A strange countdown appeared in the middle of her vision, starting from thirty, as she looked around in her new, ghostly body.

"Okay, this is kinda cool and all, but there's no way he's letting me live that one down," Mikan muttered, looking back at the guide, who wasn't having much difficulty avoiding the swarm of slime. In fact, now that she took a better look... "Hey, they're not even going after him! No fair!" Then, seconds later, she chuckled. "Well, of course not. They're good boys and girls. ...Good its. Yeah, that."

Huh. You're dead.

Mikan perked as the countdown reached fifteen, her focus drawn to a voice familiar only to her. "Huh? Is... is that..."

Yes. It is I, your lovely leader. Why the hell are you already dead?

"Oh, give me a break, how could I not?" the girl yelled. "That slime was way too adorable not to pet, you know it!"

Yes, but just like you don't pet a cat until it's pissed off, you do not pet a slime that sizzles your hand until you blow up.

Mikan frowned. "Well, excuse me, but I... wait, blow up?" The girl glanced back at the ground, where, right besides Andrew was a gravestone and... splatters of blood and chunks of what she assumed to be her limbs. "Oh. Oh... oh, God, that's... that's gross, I think I'm going to-"

Don't kid yourself, ghosts don't throw up.

"Sheesh, you are being a bitch for a family head," the girl muttered. "Oh, speaking of which, why don't I hear your narration?"

So that you're almost on your own.

"What a bitch," Mikan remarked. Suddenly, she realized that she had just been revived with her body intact, and Andrew was looking at her from the same level of height again.

Andrew blinked. "Oh, you're back."

"Oh, I'm back." Mikan whipped her head to see the blob fest hopping away in the distant, probably having lost interest. "Huh. Revival... neat."

"Yet another benefit for those dubbed 'players'," Andrew said with a nod. "Now then... I'd recommend finishing a house to take shelter in, first."

Mikan tilted her head. "Uh, why?"

The man simply stepped aside and glanced at the mob of slime far away, all who were, for some reason, slowly getting bigger... no, they were getting closer, making a deadly return.

"What!?" the girl shrieked. "Why're they coming back!? And so soon!"

"Monsters are attracted to foreign lifeforms," Andrew explained. "Naturally, this means 'players' from the outside world."

This was unbelievable! As tempting as it was to play with slime again, she didn't think she want to endure the burning sensation and have her body blow up again. That wasn't a pleasant experience, no sir. "...wait, when I was a ghost, they didn't go for you at all."

"I'm a part of this world."

"Hacks! I call hacks!" Mikan yelled. The nearest slime grew bigger in her vision, bringing her attention back to them. "Oh my god, oh my god, nope. Not dealing with them again," she muttered and pulled out some blocks of wood. "Andy! I just put them down somewhere, right?"

The guide nodded, sparing her any distracting explanation or correction, so she can focus on her architect skills.

One by one, the quantity of her gathered wood blocks decreased as she placed several into a huge, stable tower of, say, four blocks. "One leg done, three more to go." Mikan then glanced at the approaching mob of slime. "And maybe ten seconds before I die again, oh shit."

"You could get on top of the wooden totem pole right now to avoid them temporarily," Andrew suggested.

"Yeah, no, I know that," the girl replied and climbed up her small, unfinished structure. "I've played these kind of stuff before, I know how to utilize this feature." Standing atop of her wooden structure, she began jumping and stacking more blocks onto her 'house', until it became a stack of ten blocks. "And that's ten. Perfect, isn't it?"

"...I shall refrain from boosting your ego with compliments for something so simple," the man said.

"Wow, that attitude is just uncalled for."

Chuckling, the man faced the uninterested slime mob and pulled out a bow. "Well then, I suppose it's time I begin fending off these slime."

Mikan frowned. "Wait, you can fend for yourself?" she asked. Met with a raised eyebrow, the girl cleared her throat. "I mean, you know... they're not targeting you, you weren't helping me, and... you know."

"Contrary, Ms. Mikan. I'd be troubled if the player bestowed unto the world couldn't get some peace because of these monsters," Andrew explained.

"Huh. Sounds... reasonable enough, I guess." Glancing around, she tilted her head and put a block of wood to the side of the top of her wooden stack, wondering if it would fall down due to, well, physics. Instead, it stuck to the structure and allowed her to now move to the right, high above the hopping slime mob. "Okay, I guess I was kinda expecting it, but I'm still surprised. Physics really do have no place in world building games."

"Oh, you'd be surprised at all the privileges that come with being a player in our world," Andrew said, shooting off some arrows at some slime.

