“Can you?” I asked Pook. I was in the white realm alone with Pook and Fono. Kiara was engaged with her 9 to 5. It was Monday morning after all.

“I have tried it on occasions in the past,” Pook said, “never with great results. But with dedication and your aid, I guess it should not be possible. It will be more complicated than our previous experiments though.”

I thought of all kinds of quests that could involve both Pook and the game world, when the image of the evil crops flashed in my mind’s eye and a sea of possibilities washed over me.

“Just create this quest exactly as I say, okay?” I said, rubbing my palms excitedly.

“Okay,” Pook replied.

The Skhites and the Hornies tending to the small farm looked up at Pook curiously. It was the first time that they were seeing the Oddity. Bui was strolling some distance outside the courtyard, leisurely uprooting trees and expanding the clearing, chatting with her hand/Bono.

“Let’s begin!” I said.

“I do not know if this will work, but there you go.” Pook made a gesture with his hand. The quest notification emerged in my vision.

New quest available!

Water all the evil crops!

Rewards: Get a duplicate farm of evil crops in the white realm!

Would you like to accept this quest?

Yes/No?

The second I accepted, the palace, the forest and the sky dissolved like they were mere ink sketches. The farm, the guards, Bono and Bui remained besides Pook and me. The white realm now bordered us on all sides. Fono, whom we had earlier left behind, was observing us with his arms folded.

The guards already had a filled bucket for watering the evil crops. This bucket I took and poured water over each of the plants. I was done in a minute. The quest was complete.

Congratulations!

You have completed the quest!

The farm has been duplicated in the white realm!

I looked around in elation, seeking the duplicated farm. The white realm stretched on for apparent infinity, but nowhere was the second farm. I turned towards Pook.

“Where is it?” I asked.

Pook was still for almost a minute. I watched him, impatiently tapping my foot. Finally he collapsed to his knees.

“I cannot do it,” he declared. “I cannot duplicate the evil crops. They produce evilese. I cannot duplicate evilese. This is beyond me. I am sorry.”

My heart fell. Only a while ago I had felt like a champion when the idea for the farm quest had dropped into my mind.

Still, on the bright side, Pook had successfully merged the game world and himself. This could lead to a range of possibilities in the future. All was not lost. Pook ended the merging. Soon the forest and the palace returned, and the white realm along with Fono faded.

So it happened that over the course of the next few days, we experimented with tens of merged quests.

Kiara visited during the nights and helped me conceive superior quests.

We were like relentless architects. We encouraged Pook to increase the complexity with each new quest, providing him with intricate frameworks, and as the days passed we became rather good at it.

We involved the Skhites and Hornies too, designing quests where the player would have to fight hordes of monsters hidden in mirrors in the white realm.

Of course, most of the mirrors had fake monsters to confuse the player.

Of course I was the player in each test quest.

It was funny. The more quests I lost, the more my level of excitement skyrocketed. Nobody actually killed me. I was their king after all.

What the quests demonstrated was that it was possible for us to kill players and extract evilese from them without necessarily putting the lives of the monsters at risk. Even highly skilled players could be deceived with the help of Pook.

And one day we decided to put our skills to the ultimate test.

For some days, my monsters had monitored the paths taken by the players into the forest. We chose the trail from the bridge that was least used.

We didn’t want to be interrupted by other groups of players when we were at our job. Of course there was little chance of interruption because the bulk of the quest was set in Pook’s world, but it was an added precaution.

After we had decided on all the details of the quest, we lay in ambush along the least-used path. Thirty monsters would partake in the quest, however only a single player could play.

It was after a rather long wait of five hours that finally a group of players came our way. My heart hammered in anticipation of the forthcoming action… if one of the players accepted the quest that is.

There were three players in total—

A rather gentlemanly barbarian in a formal blue tuxedo. He topped at least nine feet. A halfling player that could be easily mistaken for a child sat on the shoulder of the burly man, giving the latter a head massage.

The third player was a slim wide-eyed bald man, the sun reflecting off his polished skull. He was dressed in a strange costume that had been cobbled together from various shrubs and decorated with sequins. A mage? He was trailing behind the other two.

“Whom must I offer the quest?” Pook asked me. We had based the whole quest on a tree. If the players moved past that tree, we would miss the opportunity altogether.

If the quest was offered to the barbarian or to the masseur then it was likely that they would prefer to play the quest together.

However the mage shouldn't mind taking advantage of a little side quest without bothering his friends, who seemed rather ignorant of him.

“The mage,” I said to Pook, at the same time using sight on the bald man, whose head reminded me of a disco light. His name was Lightningbolt.

“So be it,” Pook said.

A miniature white box popped up on one side of my vision. I had asked Pook to share with me all the notifications of the quest.

New quest available!

Pick the golden apple from the tree in the shade of which you stand!

Shh… don't tell your friends about this quest. You are a chosen one, do not ruin the opportunity!

Rewards: Level up by ten levels at once!

Note that the quest may contain some hidden obstacles.

Pook had confirmed that he could actually grant such a reward because the quest was exceptionally tough for the player.

Lightningbolt gazed up and his eyes fell on the golden apple dangling from a branch. His friends realized he had stopped.

“Hey,” the barbarian said, stifling a moan and not noticing the apple, since his shoulder passenger was kneading his forehead like it was dough, “what’s up with you? Get moving!... Ah, that’s how I like it… Man, we don’t have the entire day!”

“Huh?” Lightningbolt said. He licked his lip. “Um, you two keep moving. I will catch up in a jiffy.”

“You sure?” the barbarian asked.

“Don’t worry, it won't take me a long time,” Lightningbolt said.

“Okay,” the barbarian said and continued along the path, as his halfling companion began to skilfully drum his stocky head.

Lightningbolt accepted the quest and Pook gave me a thumbs up. The poor mage had no idea what he had signed up for. The only way for Lightningbolt to win was to climb the tree and pluck the fruit from the tree branch with his bare hands.

Unless he climbed in a certain pattern, he would come in contact with trigger spots along the tree trunk and be attacked by my monsters. Not only that, if he went closer to the tree, then the size of the tree would blow up in an incredible fashion, as the tree was partially inside Pook.