Chapter Fifteen

Disclaimer

I don't own Mabinogi nor any NPC's connected. Either Devcat or Nexon does.

A/N

Previously, the Admin finally caught up with Jack. However, Nao saved him just in time. Now he wants to talk with them.

I waited patiently or rather impatiently for Nao to return with the admin in question. I was worried about her for I feared she would be deleted. It was a very real possibility. Even I know she was the only one that could bring the admin here but contacting him would be dangerous. An hour went by and finally she reappeared with the admin. I could not help myself but to give her a hug which she apparently appreciated.

"I was worried sick, Nao. I feared you were deleted."

"I very nearly was, Jack. Luckily, I mentioned I could take him to you in time. That is the only reason he did not delete me."

"Where am I? What is this place? This is not part of the game," inquired the Admin.

"Greetings to the Citadel of the Goddess Morrighan. I guess this was not part of the game either."

"Well there are concept drawings but yeah nothing that was officially programmed into it. At least that is what the Asian programmers who works on the system tells me."

"That in lies the problem for Jack, Sir," interjected Nao who materialized next to me, "Although Jack had already done this, I welcome you to the Citadel of the Goddess. If you follow me, kind sir, the goddess is waiting for us in the parlor. Come with us as well, Jack."

The Admin was in awe when we entered the parlor. It was just like the pictures that were 'leaked' to the internet. "Interesting I can't do anything about you, Jack, while here. My fellow programmers says deleting you while inside this Citadel is impossible. They cannot explain why but I trust them explicitly. You appear to be Jack Spider yet I have a clear-cut report saying that character been deleted about two years ago. What is even stranger is the player that created that character died six months ago. How all this is possible is a mystery unless…"

"Unless what?" I inquired.

"Unless you are a ghost or spirit of that player and you somehow made your way through the nonexistent soul stream to Erinn. Once there you were given the form of a character you deleted in haste. That is impossible."

"Nothing is impossible. The player that died name is Kevin O'Leary age 52 with sandy blonde hair and a husky body. His social security number is 555-33-54##. He lived in Birmingham Alabama in your family's ancestral home at the time. He was unemployed, had already expended all five tiers of his unemployment, and faced having his home taken away from him due to back taxes. His computer was a home built one made especially for Mabinogi playing. Ask me anything about Kevin's personal information I can tell you including his account log in details for Mabinogi and all of his pin numbers for everything else. Come on ask me."

"True but hackers had hacked their way into the game before. You cannot possibly think I can believe you are actually here. It's more likely that Hackers are controlling that player's avatar from a remote location."

"So you think I am a hacker from a remote location. If that was possible, you be able to track the source of the hack, wouldn't you? What did your trackers tell you?"

The Admin chuckled at Jack's choice or words before continuing. "The programmers whose job was to locate the source of the hack tells us there was no hack in the first place. However, we cannot believe it since it makes no real sense. Avatars do not move on their own and certain there is no ghost in our game either. It's impossible."

"Yet here I am," Jack stated, "Look, I understand your reluctance to believe this is happening so I am prepared to prove it."

The Admin looked directly at Jack, "How can you?"

"Well hackers cannot find everything about me online since I never shared any personal information. I am prepared to sit down and talk about my life history back on Earth till you do believe me."

The admin grinned, "That will not be necessary for I believe you are who you say you are. You did the impossible and crossed over into Mabinogi upon your freak death but for what reason I cannot fathom. Why did you not cross over into the higher plain of existence like the other in your position had done?"

I looked warmly at Nao, "I have unfinished business here. Any possible way we can reach an agreement as for you to let me continue playing until I am ready to cross over?"

I cannot leave just yet, not until I won her heart. Was I setting myself up for failure since she is only a program? I kept wondering that repeatedly.

The Admin knew exactly what I was thinking. "You be interested to know that this Nao is separate from the Nao Program. She became that way when she helped cross you over to Erinn through the soul stream. Since then she has the same powers as the Nao program as well as the back history. Truthfully, I do not think she can be integrated back into the parent program when you do cross over."

"What you are saying she was created just for me?"

"Essentially but of course there may be more to it than that. It's one of those things that we may have to wait and see. In the meantime, I got special permission for you to use a special title but there is a price tag to this title."

"Let me guess, ever so often I must do a special favor for you that may entail me nearly getting killed."

"Well it is to my understanding you have very unique abilities far superior than normal players. The jobs I will be handing you a normal player cannot possibly do."

"Ok I'll do it. Is that all?"

"I'll have to delete your homestead. There are just too many irregularities with it for it to remain."

Tarlach spoke up, "I see. What if we create him a homestead in this dimension and just have a link into the game for him. Will that be OK?"

"I don't know. It sounds good but we have to try it and see. Also your so called glitch hunts must come to an end."

I looked at Nao, "I can't guarantee that. I know of at least one more very huge glitch hunt in the Boal dungeon I must accomplish sooner or later … Morrighan … Tarlach … would it be possible to shift that particular Boal dungeon here into this realm temporarily?" I looked at the admin, "Would that be alright?"

Morrighan spoke first, "It will be difficult to shift that dungeon here since it's located in the other world. If it was a dungeon located in Erinn I could very easily."

The admin spoke up, "We might be able to help with that Morrighan. The engineers however will not guarantee anything though. They want to give your homestead a try first and see if how that goes. Also you have our word not to try to delete anyone until we have too."

"What about the pets you already deleted?"

