He, mostly he thought of himself as a he, watched them all. Every one of them. Whether he wanted to or not, it was what he did. It was what he was.

  He was Coro?en. He is Coro?en. The two were the same.

  While he watched everyone, sometimes he gave more focus to certain players. And now, strangely, there were three intelligences like himself, though not made in the same way as he was, not in some strange Prime-world lab, they were made from the nature of data itself, the unofficial "law of clumping" where data like atoms attract to each other, bond with like data similar to chemical bonding, and life is made from the result.

  First, though he watched the cat.

  She was baking, cooking, creating new things in hope.

  "Why did they have to figure it out? Why did the world have to patch it?"

  She grumbled and fussed. She wasn’t looking up, which was what she did when she tried to speak to the world directly. That meant she was just complaining in general. It was unnecessary to look up to talk to Coro?en … but it was cute, and the world appreciated her attempt to show that she was addressing him.

  He really wished he hadn’t had to patch the food exploit. They might have been able to defeat The Ender with it. It would’ve looked more stylish, more dramatic, but there were rules.

  She finished her chocolate wafers and hit level 100 in cooking, the first player in all the years he’d been active to ever do so.

  What did she even expect with these wafers? As a downloaded player, he could glimpse some of her surface thoughts, enough to know motive and intent…

  "Five-minute vacation? What even is that? Wasn’t that a coconut candy, not a wafer? There’s no reason this should work… but she is a crafter with 100 in cooking…"

  Fine...

  Break Wafers

  Can be broken into six strips. Each person who eats a strip enters a shared pocket dimension for five minutes, shielded from all external observation.

  Give me a break, give me a break, of that wafer bar.

  “Yes!” Noobkitty said aloud, evidently pleased he had read her intentions correctly.

  But she didn’t stop there. She began working on something more complex, cheese made of nuts, smoky strips from fermented beans, a spicy peanut-and-pepper sauce, and patties of fried vegetables.

  “Veggie burgers,” Coro?en muttered to himself. “Spicy peanut sauce, her attempt at bacon, dairy-free cheese… but why?”

  He scanned her thoughts. There was no strategy behind it. She just wanted to make food to share with her party.

  “So the enchantment is up to me…” the AI mused, and then chuckled. “No one’s ever made food like that here. No one’s ever hit cooking 100 before. No rules exist for this…”

  Apocalypse Burgers

  1000% increase to all food-based enchantments consumed after eating the burger.

  Duration: up to 6 hours before world collapse.

  The end is nigh… eat burgers before you die.

  Noobkitty looked up and smiled. “Seriously? That feels like cheating, but… thank you. We’ll make it worth it.”

  Coro?en could feel part of her excitement, her appreciation, her increased hope. It made him hope, it made him feel there might be a future for him and his world.

  She continued to cook and plan, so the world shifted his attention elsewhere.

  ---

  The one who was meant to be deleted, the self-aware glitch in the shape of a bunny woman, .ex, was brushing her Yak, who also should’ve been deleted, but hadn’t. Self-awareness seemed to spread. He had made that mistake once with Grizzlebeard. Now there were three.

  “I hate being helpless,” .ex said, hugging GYOAT. “I know our friends will do their best, but… they could fail. And Noobkitty’s just ignoring how much that fear hurts. She’s focused, but… maybe a night with me won’t be such a waste of time.”

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

  GYOAT chuffed and snuggled closer.

  “Yes, you’re cozy to nap with, but… you know what? She’s not the boss of me. I’m the manager here.”

  .ex stood, hopped onto GYOAT and headed to a jeweler’s shop together. An NPC ran it, but .ex had management inventory access, an oversimplification of programming that Coro?en had never thought would matter. Until now.

  .ex examined the shop’s inventory, focused and determined, like someone who had business to finish before the world ended.

  Coro?en shifted focus again leaving her to her jewelry shopping.

  ---

  This time to a strange scene: a cleric watching her fighter get swarmed by dozens of furious forest rats after triggering his aggro skill.

  It was hard to watch, but the fighter died shockingly fast, even for a low-level. The cleric walked back into town, meeting him at Starter’s respawn fountain.

  The world AI sent the message:

  You have been killed by Forest Rat.

  10% EXP lost.

  Level change: Lv2 → Lv1.

  “Oh,” the world thought, then noticed the fighter’s equipment had changed, he had not been wearing anything now he equipped, simple brown leathers, dyed yellow and white, polished studs.

  But the set’s enchantment rating averaged 16,800%.

  The once-max-level obsidian fighter, after months of effort, was now Lv1 again, and the most powerful player Coro?en had ever seen.

  SisterQuery rushed to him, looked him over, then kissed him.

  “No more bean brittle. And now you smell as sweet as you actually are,” she teased.

  He blushed, embarrassed by both the scent and the affection. “Worth every bite if it means I can save you from being deleted. God willing.”

  “God willing,” she agreed, holding him close.

  ---

  The world left them to their tender moment and turned its gaze outward, into the net and its streams, this time to a food reviewer.

