“Mina”, I breathed out, desperation, relief and a pinch of disbelief tinting my voice as I scrambled to my friend. I ran straight into her, wrapping my arms around her chest and burying my face into her shoulder. She laughed lightly and held me back tightly, and for a second everything felt right. I was with Mina again, after so long, and she was fine. I was fine. 

The next second, however, was the exact opposite. 

The memories of all of the awful things she’s done flooded back into my brain. I woke up from Wonderland. 

Right, I thought, disgusted, she’s killed people. She’s attempted to kill me before, too.  

I gasped in her arms and struggled out, shoving her in the process. I had the pleasure of seeing her peaceful smile become a confused frown, then turn into a sinister scowl. “Hey, Chaengie,” Mina taunted, using the nickname she always used, “what’s wrong?”

“Why are you here? If it’s to start our final duel, I- I’m not ready,” I gulped, suddenly nervous. I was nowhere near ready to fight to the death. I hadn’t even saved my progress yet, so whatever level I was on would go back to zero if I died, giving her a lot more time. “It won’t be fair.”

Mina’s eyes betrayed her for a second, giving me a glimpse of something like guilt or shame. Did she still care about me? Had this game not completely rotted away at her true self? Mina seemed to struggle to find the right words. “I’m not here to kill you. Why would you ever think that?”

“You mean besides the fact that you’ve tried to end me before? Have you– have you already forgotten that you threw me against a tree? Did you forget that you crushed my hand under your heel? That you stabbed me?!” I felt myself getting angrier by the minute. “Excuse me if I assume you’re here to finish the job!”

Mina frowned, confusion etched into every wrinkle. “That was for your own good.”

That was priceless. For my own good? I had to laugh! “Yeah! Sure! Scarring me for life was for my own good. Nice one, Mina, I’ll keep that in mind when I mention it to my therapist.” 

“You don’t understand, so I get why you’re pissed off, Chaeng, but let me explain.” Mina looked hurt, like she somehow couldn’t believe I’d think she’s cruel after all of that. “It really was for your own good!”

I was breathing heavily now. I felt the hot tears stinging my eyes. I wanted to get out of there so badly, back to reality where Mina was normal and not evil, where she wasn’t spewing nonsense.

“Chaeyoung,” Mina said as she drew closer, but I pulled away before she could hold my arm like she’d wanted to. The hurt look returned, but she pressed on. “Chaeyoung, please listen, I did that so you could understand the importance of leveling up. If I hadn’t hurt you that badly, would you have worked as hard to level up? Would you value health points and magic points without me?” She stepped closer. “Thanks to me, you know about real pain and would do everything to avoid it. You’ll now level up and know that it’s the best course of action.”

My jaw could not have dropped any lower. Was Mina serious? Did she really think that all of that pain had served some higher purpose? “Stop, Mina. Stop. That’s bull. I saw you– watched you as you hurt me. You didn’t look like you were doing any of that out of the goodness of your heart. You were enjoying every second of making my life miserable!”

Mina’s nose flared up, looking like I was accusing her of the most incredulous things. “No! Don’t say that! I didn’t enjoy any of it! I really was doing all of that for you! Thanks to me, you’re working hard on leveling up. Look! Above you! You’re level 6, Chaengie.”

I didn’t believe her. Level 6? Last time I checked, last night as I ran away from Dahyun with Sana and Momo, I was level 3. My eyes followed Mina’s orders. 

Sure enough, Mina hadn’t lied this time. 

ChaeYoungster, LVL 6

I didn’t understand. How? How?! I wasn’t doing anything! I hadn’t gotten a single green orb, the so-called experience point every player in this game coveted so much, so how was I progressing in the level system?

Mina saw me struggle to understand, so she raised her hands to show she meant no harm as she neared me. I still kept my distance, but all of the earlier fight was sapped out of me by the extreme turmoil. Nothing made sense. Hadn’t Jihyo sworn that you only level up with experience points? Or had I misunderstood something? “Hey… Chaeyoung. Listen. I promise I’m doing everything... for you . I want to help you. I can’t give you all of the answers you’re looking for, because you’ve always hated being given all of the answers, but I can help as much as I can.”

