The nobleman sat at the head of a comically long table, gorging himself on the carcass of some type of small roasted bird. The table was flanked by servants waiting for their master’s command.

  Zed stood just a foot to the left of the glutton, the target of so much thought and effort on his part today. The nearby servants would certainly have taken issue with this had they been able to see him.

  Only about fifteen minutes of simulation time had passed since his encounter with the nobleman at the gate, but for Zed, it had been several hours.

  Zed had discovered the real fun of this game, if that’s what you wanted to call it. For the last few hours, he had been setting into motion a series of events that would lead to one final moment of justice. At least, that was the hope.

  As it turned out, it was rather difficult playing God.

  Zed had learned how to not only change his scale and appearance, but he could now turn invisible and still interact with the world like a mischievous ghost. This was particularly useful when it came to distracting superstitious peasants.

  “Whelp, time for the opening salvo,” Zed said, knowing full well that no one would be able to hear him.

  He made a now well-practiced gesture and paused time just as the nobleman was ready to eat a large spoonful of some kind of pudding.

  Zed summoned a container from his inventory and carefully dumped its contents onto the spoon as it made its way into the nobleman’s open maw. Time ramped back to normal, and the newly added pudding garnish began to squirm as it passed yellowing teeth.

  The spoon was sucked clean with an uncomfortable squelch. Zed watched with satisfaction as the man’s face slowly changed from one of bored consumption to confused horror.

  He stood up so quickly that the heavy high-backed chair he was sitting in tipped over as he spat into his napkin. The drooling nobleman held up the soiled cloth to his face in disbelief as the handful of maggots he had not chewed squirmed in protest.

  It felt all the more poetic to Zed that he had collected those maggots from the very same dung pile the man had earlier threatened him with.

  This was just the start, Zed thought. Round two should be kicking off any second now.

  As if on cue, one of the servants burst into the dining hall, his face red with exertion. He paused a moment to catch his breath.

  The nobleman was so fixated on the napkin that he didn’t seem to notice. The servant had to call out multiple times to get his attention.

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  “My lord. MY LORD!”

  The nobleman finally turned, as if waking from a trance.

  “My lord, the gold. It’s gone.”

  That was enough to bring him fully back to himself.

  “What do you mean? What gold? Gone where?” the nobleman bellowed.

  “Your gold, sir. I was doing my routine accounting when I turned for just a moment—just a moment now, I swear it—and when I turned back, it had…” the poor servant trailed off as if unwilling to believe his own story.

  “It had what? Spit it out, you worthless fool!”

  “It had vanished, my lord! Gone! In an instant, as if it had never been.”

  Before his lordship could reply, another servant burst in, even more red-faced than the first.

  “My…” He put his hands on his knees to catch his breath before continuing.

  Zed could see the nobleman’s veins beginning to bulge as he clenched his jaw in exasperation at a situation spiraling into chaos before him.

  “My lord, the village.”

  “Yes, yes, spit it out, man. Has it vanished too?”

  The second servant looked taken aback.

  “Uh, no, my lord. It’s the streets. Someone has scattered golden coins and dishes right down the main street. It’s chaos, my lord. The townsfolk are snatching them up in a mad frenzy and celebrating. They think it’s a gift from heaven.”

  Zed didn’t know who had created the character rigs for this particular simulation, but the subtle facial animations were stunning. He could see so many shades of rage and confusion washing over the nobleman’s face that he was afraid it might crash the program.

  Without another word, the nobleman stalked out of the dining hall, shouting something Zed couldn’t quite make out as he left.

  “Now that was satisfying,” Zed said.

  With a few button presses, he drifted like a ghost through the castle walls and gained speed as he flew toward the village.

  The servant certainly hadn’t been wrong. It was chaos but felt more like a party. When Zed had emptied the nobleman’s coffers and sprinkled them down the main street, time had been paused, so he hadn’t gotten to enjoy the moment of discovery.

  With the joyous shouts echoing from alleys and houses, it sounded like every single villager had won the lottery, which was more or less true.

  Satisfied, Zed was about to log out when he heard a thunder of hooves coming from behind him, followed by screams. He turned just in time to see the nobleman on horseback riding into town, flanked by his knights.

  Without hesitation, they began to cut down everyone in sight who was holding any gold, which by now was everyone.

  Zed stood frozen in shock. This wasn’t what was supposed to happen. In that moment, he imagined that his own face was going through the same waves of shock and anger that he had observed in the nobleman.

  He was about to make himself solid and find out if you could kill in this sim when everything froze. The simulation had paused, and it took Zed a moment to realize why.

  He had just received a message from his mother.

  Where are you, Zed Marsh? It is well past your curfew, and I am not in a gracious mood. Get home NOW.

  “Craaaaap,” Zed moaned, closing down the simulation and coming back to reality.

  The hangar was empty. It really was late. He’d completely lost track of time. Normally, it wouldn’t have even mattered. His parents were rarely home before he went to bed anyway. Of all the nights, this had to be the one time they actually came home at a decent hour.

  Zed sighed. There was no use in delaying the inevitable.