being bad friends.” she concluded
“You really are a fighter, er?” Wolf commented bemusedly as the rest of the team headed toward the Arena a few feet in front of them
“And you are a good fighter too for someone so peaceful.” Tsukiko answered, “You remind me of a good friend... Very peaceful, but he took up fighting to protect people.”
“Then it's an honor to be compared to him.” he eyed the little girl, “Still, you aren't as young as you appear, are you?”
“Heard that discussion about our true identity, er?”

“Gui is really anxious to find Prince in real life.” he confirmed in his own way, “But it shouldn't make Prince feel pressured either, thankfully you managed to get through both of them.”
“Er, met him in real life?”
“Yeah, I'm a doctor at the same university he works in. He was pretty sure Prince was one of our students.”
“Doctor? After all your martial art training?”
“That was something I did when younger,” he admitted, “but there was an accident... And that's what made me go into healing.”
“It suits you, Wolf-gege.” Luna nodded, before winking, “And I'm the oldest among us by a wide margin.”
“Eh!”

The rest of the team turned toward the stunned beast-man, who waved away their concern and met them in the center of the fighting area, while Luna headed to a bench on the side, while waving cheerfully to Team Rose that was already waiting for them.
Both teams greeted each other amicably, and as the commentator announced the fight beginning, all jumped into the battle.
This wasn't a bloodthirsty battle, like their fight against Perfect Princess or Ascending Dragon, nor was it a cataclysm like the battle against Team Spirit – this was a true confrontation between respected opponents, and the public could feel the difference in vibe, even the commentator remarking about it “Well, its seems like the Bloody Elf and his Team aren't as heartless as we though, they seem to be good friends with their opponents if their greetings and banter are to be believed!”

Prince tuned out the talking, giving all his attention to Broken Sword and LilStrong, both of them having teamed up against him and two Flaming Skeletons.
LilStrong had a brawler style and a two-handed sword, Strength far higher than Prince's own, while Broken Sword was just like his own, relying on just as much Agility as Strength.
“Swaying Sword Style!”
It was rather rare for Prince to be faced with warriors with the same kind of Agility as him.
A bit further away in the fighting ground, Lolidragon and Fairsky were in a stalemate – while the human thief couldn't compete in terms of Agility, the elvish one had to be careful not to be caught by her, as the other's Strength was higher than hers.

Similarly, Gui and Legolas were dodging each other's attack, Gui thankful Luna had insisted on making him grind his fighting spells as much as his support ones, while Rose and Yu Lian were relying on small but faster cast spell rather than large attacks.
Doll was focusing on assisting Prince with her skeletons, keeping an eye on both their HP bar and her own mana – and, Luna knew, preparing herself for one more summoning as soon as her MP bar would be able to sustain it without leaving her mana-less.

Their break came from Wolf, who managed to rush toward For Healing Only, interrupting the other's healing. Doll had been waiting for that, and at the moment the other team was disrupted by their far more traditional healer's predicament, she started her incantation.
Because the Inferno Dragon maybe her scariest and largest beast, it wasn't the only high-level one.
“Soul of the Brave, from the higher level of the Other Side, head my call! Judge my soul, weigh my heart and come to me! Skeleton Hero!”
The tall skeleton that appeared was wearing shiny armor and a godly weapon – and between him and Wolf, For Healing Only was soon turning into a pillar of light.

While Odd Squad had taken some damage while Wolf was busy, they were also used to it, as they knew how their priest operated – and now that the other healer was gone, the beastman was quickly going through the incantation for a group healing.
The team pushed it's advantage, and without a healer to back them up, LilStrong was soon defeated by a Dragon Hammer Flash, another technique Prince had borrowed from one of his favorite manga – the jump and slash nearly impossible to dodge by a Strength-based fighter like LilStrong, but leaving the warrior rather open from other attacks.
Of course, Prince knew this – but he had faith in his team-mates, who were watching his back.

Indeed, Yu Lian forwent dodging a lighting lance from Rose, instead raising a wall of earth between Fairsky, who'd jumped toward the open back of Prince, and the warrior himself.
Lolidragon took advantage of the situation, backstabbing the other thief with a highly poisoned dagger, forcing her on the defensive.
Wolf was already healing his wife, while Prince was now facing Broken Sword in a one-on-one duel.
Lolidragon's skeletons had been dismissed, the necromancer focusing on her Hero summon, who was closing in on Rose – who, between Yu Lian's spells and the fallen hero's attacks, was finding herself on the defensive.

The two female of Team Rose died within seconds of each other, Legolas following a few moments later after finding himself the target of most of Odd Squad's attention – leaving Broken sword the last on standing.
Eyeing the situation he shared a grin with Prince.
“Let's finish this.”
“Let's.”
The two warriors rushed at each other's, calling their strongest attack – finding themselves blade to blade once more – they jumped back and rushed in without a pause, no more attack called.
This time, it was simple sword skill, and if Prince's own skill were largely owned to Luna's insistence that studying a bit of swordplay in real life, if only by watching videos on-line, it was evident that Broken Sword wasn't a novice either.

The rest of the team kept out of the battle, out of respect for both, and the whole Arena was waiting with bated breath – even if the result of the team-fight was already pretty clear, the battle of skill between the two warriors was intense enough that all were entranced, making once more Prince's legend grow.
One last exchange – and this time, one blade found flesh.
Broken Sword smiled “Good match.” he praised, before turning into a pillar of light
“Odd Squad, victory!”
The crowd roared, and the bloody elf raised his dark blade in victory.

¤.¤.¤

Team Rose had made their way back to congratulate Odd Squad, confirming the commentator guess, and the two teams amicably departed the Arena toward one of the numerous inn nearby. Just like Luna had said – Team Rose would have been upset if they hadn't' given it their all, Prince mused with a smile, happy that there was another Team with whom he could let go of the haughty front of the blood elf.
Fairsky, even if she still blushed sporadically, was looking with something that was clearly respect at Luna, making Lolidragon a bit curious – after all, it had been the druid revealing her identity that had prompted the change of heart of the rich girl.
The two teams had added each other's in their friends list by now, and left planning to meet each other for some grinding in the days following the Tournament.

The next day, Prince logged-in with a cloud hanging above his head.
“So, what happened this time?” Luna wondered
“My cousin from America is Rose. She's as beautiful in real life as in Second Life!” Prince explained enthusiastically
“That's not too bad, isn't it?”
“Yeah... But a childhood friend popped up too.” Prince sighed, “And Zhuo-dage is Wicked from Dark Emperor! Not to mention this idiot Yang Ming had to babble about my being male in Second Life!”

“So did they realize who you were?”
“I don't think so.” she contradicted, before adding with a sigh, “Maybe I should tell Rose at least, she's a good friend and my cousin, she would understand I think.” Prince nodded more decisively, “Yeah, Maybe I'll tell her we see them next time.” she frowned, “But telling her before Odd Squad...” she added,
“Better you tell them on your terms, than your secret being uncovered by itself, no?”
“Right.” Prince nodded more decisively, “I'll tell the rest of Odd Squad after the Tournament, then I'll tell Rose!” he decided

Luna smiled proudly at the decision – then Lolidragon arrived, frowning, and when the rest of the team was assembled, explained, “The next match gas been canceled, apparently there's more people still in the Tournament than the committee expected, so they decided to forgo one on one fights. Instead, there will be a melee fight with all remaining teams in one week.”
“Well, that means more training, this isn't what we've prepared for at all.” Luna mused, “How many people will be participating?”
“A hundred team.” the thief answered, “Six hundred people.”
“This won't be a fight then.” Tsukiko mused, older eyes bleeding through the young front, “This will be war.”

“We probably won't all survive.” Wolf mused, “People are already after Prince because of his good looks...”
“Don't look at me.” Lolidragon warned, “I've already got five teams going after me.”
Most of the rest of the team eyed her, and she shrugged, “What, I'm bored when you're not online, so I earn some money for the team.”
“By stealing.” Prince guessed easily, “Of course...” he sighed, “So how much did you steal?”
“Three millions, four hundred and seventy-three dollars. Plus a Soul-heaven Royal Sword and a Taoist Robe that haven't been sold yet.” Yu Lian meticulously answered, “That's for what's gone on our Team's account.” she added as an after though

“A girl has her needs.” the thief answered airily, “Such as brand dresses and good quality suitcases!” she eyed her dubious team-mates, “What! It's not like I didn't share with the team! Besides, Luna always puts her whole share in!”
“Luna?” Doll and Yu Lian echoed in surprise
“Apparently she's uses to play Assassins and Thieves in other games.” Prince remembered
“Indeed.” Luna nodded, “I couldn't let my still get too rusty could I?” a shrug, “Besides, I make sure to rob only those who deserve it.”
“Yeah.” Lolidragon rolled her eyes, “Only people with highly negative reputation, or people who squander money, or people whom she's somehow realized are doing shady dealing in real life.”
“So no relying on Lolidragon staying alive then.” Wolf sighed, “Gui attracts nearly as much attention as Prince.”

“Which leaves Lolidragon, Yu Lian and you.”
“Yeah, but the three of us are rather squishy.”
“Then you'll have to pair up.” Luna answered, Lolidragon nodding as she had been about to say the same
“How do we pair up, though?”
“Well, we have to separate our three beacons, naturally.” the tall beastman pointed out
“Gui will have to be paired with someone that can fight.” mused Luna, “So Wolf-gege, you'll be the one.” she eyed the priest critically, “And I don't want talks about sacrificing one of the twos to help the other survive, you should be able to help each other survive.”

“But it's only logical.” Gui contradicted, “Lolidragon and I are rather expendable, while Wolf is essential to the team as a healer.”
“That's true for a regular team. When have we ever been regular?” Luna shrugged
“What about the next two teams?”
“Lolidragon and Doll. Doll's Skeleton will help to keep people off them, and will let Lolidragon disappear and attack.”
“So Prince and I?”
“Exactly. Prince will be able to protect you while you'll support him with your spells.”
“We've also received a PM about allying from Wicked.”

“Aren't they supposed to be our sworn enemies, or something like that?”
“It's an open secret that alliances have already started to be constructed.” Lolidragon explained, “So we whittle down the other alliances first, then once the others are taken care of, we face-off with the people of our own alliance.”
“So... do we trust them with our back?” Prince mused – on one hand, he did trust Zhuo Lin Bing in real life, but this wasn't real life, and Zhuo-dage didn't know she really was Xiao Lan
“Well, do we have any other choice?” Wolf pointed out, “Our other allies are already out of the competition.” he reminded them, talking about Team Rose
“True.” Lolidragon nodded, “And betraying us wouldn't help them anymore than us...”

“So we train with them a bit, but do our own training on the side?”
“Exactly.”
Gui was stunned when, just like Lolidragon had expected, he recognized Wu Qing as his student Feng Yang Ming.
It was clear that Dark Emperor was about as keen on the alliance as Odd Squad – that is to say not at all. But Wicked was their leader and the warrior was straight-laced contrarily to his pest of a little brother – because if Zhuo Lin Bing was Wicked, then of course, Xiao Lan had realized, that meant the bratty Huang Ming could only be Zhuo Ming Bin. Teenage-hood hadn't been kind on the once cute and kind boy...

The joint training was mainly done in highly populated mob areas, in order for all to get used to fight in numerical inferiority.
Lolidragon, Prince and Luna shared the job of keeping some of the mobs off the others back, since they didn't want them to die too much, as it meant loosing levels.
Prince was rather thankful that Luna had insisted on not making the warrior do the job alone like Wolf had suggested first – and Odd Squad was rather sure that Dark Emperor hadn't insisted too much on making their archer, with his high Agility score, participating in luring the mob away, to gain more training than them.
That was without taking into account that with Luna, anything, even running away from mobs, could be turned into training.

Lolidragon's discretion had shot up as she learned to blend into the shadows while running to Back-Stab mobs that had been chasing her moments before. Similarly, Prince's ability in Battoujustu, taught by Luna, had shot up. As for Luna, as much as she liked playing around with her druid abilities – she still was a daiyoukai hime, and highly competitive. As such, she'd naturally decided to put her focus on training her team-mates in the few days they had.
While their level wouldn't have the time to rise that much – she could give them the basis of much-needed abilities to survive.
“I can't believe you're making us practice even in real life again.” Prince groaned
“Well, you have to admit it works surprisingly well.” Yu Lian pointed out, “Tongue twister to recite the incantations faster, and meditation to help access mana faster have done wonders for me, I think I've doubled my casting speed!”
“And learning to write with my off-hand has helped me use both hands for separate things.” Wolf added, “So now I can cast my easier spells while fighting with my other hand!” a shrug, “Too bad it would take too long to learn naginata fighting!”

Indeed – Luna had finally used her high level crafting material to make a bladed staff, or more precisely a naginata just like those she'd gotten used to while going through the Holy Servant Primary and Secondary Studies. While she wasn't as proficient with it as with her katana and tanto, she still was more comfortable with a good blade in her hands, she had to admit to herself – plus the naginata had the advantage of doubling as a druid staff on top of being a bladed weapon.
Lolidragon, who was the one who spent the most time on-line, and had already benefited from Tsukiko's advice when it came to stealing, had accepted her own instructions with minimal complaining given how hard-headed she could sometimes be.
While she couldn't practice swordplay in school, the kitchen was now a dangerous zone in the Feng household – not that anyone realized, Xiao Lan had rather bitterly noted, as, like she'd expected, her parents had, once more, piled up the house's chores solely on her shoulders. That didn't mean she was idle during lessons, alternating between working on her left-handed writing and some finger games used by guitarists to enhance hand-nimbleness that Gui was working on too.
Doll was doing much the same as Yu Lian, and reading up about guerrilla strategies to apply with her skeletons.

¤.¤.¤

The fourth and last day of joint training had almost ended up in disaster, as the three luring the mobs away had ended up with a near army hot on their heel and, after taking a wrong turn, their back to the top of the cliff.
Tsukiko eyed her two partners, and decided that since she was always preaching about trust, she may as well make the first step too. As Lolidragon and Prince were getting exhausted fighting an endless battle, she dropped her naginata back into her Inventory under the other two girls' interrogative eyes and took Kageshin and FuurinKiba out.

“I've... never seen these weapons in-game.” the thief mused
“That's because they don't exist in Second Life.” Tsukiko admitted, “We had to explain a bit about our differences to avoid problems, but Omega wave cases are still hiding quite a lot from unauthorized people.”
“These weapons a part of it.”
“Among other things, yes.” she nodded, Luna's appearance receding to her original one, stunning both other players, “The stronger the omega case, the stronger the particularities. That's why I can't afford to die in Second Life, quite honestly, I would probably make the whole game crash with me if that was to happen.”
With that, she dashed toward the army.

Prince, who'd let himself fall to the ground with how tired he was, watched the ensuing battle in awe.
“And she is the one saying I've got talent as a warrior?” he finally whispered, “I'm nowhere near as beautiful and efficient as that when I fight!”
“That's because I've got decades of practice on you.” Tsukiko answered, having finished in mere minutes the crowd that had been given them so much trouble – she let her appearance fade back to Luna's, and put KageShin back to her Inventory
“So are all omega cases able to just change their look as they want in-game?”
“Most can't.” Luna answered, “Some have other talents. But we're instructed not to make any waves, and keep our oddities hidden.”

“So... Won't you get in trouble?”
“I'm respected enough that I won't.” she admitted, “Omega cases know each others, and I'm highly respected among us.”
“Wow, it's like a secret society in a novel...”
You have no idea, Tsukiko mused with a smile. A moment later, calls could be heard on the voice chat, the rest of their team and their ally finally done with their share of the fight and looking for them.

After that, the two team went their own way for the three last days, Odd Squad upping their pair training.
It was about half-day the first day that Luna had stumbled when a familiar voice called “Bambina, catch!”
The Moon Hime turned, and caught by reflex the pouch flying toward her. Eyeing the item, she realized it added a new tab to her Inventory – a tab with six items already stored in it. She smiled, and eyed the tall, lean silhouette of a demon with familiar features.

“So you did come around, eh, Ryo.”
“Well, my beautiful wife was playing around with someone else, I was getting jealous!” he winked
The white-haired while laughed as most of her team around her reacted in various stunned ways.
“Well,” Wolf remember, “You did tell me you were the oldest of the Team...”
The childish avatar winked teasingly, while asking, “So, what are you?”

“Solare Luce, he introduced himself, “demon assassin.”
“Of course. So given your level... You've started playing as soon as I announced I had created an avatar?”
“You know me too well, bambina.” an amused smile, “I've been busy keeping everyone at bay in order not to overwhelm your new friends.”
“All the pack?”
“And the guardians.”
“Of course...”
“Well, you were the one who decided to stay a bit longer in T City rather than come home, and you know how everyone is.”
“Don't I know it...” she sighed and took the items he'd just given her out of her Inventory, dropping a white Japanese mask into the hands of each of her team-mates.

“Prince, you'll be Blood, Lolidragon Wind, Wolf-gege Water, Doll Shadow, Yu Lian Fire and Gui will be Light.”
Prince was the first to put his mask on, and check his System Tab.
“Wow, these are good! Those are godly level items!”
“Of course!” Solare answered arrogantly, “Leon only creates the best artifacts!”
The rest of the team followed suit, Tsukiko procuring her own mask, looking far older than their own.

“What is your mask?” Prince wondered – he could recognize the other thanks to the colored pattern, but this mask was different
“Alpha.” Solare was the one to answer before shrugging, “Well, I'd better go, your uncle won't be able to keep everyone at bay eternally.”
“We'll meet after the Tournament.” Tsukiko nodded
The demon swooped down, leaving a kiss on the brow of his wife before stepping back, melting in the shadows and disappearing.
“I can't believe he's mastered this skill!” Lolidragon exclaimed herself, stunned, “This is a high-level assassin skill!”
“Was it really your husband?” Doll wondered
“That he was.” Luna confirmed easily

“But... but... how old are you Luna?”
“That's not something you ask a woman, Prince.” she teased, “But just like Wolf-gege said... I'm easily the oldest among us.”
Gui laughed, “I can't believe you play the brat so well!”
“I've got good examples at home.”
“Er?”
“Twins. A son and a daughter.” she elaborated, further stunning them, “They're with their father right now, so probably on-line with Solare.” she mused with an amused smile, enjoying the chaos her affirmation was provoking
After the agitation Solare's visit had caused finally calmed down, they'd gone to train with the masks – that were, like Prince had said, god-level items granting a boost in XP gain for the Discretion skill.

During these days, they learned to move unseen among the crowds of the big cities of Central Continent, learned some teamwork in pair fighting, each one always ready to cover the weaknesses of the other, or take advantage of the opening provided.
The last day before the fight, without concerting each other, all Odd Squad found themselves somehow skipping work or school to connect all day long – after the team gleefully dropping on Wolf and Yu Lian breakfast date, they found themselves talking about what would happen the next day.
“Do you think we have a chance?” Yu Lian wondered
“Nope.” Prince answered easily, “But I don't intend to lose either.”

¤.¤.¤

And finally – the next day came, and with it, the Tournament's final.
Six hundred players, from all around the continent, were assembled in the large arena that had been prepared for the event, the battle-lined clearly pitched between the various alliances. three main camps were standing out, with a tiger beastman, human and angel warriors at the front of each.
In the stadium, the atmosphere was wild, banners were waved around with the names of contestants, while the commentator roared a greeting to all.
By Odd Squad's side, Dark Emperor made their entrance.
“Ready?” Wicked asked
“As ever.” Prince nodded amicably

While Ming Huang still was a little shit, the joint training ha helped them to get along rather well with the rest of the team – they were on their way to becoming good friends, even the annoying mage was thawing a bit under his bratty attitude.
“Battle Begin!”
Silence fell on the arena, the public waiting with bated breath to see who would make the first move, all players in the arena cautiously watching the people around them.
Finally, the tiger beastman was the first to move, making a cut-throat gesture at both the human and angel, and roaring his challenge “AT THEM!”
The first faction started to charge.
The human answered with a sober “Kill.” and his faction charged in answer.
The angel made a stopping motion toward his own men, “The clam and the crane quarrel, the fisherman prevails.”

This wasn't a bad strategy – and soon Dark Emperor and Odd Squad had made their way to the calmer side of the arena.
In the chaos of the all out battle in which two thirds of the arena were taking part, multiple pillars of light were seen, as fighters started to die by the dozen.
Suddenly, it was clear that the human leader had realized something was wrong, and he turned his attention toward the faction who hadn't started to fight yet, bellowing something about betrayal.
Clearly, an alliance had been broken.
With that, no corner of the arena was safe anymore.
“Everyone, stay safe.” Prince ordered soberly, taking out his mask, followed by the rest of his team, “Scatter.”

With that, Dark Emperor and Odd Squad slipped into their pairing, hovering at the edges of the battle.
The beastman alliance was being slowly picked by the humans and angels alliances – and it was clear that soon, it would be only the human alliance facing the fresher fighters of the angel alliance.
“The logical thing to do would be to let them all kill each other and stab the survivors in the back...” Prince mused, visibly dissatisfied with what he was saying
Yu Lian's smile could be heard in her voice, “Ah but Prince... When has odd Squad ever done the logical thing?”
The warrior wasn't given the chance to answer, freezing as he realized Wicked and Ming Huang were in a bad position not too far away. Seeing where he was looking, Yu Lin caught up to the situation and gestures him ahead – they jumped into the fray toward the two isolated Dark Emperor members, but it was clear they weren't going to make it in time...
“Behind you, Zhuo-dage!”

The warrior turned, stunned at the familiar nickname Prince had let escape his lips – but instincts took over as he realized a blade had nearly cut him in two.
The two warriors and two mages were soon fighting side by side, and Wicked couldn't help but ask
“Prince, are you...”
“This isn't really the time, Wicked!”
His fellow warrior couldn't help but bow to the argument – and soon, the enemies were thinning down around them, the rest of their two teams having assembled naturally around their leader as soon as it was clear that the fight was on.
“So Prince,” Lolidragon asked, “what's next?”

The warrior eyed the dwindling fight – the beastman alliance had been dealt with, and now humans and angels were facing off, each leader's still alive. But while the human was fighting with his men, the other was simply over-viewing the situation with a haughty air that didn't sit well with Prince at all – and it was clear that little by little the humans were losing ground.
A smile.
“You know how I love lost causes.”
“Then go right ahead.” the thief laughed, “We'll follow!”
“Odd Squad to me!”

Dark Emperor stayed behind, still hesitating, Wicked new realization about Prince's identity making the choice harder to make than easier.
“What are you dithering for?” his brother stated in a put upon tone by his side, “The idiots have chosen the loosing side, but it doesn't mean we have to do the same!”
“We are in alliance.” Wicked contradicted, choice made
“Arg! I can't believe you're letting us follow this band of annoying odd balls! Just because the girl you're in love with is maybe among them! If I die, you'll pay the bill, believe me!” his little brother protested loudly – but the mage's eyes were focused once more on the battle to come
“Thank you.” his brother answered the unstated decision to support him, “Dark Emperor to me!”

Meanwhile, Odd Squad had arrived just in time to save the human warrior from death, surprising him...
“You're not from my alliance?”
“We felt like helping anyway.” Prince shrugged, “I really don't like the look on that angel's face!”
The other eyed them, as if judging whether they were truthful or not – Prince met his gaze with his own steady one, the fight seemingly halting around them.
A nod.
“I'm Nan Gong Zui.”
“Prince.”
The human's eyes widened as he recognized the name, but the fight was already picking up around them.
The elf sent a nearby rogue flying with an energetic kick, cutting the warrior just by his side in two in a quick move Luna had made him repeat so many times he could do it in his sleep...
“So why the mask?” Nan Gong Zui wondered while keeping on fighting on his side
“For that.” the other answered happily – appearing so close to him his fellow warrior wondered how he hadn't seen him move, before back-stabbing a druid
“Aren't those Thieves or Assassins abilities?”
“Sure.” Prince confirmed, “But nothing forbids me to learn and use them anyway.” a bright smile, “This is why I love Second Life!”

It – was true, the other warrior realized, but people tended to focus on abilities centered around their job, as it took far more time to level up out-of-job abilities. The rumors that surrounded Odd Squad, and its leader, really were true, apparently...
With a call of “Meteor Shower!” Dark Emperor joined the melee by their side, making Prince smile happily.
Shouting a rallying cry toward his now rather reduced alliance, Nan Gong Zui pushed the attack forward.
And just like that, the battle had turned, the angel alliance finding itself on the defensive.
Their furious leader didn't take long to realize why, “kill the elf in the bloody mask!”
At the heart of the battlefield, Odd Squad felt the sudden rush of enemies toward them – but Yu Lian had been ready, the intelligent mage having realized this was bound to happen.
“Fire Storm!”
The raging tornado swooped on the opposing alliance, directly followed by Doll's massive and no less fiery Bone Dragon.

There were less than fifty fighters left in the crumbling down arena, Prince realized, as Nan Gong Zui by his side called to the other leader “Come and fight me, Fan, you coward!”
“I'm really curious to how someone as naïve and incapable of seeing the bigger picture as you managed to rally such a large alliance to you...”
“You...” the human had apparently come to a bitter realization, “You really don't care for Ice Phoenix, do you?”
“I'm afraid I've no idea who you're talking about.”
The cold answer was clearly meant to make Nan Gong Zui furious – and it worked.
Prince grabbed his fellow warrior by the collar before he could jump the other.
“Calm down. You've got people counting on you to lead them.”

The sentence worked like a cold shower, and the human turned toward the survivors of his alliance, eyes widening at the clear gaze of the people still following him.
“Let's take care of that bastard, since you've clearly a bone to pick with him.” Prince smiled, “Then, let's fight.”
The other nodded – and the next moment, both were calling their alliance to them, and rushing toward the angel's remaining men. Caught between the two, the alliance didn't last long, and soon, it was only Nan Gong Zui and Fan battling – then, the angel was turned into a pillar of light, and the remaining fighters eyed each others...
There was no ill will between the twenty-one remaining fighters, only the smiles of friends enjoying the challenge and ready to give their all into this last confrontation – as a proof of respect toward their fellow survivors.

“No more alliance.” the human warrior
“It's time for all of us to prove our worth with our own two hands.” Prince nodded, switching his mask to the side of his face, followed by the rest of his team – there were too few people remaining for the bonus on Discretion to be effective anymore

¤.¤.¤

“You've already left your mark on those pups.” Solare mused from the benches
Luna smiled proudly, “Fate was right, they are an interesting bunch. No preternatural abilities awakened...”
“Yet.” the other interjected
“Yet.” she confirmed “But raw talent, and a will to act that few people have in life.” he eyed Prince, “Can you believe that girl has never fought a day in her life and is studying Literature?”
The affirmation surprised her mate, who was eyeing the numerous ongoing fights.

