When Han Sung-hyuk and Calvin had left, I sat on the balustrade of an upper balcony of the palace, looking out across red rooftops like undulating hills. To one side, the ocean stretched out glittering to the horizon. To the other side, beyond the city, were mountains and deep green jungle.

  “I’m sorry, I know you’re avoiding me,” Jesse said, “but you don’t seem well.”

  “I’m not.” I didn’t turn around. “I mean, I’m avoiding you, and I’m not well.”

  She walked up beside me, leaning on the railing to contemplate the scene before the palace. “You finally put the hoodie on.”

  “It smells like Peach,” I said brazenly. It did, a sweet peach perfume, similar to the sour candies that I would buy after school to share with Tommy when I was a student. They were our favourites.

  “Mm. You do seem close with her.”

  “Is that a problem?” I asked, more aggressively than I had intended.

  “Why would it be?” Jesse asked mildly, immediately making me feel stupid.

  “No reason.”

  She glanced over her shoulder at Wen Yong and Angry_Birb, whispering to each other. “He’s smart. He got Angry_Birb on side, and he has everyone else off-balance with his friendliness.”

  “Why’s it such a big deal that he got Angry_Birb as a friend? That guy’s just a netkama anyway.”

  “Is it really so bad that he’s a guy playing as a girl?”

  “It’s weird. It’s predatory.”

  Jesse shrugged. “Not necessarily. He could just be having fun. And isn’t it actually better this way? Girls in gaming often get creeps after them. It’s kind of funny for another guy to be the one attracting the creeps. Helpful, even.”

  “I doubt he did it for altruistic reasons.”

  “Probably. But did he do it for malicious reasons?”

  I had no answer. I stood up suddenly on the balustrade, making Jesse flinch.

  I roared.

  “Is that the first scream you’ve made since you could make noise again?” Jesse asked, when I clambered back down.

  “Could you tell?”

  “Yeah, buddy.”

  I punched her arm.

  She barely moved. “What was that for?”

  “You’re infuriating. Why are you making me agree with the guy I hate the most? You’ve got such a moral high horse.”

  She laughed. There was a faint hollowness in the sound that I had not heard before. “I’m sorry.”

  “Why do you do it?”

  “Act like I have a moral advantage?” With a small smile, Jesse hummed thoughtfully. “You get a lot of time to think when… Well, I don’t want to force my beliefs on anyone, I just feel them very strongly. You can take them or leave them.”

  “A lot of time to think when…?”

  She leaned forward until her chin was on her arms, folded on the railing. “I’m a paraplegic, in the real world.”

  “You…?”

  “My legs. I was surfing off Oahu in my early twenties. Came off the board, hit my back. When I came to, in the hospital, I was paralysed from the waist down.”

  I thought of that strange swaggering way Jesse had walked, when I first met her. She was relearning how to walk.

  “I spent a lot of time just… thinking. A lot of time being angry. A lot of time crying. I was an active person and suddenly I couldn’t walk? After a while, I came to terms with it. I had to. I wanted to keep living. I wanted to be happy.”

  Happy.

  “I don’t deserve to be happy,” I heard myself say, distantly.

  “Yes, you do,” Jesse said gently.

  “I… Ugh… No, this isn’t about me… I’m sorry.”

  “I didn’t tell you this to get your pity, Mik Tsaam. I told you this to get your understanding.” Jesse finally looked at me, but I continued to avoid her gaze. “I made my peace with my legs already.”

  I tucked myself into a ball, and began to cry. Jesse's hand rested warmly on my head a moment later. “It's okay.”

  “Why are you comforting me?” I demanded through ugly sobs.

  “Because you're still processing what's happened to you.” Her face crumpled. “I'm sorry. I wanted to... That shouldn't have happened to you.”

  “I hate this,” I cried. “My friends are dying and I was forced by this creepy game to… with Calvin… He’s my friend, between us there’s never been… And I know he and Peach… And now this game wants us to kill Peach?” My words came out in an incoherent mess. “Where’s Tommy…? I just want my best friend…”

  Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website.

