The transition was jarring. One moment, they were standing on lush, high-definition grass near the neon river. The next step took them onto a surface that was completely flat, featureless, and an aggressive shade of grey.

  "The road has become... simple," Gideon noted, tapping the grey ground with his sword. It made a hollow thud, like hitting cheap plastic. "The spirits have smoothed the earth to an unnatural degree."

  "It is cheap," Viscount Pigglesworth sniffed. He was limping slightly, his gravel-encrusted sticky shoe making a loud CLACK-CRUNCH on the smooth surface. "Look at that house. It has no windows. It is merely a brown cube. Is this a colony of ascetics who reject the concept of architecture?"

  Kai looked up at the village. It was a nightmare.

  The houses were blocky shapes with no detail. The trees looked flat, like paintings on cardboard that rotated to face you no matter where you stood. In the center of the town square, a fountain stood frozen the "water" was just a solid blue cone that wasn't moving.

  [Zone: The Village of 404] [Population: [NULL]]

  "Be careful," Kai said, keeping his voice low. "The gods... they got tired here. They didn't finish making this place."

  "An unfinished tapestry?" Gideon whispered, awestruck. "We walk upon the raw canvas of creation?"

  "Something like that," Kai muttered. It’s a dev sandbox. And they forgot to turn on the physics.

  "Greetings!" Gideon shouted at a villager who was standing near the fountain.

  The villager did not turn around. The villager did not walk. The villager was standing with his arms straight out to the sides in a T-shape, feet hovering three inches off the ground. He glided toward them without moving his legs, sliding over the grey earth like a chess piece.

  "Halt, traveler!" Gideon bowed respectfully to the hovering man. "We seek lodging!"

  The Villager stopped. He had no face, just a smooth, skin-tone oval where features should be.

  "Lorem ipsum," the Villager said in a deep, monotone voice. "Dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit."

  Gideon gasped. He fell to one knee.

  "He speaks the Old Tongue!" Gideon whispered loudly to Kai. "The Language of the Ancients! Did you hear the gravity of his words? Dolor sit amet!"

  "It’s... very profound," Kai lied, resisting the urge to face-palm. "It’s a holy prayer. Of... patience."

  "What did he say?" Pigglesworth demanded. "Did he compliment my cravat? Or did he mock my sticky shoe?"

  "He said the inn is that way," Kai pointed to a large, blocky building that had the words [BUILDING_INN] floating over the door in neon green text.

  "Sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt," the faceless Villager added, then glided away sideways, passing straight through a wooden fence as if it were mist.

  "A saint," Gideon wiped a tear from his eye, leaving a streak of flour on his helmet. "He walks through barriers. We are unworthy."

  They walked to the Inn.

  Pigglesworth tried to push the door open with his cane. The cane passed straight through the wood. Pigglesworth stumbled forward, off-balance, and nearly face planted into the doorframe.

  "Sorcery!" Pigglesworth shrieked, recoiling. "The wood is a phantom! It has no substance!"

  "The walls are thin here," Kai explained quickly, stepping through the closed door without opening it. "You have to... trust your step. Believe the door isn't there."

  No collision detection, Kai thought. Great. I’m going to fall through the world before morning.

  The inside of the inn was empty. There were tables and chairs, but they looked like they were made of grey clay. A fire crackled in the hearth, but it gave off no heat and made no sound. It was just a moving picture of fire pasted onto the wall.

  Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

  An Innkeeper stood behind the bar. He also had no face, but he was wearing a very detailed apron that seemed to be the only real thing in the room.

  "Food!" Gideon slammed his fist on the bar. His hand went through the counter, and he hit his own knee. "Ouch! Barkeep! We require sustenance! We have traveled the River of Spirits!"

  "Ut enim ad minim veniam," the Innkeeper droned.

  He slid a plate across the counter. On the plate was a red sphere. Floating above it was a label: [OBJECT_APPLE].

  "An apple!" Gideon grabbed it. "Doesnt look like it"

  He took a bite.

  There was no crunch. Gideon’s teeth sank into the red sphere, but nothing happened. He chewed air.

  "It has no flavor," Gideon frowned, looking at the pristine red sphere. "It tastes of... memory. And sadness."

