A Tangled Situation

When Mo Tan rose from the game pod, his mood was about as foul as it could get.

This was extraordinarily rare. At least, it had almost never happened while his Chaotic Neutral personality was in control. No matter how troublesome something was, he usually saw it as a kind of "fun."

But...

He could hardly enjoy himself now. For something to be fun, there had to be some way to handle it, however winding or frustrating the process might be. There was very little Mo Tan couldn't deal with, so even trouble could become a pleasure most people would find hard to imagine.

This time, though, there was no obvious solution.

"Again..." Mo Tan didn't even look at his phone. He had kept careful track of when he logged in and how long he had spent in Dave's wardrobe, so the answer was obvious. "I lost more than two hours again. Even longer than last time!"

He climbed out of the pod and went to the bathroom to splash water on his face. Once he had calmed down a little, he returned to the sofa. The faint smile characteristic of this personality settled over his face again.

"It's not as if I have no clues," Mo Tan murmured. "Nothing like this has ever come up on the forums or anywhere else. So I can be almost certain I'm the only one losing time while playing."

Unconsciously, he propped his cheek on one hand and tapped his temple with his index finger, narrowing his eyes. "Having multiple characters is already an anomaly, but none of the three—Tan Mo, Hei Fan, or Mo—has lost game time like this..."

His thoughts were growing clearer. In truth, he had suspected the cause from the start; he simply hadn't been sure enough.

Even so, it was time to pay attention. Otherwise, the consequences could be disastrous...

The problem must still lie with my "illness"...

Does that mean having multiple characters isn't the only thing it affects?

No, that's too vague! What if I look at it the other way? What if the effect is still tied to my "characters"?

Mo Tan had calmed down completely and slipped into a particular mode of thought.

Different characters represent different personalities...

For the moment, he imagined himself as a wholly detached consciousness, looking down on the "himself" who was thinking.

In reality, I'm always me. Only my personality, emotions, and way of thinking change drastically from time to time. But in the game, they've been separated completely.

This illusion of rising above himself did not mean Mo Tan had actually reached the vantage point of an "author" or "reader." It did, however, help him examine things his own perspective might otherwise overlook.

By the game's categories, the personality I'm displaying right now is undoubtedly Chaotic Neutral, and its corresponding character is Tan Mo.

Sweat had formed at Mo Tan's temples. He was still himself, yet he had to split apart the singular self he knew from within. It was neither pleasant nor easy. Anyone's sense of self was deeply rooted; breaking it apart was another matter entirely.

When my personality becomes Absolute Neutral, I'm Hei Fan in the game.

And when it's Lawful Good, I'm Mo...

Mo Tan frowned slightly.

Wait. "And"?

"No!" His eyes widened. "There aren't just three. I've tried to forget it from the beginning, but my 'illness' didn't give me only three personalities..."

Mo Tan stood, took a deep breath, and walked to the full-length mirror in the corner. Looking at himself, he said softly, "Or rather, I did have only three personalities at first. After my Absolute Neutral self appeared, there were four... Of course, after 'that incident,' only the three personalities and characters I have in the game now remained..."

"But what if that 'me' never completely disappeared?" Mo Tan stared hard into the mirror.

The Mo Tan reflected there radiated pure chaos: unrestrained, willing to do as he pleased, indifferent to good and evil. He treated everything as a game or a diversion, acting on whim without any purpose...

"Maybe the person I am now is pretty frightening." A trace of bitterness entered Mo Tan's playful smile. "But there used to be an even more terrifying 'me.' A madness even I can't imagine now, and..."

He said no more. Instead, he returned to the desk, started his computer, and swept through Innocent World's official forums and countless information sites with ruthless efficiency, hunting for any clue.

"If that's really what happened..." Mo Tan scanned pages that opened and closed in rapid succession, his gaze focused. "Then everything makes sense!"

January 3, 2049, 7:00 p.m.

Mental connection detected. Synchronizing personal information...

Connection complete. Reading character information.

Welcome back, Chaotic Neutral Tan Mo. Innocent World will load shortly. Have a good night.

Mo Tan appeared once more inside the wardrobe in Dave's home. The two people who had held their secret discussion there last night were long gone.

"Just as I thought." Mo Tan pushed open the wardrobe and stepped out at an unhurried pace. "Lord Lange must have left ages ago. And I'd say Dave has already been named some sort of temporary Holy Knight by the blind fools of the Holy Church Coalition. He should be getting ready to act..."

As he spoke, he walked to the door, put on the drab gray ceremonial robe, unlocked it from the inside, and strolled out as though he belonged there.

Mo Tan did not lock Dave's door behind him. He had no intention of repeating that rather intimate hiding-in-a-wardrobe routine. Besides, gathering intelligence had gone more smoothly than expected. His unpleasant disconnection last night had cost him one piece of information, but it had not disrupted his plan.

He found an alley, changed back into his white robe, and headed straight for the Rotten Rose tavern in Pato City.

"Hello!" Mo Tan smiled at the flower elf proprietress, who seemed to be forever busy tidying things. "I'm looking for two youngsters."

True, Mo Tan was roughly the same age as those two. But he was playing an elf, and an elf's age was impossible to judge by appearance. So "youngsters" sounded perfectly natural to the proprietress. Except...