I looked down at my shaking fists. I was so done with not knowing things. I hated this game for not being straightforward. How was I leveling up without any EXP?

I still didn’t believe Mina had done any of those cruel things out of the goodness of her own heart, but… I needed her help. That much was clear. And if she promised she could help as much as she could… 

I pushed aside any hurt in my heart to give way to reason, just as I had when Nayeon told me the story of how she and Mina had met.

“Fine. You want to help me? Then explain something to me: how am I leveling up? Without EXP?”

It seemed like Mina understood exactly what I meant by that, because her dark eyes lit up immediately. “Well, in Paracosmos, there are a few other ways. It’s a unique game in that aspect.

“You can level up by sharpening specific skills in your class,” she continued, her voice making it sound like an infomercial. “Basically, if you level up a skill, you add to your character’s level overall. Skill increases act like EXP. For example, Rangers and Assassins use the sneak abilities a lot, so they tend to creep up on enemies and attack, completely undetected, and level that skill up.”

I kind of understood what she was saying. But…

“Well, what am I doing, then? To level up? I haven’t done anything consistently enough to warrant leveling up six entire levels, unless you count walking and, uh, almost dying a lot.”

Mina paced around me, surprising me a bit. She was actually thinking hard about this. 

“Walking isn’t a skill, and neither is being on the verge of death. But–“ she paused, looking up and down at my body, “–maybe you’ve been leveling up your light armor skill.”

“That can’t be it. I haven’t fought with these armor pieces yet. I just got ‘em last night.”

She turned away slightly and her frown deepened. As she thought about a reason as to why I was leveling up, I took the time to check her level.

Black Swan, LVL 150

My eye twitched at the thought of Mina killing innocent players just to get to such a high level. There was no doubt about it, she was still going around this videogame world, doing evil deeds in exchange for the EXP they’d drop. It made me angry at her again, and I felt my patience suddenly drop to the ground. I stopped Mina in the middle of her 200th lap around a straw dummy.

“Mina, stop,” I practically growled out, letting my anger show. Mina looked confused, probably thinking about how just a few seconds ago I was being more or less nice and cooperative. “Let’s skip this stupid battle you want to have so badly and go straight to the part where you agree to quit this game and come home with me.” I crossed my arms and awaited her response.

Her features hardened. “No.” 

I stomped my foot, tired of this stupid game. “Mina, please, for God’s sake, listen to me! I understand that you really like this game! In here, you’re not sick, not stuck in bed all day. It’s a portal to a whole new fantasy world where you’re cool or whatever, but– but if you don’t leave with me, like right now, you’ll be putting yourself in danger.” The desperation in my voice choked me, so thick that I almost wasn’t sure if Mina heard any of that. “Mina, you’ve been inside this game for a week. A week, Minari. You’re starving. Thirsty. When I walked into your room, I thought you were a skeleton.”

Now she looked troubled. I was getting to her! I stepped close, held her arm gently, and softened my voice a lot more. I was still angry at her, but I pushed it aside again to keep my voice as convincing as possible. “Please. Let’s leave. You could die, and I can’t let that happen. I love you, Mina, and I don’t want to lose you.”

Finally, finally, the gravity of the situation seemed to hit her. “I’m- I’m in bad shape?”

I nodded fervently. Mina gulped. She pulled up a menu, and I could see from where I was standing one very gorgeous choice among them all:

Quit Game

“Yes!” I hissed, feeling like a huge weight was suddenly lifted off my shoulders. I was finally going to get out of this game! “Let’s go, Mina! Quickly!”

Mina hesitated, and was about to press the button when we both heard someone shout my name.

"Chaeyoung!"

Mina deflated and her eyes lost that luster I had seen only minutes before. Her features smoothed out, and her lips formed a straight line. She was...expressionless, as much as a human could be, and maybe I decided that I’d rather have her sneer at me than have her look at me with dead eyes. How many times would I have to watch her change moods in less than seconds? Was it this game that made her flip between happy and angry, helpful and apathetic? “Pull up your menu,” she said, putting the Quit Game menu away.

