“Ah! Right.” Xun Guan bit into the cheese block and then answered around her mouthful as she chewed. “I do suppose I owe you an explanation. You see, I’m having a problem here . . .” She paused long enough to swallow and then to take another bite. “I’ve spent years of my life maintaining and improving this video game, and with the way the game stretches out time, I might as well have given it decades.”

“And?” he asked expectantly. “What does that have to do with taking this quest and killing people?”

She pulled out the bottle of wine that Lucas had prepared for his lazing about earlier in the day, took a healthy swig from it, and then continued. “Well, you see, normally it wouldn’t. I’d do my job, help with the promotions and advertising, and then meet you on the hill for some of this delicious cheese and wine at the end of a hard day’s work . . .” She trailed off, swallowed, and took another swig from the bottle. “But, sadly, no matter how much I try, this game is dying. Players hit the top level, they finish the final bosses, and then that’s it. The game is over. They quit. Some stick around, roleplay fun roles, build castles with their teammates, or just grind out the same bosses over and over for money and drops, but most leave. For the longest period of time, this wasn’t a problem. Every now and then, we’d use the money from the new subscribers to release content patches that would drag the old players back to the game for a new raid boss or challenge . . .”

“But?” Lucas asked, anticipating the next word as Xun Guan had stopped talking to take another bite from the cheese.

“But we scrape by with a little less each time. The cycle gets shorter, and we’re now at the point where the investors and company owners don’t feel like it’s worth making another content patch at all. The game won’t last more than a year at this rate.”

“I’m still not getting what this has to do with me completing this quest and then killing my teammates,” Lucas huffed. He was starting to get impatient with her lackadaisical attitude and inability to reach a conclusion. It felt like she was purposefully dragging her feet on the subject.