I sat down with the other players for a breakfast of scrambled eggs with minced greens and fresh bread. I got to know a few more of my squadmates. Pallidaddy, a paladin, and Vampress, a fire mage, were both in a party that had joined our squad. They knew Barry from other games, and he had told them of the event. Their party had rushed to get here. Another example of people talking in the real world to coordinate in game.

  “Does everyone here speak English?” I asked them.

  “Infinty Tale does servers by language.” Pallidaddy replied. “I’m from Wisconsin.” He said with a grin. We grow em big!" I said as he stretched and nudged Vampress.

  She hit him playfully while keeping her eyes on me. “There is a translation feature. But most people choose to play with others that they can communicate freely with.” She turned back to him. “I think our new friend is even taller than you, babe," she winked at me. “Don’t let him get away with too much flirting.”

  He sputtered, and she laughed at him.

  “Are you two a couple?”

  She gave me a genuine smile. “Yes, he’s my husband of many years now.”

  He chuckled and took her hand, smiling fondly at her.

  “Oh,” I said, looking between them, not knowing what to make of ‘many years’. Were they old? Though why not?

  This conversation made me very confused later when I met a person who was playing some sort of demon race that didn’t speak any English. He was pointing at his HUD, or I think that was what he was pantomiming when Rose popped in and walked over.

  The demon person was getting heated. I could feel frustration and literal heat emanating from him. I had pulled up my HUD, but there was nothing I could find that would help. There was no sign of that translate feature.

  He made some exasperated arm gestures at Rose as she stood beside me, brows furrowed and a frown on her small round face. Her eyes went unfocused, and I guess she was accessing her HUD, doing what he had wanted me to do.

  “He wants to know why you won’t accept his chat request.” Rose said, turning to me. “Though I don’t know why he is so worked up about it.” She gave him a bit of side eye.

  “I don’t have any chat requests.”

  “Oh, one sec.” She turned to the irate demon guy, and must have messaged him as he calmed down immediately. He even made a bit of an apologetic little wave and smile before leaving.

  “The chats were really buggy when the game started. Did you put in a ticket-?” She started to ask them caught herself. “No, of course you didn’t. Do you have any chat menu?”

  I looked through my HUD. “No, there is nothing labeled chat. Does this mean my party should have had a party chat?”

  Rose looked at me with an expression I couldn’t decipher. Pity? Incredulity?

  “Yes, your party should have had a party chat. I can’t imagine all of them were glitched. Or if they were, why had no one thought about it, searched online, and found a solution?”

  Oh. That did seem odd.

  If they had had a party chat why did no one tell me? And if none of them had a working chat feature, why did none of them know? I shrugged, refusing to feel anything about it until I got the chance to ask them.

  “Well,” said Rose, her eyes unfocusing again. “Let me add that to the ticket.” There was a pause. “Ok, that’s done. Let’s go hike up to the gate. It’s pretty impressive.”

  I whistled for Dekka. She came around from right behind me, giving me a glare. “Right, sorry.” I said. It wasn’t the first time she had ‘gone missing’ by being so close I didn’t notice her.

  There was a path well tramped into the grass that led up the rocky hillside. We followed it as it took us over and around a couple of hills. The day was clear and perfect as always, though the air was crisp and drier up here. The sky domed above us, small clouds scudding across towards the mountain peaks. Despite the climb, I wasn’t getting all sweaty, though it was slow going as the path did switchbacks in the particularly steep areas. Dekka was panting pretty good as she ran up the hill, cutting straight across versus following the path. She would run ahead and then come back and stare at us, implying that we were too slow.

  We crested a particularly rocky hill. The vegetation had grown thinner as we climbed. There it was, a massive ornate door set in the side of a cliff. And by massive I mean colossal. The few people standing around were dwarfed by it. The door embodied everything you would expect for a portal labelled a ‘World Event’.

  As we approached, the scale became even more obvious. It was at least 50 feet wide and 200 tall. You could fly a small airplane through it if it were open. The door was set perfectly into a towering cliff face of hard and solid looking rock that looked to have been chiselled flat where the door was mounted. Granite maybe? There were bushes in the protected soil at the base, and vines climbed along the rock face.

  There were a few players hanging out by the door as we walked up. Dekka was more interested in them than the door. In fact, I was not sure if she even registered it as a doorway.