  Jesse said cautiously, “I’m not trying to suggest anything, but have you looked at the Kill Feed?”

  “I checked. None of the names sound like something Tommy would use.”

  “Then he probably didn’t get pulled into the game.”

  “That’s… Good. I’m glad.” I scrubbed my eyes and sniffed. “I feel like I’ve been pushing Tommy’s role on Peach, and I feel bad about that.”

  “Talk to her about it when we find her.”

  “So what do we do about them?” I glanced at Wen Yong and Angry_Birb. The former caught me looking, and gave me a polite smile. Lee Wai Meng was frantically looking at things on his administrator’s window, off to one side.

  “Keep them on side, but stay wary,” Jesse said, gloomily. She turned and stretched her back over the railing, groaning as her spine cracked.

  “I could just tip you over the side,” I observed.

  “Sure, do it,” she said, closing her eyes. Observing her, vulnerable to the world, made something inside me itch uncomfortably, and I had to move to make it go away. I jumped down from the railing and walked back inside.

  I could feel her eyes on my back, watching me go.

  Lee Wai Meng looked up as I approached, his eyes bloodshot, teal hair wildly sticking up where he had been clutching it.

  “Anything?”

  “I can’t really change anything this time. My Administrator access is limited.” His eyes were unfocused as he turned them back towards the empty space where I assumed his game window was. “What the hell is the point of this role…?”

  “Can you tell information about the players?”

  “Some stuff. I can see what class everyone is. I can’t see everyone’s abilities though. Or what equipment they have.” His eyes flicked towards me briefly. “Are you…?”

  “I’m fine.” I said, wearing a bright red hoodie over my blood-stained robes.

  “I’m… I’m really sorry, Mik Tsaam. I wanted to change the last scenario more.”

  “You did what you could.” I shrugged and tried not to think too hard about it, tried to squash the nausea. “What’s everyone’s classes?”

  He cleared his throat flamboyantly. “So you’re an Apostle, right? Okay, and Calvin is a War Engineer –”

  “That’s… what he told me in the last scenario,” I remembered, and the nausea threatened to spill out of me. I clenched my stomach.

  “Yep. And… Striking_Red_Crane is a Strategist.”

  “What does that mean?”

  “It’s a Cleric class derivative. He would have picked up a bunch of deception skills.”

  “I thought so.” I glared in Wen Yong’s direction, and suddenly wondered, “Do you think he has a skill to eavesdrop on us over here?”

  “There is a skill that can do that,” said Lee Wai Meng, scrolling. “So he might.”

  “Great. Well he can listen to this: Wen Yong can keep trying to play nice, but it doesn’t change the fact that he murdered Rohan. Also, I know for a fact that in real life, he’s a middle-aged uncle with a pot belly and a bald patch.”

  “Ooh, really?” Lee Wai Meng tittered behind his hand. We glanced back at Wen Yong and I swear I saw a muscle twitch in his cheek, but he continued to speak to Angry_Birb, so it was impossible to tell if he had heard us.

  “He’s got a good poker face,” I muttered, gesturing for Lee Wai Meng to follow me back outside to where Jesse was.

  “Nice try, Maria.” Lee Wai Meng kept scrolling as he walked. “Jesse is a Ranger –”

  “Sure am,” Jesse agreed as we pulled up beside her.

  “Han Sung-hyuk is a Dark Summoner.”

  “I guess it suits him,” I said.

  Jesse laughed.

  “What?”

  “What you said could be taken so many different ways.”

  “What do you mean?”

  She shook her head, amused, and wouldn’t answer me.

  “Angry_Birb is a… Healer?” Lee Wai Meng stuck his face close to his game window and squinted, as if that might change what was written there. “What the hell? I’ve never seen him use a Healing skill!”

  “It really fits with the image he’s made, though,” Jesse observed. “A cute and demure healer girl. Makes sense.”

