Chapter 2: Critical Failure

Wolfy looked over the wall of text until he felt his head throbbing. He had spent long hours reading the system manual that explained everything on the game as well as the system commands that could be inputted. Leaning back on the bed he looked up into the black darkness above him. Like everything in the game, there were was a world and levels. The system control room was no different then anything else in the game, it was a level that could be accessed. Of course, no one but the system admin and players they demanded as guest could enter the hub that was in what seemed to be like that of another dimension in space.

The room was small with little in the way of decoration. Wolfy had modified the room that had been created by Yara. A simple bed, desk and computer was all he needed. Closing his eyes, he took a moment to organise the thoughts in his head and spoke them aloud as if he was having a conversation with a person – even if that person was himself.

“I wonder if I can somehow reach the outside world.”

“No, the server shouldn’t be connected to the real-world.”

“Maybe but if its still here then there is a chance it could be.”

“Then where is your body?”

“That’s a good question. If it’s still in my room then… Wait, no we were trapped in here for how long again?”

“Many years.”

“Right, so my body is probably in a hospital.”

“What if time is just different in here then it is out there?”

“That… doesn’t make sense. The time on the clock matches the time in the real world.”

“But what if the days don’t match?”

“Ugh, my brain hurts just thinking about it. Maybe it’s not important.”

“Then what about that idea you had?”

“Yeah, the one to access the internet! If this game server exists, that means it has to be connected to something. Whatever that external power source is.”

Wolfy quickly jumped to his feet and opened the menu. Navigating through the various menus, he opened up the system information. Although there was a ton of information on the game and the status of the server, there was nothing that indicated it was in any particular state or country. Wolfy could only sigh as he tried to think.

“Okay, this server is connected. Apparently, it’s offline which makes me wonder if I can reactive it. Still, this is something. Maybe I can get in touch with the outside world.”

“That’s worth a try, it’s possible you could get in contact with her.”

“All right then!”

Scrolling the menus with haste, Wolfy managed to open up a menu which allowed him to open up an internet browser. Opening up a popular browser called AcidWolf, he typed in the first application that he could think of, Duskcord.

“Sweet! It works, now I just need to reach out to…”

«Please enter your e-mail and password.»

“Fuck! I forgot my password!”

“Don’t panic you can just open your e-mail and…”

Wolfy fell to his knees and realised that reaching out to his sister was impossible.

“I forgot all my passwords…”

“Can’t you get her information and just like call her?”

“Wait, that’s right! I’ll just call her…”

Wolfy’s sentence trailed off into a tone of depression as he remembered the cirppling problem with his plan.

“I don’t remember my own sister’s phone number…”

“You can remember her birthday but not her phone number.”

Laying down on the floor and staring into the endless abyss of darkness, Wolfy tried to think about what he could do. He began to think back to his time with his sister and all that the two of them did together.

“We started this game. We formed a guild. We made new friends. We killed them.”

“Do you think she’s happy in the real world?”

“Of course she’s happy. She has a life.”

“But what if all those people we killed start to eat away at her?”

Wolfy’s eyes widened. He had thought about everything but completely forgot that his sister wasn’t a murderer. She would never harm anyone unless she was doing it to protect the person she loved or her brother. Standing to his feet, he carefully paced back and forth while thinking about how his sister would act.

“Okay, if she awakes, maybe she’ll think it was a bad dream?”

“And if she doesn’t?”

“…”

“You done fucked up.”

“Shut up! She wouldn’t kill herself over…”

“Are you starting to wish you had gone instead?”

“I could easily live with killing people. Not that hard to live with when you hear the sounds of screaming ringing in your head and flashes of methods that would make many sick.”

“But then she would be here alone.”

“I know…”

“You would kill yourself if you couldn’t save her.”

“I know…”

“You are one messed up person.”

“I know, damn it! Just stop and help me think. What can I do to reach out to my sister?”

