The number of cat people that Danika knew seemed to be growing. She sent Kit a friend request.
Kit smiled and accepted it, and asked, "Do you have The Traveling Merchant on your friend list too? He says only five percent of the game's players have him. I'd have thought everyone would add him."
Danika blinked at her, glanced at the merchant, and admitted, "When you say that, I'm embarrassed to admit that it never occurred to me that I could add him."
The merchant asked cheerfully, "Would you like to be friends ZipZing?"
Danika grinned at him and replied, "Yeah." The system added him to her list below Sea Song Tione, who had left their party, but not her friend list.
Kit asked, "Isn't it weird how The Traveling Merchant is actually his name, and not just his title?"
Danika turned and used her menu lens on the merchant who smiled gently beneath her inspection. It did simply read "The Traveling Merchant" and his level was ???. His information was short and read: "An experienced and widely traveled merchant with a good reputation."
Danika turned to ask Kit if she could see the merchant's level, and a dark haired man in elaborate oriental robes appeared suddenly on the path beside her. The now familiar label above his head read: "Celestial Servant Lin Hao".
"Why is it you?" Danika asked.
Lin Hao turned to her and huffed, "What kind of question is that? Do you know how many questions I've answered about you today?"
Danika blinked at him and answered hesitantly, "Aren't there hundreds of technical support people? It's not even just one department, because the emails said you're in the seventh department right? Why have you been answering questions about me?"
"Oh." Lin Hao replied uninformatively. "You remember that much detail?"
"I have a fairly good memory…" Danika told him.
"Ah, well, the questions were because you actually went and applied. And I'm here now because I have a flag set to direct all bug reports related to your account to me," Lin Hao finally explained.
Danika wanted to ask if he thought her application had any chance of being accepted, but protested instead, "But I'm not involved in this bug, and why do you have me flagged?"
"But you're here so the system marked you as related to the bug, and I flagged you because you keep submitting issues that never come up in our pre-release tests. Also I thought the great luck I gave you might wind up causing unforeseen difficulties, but it really looks like it's working well so far," Lin Hao replied cheerfully.
Danika thought that sounded like he was using her as his guinea pig, but she waved her little clawed hand at Kit Tay and the traveling merchant, and explained, "The problem now is that Kit Tay can't buy anything because she married the merchant."
Lin Hao turned to Kit and said reassuringly, "Don't worry, just give me a bit to examine the logs."
Kit replied shyly, "Ok."
The traveling merchant hefted his pack and said, "I should not idle around here, I'll see you again soon Kit, my love. Luck in your adventures ZipZing."
Danika hurriedly asked Lin Hao, "Is it ok if he leaves?"
Lin Hao didn't even look up from his screens, he just casually waved a hand and said, "Sure, when I'm working I can summon him any time."
Danika wondered what kind of character Lin Hao played when he wasn't working, and if there were any in-game employee bonuses. Kit waited silently with a worried face, so Danika felt like she shouldn't be talking about random things either, but after a bit she felt pretty bored. Finally she asked Kit, "How much did the book cost you? It seems like it could be very useful."
Kit glanced at Lin Hao worriedly, and then whispered, "It was 2000 coin, but The Traveling Merchant said that there was a discount while in the beginner's vale, and also a discount for…" She hesitated and blushed again, and added shyly, "He said he gave me a discount because he liked me."
"Ah," Danika said understandingly. "I was told the pouch I bought there is more expensive if you buy it later too. But it might be worth it even if it's several times more expensive. Coin seems to be a lot easier to get outside of the vale as well."
Lin Hao turned to them and Kit flinched, Danika and Lin Hao both glanced at her and then Lin Hao commented with amusement, "That must have been some first kiss the merchant gave you miss Kit Tay."
Danika looked at him questioningly, and then glanced back at Kit to see that she'd turned scarlet again. Kit nodded a bit frantically and covered her face. Danika was going to tell Lin Hao not to tease her when he said, "I've just reduced a lot of his stats to a more human range."
Kit looked up and gasped. "Oh! But…" She didn't seem to be able to find the words she was looking for.
Lin Hao winked at her and said, "Don't worry, they're still high, but um," he actually blushed a little as he explained a bit obliquely, "it'll take more than a kiss now."
"Oh," Kit replied. A moment later she added, "I guess that's probably just as well…" but she didn't look entirely convinced.
Lin Hao said, "Um, well, the game is not supposed to ruin reality for you later. Sorry, I had to. Technically you should never have been able to marry the traveling merchant, otherwise he'd already have had much lower stats than I just set him to. It was only the ridiculously long time he spent as your mentor that let you raise his affection that much."
Danika raised her eyebrows questioningly.
Kit said a bit stiffly, "I'm already well aware that real life is nothing like that, but isn't this a fantasy game?"
Lin Hao shrugged and changed the subject, "Regarding the actual bug you reported, I can't fix it, it might break the game. But I could create an identical NPC, and you could end the marriage with the traveling merchant and marry that one instead. Then you'd be able to interact with the merchant normally."
"No!" Kit exclaimed with horror. More quietly she declared, "I won't marry anyone else!"
Lin Hao frowned and asked, "Why not? He'd be exactly the same except he wouldn't be tied to the market and quest systems."
"No!" Kit protested again. She started to cry again, and Lin Hao looked horrified.
Danika intervened and asked, "Can't she just stay married to him?"
Lin Hao shrugged helplessly and said, "Well, I guess technically she can, but she won't be able to buy anything from him as long as she maintains it, because the relationship interactions override the default functions, and that's a system wide rule, it's true for all NPCs across the game."
Danika hesitantly flew close enough to pat Kit's shoulder and the girl jumped. "Sorry," Danika said quickly.
Kit sniffled hard and tried to explain through her tears (which Danika noted were prettier and not as snotty as real tears), "He's different from other NPCs, I know it sounds silly, but he really seems more like a person!"
"Yeah," Danika agreed promptly. Kit looked up at her with surprise and Danika smiled and said, "I've noticed that too, that he's got more humor and he seems more complex, although all of the NPCs in this game are better than average."