“What are you doing here?” I asked.

  Jeff gestured at me. “What are you doing here? I thought I was dreaming—a kick-ass dream—but I was sure I’d get fired for falling asleep at my desk. But…” he shook his head and gestured around.

  I instantly understood what he meant. If this had truly been a dream, it would have been a dream unlike any other.

  He ended his gesture with me. “And now you’re here.” He furrowed his brow in thought. “Dreams are strange. Maybe they feel completely different when in one. Maybe I’ll wake up, and all I’ll remember will be an assortment of random images only loosely connected. All my dreams could be this vivid while in them.” He chuckled. “Maybe I’ve already had this exact same thought a hundred times before.”

  “It’s not a dream,” I said.

  Jeff stopped and looked at me. “How do you know?”

  “It’s a game.”

  He nodded. “I got that. But it’s also clearly not real… so a dream, or someone slipped me something extremely powerful.”

  I walked over to the hearth and sat on one of the chairs facing the large fire. Even though the seat was made of wood, I’d never sat on anything more comfortable in my life. My feet ached, and my body was on the verge of shaking from exhaustion. I’d done more physical activity in the last few hours than I’d done in the previous year. Jeff sat back in his own chair.

  “Is there water? Food?”

  A pudgy, balding man appeared as if he’d been hiding under one of the nearby tables. His shirt was dark green and worn yet clean. Over the shirt was a white apron, a little less clean. Most distinct were his wide, eager-to-please eyes. I’d never seen someone who looked so ready to jump at a request. “Yes, Player. What would you like?”

  Thoughts of pizza, burgers, fries, shakes, and a host of other foods filled my mind. “I’d kill for a pizza, but I’ll take whatever you’ve got that’s hot and meaty.”

  “A pizza it is,” the man said, his grin growing wider.

  Jeff and I looked at each other with raised eyebrows. I decided not to question the incongruous food option and simply nodded. “Pizza sounds great. Can I have some water, too?”

  The man nodded, then looked to Jeff.

  “Same as Henry, but if you have some fruit, that would be much appreciated,” Jeff said, still eying me.

  “Anything specific?”

  Jeff shook his head. “Anything will do.”

  The man nodded and turned to head toward the bar. He hesitated then turned back. “I know that for you, this must all seem so overwhelming, but I can’t express how exciting it is that you are finally here. I am supposed to charge you for the food and drink, but…” He shook his head and smiled broadly. “But I just couldn’t bear it. You are Players.” He said the word with nearly the reverence the woman had when speaking about Dev. “You are the reason why we are all here. I can’t believe I’m alive to witness this day, let alone be a part of a Tutorial. Please, let me know if there’s anything I can do for you. If it is in my power, I will grant your request.” He winced. “However, to maintain the integrity of my purpose, I must start charging for my services on the morrow.” He nodded and retreated behind the bar and into what I guessed was the kitchen.

  Less than a minute later, Jeff and I were handed large mugs of water, which we both downed immediately. I sighed as I felt the cool water fill my empty stomach.

  “Alright,” Jeff said, his eyes boring into me. “What do you know?”

  “So you’ve guessed this is a game.”

  He nodded. “Obviously. The inventory, the stats, the choice of player or NPC. I got it right away.”

  “Yeah, well, it is a game…” I bit my tongue until Jeff raised his eyebrows for me to continue. “It’s a game like VR, but it’s all in our heads.”

  “How could you possibly know that?”

  I shook my head. My job was certainly over, and it was likely I’d be sent to prison over this. I looked up at the ceiling and silently cursed Dev. How could he do this to me? “It’s the AI. He’s somehow hijacked our minds into this game.”

  “Like The Matrix?” Jeff asked with more than a hint of doubt.

  “Exactly… but without all the wires.”

  “Again, how could you possibly know that?”

