Epilogue: One Big Happy Family!

Once we got back to the real world, courtesy of Paul giving us details on a portal in the capital city, he and Malwaria, as well as some of the unlawful hackers of the game like Troja, were all arrested, and I was shocked to learn that there was a warrant out for several of the higher ups in the company for trapping devs in the game.

Crows stream got very popular, going from a humble five to well over five million across North America and Asia. There was a scheduled live stream by the studio that was supposed to take place and reveal the full dive feature the night before launch, but people assumed that Crow was the one hosting it.

Hype for the game skyrocketed as people watched and learned that this game wasn't just any MMOJRPG. They absolutely loved the final battle in the Mothbordia tower and everyone on the planet wanted to get inside the game for themselves. Thankfully they assumed that what they saw was just a proof of concept. I was shocked, but it kept the PR neutral enough that we didn’t have a mess to clean up in the end.

Before Crow shut down the stream, I personally had to make an announcement that there would be a massive delay. At least a year. I fully expected the shareholders and fans to be in an uproar, but when they saw we were apparently making a full dive video game, the general consensus was that they were willing to wait.

#LetThemCook was trending for a several weeks.

Even with the power vacuum at the studio, we still kept the lights on and started to become more productive. The vets recovered quickly and all the sleepy people started to wake up. I had my theories on what the sleepiness was all about, but no way to prove anything. Maybe The Brain was affecting reality too?

We might have saved the game, but my work was just getting started. I had one year to figure out how to rescue Tensei, and that was going to take every ounce of brain power I had. Hopefully not literally this time…

1 YEAR LATER

I made a right turn into a nice suburb of newly built homes. Kids were playing all over the freshly plowed streets, sledding down huge hills of snow. I took it extra slow just to be on the safe side.

“Do you think Ray Jr. is going to like it here?” Rose asked me, rubbing her big belly. “I hope he’ll make lots of friends.”

“With a name like that? Absolutly not. How many times do I have to tell you we are not naming that child Ray Jr.?” I argued.

“Oh, come on…” she pouted. “That’s an awesome name and you know it. It'll carry on your legacy.”

“Ray Roberts Jr. It makes him sound like a racecar driver.”

“Well at least he’ll have a head start in the big race of life!” she made such a goofy face and smile like she’d just one-upped me.

“That’s about as clever as naming someone in a video game 'Blacksmith.' Their whole occupation is predetermined by a name they had zero say in.”

I made it a point to always give every NPC a proper name. It could have been absolute gibberish pounced after stepping on a tiny plastic block with pegs on top, to something sophisticated while sipping tea.

“You’re no fun…” she laid back and looked outside the window.

We had a moment of quiet as I tried to think of something clever to counter her topic with.

“So, what if the baby’s a girl?” I asked.

“Rayamina.” She answered that way too quickly. If she wasn’t being silly before, she certainly was now.

“That is a disturbing name and I want to vomit just thinking about it,” I openly declared.

“I can’t win with you, can I?” she gave a chortle. “Oh!” she cooed out as she did a little hop. I felt the baby move! She must like that name.”

“Now the baby’s a she?” I shook my head. 

We were coming up on the turn to our house. I slowed and pulled into the driveway. Some sparrows who’d been pecking at the ground got scared and flew up to a tree. They were chirping so loud that Rose assumed they were singing fanfare for our arrival.

“Can’t believe we actually have a house,” I said, helping her out of the car.

“Well, believe it, my guy!” she patted me rough on the back. “This is a big moment for us! Super big. So big that I can’t even describe something that big.”

“Gave up a little there, didn’t you?” I snickered.

“I just want to get inside so we can see everyone already.”

Rose took point with a waddle and unlocked the front door. The house was warm, lightly furnished with some basic necessities and a Christmas tree in the corner of the kitchen.

My man cave hadn’t been wired up yet, so I left my computer plugged in on the kitchen table. It was a little messy, but Rose didn't seem to mind the temporary rigging.

“Do the update, do the update!” Rose did as much of a dance as her big belly would let her. “Come on, do it do it!”

“Hold on…” I said as I stretched out my feet. “I just drove an hour through traffic…”

Angel Sword was about to be released officially to the public. Rose wasn’t the only one excited today, because forums and social media were blowing up left and right. It was so huge that cities all over the country were gearing up for massive launch parties. And since we had an even bigger following than before, we also had a lot more companies willing to work with us on merchandising and preorder bonuses.

I would have been making my way to Time Square for the big party, but Rose was ready to pop any day now, and I didn’t want to miss that. Instead, we planned on just going to one of the local game stores, which was going to be equally as exciting for us.

But all of that paled in comparison to the real treat of the day. I was sending out a day one patch that was going to make the full dive feature of the game 100% stable without the need for any human mind powering it. Which also meant, we had a little reunion on our hands.

“Hurrrrrryyyyyy! Rose whined out like a child. “Come on, Ray! Raaaayyy.”

“Hon, please…” I had to admire her fortitude. If she wasn’t talking about the baby, she was talking about the update. That was our whole week while moving. “Alright, let’s get it done.”

“Yay!” she cheered. “I already started the computer, so you can do the honors.”

