The four boys stopped the recording after fifteen minutes of trying to settle on an outro, then started a new one for the new video.

"Okay, so, we can play now, right?" Yuri asked. By this time he was no longer able to conceal the hope and excitement in his voice. Yuya immediately grinned and teased him playfully, "Wow, Yuri, you're pretty eager to play! Didn't you say that Reality Bytes was a girl game?"

"Shushit, Yuya! Let's just play the game!" Yuri said, his cheeks flushing slightly. His counterparts giggled, and Yuya said, "Alright, we can play. But first we have to move Zarc into his new home!"

The computer screen now showed a world map with a bunch of different icons all over it. Yuya smiled and said, "Oh, wow! This game has way more base game Settlements than any of the other Reality Bytes games!"

"Have you played the other games?" Yugo asked him. Yuya nodded and said, "Yeah, I actually own all of the games. I've been playing since I was like... I wanna say five? Back when the first Reality Bytes game was still relatively new. It came out shortly after I was born, and Mom loved playing it in her free time. My earliest memory of Reality Bytes is when Mom let me play on the computer and she went to get me a snack, and in the short timespan that she was in the kitchen I managed to set my house on fire and all my little Folks were dead by the time Mom came back. I didn't understand what was going on, cuz I was five. But yeah, I've been playing Reality Bytes ever since then. So I know a thing or two about how to play."

"Oh thank god, we got someone with experience," Yuto said, relieved. "You can make sure we don't accidentally kill off Zarc, right?"

"Definitely," Yuya reassured him. "I know all of the basic deaths that are generally included in the base games and good ways to avoid them. There's drowning, fire, electrocution, freezing, heatstroke, sickness, and food poisoning. Other death types are usually added through game packs, like in Reality Bytes Historical, the tenth game in the series, they added Death by Swordfighting and other historical death types with the game packs that added the time period they were from. And in Reality Bytes II, Folks could die of rabies if they were bitten by a wild animal if they had the Wilderness pack."

"How many Settlements do the other base games have?" Yugo asked. Yuya replied, "Usually between one and three, though Historical had five. But you couldn't travel between those five very easily. I think the company that previously owned the Reality Bytes sold it cuz they were getting a lot of criticism from the eleventh game because it was so buggy and had very little content for the prices and every time they released a new pack, it was broken. So the new company promised to make the twelfth game the best in the series. They said that almost everything that was added to the previous games through packs would be part of the base game in the twelfth game, like occult Folks, celebrities, seasons, college, hotels, pets, and more, as well as a lot of new stuff. I think one of the new things is actually being able to go to school and work with the Folks. Oh, and the various modes, too. Those are definitely new."

"So, how many Settlements do we have in this game?" Yuri asked. Yuya looked at the computer screen and counted. "Fifteen, but I think that's just the Settlements in Free Mode. I think all the other modes have their own Settlements. So let's see. There's Sunrise City, the metropolis. There's Crystal Bay, the island paradise. Green Springs, the suburban town. Diamondback Palms, the desert town. Mount Shimmersnow, the mountain village. Agrippina Woods, the forest town. Riverdale Acres, the farming community. Darkfall Valley, the gothic town. That one was one of the Settlements mentioned by the developers as a base game occult Settlement. Uhm, Silver Falls, the lakeside houseboat community. Seraphina City, another base game occult Settlement. I think that one is bigger and has enough neighborhoods for each base occult to have their own, plus a few extras for mixed communities and non-occult communities. Ah, let's see, what am I missing... Oh, Starlight City, the big celebrity city. Oh! Paradigm City, that's the capital of the main Reality Bytes nation, interesting to see it finally be added to a game! It's only ever been mentioned in the other games! There's San Selido, the jungle settlement, that one is supposed to have a lot of treehouse homes. Evermore, the college town. And Debutown, a giant empty city made specifically for people who like to build their own stuff and populate the Settlements themselves."

"Wait, we can build our own house?" Yuto asked, intrigued. Yuya nodded. "Yep, each of the neighborhoods in each of the Settlements has at least one empty lot for people to build their own things, and at least three of the houses already built in each neighborhood are uninhabited and ready to move in. Plus, each Settlement has at least four neighborhoods. One lower-class, one middle-class, one upper class, and one commercial."

