"In our world," Andrew explained, "when players build polygonal structures, a special kind of space is created."

"Yeah? What's that?" Mikan asked.

Pointing to the structure she built, with no walls, Andrew gestured her to follow him. "Us of the world refer to it as a 'safe space'." He stopped in front of one pole, gesturing at it. "Break enough of this pole, please. Make enough space for us to supposedly enter a broken wall."

Confused, the girl complied and did so. Heading inside the structure's territory, Andrew watched as the girl entered after him.

"Okay, now put the blocks back in place."

Again, she wordlessly did as told, wondering what any of that accomplished at all.

"The space between the frames are, at first glance, just empty space, but to the instincts of most monsters, it is a sudden, new part of the world that they know nothing about."

Mikan blinked. "Even if, like... they might be able to just... look inside?"

"Supposedly," the guide said and nodded. "Imagine it as, let's see... how about we say that in their vision, everything inside the structure is highlighted as completely black space?" he suggested.

"Okay... so are houses basically a fully immune defense to monsters?" Mikan asked. "That doesn't sound right, but it sure sounds helpful."

"Not entirely," Andrew said. "The main obstacle for monsters' instincts is vision, as I've explained. When a safe space is first built, it is completely blocked in their eyes, and not only can they not just hop through, a sort of monster-only barrier prevents them from making what they assume would be a mistake of jumping inside empty space." He went to a wall and gestured at it. "However, once you add proper walls and a door... their eyes will gain special permission to peer into the room."

The girl raised an eyebrow. "A door... lets them get inside?" she asked. "Sounds pretty useless then. What if I just don't add walls and don't add doors?"

"The law of the world does not allow that, unfortunately," Andrew replied. "Perhaps in the eyes of a player, they are granted an ability to see through the safe space, so you may see that there's nothing in between you and the outside." He put a hand to the empty barrier, however, and showcased how his hands seemed to actually be pressed up against a surface. "For those who were naturally a part of this world, however, we see the same as monsters. The outside as of right now is a complete mystery to me, pitch darkness, an inescapable abyss of nothingness."

...that sounded like some deep shit, Mikan thought. "Okay, so you can't go through this... space. What if I can?" she asked. "Player benefits, am I right?" Making her move to simply walk out the structure she built, the girl found herself crashing into... air? She hissed and clutched her head in pain. "Son of a bitch!"

"The world won't grant you every free ticket through hardships," Andrew said. "That's why I'm afraid you can't as well, unless you break one of the poles holding up this house first."

"Walking through air shouldn't be a hardship that needs a ticket..." the girl groaned. "Now I know how it feels to walk into a pole when you're distracted on the street..."

"Now that that's all cleared up..." Andrew tried to look outside the safe space, but to no avail. He assumed, however, that there were probably slime surrounding the house everywhere. "While we're still in here, let's try building walls now."

"Oh, uh, sure. I guess." Mikan took out her blocks of wood and stared at it in her hand. "...wait, so if I'm getting this right, you stopped me because we can't put blocks between two poles?"

"No, you can," Andrew said. "It's just that if you build a wall parallel to another wall, they'll all form lines of barriers across the room, and you might not be able to move after trapping yourself like that," he said.

Mikan frowned. "Alright, so... crafting, then?" she asked. "Not sure how I'll go about that though."

The guide rubbed his chin. "Well, let's see... if you have ten blocks of wood, you can craft a workbench," he said. "And then you can craft on those to build lots of other things... what say we give it a try?" he asked.

"Uh, sure. Crafting, huh?" The girl separated ten blocks of wood from her total and put the rest back in her holographic inventory screen. She then looked at the blocks in her head. "...wait, so how do we craft here?"

Oh, boy, Andrew thought. "So, um, from what I've heard, when you will your inventory screen to you, there should be options somewhere in your vision to let you choose what item you want to craft."

"Oh, right. That makes sense, I guess." The girl opened her inventory screen again and her pupil darted around, trying to locate the- "Found it! Boogly boo, I am good at this."

Debatable, the blonde NPC thought.

"Let's see... Rope Coils, Wooden Platforms... Wooden Bench. This, huh?" She tapped on the option to see what was required. "Ten wooden blocks... alright, so I'll build this, I guess?" Tapping the option again, suddenly, ten of her wooden blocks disappeared from her inventory and a small, miniature figure of a workbench appeared in her hand. "...uh, Andy? This... this isn't it, buddy. Like... this isn't it."

Andrew chuckled. "For convenience, items carried by players are mostly converted to small sizes, for carrying and for storage purposes. Once you place it, it'll revert to its proper size."

"..yeah, that makes sense," she said and placed the figure on the ground. It then gradually grew in size into a regular... workbench. This looks like a kiddy table, Mikan thought. "Okay, and then... after this, what's next?"

"Well, now you must..." Andrew paused, a thought occurring to him. "...before that, Ms. Mikan. Have you noticed another option in your vision, when you open your inventory?"

Mikan blinked, then opened her storage space and looked around. "Uh... yeah."

"I believe there should be an ability to tamper with the world somehow... and there should also be a sort of, if I'm remembering this correctly, research and duplication tool in there," Andrew said.

"...really?" Sure enough, there was something about researching items for the purpose of duplication, and it seemed like she could put anything into a slot for 'research'. "Seems like hacks to me."

"It seems like these are benefits for certain players in certain worlds," Andrew explained. "I'm not entirely too sure about the specifics of that myself. But since it seems you have these features, I daresay we should make good use of them."

"I put one block of wood here... and it says I need ninety-nine more to be able to duplicate it," Mikan noted. "Luckily, I have enough, so... whoops-a-daisies." Soon, she was able to pull out an endless amount of wooden blocks. "...y'know, I'm starting to realize how convenient this is."

Andrew smiled. "Alright. Then, let's get to building your first house."