A/N: It's been a while... but I'm back!

When Shugo Kunisaki logged into The World the next day, he was very surprised to receive an email from a system administrator.

You have been chosen to take part in a trial version of a new feature. Please go to the specified location.

Strange, he thought. I didn't think they chose regular users to beta.

Shugo gated into the area with a grin on his face. I must be pretty special for the admins to want me!

"Shugo!" he heard his sister shout. She waved him over. "I'm so excited! I wonder what we'll be doing?"

"I hope we get rare items!" Mireille chimed in.

"I'll bet they're releasing powerful new monsters!" Ouka smirked.

Hotaru was about to add her own rumination when the group was interrupted by the gating in of a very flustered Reki.

"Did you call us here?" Mireille asked.

"Yes…" he huffed, annoyed. "Balmung-san or someone else was supposed to give you instructions, but they made me do it at the last minute." He paused to stare around, irritated.

"Are you gonna tell us what we're doing?" Shugo inquired.

"Ah, yes, right. CC Corp has had some… problems recently and are short on staff. Therefore we don't have any betas available for the testing of a new feature we've developed. Balmung-san had previously suggested that we incorporate some kind of sport or real-world activity into the game… despite remarks about how The World is supposed to be a surreal place not resembling the real world, the higher-ups approved of the concept. What our programmers managed to create so far are fields for soccer and golf, and courts for tennis. If all goes well and the features are a hit, we may add in other activities. We've requested that your party test out the features as… we trust you. Especially after that incident…" Reki opened his tome and various sports equipment appeared around the group. "Please report any bugs to us as soon as possible… and we would appreciate overall feedback at the end. Thank you for your cooperation." He twitched at the last line, and gated out.

"Ooh! Items that don't exist in the game yet, how rare!" Mireille crowed as she ran to admire the various rackets and clubs.

"This seems interesting. Shugo, I challenge you to a one-on-one match!" Ouka cried, grabbing Shugo by the arm.

Rena sighed at the three while Hotaru happily looked on the action that was occurring, her Grunty dozing on her head.

Somewhere at the far side of the area, a rip – a warp hole to another part of The World – appeared in the graphic appeared for a split second.

"Reki, could you type up this report for me?" Balmung grinned as his assistant entered the system administration headquarters.

The Wavemaster sighed. "Yes, Balmung-san." He shook his head at his boss as the Blademaster gated out to… goof off. Great. Why does everyone seem to pile on more and more work for me? I should be paid overtime for this!

Behind him, a warp hole appeared. It disappeared in less than a thousandth of a second. Reki turned to look at it, spotting nothing.

"C'mon Shugo, is that the best you've got?" Ouka laughed. Shugo lay face down on the ground in front of her. "Urgh…" he groaned as he stood up, wobbling, his face imprinted with the pattern similar to that of a soccer ball. One of his front teeth became dislocated and fell into the dirt, turning gray and disappearing. "I can't believe I have to use a healing potion for soccer!"

Mireille and Hotaru were playing Rena in a game of tennis. Rena was surprisingly good at it. She served an ace and watched it sail right by Hotaru and bounce out of the court. Hotaru blinked, not knowing what happened. Rena then served again, this time to Mireille. Mireille excitedly ran up to the ball and prepared to hit it. A ripping sound was heard and Hotaru turned to see her teammate stare bewilderedly at her now broken tennis racket.

"Aw, darn! And I was gonna hit that back!" Mireille pouted.

"Oh well. Guess we'll have to send an error report…" Rena sighed.

Saki Shibayama lit a cigarette just as a knock was heard at her door. "Hmm… this wouldn't work either…" she muttered to herself.

The door swung open. "Did I say you could enter?" she snapped.

"That doesn't matter. You wouldn't have let me in anyway, so I just invited myself in. Sometimes I forget to not knock when it comes to your door." Balmung winked.

Shibayama sighed.

"You know smoking is not permitted in this building."

"Be quiet."

Balmung chuckled. "Any luck?"

She was suddenly serious. "No. It's strange; the higher-ups have scanned the entirety of The World, and the program has not been found. However, we know it's out there."

"Hm. I don't think it's caused any problems yet…"

"No, but when it does it might be too late."

"That's true. I'll keep looking from within."

Shibayama laughed. "The Descendant of Fianna… you will protect this world at all costs, even if it means your life."

A gentle knock interrupted their talk. "Who is it?" asked the leader of the Cobalt Knights.

"I-it's me, Shibayama-san. I brought you some coffee."

"Ah, thank you Asako. Just leave it on the table there. I hope the reports are going well?"

"Yes they are, ma'am. I've almost finished them. Is there anything else that needs to be taken care of?"

"Not at the moment. Please rest up, we may need more manpower once we have more information on that virus."

"Yes, ma'am. S-sorry for interrupting," Asako bowed and left.

Balmung watched the girl leave. "Any ideas about that? I've been burying Reki in work so he won't be suspicious of us."

Shibayama grinned.

Inside the administration room of The World, Reki sneezed. "Geez, I bet Balmung-san is spreading rumours about me again…" He paused as an email appeared above his head:

Those who consciously avoid trouble will meet disaster.

Fujio's hand froze on the controller. How eerie. Is someone watching me?

Reki glanced around nervously. Deciding that he could work when there were others present in the room, he gated out to run some errands.

A warp hole momentarily appeared where he previously sat.

"I've never golfed before!" Hotaru cried as her golf ball rolled behind Ouka. "That's alright, me neither!" replied the werewolf, who attempted to kick the little ball toward the hole. Mireille used a charm that caused her hit to become twice as powerful. "I'm gonna win!" she cried as she slammed the head of her club into the ball. The ball soared high into the air and at that precise moment, a warp hole appeared and the ball passed through it and disappeared. "No! What happened?" Mireille sobbed.

Reki exited a shop and looked around. His next destination was across the river. As he neared the edge, he looked around three times before going up the bridge, making sure no rowdy children were throwing things they shouldn't be.

Safely on the other side, he breathed a sigh of relief. At that moment, a warp hole appeared in front of him and out flew the golf ball, smashing his face and pushing him into the river.

Fujio grimaced. Mental note: Stay away from Mac Anu in general.

Scrambling out of the water, he quickly finished his errands in the Delta-server root town and gated to Carmina Gadelica.

A/N: This is coming along slowly...