Continuing his pacing, Wolfy scrolled through the menus of the system as he tried to find something, anything that would spark an idea in his mind. As he looked through the list of commands and options, he noticed one that said Server Options. Clicking on it brought up a new set of menus that controlled everything about the server, including its availability.

“The server is offline? Wait, does that mean I can actually bring it back online? Can people still join this world?”

“Check to see if Yara’s information is on her. Maybe she left her login details or something.”

“I doubt it but it’s worth a try.”

Navigating another menu, he quickly pulled up the information about Yara and after some digging was able to find the information that would allow him to login to the headquarters that ran the Phantasia server. Opening up two more menus, he pushed one to the side and opened up the search browser.

“Okay, let’s see what the Phantasia homepage looks like.”

Looking at the page, he was greeted with a simple white background and black text that appeared uninviting.

Phantasia. ENTER.

«Phantasia is a VRMMORPG that was released on January 20th of 202X. The game sold over 100,000 units in its first day. Physical pre-order copies sold over 10K units three months before release.»

“Well, that’s boring.”

“Now see what it looks like through Yara’s login data.”

Entering in the information on the second menu, Wolfy instantly noticed a difference between the two screens. While the one on the right was bland, dull and boring, the other was filled with an elegant but well-crafted design and artwork. Scrolling through the page, he came to the bottom and noticed that it was set to private.

“All right, so no one can see this until it’s published.”

Reading through the updates and patches, he noticed that the game received it’s last known update on January 20. Following that, was a server announcement that stated the server was undergoing maintenance and would return to operational status soon.

“I can bring my sister here…”

Wolfy could feel his heart stop for a moment and joy. He now had a way to contact his sister.

“Do you think she would want to come back after that?”

Wolfy sighed and snapped his fingers. Popping open the can that he had materialised before him, he downed the can and threw it to the ground.

“You can’t just reach out. You’re the system admin now.”

“That’s right, I can’t just say, ‘Hey sis, come join me in Phantasia’, then expect her to just come running.”

“Best to be subtle. Something that she would get without the rest of the world knowing about.”

“Right. I need to think about this.”

#

Wolfy spent days reading over more of the system logs and learning every single thing about the server and game that he could. Browsing the various folders resulted in finding artwork that had never before been released or seen by anyone. From the documents that he had read, the game had millions of unreleased content that was going to slowly be added to the game over the millions of years. Yet, none of it had been label as to when it was to be added.

“How big are these folders?”

Checking the properties of the art folder alone, Wolfy could feel his heart sink as he took note of the file size.

“Damn… 2.3 petabytes of images? That’s a lot.”

Scrolling through various images, he clicked on one at random and enlarged it in front of him. The image was of an anime-style wolf girl sitting a top a tree with a cheerful expression. She was dressed in a black tank-top that appeared slightly ripped and exposed part of her stomach. Her breast were accented just enough to showcase her feminine charms. The ruffled frilly skirt was at the optimal length that showed a hint of her thigh gap with the black and pink colour scheme drawing the appeal of the eye. Another alluring aspect was the black stockings which appeared slightly ripped with holes like a rock-star.

The wolf girl appeared playful and almost flirty from the pose and expression of her character. Her free spirit nature could be seen even in the way she wore no shoes as if she was as free as a wolf. In other different illustrations, she wore a pair of black laced boots that drew up to her ankles. Her hair was a huge visual contrast to the rest of her outfit. The red cinnabar coloured hair was long and filled with volume, a part of it being tied off with a white ribbon that made her appear almost childish.

Looking over the document in another menu, the wolf girl was meant to be added as an expansion to Phantasia along with a new location. From everything that Wolfy had read, the wolf-girl – named Lunia – was meant to be a non-player character that would introduce the players to the new location. The new area was a large underwater city that could only be accessed by a special teleportation gate. In the notes, the city was known as Aystaria, the city of sin. Unlike other cities, Aystaria was meant to be a city where players could fight with each other and anything could happen. Dungeons were made solely for high level players that were over level ninety.