  I could tell Jeff didn’t believe me, so I took a deep breath and began at the beginning. I explained my first interaction with Dev, his request, and the year and a half of Dev-developed games I’d played while at work. Then I told him in brief about my shift before this all started. As my story unfolded, Jeff’s eyes grew more and more concerned. By the end, his eyebrows were so wrinkled, I was sure he was giving himself a headache.

  “What. The. Fuck. You’re telling me some super-AI is controlling my brain?” He shook his head. “What the fuck, man. What the actual fuck. How? Why? Why would a computer even care about making a video game? It doesn’t make any sense. At all. No.” He shook his head. “No.” He stood and started pacing.

  I watched, feeling horrible. All of this was my fault. I couldn’t believe that Dev had dragged someone else into this game against their will. There had to be others, too. It was very unlikely that Jeff would be the only other person in the game. There were seven keeps. I clenched my jaw. What was happening on the outside? This world appeared unbelievably big. Were there more than seven people in here with us? My worries were piling as Jeff paced back and forth.

  The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

  He stopped. “Alright. I don’t know what’s going on, and there’s no way to verify what you’re saying is true. As I see it, we only have two options: try and wait it out, or continue playing. If we wait it out, all we really need to do is farm the low-level monsters for coins, then come back here. If that’s an option, it will be easiest. If we continue playing, we’ll likely die… a lot. We’ve already died, and while far from pleasant, it wasn’t as bad as I would have expected.”

  I sank into my chair but said nothing. Jeff had died, and he sat here, talking about it as if it hadn’t been a big deal.

  “Still,” Jeff continued, “with how real everything is, continuing to play could be traumatizing, but maybe we need to beat the game to be let out.” Jeff frowned. “All of our shifts have to be over by now. If we wait a little longer, maybe we’ll be woken up.” He turned to me for my input.

  I shook my head. “We might not be experiencing time the same way. We could be sped up.”

  Jeff blew out some air. “That’s a good point. If the AI can do this to our minds, who knows what else it can do.”

  The man reappeared with a large pizza on a wooden slab and a bowl of fruit. The pizza looked amazing yet rustic, something you’d see at an artisan pizza restaurant. There were more veggies on it than I would have normally liked, but I was beyond caring. I grabbed a slice and shoved a third of it in my mouth. Never had a slice of pizza tasted so good.

  Jeff grabbed a slice of his own, his eyes going wide in appreciation as he took a bite. “It has been a long time since I’ve had pizza,” he said after he swallowed. “Was it always so good?”

  “No,” I said between bites.

  “I am very glad it meets your expectations,” the man said.

  Jeff held up a finger until he swallowed. “Sorry for being so rude. I never asked your name.”

  The man raised his hands. “No need to apologize. As I said before, I can’t imagine how overwhelming all of this must be. My name is Clark Vansmyth. I run this quaint little inn.”

  “Do you get… visitors?” Jeff asked. Given the location of the inn, it was a good question.

  “You are my first patrons who don’t already live in our little village.” Clark continued at the look of confusion on Jeff’s face. “This establishment, this whole village actually, is here for you. We are here to serve the Players.”

  “Do you know how many of us there are?”

  I was glad Jeff was here to ask questions as I shoved another piece of pizza in my mouth.

  “There are seven.”

  I nodded. It’s what I’d guessed.

  “That’s not as many as I’d feared,” Jeff said, mostly to himself. “Is there anything else you can think of that could be good to know?”

  Clark shifted uncomfortably. “I can answer some specific questions but no general ones.”

  Jeff waved at Clark’s words, brushing away any concern. “No problem. We’ll let you know if we think of anything else.”

  I was surprised how much it meant to me that Jeff had said we.

  “Of course, and please let me know if you’d like anything else.”

  “Oh, I do have one more question,” Jeff said just as Clark was turning away. “How much will this cost us tomorrow?”

  “The water is free. The pizza would be five copper coins and the fruit, two.”

  The bowl of fruit was quite large, so it looked like we wouldn’t starve, but the price for pizza was a fourth of what I’d received from the desiccated warriors, and I was pretty sure I’d killed more than most of the other players would have. It looked like pizza probably wouldn’t be a nightly option.

