There's an old Chinese legend that says that everyone who will ever have an influence on each other has a red string tied to their ankles. In our world glued together by the internet, I can only imagine the world being a huge red yarn ball. Sometimes I wonder, how far do my strings stretch?

Ever since that last incident with Grant, I haven't logged into Bullet Bite. Instead, I've opted for a more peaceful game: Feed MMOre. Yes, literally read "feed more," it's a game where you start off with a farm and can build your enterprise into a food-based empire. More importantly, it's a social game, where you can only grow your business by striking deals and making partnerships with other players. After all, you can't make a burger restaurant if all you have is wheat! That's why I like it though. Even in my lonely little room it makes me feel connected.

"I wish that I could meet my friends from this game, they seem like cool people."

Do I even need to say what happens now?

"Consider your wish Grant-ed!"

-----

"Hey guys, did you hear?! There's going to be a Feed MMOre convention soon."

"Yeah! Who's going to be there?! I know I am!"

"I will be too!"

"Same."

"Cool! See you all there then! Wait, we should totally meet up!"

"Yeah! Let's do that! 3:00 on Saturday at the coffee shop work for everyone?"

"It does for me!"

"Consider it set in stone!"

"I guess I'll be there."

The message boards are lighting up with the news. There is going to be a convention for the game in my very own town! I mark my calendar for the fateful day, and can't wait for it. Do I know what will happen? Not in the slightest, but I'm excited regardless.

-----

"Welcome to the first ever Feed MMOre convention!" The announcer and his powerful voice command the opening ceremonies. He drones on about it being the first year and everything like that. "Now, this being a game about connections, how about we form a new connection right here?!"

The crowd roars its approval.

"Alright! You there," he says pointing to me. "Come up here!"

I walk up onto the stage. I know I came here to meet people, but why did I have to do it in front of hundreds of people?!

"And you girl!"

Up to the stage, walking at a crawl, comes a small girl with dark, unruly hair. She looks down at the floor as if she is ashamed at her own existence. When she reaches center stage she just keeps looking away from everyone.

"And what's your name?" The announcer shoves the microphone up in the girl's face.

She speaks in little more than a whisper. "Ummm... It's Eve..."

"What a great name, Eve! And you?"

"Ransom," I say into the intrusive microphone. The girl seems to shudder at hearing my name. Come on now, it's not that bad.

"What an... interesting name! Now, Eve and Ransom, we're going to have you guys do trust falls!"

Can this little girl really catch me? First he has me be the faller. Fearing the worst, I cross my arms, close my eyes, and lean back. I feel as if I'm going to hit the floor, but I am caught. I open up my eyes to see a pair staring back at me. I hadn't seen them before, and their appearance was contrary to what I expected. Dark, alert, kind eyes look into mine, filled with wonder and curiosity. They are the eyes of someone who wants to connect, not of someone who wants to stray away. I stand up and let her take her turn.

She starts to fall, but soon as I feel her fall into my arms she squirms. I try to catch her, and in turn almost topple over myself. She gathers her balance and runs off the stage like a mouse seeing a hawk on the horizon.

I'm pretty sure I wasn't the one that was supposed to be falling over that time.

The announcer looks shocked at the girl's reaction. "Errr... Well a new connection was definitely just made!"

The crowd laughs.

Poor girl. I hope she isn't too embarrassed.

-----

My next stop is a panel where we learn about actual farming. I figure it would be a cool idea to learn about how farming works in real life so that I can learn about how to better run my in-game ones. I groggily listen to the panelist talk about things for a while, but most of it goes in one ear and out the other. Then he tells us to split into groups of two for an activity.

This gets my attention and makes me wake all the way up. I search the room for someone I might know, but to know avail. Looks like I'm going to have to pair up with a random person.

I ask the guy sitting next to me, who also looks like he doesn't have a partner, if he would be willing to be mine. He agrees, and we walk over to a designated area. The guy isn't anything special, just looks like your average joe. In fact, he appears so normal that he stands out, especially in this crowd of shut-ins and constant video game players.

The panelist leads all of us out a back door. We find ourselves outside, staring at the loamy dirt field in front of us, which is probably this way due to recent construction. The panelist tells us to grab hoes and try out tilling the soil to gain something called "appreciation" for the real life farmers.