  "It is merely a concept of a fruit," Pigglesworth scoffed. "Peasant food. Give it here."

  Pigglesworth took the red sphere and tried to peel it with a small knife. The knife passed through the apple.

  "This establishment is a mockery!" Pigglesworth threw the apple at the wall. It didn't bounce. It just stuck there, floating in mid-air.

  "We need to rest," Kai said, feeling a wave of exhaustion hit him. It wasn't just the physical fatigue; it was the mental load of keeping these two alive. "Let's just find a room."

  They went upstairs. The stairs were treacherous—some steps were solid, others were illusions. Kai had to test each one with his foot before putting his weight on it.

  "Watch the third step," Kai warned. "It's a ghost step. You'll fall through."

  "Understood," Gideon said, hopping over it in full plate armor. CLANG.

  They found a room with three beds. The beds were just grey rectangles with the word "BED" written on them.

  "I claim the window!" Pigglesworth announced. He marched over to the bed, turned around, and sat down with aristocratic flair.

  SWISH.

  Pigglesworth fell straight through the bed, through the floor, and vanished into the room below.

  "My Lord!" Gideon drew his sword. "The floor has consumed him!"

  From downstairs, they heard a muffled, indignant voice.

  "I am in the kitchen! Why am I in the kitchen?! And why is the ceiling solid from this side?!"

  "He fell through the... the weak floorboards," Kai sighed. He looked at the remaining beds. "Okay. No sudden movements. Treat the furniture like it’s made of cloud."

  Kai gingerly sat on the edge of his bed. It held. Barely. He lay down, careful not to breathe too heavily.

  Gideon, however, did not understand subtlety.

  "I shall rest in my armor!" Gideon declared. "For the Floating Saints watch over us!"

  Gideon threw himself onto the middle bed.

  CRASH.

  The bed didn't break. Gideon simply clipped through it. He sank halfway down, so that only his chest, head, and arms were visible above the mattress. His legs and torso were dangling into the room below.

  "I am... comfortable," Gideon lied, staring at the ceiling. "The bed embraces me. It is a snug fit."

  "You’re stuck, aren't you?" Kai asked.

  "I cannot move my legs," Gideon admitted. "I believe I am interfering with the table downstairs. Pigglesworth is shouting at my boots."

  "Just... stay there," Kai closed his eyes.

  The room fell silent, save for the muffled complaints of a Viscount downstairs who was currently having an argument with Gideon’s dangling greaves.

  Kai stared at the low-resolution ceiling. It was just a flat grey plane.

  It reminded him of the ceiling in his apartment back on Earth.

  Home, Kai thought.

  He pictured his old setup. The ergonomic chair. The dual monitors. The coffee machine cost more than his car. It was safe. It was predictable. The physics worked. If he put a cup on the table, it stayed there.

  He should want to go back. He did want to go back.

  But then he remembered the silence of that apartment. He would come home at 2:00 AM after a crunch shift, sit in the dark, and stare at a screen until he passed out. He hadn't spoken to a real human being outside of work meetings in three years.

  Here?

  "Kai?" Gideon’s voice broke the silence. "Are you asleep?"

  "No."

  "Do you think the faceless man knows the way to the Server Room? He seemed... wise."

  "He knows nothing, Gideon," Kai said softly. "He’s just waiting for someone to give him a purpose."

  "Aren't we all," Gideon whispered.

  From downstairs, Pigglesworth shouted, "Gideon! Your spur has caught my cravat! Cease your twitching!"

  Kai smiled in the dark.

  It was stupid. It was broken. It was dangerously expensive. But for the first time in years, he wasn't eating dinner alone in front of a monitor. He was starving in a glitchy inn with a delusional knight and a pompous aristocrat.

  "It’s not a bad party," Kai whispered to himself. "Terrible. But not bad."

  "Did you speak, Kai?" Gideon asked.

  "I said go to sleep, Gideon."

  "As you command. I shall dream of the textures you mentioned."

  [System Notification: Autosave Complete.]

  Kai closed his eyes. He hoped he wouldn't fall through the floor in his sleep.

  Village of 404. Next up: Chapter 18, where we finally reach the edge of the Server Room and encounter the Great Firewall (which is, predictably, very literal).