“I see what you meant about raw talent.” he commented – because with 99% realism, stats or not, personal talent did play a role in all the Jobs available in Second Life
In the Arena, Wicked and Gui were both eyeing nastily the warrior against which Prince was happily fighting, the bloody elf never as beautiful as when he enjoyed himself in the middle of the battlefield.
Both men had jealousy written plainly on their face – but Gui forcefully turned from the scene, instead downing an enemy rogue that had been trying to creep on his team leader. Wicked made the mistake of interfering just as Prince landed the wining blow, killing Nan Gong Zui before the elf could.
“How dare you?”
The dark elf had expected anger – but not this kind.

“This way you don't have to kill a friend.” he shrugged
“This way I don't have to kill a friend?” Prince parroted, “Do you take me for some weak-willed little child that needs to be held by the hand?” he seethed, “I am Prince, bloody elf, leader of Odd Squad and I don't need anyone interfering in my battles!”
The next moment, he was rushing toward the stunned blond, who nearly didn't react in time.
“If you don't fight back, you'll die.” Prince warned coldly
Ming Huang, spotting his brother in a bind, sent a spell toward Odd Squad, the same Meteor Shower that had all but wiped them out a few weeks earlier – but this time, the team was ready, Yu Lian countering with an Earthquake that made all stumble except for them, letting them push the advantage.
By this point, only Dark Emperor and Odd Squad were still alive in the arena.

Doll's Fire Skeleton rose from the ground among the shaking earth, taking the enemy archer by surprise, Wolf's new ability to both heal and fight was pushing back Black Lily.
Still, the other priest had prepared, the dark-haired angel having vastly improved her evading abilities, making her able to flee the losing fight to hide behind Marksman long enough to heal up a bit her team-mates. Her downfall was to forgot about Gui, a Sonic Arrow piercing her from the back, letting her free for the picking by Wolf.
Prince sheathed his weapon, facing a Wicked who had seemed to come to a revelation, and was now fighting to the best of his abilities. A step, and he was dashing toward the other, leaving himself totally open to retaliation in his newt attack.
“Flash of the Heavenly Soaring Dragon.”
The name of the technique was whispered rather than shouted, the warrior himself surprised – it was after all the first time he'd managed the dangerous finishing move. A move one could only master when ready to put his life on the line...
In his shoulder, Wicked's sword disappeared as its owner turned into a pillar of light.

Behind him, an enraged Ming Huang shouted, “What is your problem! He did you a kindness, and you answered with scorn!”
“A kindness?” Yu Lian was the one to repeat, “If your leader truly though he was doing Prince a favor, then he knows nothing about him.” she answered calmly
The answered seemed to surprise her fellow mage – and that moment was enough for Lolidragon to slip out of the shadows and Back-stab him, sending him to his brother, just before being nabbed herself by Marksman.
Of course, the archer himself followed her swiftly in death, as Doll's skeletons grabbed him long enough to let Yu Lian send a Fire Sphere his way...

Wu Qing had tried to take advantage of Prince's own distraction, but Gui had stood in his way – and paid the price for him as Playboy, the other surviving member of Dark Emperor had taken advantage of the situation to poison him, before rushing against Wolf to prevent the priest to heal him. Gui died a few seconds after thief and priest finished each other's off.
Wu Qing was now alone against all the women of Odd Squad – Prince included, and even if he did manage to hurt Doll and nearly kill Lolidragon too, he eventually fell to the multiple attack.
“Odd Squad, victory!”

[Goal update: meet a self-aware NPC]

Chapter Text

Chapter III

“We're really doing it.” Lolidragon pointed out the next day “Creating a legend all together...” she added with a smile
“And we are now the owners of a large land that we're expected to make into a city, somehow.” a stunned Prince mused, “I don't know a thing about managing a city!”
“We'll do it together, like always.” Yu Lian reassured him
The warrior smiled, and put the topic to the side to come back to something more important.
A promise he'd made to himself, and Luna, before the beginning of the Tournament...

“There's something I want to tell you.” he started, wavering for a second, before forging on, feeling more at ease somehow now that the clear gaze of his team-mates were focused on him, “It's a secret I've been keeping about my true identity...”
“You don't have to if you don't want.” Gui reminded the warrior softly
“But I want to tell you.” the other answered candidly, “Because this secret is causing me useless trouble, and I don't like feeling like I'm lying to you all.” a frown, “Specially when someone else has already stumbled upon this secret...”
A deep breath.

“ I was the first player to connect to Second Life, and the company granted me any one wish thanks to that. I chose to play a character of the opposite gender.”
Stunned silence met the affirmation.
Then Yu Lian laughed lightly, “You would choose something that strange! But... Why?”
An embarrassed shrug, “I got into an argument with my annoying brother... He told me I was abusing the fact I was a girl to ditch all the work on men and hadn't achieved anything on my own.” a smile, “I've realized since that he was right, I'm not like Doll or Yu Lian-dasao, that gain levels on their own merit, I was just hanging behind the strong players...”
“You're not like that anymore.”

“I'm not.” she nodded happily, “And I like it a lot better like that!” she admitted, “My parents are rather old-fashioned, and I simply didn't dare do anything un-girly before, but I've realized since that I shouldn't live my life based on their expectations.” she smiled happily
“So... Who guessed your identity?” Lolidragon wondered
“Wicked.” the warrior answered, a dark frown on her face at the mention of the name, “He was a childhood friend, and I hadn't seen him in years, so I didn't realize who he was until he and Rose popped-up home on the same day!”
“Rose too?”
“An older cousin I'd never seen before.” Prince explained, throwing her hands up, “Something like that could only happen to me!”
The affirmation made everyone laugh.

Then Doll raised her hand as if in school, “I've... got something to admit to too...”
“You don't have to!” Prince immediately protested, “I only wanted to tell you because this avatar's good look has caused us so many problems online, but your life is your life!”
“It's... Something that could cause trouble eventually.” the necromancer admitted, “I'm a princess in real life after all, and some of the people that work for me could find me eventually...”
“Bah, let them come!” Prince waved away, “Doll is Doll, princess or not!”
“Exactly!” Lolidragon approved enthusiastically
“Er... They won't come.” Yu Lian admitted hesitantly, “Because I told them I would keep an eye on you.”

“So you're really Liliann aren't you?” the real life princess realized
“I am.” she turned toward Wolf, “But this is the only thing I lied about.” she assured the beastman, “I really did want to marry you!” she added with a blush, “I hadn't expected to meet you when I found Doll, but I'm very happy about it!”
The beastman wasn't really good with words – so Luna did the next best thing and tripped the tall man, making him fall into his smaller wife's arms, where he stayed, hugging her in a way that was worth all the words he couldn't say.
“Uh...” Lolidragon sighed, “I guess everyone really is in a sharing mood, er?” a shrug, “I'm a hidden GM.” she announced casually, “Oh, and I'm doing it to earn money because my dad, who's the president of the corporation that released Second Life, cut my money and told me to earn it myself...”
Nobody was really surprised that the girl threw the information like that – even if the revelation itself was new for everyone bar Luna and Prince.

Then the thief teasingly wagged her eyebrows at Wolf and Gui, “What about you, what kind of dark secrets do you have?”
“No dark secrets,” the tall beastman waved away with a shy smile, “I'm just a doctor at a university, and a colleague of Gui.”
“Er...” the bard hesitated a moment, then shrugged, “I chose my current job because one of the work offers fell on my face, and I was bored...”
The affirmation made the team face-plant.
“And Second Life is my first VRMMO.”
This affirmation was far more surprising – after all, more than 90% of the world played either Life or World before Second Life came out...

“What a coincidence,” Luna smiled, “It's my first one too!”
“But... didn't you say you were used to thieves and assassins jobs?”
The little girl's sweet smile made him shudder – and the question wasn't answered.
“Well, you're the last one!” Lolidragon fearlessly pointed at the fox, “Tell us something interesting!”

“Sure.” Tsukiko shrugged, “Lolidragon already knows I'm an omega wave case, which means I've got different brain waves from most people. This makes my mind appear different from my real body, I also tend to fry electronics if they aren't specially reinforced, and can bend the rules of any VRMMO because of this.” she dropped casually
The team had spent the afternoon talking about themselves after that, rather than about their new gained land – and Prince was delighted.

Because with each revealing a bit more about them, Odd Squad's members had become even closer friends than before. It was the first time that Xiao Lan found herself curious about in-game friends in real life.
Before logging off, she had taken Gui to the side.
“I'm sorry.” she said, uncharacteristically serious for a talk between the two of them, “In a way I've led you on my pretending to be a man.”
“Man, woman.” the bard shrugged, “I don't really care.” he admitted seriously, before falling into their more usual banter, “In the end, I'm just Prince-sexual, your highness!”
The warrior raised her first, and Luna raised her voice from afar, “You know the penalty if you kill Gui, Prince.”
“I wasn't going to kill him, just singe him a bit...” the warrior mumbled, “Oh, I've got the dinner to cook anyway, see you tomorrow everyone!”

¤.¤.¤

“So...” a dubious Prince asked, “How is it again that I'm the city's lord?”
“Because the liege lord of the land will be our face to the rest of the world.” Luna said patiently, “You don't have to worry about what to do, we're going to split the work between everyone...”
“I'll be responsible for the city's finances.” Yu Lian said
“And I'll be in charge of the military.” Wolf added
“I'm doing the architectural work, your Highness!”
“My skeletons will help with the construction!” Doll added with a cute smile
“And I'll taking care of the traps.” Lolidragon concluded, “So you'll have to do something we can't.”
“Er?”

“You and Luna will be recruiting!”
“Recruiting?”
“A land this size has to be protected, so an alliance will have to be forged.” Luna shrugged, “Solare told me he's already on the way with my people, but we'll need more people.”
“Uh, how many people can we expect?” Yu Lian asked, as she and her husband were also in charge of managing the people until more leaders could be appointed
“Er... About a dozen?” a frown “No, some of the children ought to be there too, so make that two dozens...”
“Wow. You haven't stepped the foot out of the lands, and you've already quadrupled our forces.” Lolidragon whistled in awe, “You've got to step up your game, Prince!”
“It's not a competition.” Luna reassured the warrior, “Just see it as assembling our friends in one place!”

“Right.” Xiao Lan nodded decisively, “Then let's head out and find Team Rose! Then Nan Gong Zui.”
“Not Dark Emperor?” Doll wondered, having been too far to really see what had happened
Prince's expression grew colder.
“They would be useful, I guess, but are they really friends?”
“Wicked made a stupid mistake.” Luna agreed, “But it wasn't done with ill-intent, we can at least give them a chance.”
“Alright. Well, I'll count on you to be my compass, imouto!”
“But of course nii-san!”

With that, goodbyes were said, and the pair started to make their way toward Star City, which was still Team Rose's base of operations. Without any surprise, given how friendly the two teams were, they accepted Prince and Luna's invitation immediately.
Then they'd unexpectedly stumbled on Dark Emperor.
The other team was rather bitter about their loss, and Prince's own coldness toward Wicked didn't help the situation – but the dark elf himself was apparently eager to repair the burnt bridges, as he managed to talk his team into accepting.
“Honestly,” Luna stated, “If you aren't able to put your grudges to the side, you would be better off not coming.”
Wu Qing was the one to react to the remark, “We'll come.” he contradicted, “We're not so childish that we can't admit our loss after not one but two teams wipe out.” he admitted, surprising his sister – before she remembered that he was copying the noble behavior of one of his favorite character in a story

“Besides, your own warrior seems to have a bone with Wicked.” Black Lily pointed
“I have.” Prince confirmed easily, “He interfered into an honorable fight between two warriors and friends!”
Wu Qing winced at the heated protest, and couldn't help but turn toward his leader, surprised at the affirmation. The lack of defense from the dark elf was all the confirmation needed.
“I see. Then we seem to be the one in the wrong in this case.”
“What! No!” Ming Huang protested, “It wasn't like that.”

“No, Prince is right.” Wicked admitted with a sigh, “What I did was misguided, and I do apologize for it.”
“Alright!” Prince accepted, not one to hold grudges, once the air was cleared, “Then we'll see each other's in our lands later!”
“Not heading back right now?” Playboy asked
“Nope, I've still got to meet with Nan Gong Zui's alliance in Moon City.”

Wicked seemed ready to protest – then thought better of it, and simply waved the duo goodbye.
“You've known him for long?”
“He was my childhood crush.” Prince admitted easily, “Because mama always told me I'd have to find a good-looking man to marry...” a shrug, “But well, he moved away, and we grew up.”
“You may have been his childhood crush too,” Luna mused, “and if he still thought about you the way you were before...”
Prince stopped in his track.

“So he only wanted to protect a cute girl.” she realized with both a smile and a frown, “It's... kind, but not something I need nor desire.”
“He didn't know that yet.”
“I guess...” a frown, “Well, I'll let it slide for this time, he's already apologized after all, but he better not behave like this again, or I'll send him to rebirth until level one!”
“If he's really a good friend, he'll learn to know the new you.”
“I hope. Childhood crush apart, he was a good friend.”
They arrived at Moon City rather fast despite having to cross the continent, thanks to Luna's help in preventing Prince from getting lost – the warrior really had zero sense of direction...

When they arrived to the city, it didn't take them long to stumble upon Nan Gong Zui, that was talking with a beautiful, blond human mage.
“Let me go, dage, I just want to be with Fan!”
“You know he's only using you, stop sending him expensive presents and protecting him”
“Is it so wrong to me in love with someone? To be truly dedicated and make sacrifice for his sake? I believe I'll move his heart eventually!”
Prince and Luna grimaced at the affirmation.

This wasn't love she was describing – this was obsession.
“What an unsightly behavior, Nan Gong Zui.” Fan mocked as he arrived, “You can't keep your godsister to yourself if she doesn't want to.”
“I just don't want her to be manipulated by a bastard like you!”
“Manipulated? I've always been honest about everything with Ice Phoenix, she knows she's only one of the women I'm seeing.”
“You know, while I've got nothing against polyamory and polygamy, this is really revolting.” Luna mused, loud enough that the three arguing players turned toward Prince and her.
Both Odd Squad members could spot the moment the female mage saw Prince, and like so many before her, fell under his charm.

“You have no self-respect, girl.” Luna commented, making the other finally take notice that the beautiful elf wasn't alone, “This is my brother you're eyeing like a piece of meat, despite the fact you were claiming loudly your love Fan the moment before.”
“I... I don't know what you're talking about, I love Fan!”
“And he doesn't.”
“He will one day!”
“When you'll have given him enough money? That's not love, that's a gigolo.” she turned toward the human male, “I'm sorry for you, Nan Gong Zui, you clearly care for Ice Phoenix, yet she doesn't care about you.”
“She's family.” the other shrugged, “I can't just abandon her.”

“Yet she would do it, wouldn't she?”
“What! I wouldn't!”
“Even if Fan asked you to?”
She withered at the question, turning uncertainly toward the angel, “He wouldn't ask me something like that...”
“Just like he didn't ask you to betray me?”
“That wasn't...”
“Stealing money from our Team account to give it to him was a betrayal.” Nan Gong Zui contradicted sadly, “Not only to me, but to the rest of our friends.”
“Stop pressuring her.” Fan snapped, annoyed, as he saw the words were starting to work on the mage, “They can't understand our relationship.”
“What relationship? Does he take care of you like you take care of him? Share your burden like you share his? Love you like you do him?” Luna asked pointedly, “Or are those sweet words all that your gigolo gives you? Because if that's the case, he's not even a very good gigolo...”
“Or did he create an alliance from scratch to protect you from yourself? Refuse to abandon you when you betrayed him? Continue to support you when you threw his care in his face?” Prince added – inspiration hitting him as he remembered Fan's words from the Tournament

Because the angel had been right – it was clear Nan Gong Zui had no interest in being a big leader, so he must have had a good reason to do it...
Ice Phoenix was clearly wavering now, and her eyes were watching Prince more and more rather than Fan.
“Aren't you two a bit noisy? What happens between Ice Phoenix and I is our concern only!”
“I'm just a concerned friend. After all, Nan Gong Zui is a friend, and so his sister is as good as my sister.” he patted Luna's head fondly, “And it's a nii-san's job to protect his imouto.”
“As for me.” Luna commented, “I'm more used to protecting nii-san from shallow women.” at this, her eyes lingered on the female mage, who grew red at the clear jab, “But I'm not above cutting down the pigs in my way either.” she added, a tanto slipping between her finger, and against the tall warrior's throat so quickly no one ever saw her move

With that, she jumped down front her perch on the man's shoulder, blade disappearing back in her Inventory, before stepping toward Ice Phoenix.
“If you really love him, and believe he can come to love you, it shouldn't matter that you're not in the same city anymore, should it? Or are you so uncertain?”
“I'm not!”
“Perfect, then you won't mind moving to our land when Nan Gong Zui joins us.”
“I won't!” the other confirmed heatedly
Prince rolled his eyes as he realized the little fox had managed the hardest part, and pointed his dao toward Fan, “Now, scram.”
The angel did flee – but not before warning them all that he'd have his revenge.

¤.¤.¤

Luna's bloodthirsty smile as she welcomed him to try was ever wilder than Prince's – then the warrior was talking to his fellow fighter, and formally inviting him and his Team, and even the rest of the alliance if the so wished, to their new city.
“So... What's your city's name?”
“Er... Nope, we haven't found one yet.” Prince admitted after checking with the rest of the Squad, “Apparently it's now my job to find a name and register it...” the warrior sighed
“Your team really is unique!” Nan Gong Zui laughed, “Come, let me buy you a drink to celebrate our alliance!”
“That means you're coming?”
“I am!”

Ice Phoenix had turned her nose at the idea of going drinking, but went to met up with her elder sister, who was also in Nan Gong Zui Righteous Blade Team. While the two sisters were entertaining themselves, the rest of the Team did agree to go to a nearby inn with Prince and Luna. They had been surprised when the waitress accepted to serve alcohol to the young-looking girl – but Second Life was made so that only people of age could buy alcohol, so it meant the little girl wasn't that little behind her avatar's young appearance.
During the evening of drinking, Nan Gong Zui had been the one to find a name for Odd Squad – Infinite City. Eyeing the two warriors that were still drinking, Luna had slipped away to register the name, since Prince definitely wasn't in any state to do it himself...

By the time she came back to the inn, the Righteous Blade and Prince had already left, having apparently made quite a spectacle by wildly, and drunkenly sparring on the roofs of the city...
She caught up with the other Team – but Prince had left them to stare at the moon from the city harbor. Who knew Xiao Lan would be a poetic drunk?
The white fox tracked her team-mate to the harbor – and started to have a bad feeling when she realized the elf wasn't on any of the docks...
She eyed the boat that was already out in high waters, outside of Central Continent territorial waters. He couldn't? Her eyed twitched, and black flames gathered around her, making a portal above the ship she'd been watching from afar the moment before.

And low and behold, here was Infinite City's liege lord snoring on the wooden deck!
With a sigh, she got back to the shore, calling Lolidragon, the only member of the Squad still connected to the game that late at night, to explain to her what had just happened.
“Wait a minute...” Lolidragon burst out laughing, “You mean to say Prince got drunk and bought a ticket to the Eastern Continent?”
“That's exactly what I'm saying.”
“This is too funny!”
“He'll be stuck at sea for days, and I doubt he has enough money for the travel back.” Luna pointed out to the still laughing thief
“That'll teach him to drink a bit more responsibly.” Lolidragon shrugged, “I say, let him earn the money to come home! Just drop by Central Continent with your game-breaking powers to update us about the situation from time to time, if you can.”

Luna thought about it a bit – but truth be told, they had recruited all the people they knew, and there wasn't a lot more the warrior do could do to help in the city that was being built right now.
A shrug.
Well, off to the Eastern Continent it was.
The Moon Hime eyed the warrior sleeping with a wide smile on his face, and logged-off – she still had work to do, and when the idiot would wake up, he'd be bound to forget that boats were cut off from outside communication and try to PM Odd Squad. The rest of their team-mates wouldn't receive the messages, of course – but she would, and would be able to drop in to explain the situation he'd ended up in.
As expected, about twelve hours later, the familiar gong sound of Second Life system echoed, followed by Prince's panicked voice “Er... Guys! Anyone, please answer!”
Tsukiko sighed, and checking that there was nothing urgent pending, logged-in to fill Prince in about his latest predicament...

“Wah... five thousand crystal coins?” Prince protested, “Why is Lolidragon so cruel!”
“Do you really think Yu Lian-dasao reaction will be any better?”
The warrior winced.
“Uh. So five thousand crystal coins, and an apology gift to bribe Yu Lian-dasao...” the warrior sighed, “And five days stuck on a boat!”
“You do realize you don't have to actually stay on-line? Why don't you take advantage of this downtime to practice a bit more IRL, or get ahead on your school work?”
“Uh... Maybe I should.” Xiao Lan mused, before pouting, “But I don't have anyone to play with in real life! No sword to train with, even if kitchen knives are pretty cool...” she added with a mumble

Luna eyed the warrior with an amused look, “Are you saying you wouldn't mind trying to use a real blade ?”
Prince stopped his mumbling, then eyed the druid warily, “Yes? I mean, you're the one who always says that since there's 99% realism in Second Life, what we learn IRL can be applied in-game, and vice versa.” he pointed out, before starting to move back slowly, “Er... Why do you have the same dangerous look on your face you always have when you're about to give us some dangerous new training plan?”
Luna smiled, and winked before logging-off.

“Er... If I refuse to log-off, she won't be able to get to us, er?” the warrior asked his pet with dread
The MeatBun eyed him cutely, “Mama is afraid of Moon-Moon?”
“Everyone is afraid Moon-Moon... er Luna... when she wants to train people, MeatBun.”
“Uhn. Moon-Moon is scary!” the bun confirmed with a frown on its face “But she gives good treats after!”
The warrior sighed.
“I still can't believe you managed to eat those extra-hot meat-balls...” Prince sighed, “Anyway, I guess trying to escape is useless.”

¤.¤.¤

The doorbell was ringing when Xiao Lan removed her headpiece – the young woman jumped to get the door, then froze as she easily recognized the tall black-haired, green-eyed woman in front of her from the mischievous smile and gleaming eyes.
“Luna?”
“My name is Tsukiko.” the Moon Hime corrected, “Taishou Tsukiko.”
The student's eyes widened as she recognized the famous name, “You...” she shook her head, growing past the starry eye reaction to meeting someone as famous as the other was, and her eyes changed from the rather naïve one of Xiao Lan to the stronger gaze of Prince, “I guess it makes sense you're that good with a sword, then.” she mused – it was rather well-known that the old Japanese family was still very keen on old traditions like keeping up with martial art training
Not to mention, the old family was also known to have been one of the earliest to give equal rights to their women, having strong female figures in their members since as far back as the Sengoku Jidai...

“Feng Xiao Lan.” the nineteen-year-old student introduced herself automatically, “But I guess you already knew.”
Tsukiko admitted shamelessly, “I was worried.”
The other didn't ask what about – she remembered well enough the concerned expression on Luna's face when she'd admitted why she enjoyed so much being Prince.
“My parents are a pair of idiots, but they're not that bad.” she reassured the older woman
“Indeed.” the other acknowledged, “Now you just have to learn to stand for yourself in real life just as well as in Second Life.” a wink, “Now come, we've got work to do!”
With that, Tsukiko was dragging Xiao Lan away from her family's flat toward a nearby hooverbike – one of the latest model, the youngest of the two noted without too much surprise – and they were soon out of the city, and arriving in front of a tall, ornate entry gate.

“Wha! Why did you leave without telling me anything, Xiao Tian!”
Tsukiko side-stepped easily the dragon who had launched himself toward her thanks to the force of habit, in a way eerily reminiscent of the daily interactions between Gui and Prince.
“I was gone for barely half an hour, Ryu.” she sighed
This time, it took even less time for Xiao Lan to recover from encountering yet another famous person – one of the most famous authors and specialists on Ancient Chinese History, and one of the few confirmed descendants of the former imperial family from two hundred years ago.
A few months ago, she would have been surprised to realize just how different the man was in his private life from the calm and kindly front he presented in public – but since becoming Prince, she'd started to learn a bit more about juggling private and public life when one was famous.

“So... This is Prince, eh?” the finally calmer man recognized easily, surprising Xiao Lan, “It has been a while since you've been so excited about a new student.”
“Well, not everyone is suited for the art of the blade.” the green-eyed woman answered with a smile
“But those who are, will become the very best under your guidance.” the other added with an amused smile, “That, and gain a healthy fear of your training methods.” he eyed Xiao Lan who was already paling at the word training, “Uh, she's already got the fear part done with, good.” a wink, “Well, I'll leave you ladies to your fun then!”
Tsukiko waved the dragon away, while guiding Xiao Lan to a nearby traditional Japanese built building...

“It's too late to run, eh?” Xiao Lan wondered
“This is the dojo.”
The teen-aged girl froze, taking in the pristine wall line with all kinds of weapons, and large floor covered in tatami mats with awe.
“Not thinking about running away anymore?” Tsukiko teased with a knowing smile
Xiao Lan had already dropped her shoes, and was advancing hesitantly in the dojo, eyes going back and forth to take in all the weapons present. Tsukiko smiled, happy to confirm she'd guessed right in Second Life – Xiao Lan was a girl born to fight, and only her education had prevented her from realizing it earlier.
She may never have any spiritual powers – but sooner or later, she would awaken her ki, like only the best martial artists learned to do, and thus gain entrance into the magical world.

A call to Chaos Game Wardrobe System, and her casual but high-end clothes were replaced by the more traditional ones worn in the District.
Xiao Lan, too busy admiring the dojo, didn't even react when she noted her clothes had changed.
“Come, there are some gi in the changing room.”
It took but a few minutes for the young girl to put on the clothes taken out for her, and when she stepped back into the dojo a moment later, it was impossible to mix her up with anyone but Prince, the posture unconsciously taller and unhesitating, the gaze clear.
“Catch.”

