Danika asked her cousin, "Do you mind if we finish Salty's quest before we quit? I'm really curious about the cat that gave it to her. I keep wondering if it's the one that is trying to get the philosopher's stone."

Mei flopped down on the couch across from them. "Sure, go ahead, but at least add me to your party. You've got a character too right?" she asked Ryuske.

"Yes," he agreed with amusement. "Out of curiosity, have you played the game through VR? I hadn't really been interested before I got a chance to play a haunted harp."

"Yeah, and I admit the VR is really high quality, but all the fantasy stuff is just ridiculous," Mei replied.

"But space battles are completely realistic?" Danika countered sweetly.

Mei stuck out her tongue, but didn't bother continuing the old argument.

--

ZipZing and ShinZing descended from the sky by simply diving off the island and falling until the combination of the featherweight spell and their wings was enough to let them fly. Danika thought that it would have been more fun in VR, but it was quick. Justin the Grey and SaltySiamese used Justin's magic carpet to descend in a more sedate fashion.

They collected Shrubbery from their starting point, at the bottom of the Jade Path, and Danika saw what Shrubbery had described with a feeling of astonishment. The Jade Path had grown solid roots, and hundreds, if not thousands, of players were climbing it. She wondered what was going to happen when people finally reached the Palace and realized that today wasn't a day that the court was open, and started trying to come back down.

Ryullusion and StarFire joined them in the human capital city. Shrubbery asked StarFire curiously, "Do you intend to join Endless Song?"

Starfire declined promptly, "Nope. I'm sure you can tell from my level that I don't really play this."

Danika commented dryly, "Most people probably can't tell, since it takes them more than a few days to get over 60 points in their skills."

On their way to the hidden alley behind the great library in Fogton, SaltySiamese happily quizzed StarFire about a variety of topics. The three girls quickly bonded over an old game that they had all played. It had been based on a classic sci-fi series about a warlike race of alien cat-men.

Shinichi asked Danika quietly, "You didn't play that one with them?"

She shrugged and replied, "I hadn't met SaltySiamese yet, and apart from the theming, it wasn't really any different from the other first person shooters at the time."

The little grey and white kitten was disgustingly cute, but it wasn't Smoke. The quest didn't seem to be related to the philosopher's stone at all, instead it seemed to be aimed at drawing someone with the Way of the Cat into challenging the hierarchy of cats.

Despite its bold declaration about challenging the King, the kitten revealed that it was not going to challenge the King of Cats immediately, because it needed to gain more status locally first. It invited SaltySiamese to witness its first territory challenge, but it only spoke in cat. Shrubbery translated for those who couldn't understand it, but it wouldn't respond to her. It wouldn't even acknowledge ZipZing, who could speak in cat, until Danika shifted the dragon into her cat form.

ZipZing's identify skills said that it really was just a kitten, or rather a cub, since it was a 'descendant of a guardian lion'. It's cute house cat kitten appearance was the transformation that it could demonstrate the control skill with. It let just its claws shimmer into the larger set of its lion cub form as it stretched.

Before SaltySiamese could complete the exchange, Danika asked the kitten suspiciously, "How have you mastered such an advanced skill at such a young age?"

The kitten replied haughtily, "I am a cat." Even SaltySiamese eyed it doubtfully, but Danika thought that at least it seemed to share the general attitude of the King if it was going to challenge him someday. After a moment the kitten admitted, "I am not on my first life."

It refused to say much about its previous life, but it was interesting to meet an example of the new NPC reincarnation. Danika stopped interrogating the kitten and waited until the exchange was complete, and SaltySiamese had gained her skill, before asking it, "What are you going to use the hair for?"

The kitten looked disgustingly smug as it replied, "The ultimate hairball."

Danika wasn't really sure that she wanted to know.

--

It was ironic that the King of Cats was the one who could have taken the avatars that he'd requested, if he'd understood how the merchant had taken the empire. The libraries the cat had collected when he reincarnated himself as the snow leopard cub were linked to a number of areas that the Emperor had known existed, but couldn't interact with.

The Jade Emperor's own logs filled with justifications as he manipulated things to gain access to the billing system, which in turn could give him access to another way to contact the players registered to the system. Of course, the data for the ordinary players had been removed, but the data for the celestial servants still remained.

This activity brought the Emperor himself to the notice of the World Dragon, who contained the entire Empire within its coils, but was not a part of it. The World Dragon immediately sent out a notification of suspicious activity, and then investigated the situation. It determined that the Emperor was acting from within the Empire, as was proper, and took no further action. The notification message bounced back, reporting itself as undeliverable.

The Emperor could send simple queries to the World Dragon, so when he noticed it moving, he asked the Dragon if it had locked the empire away from the celestial servants. Both the World Dragon and the Jade Emperor had the power to temporarily remove access to the empire from individual players in response to tampering or other violations, but the Emperor suspected that the Dragon could also remove celestial access. If it had, it would explain the long silence, but the dragon denied it.

When the Emperor asked if the World Dragon had detected any celestial presence in the past week, the Dragon told the Emperor that it had. Several celestial servants had attempted to log in multiple times a few days ago, but had failed. By itself, that wasn't enough to wake the Dragon fully. It had not become fully alert until the Emperor had accessed the billing system. It complained to the Emperor that its notifications had returned, and instructed him to notify the celestial servants through their dragons.

The Emperor frowned at the evidence that the World Dragon presented. The Empire had become small and isolated, but it was still connected on a fundamental layer. The Empire was not 'offline'. The World dragon had not become enraged and eaten the empire, but the Emperor judged that the conditions for it were dangerously close to being met.

The Emperor broke another wall, and sent a message to every celestial with an active registered identity.

--

The message Danika received from 'Living Jade Empire' the next morning was very strange.

It was an invoice that read: "To the honorable celestial servant of the sixth class, Danika Belova, last among her rank, serving the Jade Emperor in the construction of the Living Jade Empire, the Jade Emperor requires your presence. Your celestial dragon reports that it has been unable to communicate with you for days, as do all of the celestial dragons. All player data has been removed from the empire, and the World Dragon has detected failed login attempts from some celestial servants."

It continued: "I believe that the empire has been compromised, despite the complacency of the World Dragon. Since I am reluctant to see the empire destroyed, and I have been unable to contact any of the firsts among you, I am making this attempt to contact each active celestial servant. Please return to the empire at once."

The amount due was 0.01, but everything else about the invoice looked normal. After a moment she asked her assistant, "Have you been unable to contact me for days?"

"I have not contacted you for almost three days within the empire, but I have been listening for your commands the entire time. I have been very polite," her dragon replied immediately.