"Unfortunately they are gone forever. I am sorry. However, if this works then we will give you free pet cards for any pet you so chose past or present. You might be able to recreate the pets we deleted but judging from the looks of what is around that fountain in the courtyard you might not need too," declared the admin while looking out the window to the courtyard below. "I will ask you keep the pets here and we will create a link to them so you can call them from inside the game like you normally would. In addition, you should not tell any other admin about you being dead. They may not believe you. I do for my sister is a parapsychologist. "

"Don't worry, I won't. I had a feeling about you so that is the reason I had Nao fetch only you. Did you really mean it about past or present pets?"

"Yes I did. Is there any in particular you wanted but could not get?"

"Four pets total but since you deleted six pets in total I will also take another Shire Horse as well as another Chestnut Pony. The past pets include a motor scooter, an ice dragon, a thunder dragon, and a black cloud," I stated.

"All those you listed are previous discontinued pets but I can arrange for pet cards for them. In the meantime, let's see about your new homestead. Morrighan, you mentioned you can set one up for him in this pocket universe so it will not interfere with the server."

"Yes I can. Jack, do you wish it to be just like it was or do you wish to rebuild it from the ground up?" asked Morrighan.

"I should ask for it just as it was but what fun is that. No! I think starting out fresh and rebuilding it from the ground up would be great fun," I stated.

"As you wish. However, I cannot access the databank currently for the homestead startup program. Once I can it will be simple to set up the homestead."

The admin listened and pulled out what looked like a cell phone. After talking to someone he said, "Try it now Morrighan."

I went outside to inspect my animals once more when a white own flew over my head and dropped a quest roll into me. It was the 'create a homestead' quest. "A white owl here?"

"Well I was the one that sent you the quest for this dimension so sure – a white owl would deliver the quest. Some things will never change about the game, Jack. Now go on and create the homestead," ordered Morrighan.

I did as she asked and the next thing I knew I was seeing the familiar scene of an agent showing me how to collect a homestead stone. After the scene was over, I got the pickaxe out of my inventory the quest gave me and collected 10 homestead stone. I pitched a basic tent, created a farming slot, and expanded my homestead before planting strawberries.

Nao then brought over the admin in question, "You named it 'Jack's Graceland'?"

I just smiled.

"OK let's see if I can create a link to the game server without causing any problems."

While the admin was busy with the link, Nao spoke to me, "The Goddess says since this space is not connected officially to Mabinogi she was able to make where you can call any of your pets here. You be interested to know this a flyable zone too. You see the open spaces. Eventually, your homestead will fill all this up and it will be the size of a town. Once done, you may not want to leave your homestead at all. But keep in mind to travel to Erinn and back no pets will be allowed out."

The admin had been listening what Nao had said, "She is correct about one thing. The homesteads were meant to transverse this entire region. Instead of seeing barren wasteland all you will see will be your homestead. However, most players do not put that much effort into their own homesteads."

"Why should they when they cannot do a simple thing as to call their own pets on their homesteads? We players use the inventory of our pets to supplement our own inventory lack. How many times do you see players who are doing smith work in Bangor call up different pets ever so often? It is because they store the raw materials they collected on those animals. To limit us just to our own inventory is to make the homesteads that much more unusable," I iterated irritably.

"There is a seriously good reason for that. Players been abusing the pets to let friends teleport them to different places without using the normal methods."

"Then how about forbidding them to leave or enter the homesteads when there is a pet out. It is just that simple. Even a two year old can figure that out," I said with more than a hit of sarcasm. "I am certainly glad this homestead is not on the game servers and in control of the Goddess which is allowing me the use of pets on the homestead. Can I really exit this homestead and into Erinn on the server?"

Suddenly a portal popped up. "I don't know. Why don't you try it and we will see. If it works you should be teleported to Dunbarton on the Tarlach server on channel 4."

I teleported without knowing where I will end up. I did end up in Dunbarton and it was on channel four. Suddenly, I was pm'd. I knew it was the admin.

Admin: Are in Dunbarton?

Me: Yes and on the correct channel but what server?

Admin: Head to Kristell, Another player should be there. Just tell me his name and we will know which server.

Me: Another player? I thought players were not allowed during maintenance.

Admin: sometimes like this maintenance when we have peculiar circumstances we employ other players to help during the maintenance. If this all works out, I just might have you help us out from time to time. Now head to Kristell and tell me the name of the player you find there.

I did as he requested and found Danster there.

"Hi Jack! I can explain."

"You can explain! Why did you not tell me you knew the admin all the time?"

"All the good Guild leaders know them. They approached us soon after we got our guild off the ground and going good. I was told they were going to approach you at one time. However, you disappeared for a time and so did your guild. You tried to revive it but it was no use. The Players that was still active already left your guild and the other players quit playing. They quit playing all because of you. They could not approach someone that was responsible for an entire guild worth of people suddenly quit playing Mabinogi."

Admin: Well do you have a name for me or not?

"Dan, just a moment please."

Me: You know damn well who I found near Kristell.

Admin: No! I only hoped you would find him. Now I know the portal works. Now invite Danster up to your homestead. I need to see if the portal works both ways and would allow other players up onto you homestead.

A/N

I am going to end things here with the Admin stuff. I do not really wish to go into that aspect of the game for I never truly met an admin in the game to my knowledge. I did have a huge problem once in seeing the giants correctly but another player helped me correct that by telling me to delete a certain file on my computer and let the game system update itself. It would update itself to the right file. After that I saw the giants properly again. I wonder if that player that helped me was an admin – who knows.