Xiao Lan grabbed the blade flying toward her by reflex, and next moment, her instincts were screaming at her and she barely dodge the incoming attack.
The next five days, she spent training with Tsukiko – not realizing that day after day, the shell of the shy girl she'd been longing to shed was crumbling under the Moon Hime's constant attention. Learning under the Japanese woman wasn't what she'd expected from real life, making her understanding all the better why Luna was always so insistent that Second Life and real life could be treated the same – there was no kata repeated to perfection, dry technical lessons or anything else she'd come to expect from normal martial art training.
“It would be useless with you.” Tsukiko had easily explained when she'd questioned it about it, “You're a kinetic and instinctive learner, the best way for you to learn is to beat it into you.”

And indeed, they'd sparred for hours on end, the girl who so despised pain ending the first day black and blue, and promising herself never to do this again – only for the bruises to disappear overnight thanks to the nearly magical balm she'd been told to put before sleeping, and the teenage girl to come back despite her common-sense telling her it wouldn't be better the next day.
The second day hadn't been better.
But by the third one, the number of bruises had been halved, and the sparring sessions were looking more like a true duel than the one-sided beating they'd been before.

¤.¤.¤

Prince jumped on the ground with a happy sigh, “Land, finally!”
Luna smiled as she touched ground by her side, “Well, now to earn some money.”
The pair started by exploring the nearest training ground to familiarize themselves with the local mobs, then dropped by the Adventurer Guild to take a few quests to start earning some money. While usually those quests were meant for a full Team, between Luna high-level boosting-spells and both's uncanny ability to avoid incoming strikes, they were rather good at staying alive against the odds.
It was on the second day that a scream was heard – and a girl barged in the clearing they were fighting in, half a dozen Flame Skeleton chasing her.
“Wow, talk about déjà vu.” Prince mumbled on the Team chat only Luna and him had access to on this continent, before realizing with some surprise, “Wait...They're actually really familiar...”

“Yun!”
“Hang in there, Jin, I'll save you once I've drunk some potions!”
Mind made, Prince slipped his mask on, Tsukiko following suit without asking any question, which he was rather thankful for – and they jumped in, making quick work of the mobs they could fight in their sleep, so used were they to fighting those.
“Holy shit, you're really strong!” Yun gaped
“Yes, you really are extremely strong, unlike the two of us...” Jing added with a pitiful sigh

“Don't be fooled by them.”Prince warned Luna, “Jing is really good at making stronger players do the work for her, but she's actually a Taekwondo expert. They are my best friends”
“It's all because my level is too low, I couldn't protect you.” Yun added pathetically
Luna was eyeing the two putting on the waterworks silently – and after so many days spent training with her in real life, Prince could all but guess at the cold and unimpressed expression on her face that was currently hidden by her mask.

“You two are pretty pathetic as far as liars go.” the small fox finally interrupted, “When you want to rope someone into training you, you'd better avoid the disdaining eyes, not to mention your in-game level maybe rather low, they aren't low enough that you couldn't manage to clear those few skeletons by yourself, so you're either fools or con-artists.”
“What...”
“I'm not finished.” Luna growled, “To top it all, the girl moves like a trained fighter, so if one of you had to play the damsel in distress, it shouldn't be her doing the running.”

The pair could only stare stunned at the younger looking avatar as Luna kept on telling them off – not for trying to con them, but for failing at it. Prince sighed as he spotted the instant the disappointment at failing their attempt to make both of them train them was replaced by true hero worship.
“Make us your apprentices!”
And there it was.
This wasn't a con this time – this was a full out excited Jing. Prince sighed, his best friend was bad enough as things were, if she really learned from an expert, the world was doomed...

“Start by taking acting lessons in real life.” Luna countered – and that wasn't really a refusal, was it, Prince realized with a sinking feeling, “To tell the truth we're rather busy, but if you want to tag along, you're welcome to it.”
The other pair eyed them, stunned once more.
After all, Luna was all but stating they'd help them level up, moments after dissecting point by point how badly they failed at trying to con them into helping them level up.
“But let me warn you.” Prince sighed – in the instant of surprise of the two, Luna had disappeared from her place by his side to creep between the two, that she was now casually threatening with some knives, “Onii-san is forgiving toward even traitors, but I'm not.”
Jing and Yun gulped and carefully nodded their agreement – and Prince couldn't help but feel like Luna had just raised their interest even more.

“So... can we ask what you're busy with?” Jing asked a bit later as they trekked back to the city to turn in some quests
“Onii-san is broke.” Luna stated easily, making all sweat-drop
“Eh! But you still shared all the rewards with us!”
“You did your part of the job, you get paid.” Prince shrugged, “I was the one idiotic enough to get drunk and buy a boat-ticket.” he admitted, now able to laugh at the situation
“Next time you get drunk, you'll try to stop before doing anything stupid.” Luna added with an amused smiled
“Oh, so you're not from the Eastern Continent?”
“Nope, we're from Central.”

“Oh! Then have you... met... Odd Squad?” Yun had started the question rather excitably, but his words had then come to a near halt as he eyed the two, “Oh my god! You're them aren't you!” he realized with wide eyes
Prince thanked the god there was enough noise around them for his next exclamation to go unheard by all but them, “You're the bloody elf and the sanguinary druid!”
“Sanguinary druid? When did I ever gain a nickname?” Luna wondered
“Well, the two of you did manage to make sick a whole arena.” Jing pointed out, “Shouldn't you like... Be taking care of your new city, or something like that?”
“We should.” Luna confirmed, “But since onii-san had bought the ticket before I could get to him, the rest of the team decided that earning the money back by himself would be a good punishment.” a smile, “But I couldn't leave him alone, onii-san has strictly no sense of direction.”
“Hey!”
“You once managed to get lost between an inn and a restaurant in a straight street.”

¤.¤.¤

After that, the ice had been broken in the small group, the two new additions finally telling them their level and class – Yun Fei was a level 45 Warder while Lu Jing was level 30, and an Exorcist.
Both had chosen rather rare Jobs, and it wasn't that surprising that they'd been having difficulties to level up, since Yun had a support class with no Job specific offensive abilities, while Jing was a spell caster.
If, unlike Odd Squad, they didn't have the idea of using real life skill to support their class, nor did they have a team, then any high-level mob area was all but forbidden to them.

“What do you mean, real life skill?” Jing wondered as the warrior told as much to the pair
“Well this is a game with 99% realism, where you can learn any skill you want.” he pointed out, “So you don't need to only use your Job skills to survive.” he pointed at Luna, “After all, you've seen how dangerous my imouto is.” a nod, “And just like you've said earlier, she's a druid.” he reminded them
Understanding dawned in the two's eyes.

Yun and Jing in turned out, were also saving up to go to Central Continent they admitted – since most of the people they knew were back there, they explained. With that said, Luna and Prince had exchanged a glance – and the warrior casually sent a Team invite to the pair.
“Are you... sure?” Yun asked in wonder, “I mean, we're low-level compared to you, and well, most people don't really care about Warder because they don't understand our job and...”
“We're Odd Squad, Jing, Yun.” Prince pointed out, “The name says it all, all of us were alone because people found us too strange to team-up with at first.” he admitted easily, “Our necromancer used to be afraid of her skeletons.”
“And our priest has the highest hand-to-hand skill of the Team.” Luna added
The two laughed at that – relief real in their voice, even if they didn't realize it. Xiao Lan winced internally, because she'd been stressing so much about hiding her identity, even moreso now that Prince was becoming rather infamous, she'd nearly completely pushed to the side her two old friends, she realized.

And clearly, Jing and Yun had struggled with only the two of them and no team willing to take a low-level spell caster and a support character with a rather obscure specialty. Well, no more! Just like she'd said, Odd Squad was precisely the place for all the odd balls in the world!
The rest of the walk toward the White Tiger's best restaurant, where the pair had insisted on treating them, both Yun and Jing had a large happy smile on their face, and Luna knew that any though of betraying them, already scarce from her earlier performance, had now definitely disappeared.
Neither Luna nor Prince had to remove their mask to eat, since the bottom half could be separated from the upper one precisely for this purpose – and Luna had explained that given how unbearable people could be, the mask did help move around the city without being harassed.

“Since they give such a good boost in Discretion, people remember that we wore masks during the Tournament's last part, but not how they look.” Prince added, “It's really convenient.”
“Is that you, Xiao Jing?” a rather irritating voice cut over the four team-mates talking
Jing winced, mumbling, “I wish I had such a mask...”
A warrior was stepping toward our table, a heavy full-plate armor all golden metal and gleaming jewelries, red cloak embroided with a dragon...
In one world, vulgar.

Yun's own expression had turned frosty.
“My dear, why didn't you tell me you were eating here? I hope the waiters didn't try to make pay their lady boss?”
“Lady boss?” Jing's fist slapped the table, “Have some care with your words, Huang Wei, I've already told you multiple times I'm not your anything!”
“I understand you like to play hard to get, but you have to accept to be my wife eventually, Xiao Jing.”
This time, it was Yun whose temper snapped, “Jing has already refused you numerous time, this isn't playing hard to get, this is saying no, you fucking pervert!”
“Still hanging around Jing, you piece of garbage? I told you before didn't I, that I'd kill you every-time I see you with Jing, do you enjoy dying that much?”
Prince, who'd been busy nibbling the food while observing the situation until now, finally had enough too.

After all, Jing and Yun weren't only his best friends, they were also members of Odd Squad, and right now, the other was threatening them.
“Jing and Yun are now adventurer's under my command, you useless lump. And no one threatens one of our own.” Prince stated coldly, “So begone.”
“You think you're all that hot, hiding behind a mask?”
The blade he'd started to take out tumbled to the ground, as his head was separated from his body in one flowing motion. The body turned to a pillar of light – and the men that had been with him eyed the now empty space in front of them, stunned.
“What a weakling. Training with you really is more interesting, imouto.”
“Well, of course.” Luna answered primly, “After all, I know the right from the wrong end of a sword contrarily to this idiot.” she called a waiter over – the poor guy all but running to hear her orders, terrified by the scene, “We'll have our order to go, this has put me off eating here.”
“Of course!” the other nodded frantically, “Just a moment, I'll have that prepared in the kitchen!”

A few minutes later, all four were out of the restaurant, with a free bottle of their best alcohol on top of their order, and Prince was happily munching on a wonton.
The duo used to the city took them to their favorite spot, and they were soon eating their feast in a clearing that was still within the city's bound, and as such a peaceful area, while overhanging the nearby training grounds.
Now that they knew the pair wasn't from the continent, Yun was taking the time to tell them all the particularities local mobs had, and which quests earned the most XP or money.
Since they didn't have a healer, the four-man party decided to get used to fight together slowly, starting with easier quests and mobs, and moving to the next level of difficulty when they go ready for it.
Yun and Jing had progressed rather quickly thanks to that – and in a couple of days, they were ready for an A rank quest.

The quest they took was rather simple – they had to lure the Demon' Boss and take out his hairband. Having already fought lower and higher level demons in the previous day, the team felt rather confident, and headed back to the familiar caves.
They ventured deeper into the labyrinth like tunnels, as the Boss was apparently only found in the deepest part of the training-ground – and just as Prince was about to use MeatBun's Aroma Release ability to lure the monster out, he had to dodge, a newcomer rushing toward him.
The warrior nimbly jumped out of the way, stunned. In the first moment, he'd though it was another player – but no, he realized.
This was the Boss, and not only his face, but his fighting style was very familiar.
After all, Xiao Lan had spent hours upon hours pouring her attention into recreating the techniques described in the manga, and watching the anime over and over again.

“Is this some Easter egg?” he wondered
In front of him, the Boss that was clearly none other than a reconstruction of Himura Kenshin from Ruroni Kenshin, wasn't as impaired by the will not to kill as his counterpart from the manga was – and he was of a much higher level than they'd expected for the area!
It was rather thrilling, Prince thought – to be fighting the expert in those techniques she'd spent so long mastering.
Eventually, in a lull in the fight, the Boss finally opened his mouth.
“Elf.” the battousai stated, “What are you doing here, and how do you know this sword-style?”
“I'm self-taught!” Prince answered automatically – it wasn't every day the true master of the style you used appeared in front of you when he wasn't even supposed to exist

Then – the warrior realized the Boss was speaking with a surprising amount of intelligence.
“You are rather talented to have pieced my style together by yourself.” the Demon King allowed, “But it doesn't explain what you're doing here.”
“I'm here for your hair tie, someone sent me.” Prince answered, struck by inspiration
After all, if he was really the character from the old manga then...
“She was called Kaoru.” the warrior added
The battousai stumbled, and took the ragged hair tie from his hair, looking at the worn item as if it were a priceless artifact, “Did she say anything?”
Prince hesitated – he really had no idea, but there was no other way than to forge on right now, “She said she'd wait forever.”
“That silly girl.” a smile and a sigh, “Take it, and tell her not to wait for me. There's no way to turn back anymore.”

Prince could distantly tell to Jing and Yun on the Team chat that they probably had stumbled on a hidden quest – but right now, the warrior couldn't seem to remember that this was simply a NPC he was facing, seeing only a dejected and lonely fellow swordsman.
“Why? Why can't you leave this cave behind and go back to her side's?”
“This isn't something for you to know. Just relay my message.”
Prince nodded, mind made, “I will.”
And if the battousai couldn't go to Kaoru – then he'd bring Kaoru to the swordsman's side.
The four of them started their trek back to the entrance of the cave, Jing and Yun enthusiastically wondering what kind of reward a hidden quest could give, Prince still feeling rather conflicted about how real the Boss' emotions had felt, and even Luna deep in her thoughts.

Because what none of the other could feel, she had – clear as the day, near even and strong enough that even under her avatar's guise she felt it.
A soul.
And emotions.
Just like Fate had hinted, this was no regular NPC – the Demon King was a true mortal being, aware of himself.

[Goal update: learn about the self-aware NPC's origins]

[Goal update: find the leader of the NPC]

Ordinarily, neither Prince nor Luna would have fallen for the ambush – but right now, both were so lost in thoughts that they realized something was wrong too late.
A grating laugh echoed, “Kill them all but the girl!”

¤.¤.¤

Yun had jumped back to avoid the attack – a bit too far back, Jing realized, as she ran to help him, grabbing him before he could fall down the precipice. But with how low her Strength score was, she couldn't do more than hang on, she realized.
The exorcist could hear screams, and someone running toward them – and Prince was there to help them.
But the warrior had missed one of the nearly thirty ambushers, and the spell caster made him pay.
With a heavy gust of wind, they were three to stumble into the dark, Luna only taking the time to finish the mage before she jumped into the void behind them.
“Leaving without me?”
“Can you help?”
“But of course.” the little girl seamlessly slipped into her Wild Shape, the fox shape now as tall as an elephant, and she twisted her body to place herself under the trio, who managed to grab her fur

Realizing that they were closer to the bottom than the top of the crevice, she used the nearby rocks to break a bit her fall, and touched down slowly, nudging the three off her back before letting go of the shape-shifting.
“Uh, you again?” a familiar, calm voice stated
“Oh! Kenshin!” Prince realized, “We got caught in an ambush and fell!” he explained with an embarrassed smile, “But Luna saved us so it's alright.”
“I saw the little fox take her True Form.” the battousai nodded, “I need you to meet someone.”
“Er? Why?”
“It's a hidden quest,” the other answered, face torn, “and I can't go against it.”

This time, even Jing and Yun realized that something was wrong with the wording.
“Are you really an NPC?” Prince blurted
“I am... I think.”
“You are... self-aware, aren't you?” Yun was the one to ask
“I don't know.” Kenshin admitted quietly, “It's just that one day, when fighting a player, I realized something odd was going on...” a frown, “I had a feeling that I should be looking for someone named Kaoru, yet I couldn't leave the area for as long as a player didn't do the correct step of talking to me... And yet, somehow, I already knew that once the quest was started, I'd only find Kaoru's grave...” a shrug, “From there, I started to question everything, and I eventually became aware that I was what you call an NPC.”
The team eyed each other, stunned by the realization.

“I've come to realized that all I thought I knew was just a lie, a game for some people. And yet, I'm still constrained by my quest's requirements, just like the one I'm taking you to see.” he eyed the group beseechingly, “Please don't hurt him, his situation is even worse. Because Sunshine is sealed in his chamber until someone completes his quest and frees him.”
The four team-mates shared a silent conversation with their eyes – and being a part of Odd Squad must have already started to make the more reasonable Yun and Jing a bit more strange, as they nodded along the two others.
“Let's go and see that person then!”
Kenshin guided them in the underground maze, and soon they were standing in front of a tall, heavily ornate door with a ruby as large as a shield in the center of it.

“Sunshine, there are some people who stumbled on your quest.”
In the richly decorated room chamber, a dark-skinned silhouette had been lazying on a divan, and jumped to its feet at the affirmation.
“Welcome!” Sunshine greeted enthusiastically, “I'm Lantis Ilanyushenlin, but please call me Sunshine!”
The slender boy draped in Arabian Night's finery was acting just like a young child, asking them question after question about the outside world – Jing and Yun answering what they could about the Eastern Continent, Luna and Prince talking about Central Continent, and within minutes, all had all but forgotten the two weren't fellow players...
“It sounds so great!” Sunshine say wistfully, “I really want to be able to go outside...”
“Why don't you come with us?” Prince easily suggested

“You would take us with you?” Sunshine eyes were bright with hope
“We can't.” Kenshin said more reasonably, “As long as our quests aren't fulfilled, then I'm stuck in the Demonic Caves, and Sunshine in this prison palace.”
“Then let's complete these quests.” Yun answered, “Prince and Luna are really strong!”
“And with your help, even if it's a hidden quest, we should manage.” Jing added, “Since apparently you're aware of the quest's steps.”
The four players sat with the two self-aware NPC, going through the steps they needed to go through to finish first Kenshin's, then Sunshine's quest.

They had unwittingly started the battousai quest when Prince had mentioned Kaoru – after that, they had to go to Snow Village to bring the ribbon, where they'd learn that the woman was dying and beg them to bring Kenshin to them.
Going back to the Demonic Cave with this news would then allow the area Boss to follow them to Snow Village – too late, as Kaoru would already be dead. But upon seeing the grave, the battousai would vow to have his revenge, and upon following him to help, the players would have completed the quest and unlock, among other things, Kenshin as a pet.
To complete all those hidden event was already hard enough without guidance – but Sunshine's quest was even harder.

On an unrelated quest, they should have happened on his true name Lantis Ilanyushenlin engraved on a slab of stone containing a prophecy, on top of the world's highest mountain, Azure Peak.
After unlocking Kenshin, he would then guide his owner to the room where Sunshine's name would have to be pronounced before the hidden NPC killed them. If killed by Sunshine, the quest would be forfeited and never available again...
All in all, they had quite a bit of work to do – and so the four player were soon leaving, promising the two NPC they'd be back soon.
The travel to Snow Village wasn't too long, but they had to make a stop to buy some cold weather equipment, and they'd met Kaoru as expected. Contrarily to Kenshin, the beautiful woman definitely wasn't self-aware, but she did have a soul, Luna noted.

As they headed back to the cave to bring her message to her lover, despite knowing they'd never see her again, all four were rather silent. After having met Kenshin and Sunshine, even the death of a NPC felt different.
“You know, I've never felt just how true this 99% realism was before today.” Prince sighed as they dropped by the cave to take Kenshin with them, “Dying is alright for us, but what happens to NPC when they die? Are there other out there just like Kenshin and Sunshine? What happens to them when they die?” he repeated, now growing anxious at the answer
“It's very possible they just revert back to their regular programming.” Tsukiko answered with a sigh, “This maybe a game for us, but I'm afraid it's their one life for them.”
“Then we won't let Kenshin die.” Yun nodded resolutely from behind them
Luna smiled “Indeed. After all, between his own abilities, and the four of us, we should manage.”

The white fox didn't realize her eyes were shining with an ethereal light as she promised to keep the lost soul alive.
The last leg of their trek back to Snow Village was far worse than the previous trip, a violent snow storm rising and making even walking difficult. Thankfully, a bit of unorthodox thinking later, Yun was casting an ice-damage protection on them all, and finally, they arrived near a lonely grave, nearly buried by the snow.
“Kaoru.” the swordsman whispered brokenheartedly
The blizzard fell.
All four of the players assembled silently around the NPC that was silently crying.
“Here lies Kaoru, who will wait for her husband forever.”
“Should I not have come?” Kenshin wondered, “At least that way she'd have lived eternally.”
“Eternally waiting for you in anguish.” Luna pointed out, “Death is not an enemy to be beaten, Kenshin, it's something we'll all embrace one day. At least this way, she knew you were coming to see her, just like you came despite knowing you'd only find a grave.”

The NPC nodded, considering the wise words, coming for the girl that for all intent looked like a child, “Perhaps you're right.”
“In the meantime, let's go and get your revenge. Vent your anger at that Demonic Dark God, turn your sorrow into motivation to fight, your agony into the energy to wield your sword, and let them all go as you kill that bastard.” Prince enjoined him
Fire was blazing in the swordsman eyes, “Let's.” he confirmed
They left Snow Village behind, climbing higher up the mountain, until they reached a gigantic cave, the entrance at least ten meters high and framed with two demonic looking statues.
Before Kenshin could enter the cave, the small but firm hand of Luna stopped him, “Remember that your sword will only cut as well as your mind is clear, Kenshin.”

The Boss stilled, the unbridled fury in his eyes replaced by a far more dangerous and controlled fire. Seeing she'd been heard, Luna nodded in satisfaction, then added, “Now, tell us again what you know about this enemy.”
“He's got attribute from both sorcerers and warriors.” the NPC said, eyes closing in concentration, “He's also colossal, thus the size of the cave and wield the godly weapon Sword of Darkness.”
“Alright.” Luna eyed the team, “Like we said earlier... Kenshin, you can't afford to get killed. For this fight to be successful, since we don't have a priest, we should all avoid damage as much as possible.” she eyed the two low-level, “Yun, focus on protecting us rather than weakening the Boss, so you don't gain the aggro.”
A nod.
“Jing, you're good in martial arts, use it to move out of the attack ways. The knowledge is there, you just have to use it.”
Another resolute nod.
“Kenshin, let Prince gain more attention and use this Boss' distraction to hit any weak point you can think of. Cut tendon, blind him, anything...”
The battousai added his own nod.

“Prince.”
The warrior nodded before she'd even opened her mouth, “I'll keep his attention on me and won't get caught.”
“Good.” a smile, that Prince knew to be more Tsukiko than Luna – something confirmed as she told him, “Don't worry too much, Xiao Dao, just do your best. I'll take over if needed.”
The warrior smiled, more at ease at the promise, not taking notice of the intrigued faces of Jing and Yun.
The druid's mana swirled around her, and Yun and her started to weave all the protective spells they could before entering the fray.
“Let's go.”

¤.¤.¤

“Demonic God! I, Kenshin, have come to claim the debt owned to me!” the NPC proclaimed loudly, before stepping back into the shadows
The dark cave started to tremble, and the shadows were replaced by an eerie green glow.
The Boss finally stepped out, so tall he had to stoop to exit the cave. Prince immediately started to call attention to himself, which wasn't an easy feat given the disparity in size.
Despite the numerous enhancement on his blade, the black dao didn't even dent the giant. A moment later, Kenshin was confirming that his own attacks were all but useless too.

The next few moments, the warrior and the NPC spent dodging the gigantic black sword. They were starting to get worried about their lack of results when Jing finally landed her first spell on the Demon God, who roared in anger.
“Er?”
“He's immune to physical damages?” Yun speculated
Luna jumped in the way, a basic Earth Spike doing damage too and seemingly confirming the Warder's theory – until the Boss switched from swinging his blade to sending his own spells toward them, and the magical attacks seemed not to do any more damage.
“He's immune to magical damage when using magic, and immune to physical damage when using his blade!” the Warder realized
With that – victory was possible.

Never before, Prince mused, had he fought such a long, exhausting battle, and right now, he really missed Wolf's healing spells.
But once they knew the Boss' pattern, despite the huge level-gap, they managed to wilt him little by little – mainly, he recognized easily, thanks to Luna's ability to always place herself between the death blow and anyone they'd been aimed at, that probably had to do with the strange abilities her status as Omega Case granted her...

Some-when during the fight, she'd completely deserted the naginata she was becoming famous for, and instead taken out a familiar dark blade – one Xiao Lan could even put a name on now, as she'd taken enough beatings with it in real life to recognize KageShin anywhere.
It was rather symbolic, the four of them mused, that Kenshin was the one to land the killing-blow – and Prince was pretty sure Luna had held back on her last strike to give the opportunity to the grieving NPC.
All five dropped to the ground, drained.

[Ding! System update: hidden quest complete!]

The four players eyed the notifications, too tired to really care.
“Well, Kenshin with who do you want to go?”
The NPC considered the question, and was looking clearly torn between two answers, before settling on “Luna-hime.”
The small fox eyed him – it was the second time, she mused, that the NPC used words only people from the magical world, and even more precisely the District should use. She'd have to check if anyone from there had fallen victim to Long Dian's machinations...

After that, the rest of the loot was easily distributed, Jing taking the Sorcerer Mantle dropped by the Boss, Yun some high level crafting materials that'd help him upgrade his weapon and Prince, of course, taking the money.
They then dressed Kenshin in a player's outfit in order for the NPC to blend in better, and headed to the Adventurer Guild, where they took the Three Prophet's quest that should lead them to Azure Peak to see Sunshine's name. The first of the three prophets they were supposed to meet was in the city itself, so decided to go and look for him immediately – only to get distracted when Kenshin caught sight of the sea for the first time and his usually calm expression was replaced by a mix of awe and wonder.
The four players decided that a small detour wouldn't hurt anyone.

Of course, that was the moment Huang Wei chose to appear again – but in the few days that had gone by, Jing had thrived under the unorthodox training method of Luna, and so when she spotted the familiar, heavy hand dropping on her shoulder, she reacted like she would in real life, dropping the warrior to the ground thanks to his own weight before aiming a fire spell at the ready right into his face, “Don't you dare touch me, scum.”
The other under her made the mistake of laughing.
“Bah! What can a little exorcist do? Boys! Get them!”
The little exorcist, it turned out, could one-shot him when the True Trice Concealed Flames hit point-blank in his face.
The annoying man's thugs didn't fare any better against the rest of the group.

After that, Jing had swiftly taken the quest map from an ever clueless Prince and steered the group in the streets of White Tiger city – until their warrior had literally stumbled on the first Prophet.
The man had been hidden as a beggar, and ready to give a hard quest to prove their worth to anyone who'd come and consult him – but changed his mind when Prince and the rest of the group had given him heartfelt excuses, then proceeded to add several gold pieces to his begging bowl for him to have a warm meal and a shower.
The shock of realizing not only one, but two NPC had become aware had changed the team's way of looking at the NPC, and they were coming to realize that some were more life-like than they'd realized, even, Luna mused, rather surprised, those who didn't have a soul...