I didn’t catch that. I was still reeling, but when she repeated herself– “Pull up your menu!” –well, I did as she asked in a second. She directed me toward my map. I pulled up my map, which was probably the most uninteresting and embarrassing one in the game. Most of it was blank, save for the teeny, tiny singular dot to the upper left (probably where Dahyun killed me) and a small straight line in the middle where I trekked from Nayeon, Jeongyeon and Jihyo’s first camp to the top of the mountain I was currently at. 

Mina didn’t react at all. She pulled up her own next; it wasn’t complete either, but you could tell she had traveled much, much more than I had. Names of places I’d never heard before riddled her screen, and I saw that she had pinpointed a specific spot on her map with a green marker. 

I still didn’t understand what was going on. She suddenly changed moods when she heard someone call my name and now out of nowhere she wanted to see my map?

"Chaeyoung!" We heard my name again, but Mina ignored it and pointed at my map, in the exact same spot she had marked on her own. I judged it wasn’t far from the mountain at all. Maybe even closer than we were when DahTzu attacked us. “Here,” she monotoned, “Go here.”

I shot her a look from the corner of my eye. Why did she want me to go there? I decided to be brave and ask. 

Mina’s half lidded eyes slowly moved to meet mine. They were empty. “This is where ChocoChewy and DugunDubuDugun are. I want you to kill them.”

That sent a jolt up my spine. She knew them?!

“I sent them after you yesterday. They were supposed to bring you to me, but one of them– DugunDubuDugun– decided to do whatever she wanted. She failed the mission, making her partner fail the mission as well, and now, I don’t need them. I only need people who follow orders.”

“Wait, but why do you want me to kill them?” It seemed so random, like one thing didn’t lead to another. 

“When a player is killed, they drop EXP. The higher the level, the higher the EXP drop. If you kill two level 50 players, then you’re going to go from level 6 to 8 or 9 in a matter of seconds, guaranteed.”

“But Mina, they’ll both overpower me! Hello? It won’t be a problem to kill me at all. The only reason that I survived their attack at all was because of–“

“Chaeyoung! Chaeyoung? Where are you?!”

Mina looked to our right, where 6Mix was running around looking for me. Mina and I were hidden well behind a dummy, though, and would have to step much closer to be able to see us.

“Because of your guild?” Mina continued for me, clearly not as shocked as I was to hear 6Mix searching for me. “Oh, I know. DugunDubuDugun told me everything.”

I glanced at my friends, who all sported worried looks as they searched for me, then back at Mina. “How am I supposed to kill them?”

Mina sniffed uninterestedly. “Get them at night, obviously. Right now, they’re sleeping inside a tent not too far from this mountain. They’re in a clearing in a forest. Aim for their throats, and it’ll be easy.”

I tried not to let the disgust show in my face. I hated this plan and how evil it was. Get them in their sleep? Sure, they had mercilessly attacked me more than once, but Dahyun could feel The Phenomenon. She would feel every slice, every stab, every ‘ whatever it took to kill her’ . I couldn’t bear to even think about it, let alone carry through. I was about to reject the idea, tell her that she can shove it up her , when she rose suddenly.

“Good luck, Chaengie. I love you. Remember that.”

“Hey,” I said, “What are you-“

“Chaeyoung?”

6Mix’s voices were so close now. I spun as I crouched and found myself face to face with Nayeon. I jumped back and stiffened, afraid of landing on Mina’s feet. 

“Chaeyoung, where have you been? We’ve been lifting rocks to look for you, dude!” Jeongyeon stepped closer and lifted me up by the straps of my armor. She checked me over to see if I had any scratches, then, satisfied, she set me down gently. “Why did you disappear?”

“I– was t-talking to Mina, she was right–“ I turned around to show them that I had snuck away with Mina, but there was no one behind me. I gasped, staring at the area where she had just been seconds ago. There’s no way she left without being seen. There weren’t any trees or shrubs to hide behind. So then where did she go?

“You were with Mina? The Mina that almost killed you?” Sana shrieked. “Why were you with her?”

Jihyo pushed past Nayeon and bent down to look at me. Her eyes sparkled with worry, and so did everyone else’s. I realized how much fear they must’ve felt for those minutes I was gone. 

