“Rose, what is going on?” Instantly I felt worry.

  “We might not be able to hang out in game for a bit. Lots is going on but I can’t really tell you right now.” Her little round face looked as serious as I had ever seen it.

  I opened my mouth to protest but she lifted a hand to stop me. “Don’t worry, we will get you up to speed.”

  I closed my mouth and she relaxed. What the fuck was going on here?

  “Can we talk about other things that aren’t me?” I asked hesitantly.

  Rose smiled. “Yes we can do that. And let’s start walking.”

  “So what is up with Pal and Vampress? Is she OK?”

  Instantly Rose’s shoulders tensed and she looked around quickly. Was she expecting people to be hiding in the woods? Lawyers for Infinity Tale perhaps?

  “We really shouldn’t talk about them either. But Vampress is doing ok. Not great but it could be worse. Pal talks to Barry on occasion. They still aren’t supposed to really be saying much as the court case is ongoing. But some of us that were at the World Event are going to be subpoenaed. Well, those of us that are in the U.S. anyway. So not me.”

  I nodded, not wanting to continue a conversation that was somehow dangerous. “Isn’t it funny that I ran across a Robin Hood storyline where they were communist lite?”

  This made my friend visibly calm down. “That is kinda funny. And a little off brand from what I can tell. This is the most capitalistic of games. The constant ads for gear, skins and even microtransactions in this game are insane. They keep bombarding you with ads as you log in. The EU actually had to crack down on them for breaking the "excessive advertising laws" here. I feel bad for my North American friends.”

  “Huh. I haven’t run into any of those. I bet the investors love players like Ayerelia. It has to cost bank to look that sparkly.”

  “You have no idea!” Rose laughed. “Barry and I were trying to figure out, just for fun, how much she must have spent on skin and gear. I could be almost half of what I made last year!”

  “Wow!” That was a lot of money. Even if Rose didn’t make a lot, that had to be tens of thousands of dollars. I wondered how much my Christmas present had been worth. And now it was gone — as if it never existed. “That does make the Merry Men proto-communists, a strange choice.” We walked a bit, our feet crunching on the road as the dirt gave way to more-traveled gravel as we got closer to the inn. Though how was it more traveled if it was a dead end just past us? This game made no sense.

  “Rose,” I asked, “Is there only one main creator of Infinity Tale? Or is it a team? I know nothing about the game from the outside.”

  “It’s the brainchild of one man, who is now a billionaire thanks to this game. Why?”

  “It’s almost as if some of the storylines were written by different people and —“

  Before I could finish my sentence a trio of dark brown striped murderous rabbits rushed us. These were the largest of the rabbit variety I had seen yet. Their eyes practically glowed with malice and intelligence.

  How nice, one for each of us.

  We were seasoned fighters at this point and all of us were ready in less than three heartbeats. Rose’s hands glowed with that sickly green light of her necromantic powers, Dekka was already growing, shadows pooling out of the trees and rushing to envelop her, and my club was in my hand before I had a conscious thought about it.

  Two of the rabbits leapt at Rose, likely thinking the small humanoid the easiest target. A thin intensely bright light erupted from Rose’s right fingers as she pointed her hand right at the rabbit’s chest. The light hit and splashed, liquid like, against the soft fur. The same poison green from the light stained the rabbit’s chest and moved swiftly outward. The rabbit jerked back like it had been electrocuted and threw its head back so sharply it broke its own neck with a terrible shriek, then fell limp to the ground.

  20XP!

  I was so impressed with an obviously new skill she must have gained during the Weta battle I almost got bitten by the third hell bunny. A flash of movement caught my eye and reflexively I turned and swung my club. The rabbit dodged but not completely. The heavy club connected with its hip and caused it to land awkwardly. It hissed at me and seemed to be sizing me up. I readied my club as I could see its hind muscles bunching to make another leap.

  It sprung and I stepped forward and swung my club using [Targeted Hit] and mentally choosing its head as the target. But my club found only air and my arms not finding resistance my momentum carried me forward and I stumbled. The rabbit had leapt but it had feinted forward but leapt right and now it was right beside Rose!

