Double the Tensei!

We managed to get far enough away from the zombies to de-agro them. There was a hill where we set up a temporary camp to discuss what just happened at the gates of Mothbordia and what we were going to do about it. Tensei spawned some marshmallows and roasted them over an open flame.

“Thanks for getting me out of that mess…” The knight said as he accepted a marshmallow and clipped it through his helmet for a snack. His HP rose a little from the food. “And thanks be to you, Tensei, for getting help like you said you would.”

“Ten, you know who this is?” I gestured to him.

“I know all the legitimate players,” she said. “I’m supposed to be their companion from the start, remember?”

-Wow, that totally slipped my mind, but makes a lot of sense.-

I’m surprised I didn’t think about that until now, but like Rose said, it totally slipped my mind as well. She must have had a somewhat omnipresence to her.

“If that’s still true at this point, then can you tell us all about the other players in the world?” I asked. “Maybe we can get some sort of network of Tensei going to gather information.

“Mmm…” she poked her chin and looked down. “I kinda’ already have done that. How do you think I got my long list of bugs?” she said. “But the issue is that I’d need to make contact with the other Tensei’s in order to learn everything they know. And it seems like some of the players have found ways around having a Tensei following them.”

-So, if he has a Tensei, where is she?-

As Rose sent that message, a blue eyed Tensei peeked out from behind the knight, then jumped fully out of his backpack and shyly waved at the rest of us.

“Hello. I’m Tensei. Nice to meet you all…again, apparently.”

-♡Double the Tensei, double the cuteness!♡-

Tensei #2 turned to our green eyed Tensei. “Hey, sis! Long time no see. How’s the bug fixing going?”

“It’s been going great, but we’re really behind schedule,” our Tensei said. “I think we should merge together and share what we know…”

The two Tensei did a little merging dance that ended with their fingertips connecting. They both lit up bright and their forms turned cloudy until they combined into one angel fairy. Instead of bright green eyes, the left one was blue now.

“Ten, that still you?” I asked her just to be sure.

“Always has been,” Tensai gave a cute peace sign with her tongue sticking out. “All Tensei are the same person. So once you know one, you know them all.”

The image of a whole council of Tensei’s gathered around to discuss matters within the game came to mind.

“So, do all of them have the same mission to save the game?” I asked.

“We do,” she nodded. “But we don’t always tell the players because we don’t know who we can trust anymore.”

“A mission?” the knight spoke up. “What mission are you referring to, Tensei? And who are these people?”

“Oh…” she flew up to him and gestured her hands in a showcase motion. “This is Crow_Paladin_789. He’s a play tester from New York.”

“Pleasure to make your acquaintance, friends.” He gave a slight wave of his hand from the other side of the campfire. “As Tensei says, I am Crow Paladin. You may refer to me as Crow.

-He sounds like a role-player!-

“It is a role-playing game, is it not?” He gave a hearty laugh. “So, who might you three be?”

“The name’s Ginger Snap!” our pirate girl stood up tall and proud while flexing her arm. “The soon to be Pirate Queen! And this lad here i’ me first mate and marksman, Davy.”

“Davy here,” said Davy. “A pleasure, sir.”

I explained that those two were very intelligent AI NPC’s who decided to join my party and help my mission.

“My name’s Ray. I’m a developer at the studio making the game.”

-And I’m his wife, Rose! It’s good to meet you!-

“As you may have noticed, the game isn’t quite working as intended.” I said. “So, we're trying to do some bug fixes from the inside.”

I gave him some more details to try and explain how we were fixing things from here, but I didn’t mention that I was isekai’d to do it. I did allude to it, just in case he was in a similar predicament, but I felt like Tensei would have mentioned that.

“I never imagined anyone would try and fix a game from the inside,” crow replied. “So you’ve managed to do quite a bit already, seeing as I and my companion were able to log in proper today.”

“Your friend, was she the one that Lord Troja took?” I asked.

“Indeed. Malwaria, the girl, was stolen by that scum, who has been a thorn in my side since the last update.”

-Last update?-

Crow said that about two weeks ago there was an update that suddenly made the game functionally unplayable. A string of glitches and other issues jumbled up servers and prevented most players from logging in.