Prince's polite thanks for the first part of the map to Azure Peak the prophet parted with gained then a clue to the second prophet's location – the wet market, as it turned out.
An hour later, Yun and Jing were eyeing their team's warrior in disbelief, as Prince had easily beaten the second prophet's challenge.
Identifying twenty similar vegetables, and ten similar fish dishes – the two hadn't even been able to tell the dishes were different one from the other...
Luna had known, but was still impressed – after all, she had the superior senses of both her avatar and true self to account for. Xiao Lan could only rely on a human's sense of taste and smell!

Then, the third prophet had challenged them in Sic Bo in a gamble den – and once more, Prince had risen to the challenge, managing ten wins in a row in the chance game.
Finally, the five of them made the arduous climb to Azure Peak, where the three prophets were waiting.
A fight later, and they gave their quest's reward.
“Is this...”
By this point, Kenshin was getting to know the group well enough to guess where Prince's thought were taking him, “It's the Great Returning Pills,” the NPC explained quickly, “Eating one of those will multiply your XP by ten for three days. There should be one for each.”

It was clear from their warrior's face that he wouldn't be eating this pill voluntarily – sharing a glance, Luna and Kenshin rushed the poor elf, his fellow warrior pining him to the ground while his little sister force-fed him the pill before eyeing dangerously the other two “Eat.”
Yun and Jing didn't dare disobey, and in the next three days, learned the wonders and terrors of training under cute little foxey Luna's guidance...

Chapter Text

Chapter IV

Tsukiko had kept in contact with the rest of Odd Squad during the time they'd been on the Eastern Continent, no one questioning her ability to bypass the system limitation thanks to their knowledge of the Omega Case excuse used by magical beings.
As such, she'd followed the city's growth as the people they'd recruited before leaving had arrived to Infinite City one after the other.
Originally, the Squad had been for completely hiding the reason behind their Liege Lord disappearance, but the druid had managed to convince them to inform the leaders of the truth at least – while it was true that Prince would have to present a front as leader of the city, those people were the one he was going to work closely with, there was no way he'd hid his true character from them. The fox had found a not so surprising ally in Doll, who'd for a moment let go of the easy-going attitude she so enjoyed in-game to let the sovereign she was add her approval.

Nan Gong Zui and Rose, of course, already knew Prince well enough not to be surprised by the unexpected event, Wicked had been a bit stunned as he was still having problems reconciling the old Xiao Lan with Prince's fiery temperament and bipolar luck.
Solare, of course, knew all about Odd Squad – Luna was his real life wife's, after all.
Nan Gong Zui hadn't been that surprised, having gotten a pretty good idea about the fellow he'd drank with character thanks to their evening in the pub – it was his sister-in-law, Ice Phoenix's elder sister, and his second-in-command that Odd Squad feared the reaction the worst.
The stern woman hadn't been pleased, to tell the truth, but Doll had been the one to point-out that Prince's qualities that made him so strange were also the ones that made people want to follow him.
Madam White Bird had to admit to the point, and declared herself ready to wait for the liege lord return's before judging him with her own two eyes.

But as the days went by, the dead-line by which Infinite City would be officially opened to invasion approaching dangerously, Solare's spy network brought word that Fan was putting together a massive alliance to bring the city, and its leader, down.
Luna had reassured the team, assuring them that they'd be back in time – and with strong enough players that their absence would be well justified.
It wasn't even a lie – because just like Kenshin was a level 100 warrior, Sunshine was just as strong a mage, and the two of them could change the course of a battle by themselves. But even Yun and Jing had progressed tremendously thanks to Great Returning Pills, and the Warder's talents were particularly well suited to a siege.
Of course, the druid and warrior too had progressed, since they'd taken part in the training session from hell, as the exorcist had taken to call it, and by now, even if he still was the lowest level of the player liege lords of the five continents, Prince was of a high enough level that the gap was in the single rather than double-digit.

They'd freed Sunshine at the very beginning of their training session, the NPC deciding to stay with Prince, and the addition of another strong member to their party had helped notably speed up the training.
Then, the three days up, they'd hoped on his Flying Carpet, and made a beeline for Central Continent, Luna warning them about the impeding battle.
“Wow.” Prince mused as they arrived above the battlefield, “There has to be at least a thousand players!” he eyed the situation and instructed, “Kenshin, Sunshine, stay in the air, then on my signal, Kenshin will rush the battle line while Sunshine will unleash his Guided Missile Arcana.” the two NPC nodded
Luna smiled, happy that the strategy lessons she'd all but pounded into the warrior's brain were finally starting to bear fruit.
“Yun, in the city with me, you'll put up a Reflecting Ward and Jing will pair up with Luna to be part of our in situ spell-weavers.”
With that, he jumped into the city, landing on Fan himself, the enemy leader having managed to sabotage the city gates thanks to his spy – Ice Phoenix.
Not that she'd been that good of a spy and saboteur, having done only what Odd Squad and the military department of Infinite City had let her do to hide the fact they were onto her.

“So since you can't defeat me one on one, you try to steal my city when I'm away, you coward?” the warrior commented, “Oh well, you can only blame yourself for this. And Ice Phoenix.”
The nearby mage looked lost at the affirmation.
“Did you really think we hadn't realized what you were doing?” a stern White Bird asked, disappointment in her little sister clear
She wasn't given a change to answer, as blood was suddenly sprayed on her, Fan, health rapidly diminishing under the blow, landing near her, and spitefully seething, “It's all because of your incompetence I'm in this situation!”
“Nope. That's because you're weak.” Prince corrected before finishing the angel without any hesitation, before turning toward Yu Lian, “Yo, dasao, can you tell the mage to put down the protective barrier and get ready to attack?”

“What? But this'll put the city at risk!” White Swan protested
“Don't worry,” Prince pointed at Yun that was already reciting his incantations, “we've got a Ward Master present, trust us.” the other mage wavered, and nodded her understanding
The next moment, the speed-casting mages were launching their first attack and Prince stepped toward the open gate with a bloodthirsty smile – Wicked stepped in his way, “Prince, please stand back, you are a leader. Your job is to give instructions, and be a pillar of support. The front line is not your place.”
Perhaps, had he gained faith in himself and grown less than he had, the warrior would have crumbled under the other's demand – that, he realized, wasn't that unreasonable, there were indeed some of the liege lords, be it in Second Life or the other big VRMMO who played their role that way.
But this wasn't Prince's style, and he would not just bend to another's will.

“If this is the kind of leader you are looking for, then you aren't the right city.” the bloody elf contradicted coolly, eyeing the people around, “And this is true for anyone else. I am a warrior, I will fight in the front line, die with you if needed, but I won't cower behind our walls while you die for me, I'm not a skilled mage that can support you from afar, I'm a swordsman, and I will lead from the front!”
With that, he side-stepped the dumbfound dark elf, stepping first through the gate, and called, “For Infinite City!”
The next moment, he was rushing ahead, the rest of the close-range fighters following while roaring their own battle cry.
“We were about to make a big mistake, weren't we?” Yu Lian mused, “Trying to leash Prince to a role that wasn't his...”
“We were trying to do things the conventional way.” Wolf answered, “Forgetting that Odd Squad never was conventional.”

¤.¤.¤

In the first line, Kenshin had dropped by Prince's side, and just behind them, the massive form of Luna's Wild Shape, Jing on her back.
In the air, Doll's Bone Dragon appeared, swooping on the forces mere seconds after Sunshine's attack had launched, dropping a hundred men in one go.
Within minutes of its start, the battle was as good as finished, something one of the remaining leaders realized as he called for a cease-fire.
The front-line fighter fall back at Prince's agreement, and the green-haired, blue-eyed man stepped forward, “We surrender.”
“Surrender? Won't you regret it?” the liege lord wondered, “You still have plenty of people able to fight.”
“This battle was as good as lost the moment you arrived.” the other shrugged unhesitatingly, “With this one, as swift and agile as a ghost ability to butcher us, your AoE about to drop on us, the druid fighting like a wild beast and even a spell caster able to survive the front line... What chance do we have?”
“Well then, why don't you join us instead?” Prince suggested, “You're interesting, and wasted by that idiot Fan's side.”
“Wasted or not, I'm a part of his Divine Coalition.”

“How about this... If you join us, I'll let everyone leave alive, and welcome all those that want to in Infinite City. Otherwise, I'll destroy you all and decree all member's of the Divine Coalition to be KOS in Infinite City territory.”
The green-haired man look infuriated, as many of those around him.
“What are you angry about? I'm giving you a good reason to leave this Divine Coalition that is all but doomed for as long as Fan opposes me, Odd Squad and Infinite City!”
With that, the angry mutters died down, and all the fighters started to sheathe their weapons, some leaving, some staying. Luna by his side had already sent a PM to those in charge of the military department – and White Bird, Wolf and Nan Gong Zui were approaching, ready to take the names of all who stayed, and find them a place in Infinite City's ranks.

With a smile, Prince ambled back toward the broken city gates.
Then a first shout, then another was heard, “Welcome back to the city, Liege Lord!”
Prince smiled, putting on a cool, but not overly cold front, and raised his black dao in the air, roaring, “Infinite city will never fall!”
Finally, new people filled in and greetings made, the leaders could finally turn their attention toward Ice Phoenix.

Prince sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose, “I really don't know what to do with you.” he admitted easily, “If it was that simple, I'd banish you from the city, quite simply. You are a disruptive force for one of my good friends, a traitor to all of us, and quite frankly the kind of headache I don't need nor want.”
The harsh assertion had the effect of a blow to the girl.
“The only reason you're before us and not already a pillar of light is because you've got good people caring for you, that contrarily to you, I don't want to hurt.” Prince eyed the girl, “But clearly you're an untrustworthy brat, and I don't want you to have anything to do with my city right now, so I'm removing you from any department you were working in and making you a regular citizen of Infinite City. If you ever prove yourself trustworthy enough, you may regain your post one day, but for now, there's just no way I'll let a viper in my castle. You are also forbidden to step in the city's stronghold, and the defensive walls.”

The girl burst into tears, but Prince ignored her, instead turning toward White Bird and Nan Gong Zui, and bowing in apology, “I'm truly sorry you two, I know this sounds rather harsh, but as much as you love her, I can't afford to put all the city we've all worked so hard to create and protect at risk because of one girl's misguided infatuation.”
The other warrior looked torn, but it was surprisingly the mage's sister that nodded, “You are right, Prince. I had been worried a bit about meeting you, with how lackadaisical your character seemed to be. I wondered if you were ready for the burden of being this city's leader, but clearly this fear was misguided.”

“You would have been right a few months ago.” Prince admitted easily, “But I've grown since.” a smile, “I like being lackadaisical like you say, but I've also got people I want to protect, and their number is growing by the day.” he added, gesturing at the city beneath them, “So I'll grow both in level and mind to protect them, but I won't betray myself to do it, I'll do it as myself.”
“Good.” the female warrior approved, “I look forward to what you'll make of Infinite City.”

With that, it was soon only Odd Squad left in the now empty war room still filling with battle plans, and Lolidragon finally burst, “You! How the hell did you manage to stumble on two ultra-hidden quests! They were put in the game as a joke, no one thought someone would actually manage them!”
“Calm down, Lolidragon, let us explain.” Prince said, “Here, this is Yun, a warder level 59 and Jing an exorcist level 52. We met with them and invited them to the team while in the Eastern Continent.” both players waved, “And this is Sunshine, a level 100 mage and Kenshin, a level 100 warrior. Both are self-aware NPC we met there.”
A second of silence.
Then the rest of the Squad expressed loudly its surprise.
“Self-aware?”

“Self-aware.” Sunshine nodded, “So they were kind enough to do our quest! Because I was locked in this underground room and couldn't see the light of day!” he protested loudly, “And of course Kenshin was stuck in his caves too,” the Arabian prince added as an afterthought, “but he could see the sky!”
The indignant, lively tone was enough of a proof for all of them – just like witnessing the two NPC feelings had convinced Jing, Prince and Yun back on the Eastern Continent. Finally, Lolidragon sighed, “Oh well, we really are an odd bunch, eh? Welcome to the Squad.”
Sunshine's smile was as luminous as her namesake – and Kenshin more discreet one's was just as heartfelt.
The next day, Odd Squad and the different leaders that had been appointed while Prince was absent had met to talk about the city's overall state.
With the impression he'd left the previous day, no one was surprised when the liege lord greeted them simply and encouraged everyone to call him Prince – his name was already stately enough, the warrior joked, he didn't need any other title.

“Quite frankly,” Yu Lian was the first to say, “We're broke.” it was rather evident, with how poor the fare was, Prince mused, “We've had to raise the city from the ground. For now, the walls and the fort are done, and Gui has drawn the layout of the regular city with the shops, marketplace, inns and lodging, but the invasion has set us back quite a bit.”
“My department will have to redo all the traps.” Lolidragon nodded
“Thankfully, we caught to what Ice Phoenix was doing, so the damage to the gates wasn't too bad.” White Bird added, “But still, some warriors did die and will have to retrain, and the stock of potions and arrows will have to be topped up.”
“Oh!” Prince realized, “We've saved on the return ticket, so I do have some money to put in the Team account!” he said
“And I've got some goodies to sell too.” Luna added, dropping a familiar armor out of her Inventory

“This... Imouto, is this Huang Wei's armor?”
“Well, of course it is.” the druid shrugged, “With how he was harassing Jing , I had to teach him a lesson. I've got all his fortune too, Yu Lian-dasao.”
“Oh! So this is why you wanted a bit of the stone on my... on the hidden prison's wall?” Sunshine realized, taking the gigantic ruby out of his storage under the  present people's stunned eyes
Yu Lian's eyes were sparkling “I'd say... 3000 crystals.” the financial head appraised approvingly, eyeing the red stone “And about a 1000 crystals for this eyesore. How much money have you amassed, Luna?”
“You know how it is,” the druid shrugged, “A conman here, a real life truant there...”
“How much?”
“Er... About 4000 crystal coins.”

The mage nodded her head resolutely, “Well, I guess we can say you've made up for your accidental and idiotic detour by another continent.” she said to Prince
“With this, we'll at least be able to step out of the red zone, money-wise.” Rose confirmed, “We still won't be comfortable, but it will be less dire at least!”
“Since you took vacation while we were taking care of your city,” Lolidragon added with an ominous smile, “We've all agreed that you'll have to be our figurehead in the other cities, to attract people and earn more money.”
“Please don't make me sell my body!” the warrior protested in a loud wail while trying to scout away from the thief
Everyone laughed, breaking the tension that had been rising with the talk about the lack of money, and Lolidragon waved away his concern, “Down worry; we're not yet down to that!” she winked, “But selling your voice on the other hand...”

“Er?”
“Think about it,” she insisted, “you're good-looking, rather famous and have a good singing voice, so why not create Second Life's first band?”
“Can we do that?”
“Why couldn't we? We're Odd Squad!”
“But... You really think my voice is good enough to bring cash in?”
“Why don't you let us judge it.” Gui suggested, taking his Guqin, “You sing, I'll play the accompaniment.”
After another moment of hesitation, the warrior shrugged and accepted, thinking a moment about which song he knew would go well the with the rather traditional instrument before closing his eyes and losing himself in the familiar words and melody.

¤.¤.¤

“Jackpot.” Yu Lian was the one to say with gleaming eyes as the last notes of the melancholic song were strung down, “Alright, here is how we'll play it! We'll need costumes, then Prince and the musicians who'll go with him will have a photo-shoot.”
“Wait, do pictures even exist in Second Life?”
“Of course,” Lolidragon sighed exasperatedly, “Everyone like a good Screen Shot, but since there's no screen anymore, a feature has been introduced, it's under the General Tools of your System Screen.”
“Oups...”
“Anyway, after that, the band will head out to Sun, Star and Moon City to make a small free concert in the city square and come back to Infinite City, where we'll have prepared a concert hall for a paying, larger show, and have the pictures ready to sell!”

“This way, we'll both earn money, and make the city famous.” Rose nodded, “It's killing two birds with one stone.”
“So... Does that mean I'll have to bring Gui as an accompaniment?”
The bard's eyes lightened up, “Of course I'll come, your highness!”
Slipping out of the extravagant hug by habit, the warrior asked, “What kind of instruments are even available in Second Life?”
“Anything you can think of.” Fairsky was the one to answer, “I've had a crafter build me a guitar, and he told me an enchanter could turn it into a magical guitar, aka an electric guitar.”
“I play the Chinese flute.” Wicked interjected

“Alright... anyone else?”
“Well...” White Bird winced, “I know you don't really like her right now, but Ice Phoenix is really good with the drums.”
“That would be useful, with the guitar and drum for rock music and the flute and Guqin for more traditional or sentimental songs.” Lolidragon mused,
“If she doesn't do anything stupid, I can cope with her.”
“Sunshine, would you be willing to be our transport?”
“Of course!” the Arabian agreed enthusiastically, “I want to see the continent!”

“What about Luna?”
“What about me?”
“Well, she's good at keeping you out of too much trouble...” Wolf pointed out
Luna and Prince shared a disbelieving glance – was it really how people saw it? Both of them knew clearly that the seemingly little girl enjoyed hanging around the warrior to laugh at the chaos he inevitably provoked where-ever he went!
“Plus, the cute factor!” Lolidragon added with hearts in her eyes, “This is going to be great!”
Luna sighed, knowing that now that their thief had latched on the idea, getting out of it was going to be near impossible. Lolidragon was quite persuasive after all...

Of course, it was the moment her beloved Solare choose to add his own bit to the growing idea, “The bambina has had vocal lessons when she was younger.”
“For shrine chants, not a rock concert!”
“Shrine chants?”
“I am a trained miko, a shintoist priestess.” she explained, seeing the uncomprehending eyes around her

“Well,” Yu Lian approved, “We've got the members of Infinite Band decided!” she eyed the people around, “Gui you'll work on the lyrics and music, your construction team can manage without you now.” the bard nodded eagerly – no way was he getting left behind on his Prince's next adventure! “Wicked, the choreography.” another nod, “Rose, Fairsky, can you manage the costumes?” a third nod, “Prince, can you train your voice with Luna?”
The druid and warrior nodded their cooperation as one accepted a death sentence, realizing they wouldn't be getting out of it.

In the following weeks, all worked on their part – a livid Xiao Lan ranting about how Gui was able to somehow both teach his lessons and learn about music at the same time while she was drowning under her regular workload.
Tsukiko had taken to meet with the girl in the city to work on their vocal performances during the week, as – of course – the Taishou owned not only the out of city domain, but a luxurious penthouse in the city center.
For the weekend, they still went to the countryside to work with their blade, to the teenager's relief.

From what she'd heard from the upperclassmen in the university, Wicked too was taking his job seriously, often seen breaking into some dance moves during the easiest part of his chemistry experiments...
The girls had also taken to drag the band-members to try some new outfits at all time whenever they were on-line – and Luna had soon realized that they had either looked up miko on the net, or talked Solare into sharing some pictures, as the outfit for her were rather familiar...
An unexpected event before the band left the city had been Xiao Lan identity becoming uncovered by her parents, who had been recruited by Wu Qing when she was in the Eastern Continent, “It was rather evident,” her mother had pointed out, “You're always singing at home, and even moreso since the concert has been decided.”

“And well, only your brother would be idiotic enough not to recognize your voice when we're always hearing it at home.” her dad added
“Plus Wicked is uber protective about Prince, and in love with Xiao Lan...”
“Wait what?”
“Wow, you didn't realize?” the mother sighed, “I guess Yang Ming isn't the only idiotic child we've had.” a pat on Prince's shoulder, “Even if you have progressed nicely lately! But yes, of course Ling Bing is in love with you, the poor boy has been for years! Why do you think he's around so much?”
“I just thought he was friends with brother.” Xiao Lan shrugged, before adding, “Beside he's a good friend, but no way I would want to go out with him!”
“Eh! Why, he's so handsome?” her mother protested

“He's handsome alright, but he's also been acting like an idiot in Second Life ever since he realized who I was. I don't want someone who thinks he can order me around, I want a true partnership.” the warrior affirmed firmly
“Just like Tsukiko and Ryoichi.” she didn't add but though nonetheless – between her growing-up ever since she'd started Second Life, and the time spent with the Japanese woman, which meant she'd had a pretty good peak at her family life, she knew enough to realize that this was what she wanted.
A partner, that would back her up when needed, save her only when necessary instead of treating her like a clay doll, a friend with whom she could talk and laugh about everything and nothing, who understood her moods without a word and would help her vent her anger or cheer her up when needed. Someone who wouldn't hide before a front of masculinity, but instead share their own ups and downs.

Zhuo-dage was kind, and good-looking, but he clearly wasn't it.
Maybe, for the Xiao Lan from a few months ago, who hadn't had the awakening she'd had – but Prince liked how she'd changed, and didn't want to go back.
Her parents she could see, while a bit disappointed as the boy felt perfect to their old-fashioned views, did understand - because while parenting clearly wasn't their forte, their couple was a real partnership...

The tour, the city committee had decided, would last about a month, starting with Star, then Sun, and finally Moon city. In each city, they'd start with a concert in the plaza, then perform in a few inns and bars, and finally finish with a last concert back in the city plaza.
Yu Lian had all but emptied the pockets of the band before they left, leaving them nothing but lodging money – which Gui had managed to wrangle from Lolidragon – but not money for food.
“Well, I'll guess we'll have to hunt.” Prince sighed, “Seriously what is wrong with those girls, they told us we weren't that much strapped for cash, then up and stripped us bare!” he protested heatedly
Luna winked, and took a pouch out of her Inventory, “Please, do you really they could manage to take all my money?”

Prince grabbed the little druid enthusiastically, “You're a lifesaver, imouto! This way we won't starve!”
“Well,” she demurred, “It was a bit unreasonable of them to expect us to both perform well and travel non-stop for a month without at least a roof on our head and food in our bellies regularly.”
The concert tour was working beyond all expectations, running the band ragged.
They'd come up with a strategy to gather people by splinting themselves up between the four gates of each city and meet back in the city plaza with the people they'd attracted on their way to start the concert.
Then, each night, the inns and pubs where they were performing were full, and the last concert before leaving town was simply madness – with the band having to flee as soon as possible thanks to Sunshine's flying carpet.

¤.¤.¤

It was on their first night in Sun city that the unexpected happened.
“What do you mean, only one room left?” Ice Phoenix all but shrieked
“well, we can all share, can't we?” Luna shrugged
“No way! A girl should never show her sleeping face!” Fairsky protested, Ice Phoenix nodding along
Prince and Luna shared a tired glance.
“You three are so... girly!” the little fox sighed, “Not showing your sleeping face? Really? What are you some kind of fairy tale princess?” the little girl sighed, “But anyway, we can put up a screen between the two half of the room if you really want to, I guess?”
The two girls shared a glance, then, after a moment, reluctantly nodded.

Soon, the seven of them were settled in the large room, the two girls hidden behind a screen as agreed upon. Since the room was originally set for four guests, and the two girls had each been given their bed, Prince, Luna and Sunshine had shared a glance and put the two remaining beds to the side before taking out their camping materials and promptly creating an impromptu pajama party – between Sunshine woolen Bedouin sheets, Luna's multiple pelts and Prince's own linen sheet they'd soon made a den, not that anyone realized it but the Moon Hime.
“Well, what are you waiting for?” Luna asked as she eyed Gui and Wicked lurking to the side
The bard smiled and immediately added his own bedding to the heap with eyes sparkling as a child – before being stopped by Wicked's hand, “This really isn't proper!” he protested, mainly to Prince

The other eyed him curiously.
“What are you on about?”
“Someone like… you... shouldn't just share a bed with not one but two or three men!”
The warrior threw her hands in the air, “So this is what it is about! Should I also sleep hidden behind a screen, like Ice Phoenix and Fairsky?”
“Well, at least they are reasonable!”
“If you want someone reasonable, you better stop chasing after me! You are a childhood friend, nothing more, and if I want to sleep with my friends, I will sleep with my friends! Gui is an idiot, but he's not someone who'll abuse my trust like some kind of savage!” she protested heatedly
“I just want to protect you!”
“I don't want nor need your protection!” the other shouted, getting annoyed, “I'm not an eight-year-old little girl dreaming about her prince charming anymore, Zhuo-dage! What I want is a partner, and clearly this isn't something you're willing to give.”

A pair of gasps were heard from the other side of the screen, and two heads popped around the wooden panels, “Er, you're a girl Prince?” Fairsky asked, before reddening, “Ugh, I feel even more stupid for our first encounter!”
The warrior invited the two girls to join them – which they did after a second of hesitation, burrowed in their own blankets, “I was the first player of Second Life, so they granted me a wish. That's how I became Prince.”
“Oh wow.” Ice Phoenix eyed the three men, “And they all knew?”
“Odd Squad knows.” Luna answered, “And Wicked realized since, like she said, he's a childhood friend.”

Meanwhile, Wicked was still frozen at the tongue lashing he'd just gotten. Prince sighed, and laid a hand on his forearm, “You're a great friend, Zhuo-dage, but this is all you're to me, I'm sorry.”
She sighed as the man nodded silently before leaving the room. She made to follow him, but was stopped by Luna.
“Leave him be for now.” the other advised, “This is something he needed to hear, but he'll need some time to get over it.”
“She's right.” Fairsky confirmed, “Even I needed time to get over my crush on you, and I'd only known you for a few hours!”
“It's just... I didn't want to hurt him.” Prince said, “It's just... He was again acting like some kind of overprotective macho man!”

“It's rather hot, isn't it?” Ice Phoenix wondered
“Not everyone wants someone like that.” Luna pointed out to the two girls
Fairsky nodded, “True. I mean, I rather like the idea of someone who'd take care of me, but I've also seen other relationships around, your priest and mage, to mention only them.”
Ice Phoenix seemed to think a bit about it before nodding, having visibly gained something to think about.

After that, the band minus Wicked had somehow ended up sleeping in a large jumble of bedding in the center of the room, screen forgotten, after talking deep into the night. Neither Sunshine nor Gui had stood out in the unplanned pajama party, the NPCs' curiosity and innocence, and Gui's easy-going way letting them blend in without any problems among the females. It was even rather clear the bard was unexpectedly enjoying himself, leading Prince to wonder if he'd had a lot of friends growing up, what with his extraordinary intelligence...