  The now zombie rabbit had been fighting the other rabbit and Dekka was trying to help. It was chaotic, but I think my dog was making it harder for Rose. Her new spell caused a thin almost threadlike light to connect her and the zombie she created. The zombie rabbit seemed much faster and more agile than those I had seen of Rose’s zombies before. However Dekka kept running through that light as she tried to harass the rabbit. This caused the zombie rabbit to slump like a marionette with its strings cut until the light connection was reformed.

  “Dekka move back!” I called to her. But a terrier mid-battle has no mind for any words that sound like retreat. The rabbit who had been after me leapt again, this time knocking Rose down. She landed hard and the green light went out.

  The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

  I saw red blood and screamed in fury. How dare a fucking bunny rabbit hurt my friend? How dare this game turn what should be adorable, peaceful creatures into bloodthirsty villains. I let the anger carry me to the fight. I stood over Rose. She was bleeding, but I couldn’t help her until the rabbits were taken care of.

  Dekka was getting frustrated. The rabbits were too smart to stand and fight her. And though Dekka was very quick despite her size in her hellhound form, the rabbits were far more agile. The two were taunting her. Nipping at her and leaping away, their bodies twisting with unbelievable dexterity midair, to avoid her jaws. They were ignoring me, though I had the feeling that if I moved away from Rose they would attack her.

  The rabbits were probably smarter than I in this state, and they knew it.

  Every now and then they would try to come in and finish Rose and every time I committed to a swing they were already gone, those horrible red eyes tracking my movement before I'd finished making it. I'd stopped trying to predict them after the fourth miss. My arms ached and my grip on the club was slick with sweat and I hadn't landed a real hit since the fight started, even with my skills.

  Dekka was doing no better. She'd snap and they'd do that acrobatic twist in midair and land just behind her, nipping at her haunches hard enough to make her snarl before dancing back out of range. They weren't trying to kill her. They were trying to exhaust her. Even worse, their razor-sharp teeth were occasionally making it through the shadows to graze the real dog inside.

  It was working; she was turning slower, dodging with less of a margin.

  The worst part was I couldn't even go on the offensive. Every time I tried to push forward one of them would cut toward Rose and I'd have to scramble back to cover her. They had figured that out within the first minute, or perhaps they had planned it. My rage began to flag. I didn't know how long we'd been at this. Long enough that my breathing had gone ragged and my frustration was replacing battle lust.

  Rose still hadn't moved.

  I knew she was breathing. I'd confirmed that much in the first frantic seconds after she fell. But she hadn't stirred. Hadn't made a sound. Rose was completely silent in the dirt behind me and I didn't know why. She was bleeding but it didn’t seem that bad.

  The rabbit on my left made a short darting feint and I didn't take the bait this time. Small victories.

  I glanced down at Rose’s small form as I stood over her. Maybe she'd hit her head when she fell? I hadn’t seen how she had landed. I couldn’t bend down and check properly without the two rabbits coming for us.

  It wasn’t like a head injury in game was like one out in the real world. If Rose's health dropped to zero, she'd just wake up in her pod. Safe. Fine. No lasting damage.

  It was selfish of me, but I didn’t want her to die because I wanted answers. Her comments had spooked me. Not only had I missed her, I needed her to tell me what the fuck was going on with me.

  She wasn't waking up, and she wasn't logging out, and I didn't know what that meant, and I needed her to wake up and explain things to me. And now she was face down in a gravel road because of rabbits and I still knew nothing and I was alone again and I was so tired of being alone and confused and —

  The rabbit on the right rushed me.

  I swung too early, telegraphed it completely, and it went under my club and hit me like a small furry cannonball in the knee. I went down on one leg and it was on me before I could recover, claws raking across my forearm hard enough that the damage notification bloomed red at the edge of my vision. I shoved it off with my elbow and scrambled upright but the damage was done.

  -34 HP!

  What? That was new. Normally I didn’t get HP messages. Why was this happening now? I felt my sense of unease go from an uncertain ember to a crackling flame.

  Dekka roared and lunged but the rabbit was already gone, back to its orbiting us, just out of reach those eyes bright and patient and intelligent —and hungry. My forearm stung viciously. I could feel the warmth of it.

  That was when I made my mistake.