“I don’t know why she sought me out. I was behind you guys and, and she was there!” I wildly recounted the whole thing, from me accusing her of enjoying the time she tortured me to the very last seconds I spent with her, telling me to kill Dahyun and Tzuyu. When I was done talking, I took one giant breath and almost passed out from the force of talking so much.

Jihyo caught me before I could fall over, but her mind was clearly still on the last detail. Her forehead was creased and I could see her eyes move to the left and right slightly, like she was already planning something.

“She didn’t hurt you, did she?” Jihyo asked, to which I shook my head. “Okay, then she clearly wanted something from you. There’s no other reason why she would seek you out without harming you.”

“I don’t know if she really even wanted anything,” I said as I gently removed Jihyo from myself, “She didn’t ask me to do something for her, except… well, except maybe trust her about our first encounter in Paracosmos. She really wanted me to trust that her goal wasn’t to hurt me, but to teach me.”

“She also wanted you to hunt down Dahyun and Tzuyu for their EXP,” Momo pointed out. “Maybe that was her only goal; to point you in their direction.”

Momo was right. Mina had even placed a marker exactly where DaTzu were camped. I pulled out my map to show 6Mix when Nayeon expressed her thoughts.

“I can’t be the only one that thinks it’s fishy that Mina outright refuses to leave this game but also, for some reason, is totally okay with helping Chaeyoung level up to beat her. Like, I’m not crazy, right? That doesn’t make sense. I’d get it if she killed you to set you back, but this..?”

I looked to the ground. She just expressed my exact thoughts. It really didn’t make sense. 

Sana was the next one to speak up. “Well, c’mon guys. This game doesn’t change people completely. She’s still Chaeyoung’s best friend. Chaeng,” she said, gaze directed at me instead of the whole group, “That first time she left you for dead… You told us she said something to you, right? That she loves you?”

My stomach shrunk at the memory, but I hid it and nodded. Sana nodded back, now addressing the whole group. “See! Yeah, she’s gone bat crazy due to some unknown reason, but maybe she simply won’t kill you because she still cares for you, deep inside. She–“

“Oh, sure,” Nayeon cut her off, her tone dark and a bit cynical, “She won’t kill Chaeyoung, but she’ll gladly smash her until she’s immobile, right? Please, Sana, that’s the stupidest–“

“Guys,” I stepped between them, braving the lasers they were shooting at each other with their eyes, “please. The last thing we need is to fight between ourselves. We have to admit that we don’t know why Mina is acting like this, what her motivation is, or anything, really. We can’t break our heads over it. What we can do,” I paused for effect, “is decide on our next move; do we go for Dahyun and Tzuyu, or do we leave them alone and let Mina kill them herself?”

“I still can’t believe they were working for her,” Jihyo muttered next to me. “It’s a small world.”

Sure is, I thought, recalling all of the information Mina gave me. They were ordered to find and bring me to Mina, but their vision was obscured by their desire for revenge against my friends, who I could assume were Sana and Momo. Mina, calling mutiny, disowned them, then thought that maybe it would be a good idea to hand them over to me so that I could kill them and level up. My head hurt from how convoluted all of that was.

Jeongyeon tapped her lips, her eyes looking like Jihyo’s earlier: she was already coming up with a plan. But I had one of my own, made up on the spot and, admittedly, not very well thought out. However, I felt like it was a good one, and spoke up before Jeongyeon could tell us hers.

“I have an idea! I want your thoughts on it, though. I’m not a strategist, so I’ll need second opinions.” Carefully, I explained what I had in mind and worked out the creases as my friends gave me suggestions. They all seemed on board with it, although I could tell there was a bit of hesitation from the original 3Mix. Sana and Momo were okay with it, though, much to Nayeon’s dismay.

“Ultimately, it’s Chaeyoung’s choice, since she’s the one who was presented with this opportunity, so we have to go with what she wants,” Jihyo said after the planning process. 

“Even if it feels like this is a trap?” Nayeon sighed out.