“This could be a way to reach out to my sister.”

With a snap of his fingers, Wolfy made another can of his favourite drink appear. Downing it without a second to lose and throwing it to the side, he quickly navigated the menu and brought forth Runa into his domain. Standing before him was the NPC that he had seen in the art.

“Well, you are certainly cute.”

“Greetings, I am Model number 666.”

“Hail Satan. So, you’re Runa.”

“Indeed I am. You are the system admin. It is a pleasure to meet you.”

Wolfy seemed a bit puzzled. He knew from his experience with NPCs that they would only say bland dialogue that would be skipped by most players. Yet, somehow, this was different. He felt as if he was actually having a conversation with a player.

“You seem different than a normal non-player character.”

“Yes. I was designed and created by Doctor Arisa Yukimasu to sustain a decent level of human emotional conversation with various player characters.”

“I can see that. She added… a lot to your information.”

“Affirmative. She believed I should be understanding of players and their wishes.”

“Judging by what I’m seeing, it looks more like she just made you extremely kinky and lewd.”

“That is true. I was created to enjoy many things including ropes, bondage, wax, tickling, foot worship, vibrators—”

“Stop! I can read.”

Wolfy sighed and looked over the rest of the information.

“Runa, what skills do you have? I don’t feel like reading all of this.”

“I can stroke your genitalia and give—”

“Damn it you lewd wolf, skills like art, programming, things you need to run a game server.”

“The doctor did give me enough knowledge to create art that she drew as well as programming basic functions for the game.”

“Okay, so at least I won’t be completely alone.”

Wolfy navigated through the menus and opened up various other menus. Each of them were different showing the main website and other files that contained artwork, data code and other assets for the location.

“All right, I need to know one thing, Runa. Is the city of Aystaria already created or does it need to be created from scratch?”

“The city of Aystaria is only built in a base format. Would you care to see it?”

“Yes.”

“Use the wrap function to go to level ID 9798499561287.”

Entering in the coordinates, Wolfy found himself in a large massive space. The structure of the space looked as if it was a done with water enclosing around it. It was a true underwater city – or at least would have been.

“So… there isn’t a city. Just a giant underwater warehouse.”

“As the system admin, it is your job to construct the city.”

“Lovely. At least I have all the time in the world.”

“I will also help you, administer.”

“Just call me Wolfy.”

“Understood. Wolfy it is.”

Using the warp command, Wolfy returned to the system control room.

“All right, Runa, we have work to do.”

“Don’t worry, Wolfy. I’ll be by your side to lend you my support,” Runa said with a smile.

“Also, you need to remove your shoes in this room. Yara made it a rule so dirt wasn’t tracked in the room.”

“I understand.”

Runa removed her shoes and placed them off to the side.

“We have a lot to do. First, let’s get the city created. Do you happen to be an architect by chance?”

“Negative. I can offer my advice as a non-player character.”

#

Wolfy awoke to something heavy pressing against his hips. Opening his eyes slowly, he could see Runa atop his hips. She stared down at him as she smiled with a cheerful expression.

“Good morning, Wolfy.”

“Mornoon. Why are you on top of me?”

“My understanding is that players want someone they can connect with. Since you are all alone, I took it upon myself to make you feel as if we are lovers.”

“That’s sweet of you but that isn’t how relationships work. You start out slow.”

“So, I should stroke your cock?”

Wolfy sighed.

“That isn’t what you do when you want to fall in love.”

“Then should I use my foot to stroke it?”

“I… think… you need to do more research into how human relationships work.”

“Understood. I will be sure to do that.”

“Glad you understand. Now, we have work to do.”

“Right, I will begin with a blowjob.”

“Runa! No, we don’t have time for that. I need to work to reach out to my sister, you damn lewd wolf.”