  Just a glance. Half a second, maybe less. I wanted to check my arm and to glance down and make sure Rose hadn’t gotten hit.

  The second rabbit used that moment of inattention to attack and it hit me across the shoulders like a thrown brick and sent me sprawling forward onto my hands. The gravel bit into my palms and I tasted dirt and by the time I'd rolled and gotten my club back up they had retreated again to that precise maddening distance just outside my reach.

  -28 HP!

  This notification would be more helpful if I knew what my total HP pool was! All it was doing was making me panic. I didn’t want to die. The idea of slogging back to get here again made my eyes sting.

  Dekka was trying to distract the rabbits and pull aggro.

  "Fuck you, game!" I said out loud.

  If Rose — if her health finally dropped and she logged out — it could be days of my time before she got back in. Maybe even real days of her time. She had a job and a life and responsibilities that didn't pause for Infinity Tale and I would be here alone again and in some sort of nebulous danger. And I was having a hard time thinking what sort of ‘real’ danger I could be in. Every time I died I came back. But how many times could I come back and not just lose it? Was that it?

  I felt like I was losing it. I looked over to Dekka. A rabbit had gotten a solid bite on her and her little white body was flecked with blood. She was still game, trying to bite the ROUS. But at this rate they would win. They seemed to be fresh and full of energy. All they had to do was out last us.

  Fucking game. I was going to cry.

  Then sound split the air.

  Zzzzztthp.

  The rabbit on the left screamed that awful high pitched primal shriek and when I looked up it had sprouted a stick? No, that was an arrow! An arrow was pinning its back leg to the ground. It thrashed and shrieked and Dekka crossed the distance between them in one massive stride and her massive shadow jaws crushed its head giving us silence.

  The second rabbit turned toward the trees and I was already moving. With only one rabbit I didn’t need to guard Rose, and could go after it. No finesse, no technique, just every ounce of strength I had I sprinted after that terrible creature, my blood heating.

  The rabbit made a feint at something in the trees but when it did that sideways dodge it made a mistake. It forgot about me. Or it had thought that I would continue to stay over my companion. I swung with all my strength and tried physically aiming as well as using [Targetted Hit] again aiming for its head.

  This time I connected. Like a baseball player about to hit a home run. The rabbit’s head exploded sending blood, bone shards and brain in all directions. Its body flew a few meters to fall limply to the ground.

  I stood there breathing hard for a moment. The road was very quiet. Dekka came over and pressed her shadowy face against my shoulder and I put my hand on her head without thinking about it. She was looking ahead a low growl coming from her real self in the middle of the hellhound form.

  A woman walked out of the trees, flicking bits of rabbit gore off her face. She was tall, half elf by those ears, dark where Ayerelia was fair. She was dressed in very light leather armor and a cloak, all in shades of green and brown. A long recurve bow held in one hand.

  Seems to be the season of the archer.

  She crossed to Rose without a word, pulling a small vial from a belt pouch, and knelt with the practiced ease of someone who had administered field medicine on the regular. She uncorked it and tilted Rose's head back carefully and I watched the color begin to return to Rose's cheeks with a relief so sudden it made me feel slightly sick.

  Then she looked up at me. Her expression unreadable."

  "You must be Elizabeth; I'm Saoirse," she said. "We have a lot to discuss."

  Anyway I was browsing Reddit in the wee hours of the night, as one does, and I was looking at people's recommendations for progfantasy/litrpg and people's tier lists. And I was thinking, wow I can't wait till CYtC is on those. Then I thought, what if it turns out to be polarizing, and then I had the further thought but at least people would know of it. AKA the Jack Sparrow's "But you have heard of me!" type thing.

  I know that won't happen until this goes wider on audiobook/KU. But I was thinking... Those of you who are reading here, do you recommend RR stories to people? I know I talk about stories with people, though often not RR stories as so few people in my real life would read here. Are we all isolated in an internet webserial bubble or do you have people who read here that you know in meat space?

  Oh and is anyone else excited for the Project Hail Mary movie? I fucking loved that book. (AMAZE!) I had concerns over them turning it into a movie but the trailers look excellent and the critics pre release comments are very encouraging.