I don't remember signing up for physical labor. I sigh, and try throw the hoe into the earth, but I hardly get it into the ground, and find myself with an instant splinter. I recoil in pain and drop the tool. Why on earth did I decide this was a good idea?!

My partner pulls out a pocket knife and gets out some tweezers from it. "Here, use this, Ransom," he says, handing it to me.

I coyly accept it. "Thanks. How do you know my name?"

"I was at the opening ceremony of course! My name is Norm by the way." He takes up the hoe and tries his hand in the hard work. He works diligently, and manages to completely finish our plot, smiling at his accomplishment when he finishes up. I opted out of doing any more.

What's such a socially acceptable, hardworking guy doing here?

-----

Hm, well I guess that I have some time until I meet up with the group. I think I'll just go hang out at the arcade for a little while.

I go to the noisy room filled with perspiration and nerds hammering away on classic games. One machine stands out immediately: the dance machine. It looks really entertaining, so I step in line and wait my turn. The dancing game is pretty straightforward, two people get to steps to the plate and have to stomp away on different spots of the dance pad to a rhythm. In front of me in line, in other words, the one who I will be dancing with, is a stunning gem of society.

Long, well kept, blonde hair. Fashionable clothing. An overall attractive girl. She looks like the type to complain if she chipped a nail. And here she is standing in line for a game that would for sure get her hair frazzled at a convention for a video game, where hundreds of socially inept people flock.

We wait in line, and finally our turn arrives. I step up to the plate. "Just so you know I haven't done this before so I probably will suck."

The girl smiles. "Don't worry, we can select different levels." She selects the highest level available and leans back on the metal bar at the back of the pad.

Intimidated, I select the second lowest level, to make myself not look like a total wimp. The song starts, and the notes come, destroying my uncoordinated self without fail right off the bat. Panicked, I glance over at her screen. Those look like they're going ten times as fast and that there are several times as many steps to hit!

She expertly pounds almost every single one of her notes out, while I'm struggling not to fail the song. I barely pull it off.

"Hmm... I only got 95% of them today. Bad day I guess." She steps down from the dance pad.

Defeated, I do the same. I start walking away when she stops me.

"Hey, come here. I have some pointers for you."

Ashamed but interested at what she has to say, I go over. She gives me excellent pointers, and is incredibly knowledgable about the game.

"My name's Destiny, by the way," she says, getting back in line.

Well, one more game couldn't hurt, I have time.

-----

Here it is, the big moment. Time to meet up with my internet buddies. I go to the designated spot and stand around awkwardly. I'm getting quite nervous. At the time that we're supposed to meet I look around. We all notice each other gazing around the place and converge.

A certain genie definitely had something to do with this. Standing with me is Eve, Norm, and Destiny. "By chance are you guys here to meet up with some people?"

They all nod, realizing the strange twist of fate that had brought us together during the course of the day. Funny how it works, completely different people being brought together by a video game. I can tell that we're all probably totally unalike outside of the game, but inside and with respect to the game, those differences don't hold us back anymore. We chat for quite some time, and in the end exchange contact info.

"It's too bad that you all have to leave. I don't know anyone around here who plays this game."

"What are you talking about," replies Destiny, "I live only ten minutes away from here."

"Thirty for me," says Eve.

"I live in town too," finishes Norm.

We all smile. "Well I guess we'll be seeing more of each other then!"

"You can count on it!"

"Sure thing!"

"Yeah."

-----

Alas, the convention couldn't go on forever, and I inevitably have to go home. I walk out to my car from the building, reflecting on what a great time I had today.

"I'd say that was your best wish yet," says a voice behind me.

I turn around to find Grant leaning on a lightpost. I nod.

"Well, that's good, because my job here is done." He holds up his fingers to snap.

"Wait," I say, "can I have one more wish?"

"Maybe, maybe not. What will it be?"

"I wish that you'd come back sometime!"

He snaps. "Wish Grant-ed!" The genie poofs out of sight, leaving me until some faithful day when I least expect it.

You see, there's an old Chinese legend that says that everyone who will ever have an influence on each other has a red string tied to their ankles. If that's true, then there must be a lot of knots.

***

A/N: So, did you like my unusual story? By the way, the name of the game, Feed MMOre, was a complete accident. I was typing "more peaceful game" and I accidentally hit the 'm' key twice in "more." Bam! It stuck. Funny how things work out that way, huh?