While JohnWillStab was doing his Slavic training montage, the rest of the game still ran…

♕ stood outside a massive stone door, runes covered its outside and no way of opening it appeared.

"♕: This is it! The dev’s library!"

"Forest Cut-throat: Y-yeah! It’s here! So you don’t have to… y’know - kill me!"

The forest cut-throat shook in his boots.

"♕: Not so fast, I’m not letting you out until I’m 100% sure this is it!"

"Forest Cut-throat: Come on! How was I supposed to know you were so powerful!? I wasn’t going to kill you I swear!" The man was paralytically crying as he said that.

A few hours earlier, on an anonymous messaging board…

"User Anonymous: Yeah! I heard the devs had an actual library in the game with all the info about the code!"

"User Anonymous: That’s bullshit! No way! Why would they do that?!"

"User Anonymous: Easter egg?"

"User NotCrown: Do you guys know where it’s meant to be?"

User Anonymous: Allegedly some random NPC thief has the info - but I’ve killed him before back when I played the game and he never dropped anything special…

User Anonymous: Same, he just dropped some money.

User NotCrown: If he doesn’t have any item, how am I supposed to get the info from it!?

User Anonymous: IDK, ask him nicely.

A bit later…

A forest cut-throat jumped out of a nearby bush and threatened ♕ with a dagger.

"Forest Cut-throat: H-hand over you gold!"

♕ was visibly shaking…

Noticing his chance, he pressed harder "Forest Cut-throat: L-look, I’m not going to hurt you if you just give me your gold…"

"♕: LOOKS HERE YOU MOTHERF#*KER! I WENT TO SEE OVER A HUNDRED F#*KING NPCS TODAY AND NONE OF THEM HAD WHAT I WANTED!"

Shocked by the reply the NPC raised his arms in defeat, !Forest Cut-throat: I-I’m sorry!"

An awkward silence passed.

"♕: Ahem…"

"Forest Cut-throat: …"

"♕: Well, sorry about that… I’m just, y’know a little tired…"

"Forest Cut-throat: N-no - I’m sorry, I didn’t expect you to… be having such a bad day…"

"♕: Y’know, let’s just put that past us."

"Forest Cut-throat: You’re right… so what have you been up to?"

"♕: Oh, y’know - I’ve been trying to find this mystical library of the game creators…"

"Forest Cut-throat: Oh, you’re going the wrong way, then."

"♕: …I’m sorry, what?"

"Forest Cut-throat: The library is in the opposite direction."

Present time…

The cut-throat was on his knees on the ground.

"Forest Cut-throat: PLEASE! I didn’t think you’d kidnap me!"

"♕: Whatever."

Without saying anything more ♕ teleported both the NPC and herself inside finding a large room filled with dozens of bookshelves.

"Forest Cut-throat: See!? It’s here!"

"♕: Alright, alright, you may go. she said dismissively before heading deeper into the library."

"Forest Cut-throat: WHAT DO YOU MEAN!? THE DOOR IS LOCKED!"

♕ shrugged.

"♕: Let’s see…" she looked through the clearly labelled bookshelves, “lore”, “crafting recipes”, “fish-people erotica”, “world maps”.

"♕: The game engine! That’s the one!" she grabbed a book from the shelf only to be greeted by an error message, “Authority level too low!”.

Being the expert hacker, she used a memory scanner and searched for the value “Authority level too low!” - once she tracked down the value, she set it to “Authority level is not too low!”

As soon as she finished, her character opened the book and she started reading.

“Page 1 of 30302…”

♕ turned towards the NPC,

"♕: Hey, do you sill want to get out?" she asked defeated.

"Forest Cut-throat: Of course!"

"♕: Then grab a book and help me read T_T"

The two of them sat at a wooden bench and read the books, for the most part, they were just data logs - years of “The server time is 00,00,00” “The server time is 00,00,01” “The server time is 00,00,02”

But every few hundred pages there was a nugget of information.

"Lorb: You guys want a drink?" asked the human, he was sitting across from them, drinking from a cup of tea.