"We don't have anyone like that here," she replied without looking up. "Want a drink?"

In other words, buy something or get out.

"Come now," Mo Tan said mildly. "Since we're both helping those two children, why be so distant? You've lived in seclusion for years since the Night Owl Mercenary Group disbanded, but surely you can't leave your old flame's nephew Cole and his companion in danger?"

"I don't know what you're talking about." The proprietress shook her head. "And... they're safe here."

"Don't be ridiculous." Mo Tan shook his head. "Who can a mid-tier nature mage protect? Even with that greatsword master who runs an equally unconventional tavern, you're short on time, Lady Ledo. Not looking for trouble doesn't mean trouble won't find you. Understand?"

The proprietress of the Rotten Rose, a flower elf named Lan Ye Ledo who had once been a frontline mage of the Night Owl Mercenary Group, spun around and fixed Mo Tan with a stare. "Who are you? What do you know?"

"I have neither the interest nor the obligation to satisfy your curiosity." Mo Tan walked up to her and gave her a faint smile. "You can think of me as a savior. Or... the one who brings it all down."

After a moment's silence, Ledo finally let her shoulders sag and set down the plate in her hands. "I'm keeping an eye on you."

"I couldn't ask for better company." Mo Tan smiled broadly.

Fifteen minutes later

"That's the situation, more or less." Seated at the table in the room, Mo Tan spread his hands toward the other three. "I have two plans, but both require your cooperation. I'll come back later today and tell you which one we're going with. Any questions?"

"Why should we trust you?" Ledo asked at once.

"Simple." Mo Tan pointed at Cole and Little Ai with a smile. "First, I saved your old flame's nephew. Then I saved another victim and did my best to protect an innocent soul."

Cole gave Ledo a horrified look. "Old... old flame?! You and my uncle, the one who's always fooling around?!"

"Second." Mo Tan ignored him and spread his hands again. "You have no other choice. Never mind the cult's connections and its own strength; even the power it wields in public is beyond you. So 'why should we trust you' is a rather stupid question."

Little Ai gave Mo Tan a slight bow and said loudly, "I trust you, sir! What can I do? If it means avenging Lada and the others, I'll do anything..."

"Now, now." Mo Tan wagged a finger at the girl. "A young lady shouldn't go around saying she'll 'do anything.' As for what I need you to do, I'll tell you when I get back from meeting someone."

Without waiting for any of them to respond, he opened the door and left...

After a stretch of silence, Ledo, the owner of the Rotten Rose, covered her lovely face and sighed. "We're being led around by both sides... A cult... a student from the knights' academy... Pato City's chief administrator... What kind of mess is this?"

"I think that gentleman's worth trusting too." Cole shrugged. "Whatever else happens, he saved Little Ai and me, and Rona's soul besides. I want to trust him and repay him. Also, um... Lady Ledo..."

"Hmm?" The proprietress, acting nothing like her usual self, gave a little snort and shot Cole a sidelong glance. "What do you want to ask?"

Cole smiled awkwardly. "Are you and my uncle really... you know..."

"No!" Ledo turned her head away. "It's just me pining after him. Same as Lada with Little Ai, Little Ai with you, and you with that girl Rona."

"What?!" The young cleric, who had been standing quietly to one side, froze. "W-w-w-wait! Ledo! I, I..."

Ledo shrugged. "You what? Never mind. This isn't the time. What I want to know is how that inscrutable man found out about all this. Cole, did you tell him anything?"

"I didn't know any of it myself. What could I tell him?" Cole scratched his head. "Though he did ask me a few questions about my uncle, then where to find the Thieves' Guild's information office. Oh, right—after I said I knew the Rotten Rose well, he asked me a bit about you too..."

Ledo rolled her eyes. Walking toward the door with a worried frown, she sighed. "Forget it. Wait here, you two. I need to go ask around, and pay that bastard Bayes a visit..."

With that, she went downstairs, leaving a waft of perfume behind her.

And then... the two young people left in the room said nothing.

The silence grew painfully awkward.

"Get out..."

"Huh?"

"Get out!"

"But it's not safe downstairs!"

"This isn't the only room! I said get out, you idiot!"

For some reason, the young cleric had suddenly turned violent. Red-faced, she kicked Cole out of the room.

In the woods outside Pato City, where Lada and Rona had died.

Dave stood among the trees in gleaming silver knight's armor, a faint reddish-gold light playing around him. He held a two-handed greatsword forged with a generous quantity of holy silver. All told, he looked like a player who had spent a fortune on gear.

And not merely one with a holy glow. He looked like a top-tier VIP who had flashy dark skills to match...

For now he was murmuring under his breath, his eyes filled with a murky, sinister haze. His free hand was curled as though gripping something, and wisps of deathly pale mist seeped from his palm.

A few minutes later, two low cries sounded. The earth before him burst open, and two enormous, crimson, lizard-like creatures with sharp teeth, claws, and spines along their backs... Well, two Crimson Ridge Beasts appeared before Dave.

They were plainly the same pair that had gone on a killing spree not long before.

But unlike the savage, frenzied monsters of that night, they were now almost as docile as geckos...

At some point, a seal etched with strange ripples had appeared on each beast's forehead. Both pulsed in time with the deathly pale glow in Dave's hand.

Their lights answered one another...

The end.