The warrior had been rather stressed the next day – but Wicked had shown up and performed like planned. After that, he'd taken her to the side.
“You... Have made your feelings pretty clear.” he said, “So I will try not to smother you so much, I don't want to lose even your friendship.” a smile, “But it doesn't mean I'll just give up on my feelings just like that!”
“Fair enough.” the elf nodded, “I don't want to lose your friendship either, you are a good friend I've known for years... But I honestly don't think I'll come to love you like you want, I've seen the kind of relation I want, and it's not something I think we'll manage.” she admitted softly, “But Zhuo-dage... You're a good man, and there are lots of girls who long for the kind of protective attitude you have, you shouldn't change yourself for me.”
“I'll... think about it.” he promised

Prince nodded.
The next few days had been a bit awkward – but both Prince and Wicked had been honest in the fact they didn't want to lose their friendship and did try to avoid unnecessary friction.

The next episode of the band's adventures happened a few days later, on their last day in Sun city – when Fire phoenix, which had been spending the night with Prince and Luna, on Gui's insistence, broke the night's peace when the bird unexpectedly asked MeatBun's hand
“Wait, what do you mean, marriage? Can pets get married?”
Luna sighed, “Yes onii-san, they can, and you'd know if you'd read the pet owner's manual...” the druid pointed out

At that, Prince's mind switched gear, and the warrior was barging into Wicked and Gui's room “Guiliastes! Your son has seduced my daughter!”
Then she stopped in her tracks, eyeing the scene she'd barged in – her team's bard pinned her Wicked larger frame.
“Er... I would be tempted to say you've moved on rather quickly,” she said to her fellow warrior, “but I'm going to guess this is some kind of misunderstanding...” she added, pinching the bridge of her nose before pointing out the fiery bird, “Your pet wants to marry MeatBun!”
“Er...”
By this point, the girls were out of their room too.

“Well... Technically, pets can be wed, but it's really a strange pairing...” Fairsky pointed, before laughing, “Oh well, I guess it's par for the course for Odd Squad!”
With that, the rest of the band couldn't help but smile, agreeing with the human thief.
“So, how do we do this?” Prince wondered
“You just have to state your agreement to the wedding, as MeatBun and Fire Phoenix masters.” Luna answered as she eyed the two clueless pet owners with a sigh
“Oh right! Gui do you agree for your pet Fire Phoenix to take my MeatBun as its bride?”
“yes, I agree.”

[Ding! System notice: Ceremony failed!]

“Eh?”
Luna had to visibly restrain herself from slamming her head against the nearest wall, “Prince, Gui, have the two of you even checked your pets' genders?”
The two identical uncomprehending stares were answer enough.
“Fire Phoenix, are you a female?”
“Of course.”
“MeatBun, you're a male?”
“Yes!”
“There you have it.”
Finally, light was seen in Prince and Gui's eyes, and the wedding could finally be processed by Second Life System.

“What kind of children will they produce?” Ice Phoenix wondered
“A fire breathing bun?” Sunshine suggested
Luna sighed and with a clear, “Good night!” dragged Prince back to the room they shared with Sunshine and logged off. No way was she loosing brain power trying to imagine the children born of a phoenix and a meat ball!

¤.¤.¤

Of course, given Odd Squad usual bipolar luck, it was a panicking Xiao Lan that met her in the penthouse the next day, “Wha! Tsuki-chan, you've got to help me! Mum and dad are saying there's an IRL man-hunt for me! Or rather, for Prince.”
“You mean you're just realizing?” the ookami princess sighed – the teenager had grown in leaps and bounds from the rather immature and naïve child from a few months ago, but she still managed to be so oblivious
“What do I do?”
“What you want to. For one thing, Second Life's owners are held to protect your identity even if they know whose account Prince is connected to.” she pointed out
The affirmation calmed down the other immediately.

“So I can just do nothing?”
“You could, but people wouldn't stop looking for you. It's just like in-game.”
“Oh. Give them a bit so they stop harassing?”
“Precisely. Whether you like it or not, you're famous right now, even if by avatar interposed.”
“But what can I do?”
“Find a representative that will be your voice IRL, and receive all the job propositions in your stead, just like any famous actress or model.”
“But I'm not an actress or a model!”

“Well, technically, right now, Prince is both a singer and a model thanks to Infinity Band's success.” with a sigh, she called Chaos Game Interface, not even caring if the other girl would see her do something strange IRL once more – there had to be a good point about Xiao Lan's obliviousness after all!
“Kagura?”
“Alpha?”
“Would you mind dropping in T City's flat ASAP?”
“I'm on my way.”

Barely ten minutes later, the cold looking Wind Spirit was there.
“Xiao Lan, this is Shinzen Kagura, she's part of my family.”
“I'm from a branch family.” the other clarified at the youngest of the three women's obvious incomprehension at their different family names, “You've met me in-game as KazeKo.”
“Oh right!” the other recognized – even if many people had followed Tsukiko to Infinite City, they mostly only met in passing for now
“Xiao Lan has just realized how far her fame extends.”
The wind spirit eyed the teenage disbelievingly, “It's the number one topic on most celeb's channels, and it even made the regular news!”
“I... I don't really follow the news, and I was busy training...”

“Oh my,” the serious-looking woman sighed, “you do need help.” with that, she was taking a pile of business cards, “Keep these with you and if your real life identity is discovered you don't say a thing and call me. Any official communication people want will go through me. Same online, if someone harass you for a job, you PM me immediately!”
The other was looking less panicked by the moment at the clear instructions.
“Also, give my card to the rest of the band IRL, or take a screenshot and send it to them in-game.” Kagura added, “You're the center of the storm, but they're it this too.”
“Yeah, Gui was already found out! And apparently there are pictures of me on Second Life's official website, and our songs are even available to download.”
“Without your express permission?” Kagura smile made Xiao Lan shudder, and think about Yu Lian's own dangerous expressions, “Don't worry, I'll take care of it.” a smile “After all, if they make use of your image, they should be compensating you. Even moreso that they didn't bother to ask for the necessary permission first!”
“You should probably contact Lolidragon first.” Tsukiko sighed, “This has the girl's mark all over.”

Indeed – a couple of hours later, Prince, the rest of Odd Squad, Infinity Band and KazeKo were confronting the girl, Luna having exceptionally made use of her powers to open a portal back to Infinity City's stronghold for a much needed meeting.
“This was going too far, Lolidragon.” Luna sighed, “You know Prince at least would have probably agreed to the situation given that she's looking to earn money to move out of her parent's flat, but doing this without talking to us about it first?” the bard sighed, “Given my real identity, this isn't something I can just let go.”
The girl paled as she realized she may have been rash.

“What's done is done, so going back would all but destroy Second Life's corporation.” Luna added, “And I don't want to do that to you, but think before you act the next time. You already knew there was a princess in Odd Squad, didn't you think acting like this could put her country at odds with your father's company?”
Doll nodded her agreement at that, “Luna's right. We're only lucky I wasn't a part of the band, but apparently Luna being in it isn't any better for you...”
“I'm Taishou Tsukiko.” the druid revealed, “And frankly, your family is lucky they didn't leak any of our real identities, or it wouldn't be a crisis but bankruptcy Second Life's company would be facing.”
The thief's eyes rolled back in her head.
“Uh, I didn't know you could faint in the game.” Wolf commented as he caught her before she fell

“She has had a bad shock.” Doll commented, smiling serenely – and it was clear it was more the princess than the necromancer that was talking, “She's nearly made her father's company into an enemy of the Taishou Corporation after all.” a wink, “This isn't how I envisioned meeting the famous Princess of the House of Moon, and Japan's favorite woman for nearly two decades in the row.”
Luna waved the comment away, “We were all playing to have some fun, Lolidragon is young yet and didn't realize that with things becoming serious she couldn't act unilaterally anymore.” a fond smile as she eyed the thief that was still out of it, “I had to scare her a bit, what she did was stupid.”
“Indeed.”
“But I've no intention of causing too much problem for her and her company.” her eyes grew mischievous, “After all, she's got potential, she's just got to learn to be a bit less hasty.”

“True.” Kagura was finishing reading through a thick wad of papers, “The contract she's drawn is pretty good, if it hadn't been for your identity it would have been perfect. As it is, I've no objection about the rest of Infinite Band signing it, the benefits are goods, as are compensations for their identities being revealed.”
“But?”
“Well, of course you can't sign this, but I've already the correct papers for you, and Prince will have to have something a bit more secure.” the wind spirit smiled, “I'm on it, don't worry.”
“Of course.” Luna nodded
“If the contract is good, we might as well sign it, shouldn't we ?” Fairsky asked, “After all, we've already had the bad sides of being famous, we could at least reap the benefits too.”
“She's not wrong.” Luna agreed, “You should all have received Kagura's real life contact information, she'll help you with anything. Relocating if needed, hiring bodyguards if things become too bad, and of course, keeping the press at bay.” the smile on her face was rather scary for her small fox figure, “No more disaster like the one at the University this morning.”

¤.¤.¤

After the near disaster that Prince and the band's new status had nearly caused, the group's stay in Moon City had been ever worse than the two precedent cities, thanks to people having heard about them and coming even from the other continents to come and try to have a glimpse of them.
Truth be told, the company's tacit approval did help their ambitions, as they had implemented an easier System for people to publish artistic content – with the first Book, Music, and Art shop opening in Infinite City, and soon mimicked in the other player-owned cities on the other continents.
And finally, after an exhausting month, Infinity Band was back to their home city.
Of course, the people in the city hadn't been idle, preparing everyone for their city's first grand opening to the public.

The military parade and public oaths of allegiance were going to be done without outsiders, the city's walls and gates still closed, but screens relaying the ceremony to the outside and in each city that paid the fee to have access to the content – then, Infinity city would accept outsiders within its walls for the first time, with Infinity Band grand concert on the same evening.
“A parade? And oaths?” Prince had winced
“Remember...”
“A front.” the warrior remembered, “A beautiful image for the rest of the world.”
“It's the crowning you wanted, Xiao Dao.” Luna pointed softly, “You've created a legend. We all have.” a smile, “Having to present a cold front to the rest of the world doesn't mean it changes anything within the stronghold walls.”

“Right.” the warrior took a deep breath eyeing the ceremonial armor design Fairsky and Ice Phoenix had come up with, “So this is beautiful, but there's no way I'm putting this on.” he admitted to the girls, “Luna's right, we've made a legend, but we've made it our own way all the way, and I won't let that change.”
“Tell us what you want then.” Ice Phoenix nodded decisively, making the warrior smile
The insecure girl had changed during their road-trip – and somehow, knowing that Prince was a girl had made her admire the warrior much more than anything else ever had. Fan could come and chat up the beautiful mage if he liked – he, just like the rest of the stronghold population, knew she wouldn't betray them anymore.
And so Prince had told her, with some added comments from both Luna and Lolidragon, and found himself clad in a medium black dragon leather armor, mask to the side of his face and a short red cloak clasped on one shoulder, with a golden insignia in the shape of an infinity symbol – the same symbol worn in the same color by the rest of Odd Squad, in silver by the other commanding officers of the different department of the city, and in bronze by all of the citizens.

“I'm Prince. Most of you know me as the bloody elf. I'm also this city's liege lord...” a smile, “This isn't something extraordinary, I didn't become Prince alone. I've had my Squad by my side, then the alliances that came to help when I sent the call... This Infinity City is the result of each and every one of the people present in these walls' hard work!” a smile, “So let's continue to work together, and forge on our legend by creating the most famous city in Second Life!”
The crowd roared enthusiastically, making Lolidragon mumble of the team chat “This idiot elf, he sure knows how to talk as soon as we push him to the front...”
“That's a useful talent for a leader.” Luna agreed with an amused smile, “Well, that's our cue.”
As one Odd Squad stepped forward, swearing allegiance to the lord and the city, followed by the Team Leaders that were also part of the governing forces – and finally, all of the city.
The poor warrior had been rather violently opposed to the ceremony at first, but then convinced to make it his own, just like everything else.

So as all came up from the bow – it was the liege lord himself that bowed to the crowd, swearing his own allegiance – to the city and its people, before giving his first command to the people of Infinity City.
“The others may call me lord, or bloody elf, or anything they want... But for you, I'll always be Prince!”
Luna faked drying a tear, “Ah, isn't he growing up so fast!”
Odd Squad laughed heartily, as they assembled around their leader to congratulate him in a far more relaxed way, as the surrounding crowd roared its approval.

¤.¤.¤

“Prince! Prince!”
The elf peaked from the back-stage to the packed concert hall - the hall itself had been a surprise as they hadn't been able to do any repetition on stage before the grand opening, since the construction had only been completed the day before...
In accordance with the rather cosmopolitan style of the city, where buildings of all style and origins cohabited around the large stronghold that was a mix of Eastern and Western inspiration, the concert hall had been built like an ancient coliseum, with tall white marble column and exquisite engraving.
No wonder Yu Lian had been so strapped for cash!

But simply selling the tickets for the concert had made them cover up the impressive building's expenses – this was how much people had come to see them.
“Ugh. I'm feeling pretty nervous.” the warrior admitted – never in all their previous concerts had they had such a large audience
“Just do like I do.” Gui reassured him, “Pretend the students… er the public... are rocks, and everything will be alright.”
The elf gave his the stink eyes – rocks indeed, professor – and turned helplessly to eye the rest of them, who  except for Ice Phoenix, looked rather calm.

“Don't worry,” Luna reassured the two of them, “Stage fright is alright, as long as you don't freeze once we're on scene. Besides, there's so many people out there that you won't even see them, and once the music starts, habits will help you start the performance.”
Prince nodded, as they listened to Lolidragon finish the announcement on the other side of the curtain.
“Right. Let's do this!”
With a last breath, he stepped into the magical circle some mages had already prepared for their entrance – who needed special effects when you had mages that could do a far better work.

Snow started to fall on the coliseum, and six pillars of ice shoot from the sky, shattering into fairy lights just before crashing on the scene – and revealing the band members.
The crowd grew wild – but just like Odd Squad had predicted, as soon as he found himself facing the public, the bloody elf persona took over, and Prince shushed them with a lazy move of his hand.
“No need to say anything more... Let's sing!”
With that, the twelve songs of the concert started, the band feeling nearly disconnected from reality as they interpreted hit after hit in front of the entranced audience.
It was as the last notes chimed in an unprecedented silence that an angry yell was heard, and a silhouette rushed from the front rank to the scene, “Die, Prince!”

Exhausted he maybe, Prince was a warrior before he was a singer, and so the elf dodged the lightning fast attack, black dao called with but a thought from his Inventory echoing against a silver blade.
The rest of the band reacted a second later, and the slender female warrior was soon entrapped in vines that Luna had grown.
“If I recall correctly,” the warrior noted, “I don't actually know you, so what business do you have trying to kill me and ruin everyone's fun?”
“Your lover took my beloved away from me, so I'm here to make that bastard feel the pain of loosing a loved one!”
“My lover?” Prince repeated, “Not that it's any-body's business but my own, I don't have any lover I'm afraid.” he turned back toward the crowd, “I'm really sorry for this end of concert, everyone, but thank you all for coming to Infinity Rhapsody's first live concert, and I hope we'll see you again in the city!”
With that, he and the band left the stage, Luna's vines following her like a trusty pet, enemy warrior still entangled in them. Once away from the public eye, Prince turned toward the other rather violently, “So, because you've lost a lover, you decide to take your revenge on others? What, not able to face the fact you maybe just weren't good enough to keep your lover?”

“Uh. Prince is annoyed.” Lolidragon commented, her and the rest of Odd Squad, the Righteous Blade, Team Rose and Dark Emperor having met with them back-stage
The red-haired thief took a bag of cookies out of her Inventory and started to munch and enjoy the show.
“That's got nothing with you!”
“It's got everything to do with me, since you fucking tried to kill me, you retard!”
A shouting bout later, the truth finally started to come out – apparently, Gui had teamed up once with a couple before entering Odd Squad, and eventually left because he was gaining too much attention from the female of the couple – XiMeng Feng's wife Lovely Consort

At the time, the warrior had been male, but he'd since happened on some sort of curse according to him and was now stuck as a woman during the day, and a male at night – and of course, he was adamant that it was Gui's fault, since he'd happened on the curse while giving chase to the bard for revenge for having lost his wife.
Somehow during the length of their shouting match, Prince and XiMeng had also managed to become friends, and Infinity City's lord promptly invited his fellow warrior to join the city, on the condition the other came to him whenever he wanted a fight, rather than chase after Gui.
XiMeng had accepted, making the teams present sweat-drop – to think there was another fighting idiot like Prince on the continent...

Prince refrained to point out that the worse fighting idiot was Luna when he saw her sweet menacing smile.
As for the public – they had apparently loved the fighting interruption in the concert, and so the next five representations were held with a bout of sparring at the end, a ticket lottery selecting the lucky public member that would be able to challenge the band...

Of course, beside the concert, there were also autographs session by the band's members, and with the opening of the book store, even Xiao Lan parents were rather tired – since her mother was a real life author, she had been roped into being one of the first to publish some stories in-game.
But the most surprising probably came when, to an enthusiastic fan proclaiming his love, Fairsky had shyly apologized and admitted to already liking someone else.
That person being Sunshine.
Given the way the NPC had blushed, the feelings were shared. Pushing the matter to the side until the signing session was over, Odd Squad had taken Fairsky to the side.

“I...” Sunshine sighed, “Fairsky, it would be better for you to give up on me.”
“What?” the beauty stumbled, “But you all but admitted you like me too!”
“I do... But loving each other, it's just not possible.”
“What? Why?”
“Because I'm not...” the Arabian prince stumbled unto the words, and closed his eyes as he stated, “I'm not human, Fairsky.”
The girl froze, “What kind of unbelievable story are you weaving? If you don't like me, just tell me, but don't invent such an unbelievable tale!”

“He's not lying.” Prince sighed, “Kenshin and Sunshine aren't humans, they are self-aware NPC we discovered while on the Eastern Continent.” he explained, “When they realized they had thoughts and feeling like any player, we managed to hide their status, but...”
“How... could this be...”
“I'm sorry for deceiving you.” Sunshine lowered his head, “I enjoyed myself so much with you that I selfishly let yourself get hurt...”
“Are you saying you really do love me?”
“I do but... Fairsky, I'm not human, there is no future for the two of us outside of this game.”
“I don't care!” the thief jumped forward, lips crashing with the other's – who honestly didn't resist long before fervently answering to her
The two stumbled out of the kiss – Sunshine looking a bit dreamy, and Fairsky strangely determined, “Human or not, you're the one I love, and for as long as I can, I intend to stay by your side. Will you have me?”
“As long as I can.” the NPC promised

There wasn't a dry eye – but as the couple left, Lolidragon turned toward Prince, whispering urgently, “I don't deny that they are cute... But this situation, it can only end in tragedy.”
“As things are, yes.” Luna was the one to confirm – even Prince couldn't deny it
After all, as clear as the couple's love was, one of them was stuck inside a dangerous world...
It was Tsukiko rather than Luna that asked to Lolidragon, “Do you have easy access to Second Life servers?”
“What? Well... Not the servers themselves, but the monitoring central yes, why?”
“These are my contact info. When we log off, go right away to the monitoring central, text me once you're there, then wait for anything strange to happen...”
“You're... Going to try to use your powers? How will changing the game help?” the hidden GM wondered
“I can at least try to protect Sunshine and Kenshin's life more.”

The red-haired eyes grew in understanding, and she nodded resolutely and left. Luna kept Prince from following with a hand on his arm, “Come to the penthouse immediately.”
Now intrigued, the warrior nodded.
Luna followed him off-line, then with a call of black flames stepped from the countryside domain to the penthouse, simply gesturing for Ryoichi to follow.
Once in the city, she called her dragon guardian, “Ryu, I need a favor... I'm about to fill Xiao Lan about the magical world, could you...”
“The paperwork for Odd Squad has been competed and ready to file in for weeks, Xiao Tian.”
The ookami smiled faintly, “Thank you.”

“So,” her mate asked, “why now?”
“Sunshine is in love with Fairsky.”
“He's one of your lost souls, isn't he?”
“He is.”
The kitsune didn't ask anything more, waiting with her for the latest of Fate's chosen to arrive.

Chapter Text

Chapter V

Xiao Lan entered the large flat with a view of the city she was pretty familiar with by now...
Tsukiko and Ryoichi were waiting for her in the barely lit living room, both focused on the night sky illuminated by the city's lights.
Taking the beautiful sight in for a second, she turned toward the couple, somehow feeling that something important was going on.
“If I told you that I could help Sunshine, would you help?”
“What? Of course!”
“Even if it meant putting yourself at risk?” Tsukiko wondered, stepping toward the younger girl with the smooth gait of a predator prowling on its prey
Xiao Lan unconsciously stepped back.

“Even if it meant putting your life on the line? Here, in the real world?”
“You've already taught me to always fight like my life was on the line!”
“Ah, but would you still go through with it here in the real world?”
“Of course!”
Tsukiko's aura grew less oppressive, and a true smile lit her face, “Then congratulation on accepting your destiny, Fate's chosen, and welcome to a new world.”
With that, green words appeared in front of Xiao Lan eye's, making her wonder if somehow she wasn't dreaming, or still connected to Second Life.

[Chaos Game 3.2 unlocked!]

[New life Quest! A New Champion...
Goal: Enter Second Life
Reward: +10XP per goal, upon completion]

[Goal complete!+10XP
Goal update: create your avatar]

[Goal complete! +10XP
Goal update: create an adventure team]

[Goal complete! +10XP
Goal update: enter the Adventurer's Tournament]

[Goal complete! +10XP
Goal update: win the Tournament]

[Goal complete! +10XP
Goal update: meet a self-aware NPC]

[Goal complete!+10XP
Goal update: learn about the self-aware NPC origins]

[Goal complete! +10XP
Goal update: find the leader of the NPC]

[Level up! Xiao Lan is now level 31!
+6SP, +2CP,+1PP]

“What the…”
“This is Chaos Game. This game is a bit more dangerous than Second Life…” Ryoichi warned, “After all, it's played with our own life on the line.”
“Unbelievable…” the young girl whispered, mentally calling for a System Tab – and the game answering her wishes
“You have unlocked this game thanks to your willingness to put your life on the line for Sunshine, because Chaos interpreted it as I did into meaning you would do the same for any of your friends.”
“I would.” she confirmed without any hesitation
“Just as well, because you may well have to one day.”
“Why?”

“Because you're the reason I stayed in T City.” Tsukiko affirmed, “Because as I stepped into this city, Chaos Game flared to life with a new Life Quest, in other words, a quest that would change someone's life… Your life.”
“Why?” the girl couldn't help but repeat
“Because you're one of Fate's Chosen. Someone who'll have the chance to impact durably our world in a positive way. And whenever I encounter such a person, I'm given the opportunity to help, in as small or big a way as I want.”
“Is this why you started training me?”
“Nope, that she did purely because of your talent.” Ryoichi contradicted, “After all, you've seen it…”
“Tsuki-chan loves fighting just as much as I do, even if the rest of Odd Squad haven't realized just yet…”

“Indeed.” Ryoichi smiled, happy the rather oblivious girl had understood at least that much about his mate
“So… This has to have something to do with Sunshine, given the timing?” she speculated
“It has. Chaos Game is a strange power, but it's far from the only one to exist. All around the world, there are a multitude of people with their own different abilities. All of them live hidden from the mundane world, and have their society.”
“Uh, so the Omega Case really are some sort of hidden society?”

“Omega Case is the word used in the mundane world.” a smile, “We are the magical world.” Tsukiko corrected, both her and Ryoichi letting go of the illusion making them appear human
“Oh wow…” Xiao Lan couldn't help but whisper, “So you really are a fox?”
“Actually, I'm not.” Tsukiko contradicted, mirth in her eyes, “I'm an ookami, a wolf youkai, Ryoichi is the kitsune.” a shrug, “But since Second Life wasn't able to deal with multiple-tails monsters that weren't foxes, it made me a fox.”
Xiao Lan let herself drop into the nearest sofa, “So magic and monsters are real. And you somehow live your life as a video game, which I also do now, because Fate had the strange idea to make me a hero?”
“That's about it.”
“So… Why the sudden urgency?”

Tsukiko smiled as the small sound of an incoming message echoed, Lolidragon indicating she was in place.
“Because somehow, all the people linked to Chaos Game have been able to access all of Second Life's System from real life.”
The girl eyes widened, and with a familiar mental nudge, she realized that indeed, she could see all of Prince's usual info, and even his Inventory.
“Until now, we've avoided accessing it too much, I don't know how well it would mesh, but we've been able to take things from our Inventory from Second Life in real life, and things from real life out in Second Life.”
“KageShin.” Prince realized easily as she took out her own black dao, the weapon somehow feeling as natural in her feminine hands as in her avatar's own
“Indeed.” she called her own Second Life System Tab, going to the pet management sub-tab, and with a last hesitation, called the Summon Pet option
All eyes went to the ground, where the familiar magical circle of Second Life Invocations was appearing, and magic building up in the air.

¤.¤.¤

“Now… We see if this works, and if I haven't accidentally made all of Second Life's servers crash.”
The seconds seemed to drag on – then, the magical circle suddenly grew illuminated, and a familiar shape appearing.
“Kenshin.”
The usually calm warrior eyed the place with undisguised curiosity, easily recognizing his master, but before answering any of his question, Tsukiko turned toward Xiao Lan, “Your turn.”
Prince nodded – and a second circle appeared, Sunshine soon making his entrance in the regular world too.
Then, Tsukiko explained to both NPCs the existence of the magical world, and how they'd been brought from the game. Both NPCs, it turned out, were still linked to Second Life's System, just like them, and had also attained a lighter version of Chaos Game, which Tsukiko explained was unlocked by either children of Chaos Game players, or subordinates of said main players.

Apparently, as beings classified as pets by Second Life, Chaos Game had interpreted it as each of them being a subordinate to their in-game's master.
Given that Tsukiko had also explained that they'd refrained from interfering too much with Second Life until now, Sunshine easily understood, “You provoked Prince into accepting his destiny so that he could unlock this Chaos Game for me?” he whispered with wide eyes
“I did.” she confirmed
“And I'm happy she did.” Xiao Lan added, “It means you have a real chance at happiness with Fairsky!”
Then, they called Lolidragon, who told them there had been a spike of data activity that had worried the programmers, but nothing too bad. Since it was the middle of the night, Xiao Lan had headed back home, leaving Sunshine with both youkai and Kenshin with the promise of coming back the next day after school. Finally, it was Kenshin who asked, “There's more to the situation than you've explained to Prince, right?”
“There is, but it's something for you to hear first.” she confirmed
Explaining to the two that they had previously been humans, and killed by an unscrupulous man's experimentation wasn't easy, but somehow neither seemed that surprised.

