There's Always a Risk

Tensei was very clearly trying her best to keep out of my sight, but her consistent peeking out from behind our room’s door made her actually stand out more. It almost brought a smirk to my face how silly it was.

With a few more callouts, she still refused to acknowledge me. So it was time to play a card I bet she wasn’t expecting.

“Well, I guess I have to eat all this ice cream on my own.”

I saw her shadow on the floor perk up.

Finally the little thing stepped out into the hall and approached sheepishly. The whole time I had a single brow raised and a smirk. The closer she got the more her face told me she realized she was duped.

“You tricked me,” she pouted. “How could you?”

If there was one thing I knew about her, she really liked ice cream. We had a thing called Tensei Night at work every Friday where we’d all take turns buying buckets of ice cream for the whole team. One of the rare things I looked forward to during the week.

“Consider it payback for dragging me into this mess.” My cocky grin faded and I turned serious and sad. “How much of that did you hear?”

“All of it.” She twisted her foot shyly on the ground. “I can see all the chats you guys make, even if it's private.”

Figures. Well, then there was no sense in keeping secrets from her.

“So you understand why I’m a little upset with you?” I said in a stern tone.

“Yes sir.” She nodded. “I shouldn’t have brought you here against your will.”

Honestly, that wasn’t exactly the part that bothered me. The longer I was here, the more exciting exploring this world felt. A once in a lifetime experience, one could say. Part of me rationalized it into being an extremely stressful vacation.

The part I took issue with was that I could potentially die. Which personally, I found pretty reasonable not to enjoy.

“Tensei, I don’t know if I’m willing to throw my life away just for a video game. I have a family back home, and I want to live on to support them.”

“I-I know,” she said. “But, it’s not like there was much difference working in that office versus here.” she argued, which left me a little confused. “Think about it. You weren’t eating right, you weren’t sleeping. You guys were basically zombies working yourselves sick. But for some reason, you kept doing that, even if it was slowly killing you.”

I was ready to speak against that before I thought about it. Working that job did take its toll on me. I gained so much weight, felt like a slug, and neglected my own wife. What good was making a living like that?

How long was it going to be before that did me in?

Not that jumping into a life or death battle with monsters was any better… But hey, at least I had my wife here?

“You’re not wrong, Ten. But you can’t ignore that things are still dangerous.”

“At least you have me. A-and Lady Rose! We can help you more than we could have before. That means something, right?”

I couldn't deny that it was a lot more fun to bug fix with them. They were both goofy airheads, and something about that kept me motivated.

“We’ll work together!” Tensei flew up into the air. The candles on the walls lighting the hall gave her a hopeful glow. “You won’t die. Lady Rose and I are going to do everything to make sure that doesn’t happen!”

When I looked at her, I was reminded why we decorated our desks with her merchandise. She had such an inspiring look and personality. It really made me feel like things were going to be okay, like there was a solution at the end of the tunnel.

“I believe it. But you still have to understand that risking myself for this isn’t worth it. I’d rather head home and just start over on a new game.”

Even if I lost my job after this miserable launch, that was better than losing my life.

“You’re not the only one risking your life, you know?” she said with a crestfallen face. “At least you have a home to go back to. What happens to me when my home is ruined and the game gets shut down?”

I didn’t have an answer for her. Or at least, I didn’t want to answer that, because it wasn’t going to be a pretty statement.

The reason we were able to do any of this was likely because there were servers up and running for beta testing. Once those servers went offline, she would too. At least until they came back up. ‘If’ they came back up, that is.

This really was her home. Without it, she was going to be lost for good. Archived in some studio hell for scrapped projects. What a waste. She was too special to meet that fate.

I’d been trying to push the thought from my mind, but Tensei wasn’t just an NPC to me. Even before meeting her in person, she was something I wanted the world to experience. I had to share the hope that she’d given us in the office and let her make a big splash.

In a way, she was our magnum opus. The best part of the last few years of slaving away at our computers. I couldn’t just let all that go to waste because the game got forgotten by time.

Letting her die was like killing a legacy even before it was born.

“Mr. Roberts, if you want to leave… There is a way out. A ceremony in the capital city that should…”

“No,” I replied. “Why would I leave when there’s still bugs to be fixed?”

Her face shot with shock, then she fluttered right up to my face and looked me deep in the eyes.

“Re-really?” she uttered. “You’re still going to help me save this world?”

“Well, even if I didn’t want to, Rose is kinda’ in charge of my movements.” I nervously laughed. “I doubt I could convince that woman to leave you behind.”

-DARN RIGHT YOU CAN”T CHANGE MY MIND! ( ͡~ ͜ʖ ͡°)r-

“Ahh, looks like Rose is back.” I smirked. “How much of that did you hear?”

-Enough of it ┬┴┬┴┤ω・) -

Well, nobody in this family kept secrets, I suppose. Nothing good came from that anyways.

-I should be honest with both of you too. I’m just as worried, Ray. But I’m worried that I’ll mess up and get you hurt real bad. Or worse-

So that was what she was getting at before. I honestly had so much faith in her ability that it never even crossed my mind that she had so much pressure on her. It made sense though.

-But I’m not going to let anything happen to either of you, like Teny-chan said. I might suck at this type of game, but I will learn it and we will win!-

It was always great playing games with Rose for about an hour. Any time after and she shot up in skill. I was always left in her dust. There wasn't any doubt she'd pull us through.

“You’re the best gamer I know, Rose. So have a little faith in yourself,” I said.

-Too kind, my husband. (@´□`)♡-

Rose spammed a series of emotes all at once that made me kind of look like I was dancing. Tensei was giggling the whole time at how goofy I looked.

-Alright, you two! Mama’s got an idea to * * * * that boss mega quick!-

Uh oh… The profanity filter was kicking in.

“Say that again?” I laughed. Tensei was all chuckles too.

-I said * * * *-

-* * * *? How is that a swear!?-

-* * * * this! Wow. There’s no getting past those stars!-

I’m pretty sure that last one was an actual swear. But there were a few words in the profanity filter that really didn’t have any reason to be censored. Especially in a game with plenty of killing in it.

-Ki11 Yes! I figured it out!-

I suddenly started performing the clapping emote, which Tensei gleefully followed along with.

-TY TY. I’m a pro at gamer talk-

“So, what’s the plan here?” I asked.

-It’s like, actually super easy. I couldn’t believe we didn’t think of it before. So listen very closely…-