“Interesting,” Mina said, standing over the bonfire. She stared deeply into the flames, as if trying to find something in them. “Well, now I’m glad I didn’t fry you, DugunDubuDugun.”

Dahyun swallowed thickly, glancing at the tent behind her, where Tzuyu slept– unaware of this conversation, unaware of Mina’s presence– and briefly wondered how angry her best friend would be if she found out about the dangerous deal she had just made with Mina.

“So... when do we do this?”

Mina’s eyes flicked away from the flames for a second, just long enough to give Dahyun an annoyed look. “I already told you: after I pay Chaeyoung a visit. I want to see some old pals, even if it’s just a glance.”

The way Mina said ‘old pals’ sent a chill down Dahyun’s spine. In cartoons, such a phrase meant nefarious things, like old enemies, or ex-friends-turned-enemies, which, in Dahyun’s opinion, was much worse. She wondered which one it was. “Old pals?”

The tent shook a little bit, causing Mina and Dahyun to freeze. It seemed like Tzuyu was just tossing and turning, though, so they resumed the conversation.

“Yep,” Mina breathed, feeling like she should leave soon. She turned away from Tzuyu and Dahyun’s camp. “From what you’ve told me, it turns out Chaeyoung’s made friends with people I’ve met before. Fun,” she said, in a not-fun tone. “Now, I have a question for you, Dahyun. Can you act?”

 

....

 

“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 underst