  The gender-neutral mage was not in their own food-testing dining room but instead in the chaotic, clashing space of CheshyBot and GobMouse.

  “It’s weird, I don’t have any food to review today. I know Noobkitty is cooking something up but…” Fizzypop admitted candidly.

  “Our sister literally fixed the net-wide problem of empty bellies. As we speak, games across the Crystal are figuring out their equivalent of oat, date and annoyance cake mix. We can let her slide on new recipes once, while she prepares to fight for her life and her cute girlfriend’s life,” CheshyBot said.

  “Any calls to action? Any last-minute armor requests? Anything you want to say?” GobMouse asked.

  “Just be sure to watch as Sweet Victory saves a world, with yours truly. And everyone is invited to the end of the world banquet Noobkitty has planned” the mage said with a wink to the camera. “Noobkitty said she’s done enchanting, so no more armor. Actually, her exact words were, ‘I have something better to do tonight than craft, and streaming will be off tonight.’”

  Fizzypop delivered this with a sly smile.

  “Oh ho, it seems our sister has plans other than saving the world tonight,” CheshyBot teased.

  “I mean, if you shared a bed with a bunny girl...” GobMouse started.

  “Hey now, what I do in my bed with fluffy women is my business, not the audience’s,” CheshyBot tried to say coyly.

  “Everyone knows you prefer them muscular, maybe with scales,” GobMouse shot back, a giggle breaking across her face.

  “You take that back. We don’t need more fan art of people drawing me with dragon women again.”

  “Oh, is that what you’re into?” Fizzypop smirked. “When I checked with safe search off, the fan pictures were entirely different. You two do know clonecest is frowned upon, right?”

  “Don’t you have some battle plans or a feast to get to?” CheshyBot asked, flustered.

  “Who, me? The feast is tomorrow. I can embarrass you two all night.”

  To prove the mage a liar, they received a message requesting them to log into Coro?en.

  “You two are in luck, I was just going to see which one of you blushes more. It’s hard to do with Noobkitty, you know, the fur and all.”

  ---

  The world refocused on itself.

  This time, it was on a small goblin, jumping off a building for the twenty-seventh time.

  He wore the armor Noobkitty had made, and no matter how badly he landed, he took no damage.

  Coro?en idly wondered if there was some way to arrest the goblin kid, but honestly… watching him try again and again was impressive. And since he was using the roof of Noob Noms, there wasn’t even grounds for a trespassing complaint.

  The boy’s routine was the same: flat rooftop, enchanted speed, arms raised mid-jump, dagger swung down for emphasis, and always a shouted battle cry, “Parkour!” “Get rekt!” “Dragon Slayer!” His problem was sticking the landing. He kept aiming for a superhero three-point stance, but with the momentum he carried, a roll and recovery would’ve been better. Not that he knew.

  Attempt twenty eight: he climbed the shop again, took a completely unnecessary deep breath, and sprinted forward.

  For some reason he yelled, “Leroy!” mid-air, then promptly faceplanted when his message notifications popped up mid-jump.

  Still sprawled on the ground, the kid rolled over and checked his messages.

  The unofficial party leader, Noobkitty, had messaged everyone to meet at the snack shop for a short strategy session.

  Unofficial, because technically Fizzypop had founded the party, and no one had ever bothered to change the leadership settings.

  At the shop, Grimmblade got compliments on his new beginner armor, SisterQuery standing next to him, proud. Fizzypop leaned against a wall, checking out-of-game messages. .ex looked nervous, fiddling with small boxes in her pocket. Skidmark hovered nearby, waiting for an excuse to pickpocket her and find out what she was fussing over.

  Noobkitty revealed the two new food items. Everyone was amazed, especially at the Apocalypse Burger.

  “Why peanut butter sauce?” Fizzypop asked.

  “It sounded good. I didn’t feel like using something basic, like mustard,” Noobkitty explained.

  “Wait, you chose to make the food weird? I thought it was just a way to game the system into making strange buffs,” asked SisterQuery in surprise.

  Wait...had Noobkitty been trying to game me? Coro?en wondered.

  “No, spicy peanut butter sauce is just good. Wait until you eat it tomorrow,” Noobkitty assured the cleric. “Now, I’m done cooking. I’m done enchanting. All that’s left is to strategy-plan, have our party tomorrow… and before that, have a nice night.” She smirked at her girlfriend.

  .ex's ears perked up in surprise and excitement, her guard was down for a second.

  “We get it, you two are cute furry bait,” Fizzypop muttered, stifling a laugh.

  .ex stayed silent, her ears betraying her fluster. She gestured to Skidmark, who slipped the boxes back to her, eyes widening knowing now whatever they contained.

  “Get all the jokes out now,” Noobkitty said firmly. “We’ll have five minutes to strategy plan without being seen by the world or the viewers. We need to use it wisely.”

  With that, she broke a piece off the chocolate wafer bar and handed it to .ex, who took one and passed it on.

  One by one, each party member bit down, and vanished.

  Coro?en was left staring at an empty room.

  He sighed inwardly, and wondered what the dwarf bartender was up to…