Not Everything is Sunny in WanderQuest

“What. The. Fudge,” Daffodil said, glaring at Ymara. The intimidating aura he was trying to pull around himself fell away as he realized what he’d said. “Fudging fudge! Shirt! Oh my gosh, why can’t I curse?!”

Ymara was very clearly trying to stifle a laugh which only made Daffodil glare harder. His smirk wavered, which Daffodil took as a success. “Well that would be one way to confirm it I suppose. It is exactly as I said. I have brought you into WanderQuest. It looks like the profanity filter seems to still affect you, an unintended side effect.”

Daffodil sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose. “Can you explain this ‘blessing’ to me, please,” he ground out.

“You know you seemed a lot more peaceful when you were just playing the game,” Ymara huffed as he crossed his arms.

“You just couldn’t hear my running commentary.”

“What a shame,” Ymara said. “Anyway, as I’ve said, I am the god of WanderQuest. I reside in the game, unbeknownst to anyone, and give my blessing to people who provide consistent worship such as yourself.”

“But I haven’t been worshiping you. I didn’t even know you existed until ten minutes ago,” Daffodil said. He was beginning to suspect no one knew this god existed, even the game developers. Daffodil wasn’t sure why a real life honest to god god would concern himself with a random video game, but he had to be genuine if he had the power to summon Daffodil into the game.

“Worship comes in many different forms, and it doesn’t need to be intentional to count. Every time a person tells a friend to try out the game, every time someone streams the game on Twitch, every microtransaction, it all counts as worship because it is bettering the game and, therefore, my domain. You have dedicated years of your life to beautifying the land around my shrine. You have cultivated rare flowers and sold them to merchants in cities who in turn sell them to other players thus giving them access to valuable resources they would never have otherwise had access to. It may seem small, but you have greatly improved parts of this world, and for that I am rewarding you.

“This is the blessing I have bestowed upon you: you have been transported into the game that you love so dearly. You can live here in the valley you tend. You are no longer Kyo Handa, and you no longer have to suffer the mundanity of normal life.”

Daffodil let those words sink in. He would be living the rest of his life in WanderQuest? It… well it seemed like a dream come true actually. He didn’t have to deal with annoying customers all the time, he didn’t have to pay rent, he didn’t have to go to that awful convenience store ever again. He could just spend his days doing what he loved without a care in the world.

Ymara continued, “Now to explain exactly how this works. You are now an actual part of the game, an ‘NPC’ as you might refer to it. I know how much you value your privacy, so I have wiped the memories of all players you’ve interacted with to avoid confusion. Any NPCs you have interacted with as a player will remember you, and you can talk to them freely. You are now in the body of your game avatar and have retained the level and skills associated with him. I have also kept the video game interface for your convenience. If you want to access your menu, just swipe your left hand down. Do you have any questions?”

Everything Ymara told him was jumbling together in Daffodil’s brain, and he struggled to make sense of it all. “What about the real world? Do people still remember me?”

Ymara smiled again, and this one seemed a little nicer than the last few. “It did seem a bit cruel to wipe you from their minds. The people who interact with you will retain memories of Kyo Handa, but they have been enchanted so that they won’t go looking for you. They remember you and they can still think about you, but they won’t go searching enough to realize you’ve disappeared.”

That was good. Daffodil would hate for everyone he’d ever loved to have forgotten him. How could he live with himself if he knew his parents had completely forgotten their only son, even if it wasn’t technically his fault?

“Is there anything else?” Ymara asked. Daffodil couldn’t think of anything so he shook his head. “If you need me, seek out my shrine. I can’t offer you any divine intervention, but I might be able to answer your questions.” With that, he disappeared.

Daffodil looked off in the distance and thought about what he’d learned. Most of what Ymara said he hadn’t processed, so now he sorted through each piece of information and turned it around in his head until he was sure he actually understood it.

He was an NPC? Honestly, Daffodil could probably make that work pretty easily. NPCs tended to have a set number of actions they could complete, and Daffodil was nothing if not consistent in what he did in WanderQuest. And all those annoying players that loved to mess with him wouldn’t even remember him? That was great! None of them would bother him in his valley so he could live in peace. The profanity filter was a bit of a buzzkill but that just meant Daffodil would have to get creative with his swearing.

Daffodil started to walk back to the entrance of his valley, but he couldn’t help but feel like there was something wrong. Something he was missing. What had Ymara said? I have wiped the memories of all players you’ve interacted with.

All?

As in every single player? But… but that meant…

Daffodil’s eyes widened, and he started sprinting towards the entrance with more speed than he’d ever thought he was capable of. “Asterion!” he shouted.