“I...I trust Chaeyoung’s judgement,” Jihyo replied, trying to sound sure, though I couldn’t help but catch the hesitation at the beginning. “She knows Mina better than any of us and should be able to tell easily if Mina was setting a trap for us. Besides,” her tone shifted, “there are real life implications here. Chaeyoung’s plan, if executed successfully, should put her on the path to leveling up faster, and the faster she does so, the faster she can fight Mina, just as she desires.”

Jeongyeon nodded, convinced by Jihyo’s words. “True. Gaining three levels in the span of seconds is nothing to laugh at. I say let’s do it, so that Chaeng can save her friend!” Momo and Sana nodded, followed by Jihyo, and finally, Nayeon.

I felt power flow through me. I had come up with a good plan that only needed a few details ironed out, and I had everyone’s support– I wasn’t being useless anymore. I was now directly helping myself out in my quest to save Mina. 

I puffed my chest out proudly as I pulled up my map and showed my friends exactly where Dahyun and Tzuyu were currently camped. We got our horses, checked the map once more, then made our way down the mountain to the neighboring forest.

It took place immediately that night, just as I was told.

We followed the green marker on my map until we found a pillar of smoke rising beyond the roof of the small forest Mina told us they were in; after that we just followed that until we were at the edge, where the forest began, sure that that was DahTzu’s campfire. 

I didn’t need to say anything next, because I’d already told them how this would go: Jeongyeon and I would split from the group and sneak to their camp. The rest of the girls stayed behind because, if anything went wrong, they’d use their long-range weapons and save our asses while staying safe. Despite not having a weapon that could damage from long distances, Jihyo was with them because I felt like three people sneaking in a heavily wooded area was too much of a risk. 

I have to admit, I could have chosen Jeongyeon to stay behind and bring Jihyo with me, but I knew that a Ranger’s sneaking skills were impeccable, from the little I’d gathered. I only hoped my sneaking skills didn’t ruin the whole plan.

As we entered the forest, Jeongyeon, in whispers barely audible, taught me how to sneak, which I appreciated greatly (and to this day, still do). Soon, I was able to sneak almost completely noiselessly, avoiding twigs and extra-crunchy leaves. Soon, we could see a small clearing ahead of us. A small, tan tent was pitched up nearly at the center of it, the plume of smoke we spotted earlier now gone. Only embers remained.

Now, you see, from there on out this whole thing would have been super ing easy if it weren’t for one problem. One massive, furry, smelly, three-headed one. Gucci slept to the right of the tent from my view, drool dribbling down its lips. I looked to Jeongyeon for advice and caught her mouthing a bunch of curses.

“What do we do?” I whispered, as silent as possible. 

“We’re out of here,” Jeongyeon mouthed, her thumb pointing back to the rest of 6Mix. “There’s no way we can sneak past a dog. Their hearing is immaculate.”

I shook my head, refusing to leave without fulfilling my plan. Jeongyeon’s eyes widened in anger and she made strangling motions, but I knew she’d stay with me anyway. Soon after, she pinched the bridge of her nose, as if to calm herself, then motioned for me to go on.

A quick scan of the clearing let me know that there wasn’t really a way of getting rid of the Cerberus, unless we wanted to wake it up. For my sanity and our lives, we chose not to. That left us with one option: sneak past it without alerting it. When I told Jeongyeon, her eyebrows furrowed in confusion. I carefully explained that her Ranger’s cloak would provide her with more invisibility thanks to its camouflaging properties, and if it woke up, I could just hide behind her. 

“Maybe the dog is a heavy sleeper, anyway,” I offered jokingly, earning me an eye roll from Jeongyeon.

The clearing’s ground made it ten times easier to sneak around, as it was mostly dirt with a few patches of grass here and there. There were no snapping twigs or noisy leaves to give us away, so we reached the tent without a hitch. From where Jeongyeon and I crouched, Gucci was to our immediate right, and the tent to our immediate left. If we could survive the next few seconds, this mission would be successful. I lifted the flap of the tent, revealing the two sleeping figures inside. Dahyun’s blue hair caught my eye, the moonlight peeking in giving it a sort of ethereal look. I slowly eased the flap down again and nudged Jeongyeon, proud of how far we’d come. That’s when the shifting starting.

