She started awake at the sound of a door and glanced at the time on the upper right of her vision. It was six in the morning.

Astra pried her eyes open and wiped her face with her hand. She felt... greasy... she smelled like body odor... and she realized she needed to pee. That was a first, for sure. She’d never needed to sleep, eat, or rest while playing before. After her brief self-inspection, she looked up to find Xander standing over her, looking down his perfect, straight nose at her.

This felt far too real to be just a game anymore.

When she’d first gotten him, she often forgot that Xander was there, following silently behind her until the system reminded her. That had been surprising the first time. For a while after, she’d found it mildly annoying since it slowed her down. But as work got worse for the holiday season, she’d been glad for that downtime. She’d combed his hair and braided it because it always felt so silky in her hands, and it was calming. She’d even gone so far as to climb into his bedroll with him just because she needed a hug after a long day of getting abused by awful customers at the QuickQ. He would always roll over in his sleep and hold her. She’d watched him sleep countless times.

Given his expression now, it seemed the tables were turned. He had gotten to watch her sleep. She burst out laughing. She laughed until she snorted and wiped tears from her eyes.

“Do Immortals sleep in the other realm?” he asked.

“Yeah,” Astra said. “It was my favorite thing to do. Other than hanging out in Ashguard.”

He grunted. Pulling something from his pocket, he held a Scroll out to her.

Recognizing her Menu, Astra took it and stuck it into her pocket, choosing to believe that he had looked for her Log Out option and not found one.

“There are fresh clothes for you and a bath waiting. Please make use of them,” Xander said.

“All right, all right,” Astra muttered and stood, giving a good long stretch that had her joints cracking in chorus. Finishing with a yawn, Astra took herself to the bathroom she’d found earlier to take care of personal hygiene. According to her time sense, it had to have been around twelve hours since she’d put on the headset and laid down to play. Ashguard’s time was an hour for every thirty minutes in real-time. She would need to get up soon if she was going to make it to her shift at the QuickQ.

She pulled out her Menu in the bath to calmly look it over.

Inventory, Character, Stats, Porter...

Curious, she opened the Porter tab. “Cheese and crust, look at those levels!” she gasped. He outclassed her in everything except Raise Undead and the Crafting Skills. If they battled a monster anytime soon, she would be the liability.

Continuing to the System Settings tab, she swiped through. As Xander had said, the pain tolerance was greyed out. There was only one slider for audio instead of three. No more background music for her.

She touched the slider, adjusting it back to where she was comfortable. There were no other options. That was it. Log Out did not exist. Not even greyed out. There wasn’t even a space for it.

She did have the option to turn on seeing people’s names and titles, but it was no longer split into Players, Pets, Mounts, and NPCs. She decided to change the setting to show names when targeted for People, Pets, and Mounts.

She hid HP bars unless they were below full health.

“How long does it take to die of dehydration?” she wondered aloud, tossing her Menu towards the chair where the church robe she’d been provided hung.

* * *

Xander was not there when she’d finished bathing. Figuring he’d wandered off for the day, she took a seat on the couch she’d slept on and pondered what to do until he returned. She needed to find a way to log out but had no idea where to even start with that.

Feeling hungry, Astra opened her Inventory and pulled out one of the meals she’d crafted.

“Xander used to eat these pretty enthusiastically,” she recalled. Whenever she had to log out, she’d always make sure he had plenty of meals in his inventory regardless of whether they were in town since he seemed to like her cooking so much. Whenever she came back, she’d find his supply either gone or diminished and supposed he’d eaten them. Unlike her, Xander didn’t stop existing when she logged out.

VR had come a long way since its early days with bulky headsets that only tricked the eyes into believing you were in a digital landscape. The current technology interacted with the subconscious, turning off motor control the way sleep did and projecting the images straight into the wearer’s brain. As a result, it really felt like you were there... to an extent.

Food tasted like a memory of eating something rather than a real sensation. Pain felt uncomfortable but didn’t hurt more than an inconvenience. Pleasure got through better. As a result, X-rated VR games were popular. Ashguard was not one of those games, though it did have a high rating due to the graphic violence. Eating for her had only been a way to boost her stats temporarily, but Xander needed food and rest, or he fell behind and his health dipped.