"Player privilege?" Mikan asked. "What, so, lack of physics only come for me?"

The guide nodded. "Precisely. If I were to try some construction work myself, I'd have to put in serious effort to get it working properly."

"So basically... everyone is useless except me when it comes to building?"

"...I'd put it in a nicer way, but I suppose so."

Hm. Neat. Finding herself smiling slightly, the girl then shook her head and put a temporary lid to her rising ego. "Oh well. Time to continue building my royal palace," she said and resumed sticking wooden blocks to her structure. Within seconds, there was now a floating square ring of wooden blocks, kept up by only one single wooden structure at one corner. It was truly a sight to behold, one that would make someone call out physics for its bullshittery, but as Andrew had pointed out, such was the perks of a 'player'.

"I sense an oddly reasonable hint of spite in that comment," the guide remarked regarding the mysterious voice he keeps hearing narrating everything.

"What comment?" Mikan asked.

"Never you mind, don't get distracted from your task at hand."

"Alrighty, Andy." The girl got back to her work, ignoring the cries (blub blubs?) of slime being slain by Andrew's terrifying arrows. Hesitant on going back to the ground, the girl tried stacking her wooden blocks downwards while remaining on her safe space, but she was only able to reach as far down as three or four blocks before empty air became out of her hand's reach. "Uh oh, can't reach unless I get down now... mind doing this a bit faster?" she asked her acquaintance.

Andrew shrugged. "My arrows aren't that powerful, so, I'm afraid you'll have to either be patient or be brave."

"Rats. That sucks." Mikan sighed and settled down on her physics-defying wooden structure, glancing up at the sky. "Patience it is, young Jedi."

Shooting some more slime to death, Andrew tilted his head slightly. "Hm. If you wish for a jade-colored die, I believe someone somewhere out there sells dices, and you might be able to find a jade-color dye as well."

"What the hell are you talking about?" Mikan asked, as confused as him since there was no way anyone would get that joke and/or reference.

"I assumed you were talking about jade-colored dice, weren't you?"

"...sometimes I think being sent to another world destroys all the fun of stupid jokes," the girl mumbled.

Andrew shrugged, before resuming his monster hunting. Then, a thought struck his mind. "Ms. Mikan, I just recalled something. I believe players have the power to, again defying the laws of reality, construct from a distance and not requiring physical contact to place blocks."

"Uh..." The girl blinked. "Can I... can I get a dictionary?"

Sighing, the man rolled his eyes. "Try willing one of your wooden blocks to stick under the unfinished leg of the house's wooden frames."

"Much better. Alright, I'll see what that does." Mikan got up and glanced under her second, incomplete wooden structure once more. There were now less slime t hanks to her new friend's effort, but she still wasn't sure whether she'd risk falling down and exploding into blood and gore again. So, pushing a wooden block forward, she wished for it to extend her structure's leg even though her hand couldn't reach the underside anymore...

...and suddenly, the block was gone, and the structure grew downwards closer to the ground.

"Huh."

Andrew smiled. "So it was true, then. Quite amazing, isn't it, the benefits of a player status?"

Mikan then feigned a sinister chuckle. "Hell yeah, amazing it is."

"...did you have to laugh evilly?"

"Evil laughs are cool. Now..." Mikan then rubbed her hands maliciously, adding to her failing, pathetic attempts at seeming evill. "Time to finish the house's base! ...structure... framework! ...thing!" The girl then proceeded to sticking more blocks to her structure's undersides, then running around her square ring of wooden blocks, finishing off the other two structures 'holding up' the house's open ceiling.

Within few more seconds, an empty house without walls was finished and looking magnificent under the sunlight, and fortunately for her, Andrew had just finished off the last of the slime as well.

"Wow, would you look at that?" Mikan asked, standing proudly in front of her not-so-special, unfinished house. "Viva la France. ...whatever that means."

Andrew nodded. "For a first time, you've done well, Ms. Mikan," he said. "...also, I think that phrase is completely irrelevant to the moment."

"Yeah, well, I like the sound of it, so, viva la France."

"...whatever suits you, I suppose." Then, Andrew turned to her and smiled. "Next, we should get to work on building the walls."

Mikan blinked. "...I mean, sure. Just cover up everything with wooden blocks. This won't take long."

"Oh. Well, I suppose I should explain a bit more to you, then."

The girl stared. "Uh oh."

Andrew nodded. "There's still more to learn about how construction works here."

This is becoming a pain... the girl thought.