“Sometimes, there are things players talk about that I already understand…” Sunshine answered first the unasked question, “Things like hooverbikes, or TV and films, things that don't exist in Second Life, and shouldn't know anything about.”
“Same.” Kenshin nodded, “But you'd already realized?”
“I think you were a magical being.” Tsukiko confirmed her subordinate, “Because the words you've used around me a few times are words only someone from the magical world should know.” she then went on explaining how once she'd had her suspicions she'd researched the list of victims, and compared it to the missing people of the magical world
The search had been inconclusive – and given that there had been an unidentified man in the victims of Long Dian, she could only guess it was him.
The warrior had nodded, thankful for her honesty.

The next evening, Xiao Lan had dropped by once more, having realized that there had to be something more to Kenshin and Sunshine's status as self-aware – after all, the Life Quest mentioned them rather clearly.
The two NPCs, now prepared, were rather calm as Tsukiko explained to Prince about Long Dian and his experiment, and how Tsukiko had realized some NPCs had a soul in the game – and how even those without a soul were growing beyond the usual awareness level of a regular NPC.
“The leader of the NPCs... It's got to have something to do with Long Dian, right? You said he disappeared once his experiments were found out?”

“Probably.” Tsukiko confirmed, “Or at least, this is something I suspect.”
“But?”
“Well I've been looking discreetly around the game, but for now, there aren't any more souls appearing in Second Life so at least he's not still killing people with his game.” a shrug, “And we can't act too rashly, or he could turn the NPCs against us…”
“And killing a self-aware NPC would be as good as murdering them, wouldn't it?” Xiao Lan realized
After that, the topic had turned to the happier topic of inviting Fairsky over to introduce her to the magical world, and in turn to Sunshine.

Of course, before that, paperwork had to be filled in – something that would be rather quick thanks to Tsukiko's relations, but still longer than for Prince…
“The leader of the Chinese magical world is Huang Long Wei, and he's also a real dragon.” Xiao Lan repeated, a bit stunned to realize she'd met a true dragon, “And he's already prepared the paperwork for all of Odd Squad… Then…”
“Why don't I tell the truth to everyone?”
A nod.
“Because this is life-changing knowledge.” the ookami explained, “And once in the known, it's rather difficult to go back to a normal life.” she admitted, “Even the people without powers that know about us live more in the magical world than the normal world, it's something that seems to just happens every-time.”
“So this is why you didn't tell me anything either before.”
“I would have probably read you in eventually.” Tsukiko admitted, “Your passion for fighting, and the natural talent you possess with a blade are wasted in the regular world.” she said, “The second I'd have seen you struggle to reconcile your own personality with the world you were living in I would have taken you away.”

Xiao Lan smiled, understanding easily what the ookami meant – it had been happening more and more after all, in the regular world, be it at school or at home with her family, to find herself just out of phase with them.
Not able to get herself interested in the same topics, or to worry about things that appeared meaningless or secondary to her compared to what she was learning with the Japanese princess, or living in Second Life…
Once online, Lolidragon had easily satisfied herself with the reassurance that Luna had simply enacted a fail-safe to protect Kenshin and Sunshine – which was true, as she'd managed to add an instruction in Second Life that would teleport the two NPC to their master's real life body if they ever were about to die in-game.
The thief hadn't insisted as she was far more excited about the news she had – a new update was going to be implemented in Second Life, and with it all the pre-programmed cities would be opened to player invasion.
“Let's conquer the continent!” she enthusiastically proclaimed
“I'm not going to be given a choice in this?” Prince whispered to Luna
“It's the next logical step in your legend.”
“I know but… All this boring bowing and protocol, in each city, erg!” while the pair were talking, they'd arrived at the meeting where everyone was waiting to hear Lolidragon's news

Besides the invasion of the cities, another important patch was implemented – an improvement on the game's realism, bough among other things by bathing and going to the commodities.
“What?” Prince protested, “Was such an update really necessary!”
Luna couldn't help but agree – she'd never really enjoyed the game that put an emphasis on survival, precisely because she thought remembering all those things from real life was rather annoying.
“NPC presence in the cities will also decrease even more, with players having to be hired instead.”
“Second Life's company is taking a risky approach.” Luna couldn't help but point out, “If the game becomes more work than fun, people won't invest themselves that much in it.”
“True.” Doll agreed, “Who would want to connect to a game only to have to keep regular work hours in a shop…”

The GM tilted her head, coming a bit down from her excitation to consider the fact – sending an acknowledgment on the Team private chat, she told them she'd make sure the comments were taken into account by the society. That was after all why she worked as a hidden GM rather than a regular one.
Then, the talk went back to the point that really interested the people assembled – the opening of invasion on Sun, Star, and Moon City.
After some debate, all people settled on Moon City being the first of the three cities they'd try to capture.
Plans had to be made to train up the military forces of infinity City and up the recruitment –  they had to not only prepare an invasion force, but also have people stay to protect their own city, and later, each new city conquered would mean splitting the forces more to protect their new territory.

¤.¤.¤

“So… What am I actually supposed to do in the meanwhile?”
“What's your level?”
“81, why?”
“You're a bit behind the other player lords.” White Bird admitted, “You should probably focus on training and leveling up. We can arrange for some people to train with you.”
“Arrange for some people? Can't I just train with Odd Squad like usual?”
“Most members of Odd Squad have important roles in military and administrative departments, so may not have that much free time.”
“They'll learn to delegate if they lack that much free time.” Tsukiko interrupted rather abruptly – and from Prince's perspective it was clearly Tsukiko, and not Luna talking

“It's not that simple…” White Bird contradicted, only to be interrupted
“Of course it's not. Do you think being a leader is easy? But quite simply, Odd Squad can no more afford to fall behind level-wise than Prince or yourself.” she eyed the warrior, “You may come up with the most perfect training plan or battle strategy ever, as long as the soldiers you're leading don't respect you, it will be useless.”
“Madam White Bird is well-respected in the military faction.” Wolf pointed out
“For now.” Luna stated, “Do you think she'll still be respected when she's five, then ten or twenty levels behind?” a shrug, “Beside, this is a game we play to enjoy ourselves. Do really enjoy never seeing the rest of your team anymore?”
The question seemed to hit most of the people presents.

“I'm not telling you to stop all your doing and get out and train willy-nilly without taking care of the city. I'm telling you to learn to dispatch your work more, and each put some time for your own Team and friends!” a smile, “You can each choose a time-window so that there's always a team present in the stronghold when one is away.”
Everyone was looking more interested now, Prince noted gleefully – he hadn't been the only one who was missing the more light-hearted moments shared before the heavy duty of managing a city fell on all of their shoulders, it seemed.
“You're right.” White Bird eventually admitted, making everyone relax around them, as they'd been mentally preparing themselves for the rather straight-laced warrior's protests, “Still, Prince will have to train without his Squad too from time to time, it is his major responsibly right now.” she added

“Of course.” Luna agreed easily, “But we'll be able to find ourselves our own hunting partners.” she smiled to the elvish warrior, making him hold back a whimper, “Beside, Prince and I already have a training schedule.”
The rest of Odd Squad eyed their warrior sympathetically, under the rest of the other leaders' uncomprehending gazes.
Prince could only hear Madam White Bird, before he was dragged out, “Why isn't she in the military department if she's that good a trainer?”
“Most people aren't equipped to survive my dear wife's notion of light training.” was Solare's answer — which the elf warrior found rather hypocritical, since he'd already endured the kitsune's own notion of training, and it wasn't better than his wife's by any measure
“So,” Luna mused, “who will we drag along?” she eyed her friend list “Jing and Yun are busy with their latest novel, Sunshine is helping his wife… Kenshin will come, of course…”
“What about XiMeng?”
“Well that's quite a bit of warrior, we'd better find a good healer…” her eyes lit up, “I know!”

“Is this a training party or a baby-sitting club?” XiMeng grouched as he eyed the two additions to their group
Jade, who was IRL Taishou Amaya, daughter of Tsukiko and Ryoichi, looked nearly identical to her mother – and even shared the same Job, as she was a druid too. But where Luna had chosen later on the Earth specialty, that made her an expert in control spells, the youngest Moon Hime had opted for the Water School, and was as such a high caliber healer.
On the other hand, her twin brother, Taishou Isao, or Onyx in-game, had taken more after his father in coloring, long hair and fur a dark-red nearly black – and in the game his eyes were just as green as his sister and mother's own. The kit was also a sharpshooter, a class similar to archers, which had an even longer range, but whose attack were longer to charge.

The fact that both children looked to be five had, of course, annoyed the coarse warrior who spent half his life stuck in a female body – but just like with Luna, he was soon forced to admit that the twins were good.
Prince had been rather surprised to realize that Amaya and Isao really did look that young in real-life – and had been given an impromptu lesson about a youkai's growth curve. After all, both children, despite their young appearance, were in their thirties, while Tsukiko, he'd been stunned to learn, was over two hundred years old!
Still – Xiao Lan was growing stronger quickly, be it IRL or in-game, between her sparring session with Tsukiko that had drastically changed now that the ookami could take full advantage of Chaos Game and the magical world facilities with her, and the XP grinding within the game itself.

The teenager was feeling tired nearly all the time – but she was also enjoying herself so much it didn't even brush her mind to complain about it. Because she may miss spending as much time with Odd Squad online, off-line she was getting to know Tsukiko's pack and guardians, now that she was in the known about magical world, and has especially hit off well with InuYasha, the Moon hime's uncle, who was, according to said Hime, the same kind of idiotic genius when it came to fighting as Xiao Lan her…
And realizing how weak she was, comparatively speaking, had lit a fire in her.
So enthusiastic the girl was, she completely missed the contemplative gazes sent her way by Gui whenever he was teaching her.
Because the genius may have promised he wouldn't look for her real identity back when he still thought she was her own twin, he'd learn since then that Prince was really a girl – and by now, Xiao Lan was without realizing it acting more and more like her in-game persona even in real life…

Yun and Jing had long since caught on her real identity – they were after all childhood friends – and confronted her about it, and Prince had told the true to Rose after Fairsky had learned she was female, having never gotten to it with the creation of Infinity City.
The party of six was coming back from a rather fruitful training session when White Bird just as they entered the castle's walls, “Prince! There are two adventurers Teams that wishes to join us, please go meet them.”

They watched with amusement as the serious woman was visibly restraining herself from commenting about the laid-back warrior attitude's. With a sigh, she settled on, “At least put on the armor you wore during the parade.”
“Is it better?”
“It's not blood-stained.” she answered, “And don't take too long, they'd been waiting for a while!”
“Okay!” Prince waved her away
“Well, with that, I'm gone.” XiMeng affirmed, “I hate those boring meetings!”
“Lucky…”
As soon as the other warrior was gone, Luna opened a portal directly to the elf's room.

“What happened to not abusing your powers, imouto?” Prince teased
“White Bird did say they'd been waiting for a while.” she pointed out as they all stepped toward the room, the other four settling on his bed as the warrior quickly changed his outfit
Soon enough, they were arriving in the throne room, where a dozen of people were already waiting – with an inner groan, the elf started the usual stuffy greetings.
“Wait!”
Prince's eyes lit in interest – maybe these greetings would be less boring than usual…
“Yes?”

“I've heard rumors that Prince, with whom we have the good fortune of meeting today, is a legendary man whose strength is unrivaled, with innumerable capable subordinates. From today's meeting and your imposing demeanor, it's clear you're no ordinary man. But this alone is not enough for me and my brothers to join Infinity City, we want to witness your strength for ourselves.”
The warrior smiled – the flowery speech of the other had been boring, but was clearly pointing toward something interesting, “No need to beat around the bush, what do you propose?”

¤.¤.¤

“This is Arctic Fox, our best warrior.” a slender man with dark hair and eyes stepped forward, “If Infinity City's Lord or any of his warriors can defeat him, we'll pledge loyalty forever.”
“Don't take him on, Prince!” Lolidragon urged him on the team chat, “He is Second Life's third-strongest player right now, and level 92! He also uses one of the three legendary weapons, Blood-lust.”
“Don't worry, Lolidragon, I'm well aware I don't stand a chance against him.” Prince answered in a light tone contradicted by the bloodlust he wasn't even aware he was emitting, having gained an intrigued glance from the high-level player from it
“Well, if you're putting your best warrior forward, we'll do the same.” he announced calmly, pointing toward Kenshin, who was already stepping forward
“I thought the city's lord was the strongest player?” the team leader inquired in apparent confusion
“You praise me too much, there is always a higher mountain!” Prince answered with a sweet yet menacing smile
“Well then, let's see this duel.”

The two swordsmen eyed themselves, and both realized the other was going to be a worthy opponent at the same time, two pairs of cold eyes darkening in excitation.
Arctic Fox and Kenshin eyed each other for a few seconds – then on a signal only the two of them perceived, they rushed toward each other. The black-haired player had already taken his sword out, but Kenshin parried with his sheath, then followed with a variant of the quick draw technique he was famous for in the manga.
Sensing the danger, Arctic Fox threw himself out of the way, partially avoiding the attack – something rather impressive as Prince knew he wouldn't have been able to do even that much. Because on top of the programmed skills and level max the NPC had in-game, he'd freed himself from the limitations of Second Life when Tsukiko had summoned him IRL for the first time. So his level may not be able to change in Second Life since he was level max, his skills had, for the first time since he'd become self-aware, tremendously progressed.

After that, all that most people could see were flashes of silver as the two swordsmen danced against each other, until finally Arctic Fox called “Howling Wolf!”
A flurry of crescent-shape blades of light flew toward the NPC, the black-head rushing right behind his attack – but with an answering call of “Void Piercer!”, Kenshin cut through the incoming attack, moving behind the other in a move so fast in was all but invisible for most of the people watching the duel, before piercing him in nine familiar consecutive moves – Prince didn't even know the nine-headed dragon strike could be performed in the back like that.
More impressively, he'd managed to cut the man without killing him on all nine of the potential killing-blows.
“Well,” Infinity City's lord commented, “this battle is over, you may heal your team-mate.”

At that, the team leader, who had until now looked rather calm, changed drastically, face going red as he shrieked, “Bastard! You said you wouldn't lose to anyone but the strongest player, Undying Man! Now that you've lost to some no-name brat, what use do I have for you?”
The calm front now broken, he took out his sword, clearly intent on finishing the wounded player – only to be stopped by two blades.
The man turned into a pillar of light, both Kenshin and Luna sharing a satisfied glance – but the overwhelming killing-intent of both hadn't abated as they turned toward the remaining players.
“Lord of Infinity City, what is the meaning of this, we came to join you and this how you answer!”
“If you really intended to join Infinity City, you wouldn't have voluntarily sought one of the strongest players to challenge me.” Prince contradicted, the only one beside the twins to be able to stay calm under the Hime and her underling's fury, “It's clear you only came to stir trouble.” a wild smile, and he too took his sword out, “Well, you've found trouble.” he eyed them with a grimace of disgust, “None of you are strong enough to be worth our time so scram while I'm feeling merciful, or you'll make it on the Kill on Sight list of the city.”

“Guards!” White Bird called, the first to be able to get past the terrifying aura exuded by Luna and Kenshin, “Our Prince has ordered these people to be escorted out of the city.” she stated coldly, 
So was done – and the KI finally calmed down as the offenders left the view of the duo. Now smiling sweetly, Luna was kneeling by Arctic Fox's side, “Come kit, let my daughter heal you.”
The player's cold eyes fell on Luna's face as her daughter was coming behind her, freezing on the green crescent moon on her brow. The aloof gaze turned to astonishment, and he didn't move as Jade weaved her healing spells around him.
Seeing he was about to say something, the white fox winked and hushed him by putting a finger on his lips with a teasing smile. “I'm Luna, these are Jade and Onyx.” a smile, as she eyed Kenshin, “And of course Kenshin, whom you've battled, and Prince, our lord. Will you join Infinity City?”

He eyed the expectant people, clearly thorn between two answers.
Prince was the one who knew exactly what his problem was.
“You'll be under Luna's order, just like Kenshin.” he stated easily, stunning the people around, “I have no interest in ordering around someone unwilling.”
The other nodded at that, a glimmer of respect entering his eyes.
“You're clearly stronger, but I hope you'll accept some duels one of these days.” the elf added with a smile that barely hid his bloodlust
The intrigued glance the other gave him wasn't a refusal.

“So, clearly, there are still plenty of people that doubt Prince.” Lolidragon mused
“Well, he is the most informal of the player lords, and has the lower level among them, it can't be helped.” Yu Lian pointed out, “There isn't a lot to be done beside training, which he is already doing.”
“To be honest, his training is already paying, he's not that far behind the others.” Nan Gong Zui commented, “I mean he went from the 51st in ranking to the top 10 players in a few weeks.”

“True.” Madam White Bird eyed the warrior intently, “And since the parade, our Prince's reputation is excellent in the city, it's out of our walls that's the problem…”
“I think his baby-face doesn't help.”
“Baby-face!” the lord protested while Luna snorted, “I'm nearly twenty!”
“You look like you're maybe seventeen.” the female warrior pointed out, “Not to mention the youngest among the other four lords is rumored to be twenty-four.”
There was silence for a moment.
“The easiest way to establish some sort of reputation would be for Prince to act more like the other lords.”
“I won't.” the warrior answered without missing a beat
“And I don't think you should.” White Bird agreed, stunning the group, “I was dubious at first of your ability to inspire the people of the city while remaining on their level, but you've managed it. The city loves you.” she admitted, “It's the opinion of the people outside the city we've got to change.”

“How about another Tournament?” Luna wondered, “With one-on-one events this time.”
“We would have to be assured of Prince's victory, and he's not someone who would cheat.” Lolidragon pointed out
“Of course not!”
“And I don't think we've got the time for this before the next patch.” she added
“But it's a good idea for the city's future…” Yu Lian was musing “An event like that would attract attention from everyone, and more people means more business.”
In the end, no immediate solution was found, the only resolution made being for Prince to put an emphasis on his Bloody Elf persona when out of the city.

¤.¤.¤

With that in mind, Odd Squad's next training session together had come, the team delighted like always to be able to simply be between themselves once more – with the notable addition of Arctic Fox since, to everyone but Prince's surprise, the cold looking fighter had developed some near worship level respect for Luna and her mate, and as such was spending just as much time with Prince and her than following Kenshin around.
Odd Squad had decided to head toward a high level, secluded, training-ground in order to make the best of their free day – and as such had headed toward the valley of the Wandering Nymphs.
It was one of the most beautiful high-level training ground, all lush vegetation and small ponds, looking for all intent like a magical Japanese garden taken right out from the old legends.

Despite being so beautiful, this training-ground was seldomly used as the mobs of the area, the wandering nymphs, were all rare beauties that made nearly all male players lose their minds to their wonders, not to mention among the more dangerous monster in their level range – that is level 60 for the red-robes nymphs, 70 for the blue-robed and finally 80 for the violet-robed ones.
With how rarely the place was used, no one had even ever seen the Boss of the area – which was precisely why they'd come, intending to find the elusive NPC.

The Team went to work easily – after all, Kenshin and Arctic Fox were both cold enough that the beauties they were hacking at didn't affect them, Wolf only had eyes for his wife, just like Gui was more Prince-sexual than anything else, and finally Yun, the only who would have normally been affected was far more afraid of his childhood friend Jing than interested in the beautiful mobs.
“Alright, I'll admit I was a bit dubious at first, but coming here was an excellent idea.” Lolidragon admitted after an hour spent destroying mobs and delving deeper into the Den of the Wandering Nymphs.
Then were in the area of the blue-robed nymph by now – and were rather surprised to happen on a lone violet-robe a midst the pair and trio of blue nymphs. But before they'd made a move to attack, the call of “Chains of Ice!” was heard, and the lone nymph was promptly immobilized

“Hurry honey, hit her with a fatal strike before she breaks free!”
“No problem darling!”
A tall, large-shouldered warrior with an enormous claymore was walking toward the mob, and hacking at her unhesitatingly “Sorry gorgeous, I won't show any mercy. Blame yourself for being so pretty, my wife decided she wanted you as a pet…”
“Capture! I've got her! You're the best, honey!”

The Team shared helpless glances at the strange couple's behavior, who hadn't even realized they'd just stolen their kill – then with a shout of “Honey! Look at these beautiful people! Do you think we've found the mythic Celestial Boss?”
“We're players.” Yu Lian corrected with an amused giggle, “But I can understand how you could get confused with my beautiful husband here…”
Odd Squad didn't even bother sighing at their team-mates still off beauty-sense while in front of them the couple apologized with a sheepish grin, “Sorry, we were so enthusiastic at founding a violet-robed nymph that we didn't realize we weren't alone! My wife is a Summoner, so she was hoping to find the legendary Celestial and capture it as a pet!”
“You do realize Boss can't be captured.” Lolidragon couldn't help but point out
“What? Oh! That's why I didn't manage to capture this dragon back home!” the woman realized, making them all sweat-drop, “Oh, anyway this trip isn't a waste, the violet-robed nymph is gorgeous and powerful! Oh, sorry, we've forgotten to introduce ourselves!”

The beautiful woman smiled and bowed, “Greetings, my name is DanDan, and this is my husband, Wacko!”
Lolidragon hissed a warning on the team chat, “This guy is Western Continent Halcyon city's liege lord!”
“What? And after that, people dared to try and tell me I wasn't solemn enough for the job?” Prince protested
The thief had no retort – clearly, their Prince's fellow lord was just as strange as their warrior in his own style.
Still, despite how annoyed they were to stumble on an important player of their down day, the team quickly switched gear, “How unexpected for us to find the respected lord of Halcyon City in the depths of Central Continent.” Yu Lian greeted with her shadowy smile, “We are the Odd Squad Team...” with that she introduced all of them, finishing with Luna then Prince

“Oh how lucky!” DanDan clapped enthusiastically, “We came to Central City to gaze at the beautiful Nymphs of the Valley, and see if Infinity City's lord truly was as beautiful as the rumors say, and we've managed both goals in one day!”
“You came all the way from the Western Continent just for that?” Doll couldn't help but ask in disbelief
“Of course!” Wacko enthusiastically agreed, “My wife and I are great admirers of beauty in all its form! Would you mind if we accompanied you for a while?”
It was probably because of how strange the couple was that the team accepted their proposition as fast as they did – it was rather reassuring to see the way the other city lord acted after all the time they'd spent recently wondering about Prince's own reputation…

It was a party of fourteen that proceeded deeper in the Valley.
Even if the couple had the strange habit of observing not only Prince, but also Gui, that they'd decreed just as beautiful, then Lolidragon, peppering their trek with unexpected comments such as “What an alluring focused expression!” — they soon had proved themselves competent, which wasn't too surprising given that Wacko was the ninth-strongest player of Second Life, just ahead of Prince himself and his wife was even stronger, as she was fifth in the ranking.
Then, Luna was turning toward something, eyes wide – and with a surprised scream, Doll was suddenly in the tight embrace of an ambiguously androgyne being, who was observing the necromancer he'd just snatched in fascination “Beautiful…”

“Guys! I think we've found the Celestial Boss…” Luna announced urgently on the team chat, “And he's self-aware!”
“Fair maiden, would you become my wife?”
Doll didn't have the time to answer as DanDan had realized with a delighted exclamation, “Dear! This must be the Celestial Boss we came to see! Let's fight him!”
“Of course honey!”
Odd Squad stood torn as the couple attacked the Boss, who immediately parried the large claymore's strike with the floating strip of white silk that had been until then hanging around his shoulders, before calling, with but a thought, a dozen of purple-robed nymphs.
While they had no intention of letting their temporary partners die against the Boss, killing said Celestial wasn't an option either – nor was leaving Doll in his hands.

“Guys, let's fight.”Luna urged, “I'll get him and Doll out of here before anything permanent can happen.”
With that, Odd Squad joined the fray.
One of the top three strongest Boss of the continent he might be, against a team of high-level players, the NPC was soon on the defensive, then fighting with the strength of someone afraid of dying.
“Don't worry.” Doll reassured him in a low voice despite still being his hostage, "We can't let DanDan and Wacko die against you, but we've no intention of killing you.”
The Boss eyed the girl in surprise, “What…”

“Well you must realize, don't you, that you're not like the other nymphs around, but not quite like us either?” the necromancer pointed out, uncharacteristically reasonably
“I… do.” the other admitted, “But I don't know why!”
“Don't worry, we'll help.” the cute angel reassured him, patting amicably the NPC's shoulder
“Alright, Prince, jump for a finishing move, and I'll teleport Doll and Celestial away. Lolidragon…”
“I'll report it as a bug.” the hidden GM nodded resolutely
With perfect synchronization, Prince stepped forward with Fiery Dragon Hammer Flash, the large burst of flames and jump letting Luna sprint forward and grab both Celestial and Doll, making them melt in the shadows with them.
“What…” the celestial eyed the place where they were – a clearing not too far Odd Squad ha noticed earlier on their trek in the Valley, “Why did you save me? Isn't it the job of you players, to kill us?”

“The NPC we fight aren't like you.” Doll answered
“They don't realize they're stuck in their place, forced to do the same thing again and again.”
“And if we were kill to you, you'd probably become like that once more.”
The Boss eyes widened, and Luna realized his understanding of his own situation was far lesser than Kenshin's own had been – the NPC acted like a young child; which was precisely what he was in a way.

¤.¤.¤

The druid and necromancer tried to explain the situation in simple words to the rather stubborn Boss – and paradoxically, it was explaining to him that it wasn't because he wanted Doll to be his wife that she would be, that had been the hardest.
The rest of Odd Squad had told the couple they were with that Luna had been logged-off by a power fluctuation in her home, and Doll taken to rebirth point because of the Boss's bug, and had made to exit the area – with Kenshin and Sunshine slipping away on the mage's flying carpet to meet up with them in hope that meeting fellow self-aware NPC would help the Boss understand things better.

