0ㅤ NARRATOR’S VIEW-POINT PERSPECTIVE

Look, it's not often that a narrator goes out of their way to kidnap a human.

First of all, we simply don't have the time. We're too busy writing in between the lines. Secondly, it's simply much too big of an honor. Imagine your teacher picking favorites.

Would that be fair?

Right. Honestly, the human should be grateful that I, out of all people, chose to kidnap it. Did it even know how much of an honor it was to be chosen by a first-rate narrator? Instead, what did I get? An ungrateful response:

"You think it's okay to play with human lives like this?" 

The tied-up human looked at me. Its eyes were angry. So angry. 

"Well, yes," I answered, feeding it some dog kibble, which it fiercely spat out. "I'm supposed to."

"All you do is play with other people's lives."

"I guess," I thought for a second before speaking again, "I mean, what are narrators good for?" 

"You-"

"Shouldn't say the next word." I pointed, causing the human to spin around. Its eyes widened as it saw its thoughts being spelled out before it even said them, words, dialogues, and possibilities, floating like props in the air, like a story yet to be written. "Think about our age rating."

Shadows clung to the corners, only barely held at bay by the soft, pulsating glow of fluorescent lights that seemed to hover without source. Above us, the vast expanse of the ceiling was lost to darkness, but if you looked closely, you could see lines of text gently cascading down, like rain in slow motion. 

Nearby, the letters "S-E-T-T-I-N-G" glowed intermittently, and below us, was the abyss, a physical manifestation of a narrator's worst nightmare:

Writer's block. 

"What are we good for?" I repeated, "Telling stories, of course. But anyway, I have more interesting plans for you." 

I took out my phone and showed it a website. 

NPC.com - []

—A site that most humans didn't have access to. 

Even then, it had a couple of million visitors per month.

"Welcome to NPC.com," the site proclaimed, "the ultimate destination for everything about 'Non-Playable Characters'—NPCs, for short. Fueled by our sponsors' passion for entertainment, we've created fun games for all your favorite characters!"

The website itself was similar to video-streaming platforms, but adopted a conventional forum structure. All you had to do was navigate to the latest webpage and you would see the newest posts.

Scrolling through, I found tons of fan-cams of the human. It was like I kidnapped a celebrity, or something. 

"W-what's this?" The human blinked, its tone shaking. "N-no. It… can't be."

"Woah, you're actually really popular." I whistled, impressed. 

The human did not look happy about that. It bared its teeth and tried to bite my fingers. Instead, its nose 'booped' on my phone screen, accidentally clicking a post: 

"Home > Latest > Do not trust the g@me… 

- Posted by deleted_user114472283

Notice: This post has been auto-flagged for using black-listed words/phrases. Views and comments have been limited.

Ever wondered what it's actually trying to do?" 

One question. One line. You'd think that it wouldn't be a big deal, right? But the comments spelled a different story: 

"Comments:

| The first commenter: It's… It's… trying to make profit off us and collect our data, duh!1!1

| The second commenter: Oh great, another conspiracy theorist. Is our captcha working?? 

| The third: Back in my day, we had smart people. Then, everything changed when some nation attacked. Only the moderator, master of… 

└ A reply: You're a moderator. 

└ Error: This moderator is currently offline, please try again later."

We continued to scroll down. Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed one of the comments was getting way more of the heat than any others.

"New users suck," I read, squinting.

The human and I looked at each other. 

"The registration process should be stricter so that we don't have to see the same questions over and over. I can't believe we have to deal with new ascensions…" 

"└ A reply: Hey, what's wrong with newcomers?

└ The response: The fact that they're new. Isn't it obvious? 

└ Shut up. At least we actually earned our place here."

"They're really fighting each other down here," I remarked, watching the comments flood in. 

The human nodded earnestly. 

I looked at the human, who looked back at me. 

"What are you doing?" It asked, watching me click on a profile icon. 

"Opening another account," I said. "Now shush." 

"Come on guys…" I muttered, typing on the other account, "Just because some newcomers are slow doesn't mean they don't go on to do great things. Yesterday, I saw one pick up after itself after leaving a dookie on the sidewalk." 

In the comments, multiple users started "typing…" 

Beside me, the human barked for attention again. I closed my phone. 

"Hm…" I murmured, picking up the human with one hand. 

It responded with a growl. 

"Tell me what this is about." The human demanded.

"I-I can't give you spoilers." I said. "That's in bad faith. Especially since you were supposed to hold such an important role."

"Supposed to?"

"Didn't I tell you?" I said, nodding, referring to 'Chapter -1'. "I'm allowing you to go on vacation. We'll find a substitute." 

"Does this mean…" Its face contorted hopefully. "I won't have to face the same problems I've had before?"

No," I answered, a bit sheepishly. "Think of it this way: You won't have a narrator following you around, but you'll start in the same place, with the same problems. On the bright side, since you're so experienced, how about starting with no help this time? You don't really need it, do you?"

"You-" The human cursed, muttering about how it wasn't a "bright-side."

I turned around, pretending not to hear it.

"The others won't know why I'm gone. They'll think it's a mistake." I told it. "Make sure to keep it that way."

With that foreboding warning, I kicked the human off into the abyss. 

"I'll miss you," I said sadly.

Now how should I start the next chapter of this story? Maybe this time with an ordinary boy. 

"His name was…"