"Oh!" Lin Hao exclaimed. "Just an ordinary local place, nothing formal or fancy, you don't have to worry about meeting any dress code."

"Okay. But you said I'll also be meeting my new boss?" Danika pointed out questioningly.

"Yeah, but he won't care how you're dressed, he's blind in real life," Lin Hao explained cheerfully.

"Oh," she replied a little blankly. "But if he can see in VR can't he use those goggles made for people who just have damaged eyes?"

"He won't get the implants, says he doesn't want anyone poking his brain. Which is reasonable, since his is the brain that designed the core of the game. And the only portable systems yet that don't require implants he says are only good for avoiding large obstacles," Lin Hao answered without hesitation. "So if I find you some clothes will you come?"

"If such casual clothes are really fine, what I'm wearing now is ok. I'll come, where should I meet you?" Danika replied swiftly. She reasoned that if it was the man who'd designed the core of 'Living Jade Empire' he probably wasn't going to be someone she could meet easily other times, and he definitely wasn't going to be her direct supervisor.

"Great," Lin Hao replied enthusiastically. He gave her instructions on how to get to the restaurant, which she'd apparently passed on her way to and from the market without taking any note of. She felt somewhat reassured that it really wasn't going to be somewhere remarkable.

Before moving from the bed she texted Aishin: "Sorry I am not going to play until late. I just got invited out to dinner to meet the person that Lin Hao says designed the core of the game!"

Aishin replied: "I'm jealous, but it's ok, I can't play yet either. This is taking forever. But I'm definitely taking tomorrow off to play with you all day."

Danika sent back: "I'll try to tell you all about it later, is there anything you want me to ask him?"

She was back in her chair and ready to leave her room before Aishin replied, "No. LOL We are definitely going out to dinner after you get home."

--

When Danika arrived at the restaurant, she realized that the reason she hadn't noticed it was because everything about it was so understated.

She almost backed out again when she saw the interior, but the hostess darted forward and welcomed her before she actually moved. She didn't look at all dismayed by Danika's appearance, and asked cheerfully, "Are you dining alone tonight or with a group?"

Lin Hao entered the door behind her while the woman was talking and said over her shoulder, "Sorry we're late, she's with us."

Danika jumped and turned to look at him. The waitress replied happily, "Oh, you're eating with company tonight! That's great Mr. Hao."

Lin Hao just smiled at her and nodded. "Three tonight."

Both he and the older man beside him were dressed in worn jeans and T-shirts, and Lin Hao's hair wasn't any neater than it had been the last time Danika had seen him. When the hostess had someone lead them to a secluded corner table, Danika thought with amusement that maybe it was as much to keep the disreputable looking party out of sight as it was a service to them.

When they were seated and introductions had been made, Danika asked, "Isn't Lin your surname?"

"Yeah." Lin Hao nodded as he picked up a bread stick and pushed it across the table. "But I'd rather have people call me Mr. Hao than Hao Lin all the time."

Devon Yu pushed the basket toward Danika and scolded Lin Hao, "Ladies first you brat. You'll never get married at this rate."

Danika took a breadstick and pushed the basket back. "I hope you don't expect me to marry him, but I don't care about stuff like that," she said without nearly as much tension as she'd expected to feel.

Devon Yu chuckled and felt around the edge of the basket until his fingers brushed a breadstick and neatly fished one out and bit it. His glasses looked like an unusually old and heavy pair of sunglasses, like actors were portrayed as wearing as a disguise.

They chatted lightly for a few minutes and then Devon Yu asked suddenly, "What's the biggest question you have about the game so far Danika Belova?"

Danika froze, it was like a pop quiz had been sprung. She fiddled nervously with her napkin and thought furiously. She had too many questions she wanted to ask, and the most inane one popped out of her mouth first, "Why are you working so hard to add preset quests to a system you designed to generate personalized quests?"

She wanted to withdraw it as soon as she asked, because she could answer it on her own. People probably kept complaining that they couldn't do the same quest someone else had gotten to do.

But she had barely finished asking it before Devon Yu nodded and said, "I can see that you understand the heart of the difficulties we're facing in the sixth."

Danika wasn't brave enough to admit that she hadn't meant to ask that as he entered what was obviously his lecture mode.

"As far as I'm concerned all but a handful of the people playing 'Living Jade Empire' are playing it wrong." He frowned and went on, "I wish we'd never been forced to allow resurrection into the game. I thought that the system would show people the beauty of not only the game world, but all the things in our own world that it was built to echo. I thought it could show them the value of living out a life and moving on to the next with a whole new future to experience in the same environment, but from a different perspective." He shook his head and sighed deeply.

Danika gulped. Lin Hao raised a hand briefly in an unfinished gesture when she replied, "It's a really amazing world, and I love it! I love being able to see all the rare animals up close and everything, but I really don't understand how you expected the game to show people that they should look forward to being able to start completely over!?"

"This is supposed to be a fun meal to get to know each other?" Lin Hao interrupted.

Devon Yu ignored him and told Danika, "I suppose that since you don't understand and you're in that chair, that you wish you could just do your life over again, exactly the same except for that one big thing?"

Lin Hao stared at him open mouthed while Danika drew herself up straight and said stiffly, "Sure, I've thought that before, but who knows what would have happened instead. I'm pretty lucky, and I know it very well. Now explain what that has to do with the reincarnation system?"

Devon Yu was silent for a moment and then he nodded and said, "Fair enough. I'll try. We all only get one chance to live with whatever problems and joys and whatnot that we find ourselves with. Revival negates a lot of that. It makes 'Living Jade Empire' completely unrealistic, and doesn't help people learn to appreciate their own existence."

Danika didn't argue that dragons and magic weren't realistic anyway, she argued, "But people are valuing the existence of their characters, that's why they want to keep them!"

Lin Hao covered his face and Devon Yu shook his head and said, "I guess it's just something that young people can't understand yet."

Danika felt a little angry about his response, but he didn't look angry now, he looked really sad.

She took a deep breath and Lin Hao dropped his hands and suggested quickly, "This is a really old topic, and you'll have ages to expound on it while she's working in your department. Let's talk about something happier? Like what kind of cataclysmic event should flatten the end of the mountain range?"