“Still,” Sunshine was soon musing, “Kenshin and I could leave our area because of the hidden quest, but there isn't something like that for you, is there?”
“I'm just supposed to come and fight when too much of my Nymphs have been killed.” the Celestial Boss nodded, “And if I try to leave, I always end up back in my palace.”
“This, I should be able to help with.” Luna admitted
“Oh! Your Omega Case powers, uh!” Doll nodded enthusiastically – and with how she put emphasis on the words, it was clear she knew what this really refereed to, “I didn't realize it could help with this!”
“Normal magic wouldn't help.” Luna admitted, seeing no reason to beat around the bush when the newest self-aware NPC was the only one who didn't know what they were talking about, “But I've got more unusual talents than most.” she eyed the necromancer, “I could probably fix the code so that Second Life's System is made to believe there was another hidden quest and would tie Celestial to one of us as a pet just like with Kenshin and Sunshine.”

Doll nodded enthusiastically, and the fox forged on, “Normally I would tie him to myself, but you seem to be getting along rather well.” she added – it was true, Doll's rather childish character paired with her real life wisdom meant that she managed to explain things to the NPC in a way he understood easily
“Doll doesn't mind!” she agreed
“And if you manage to drop by T City, you'll even be able to take Celestial out of the game.”
“Unusual talent indeed…” the necromancer could only mumble at the surprising affirmation, “Let's do this!”

“You know,” Ryoichi wondered later that evening as she retold him the Squad's adventure of the day, “I don't really get how you managed to do this, is it something to do with your Soul Art?”
“I think it's because of my holy affinity to Chaos.” Tsukiko speculated, “Because of my status as a priestess mixed with Chaos own meddling on our souls to implement Chaos Game, I've got this minor affinity, but I never had any strange encounters or other chaotic events that should logically follow the affinity.”
She shrugged, “At first I thought it was simply that Chaos Game took the whole affinity powers, but once I turned back from Luna to Tsukiko for the first time in Second Life I realized I had some innate understanding of the game… I can nearly see how things works and move around us when I'm in Second Life, just as if it were a simpler version of Chaos Game.”

“Wait… Chaos affinity made you into some kind of magical programmer?” the kitsune cracked up, “It's so… unexpected! Truly chaotic!”
Tsukiko shrugged, “It fits in a way. And I can even see how to change things in Chaos Game too, but I can't make them stick like Chaos does.”
“So you can hack Chaos Game?”
“I could.” she admitted, “But only for small things, nothing as notable as what I'm able to do in Second Life.”
“Does it work with other games then?”
“It does.” Tsukiko nodded, “Not even only the VRMMO, any kind of RPG can be shifted to suit my wishes.”

Her mate was still laughing when Doll and Prince dropped by to add the princess to Chaos Game – who'd apparently managed to give the slip to her guards for a few hours.
“So, does it mean that Doll is a chosen too?” Xiao Lan wondered
“Nope. You're the only currently.” Tsukiko contradicted, “But nearly always, the main player has a way to add people to the Game Interface. One time, it was by accepting to work toward the same goal, another time it was only with family, pack was the way to go the third time, and hunting partners the last time...”

“And now?”
“Take a look at Odd Squad's Tab.”
The warrior did so – and realized that there quite simply was an Add to Chaos option next to the PM one. He chose the option, and Doll stumbled, surprised, “Oh wow!”
After that, Doll had taken to Chaos Game as swiftly as Prince and Fairsky had, and not stayed much longer than the hour in took for her own self-aware pet to be summoned IRL, and caught up on the basis of the real world, given a stern talking about using his powers in plain sigh, and finally the harder truth about his origin.

In-game, they thankfully hadn't to say anything to DanDan and Wacko, as the strange couple had had to get back to their own continent before the update came online. And Lolidragon had told the programmers that there had been some sort of hidden quest that had unlocked the Boss as Doll's partner.
“Things are growing tense in the company.” she'd admitted, “Our three friends becoming self-ware aren't the only unexpected thing going on in-game, and I'm afraid of how they would react if they realized something like that has happened.”
Things hadn't really calmed down after that – the new patch had been implemented, and everyone was impatiently waiting for the safe period before all cities could be attacked, armies having been raised around the continent, when Prince had been the victim of an assassination attempts.
The woman, in the black clothes of a ninja and a hidden face, had a cold voice and contempt could be heard clearly in it – but more importantly, with only a dagger and both the Strength of a warrior and the Agility of a thief, she'd nearly managed her assassination, before killing herself before she could be interrogated about her motives.

¤.¤.¤

But what had truly been worrying, Luna had only revealed later that day, when only Odd Squad was assembled.
“This was a NPC.” the druid had announced, “A self-aware one, but…” she eyed Lolidragon this time, “Not one of the original victims.”
“Victims?” Wolf picked up first
Lolidragon sighed, then admitted, “I guess I shouldn't be too surprised you know.” she admitted toward the white-haired girl, “Kenshin, Sunshine and Caellus. They, and several other NPCs, used to be humans.”
Stunned silence me the revelation.
“The original creator of the game, Long Dian… he…” clearly, all realized, she had known the man, and had mixed feelings regarding him, “One day during the alpha testing of Second Life, we realized he'd hired some people to play the role of a few NPCs, then killed them IRL. At first nothing happened, but one after the other, those people were killed in-game, and after that, what came back was a regular NPC.”

“Until we eventually developed back a new personality.”
“Indeed.” Lolidragon sighed, “I'm sorry for not saying anything before.”
“This isn't something you could do anything about, so telling us would have only caused us undue grief.” Kenshin pointed out reasonably
“Yet you already knew.”
“Luna told us.” Sunshine said, “With the way her brain waves interact with Second Life, she could help us tie our life in a more secure way, but along the way we realized we knew things that didn't exist in-game…” the mage explained, “So she told us.”

“But clearly. By now, not only us former humans, but even regular NPC are becoming self-aware, this isn't something that can be happening randomly, is it?”
“Long Dian managed to run away before he was arrested. At first, the new programmers assured us that they'd closed any breach he could use to interfere with Second Life, but between this, and a few other strange things that have been going on. We're afraid he's managed to keep a back-door to Second Life and is still using it for whatever his aim is…”

There wasn't much to do about the situation for now, Odd Squad had realized – but to keep out an eye to protect Prince from any other assassination attempt, prepare the troupes for the war that was coming closer day after day, and keep an eye out for other self-aware NPC.
It was in this tense context that the battle for Moon City finally arrived.
The battle was a unique brand of chaos, Prince mused as he put their recent worries to the side to give his best to the fight. The NPCs protecting the city hadn't closed down the rebirth point, which meant the player who died came back directly in the fray – moreover, Infinity's army wasn't the only one trying to conquer the city, which meant they were fighting on several fronts.

Luckily, Infinity city had planned ahead, and all their soldiers wore a tabard stained silver, with a burgundy infinity's symbol on it, which meant they at least could tell friends from foes, something no other faction around them had thought about.
Of course, conquering the city wasn't as simple as simply breaking down the gates – the players then had to get to the tower in the city square, and break the protecting gem.
Part of the army was as such dedicated to clear the other fighters and guard NPC, while an elite commando had been trained specially to take Prince to the tower and protect him while he took care of the gem.
The other players hadn't expected Infinity's army – or rather, they had been expecting a regular army with mages and archers at the back, and warrior and other thieves and rogues to the front.

But of course, with Odd Squad and Prince leading the city – things were a bit different.
With not only Luna and Wolf, but also Jade and Jing, the players had realized that real life skill could indeed be used in Second Life, and soon, numerous wizards and other summoners had come forward with their IRL knowledge to form a close-range mage cast.
They may be more squishy than warriors – it only meant they had to avoid getting hit, which some achieved thanks to a liberal use of protection and stat enhancing spells, while others paired with fighters to create scarily efficient teams on the battlefield.

Still, with their strategy clear, and surprise on their side, Prince and his commando had soon reached the tower, and the warrior started to hack at the large enchanted gem – when a silhouette clad in black, a male this time, had dropped from one of the windows and attacked Prince. Just like his female counterpart, the assassin was strong – and just like her, he too was a NPC.
“Wait!” Prince hurriedly called as the man, seeing he wouldn't win, made to flee, “Please, why do you attack me?”
The other paused, then coldly answered, "Because you're much more dangerous than the other.”
With that, he was gone.
“Luna!”
“On it.”

¤.¤.¤

Prince went back to the gem – while the druid fell in the shadows, pursuing the unknowing assassin.
With Moon city conquered, Star and Sun City's new owners had immediately entered negotiations with Prince, or rather Prince's diplomatic department, as neither were strong enough to held against an invasion from them.
Star city's demand had been rather reasonable – in exchange for relinquishing the city, they wanted free housing in Infinity city and a status of team leader in Infinity's army. The first demand, they agreed to easily – the second was agreed with the stipulation that they still had to meet the other team leader's standard of training within three months.
Sun City's conditions were a bit more… problematic.

Fan had assembled all the people hostile to Infinity city in general, or Prince in particular in a new coalition, and as such their conditions were a bunch of unreasonable demand, going from forcing the warrior to become Perfect Princess' husband to killing him down to level one or even banish him from Second Life…
Of course, there was no way Infinity City would agree to any of those surrender conditions – so while some troops were sent to repair and stabilize both Moon and Star, another regiment was training to make up for any level loss that occurred during the battle for Moon City, or while defending Infinity City' itself, and getting ready to attack Sun City.
“I can't believe Prince is that cheerful.” White Bird sighed, “He's fending off three assassination attempts a day, and he's whistling!”
“The assassins are rather good, so he doesn't mind.” Wolf pointed out
“I think he's even somewhat sympathized with one of them…” Gui added with an amused smile, “Since he never kills them.”

“That's another thing I don't understand! Maybe loosing a few levels would deter them, but no, he always lets them flee!” the serious warrior protested heatedly, “What's up with that?” a sigh, “Well, as long as it doesn't hurt anyone, I guess it's alright…” she capitulated
Odd Squad eyed each other – Lolidragon had insisted on not saying anything about the self-awareness the NPC were gaining to anyone out of the team, as it was difficult to predict how the players would react. Fear of AI was a very real thing, and not everyone would be as accepting as they were toward the NPC living in their midst.
And revealing they'd been living people before? That was even worse, as it quite frankly raised quite a few questions about humanity.
So for now, they tried to divert the questions as far as they could.

But with the last news the thief had come to them with, the situation was becoming more dangerous – there had been quite a few complaints from players whose avatar had disappeared after getting killed by the very same assassins Prince was harassed by daily.
The warrior had been told not to let himself be killed under any circumstances – and Lolidragon and Wu Qing had borrowed Sunshine and his flying carpet to see what the situation was around the other continents.

The conquest of Sun City, and subsequent unification of Central Continent under Infinity's helm, had been all but a side-note in Odd Squad's mind with the accumulation of strange things going on in Second Life.
Fan and his rag-tag alliance may have been fired up – ill-will wasn't enough to make up for training and talent, and Infinity City had rolled over Sun city's forces, Prince entering the central tower in half the time needed for it in Moon City.
Fan had been waiting for him, Ice Phoenix by his side – of course, what he didn't know was that this time, the mage hadn't voluntarily betrayed, she'd immediately told her team when the angel warrior had contacted her, and been instructed to act as a double-agent.

She hadn't regretted it – because Fan had completely misinterpreted her relationship with Odd Squad's leader, and tried to make her believe the warrior would never love her, and only him would ever care about her.
With the angel's misunderstanding, it had suddenly been easy to realize just how much he'd been playing around with her before, and the mage had been particularly satisfied to be the one to finish him with a flurry of ice spears.

Then, Lolidragon, Wu Qing and Sunshine had arrived back from their tour, announcing that the other continents' overlords had all been victims of the same assassination attempts as Prince – and that one of them had indeed been killed, and unable to access Second Life ever since, the Northern continent Flower Lord and her five husbands and team-mates' avatars had all disappeared from Second Life's servers, but since the other overlords didn't know it, they were for now suspecting the only non warrior of the lot to be trying some kind of coup against all of them.
The hidden GM and her partner had managed to convince the other three overlords to come to Infinity City to reveal the truth. Because little by little, the situation was becoming clear.

¤.¤.¤

Someone was organizing the NPC, and agitating them against the players.
Second Life was on the eve of a full-blown revolt.
It was then that Luna had finally come back.

[Goal update: save the Dictator of Life]

“So when Second Life company's told they had carefully protected their game from Long Dian… Well, clearly, they utterly failed.”
“What? What do you…”
“The Dictator of Life.” the fox interrupted Lolidragon, “The program in charge of managing most of Second Life.”
“A program to manage all the VRMMO?” Gui was the one to realize first what she was pointing at, “It's never been done before, because a program so evolved…”
“Would be as good as an AI.” Luna nodded, “An AI created by Long Dian himself, and able to manage this whole world.”
“And this AI wants to kill us players?”

“That's what I thought at first.” the fox said, “But after a while I realized something strange.” she eyed the group, “The Dictator of Life's actions were erratic. Sometimes he would be raising the Intelligence level of the Boss and other NPC around, trying to awaken new AI and wave dissent between them and humans, sometimes he'd been trying to undo the damages.”
“It's not Dictator of Life, is it?” Lolidragon realized, “It's Long Dian himself.”
“I think he's able to take over the AI's will and abilities.” Luna nodded, “It's not the Dictator of Life himself that has ill-will against us players, it's his creator…”

With that, Lolidragon had dropped by the company – and came back barely an hour later, “You were right.” she nodded toward Luna, “The programmers have realized that the NPCs are getting out of hands because of the Dictator of Life, so after the Flower Lord was killed they managed to restrain him to the Northern Continent, but it's not easy since the AI has so much power in Second Life.”
“And?”
“Until now, they hadn't thought about Long Dian himself being behind all this, so they were preparing themselves for the eventuality of the AI leaving the game via our servers.”
“How?”
“Shutting down Second Life is being considered.” the thief admitted
“It would be as good as killing all these NPC.” a shocked Prince pointed out

“Only us do consider them like equals.” the red-haired pointed out, sending out a bleak stare at the three NPC among them, “The programmers don't see them as anything more than some rogue virus to be erased.”
“That's why we've been hiding their existence.”
“Isn't there anything we can do?”
“I've been given a twenty-one days time-limit.” Lolidragon admitted, “If in this time we manage to stop the Dictator of Life, they won't shut down Second Life.”
“That doesn't mean they won't try anything against the NPC.” Yu Lian pointed out with a frown
“That's… not something I've got any idea about.” the young woman admitted, clearly torn about it

“This I can take care of.” Luna said, “After all, there are laws in place about man-slaughter.”
“Against humans.” Gui contradicted
“Not only.” Doll was the one to answer, before explaining at the surprised stare she was having, “There are some laws that are heavily hidden in the real world, with only high-level state officials knowing about them, and Luna's right…” a smile, “With these laws, all we have to prove is that the NPC are properly sentient.”
“Then let's prevent Long Dian from taking Second Life from us!”

Chapter Text

Chapter VI

Of the other three overlords, Wacko had been the first to arrive, accompanied, naturally, by his wife.
If they had thought the other two would be any less strange than the beauty-admiring couple, they'd have been sorely disappointed.
Undying Man was, in Lolidragon's words, a cockroach – the only player beside Luna herself to never had died in-game, going so far as stuffing back his intestine to avoid dying during a fight… But despite his title as strongest player, what really stood out was how unlucky in love he was – the man had supposedly been rejected more than 3000 times since the game had gone live.

And indeed – Undying Man had made a remarked entrance in Infinity's stronghold by proposing to all of Rose, Fairsky and Yu Lian at the same time.
Needless to say, he'd added three more “no” to his record.
“These eyes can't possibly be natural.” Prince whispered as he involuntarily took a step back from the gleaming, crying gaze
“I've asked the GM who created his avatar.” Lolidragon whispered, looking torn between wanting to run as far as possible and slam the other overlord head's against the nearest wall, “They are real.”
Prince didn't have the time to protest – as a slender warrior was striding toward them, examining the walls, paintings, and even the throne with awe.

Winter Triumph, the Southern Lord, had arrived – and true to his reputation, you could hear his brain calculating the price of everything around him.
That is, until he stopped in his tracks as he saw Yu Lian, “Ah! Yu! Why did you resign without any warning? Everyone misses you so much! Hurry and come back to the department, life without you is like missing an arm… We've lost money, Lilian! Lost Money!”
Then Disi, the lord's sister, and just as famous team-mate eyed the figure that had been trying to hide behind Odd Squad's first mage, “Ah! Princess! This is why you left Yu? To look after the princess?”
Doll sighed at the loud exclamation that had attracted everyone's attention on her.

It was Prince that stepped forward, “You are rather rude.” he casually pointed out to Disi, “Real life identities are something you choose to reveal to your friend, not something to be casually announced to everyone as you please.”
“What?” the girl tried to protest, but around her, all the people seemed to agree
Even her brother had calmed down from his adoring glazing at Infinity's City wealth to drag her by his side, dropping into a bow, “You are absolutely right, Bloody Overlord.”
Not stopping at the new nickname, the warrior smiled, “Please call me Prince, and welcome to Infinity City. I wish the situation had been better, but I'm afraid we've called you here to share so rather dire news.”

With that, all the lords and their councils were seated, and Lolidragon had taken the show over, explaining how someone was trying to take Second Life over by setting up the NPC against the players after managing to create not one but several AI.
“You have to understand that right now those AIs are hostile only because they don't know any better.” she tried to put emphasis on, “Most of them, as intelligent as they can be, are between a few days and months old, they are children that a terrorist is aiming at us.”
The comparison was working, Odd Squad was relieved to note.
“But as it is, the enemy is dangerous, as he's trying to take over the most powerful AI in Second Life, it's ending Boss, and the one who's in charge of most of the inner workings of the game. Should he manage to take the Dictator of Life out of the game, it wouldn't be simply Second Life that would be at risk, but the world.”
“How does it concern us?” couldn't help but ask White Bird, “We are but players.”

“We are the most powerful people of Second Life.” Prince answered, “And also this world's only chance. Second Life's company has given us an ultimatum.”
“In twenty-one days, Second Life will be definitely shut down.” Lolidragon took over once more, the affirmation stunning everyone
“For those newly awakened AI, those children, it's a death sentence since this is their world. But while it's not a death sentence for us, Second Life is still a part of our life.” the bloody elf smoothly continued, “IRL I'm a nobody teenager, but here, I've met true friends, learned more about myself than I thought possible… Here, with my people by my side, I've created Infinity city!”
The other three lords nodded – they too had accomplished much in the game, after all.

“I've fought side by side with other players. And even AI.”
This time, even the people from Infinity City were stunned – but all three NPC had insisted on being revealed before the man behind the Dictator of Life could do it for them.
“I'm Kenshin, I was the Boss of the Demon Cave in the Eastern Continent.” the warrior said first, in what was an uncharacteristically long sentence for him “I've awakened nearly a year and a half ago, during the beta-testing phase.
“I'm Sunshine! I was a hidden Boss! I've awakened six months ago!” the Arabian prince waved happily
“And I'm Caellus.” gasps from Wacko and DanDan were heard as they recognized him, “I'm the Celestial Boss, and I've awakened a week ago!”

Nan Gong Zui laughed loudly, “Alright, I admit I was a bit dubious when you said that the self-aware NPC were no different from us… But we've been living with them for months without realizing it! If that's not a proof, I don't know what is!”
Team Rose was turning toward their thief, “Fairsky?”
“I knew.” the girl confirmed her team, “When I told Sunshine I was in love with him, and he refused me, I insisted. That's when he told me. I don't care!”
“They are a cute couple.” a voice confirmed somewhere among the department leaders
“Alright. So yeah, I would feel rather bad about all those people just… dying…” White Rose admitted, “But what can we do?”
“Right now, Dictator of Life is quarantined in the Northern Continent. The good news is, as long as he's stuck there, he's not a danger to the real world. The bad news is as long as he's stuck there, we can't access any of his data from real-life, he's managed to protect himself completely, the Northern Continent is as good as a stronghold from a hacking point-of-view.”

“So we've got to go there in-game?”
“We have. And it won't be without risks. He's installed a program called HD on the armies he's rising, which destroys a player avatar when he is killed.”
“Oh, so this is what happened to the Flower Lord?”
“It is. What we have to do is go there, and neutralize him.”
“How? Won't it be as good as killing him?”
“We've already started to work on a variant of the HD that would instead freeze a NPC. Not kill it, nor destroy it, but simply stuck them in a low-life state. With this, a team IRL should be able to track the hacker before he abandons him.” Gui was the one to answer
“While the society can't do much to help us, since most of the game is managed either automatically or by the Dictator of Life, they've managed to patch new training-grounds in all the capital cities of the four continents not under NPC control where there's a permanent XP boost, and no penalty to death.” Lolidragon added

“So war, eh.” Undying Man guessed, before standing up quickly, “Alright, I'm heading back to the Eastern Continent, you're right Prince, I've no wish to lose my country, and my friends!”
Wacko and Winter Triumph had accepted the next moment.
Before leaving, all had agreed to check on each other's progress IRL, thanks to Second Life official page.
After that, word spread – and people started pouring into Infinity City just as well as the other three capital cities, all players ready to protect the world they so enjoyed living in.

¤.¤.¤

Lolidragon's child analogy had really worked well, helping negate most of the ill-will toward the NPC that were fighting for their own right to life, and thanks to that, a few more self-aware NPC not aligned with Long Dian had come out of the woods, helping even more.
After all, it was a bit difficult to hate the waitress you'd shared so many jokes with, or the archer that had saved your life a few times around a training ground…
Ship builders were hired to make boats to carry the armies to the Northern Continent, while even people who hadn't been interested in the war between cities were ready to take a stand. A few decades back, this probably wouldn't have worked as well – but they lived in a world where 90% of the population, from the younger children to the oldest senior citizens, spent as much time online with their friends than in the real world.

“Do you think we'll win?” Prince sighed as he eyed the Goal Update that had appeared when Luna had announced her findings
Odd Squad may have been putting up a confident front, the truth was more dire than they'd let on.
While the NPC-freezer, the NF, Gui, and the programmers from Second Life were working on was looking rather good, it seemed to be less and less efficient the more powerful the NPC was.
Kenshin, Caellus and Sunshine had all volunteered themselves as testers for the program, and it only worked a few seconds on them.

Gui had admitted having also seen a ND, a NPC-destroyer, in the files of Second Life. A program that would not only destroy the avatar using it, but also take an NPC with him – permanently.
“Do you intend to fail?” Tsukiko asked back
The warrior sighed, then eyed the eight-headed snake in front of them.
“I don't.”
His eyes hardened, as he admitted, “I guess hiding my identity isn't reasonable anymore, eh.”

“What?” the comment was from Lolidragon, “What do you mean?”
“Don't tell me you haven't realized…” the warrior eyed his team, “The Dictator of Life knows all that goes on in Second Life, doesn't he?”
“Yeah.”
“So even this invasion we're preparing is known from him. Any tactic we'd come up with here, he'd know of immediately. We've got to meet IRL.”
“You're right.” Doll nodded, “I'll talk my parents into letting me come to T City.”
“Why T City?” Yun wondered, “Not that I mind, eh, it's where I live but…”
“Most of us are there, as are Second Life's headquarters.”
“Oh right.”

Luna had shared her penthouse postal address – and the next day, Odd Squad was assembled in her living room.
“You're late, Xiao Dao.” Tsukiko commented matter-of-factly as the flat's door opened to let in the last missing member
“Sorry, I had a leach on my steps I didn't manage to shake until recently!” Xiao Lan sighed as she avoided the throwing knife coming her way without missing a bit, under the rest of the Squad's stunned eyes
“Is it me… Or are Luna's training methodS the same IRL?” Wolf asked Yu Lian
“They're worse IRL.” Xiao Lan corrected with a sigh, “Definitely worse!”
The team shuddered, and just like that, the ice was broken.

“So. What's the plan?”
“We have to find a way to bring Prince to the Dictator of Life.”
“Not that it wasn't my intention but… Why me?”
Lolidragon sighed, then admitted, “We've managed to take a better look at what has been happening to the Dictator of Life. I already had my doubts, but apparently he's obsessed by you.”
“Er?”
“I had an inkling first when you looted your dao.”
“So long ago?”

“This weapon of yours isn't any weapon, Xiao Lan.” Lolidragon – or rather Long Shui Han explained, “It's identical to the Dictator of Life's own.”
“Oh.”
“And MeatBun was supposed to be a Howling Wolf, he's the one who changed it to give you something cuter yet still useful.”
“So you think I'll have more chance of hitting him with the NF because of that?”
“Yes.” a sigh, “The company has also asked that you carry a ND with you too.”
“I will.” the girl agreed easily, surprising them, “It doesn't mean I'll use it.” a smile, “There's only one thing I must tell you while we're still between us.”

With a smile, she called for Odd Squad's Tab, and sent invites to all those that weren't yet linked to Chaos Game. She'd talked about it with Tsukiko before, and the ookami had agreed to explain the barest basics – the truth about the magical world would come if and when necessary, too many shock at once wasn't necessarily a good idea, and that knowledge not really essential right now.
“What the…”
“This is Chaos Game.” Tsukiko answered easily, “This is something I was born with.”
“Born with?” Wolf – Lee Tian Lang – repeated, “No wonder you told me you'd never played another MMO before. There was no point to it.”
“But then, what made you try Second Life?”

“Why, a quest in Chaos Game of course.” the Moon Hime answered with an amused smile, “A quest that was telling me meeting some people in a game could change the fate of the world.”
“Alright. so clearly, you've shared this with Xiao Lan before, probably because you've been training her?”
“Precisely.”
“But why the rest of us now?”
“For one, because it beats checking our phone every five minutes, Second Life's System is integrated to Chaos owns.” the druid answered, “And secondly, to reassure you.”
With three mental commands, three familiar silhouette appeared.

“This… Oh my god! Kenshin, Sunshine, Caellus!” Lolidragon shrieked happily
The other's reactions weren't as loud – but just as enthusiastic as they crowded the trio happily
After that Odd Squad now with all of its member presents settled back down to plan.
University in T City had already been suspended – like in many shops and other workplaces, so many people were skipping to stay connected to Second Life that most countries had all but declared some official state holidays for the nineteen remaining days before Second Life's company's deadline.

The Squad would be taking advantage of that spare time to train just as much IRL than in the game, all coming to the countryside mansion of the Japanese Heiress for those nearly three weeks. The morning would be spent training with Chaos Game, then a couple of hours would be spent in Infinity City to check on the on-line preparations, back to IRL training for the rest of the afternoon, then they'd connect in the evening like usual for some more in-game training and organizing.
Avoiding discussing their plans in-game had proved a good idea when they realized that the sea had been filled with dangerous sea creatures, and all the player-cities were filled with peaceful NPC – with the clear message from the AI's four lieutenants that all those creatures would become much more violent should an invasion occur.

