Janelle hammers away on her keyboard as I load up the voice system. There is only one name on my list, so I tap it.

Three dots appear on the screen.

Something clangs around in the back room and I perk up. I pick up a wrench from one of the counters and tiptoe to the back. The dots keep pulsing, no answer.

I get to the doorway and lift the wrench over my head waiting for some crazy monster to appear. Wait! Throwing the wrench on the ground I grab my bow instead and extend it. I grab a capsule, just as a small furry creature dashes past me. Fumbling with the bow and capsule, I fall to the ground, arms sprawled.

“Carrots!” I hear someone call out.

“I’m fine!” I reply.

“Glad to hear!”

“Wait,” dusting myself off I look at the interface and see the dots are a line now, with a name underneath, “Alex?”

“No you called domino’s, can I take your order? By the way, we only sell cheese, no crust.”

“I’ll take a dairy-free pizza please, thanks. Ok, bye.”

Alex chuckles over the line and I grin as I get myself up off the floor. The shock of seeing a furry creature washed away.

“We only take goats in exchange for pizza. Delivery is on the way.”

We both laugh over the connection. It’s been just a few days, but with everything that’s been going on, I feel a tightness in my chest and throat. The same feeling you get when you know you missed out on a world event because you had to finish that last homework assignment.

“Wasn’t expecting you to call so soon.”

“Yea.”

“So, what’s up?”

“I need some help with something.”

“Wait, one second.”

Another voice is audible over the line, “Who are you talking to?”

“It’s a friend.”

“Do you have to talk to them right now?”

“I can talk to them while we ride.”

“Then hurry up and let’s go.”

“Coming.”

Bute's voice sounds different over the connection, but she’s unmistakable.

“You still there Carrots?” Alex asks, coming back to the conversation.

“Yea.”

“What did you need?”

“I need help with a quest line.”

“Oh, are you in Vroma already?”

“No, I came out to Hajima.”

“Whoa! What’s your combat rating? Did you hit CR five?”

Looking at my character info, I check for my combat rating and find the number. It’s at 2.

“What! That’s impossible! How did you survive in Hajima with such a low CR? All the mobs would insta-aggro you the moment you walked out of the City.” Alex exclaims when I tell him my CR.

“What’s your CR?”

“I just hit 6 today when I picked up Enforcer Discipline four.”

“That’s not much higher than me.”

“What are you talking about? The jump from 2-5 took me the last 6 days! I could barely handle the mobs in Hajima when I was CR 4.”

“Do the mobs have CRs?”

“I’m pretty sure they do, but I haven’t leveled up engineer or agriculturalist, so I can’t scan them.”

“Wow, there’s a lot about the game I haven’t looked into yet.”

“How do you not know about all this yet? What have you been doing this whole time?”

“Long story, I’ll tell you later. Where are you all at right now?”

“Funny you ask. We’re actually in Hajima right now trying to finish up a five-man with just the three of us. You know Butes, she refuses to pug it out to anyone. She’s not going to be happy when she finds out your CR is so low.”

“Probably not, but I still need some help here in the city.”

“I can ask her after we pick up Suki. Wait, does that mean you’re going to join up with us now?”

“Yea. I can’t do the next quest on my own.”

“You sure you want to? Butes is extra ‘Beautiful’ lately.”

“Not sure I trust people enough to pug it out myself either.”

“Send me your loc and I’ll see if we can head over there.”

“Give me a second.”

The map system lets me see where I’m located and when I hold my finger over my location I get an option to send my location. I pass it along to Alex and wait for his confirmation.

“What are you doing in the red zone!?”

“It’s where my mission objective is, and it’s also the starting location for this new quest line.”

“They aren’t quest lines here, they’re multi-stage missions.”

“Another beautifulism?”

“Yea. We call them multis. Anyway, what’s the multi about?”

“I need to hack into a Terminal and fight off some autonomous defense systems.”

“Wait, is that at Hajima city access terminal?”

“Yea! How did you know.”

“Oh boy. Butes is really not going to like you. Are you sure you want to have us meet up with you and help with that?”

“Why?”

“That’s exactly the multi we’re on right now. We keep wiping in the first room.”

“Whoa.”

“Yea, it’s an intense run.”

“Still on the call?” Butes says from the other end.”

“Yea.” Replies Alex.

“Who is it?”

DmgCtrl: You ready for me to tell her it’s you? Alex DM’s me.

“Yea, go ahead,” I reply over the line.

“Its Carrots.”

“Carrots!” Butes shouts.

“Yea. I’m right here, no need to shout.” Alex tells her.

“Where is he? Tell him we’ve been waiting for over a week of game time for him.”

Alex explains my request to her and lets her know I’m in Hajima already. He avoids the subject of my CR and focuses on letting her know that we’re on the same multi. As he discusses with her, I hear Suki’s voice faintly in the background, but I can’t make out what she’s saying.

After a bit, Alex hops back on with me and says, “We’re on our way. See you in a bit.”

“Alright, I’ll get things ready over here so we can head out.”

“Cool!”

Navigating through the interface I pull up the menu to disconnect when Alex says, “I’m glad we’re together again.”

“Yea.”

“It’ll be good to have her direct her fury on someone else for a bit.”

Alex chuckles and ends the call.

The furball from earlier appears in front of me on the counter where I’d been sitting during the call. I flinch, but it just sits there.

“Hi,” I say to the fuzzball.

“Hello.” It replies.

This time, I jump out of my seat and fall backward on the floor.

[You take 5 points of physical damage]