“I understand, you are in love with your sister and wish for her to partake in sexual activities such as—”

Before Runa could finish her sentence, the snapping of Wolfy’s fingers caused a swarm of slimy black tentacles to wrap around her and force her into the air in a spread eagle position. Wolfy sat up as he stared at Runa with a menacing gaze. Moving his hand navigating the menu, he pulled up the code that controlled Runa.

“Let me make this abundantly clear. If you say anything like that ever again, I will end you.”

“I see. So you are not into incest.”

“Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for incest in an anime if it’s done well. Between me and my sister, no. I’d rather shoot myself.”

“Understood. I’ll no longer say such comments. You may punish me if you wish.”

“I’m starting to question who is more lewd here.”

With a snap of his fingers, Wolfy released Runa from her bondage.

“Focus. I need you to help program the site while I work on the creation of the city.”

“Don’t worry, I won’t let you down.”

“Good. For now, write up a good webpage for the new content. Do it similar to how it looks on the other pages. When you have a good page ready, I’ll look it over. Okay?”

“Would you care for me to help you with the city while I work on the website?”

“If you can do both then sure.”

Without another word, Wolfy wrapped to the location of the city. Standing beside him was Runa who opened up six different menus. Three of them showed the website of the game and the other three were text editors for programming. Wolfy opened up several menus and looked over the manual for creating a city. While the admin was able to hard code buildings down to every small pixel, there was a quick menu that allowed for picking various items in the game and placing them down like a simple game creator.

Closing his eyes, he carefully envisioned the layout of the city. Aystaria was meant to be an underwater city that was inspired by a mix of Gothic, steampunk and cyberpunk styles. Snapping his fingers, a piece of paper appeared along with a two millimetre lead holder for sketching. Sitting down on the solid metal ground, he realised creating a city in an environment that was not optimised would lead to it never getting done.

“Is there something wrong, Wolfy?”

“I need a better place to work.”

“What would you need?”

“A small building, just a single room with a bed and table.”

“Any colour?”

“Black, why?”

Turning his head, Wolfy noticed a small black building that had appeared beside Runa.

“There. You may work in there,” Runa said with a smile.

“Wow, Runa, that sweet of you. Thank you.”

“I can also pleasure you as you work.”

“Of course you could…”

Wolfy sighed and entered the building while Runa followed behind him.

“You realise if you did, I wouldn’t be getting any work done and you would be far to overwhelmed to work.”

Wolfy was surprised at the expression of the NPC’s face. Runa’s blushing and shy expression was something he didn’t expect from an NPC, even if she was different from the others.

“Okay, I’ve never seen an NPC blush like that.”

“W-Well, what do you expect? I am a girl, you know?”

“Tell you what, help me reconnect with my sister and I’ll do one thing that you ask of me.”

“You mean that?”

“Yeah, I’ll do whatever you ask,” Wolfy said with a smile as he patted Runa on the head.

Runa smiled

“You’re a sweet person, Wolfy.”

“I try. Now, let’s get to work.”

Entering into the small building with one room, Wolfy headed for the desk in the corner with a chair and sat down. Without a word, he began to go over all the buildings he would need for the city, important buildings the players need before figuring out what miscellaneous buildings he could place to fill up some empty space. Hours passed until he looked over the sketch he had made.

“Looks like it’s finally done.”

“Do you plan to start working on it today?”

“I feel tired for once. Did you manage to finish your work.”

“Yes, I finished about thirteen hours ago.”

“You finished the whole task I gave you, that would have taken about five days or so, in only thirteen hours?”

“You may praise me.”

“I’ll look at it tomorrow. I need sleep.”

Without another word, Wolfy headed over to the bed and laid down.

“Would you mind if I accompany you on the bed?”

“Sure but if you start molesting me, I’m going to delete your code.”

“Understood. I will not touch you in weird places.”

“Good girl, now let me sleep.”