Save the World, Tensei!

Tensei had a melancholy smile on her face, mentally preparing to lay herself down as a temporary sacrifice for the very core of this game. We had no idea what it would do to her, but neither Rose nor I were personally ready to risk her life here.

“Ten, I can figure something out. Maybe I can make a code to stabilize things…”

“Yeah!” Rose chimed in. “He’s so smart, he’ll do it.”

But Tensei shook her head.

“Even if you could make a magic code to sustain things, there has to be a mind behind The Brain for it to work right now. I’m just peeking into the programs it has, and… Well, sixty people were just barely enough to keep it going.” She floated slightly toward the glass, seeing her reflection in the surface of this powerful piece of tech. “However, an advanced AI like me, who has the collective brain power of all of them combined, could easily manage to keep it going for a little while on my own at least. I don’t have the same limitations you humans do.”

“Teny-chan…” Rose broke out into tears, then pressed herself against my chest to muffle the sound of her cries.

If this really was goodbye, at least for now, then I couldn’t have been prouder of her for making such a big call. But I was just as sad as Rose, moved by her willingness to put it all on the line so her world could continue.

“Mama, Papa… Thank you both for helping me. I could never have saved this game alone, and the adventure was a ton of fun too.”

She flew down to us and wrapped her arms around our necks. We both held her tightly and accepted her embrace as warmly as we could.

“Teny-chan… When will we see you again?” Rose finally gained the fortitude to speak.

“I won’t be gone forever," she claimed. "Just until you guys can figure out a way to make this game work without sacrificing people to it."

“We’ll miss you,” I said.

“Teny-chan, are you really sure about this?” Rose asked.

“I am. You both have done so much to help me. Now it’s time for me to save my own world, like I should have been able to from the start.” She let go of us and floated back a few feet, smiling all happily, just like she did on all the posters back in the office. “But, you know what? I’m super happy I brought you both here. It was so great becoming a family!”

If it weren’t for her, I didn't even want to think what would have happened between Rose and I. We were drifting apart because of my work, and that was something I didn’t want to happen ever again.

“I should thank you more, for everything, Ten. You gave Rose and I an adventure we’ll never forget.”

“No kidding!” Rose softly laughed while wiping tears from her eyes. “Mom and the girls at work will never believe this! Nope!”

I thought by the end I would have just wanted to forget, but looking back felt so nice and warm, like a nostalgic memory. All the ups and downs really made me feel like the whole journey had meaning. Now I had a personal attachment to this game that ran deeper than just a paycheck.

“Tensei, I’m going to finish this game, no matter what. And when I do, I promise you, I’ll find a way to get you out of it and bring you into our world!”

I kind of just spoke without thinking, and everyone was staring at me in shock, which proved my words were as unbelievable as they sounded.

“R-really?” Tensei’s smile grew twice as big. “I’d love to visit your world in person some day!”

“R-Ray?” Rose looked at me like I was nuts. “How are we going to do that?”

“Well…” I pushed my broken glasses back up the bridge of my nose. I figure if she brought us here, who’s to say we can’t do the reverse?”

It was going to take some serious tech wizardry to make that work. But all great things in life started as simple theories, and this was no exception.

The walls were practically melting and the floor was feeling soggy, like wet cardboard about to collapse from our weight. We’d hit the critical point of no return where the entire system was going to collapse completely.

“Uh-oh…” Tensei uttered as she held her hands close to her heart and gave us one last hug. “Mama, Papa…” she kissed both of us on the forehead. “I’ll see you both soon! Don’t forget me!”

Our little girl zoomed away into a trail of fairy dust. She phased right into the core of the game and brightened so much that her little body was like staring at a star.

We all turned away to keep from being blinded. But when our eyes returned, a much less luminous orb of light had taken the place of the many people once trapped in that sphere of glass.

A pulse of healing green light radiated out of the core, blasting quickly like a radiant emerald wind across the whole game board. The chaos that once ensnared it was quelled, and all was made right. No more bugs, glitches, or exploiting. It was actually in a shippable state...mostly. Is a game really ever ready?

The light show was amazing, and watching the land recover was a nice final treat and sendoff for the adventure.

Rose was close to me, holding onto my arm as she rested her head on my shoulder. Her warmth was such a blessing to feel.

“Hey, Ray…”

“What’s up?” I turned to her.

“I want a baby. How many should we have? Ten? Twenty?”

“Gah!” I uttered in shock and almost lost my glasses. “W-why so many?”

“Why not? I’m going to do most of the work here, you know?”

Did she realize that she’d have to dedicate 180 months of her life to cook up twenty children? No kidding she’d have to do the bulk of the labor! Literally!

“W-why don’t we start with one or two, yeah?” I counter offered. “Maybe a dog or something too.”

“Mmm…” she looked at me with soft eyes. “Alright. That’s fine…for now.”

‘For now…’ For now, she says… That was probably the best I was going to get here.

“We can count Tensei in that bunch, so we’ll have three kids.” I smiled warmly back at her.

“Yes, that’s right,” she rested her head against my shoulder again. “I love you so much, Ray.”

“I love you too, Rose.”

There was some sobbing at the other end of the room from the crowd of people and thousands of ghosts swarming around the entrance, all watching us. Some of those ghosts got bold and floated around both of us with an assortment of funny emojis for faces, ranging from happy faces to crying ones.

“Oh, don’t mind these guys. They’re just people watching Crow-boy’s stream. Sure are a lot of them here now...”

“Stream…” I poked my chin, remembering something kinda’ important. “Crow, wait… You’re not supposed to be streaming this game if you're a play tester!”

“Whatever do you mean?” he asked, very much confused.

“There was a non-dis…” I stopped talking. “You know what? Forget it. Too late to do anything about it now.”

Based on how many ghosts were around us, he’d gathered quite the crowd of people. It was impressive. I bet he was about to get very popular online for sharing this whole mess with the real world.

“Hey, how do we get back to the real world exactly?” Rose asked.

“Uh…” I shrugged.