D espite all his mental training and high Intelligence stats, the question stunned him. The situation was just too bizarre to be true.

Unable to come to terms with it, Raven began to look for a logical explanation, but each time he faced the same problem: neither of these two was wearing a messenger ring. Still, he had to answer their question and try to sort this mess out.

“So.” He played the whole conversation over in his head. “Before I answer, please, tell me: what do you mean by servers? Are you... Are you players?”

Now it was their turn to be utterly bewildered. Rikaral even removed his necklace and examined it for any cracks or defects to make sure that Raven’s words hadn’t gotten lost in translation. Putting it back on, he looked at Brakvar who, having no such artifact, could only blink helplessly as he waited for his friend to fill him in.

With a low growl that sounded like a sigh of annoyance, Rikaral squinted at the creature in front of him and, scratching his nose bridge, said:

“We are players, yes. And you? Who the hell are you? How come you’ve never heard of servers? Even this twat knows about it and he’s as dumb as a brick.”

Sorry, what?! Raven’s brain was working a hundred miles per hour, processing the new information, but each answer only brought up more questions. If they really are players, what servers are they talking about? Even an absolute noob knows that Ascension has only one server! Where are their fucking rings and what fucking language are they talking in that can’t be translated by the system?

“Skydome could’ve opened a new server while I was busy with the quest,” he mused quietly, looking down. “You know what Skydome is, don’t you?”

Accepting their player identity as a possibility, he showed them his ring with the infinity symbol that every player should recognize, and used Identification. But the result was just as weird as everything else about them.

Cannot be identified.

No connection.

Bullshit!

As he stared at the message, trying to identify the duo again and again, Rikaral spoke, a strange expression on his face.

“I see you’re trying to tell us something, but I’m afraid I have to ask for clarification.”

“You’ve lost me.” Raven stared back at the two. Could they be role-playing their characters? “This ring is a messenger’s symbol. Don’t tell me you haven’t even checked the website.”

Bullshit.

Had they been newbies, he could believe that they might have missed the information about the ring. But since they had managed to enter this store, they had probably been playing for a long time... or they really were just NPCs.

Rikaral considered his words.

“A messenger’s ring...?” he muttered with a frown, struggling to remember something. Ten seconds later, his eyes opened wide in surprise. “Wait. Do you mean that ancient legend? What even was that dusty book’s name?”

He snapped his fingers, trying to remember the name, then barked with excitement.

“Yeah! The Mythical Server! That’s the one! I’m not sure, but... But it seemed to mention the practice ground of the Ancient Admins. What was its name, again? Ethelaya? No. Ethella? No. Ethear, maybe?” He thought about it for a while, but then shook his head. “I wish I took a better look at it. Still, it’s just an old story.”

He stared at Raven, his gaze hinting that this joke had gone too far and that he expected a serious, honest answer.

But all Raven could do was stare at him with his mouth open.

Is that a joke? Please tell me it is. What the fuck is he on about?

If he guessed right, the name that Rikaral was struggling to remember was Earth. And he considered it to be not a planet, but a lost server of the mysterious Admins. Whatever they were.

No Ascension user would ever say anything like that. Maybe some lore geek could weave such a tale for their fanfiction or conspiracy theory, but Raven’s intuition was telling him that these two weren’t such people. Erm. Dogs. Half-dogs?

Or... Or are they? Could someone get so obsessed with their theory that...? No. No, no, no. It can’t be that...

Raven massaged his temples and closed his eyes, his racing thoughts bumping into each other. Trying to put his mind in order, he paced up and down the store.

Dinner with Leah! Shit, I totally forgot about it!

As he remembered his promise, Rikaral addressed him again.

“White Raven. I’m still waiting for an answer.”

“Huh? Ah, yeah... That...” Raven smirked. Another weird thing about the two. In Ascension, coming across someone who hadn’t heard his nickname was more difficult than getting a legendary quest.

Some crazy bullshit was going on here. He hadn’t been this perplexed in a long while. He had too few puzzle pieces to figure out what picture he was supposed to be putting together without looking at the box.

The two didn’t have messenger rings.

This was a fact.

But they knew about messengers, although from “old” stories.

This was also a fact.

They spoke a strange language and knew a story about “a lost server” that he had never heard before.

All this hinted that they were NPCs. Still, for some reason, he just couldn’t believe that.

All right, all right... He smiled as he got another idea. The chances were slim, but it was still worth giving it a try. If Skydome did open a new server with a new race, it must’ve been mentioned on the forums. I could’ve simply missed it.

He summoned the menu, but what he saw made his heart sink. The content of the several system messages that arrived since he had entered the store didn’t bode well.

Attention! The Messenger Regime cannot be activated.

Administrator access denied.

Current Mind Level: 1

Required Mind Level: 5+

Time of stay in other servers and databases: 5 minutes

Time before return: 00:00:27

“What the...?” The last word got stuck in his throat as he stared at the messages that answered some of his questions but raised a hundred more. Even a blind man could see that he had bumped into something weird.

He had long accepted the fact that Ascension was more than just a game. But that was too much even for him to take in.

His bewildered stare was noticed by the duo. Rikaral took an impatient step forward.

“Why are you silent? We were polite. We answered your question, so you’d better answer ours.”

Closing the menu, Raven rubbed his temple and sighed.

“It’s not that I don’t want to answer it. I... I just don’t know what to say.” Deciding to be as open about his situation as he could, he briefly checked the timer. “I appreciate your honesty. I really do. I wish I could stay and chat, but my time is running out.”

“What do you mean?”

“I have no idea what server I’m from, but I promise that I’ll find it out. Before I leave: where can I find you?”

Rikaral squinted. The stranger did seem to be in a great hurry, speaking without pause between his words. But how was that possible? It was up to each visitor of this store to decide when to leave it. You just had to activate the Token to open the door. Fifty units to come in, fifty to come out.

Then why was he so excited?

“Seven seconds left. What’s the name of your server?” Raven repeated, drilling into Rikaral with his gaze until the latter finally spoke.

“Gilliam. The Kingdom of Litrah. Why are you...?”

Before he could finish, the stranger’s body gave a violent shake — and disappeared as if an unknown force had yanked him out of the store, confusing the two.

Exchanging glances, they muttered a couple of juicy curses.

“I didn’t imagine that, right? He just teleported out of here, right? Out of a place the coordinates of which are only known to the Universe?” Brakvar came up to the spot where the stranger had disappeared and prodded the floor with his ax, prepared for a nasty surprise. When none came, he scowled and turned to his friend. “What do you think?”

“I don’t know. But I’ll have to find and read that book from cover to cover once I come home.” Rikaral felt like this incident could become a turning point for the whole galaxy. “I’m not sure, but... But we could’ve just witnessed an Admin’s return.”

“W-What?!” Brakvar stammered, surprised.

“You’ve heard me right, my drooling friend. But we’d better not speak about this.” Rikaral turned back to the showcase. “Let’s find me a good weapon and head back.”