“How in the world am I ever going to be a hero here?” Sword asked himself as he stood alone in the village at night while everyone still lay asleep. “I haven’t gone on any quests at all . . .” he waited for something else to come to him, but it felt weird to say anything else when he stayed silent past 5 minutes. “Darn it,” he muttered. He looked as his hands and how dirty they were from the work in the fields all day. He started to move his fingers to see if they were still raw from the day’s work, and as soon as he started to move his index fingers, a throbbing pain raced through both of his hands and he winced trying hard not to shout out. 

Then he heard a rustling behind him and turned away with his fists raised. But then he saw someone that didn’t live in the village approach him. She wasn’t dressed like everyone here at all, she looked like she could’ve been from the Learned University in the Learned Kingdom near the Land of Brave in the Middle, with her long blue robes billowing around her. She looked right at him as she slowly made her way towards him. “What do you want?” he asked her, making a motion for his sword at his hip, but then remembering that he had lost it in his earlier game. 

“Hello Sword Fighter,” she said in a chipper tone. “Why are you calling me that?” he asked her. “Isn’t that the name of your avatar?” she asked him puzzled. She tapped the air and instantly a dozen blue screens buzzed into life around her and she darted her eyes from one to the next. “It says here that your character’s name is Sword Fighter.” “Yes,” he answered, “that is my character’s name, but why are you here? Are you another hero, or would-be hero I guess?” 

“I am here to help you on your journey of New-Game Plus,” she said, “I am Plus the mage. I can help direct you to all of the new content that has been uploaded to the game as of yesterday at nine in the afternoon.” “There’s no such thing as nine in the afternoon,” said Sword, “it’d be cool if it was, but that’s just the name of a song.” “Oh?” she asked. “Yes, you either meant nine in the morning or nine at night.” “Well the time that I have is 9 p.m.” “That means that it was nine at night, because it was after mid-day, which means that the sun would’ve already have crossed the meridian,” explained Sword. “I will take note of this,” said Plus. “Where did you hear nine in the afternoon?” he asked. “Probably when I was being updated,” she said, “the developers keep forgetting that I have sound capturing capabilities, which doesn’t make sense considering that they designed me to function this way.” 

“Well hey at least you’ve got a great job, huh?” said Sword, “A lot of people hate what they do for a living.” “This job is not hard for me to perform no,” she said, “Now then what would you like to start with first?” “Huh?”  he said, completely forgetting what they were talking about earlier. “Your journey?” she said, “The New Game Plus Journey?” “I don’t want to do that,” he said, “to be honest, today is the last day that I’m going to play this game. I’ve got to do some other stuff, that really I don’t want to do, but it’s about time that I did do them, because I don’t really have a future for myself if I keep this up.” 

“Oh,” she said, “I’m sorry to hear that.” “Yeah,” he said, scratching the back of his head, and then taking a seat on the ground. “I just . . . well a part of it has to do with how I literally lost this high level weapon yesterday, and it was great weapon too. Every time I landed an attack I would heal, it was awesome, and it was a rare find too, and in the castle of the Queen of Sorcery. I didn’t have any Peer Scrolls on me so I couldn’t ascertain exactly what it was or what other abilities it could acquire. I was planning on waiting until I got back to town to find out, but the Queen of Sorcery found me and killed me in one hit.” “Why didn’t you save?” she asked. “Well there aren’t really a lot of checkpoints in this game at all, especially not in a dungeon as big as her castle, plus the save points only exist in villages like this, and as soon as you step outside you’re battered with random encounters. I mean I like random encounters as much as the next guy, but you’ve got to admit that sometimes it’s just a slog, right?” 

“I actually don’t mind it at all,” she said as she took a seat next to him, “It’s like a real adventure, because you never know when it’s going to happen and then it happens and then you’ve just got to be ready for it.” “Yeah . . .” he sighed, “that’s why I love RPGs really. Nothing else really nails that sense, that thrill of being out on an adventure.” “Are you sure that you don’t want to give the New Game Plus a chance?” she asked him, “I worked really hard on it.” “You’re one of the developers of L—” “Please don’t say the whole name!” she almost shouts, “it’s just so long, and it makes every conversation about it much longer than I want it to be.” 