  “Ugh.” I rolled my eyes.

  “And Peach… she’s a… Stage Hand? Oh, interesting. So it’s a derivative of the Artificer class.”

  “That’s kind of strange,” Jesse said, although she was still watching Wen Yong and Angry_Birb. “I thought she was a streamer too. Did someone say she does song covers? You would think she would be some kind of Performer rather than a backstage assistant.”

  “Maybe she decided using other skills to be more useful than being a performer,” I suggested.

  “Could be. What is it, Wai Meng?”

  Lee Wai Meng had fallen oddly quiet. He was staring at something on his game window. “Hey… Mik Tsaam…”

  “They’re back!” Jesse said suddenly, twisting to face over the railing. On the long approach to the palace, three people were walking.

  “How did they find her so quickly?” I asked, rushing to the railing too.

  “I gave them a tracking item,” Jesse said. She looked relieved. “It could be used to track a single person, no matter where they are.”

  “That’s OP.”

  “That’s why it was a one-use item.”

  “Hey Maria –” Lee Wai Meng said, loudly.

  “Later!” I jumped from the railing. My wings spread – perhaps it was stupid of me, using a skill in such a situation – but I had to get down to Peach as soon as possible.

  They all halted as I rushed down. Then Peach was running; she broke from the group to rush to my arms. I caught her, and I think we were both crying, but all I could do was babble:

  “I’m sorry… I’m sorry, I’m sorry…”

  “For what? Why? Mik Tsaam, what…?”

  “You… I…” My wings folded around us, hiding my tears. “Calvin…”

  Peach’s arms tightened. “That… There was no choice, Mik Tsaam. I know… I’ve already talked to Calvin…”

  “I’m sorry.”

  “You couldn’t… We…” Her face was glazed. “This goddamn fucking game. This is so unfair.”

  The effects Angel’s Flight ended. My wings disintegrated in a puff of tiny lights. Behind me, the rest of the group stepped out of the palace. I felt Peach shrink, try to hide behind me.

  “Peach, you’ve joined us,” Wen Yong said, with a smile that on another person might have been considered relief.

  “I have,” she replied, warily.

  “That’s good. I wanted to talk to you… Penelope.”

  It took me a moment to remember that Peach’s real name was Penelope. We’d all just been calling her Peach, and it suited her so well.

  Peach’s face turned pale.

  “What do you think you’re doing?” I pushed her even further behind me, turning to face Wen Yong directly. “As if we’d let you speak to her alone.”

  He raised his hands. “It doesn’t have to be alone. I just met we need to work out what to do in this situation. We’re all supposed to be killing her, aren’t we? So how do we work around it? Can we work around it?”

  “Of course we can,” I responded immediately, without the slightest idea how.

  “We can…” Peach said quietly.

  “We can? Wait, Peach, do you know this story?”

  She nodded. “It’s a very popular Malay folktale. There’s a bunch of films inspired by it.”

  I hugged her in relief. “Finally! Someone knows the scenario we’re in!”

  “Let’s go back inside,” Jesse recommended, looking around. “The NPCs are getting worked up.”

  I had almost forgotten in the excitement that we were in the middle of a palace. Servants and officials were walking through the grounds, watching us with confusion, bowing when Angry_Birb looked over at them. Han Sun-hyuk glared and rested his hand on the sword at his side. The NPCs quickly looked busy.

  We hurried back inside, keeping Peach between us protectively. Lee Wai Meng, on her other side, murmured something in her ear, but I couldn’t hear it, and then we had reached the throne room and everyone was turning to Peach to hear what she had to say.

  She was still pale, almost dizzy, so Calvin brought her a chair. Angry_Birb was back on the throne. I let it slide. We had no idea if an NPC would walk in.

  Peach took a deep breath. She looked tiny, even in her wolf-fur cloak, with the rest of us surrounding her. She glanced at us anxiously.

  “Okay. I’ll tell you what I remember of the story.”