"♕: Nah, I’m good."

"Forest Cut-throat: I’d like some!"

A moment of silence passed before the realization dawned on everyone.

"♕: WAIT! WHO THE F#*K ARE YOU!?" she demanded with a finger over the attack button.

"Lorb: Hello again!"

"Again?" thought ♕.

"Lorb: Relax! I’m long dead by now."

"♕: …"

"Lorb: I’m guessing the game is in a state of ruin if a cheater like you can get inside..."

"♕: …how did you know? Who are you?"

"Forest Cut-throat: What about the tea?

"♕: Thief! Come on!"

"Forest Cut-throat: I’m thirsty!"

"Lorb: Ahem…"

"♕: Right, what do you mean you’re dead?"

"Lorb: I am dead, kaput, I committed the stop life."

"♕: You’re telling me you’re some ghost?"

"Lorb: Of course not! Ghosts don’t exist!"

"♕: Thanks f#*k! At this point I would have been prepared to believe you…"

"Lorb: Anyway! My name is Lorb, I’m one of the admins who designed this game!"

"♕: You’re an admin?"

"Lorb: Was. I’m dead."

"♕: Wait, are you like the NPCs?"

"Lorb: No, no, I’m just a collection of pre-recorded responses."

A while of silence passed.

"♕: You’re an admin?"

"Lorb: Was. I’m dead."

"♕: You’re an admin?"

"Lorb: Was. I’m dead."

"♕: You’re an admin?"

"Lorb: Was. I’m dead."

Nobody said anything for a while.

"Lorb: I’m just screwing with you! I’m designed to remember up to 10000 sentences back."

"♕: But you are dead?"

"Lorb: Oh, yeah."

Lorb created a cup of tea for the cut-throat NPC and began explaining his situation.

"Lorb: If you’re here, I guess you were hit with the first wave."

"♕: Wave? The NPCs?"

"Lorb: Hmmm… let’s see… that would be the first one, yes."

"♕: THERE ARE MORE!?"

"Lorb: We called them “bells” back in alpha. Yeah, there are 10."

"♕: What are they!?"

Lorb went silent for a while.

"Lorb: Tell me, do you know what the purpose of games is?"

"♕: To have fun?"

"Lorb: Yes, escapism."

"♕: And? You wanted to make a game where we can smell food? How’d you even do that?!"

"Lorb: Ah! So you reached the second bell already!"

"Lorb: Basically, a bunch of really smart people with questionable mental states decided “Hey, what if we nope out of reality and into our own world?”"

"♕: So you made a game?"

The man scratched his beard for a while before replying.

"Lorb: Well, yes, but this is just a medium - you see, we are trying to establish a link between your animus and the one on the other side!"

"♕: Animus?"

"Lorb: Life, soul, the “you”, sentience - that’s your animus, we’re making a link between your animus and a representation of the animus on the other side."

"♕: A portal?"

"Lorb: Sort of… more like the movement of your soul for your body to a representation of your virtual one… though it’s not in a game, just a world created in the image of how the players see the world, you’ll be wiped out of history!"

♕ clenched her fists.

"♕: YOU’RE MAKING THIS S#*T AN ISEKAI IN THE SECOND VOLUME!?"

"Lorb: Relax, relax, there are multiple phases to the animus link, we’re talking several volumes worth, first you will-"

"♕: Nah! Y’know what! NO! I’m out! I’m not interested in what you and your weeaboo creator has to f#*king say." With that ♕ stomped out and teleported through the door, but not before grabbing some books.

"Lorb: I feel called out…"

"Forest Cut-throat: Do you think she’ll come back for me?"

"Lorb: She summed-up years of work and several dead test subjects to an over-used genera…" the man hung his head down in sorrow.

"Forest Cut-throat: Do you think she remembered about me, yet?

"Lorb: Still, I wish she let me do some more exposition… oh well, I guess this is enough information for now…"

"Forest Cut-throat: I- I think I should go call for her!"

Lorb let out a pitiful sigh as he looked at the thief.

"Lorb: I’ll get you some more tea…"