  I walked up to the door, my neck craning up as I got closer. The wood looked thick and old; the bands of metal reinforcing it looked artistically pitted and weathered. Ornate carvings covered the entire thing. Etched into its grain were elements that looked both symbolic and decorative. There were vines and flowers expertly carved in relief that wound around mysterious symbols that were scattered up and down the boards.

  The effect was esthetically quite pleasing. The heavy meta hinges that held the door looked aged, but the placing, shape, and the rivets that held them on added, not detracted, from the spectacle.

  This door should be on the game’s promo material. At the very least, the artist who made it should feature it on social media. It was breathtaking. Reaching out, I intended to caress the vine carved in front of me, follow it to the raised leaves so intricately worked in wood. But just before my fingers would have made contact, they stopped. I felt a slight tingle or vibration in my fingertips. Something, some barrier, was stopping me from interacting with the door itself. I got a pop up.

  [ENTRANCE TO THE WORLD EVENT WILL BECOME ACTIVE IN 67 Hours 36 Minutes and 57 Seconds]

  This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.

  The last one was counting down in real time.

  I looked over to see what Rose was up to. She was talking to a couple of the players, so I walked over to join them.

  “I don’t think so either,” a very slight half elf mage was saying. “But it is at least a change of scenery. "

  They chuckled at that.

  “It does get dreadfully boring sitting around at camp. Might as well sit here and watch the door as sit around listening to ‘Mr Leet’ brag.” Said the other, a dwarf, with a strong accent I couldn’t quite place.

  “You guys chilling up here to get some distance from that obnoxious Kevin guy?” I said, joining the conversation.

  “Heh, you just got here and you already know who we are talking about.”

  “Yeah, he was pretty offensive the moment I arrived.”

  “OMG, you really do have a doggie!” This exclamation was from the mage. “Can I pet him — or her?”

  Smiling widely, I said, “You will have to ask her, but I doubt she will say no.”

  The mage rushed over to admire Dekka. Who then, of course, pulled out all the stops and dialed up the terrier cuteness to eleven. The mage was so smitten she ended up carrying Dekka back down as we made our way back to camp for lunch. My dog found this an acceptable arrangement, especially because the mage was promising to share his lunch with the tiny dog.

  The dwarf introduced themselves as Alizea, and we chatted on the walk. Turns out her accent was Afrikaans. She seemed nice and was one of the people in our squad. She was a rogue, which I should have guessed by the dark brown cloak she wore. The tantalizing smell of caramelizing apples wafted from the camp as we neared. Dekka’s little nose lifted from where she had been napping in the mage’s arms.

  “That smells amazing!” I said, taking a deep breath. I could almost taste the air; it was so fragrant. I must have said that louder than I meant to. Or my voice was carrying more than it had.

  The figure by the fire waved and called back, “Thank you! Come get some.”

  Rose reached out and slapped me on the leg. “Let’s go introduce you to Aubie, our resident chef. It’s worth being logged in when he’s here cooking.”

  It’s a good thing she didn’t try to slap me on the back. The halfling would have ended up slapping my ass. Smiling inwardly at the thought, I eagerly followed her.

  “Aubie, this is Elizabeth. Elizabeth, this is Aubie. He makes game food taste like actual food.”

  “Pshaw, what I made it is better than actual food.” Aubie said, waving a wooden spoon as he spoke. “You can eat of it all you want and never get fat.” He then roared with laughter at his own joke and slapped his belly, which was actually on the large side.

  Aubie was, well, I am not quite sure what he was supposed to be. He looked like a very short orc. He was wide and powerful, but fat. The man had a perpetual good humoured grin from what I could see, but the friendly affect was slightly marred by two short tusks protruding from his lower lip.

  “Today we have baked apples for lunch. They have been stuffed with a raisin like berry, spices, sugar, and butter. Then roasted slowly in a bed of coals.”

  My mouth was watering just hearing about this culinary delight. “Are they ready now?” I asked. He looked me up and down. “They are ready. But one apple, even as amazing as Aubie’s baked apples are, will not be enough for one the size of you, no?”

  “I will happily have just one.” I made a show of inhaling. “Please don’t make me beg.” He laughed at that too. The man seemed to find everything hilarious, and I couldn’t help but smile at his mirth. “No need to beg, my barbarian friend. I shall give you two and a sandwich, I think.”

  My good humour took a dip at the barbarian comment but it was quickly returned when he handed me a platter and then quickly placed an open-faced sandwich piled high with meat, lettuce, tomato, cheese, and some other things that looked delicious but I was unsure of their origin. Then he took a pair of tongs and carefully placed two baked apples beside the sandwich. “Careful, they are hot.” He said, his eyes holding a merry twinkle.