She felt kind of bad about how she’d treated him. She wouldn’t have taken a Porter if she hadn’t needed the Inventory space. And only a Porter could put things for sale on the Market Board. Anyone could buy from it, but only a Porter could post items.

Taking a steaming plate of bacon and eggs from her Inventory, Astra bravely tried a bite.

Eyes widening, she sat back. “Cheese and crust! I’m a good cook!” First time for everything! She tucked into her breakfast.

When she finished the meal, the plate poofed out of existence the way these things always did in the game.

Astra collapsed back in the settee and stared up at the ceiling. She loved reading “stuck in a video game” stories, but those kinds of things happened to seventeen-year-olds, not thirty-four-year-old grocery store clerks.

It wasn’t like my life was great, she thought. She could barely afford her apartment. Her supervisor at the store was an abusive jerk. He never gave her days off. Instead, he cut her hours and gave her split shifts. The customers were always the worst. She couldn’t even afford to feed the local strays as a substitute for not having a pet. Ashguard had been the only bright spot in her life.

Now it was her life. At least until her body died or the power got cut on her apartment. Who knew when her time would be up, and here she was, sitting in Xander’s church apartment, wasting the day away.

Something thumped against the door, and Astra turned her head to look.

Xander, juggling two plates and a stack of papers, managed to get the door open and slipped in, closing it with his foot. Coming to the table, he carefully set his burdens down.

“Oh. I already ate,” Astra said, looking at the rather sad breakfast he’d brought.

“How?”

“Dude.” Astra stared at him. “Crafting still works.”

He didn’t break eye contact as he slid the plates aside.

Breaking into a grin, Astra opened her inventory and set a plate of bacon and eggs out for him. Deciding not to waste the other two, she put them into her Inventory while he ate.

“I’m going to need materials to make more,” Astra said, resting her arm along the back of the settee. Tapping her fingers, she stared into the distance in thought while she waited for him to finish. His plate poofed, and Xander sighed happily as he sat back. “What’s all this?” she asked, pointing at the papers.

“Work,” Xander said. “I usually do it elsewhere, but leaving you unattended...”

“I could explore the town?” Astra suggested.

“Absolutely not.”

Ears folding down, Astra sighed. “Why?”

“You were seen by many people Resurrecting out of the Soul Stone. Word has spread that an Immortal has appeared.”

Astra rolled her head back and groaned. “And Immortals are evil demons that eat children’s souls,” she concluded. “So as the stuck-up Divine Brother, it is your most sacred duty to make sure one doesn’t just wander around buying supplies or something.” Her tail thumped against the couch beside her.

“The very idea of you purchasing goods is terrifying. Fen was the currency Immortals used, and currently, they are only in circulation amongst the nobility,” Xander pointed out.

“So, you’re saying I’ve technically got no money.” Astra melted over onto the cushions. “Ughhh! Why is life so hard?” she whined. Perking, she pushed onto her elbows. “I’ve got stuff I can sell! That shouldn’t break the economy, right?”

He was shaking his head.

“If I only do it in small amounts?”

He still shook his head.

“I can sell high-quality things to the nobility? I’m sure they’ve got more money than they could spend in a lifetime.”

Xander didn’t look convinced.

“I’m not trying to break things, Xan. I’m bored. You can’t keep me trapped here forever. What if I just went to the Southlands? Then you wouldn’t have to deal with me at all.”

“Except for when you get killed and reappear here,” Xander pointed out.

Ears folding down, Astra laid her head on her arms, sprawling across the cushions on her stomach.

Xander remained unmoving and quiet. She didn’t bother looking at him, hating how she was trapped by a society she knew nothing about with a guy who didn’t seem to like talking.

“You may assist in the medical wing of the church,” Xander said finally. “Would that suffice to alleviate your boredom?”

“I dunno. Would have to see the work involved.”

“Then come.” He stood, taking his stack of papers with him.

Astra cut a look at him. “Woof, woof,” she muttered and got up.