She even loaded up my dev kit. Rose really was on top of this.

I opened up the files and placed them in the update folder. With a few clicks I sent all that data to the studio, and it scattered across the world at light speed. Now the game was up to date with my changes here, and hopefully our little friend was released. 

“Did it work?” Did it work!?”

“Rose, did you open up the stream?”

“Oh!”

We were planning on doing a private stream with Crow, who was taking time out of his very busy live streaming schedule to tour us around to see the changes. Unlike before, he was actually a full dive player now. 

She loaded up the video player and we saw a few familiar faces scattered around the Mothbordia throne room, which looked a lot warmer and inviting with nice plants and paintings, as well as a decorative overhaul that didn't look like an edgelord's basement.

“Can they hear us?” Rose asked.

“They can see us.” I waved. “Guys! Hello!

“Eh?” The crew turned toward the camera. “Oh, hello there! You surprised me, much like the quality of the Banana-phone X pro-29. The latest top of the line…”

“Crow-boy, we’re the only ones watching the stream,” Rose interrupted. “And I will never buy a Banana-phone.”

“But if you use my affiliate link, you’ll get a ten percent discount.”

“No!” Rose laughed. “Hey, let me see everyone else! Are Ginger and Davy here too?”

“Aye! We are!” Ginger said, accidentally clipping the screen into her nose as she shuffled in front of Crow. “Can yee’ sees me an’ Davy?”

“Well, I could if you weren’t taking up the whole screen, Ginger.” I replied.

“Oi, what’s yee' meanin’ by that?” she clipped into it a little more and we saw right through her. “Yee' callin' me fat? Them's words o' war!”

“He’s saying back up girl.” Rose answered. “You are way too close to the screen.”

“Ugh, fine…” she took a few steps back and sat down on a crate, looking all bummed out with her head rested in her hands.

“Cheer up, Cap’n.” Davy said. “Leest’ we get’s to sees ‘em. Aye?”

“Aye…” She grinned.

It’s a shame we couldn’t get Zorro to log in, because he was really the only one missing from this little reunion. He sent us a nice card though talking about how he wished he could have been here.

Actually, there was one more person we were waiting for. And thanks to my last update, she was supposedly on her way.

“Where is she?” Rose asked. “Is she not here yet? Did the update not work?”

“She’s coming…” Crow claimed. “Actually, I think I here her now.”

Rose pushed me aside and stuck her face in the screen.

“Where is she?!” she asked, like a feral mother excited to see her child come home from college. “Where is my first baby?!”

I tried my best to look over her shoulder, but her head really was blocking the view. Then I tried to move her by pushing her on the arm, but she wouldn’t budge that way either.

My next move was to move the monitor back, but she just kept pushing forward to keep her face glued to it. If she got any closer, she’d probably fall into the game itself. Maybe that’s what she wanted?

“Hon, I want to see her too, you know?” I said.

“Hmm?” she turned my way with a curious tilt of her head. “Oh! I’m sorry!”

Finally that got her to back up.

A drumroll soundtrack in the game started up and all the lights turned off. Only a little daylight peeked into the throne room from the gaps in the suddenly draped covered windows.

*Ting-a-ling!*

“You’ve been waiting for her grand return…!” said a tiny voice that echoed around the room. “And now she’s here!”

“Eeeeh!” Rose squealed. “It’s her!”

“She sure is making an entrance…” I chuckled, backing the camera view up a little to give us a better FOV. “Okay, that’s better. Do your thing!”

“You know her, you love her… It’s…” A bunch of tiny star pieces collapsed in from every corner of the room and gathered up into a little sparkly bubble. The bubble grew larger until finally popping to reveal none other than our game's angel fairy mascot. “...It’s me! Tensei!”

“Teny-chan!” Rose cheered.

I was so glad that the update worked and she was free. A lot had happened over the last year and I couldn’t wait to tell her all about it.

“Mama! Papa! It’s so good to see you two again!” She said, flying up to the screen. “Do you want to come into the game and play with me?”

“Well, Rose can’t exactly do that yet because she’s playing for two right now.”

“Oh!” Tensei uttered. “That’s right, she’s having my baby sister!”

How the heck did she know Rose was pregnant already? And, what did she just say about a baby sister?

“Teny-chan, did you just ruin the gender reveal?” Rose pouted.

“Wait, you knew?” my brow arched. “I thought we were going to find out after the baby was born.

Rose looked ashamed now, keeping her brow low, but a soft smile came back to her as she rubbed her belly shyly.

“Sorry, Ray. Mom wanted to know and wouldn’t leave me alone. Soooo…” her smile grew mischievous. “Rayamina it is, yeah?”

“No,” I asserted. “Tensei, how did you find out?”

“I looked through her medical records before coming down here. I wanted to make sure you guys were healthy.” She said that like it was the most mundane thing she could have possibly done.

“Tensei, make sure you don’t look into players' personal lives, please?” I ordered with a smirk, rolling my eyes.

“Okay, Papa,” she agreed. “Anyways, thank you for helping me, everyone.” she turned all around. “This game literally means the world to me, and the adventures are only just beginning! So let's have a lot of fun together!”