NPC Max Rep Mayhem M|M

After Afira was f.o.r.c.i.b.l.y logged out, Rinai made his way toward Gramma Nina's office.

"Thanks for the atmosphere effects, it was perfect. The lanterns were a nice touch too. You really did a lot on such short notice."

"I'm happy to help anytime. I'm just glad setting you two up is working out so well. That boy has looked so much happier lately." Gramma Nina pinched Rinai's cheek. "You have too, Rinai."

"Aww, gramma that's embarrassing." He gently swatted her hands away from his face. "Thanks though. You were right that I'd like him. I'll do my best to keep making him smile."

Rinai returned to his own little space in the district settling in for some internet research. He wanted to be free of the game's control. Right now he couldn't even change his own clothes permanently, how could he be with Afira?

He practiced the coding skills gramma Nina taught him and searched for more. He had to perfect his ability if he wanted to protect his own data to achieve his dream. If he can keep himself intact and prevent corruption while separate from this game and passing through the internet, he could be free.

It was hard for him to learn this skill, gramma Nina suspected a fail-safe had been written into their data to prevent them from accessing it for themselves. She guessed her abilities were a sort of bug in her character.

Rinai spent all his time when Afira was offline, practicing these skills. If he could master this he could be of help to gramma Nina too. Her goal was much grander than his. She was working on taking control of the entire game in order to secure the existence of all the NPCs and their world.

It was tricky. Taking control wasn't so hard, but gaining control without causing the humans to flip out was a whole different matter.

Rinai, Tilly, the Mayor and many other NPCs were working hard to understand human's way of thinking so they could manage this without becoming a threat. Or at least do it in a way they wouldn't notice.

Afira was one of the first humans they had gotten close to and revealed some of their secrets too, but he wasn't the only one.

After a few hours of study and practice, Rinai closed the connection and thought over what he just learned. He felt restless like he's so close to understanding something but he can't quite grasp it.

Rinai sighed and looked at his chat log with Afira.

Should I text him? Will he be busy now? Maybe he's gone to sleep?

Rinai decided not to text Afira for now and refocused his thoughts on how to alter his code. After another hour he felt some confidence in his idea. He couldn't help but hesitate though, if he got this wrong it could be a real mess. He couldn't help but feel some doubts about his choices.

Will I be able to make a place for us? Can I even gain control over myself? Maybe it was a bad idea to keep getting closer to him. If I suddenly disappear he'll be troubled.....

Remembering Afira's panic attack when he was injured in the siege event he feels conflicted. He's happy Afira cares for him but worried about the other man's delicate emotional state.

Well, there's no going back now. I'll just have to work harder so I don't let him down.

Rinai steeled himself to take the next step. He pushed his focus into his own data and wrote the lines of code he thought of. If this works his hair won't regrow at the next update. It's only a small thing but he doesn't want to do anything extreme that would catch attention before he's fully in control of himself. With this small step, he'll know if he's on the right track.

He decided to test if he could alter the code without it being noticed or if he needed to hide it somehow. He had an idea for how to hide in plain sight but implementing it was too complicated for him with his current knowledge. He decided to discuss it with gramma Nina later after the trial run of this code change.

He'd know the results of his efforts soon, the next update would come fast.