A few of them however were able to get through and actually play, but it wasn’t a pretty sight.

“Some playtesters learned ways to cheat and manipulate the glitches and enslaved several villages and cities. I’ve been chasing after Troja ever since to try and stop him, but he’s always been a pain. Malwaria and I met up a few days after he came into the picture and she claimed she knew how to stop the glitches for good if we could get to Mothbordia.”

I looked at Tensei like she should have known this, but she did say that in order for her other selves to know what the others did, they had to actually meet. She must not have seen this guy’s Tensei in a while.

“Well, if you want to help us, feel free to join the party,” I said. “We want to deal with this Lord Troja too.”

“It would be an honor to join alongside a developer playing through the game. But, may I ask, why is your wife chatting with us too?”

“Lady Rose is actually the one playing the game because she's good at it,” Tensei blurted out. “Mr. Roberts is the one fixing it.”

Her explanation was short and not as revealing as I thought it was going to be, so it seemed to work well enough to get him off our track.

-So, uuuuuhhh, Crow…-

-How are you playing the game? From home, or…?-

“Of course I’m at home,” he replied, his helmet suspiciously tilting to look at me. “Why would you question that?”

-Just wondering how your voice is coming in so clear. Are you using a good microphone or something?-

Now she was trying to figure out if he was isekai’d like me.

“I am. A GTY Creal-uphonics 2000 microphone. One of the best on the market with crisp quality and smooth, compact design. At the affordable price of $299, it certainly is perfect for any up and coming indy content developer on a budget.”

Was the guy getting a sponsorship or something here? I had to suppress a laugh.

-Wow! That’s a lot of detail about the mic! Gee… Sure wish Ray would have told me how MICROPHONES work in this game so I didn’t have to type everything all day  ┐( O ⌣O)┌-

I was going to get an earful from this later… I had no idea this game had proximity chat. My interactions with the sound team were very limited. Not that Rose had a good microphone available, but it sure would have been nice to hear her. Unless her voice was going to come out of my mouth, then that just would have been very weird.

“Oh, forgive me…” Crow said. “I have a sponsorship with Creal-unphonics that requires me to mention their equipment once every sixty minutes on stream."

-Are you streaming right now? (,,o . o,,)-

“Yes I am,” he admitted. “My loyal following of five is enjoying my adventures as we speak.”

5 followers… Well, that wasn’t much, but at least he seemed happy about it.

“Chat, say hello to Ray and his wife!” Crow said.

-...*Cricket*…-

Things were just kind of silent as we waited for Crow to confirm they said anything.

“Ha ha ha!” Crow laughed. “They’re quite the entertaining bunch.”

“Ha, haa ha…” I nervously laughed along with him. “I’m sure the joke was funny, whatever it was…”

“Oh!” Tensei snapped her fingers and suddenly an array of comments appeared in the chat log. “There. I’ve just routed his stream comments to your in game huds! Now everyone can see them.”

Once again, Tensei managed to remind me that she’s a privacy lawsuit just waiting to explode.

The comments were mostly a bunch of emojis and really excitable people saying "Hi." One person said they wanted "Dommy Mommy Ginger" to "lock him in her brig," which sounded a little… Uh... Yikes…

“Is that'a challenge, eh? I’ll lock any’a yah weak landlubbers 6 feet under if yee' wants'! Come challenge the great Ginger Snap to a duel an' find out!”

-Ginger, please ignore the comment goons. They’re just a bunch of weirdos.-

“I got a goon’a me own right here!” she wrapped an arm around Davy. "Aye, me boy?"

"Aye, cap'n!"

“Am I really old enough to remember when that word meant what Ginger thinks it does?” I sighed in disappointment. “Anyways… So, can we expect your help, Crow?”

Crow used the thumbs up emoji and nodded.

“You will find my paladin skills are quite helpful.”

“If memory serves, paladins have healing spells and anti-undead stuff, yeah?”

“You are correct. Had I not been preoccupied with that wicked man Troja, I would have been able to deal with those zombies with my harm-undead spell. Which is actually just using a heal spell on them, believe it or not.”

I made that class, and it was conveniently perfect for the occasion. We needed a healer, and he seemed like the perfect guy for the job.