“I didn’t know you were one of the developers,” he said, “What made you want to make this game? Do you play a lot of RPGs?” “Oh well, I’m part of the development team, but I didn’t handle the base game, I’m only responsible for the new stuff.” “Well what do you do out in the real world?” he asked her. “This is my real world,” she said. Then Sword’s eyes widened as he took another look at the mage sitting next to him. “You’re an A.I.?” he asked. “Yep,” she said, “does that bother you?” “Not at all,” said Sword, “in fact it’s kind of awesome, I’m talking to a personification of math itself.” “Do you like math?” she asked excitedly. “Not at all,” he said with a frown, “but anyone who likes a good old fashioned adventure is all right by me. I’m Sword Fighter, Plus. Put her there,” he said as he offered her a handshake. She poked his hand, glanced at him, he nodded, and then she grabbed his hand with both of her hands and then shook it up and down really fast. “Thank you for this handshake!” she said, “I’ll treasure it forever!” “Okay that’s great!” he said in pain through gritted teeth, “Please don’t break my hand, I need it.” 

“Whew,” he said after the handshake was over. “That was much better and less boring than it looked like from on the desk,” she said, “You give great handshakes.” “Thank you,” he said, wiping the sweat away from his face, “well it was nice meeting you Plus. I’m going to go and log off now.” “Wait,” she said, “don’t you want to see the new additions before, I can just show you the rundown, that way you won’t have to stay in the game longer than you want to. It’ll just be a minute.” “Oh,” he said, “Okay.” She smiled and reached in her sleeve and pulled out a long book. “A rulebook?” he said. “It just looks like that in-game, trust me it’s not long,” she said. She handed it to him and he grabbed it tentatively. He read through it once slowly, and then it read it again three more times very quickly. “What happened to Buff Broadensword?” he asked her. “Oh it should say that he’s in a new adventure,” she said. “No it does,” he said, “but it doesn’t say when that new adventure is coming out. Do you know where he is?” “No,” she said, “The developers are having trouble finding his original code, which is why a date hasn’t been given for his new adventure.” “Can’t they just make a new one?” he asked her. “They discussed it, but the fan backlash would be too great, so they’ve been trying to find the original for the past few weeks and just expand off of that.”  

“So he’s still in the game?” he asked her. “Yes,” she said. “How do you know?” he asked. “Because I’m notified of any and all changes within the game. I help keep account of any changes or inconsistencies in order to better keep track of what’s working and what’s not for future updates or expansions.” Sword was silent for a minute as he paced back and forth thinking about what his next move should be. “Do you want to meet Buff Broadensword?” she asked. “Yes,” he said, “I met him once. This was before I lost to the Queen of Sorcery. We had just done this quest together, and it was my hundredth quest in the game. I had everything down. My weapons were high-level and I was laying waste to all who stood before me with my skills. It was fun.” 

“It sounds fun,” she said. “You know after that quest, I talked to Buff at camp and he asked me something that I’ve never been asked before. He asked me what I wanted to accomplish next in my life. It totally caught me off guard. I mean I had just graduated from college, and I was fresh on a new job, and I had no idea how to answer that question. I just stood there for probably hours in real life just shocked that I would be asked that in a game, much less affected by it. Then eventually he said that he had to leave on a grand quest and that he’d hoped to see me again someday. That was the last time that I saw him.” 

“Did you try looking for him?” she asked. “Yes,” he said, “I tried for months, and then, well now, I’ve just given up. Because really why am I spending hundreds upon hundreds of hours to find this one person in a game to just tell them that I know exactly what I’m going to accomplish in my life and that I’m not wasting it or anything? I don’t want to say why, but I know why. I need to tell him . . . because I don’t have anyone else that’ll listen, much less get it.” “But I’m listening,” she said. “Thanks,” said Sword, “but we just met, he and I were on an all-day quest together and we won. It was just the two of us. I don’t even like parties, because no one ever does what I know that we have to do and then we end up losing. But that time was different. That’s the only person that I’d want on my party; no one else.” 

“But you’re going to log off tonight,” she said. “Well. . . not if there’s a chance that I’ll see him again I won’t,” he said. “What?” she asked. “Plus, you don’t know where he is right, but you know for sure that he’s still here? He’s still in Level?” “Yes,” she said, “But I can’t track him down, his code is lost among billions of other codes.” “Then let me help you,” he said. “What are you talking about, Sword?” “Plus,” he said, taking a knee, “ I beseech you to form a party with me so that we may find Buff Broadensword together.” “Really?” she asked him smiling, “You think that we can do it? Just the two of us?” “I know it,” he said, a light shining in his eyes, “Because reading this feels me with determination.” She nodded in agreement and he shouted, “Yes!” at the top of his lungs. “We’re going to be the greatest adventurers in all of Level!”