There and back again. A Non-Player Character story.

~By the way, probably about a week ago, I may have accidently, wrongly interpreted that as a request.~

"Well, don't get those ideas while we're playing this – O.K," said Calum

"You sure we should be playing this kind of game NPC?" Nala asked.

~Not really,~ replied NPC, then he faced the portal and walked in.

*15

The spider lair information that was received by NPC was different to NPC than most game areas he had been too. Lily789 and the Barbarian were soon standing next to NPC.

Calum had named his Barbarian, with the encouraging of Nala: Rian. Rian the barbarian.

Calum had went along with the name irony.

*16

Nala said to NPC, "Some might think Cal and I crazy for becoming friends with you soo fast."

Calum added, talking to NPC, "My dad thinks it's better knowing what's going on with you than not knowing at all."

NPC said to them, as if ignoring their previous comments, ~what do we do if we win the game?~

Calum said, "We could gloat, have pride and bragging rights."

NPC said, ~Who am I going to brag too?~

Nala said, "Us, ...? we'll have to figure that out."

~What's the point if I can kill all the spiders in this lair at a mere thought,~ continued NPC.

"That's a lot of bragging rights. I guess it's up to you what you think of," said Calum.

~So you want me to hold back so you two can play this level,~ replied NPC.

Calum said, "we just want to have fun together, do some exploring."

~So if I know the lay-out of this whole layer, and the location of every program 'monster' in it.~

He was cut off by Calum, "Then don't tell us NPC!, ...unless we ask."

*17

NPC put a smile on his face after Calum said that last part.

NPC would be creating an alteration in the game if he made a better weapon, or annilated a bunch of monsters with a wave of his hand. Not only would it look like a hack into the game, he would be part of the hack. He had already beat the games defences just to exist.

NPC looked at himself built up and an outlier, an annomalie, the broken part of the game, the unwanted segment of code, the failure.

The way Calum said, '... unless we ask,' n some way made NPC feel wanted.

NPC wanted to be Calum and Nala's friend. So even though they were worlds apart and not the same, here they were playing in the same game together.

NPC spoke out loud, ~confirmed command,~ trying to sound cheery to Calum and Nala.

Nala said, "you can tell us what your thinking."

~I would fail if I tried.~

"You don't have to do it perfect," said Nala to NPC.

About that time five spiders were getting closer to Calum and Nala so that they could see them on their screens.

NPC and Nala could hear Calum make a sound like he was startled. One of those spiders was as strong as the one that had almost killed Calum (and so too would of also finished off NPC) last time they were there.

"There is three of us," said Nala, "I think we can take them."

"We don't know how good NPC is at combat skills," said Calum.

~I've downloaded a few things,~ said NPC to Calum, ~..and it's not cheating, I think.~

"You are not going to die, if you die in this level, right NPC?" asked Calum.

NPC gave a smirk as he started to walk to the spiders and looked back saying, ~Not this time.~

This was a rather weird experience for both Nala and Calum while looking at their computer screen.

Calums room was starting to get messy again.

– ? whether Nala is there

He had some bar wrappers laying around, an open bag of potato chips. He has some clothes thrown on the floor.

*19

Nala was back in her Sororityish-type house, in her room.

Her room was clean and decorated. She had a computer screen, keyboard and mouse. Her screen was her computer. Gertrude was thinking things were normal with Nala, but her choice in guys. Gertrude could not seem to figure out what Nala saw appealing in Calum. Currently, Nala was in her room by herself. She had some food nicely arranged on a plate by her.

Calum and Nala observed NPC walk into the middle of the five spiders doing some Kung-Fu moves. He did leaps, round-houses, flying sommersaults in the air to land them on a spider. He was moving like everything was slowed down for him, as if he was in the Matrix. He did Akido, Jiu-Jitsu, Karate, Shaolin, martial art of some kind,aboriginal jungle. After a little bit of time, he came walking back after decimating the spiders. He was brushing off his hands causually and was covered in gore, glowing-spider green slime top-to-bottom.

~How was that?~ asked NPC.

Callum moved his new character towards NPC and said, "Cheating, definetly cheating."

Nala just smiled in real life while facing her computer screen and said nothing.

*20

Calum, NPC, and Nala made there way through the spider lair trying different scenarios of badly getting beaten but still alive to going trough swarms, or herds of spiders with ease. The loot and coin collected in the game was a lot.

Time was going by, and the three of them were getting along well.

They got to he portal at the end of the spider layer, where there was a save spot and Calum and Nala said they had to leave for the rest of the day, something about daily living things. They wished NPC a good bye and said they would see him later. And then they left.