Lightning sounds grouchy. [Would you two keep it down?]

[Sorry. Go back to sleep.]

My words echo through the mind-link. Whew! At least, even if we are in our true human forms, she perceives us as the tiger and wolf that she knows.

But in a way, it is sad, because I want Amber to recognize us. Are we still in our human forms? She has to see that something’s off.

Extending a hand in front of me, I see a paw in its place. One glance at Damon reveals that he has resumed his wolf form as Lobo. I suppose our human communication is over now, at least for the moment.

I never properly appreciated walking on two feet and having hands and breathing through a human mouth and nose. When I return to the real world, I’m never going to complain about soreness, tiredness, or anything else ever again. I will treat my body like a temple.

Lobo wags his tail. [Sorry, Lightning. It has been quite an eventful few days. We are still very much alert and awake.]

[Well, that’s all fine and good, but I need more sleep now.] She stretches, yawning hugely. [I’m going back to it now. Don’t stay up too late.]

And, just like that, she is out in seconds.

Lobo wags his tail and bumps my nose with his. [She’s a good woman, brother. And she is doing all this, getting pulled into the game, to save your sorry tail.]

i lower my head. [I know. I took her for granted. I chased the test scores when I should have just been present. I should have been real with Mom and Dad and you about what was happening. No matter what, I will never live with myself if I don’t at least try to win a second chance in that Beast Taming Elimination Tournament.]

[We can do it, brother.] Lobo’s tail is a whip lashing the air. [We’ve got to. I’m not going to spend my life like this. I’m shocked that Amber--]

A burning lump forms in my throat. [I know. Why didn’t she wake up?]

[That System! It must be responsible. It re-wired Amber’s brain, and ours. It wants us enthralled. It wants to make us dependent on the game. That’s how certain games work. How else do they make money? Especially the ones that require you to make in-app purchases.]

I frown. [But this game is free, isn’t it?]

[Free is still too expensive.] Lobo always has a ready answer. [Their price is too high, in the end. It’s a hidden cost. Think about every time you wanted to quit the game. Something happened to keep you hooked. Lightning being pregnant is just the latest. The logic is, "Wait, don’t go, here’s this cool thing that happens!’]

He’s right. My little brother is a fount of wisdom.

[Then how did they trap Amber? She barely even played the game. She watched me play, mostly.] I blush. [At one point, she got restless waiting me to finish playing so we could spend some time together.]

[THINK, brother!]

His fond but exasperated words spur me on to consider how and why Amber, an introvert who isn’t big on gaming, has become hooked on this game. She only played it casually because of me, and she said it was entertaining, but she’d rather watch a show or go for a walk with me, or other, more pleasurable activities...

Oh.

I groan as the answer smacks me upside the head. [System lured her with the promise of getting close to me so she could remind me of what I missed in the real world.]

Lobo slobbers all over my face. Yuck, warm and slimy. [At last, enlightenment!]

[Oh, be quiet now.]

It’s a sad commentary that the woman I intended to marry has to content herself with a virtual life in order to rescue me. I thought she was cold and distant. I thought she was maybe even seeing another guy. But was she?

Was System playing with my memories and my mind the way it has with Damon and Amber?

[Tell me something, brother.]

Lobo thumps his tail. [What?]

[Did you ever lose yourself in this game trying to find me?]

His tail lowers and sprawls on the ground. His ears flick back.

[I won’t be mad.] I nuzzle him to show no hard feelings. [I need to know how this System operates. I can’t let it get in my head anymore. None of us can.]

He perks up instantly. [Yes. I did. For a time, I lost myself with the whole tournament arc. I was excited. You know I have always wanted to be the best at something, but not found my niche. I hate to admit it, but the instant rewards and the narrative made me feel as if I was achieving something, you know?]

Oh, right in the feels! I am so sorry that my little brother felt that way.

I rub up against him. [You’re very accomplished. You don’t need to go to law school for that to be true, believe me. And I get it. When I struggled with my studies, it gave me a massive boost knowing that I could complete a beast taming quest. But you are accomplished, even if Mom and Dad sometimes don’t get all your creative stuff and home improvement and your business ventures. I think they might be rethinking the whole law school drive.]

He woofs, smelling pleased. [Thank you for saying that.]

[Well, enough sappy self-awareness. We need a strategy. Not just the one we’ve been working on in training sessions.]

He bats a flower around, watching it dance on its stalk. [Amber, I mean Lightning, is stronger than either one of us for someone who’s not a serious gamer.]

[Well, she hates to lose.]

Lobo gnashes his teeth, eating the flower in one bite, more out of aggression than hunger. [System sidelined our strongest player by having you get her pregnant, and you couldn’t resist because of your attraction and love for her.]

Primal Beast, he’s right. I could easily have controlled myself and not mated with Lightning. System is playing dirty. And all that got triggered when we faced the jaguar-scorpion, another invention to keep me invested in the game.

With vicious zeal, I scratch a whole stretch of grass, leaving behind broken green stalks. [It can read us. It can probably read us now. It will come up with countermoves. We just have to outsmart it.]

Lobo looks considerably cheered up by my pep talk. [Even with Lightning on the sidelines, maybe your love can still help us win?]

[Love always wins. Whatever this thing runs on, you can bet that love isn’t part of its DNA. Or if it is, it’s a twisted love.]

We talk for hours, coming up with solutions. Too many to list here, but some of the more memorable ones include:

* Trying to reach System’s code in the game (there must be a backdoor, Damon will investigate) and disrupting it

* Rallying other players we know, not just Amber, to fight this thing

* Awakening Amber so that she’s fully aware and fighting on our side

* Doing something to sabotage the tournament and dismantling System in the process

* Winning the tournament and somehow blasting a message in the game to all the players to delete their accounts

And the list goes on. Those are our top strategies, though.

[There has to be a backdoor.] I’m enthusiastic. [You can find one, you’re still alive and in the human world.]

Damon shakes his furry head. [I’m going to have to call in every otaku weeb favor that anyone owes me. But hey, it’ll be worth it.]

Something nags at me. Something that I should have asked first, but was afraid to.

[Mom and Dad...they don’t know that this is happening, do they?]

His wolf eyes fix on me, twin spotlights. [What do you think?]

[Let me hazard a guess. Is it no?]

He woofs. [I did try to tell them.]

[Of course you did. That’s not a criticism. I can only imagine how it went over.]

Scraping the ground with his claws, he makes a confession. [About how you’d think. The words "delusional’ and "upsetting your mother" got tossed around.]

I’m hardly surprised. Dad and Mom are sensible, logical people, hence their desire for me to go into the law profession. [Now you know what I’ve been dealing with.]

As always, Damon put on a positive spin. [We’ll work on them once we free you from this digital nightmare. They will have to believe us when you come back from the dead. Hey, stay awake!]

[i’m wide awake.]

A lie. But I am not going to sleep and miss time with my brother.

Lobo nudges me. [Sure you are. But don’t go to sleep yet. We need this time with everyone asleep. It’ll be harder to talk with the others awake.]

A disturbing thought occurs to me. [Hey, can the others eavesdrop on our mind-link?]

He woofs. [No, it’s a special chat I programmed between us. Don’t ask me how.]

[Nice. I owe you lots of quality time in the human world, preferably NOT on a computer or video game related.]

And that is something worth fighting for. I just hope we are up to the challenge.