  “Thank you so much.” I said. I was going to wait around till other people all got their food. But Rose told me to go sit and that they would join me as they got their food. The apples were hot. I burned my tongue on them; the sugary bit in the middle was lava like. But the most delicious molten food I had ever been burned by.

  “Oh, I just got a response to the ticket!” Rose said and stopped dead just as the group got to me. “Oh, and it says-“ The oddly smooth person popped in right in our camp. In fact, they were standing partly in the coals of the campfire, but this didn’t seem to cause them any distress. They looked around until they saw Rose. “Hi, you are the person who made the ticket, right?” Rose nodded and put her food down on a makeshift table.

  “So you are reporting a non functioning chat and... and a player unable to disconnect from the game?” The last sounded dubious, though the GM’s face stayed as smooth and placid as ever.

  “Yes. And it’s the same player. The one stuck and the one with the non functional chat.” Rose gestured at me.

  The GM looked over in my general direction but looked through me vs at me. “Which person?” They asked.

  I stood up, and the GM kept looking around and was clearly unaware of me. “Hi,” I said and waved my hand in their face. Just like last time, they didn’t react.

  “You can’t see her?” Barry asked from behind.

  “I don’t know how you can miss her; she’s huge.” Aliza gestured up at me as I towered over everyone.

  The GM figure looked around at everyone. “This isn’t some sort of prank or trolling thing, is it?”

  Their voice sounded familiar. Was it the same one? It was odd how perplexed they sounded yet how robotically bland their expression was.

  “She’s right there,” Rose pointed at me. “All, what 215 cm of her?”

  Others started muttering and pointing, but I was worried the GM would think they were being teased somehow. “Tell the GM I saw them on the road to Bistmore a few days back. That they popped in and mutter things about strange readings and then popped out only a couple minutes later.”

  Rose dutifully repeated my message.

  The GM froze. “You guys aren’t pranking me.” It was a statement, not a question, but a lot of the players standing around nodded affirmatively. “You can all see, hear, and interact with this person.”

  Again, a statement. They were processing this information. “Can you give me this person’s name and username?”

  “Elizabeth is both her name and her username. Her last name is.” Rose paused and looked at me.

  “Nicks,” I provided. “Nicks,” she repeated.

  The GM started typing with one hand in the air for a few moments. “Where is she logged in from and what pod version is she using?”

  Everyone’s eyes looked at me expectantly.

  “I have no memory of any pod. I didn’t log in intentionally. I just woke up in here.”

  When this was relayed to the GM, they froze and went so still I wondered if they were logging off. It was that same stillness that players got when they were logging off, the moment of immobility before they were gone.

  But then the GM moved again. “That is highly irregular. Does this person know if they are in here on Compassionate Life grounds?”

  “I don’t think so.” I said, and Rose shook her head. “What city, and region, is the last place you remember being in?” The GM asked.

  “Toronto, Ontario, Canada.” I whispered. This was feeling very real.

  “Hey a fellow Canuck!” a voice yelled from near the cooking fire. I hoped it wasn’t Kevin. Whoever they were, other people quickly shushed them.

  The GM went still again for a solid minute. The entire camp was standing around watching the spectacle by now. “There is no one by that name anywhere in our records. There are only two people on Compassionate Life from that area. One is a young boy, and the other is an elderly man. So neither are likely you. This is highly irregular.”

  I felt relief and anxiety. I was here; I was believed. But there wasn’t a simple answer.

  “A few more questions. What class does this person have and what level?”

  “Basic Barbarian, and level 8,” Rose relayed.

  “Basic Barbarian?” the figure shook their head. “How long has this person been in game?”

  Why did my class illicit that response? How did I answer that? “I am not sure.” I looked around. My time here had felt endless. How much time had passed. Weeks? Months maybe?

  “What’s your best guess?” Rose asked, seeing my difficulty answering.

  “Somewhere between weeks and months.” I said. A few people gasped in the crowd.

  The GM paused in their typing for a moment. Then continued.

  They turned to face in my general direction. “I am sorry I am unable to help you immediately. This is not the experience FunCore Inc. wishes you to have playing The Infinity Tale.”

  That sounded suspiciously like a script.

  “However,” they continued. “I will find out what is going on, and I will get back to you. This shouldn’t be possible.”

  The GM popped out and everyone started talking at once.