Both men looked at her in surprise. After a moment Devon Yu admitted, "Well, I did think of having them acc.u.mulate lives in the beginning, but it seemed like it would clog the system with useless information, so we left it out like dust acc.u.mulation and shedding and such."

He glanced at Lin Hao, who nodded and said, "It really would if every NPC did that. There are a few special NPCs who do, like the Mortal G.o.ddess of Memory and the King of Cats."

Danika argued, "It's not like you'd want them to remember everything, just a few happy moments right? Compared to how much they seem to acc.u.mulate while they're alive that sounds like practically nothing?"

Lin Hao shook his head at her, and then paused while their food was delivered. After everything was settled again he said, "I told you the merchant is special, most NPCs don't log anything unless there's a player nearby or it's part of a quest chain."

Danika asked curiously, "Is the snow leopard mountain guardian constantly stuck in quest mode then? She sounded like she could remember every day since the beta started."

Lin Hao gazed at her with a baffled expression. "I have no idea which NPC you're talking about, but how could you even discover that?"

Danika suddenly realized that she'd trapped herself very effectively, because if she explained, she'd have to admit that she'd never filed a bug report about it. She hurriedly took a bite of the dish she'd ordered. It was delicious, but her mind was too tumultuous to enjoy it.

Devon Yu suggested, "The guardian of the Western Vault?"

Danika shrugged. Then she remembered that he might not have been able to see it and replied, "I don't know what she's guarding, but she said she's tasked to keep players away from it." She added without thinking, "Only she doesn't know the word player, she calls us visitors."

"Oops," Devon Yu murmured with sudden amus.e.m.e.nt.

"Somebody's library didn't get updated," Lin Hao muttered. And then he sat up and asked, "She remembers every day? Why? She should be dormant most of the time? Maybe it's not the same NPC." He shook his head.

Danika guiltily reported everything she'd been able to learn, but neither man seemed interested in the fact that she hadn't reported anything about the NPC through the system. They both also seemed completely distracted from the topic of reincarnation, and the rest of their dinner pa.s.sed cheerfully as they tossed ideas back and forth about how the guardian had acquired a cub that didn't match her back story, and why she was apparently operating in fully active mode all the time.

Lin Hao laughed at one point and asked her teasingly, "If a tree falls in the forest and no one's there to hear it, does it make a sound?"

Danika eyed him warily and replied, since you're asking that, "I'm guessing that either it doesn't or the answer is something I can't think of?"

Devon Yu chuckled approvingly and commented, "Smart girl."

Lin Hao pouted and then explained, "It depends on if the sound would affect a creature within the likely interaction radius of a player."

They were all nibbling slowly at the small dessert at the end of the meal when Devon Yu told Danika, "For the week of your training I want you to think about a way to introduce a realistic but not too data heavy method of worldwide NPC reincarnation into the game. Preferably so it seems as though it had always been there when people discover it."

Danika snuck a look at Lin Hao, who abruptly looked away from her and seemed to take great interest in the decorations on the walls.

Devon Yu clarified, "You don't have to worry about the details of how it's actually implemented, just work up a workable theory."

"That sounds like it might take a lot of time?" Danika finally replied hesitantly. "Wouldn't that make a better basis for the cataclysmic mountain crus.h.i.+ng than introducing Arabian fairy tales?"

Lin Hao snickered.

Devon Yu asked mildly, "Oh, why would that be?"

"You know, like the twin G.o.ddesses of memory get mad that only players can reincarnate and rain wrath upon the world until the Jade Emperor grants all people partial immortality?" Danika said a little desperately.

"Not bad, not bad," Devon Yu complimented. "But then how do you work in the expansion?"

Danika scrambled for an idea, and then just went with the results of such an event and suggested, "If the pet.i.tion to keep complex devices and magics possible pa.s.ses, then just have the material of the mountains spread out magically large into a new desert, with uh, low magic capacity because it's been emptied, and uh," she ground to a halt.

"And then the cities built there will require more mechanical devices to survive and a confined area of 'technology' will be created within the game, giving a new home to those who wish to craft such, and lowering their numbers elsewhere," Devon Yu finished smoothly.

"You'd already considered it," Danika replied with a faint sense of disappointment. It was a fairly logical sort of idea after all, which was how she'd scrounged it up on short notice.

Lin Hao suggested, "And then as an apology to the genies caught up in the damage, their G.o.ddess can grant them a new racial skill. Since honestly fire starting which is available in almost every path shouldn't have been using up a racial skill slot, and their dervish mode is just another quick travel."

"I think she'll do well enough," Devon Yu told Lin Hao seriously, "you don't have to help her out that much."

"You're going to suggest it to your department on Monday aren't you?" Lin Hao replied with a smirk.

"Next Monday," Devon Yu agreed blithely. "After all, my new apprentice has a lot to learn about the world before she can start offering sufficiently detailed storylines."

"n.o.body says apprentice anymore," Lin Hao objected.

"Celestial servants of the sixth cla.s.s do," Devon Yu replied smugly. "You mere seventh cla.s.s servants just don't appreciate the art of language."

"I live and breathe the art of language!" Lin Hao argued heatedly.

"Pfft," Devon Yu laughed. "You had to build your own so that you could understand it!"

Danika gazed at them with conflictingly amused, fascinated, and somewhat terrified feelings. They really acted like they were going to write her wild idea into the game like it was all just another game. And it sounded like maybe Devon Yu really was going to be her immediate supervisor.