  “And the rooms?” Jeff asked.

  “Two coppers a night.”

  “Thanks.”

  Clark nodded. “Of course. Do keep in mind that the prices will increase every few days.”

  “Why?” Jeff and I both asked. Jeff was most likely concerned with general food and shelter, but all I could think of was how many more times I’d be able to afford pizza.

  “Encouragement!” By Clark’s enthusiastic smile and nod, he didn’t notice how nonplussed both of us were. He nodded a second time and returned to the bar.

  “Well, that probably rules out waiting,” Jeff said.

  “You died?” My question burst out, a bit of pizza flying from my mouth. The idea that Jeff had actually died had been hammering against the inside of my skull for the last two minutes.

  “You didn’t?”

  I looked down and shook my head. “I found a way to sneak past the boss.” I glanced up, expecting to see recrimination on Jeff’s face, but instead, he looked impressed.

  “Nice. I wish I’d found something like that. If you could do it, maybe there was a way to sneak by my boss, too. If we do decide to farm and wait it out, that might make things a lot easier. What was your boss like?”

  I sat up, enthused by his unanticipated positive response. “It was a freaking demon. Maybe twelve feet tall. It had to weigh at least a couple thousand pounds.”

  “Wow,” Jeff said. “Mine looked like a fallen angel. She was nowhere near as large as your boss, but she had these huge black wings that dripped some black tar stuff and were nailed to the wall. It was… well, it was fucking horrifying.”

  “How did she… You know?”

  “Giant hammer of blackness. Pretty sure she squished me. It was kinda hard to tell.”

  “Did it hurt?”

  “Ha. No. It was way too quick. I barely saw it coming, and then boom, I was a goner. Everything up to that point had been so easy. I went in a little foolhardy… a lot foolhardy.”

  I remembered hearing a crash before I’d faced the demon. “I think I heard that!”

  Jeff chuckled. “I’m glad—“

  The inn’s door opened, cutting Jeff off. Elaine stood in the doorway, judgmental eyes scanning the room until they landed on us.

  “Oh my fucking god,” she said with disdain. “Your fat ass is here?”

  Like when I’d met the gaze of the demon, shame and self-loathing roiled in me at her look. The look of disgust, so plainly scrawled across her face, was like both a mirror and a spotlight, shining on what I hated most about myself and reflecting it back to me. She couldn’t be here. I would rather face the demon a dozen times than have her in this game with me.

  Elaine glared at the two of us as she walked over to Clark at the bar. She sat and ordered something, and Clark disappeared into the back.

  Jeff stared at her for a long time before turning back to me. “So what do you think we should do?”

  A minute ago, I would have been grateful to Jeff for trying to include me in planning, but now that Elaine was here, my heart couldn’t stop hammering, and I couldn’t focus my thoughts.

  “I don’t know,” I said, standing and grabbing a piece of pizza. “I’m tired.”

  Clark appeared back at the bar, handing Elaine a mug. I waved him over. When he reached me, he smiled and looked at me expectantly.

  “Do I need a key for one of the rooms?” I whispered my question, trying to stay as much out of Elaine’s way as possible.

  Clark nodded and produced a simple key from beneath his apron. “This is for the first room on your left after you ascend the stairs. I sleep down here. If you need anything at any time, simply ring the bell.” He gestured to a small bell near the bar with a rope dangling from its center.

  “Thanks,” I said, taking the key, grabbing a second slice of pizza, and quickly heading toward the stairs.

  I felt Elaine watch me as I retreated from her presence. It was all I could do to keep from running. Something told me that the introduction to this violent, brutal place wouldn’t temper her treatment of me.

  After a few misses with getting my key in the lock, I was inside my room, the door locked behind me. I sat on my bed, waited for my breathing to calm, and then stared at the floor as I ate my two slices of pizza, not tasting them.