“So the seas are closed.”
“What about the air then?”
“Can we even build something that would fly?”
“Why don't we just teleport?”
“Teleportation doesn't work in Second Life.”
“Well, technically, NPC are teleported all the time.” Prince contradicted, “And any summoner or necromancer ability is a form of teleportation too. Can't we like… modify those spells?”

“Like some sort of reverse summoning?”
“Precisely! We find a summoner that has some summon from the Northern Continent, then other mages to give a power boost, and instead of calling a monster to us, we make them send us to the monsters.”
“This… this is something we should be able to implement with a patch.” nodded, “Of course, we'd have to prepare people to do this off-line, otherwise the Dictator or Life will catch on to us, but it should be possible.”

¤.¤.¤

Messages had been sent on the Second Life official page's, and soon, people from all continents were confirming their participation.
On all four continent, Summoning Rings were being carved on the ground, which would then act as teleportation ring to several training-grounds around Flower City. It was of course purely theoretical for now – the technique only working once the correct patch would be implemented, at the last second before the battle.
Around the world, people had realized from Odd Squad's official communication that the famous team were training together IRL too, and quite a few people had followed suit. It was the first time in humanity's History that real life and virtual life found themselves becoming one and the same for quite a few people.
Interestingly enough, it had let to quite a few in-game weddings to be confirmed IRL.

In the next following days, Odd Squad came to realize that Xiao Lan hadn't lied when she'd said that Tsukiko's training was worst with Chaos Game than in-game.
Because after all, IRL, the ookami didn't have to restrain quite a bit of her abilities, even without reverting to her daiyoukai appearance. And so she'd run them to the ground, making them go through the Challenges and Boss fights of the Arena System Tab mercilessly.
Since she couldn't give her attention to all of them alone, those that Xiao Lan knew to be her pack and guardians elements had come to pitch in, all of Odd Squad members finding themselves paired with them.
Xiao Lan, of course, was working with Tsukiko like always – but she'd been rather stunned to see Ryoichi take Gui to the side, suddenly wondering what would occur to the poor bard.

The genius had finished the first day looking even worse than she had on her first one's – but his eyes were resolute enough that the warrior refrained from asking the kitsune to go easy on him, and instead took out the bruise balm she still had, offering to help. She'd eyed the teacher cluelessly as he blushed deep red before he accepted – it wasn't the first time she same him nearly naked, after all.
Of course, the naïve girl hadn't remembered the fact that whether he knew her to be female or not, the bard was still used to seeing her in a male body on-line.

Doll had been taken under Kagome's wing, the kind but powerful priestess having the advantage of training someone who, just like Prince, was in the known about the magical world.
Jing and Lilian had been taken to the side by Miroku and Kanna while Yun had met Silvana Argento, an ethereal blond that looked like a Fae.
Tian Lang, Xiao Lan was stunned to realize, was trained by Ryu himself. Given how the dragon seemed to enjoy himself, she couldn't help but wonder if the kind wolf wouldn't end up with the famous chakra singling out a dragon's Treasures before long…
As for Arctic Fox, the cold warrior had indeed come too, and even if he wasn't saying anything, Xiao Lan was more and more convinced the man had to be in the known about the magical world, as he and Shippou had shared a glance and went their own way for training.

Most of the Squad had been around the level 20 to 30 IRL when they'd unlocked Chaos Game – just like Xiao Lan herself had been – except for Arctic Fox, comforting once more the teenager about her suspicions.
Without any surprise, since she was but a couple of levels away, she'd been the first to hit the level 50, fox apart.
“Er... What's a Tail Perk?”
“It's a powerful ability unlocked upon a certain level.”
“Just like the nine-tails of a kitsune?” Gui wondered
“Precisely.”
The teenager eyed the propositions.
When Tsukiko had said powerful, she hadn't been lying!

[Two-Tail Perks
- Fate's Awakened: as one of Fate's Chosen who's accepted her destiny, you gain XP faster in Second Life (+25% permanently in-game)
- Children of Two World: all abilities and skill levels from Second Life are transferred to real life, and vice versa, with the highest score kept when the skills overlap
- Team Symbiosis: you've spent so much time watching your team-mates doing their Job, you've unlocked that knowledge for yourself (unlocks a second Job in Second Life)

available: 1]

After some inner debating, she settled on Children of Two Worlds– and the next second confirmed that the fire affinity she'd gained and raised ever since becoming Prince had indeed transferred over, not to mention the proficiency level she had in-game, that still was higher for the most esoteric moves, contrarily to the simpler moves that she had  mastered  much more IRL.
Within the week, all the others had unlocked their second Tail Perk, and Xiao Lan was rather sure that Gui and his genius mind had been eyeing the princess with the beginning of understanding in his eyes ever since the concept of Tail Perk had been mentioned.
While all were checking on their own departments or ongoing tasks during the midday pause, Tsukiko was regularly dropping to the Northern Continent. Which was why after twelve days of training she came back to announce, “The Dictator of Life's state is growing worse, if we don't separate him from Long Dian now, he'll die.”

¤.¤.¤

“Lolidragon how long to implement the patch if the programmers start now?”
“About eight hours.”
“Send the word then.”
The thief nodded, and logged off immediately, while the rest of Odd Squad was making a general announcement online – soberly announcing that the Job Update patch would go online in eight hours.
Because of course – the main change was the reverse ability the Summoners were about to unlock, but all classes would be gaining at least one new skill, with all details already available on the game's official site for all to know everything about.

Mostly, it was efficient passives, that wouldn't require much to get used to – an elemental affinity that could be used to enhance their weapon to non-magical classes, mana regeneration amelioration for the mages, and so on… Small details, all those changes – but details that once accumulated should help tremendously the fighting forces.
Not to mention, of course, a NF on everyone.

Eight hours and a reboot later, the severs of Second Life were heating up, as never before, not even on the launching day, had so many logged-in at the same time.
On every continent, the Summoning teams fanned around the magical circles, the main summoner calling his new ability first, following by the supporting mages one after the other, the circle, larger than any other circle ever seen in-game, slowly powering up – before fully activating with a flash of light.
Maintaining the circle alight with one hand, gulping a mana potion with the second, the summoner called “Clear!”
With that, all the armies proceeded to enter the circles, going in team by team, all of them ready for the training-grounds they'd end up in.

The southern soldiers arrived in the snow leopard toundra near the southern gate of Flower city, the western soldiers in the snowy owl's peaks, not too far from the western gate, the eastern soldiers ended up in the wild unicorns steppes just by the eastern gate and finally, central forces landed in the howling wolves forests by the northern gate.
The NPC hadn't expected to be attacked within the very heart of their territory, thanks to most of the leg-work about the upcoming battle having been done outside the game itself, but they still pulled themselves together, the Four Heavenly Kings, the most powerful self-aware NPC under the Dictator of Life's orders, each leading the NPC to protect the four gates.

It was Ocean's Heart, the water spirit, who had come to the northern gate, and clearly he was the one fighting the most tenaciously as one by one, PM had come from Wacko, Winter Triumph and Undying Man about their victory against respectively Flowing Wind, Clay Child and Scorching Flame.
The four heavenly kings were the main concern as, very obviously, the NPC they were leading in battle weren't self-aware contrarily to them – so fighting them to a stand-still without killing them was a delicate balance to strike.
Once the NF activated on the weakened NPC, the mages had rushed in to apply the standard prisoners charms used in the cities – magical manacles that locked most of the fighting and magical abilities of the players, and were among the spells that had been modified to work on NPC just like on players. After all, if they were just as aware as the players, there was to reason for them not to be submitted to the same rules as them.

While the rest of the NPC were less complicated to fight in that they hadn't to worry about not killing them, they also had the problem of endlessly re-spawning – but of course, the players had been aware of that, and had all assembled around Flower City's Central Tower, where they'd speculated the Dictator of life to be holed up in – then set up for a reverse siege.
After all, they didn't have to kill all the NPC, just to hold on until the Dictator of Life could be dealt with.
Seeing they weren't managing to pin down Ocean's Heart, the central forces decided to rush the NPC – which did work this time, as the water spirit had simply evaded the next attack, expecting them to press on the strike when instead they'd slipped around him to head toward the central square where the rest of the troops were ready to assist them.

Ocean Heart arrived at the place where NPCs and players were fighting, a step behind Prince.
Silence fell on the plaza, as all NPCs stopped their assault, and the doors of the tower opened, letting the tall, red-haired silhouette of the Dictator of Life appear.
“So you've come.”
“Of course we have.” Prince smiled, “This world is ours just as much as yours.”
“As much?” a chained Scorching Fire protested heatedly, “Rubbish! This is our world, not your! Ours! You have your own world, fucking arrogant humans!”
“We're the ones who've created this world, though.” Prince commented, “You would be nothing without the humans who decided to make this world a reality.”

“How arrogant!”
“Oh, I'm not saying I could be intelligent enough to do the same.” Prince shrugged “Long Dian maybe a mad man, he's a genius mad man.” a smile, “But we are open to sharing this world.”
“Share?” it was Flowing Wind that interjected this time, “Do you really think the rest of the world will just accept our existence? You don't see us as real people, only as a bunch of ones and zeros!”
“Actually given the wording of the International Act for the Right of Beings…” Luna smiled, “As long as you can prove your status as sentient beings, you will be given the same rights as any other people.” she eyed Ocean Heart, “Something you'd have realized if you'd actually tried to help the NPCs rather than use them.”

The only free spirit froze at the sentence, his three shackled partners eyeing him interrogatively at the sentence's rather clear implications
Ocean Heart's expression grew tumultuous, then he laughed raucously, “Heh! Realized it, eh? I guess humans really are better than NPC!” he eyed the Dictator of Life, “Kill them!”
“You promised I wouldn't have to hurt Prince, father!” the other protested
Prince had already drawn his blade – not his familiar black dao, as with the realization that it was the Dictator of Life itself that had given it to her, they'd easily deducted that fighting the AI with his own weapon wouldn't be very efficient.

“This isn't a blade I recognize.” the red-haired AI noted immediately,
“You wouldn't,” Prince confirmed, “I've never used it in Second Life.” a smile, “I'll take your gift back once we've freed you.”
The affirmation made the other's eyes widen at the implications – he hadn't realized the humans knew about his struggle.

¤.¤.¤

In the plaza, people waited with bated breath as the Dictator of Life and Prince crossed blade for the first time – then, a flurry of strikes were taken and given, the AI noting amicably in a lull of the fight, “You're really the strangest and most interesting human I've ever seen.”
“Why are all people always intent on calling me strange?” the warrior wondered
While he was fighting, the other overlords had taken over the fight against Ocean Heart.
Seeing as he was loosing ground, the other called “Dictator of Life! Head my words!”

“Please no father!” the AI eyed Prince frantically, “Please kill me before it's too late!” he pointed at the middle of his brow, “This is my weak point, one hit, and I'll die!”
“No, no, no, there's got to be a way to delay this!”
“He'll take my body over!” the red-haired contradicted, clearly growing desperate
“We won't let him!” Prince contradicted, eyeing Luna, who nodded before jumping behind the AI.
Letting his blade go, the warrior rushed toward the stunned AI, snaking his arms against the other with a call of “NF, activate!”
At the same moment, Luna had rushed to the back, calling a “NPC reset, activate!”

Of course, there was no such program – but this, only Odd Squad knew – eyes closed, the Moon Hime let her mind sink into the lines of code, working as fast as she could.
Cutting the Dictator of Life free from his creator – not managing completely as she had to work so fast.
Still, she'd managed to cut Long Dian from the Dictator of Life's ability to control Second Life, and managed to free his personality too. She fell to her knees as she realized the meddling had worn her more than expected – apparently, human and AI had been well on their way to merging, and separating both had been edging into the godly domain.

“You!”
Thankfully, Ryoichi was ready to jump in, as Ocean Heart managed to escape the three fighters and rush toward her, furious, “What did you do!”
But even faster than her mate, had been the red-haired AI, that in a gentle move had both pushed Prince aside, and parried the incoming attack.
“She freed me.”

[Goal update: find Long Dian]

The water spirit suddenly went from spitting mad to laughing wildly, “All this just to save some NPC? And you even freed me to achieve it!”
With that, Ocean Heart's disappeared in a pillar of light, and Lolidragon called “He's managed to log-off, like he said you've managed to save Second Life, but he's still managed to get away with the processing powers of an AI. Right now, Long Dian has free reigns on the net, he could do anything IRL.” the thief prevented panic by adding, “But since we already were on to him, programmers have been tracking him since the beginning of the fight… Meet me at Second Life Headquarters.”

The rest of the team nodded, Prince eyeing Whit Rose nearby, “Madam, you're in charge of Central until we take care of Long Dian.”
“I would like to mention that it's something better left to the cops… But somehow I don't think you'd listened.” the female warrior commented
“Wait!” Nan Gong Zui interjected, “Wait for me, I'll come!”
“Me too!” those were Wicked and Wu Qing
“Count me in too.” Fairsky added
Winter Triumph turned toward his sister, “Disi..”
“Go protect the princess.” the other nodded, “I'll take care of things online.”

Then, it was the Dictator of Life himself who asked “Could you download my data somewhere? I want to witness this to the end…” a sigh, “He is my father after all…”
Prince hesitated, then turned toward Luna, “Do you think…”
“You'll be the one taking care of him.” the druid admonished
“Of course.”
“Leave a clone behind to start and to clean up this mess.” she told the AI, “And follow us.”
With that, Odd Squad entered the Tower – as soon as they were out of sigh, the white fox warned, “I'm going to meddle with your code. Don't resist, and it'll be easier for the both of us.”
The AI observed her with curiosity – but he'd felt earlier what she'd done, so he nodded his agreement, before the young goddess was once more delving into powers that weren't her own.

Moments later, the AI was tied to Prince, and as soon as they all came off-line, the warrior was summoning him alongside Sunshine.
“So apparently,” Xiao Lan winked, “magic doesn't only exist in Second Life.” a smile, “Come, we'll see this to the end.”
Within half an hour, Odd Squad had met up with Fairsky, Nan Gong Zui, Winter Triumph, Wicked and Wu Qing at Second Life headquarters.
The president had already set some fighting equipment out.
“Military-grade light armor, both defensive, and enhances the wearer's agility. And power gloves to enhance strength. This is good equipment.” Nan Gong Zui was the one to realize – and what a surprise the warrior's appearance had been, the man being quite baby-faced and looking years younger than he really was “What?” he added at the surprised glances he was earning, “I'm a cop.”

Tsukiko eyed the equipment, and turned toward an arriving Arctic Fox “Kit.”
The other bowed, “Hime.”
“Restrictions can be lifted, I'm taking responsibility to read them in.”
“Hai, Taishou-Hime-sama!”
With that, the black hair receded to the same white as Tsukiko's own as both let their illusion drop.
“I knew he had to be a fox too.” Xiao Lan nodded too in the middle of the pandemonium
“I'm not a fox.” the ookami reminded, “And please call Dictator… we've really got to shorten his name… and Sunshine.”
“Every kitsune I've met agrees to say you're as much a fox as any of them.” the teenager contradicted while he did as asked, just as Doll and Tsukiko called Kenshin and Caellus

“So.” Tsukiko voice cut amidst the chaos, “Since lowering our abilities doesn't seem like a good idea with an idiot having the nuclear codes hanging around… I'm a wolf youkai, an ookami, Arctic fox is a real kitsune, and yes, about anything magical you can think about does actually exist.”
With this reminder that the situation was rather time-sensitive, the humans were gearing up – except Xiao Lan, who'd been stopped by Tsukiko herself, who'd instead told her to equip the gear she'd been using with the Moon Hime.
As for Gui, he'd picked one of the firearms just as expertly as Nan Gong Zui, confirming Xiao Lan hunch that the kitsune had taught more than archery to the bard.

¤.¤.¤

The party of fifteen rushed toward the position the programmers had managed to find – in the outskirt of the city, in a nearly abandoned old industrial sector.
As if to confirm they hadn't missed their target, a large robot had rushed them before most of them had even exited the hoovercar.
The poor car was cut in two by the heavy fist, but all had managed to jump out of the vehicle before it met its fate. Xiao Lan, Arctic Fox and Kenshin had rushed toward the enemy without missing a beat.

“This is real life!” Wicked couldn't help but protest, “Be careful, Xiao Lan!”
“You worry too much, Zhuo-gege!” the girl laughed as she dodged a bullet as large as her fist, “This guy doesn't have anything on Tsuki-chan's training!”
Gui had managed to find a good position, and take his shot – the small projectile touching a joint, slowing down the robot sensibly.
“Well, Ryo-dono has done some good work with you.” the sword wielding teenager laughed as she hit the very same jointures, completely breaking it
Another robot had appeared, and the white fox had jumped toward it, his own blade in hand, Nan Gong Zui using the same method to help – not quite as effectively as that new enemy was much more advanced than the other robot, smaller but more powerful, and no apparent jointures.

“There's an aircraft incoming.” Tsukiko warned
“How...” Shui Lan interrupted herself, “Right, you're a wolf, I guess you've got better hearing than us.”
“Precisely.” the ookami confirmed
“Well that means he's going to try to make his escape, we've got to get to the roof.” the other speculated
“And some of us should go inside to arrest him.”
“Nan Gong Zui should be the one going inside, he did say he was a policeman.” Doll pointed out, as she called the cop “Follow Lolidragon inside, we'll help!” she shouted, her own weapon aiming at the robot — she was after all trained in all kinds of weapons, for self-defense reasons

Shui Lan and the cop arrived in the room where Long Dian had been hidden just as the man stepped outside, clearly getting ready for the incoming aircraft.
“What happened to you, Long Dian…” the red-haired whispered, clearly stunned — even under the moon light and bleak light of the industrial zone, it was clear that the man was sick
“You know how it is,” he joked weakly, before coughing, “stress builds up, and before I knew it, I had gray hair!”
“Biaoge, I don't know what happened, but please, stop…” the usually strong girl whispered brokenly, the title stunning everyone – no wonder she'd been so conflicted about Long Dian's betrayal if he were her cousin “Please, don't hurt anyone else…”
“Don't hurt anyone else?” the other laughed bitterly, “Then who will stop fate from hurting me?” he coughed again – and this time, blood was visible
The visibly ill man activated a remote control, and another robot appeared, forcing the two of them to fall back – but Xiao Lan had chosen this moment to finish the first robot, and was already rushing to help them.

“I didn't think people could really walk on walls…” Yang Ming mumbled
“You've just learned about magic, you should suspend any disbelief for now.” Fairsky pointed out diplomatically
“I know but… That's my twin sister, it's different!” he protested as the girl landed between Shui Lan and the new robot
At the same moment Arctic Fox had finished the second robot, Tsukiko had jumped, stepping on a shadow in midair, KageShin nearly invisible in the dark – then a large crescent-shaped strike cut the incoming airplane before it could land beside Long Dian, and the man found himself surrounded.

In the wake of the capture, several things we found out.
For Shui Lan, it had been the motivation behind her cousin's actions. Without much surprise given how pale he was, the man was ill – gravely ill, and even with the experimental treatment he was testing, he only had a few months left.
When he'd realized this, he'd decide to find himself a way to survive, using what he knew – programming. That's how the illegal testing came about. When that had failed, and he'd been found out, he'd escaped, but came back by using the AI he'd created – using its ability to self-improve to look for further solutions.

That's when the Dictator of Life had innocently suggested merging with an existing AI. After that, the red-haired AI had started losing control – realizing after a while that it was his creator, his father, who was taking him over. At first, the child hadn't resisted that much, but when Prince had caught his attention, the AI had started resisting, not wanting to hurt the warrior, and thus trying to protect Second Life too.
The thief had been crying when before being taken away, Long Dian had indicated that he'd prepared a last present for the girl – an update for Second Life that had gone live during their confrontation, and that the Dictator of Life hadn't stopped him from implementing.

¤.¤.¤

An update that had removed all restrictions on character creation for players, and given high intelligence to all NPC in-game, and freed them all from the area they used to be restricted to – an update clearly aimed at making them all eventually awake and aware as a few NPC, previously human or not, already had.
With the NPC now free to do whatever they wanted, chaos had arisen around Second Life, and in other circumstances, the company would have probably attempted to shut it down – but between the awakened NPC now counting as sentient beings, not to mention the players' stubbornness, it wasn't so.

A more vanilla version had been soon sent freely to Second Life players throughout the world, called Third Life, and that was more reminiscent of the game before the last update – as after all, Second Life itself was now categorized as the first virtual country in the world and not a game anymore.
Of course, the Dictator of Life was the country's ruler, given that he was all but all-powerful in that world. As a ruler, he was also fully read in about the magical world – learning things only state leaders knew about. But all of Odd Squad had learned about the magical world after that last encounter.

If at first, most of them hadn't felt the same need as Xiao Lan to spend more time there – one after the other, they all ended up spending more time on the magical side of things, without much surprise. Living as Odd Squad in Second Life had made them into unpredictables force of nature, and the mundane world clearly wasn't ready for that.
It had been small things – another pub closed down because of yet another improbable argument between Shui Lan and Yang Ming, an appointment too many between Doll and her council once she'd become queen when she was told a monarch couldn't wed an AI, and so on…
Lilian and Tian Lang were probably the more regular people of the team, having gotten married to each other within the year after Long Dian capture, the tall doctor finding a job in a school in the District and the financial demon taking over the corresponding department when Shui Lan had taken over the company from her fathers. Jing and Yun were working in the same company, helping develop new games that would work in the magical world, and both still stubbornly claimed they weren't a couple, even if everyone knew better.

Xiao Lan for herself hadn't wasted any time – she had learned well from Tsukiko, and went from earning a diploma in Letters to training as a hunter, somehow finding herself partnering up with Arctic Fox. This had lit a fire under Gui – and the rather droll love declarations had all but disappeared, the genius instead taking the course she'd done in three years in one and showing up one day to take her away from the white kitsune. Who had only winked, and left with Kenshin, making the bard remember that fox were indeed well-known for their mischievousness, even if some hid it better than others...
Both couples were wed a few months later.

As for Tsukiko and Ryoichi, they'd waited for things to have calm down enough before heading to Second Life in their true form, to perform the godly duty they'd known was coming.
In an act of holy powers that left both exhausted for years, and made the hit-man earn a few levels to his Arcobaleno Skill, both had given the final impulse to make the NPC into true beings.

Souls had been born in the virtual world, and connected to the reincarnation circle, witnessed only by the Dictator of Life – and the couple of gods knew that now the game turned country was also a complete new world under the deities' protection. The servers and headgear used by the players were now simply a gateway that even if damaged wouldn't destroy Second Life, making the Dictator of Life a minor deity in his own right, and the protector of the world he's seen grow and flourish.

Chapter Text

Epilogue

“Alright, so I'll have to admit, this I didn't expect…” Fate mused as all the deities felt the spark of a new world coming to life

“You had to know that something strange would happen with pointing our Shadow in the direction of that Hero.” Order replied, “After all, this Xiao Lan was already under the blessing of Chaos, of course adding Shadow and Chaos Game in the mix would make things go off the normal path.”
“But what an excellent, unexpected event!” Life added with a thrilled smile, “I mean, my little brother has even created his first world, isn't it moving?”

The Immortal Realms had watched with undisguised interest as Shadow and Light had meddled with the Light Destiny Hero, wondering how they would interact with a chosen one whose fate was minor enough that a regular human would be able to take over her task should she refuse to do it…
Of course, the two young gods hadn't disappointed.
In the midst of the animation created thanks to Light and Shadow, only Order noted Chaos worried expression.

“What's wrong?” the silver-eyed goddess whispered to her usually smiling counter-part that was wearing a somber expression that looked rather out of place on his young face
“Order…” the blue-haired boy raised his head toward her, fear in his voice, “She used my powers.”
“You did give her a minor affinity for it.” his fellow goddess reminded him
“No, no, no, you don't understand…” he contradicted, some panic in his voice, “What she did in Second Life, it was nearly using the full extent of Change, that wasn't a minor feat!” his eyes fell on the viewing mirror where the silhouette of Taishou Tsukiko was visible, and waved a hand making one of the multiple System Tab of Chaos Game appear under the silver-eyed girl “She's grown over the minor affinity limits…” he sighed, “She hasn't realized it but…”

[Holy Affinity skills:
-Soul Art: 100/100* (unlocked at 0/100 in Hallow skill)
-Blood Art: 100/100* (unlocked at 25/100 in Hallow skill)
-Shadow Art: 0/100* (unlocked at 50/100 in Hallow skill)
-Arcane Art: 20/25* (unlocked by being Spiritually attuned)
-Fortune Art: 10/25* (unlocked by being Intuitively attuned)
-Elemental Art: 15/25* (unlocked by being Cosmically attuned)
- Revolution Art: 30/25* (unlocked by being Dynamically attuned)]

Order knew Chaos well enough to realize what was his problem. Even if she didn't admit to it, she'd helped her fellow godly entity go through multiple RPG and other games when they were bored, before Shadow and Light ascended; something that had probably inspired the golden-eyed entity by her side when he'd made his suggestion and created Chaos Game.

For most people the numbers of the Revolution Art may be random, and a simple error — but she knew how Chaos had thought up the numbers behind the holy affinity. 100 for a full control over the power achievable only by a high deity whose main powers this was; 75 for a high affinity like a high deity with a strong secondary could achieve or a lower deity with a powerful primary ability; 50 for a medium affinity like a secondary affinity for a lower deity and 25 for blessed people and other deities.
Breaking thought the limitation by herself meant Shadow could already be developing a secondary affinity as a goddess rather than simply benefiting from her fellow gods' blessings – and that really was headache inducing indeed, Order realized.

Even gods weren't immune to a broken mind, and gaining that many strong powers, that quickly – that was a sure recipe for disaster…
The silver-eyed glazed at her fellow god worryingly.
Because of their harsh nature, Death and Chaos powers didn't mesh well – and there was a reason why they were the two higher deities with the smallest number of lower deities under them.
A god with both of their powers?

They had never lasted long, and both gods had tried to avoid this exact scenario from occurring for millennia…
Ever since, the last of their shared child's mind had broken under the strain of their cumulated gifts.
With a sigh, she settled against the shoulder of the blue-haired child.
“She has exceeded all expectations ever since she became one of us, Chaos.” she whispered reassuringly despite her own growing worry, “She will this time too.”