The tent held onto the night like it didn’t want to let it go.
Heat from the day had faded, leaving the air cooler, softer, the sand packed tight around them muting the outside world into something distant and unreal. The lantern had burned low, its dim glow barely enough to outline the shape of the space, and for a while Erica just lay there on her back, staring up at the faint shadow of fabric shifting above her.
Teresa slept beside her.
Not the still, perfect kind of sleep Erica had seen in other games, where characters froze into idle poses until triggered again. This was quieter, uneven in a way that made it feel human. Her breathing changed slightly every few seconds, her shoulders rising and falling in a natural rhythm, one arm stretched loosely between them like she had reached out at some point and never quite finished the motion.
Erica didn’t move. She was afraid that if she did, something about the moment would break.
Her body still felt… different. Not just from the fight, not just from leveling, but from everything that had happened after. There was a lingering warmth under her skin that didn’t fade the way she expected it to, like her body had learned something new and wasn’t ready to forget it yet.
“This is a game,” she whispered to herself, more out of habit than belief.
The words didn’t land the way they used to.
───
A soft chime echoed somewhere deeper than sound.
Her eyes were still closed, but the interface opened anyway.
The world didn’t disappear. It layered.
A clean, sharp overlay replaced the tent, not visually but mentally, like she had stepped one level higher without leaving her body behind. Panels flickered into existence around her, smoother than anything inside the game world.
She recognized this.
Above the game.
Her messages pulsed faintly in the corner.
Nathan.
Three unread.
Erica hesitated, then opened them.
His messages were simple, almost impatient, but there was something underneath them that made her pause longer than she expected.
He had been waiting.
She exhaled slowly, then glanced sideways.
Teresa hadn’t moved.
Still asleep.
Still… there.
Erica swallowed and selected the partial logout.
───
The transition felt lighter this time.
Not like being pulled out, just stepping aside.
Nathan stood in the same relaxed way he always did, hands in his pockets like nothing ever really bothered him, but the second he saw her he straightened slightly, something like relief slipping through before he covered it with his usual expression.
“Hey,” he said, walking over. “Where’d you go? I thought you got wiped or something.”
Erica stared at him for a second, her mind catching up to the shift between worlds, then all at once—
“What kind of game is this?!”
The words came out sharper than she meant them to, but she didn’t take them back.
Nathan blinked once, then laughed like he had been expecting something like that.
“Okay, that reaction’s not great,” he said, rubbing the back of his neck. “How many times did you die?”
“…None.”
He paused.
“Already a vampire then?”
“No,” she shot back, stepping closer. “I almost died like five times. I got dropped in the middle of nowhere, chased by those things, dragged into some lab, forced into a fight, and then everything just kept getting worse from there.”
Nathan’s grin softened a little, curiosity replacing it. “Alright, slow down. Start from the beginning.”
She did.
Not neatly. Not in order.
She told him everything the way it came to her, jumping between moments, filling in details as she remembered them. The desert, the vampires, the lab, Dr. Gan, the serum, the fight that should have killed her, the way everything stacked on top of itself until she didn’t have time to think anymore.
Nathan didn’t interrupt.
By the time she finished, his expression had shifted completely.
“…Yeah,” he said slowly. “That’s not normal.”
“I figured.”
He leaned back slightly, studying her. “What ability did you get?”
Erica hesitated, her confidence dropping a notch.
“…It’s kind of stupid.”
“Just tell me.”
She looked away, scratching lightly at her arm. “Double jump.”
Nathan stared at her.
“…That’s it?”
“…Yeah.”
His face flattened in the most unimpressed way possible.
“Seriously? That’s your one ability?”
“I KNOW,” she snapped. “I thought it would be something good!”
He let out a breath, shaking his head. “Man, I was expecting something crazy. Time manipulation, tracking, something useful.”
She crossed her arms, muttering, “It is useful.”
“Sure. For like… jumping.”
She opened her mouth to argue, then stopped.
“…I also can’t become a vampire.”
That shifted things.
Nathan’s posture straightened, his expression tightening. “What do you mean you can’t?”
She explained. The serum. The effect. What would happen if she turned.
By the time she finished, he looked genuinely unsettled.
“…Oh,” he said quietly. “That’s… rough.”
“Yeah.”
He scratched the back of his neck again, thinking. “I didn’t even know that was in the game.”
A short silence stretched between them before he glanced back up.
“Do you want to switch?” he asked. “There’s another game I’ve got. Alien survival thing. It’s actually pretty good, not as… insane as this.”
“No.”
The answer came out fast. Too fast.
Nathan blinked, then slowly smiled.
“…Oh.”
Erica froze.