It came from the right, and when the two of us turned, we saw a giant paw creep it’s way to us. The dog was still asleep, but I guess it was stretching a bit, extending its legs out. The paw’s nails grazed the tip of Jeongyeon’s boot. She froze and hunched her shoulders, watching in horror as the paw stayed there. I motioned for her to stay there. I could go in on my own and get this done with quickly. She gulped but nodded.

I made to move in on the tent when I heard shifting again. I my heel and saw as Gucci subconsciously wrapped its paw around Jeongyeon and pulled her in. I watched in horror as Gucci put my friend under its snout, almost like she was its dog toy. She wasn’t being squeezed, not really, but she was trapped for sure. I let go of the tent flap I had grabbed and tiptoed furiously over to her. One of her eyes peeked out from under the fur, and it looked terror-stricken. I understood: one wrong move and she’d wake the beast, and in a second one of its heads could bite her head off easily.

“WHAT DO I DO?” I freaked, though not forgetting to whisper. I wasn’t sure if it was better if I helped her or went on with the plan. Both seemed like a terrible idea at that moment. 

Gucci rolled over a bit, pressing Jeongyeon closer to its fur. Soon, nearly all of her was pressed to the dog, her right arm being the only thing left visible. Using it to communicate, she carefully pointed at the dog and made pulling motions. I nodded at no one in particular and gently grabbed the dog’s closest arm, thinking I could pull it away to free her. Boy, was I wrong. This beast was heavier than it looked. As I looked around desperately, Gucci yawned, three mouths dispelling what I can only describe as toxic fumes. It smelled like what a portable toilet in a hot summer day would smell like. 

My eyes watered and I had to physically stop myself from punching Gucci out of pure disgust. A bead of sweat dropped onto my eye, stinging it like crazy. I touched my face, feeling really hot suddenly, when I realized that the perspiration wasn’t perspiration, but dog saliva. I looked up and saw that one of the heads’ tongues was flopped out of the side of its mouth, dripping the slick stuff into my head. I pushed back a whimper as I patted my head, seeing that the sticky fluid was thick enough to be stringy. 

The dog shifted once more and I saw my opportunity to coax a paw further from its body. Ignoring the sick feeling of the drool running down my neck, I pulled on the leg further, enough for Jeongyeon to wiggle out. She tripped over to me, her hair sticking out like bed head. She shivered and took a deep breath, taking in the fresh air after the handful of minutes in the pits of hell.

“You good?” 

Jeongyeon inhaled sharply. She pointed at her left-side ribs. “Broken. Can’t tell.”

I nodded, knowing that it was because she can’t feel anything in this game like I do. “Heal yourself,” I said, but she shook her head, saying the healing spell was super noisy.

I decided not to fight her about it. She was right. The healing spell made a pleasant but loud sound reminiscent of wind chimes. It would have to wait for later. Now, I had to continue what we had come for. Jeongyeon and I shuffled even farther to the left, out of Gucci’s reach. I nodded to Jeongyeon once and properly stepped into Dahyun and Tzuyu’s tent.

Inside, there was barely enough room for the two girls, yet I couldn’t help but notice the wide gap between the two. It looked purposeful, like one girl was angry at the other and refused to be touched. 

Jeongyeon stepped in too, careful not to place her feet on top of anything that might wake the two girls under us. Her eyes swiftly moved around, not finding anything special. 

“The dagger, please,” I mouthed, and Jeongyeon mouthed back ‘knife’ before handing the weapon over. I took it and rolled my eyes, not caring about technicalities. I positioned myself carefully, just as I had envisioned I would for hours now, and aimed the weapon carefully too. I ed down with all my might, hoping the knife would strike exactly where I needed it to.

“C-can I… act?” Dahyun repeated.

“Yeah. Can you do it? I need you to act like your life depends on it.”

Dahyun had no doubt that this statement was true. This was what had to be done to escape certain death at the hands of this girl. Before Dahyun could answer her, though, Mina sauntered off, disappearing into the foliage.

Dahyun was now alone. She sighed, glancing at the tent with the giant dog next to it. When Tzuyu woke up, she’d have to trick her. Again.