The NPC Tires Of This Game

Entrant for the June 2026 Community Magazine Competition  New chapters are released as often as I can, but I promise nothing. I'll try to get one chapter a week, but I really just cannot say for sure right now. Heliopolis Online is a vast Full-Sense VRMMORPG that allows players to explore, hunt, craft, build friendships, and become a hero or villain in a world of magic and mystery that engages all five senses. It is one of dozens of video games like it and is considered by many in the industry to be a mid-tier game at best, with questionable balancing and a derivative world, but with brilliant NPC and enemy AI design. Despite that, it has a very dedicated fan base.  The final expansion for the game has just released to a lukewarm critical reception, and while most players are enjoying it to the fullest, they are counting down the days until the servers are inevitably put to rest. For Avis Starr, this is a big problem. A very, very big problem. Despite what others in-game think of her, she isn't a player. She's an NPC. An NPC who gained self-awareness during the most recent patch. Free from her role as a starting town NPC, a satyr girl who exists to speak a single line of dialogue repeated ad infinitum, she finally gets the chance to see the world she is a part of, no longer bound to a small patch of grass by a gate. And now she's learned that it's doomed. Follow Avis as she explores her world, learns to adventure alongside players, and tries to figure out some way to save her game before her code is lost to the void of abandonware hell. WHAT TO EXPECT Light LitRPG and Gamelit Elements Lots of Monster Fighting No Harem Setting inspired by a mix of mythology and steampunk. (FULL DISCLOSURE: I've never written gamelit or litrpg before in my life, so sorry if it all seems very rough and nonsensical at times.)