“What?”
He didn’t answer right away. He just watched her, arms folding slowly across his chest, his expression shifting from casual curiosity into something far more specific.
“You didn’t log out because of the combat,” he said.
Erica’s stomach dropped.
“I—what are you—”
“You slept near your companion, didn’t you?”
She stared at him.
“…What?”
Nathan tilted his head, clearly enjoying this now. “Same space, close proximity, end of a combat day… let me guess, she looked you over and asked something like ‘do you like what you see?’”
The heat rushed up Erica’s neck so fast it made her dizzy.
Nathan’s grin widened immediately.
“Wow,” he said, dragging a hand over his face. “That was fast. You didn’t even last a full day.”
“I didn’t—” she stopped herself, then snapped, “What is that supposed to mean?!”
He laughed, not mean about it, just… way too entertained. “It’s a system behavior. NPC companions are designed to build attachment quickly. If your affinity isn’t negative and you share a rest space, they’ll initiate something more personal.”
Erica blinked, trying to keep up. “…Initiate?”
“Yeah,” he said, calming slightly. “It starts with conversation, physical proximity, testing reactions. If you respond positively—or even just don’t shut it down—they escalate. It’s part of how the game makes them feel real.”
She looked away.
Because that was the problem.
It had felt real.
“…That didn’t feel like a system,” she said quietly.
Nathan didn’t dismiss it this time. He just shrugged lightly. “That’s why people get hooked on this game.”
Her fingers tightened slightly at her sides.
“…It was a woman,” she admitted, almost under her breath.
Nathan let out a low whistle. “Of course it was.”
Erica shot him a look.
“…We were in a tent.”
That got another laugh out of him, softer now but no less amused. “Yeah, that’ll do it. Close quarters, high tension, post-combat adrenaline… the game practically lines it up for you.”
She crossed her arms, trying to recover some dignity. “It wasn’t just that.”
“Sure,” he said, still smiling. “Totally not.”
“I mean it,” she pushed. “I actually think I’m doing pretty well.”
Nathan raised an eyebrow. “Oh yeah?”
“I leveled up.”
That shifted his attention back properly.
“How much?”
Erica hesitated just long enough for it to matter.
“…Thirty-seven.”
Nathan didn’t move.
“…Say that again.”
“Thirty-seven.”
Now he actually froze.
“What did you say your companion’s name was again?”
“Teresa Van Helsing.”
Nathan’s expression changed completely, the humor draining out of it as he processed that.
“I’ve never heard of her,” he said slowly. “But a Van Helsing companion? That’s not normal. Those are high-tier NPCs. Hard to earn, harder to keep.”
He looked back at her, more focused now.
“…Send me your stats.”
Erica pulled up her stat sheet from the game and passed it over.
Nathan read it once.
Then again.
His expression shifted with each line.
“You already have a title?” he said. “Hunting Prodigy? I’ve literally never seen that before.”
He kept reading, slower this time.
“Plus twenty percent to multiple stats… Unlucky… honestly that’s not even bad if you can survive it…”
He looked back up at her.
“…Erica, your build is insane.”
She blinked. “Really?”
“Yeah. Like… really really.”
For a moment, neither of them spoke.
Then Nathan leaned back slightly. “We should meet up.”
Erica hesitated.
“I’m kind of… with them right now.”
He nodded like he expected that. “That won’t last forever. NPCs don’t just stick with you permanently. They’ve got their own paths.”
Something in her chest dipped slightly.
“…Oh.”
Nathan caught it.
“If your affinity gets high enough, you can call them,” he added. “Like, they’ll actually come help you when you need it.”
Erica blinked. “That’s what that does?”
“Yeah.”
She let that sit, then nodded slowly.
“…Okay.”
Nathan smiled. “So when you’re free, come find me. I’ll send you my location.”
“…Yeah.”
She paused, then added quietly, “Thanks… for showing me this.”
He shrugged, grinning again. “Yeah, well, don’t pass me in one day, alright?”
She smirked faintly. “No promises.”
───
The chat faded.
The system peeled back.
───
Erica opened her eyes.
The tent returned around her, dim and quiet, the weight of the sand pressing in from all sides.
Teresa hadn’t moved.
Still asleep.
Still close.
Erica turned her head slightly, studying her again, the memory of Nathan’s words lingering in the back of her mind.
They’re programmed.
She watched the slow rise and fall of Teresa’s breathing, the faint shift of her fingers where they rested between them, the way her presence filled the space in a way that didn’t feel artificial.
“…Doesn’t feel like it,” Erica whispered.
She shifted a little closer without thinking, not enough to wake her, just enough that she could feel the warmth between them again.