"Okay, I wanna build Zarc's house," Yuri said. Yugo nodded eagerly, "Yeah, it'll probably suck, unless Yuya's good at building in Reality Bytes, but we gotta at least try!"

Yuya's eyes widened and he chortled, "Uhm, yeah, I'm no good at building. It's gonna be terrible. I usually just download houses or place my Folks in pre-made houses. The last time I tried to build, it ended up looking like an architect's worst nightmare. The placement of the windows and doors made it look like it was staring into my soul..."

Yuto chuckled. "Well then, let's build a house! Now, where should we build it?"

"Well, if Zarc wants to be an A-List Actor, then what better place for him to live than the big celebrity city?" Yuri suggested. "What's its name again?"

"Starlight City," Yuya reminded him, clicking on the map icon for the city. The map slide-transitioned to a new map, this one of the city itself. The four boys' eyes widened at all the details and lots, and they spoke together, "Whoa!"

"That is so cool!" Yugo said excitedly. Yuri nodded in agreement. "And look! There's six residential neighborhoods! Let's take a look!"

They started checking out the neighborhoods, first starting with what appeared to be the poorest neighborhood. The houses looked like they were very cheap, and Yuri pursed his lips. "No. We don't want Zarc to live in a trailer park. Just no. He deserves better."

"How about here?" Yuya suggested, moving on to what seemed to be the working class neighborhood. The houses in that neighborhood appeared to be rather decent, albeit a bit small and with no backyards. The empty lots in the neighborhood were also small.

"Eh, too small," Yuto said. "Next neighborhood."

The next neighborhood was clearly the middle class neighborhood. The houses were quite nice, ranging from small two-bedroom houses to modest two-story houses, and they all had very nice backyards. The empty lots appeared to be the same size as the lots that the two-story houses were on.

"That could be a nice place to live," Yugo said. "Oh, and look! That empty lot is right next to a river! Maybe Zarc could get into fishing!"

"Oh my god, guys look! It's a little black castle!" Yuri said suddenly, pointing at a house in what seemed to be the upper-middle class neighborhood. "Yuto's dream home!"

"Oh my god, it really is!" Yuto exclaimed, looking at the little gothic castle in delight. "Can Zarc live there?"

"No, someone already lives there," Yuya pointed out. "See that little white soccer ball-shaped glowy orb over it? That means someone lives there."

"Ah, just kick them out and let's steal their home!" Yuto said. Yugo giggled. "Can I just say, that castle is totally throwing off the neighborhood's feng shui. You've got all those nice pastel houses and then it's just black castle of death! and the vibe is ruined."

"Exactly my kind of house!" Yuto said. "C'mon, let's just kick them out!"

"We can't," Yuya explained. "Not until we move in somewhere. We're in Moving Mode, which means we can't evict anyone yet. Also, I'm pretty sure we can't afford the gothic castle yet. We only have 35,000 ByteCoin."

"Really? ByteCoin?" Yuri asked, unimpressed. Yuya shrugged. "That's the name of the currency in Reality Bytes. Yuri raised an eyebrow, then rolled his eyes and shook his head. "Puns."

"We seriously can't afford my dream home?" Yuto asked, slightly devastated. Yuya patted his shoulder. "Don't worry, Yuto. We'll make our house black so it can be gothy for you. And if we can afford it, we'll even put in a tower or two!"

This seemed to pacify Yuto, and he settled down so that the boys could continue checking out the rest of the city. They moved on from the upper-middle class area to the upper class area, impressed by the mansions. Yugo's tourmaline eyes were sparkling and he said, "Now that is where I wanna live! It's like Tops territory!"

"We should totally move into one of the empty lots and ruin the feng shui of the neighborhood to avenge Yuto," Yuri giggled. "Build our crappy little poor house with its gothic black exterior and tower, and make the neighbors ashamed to have us living next door."

"Yes," Yuto said immediately. "Avenge me. Zarc must live in a rich neighborhood and ruin the feng shui."

"Well, before we settle on this neighborhood, there's one more to check out," Yuya said. "The 1% neighborhood. The neighborhood with the biggest mansions. It looks like they're like multi-billion yen houses!"

"Ooh, change of plans!" Yugo said eagerly. "We move into the biggest empty lot in that neighborhood, build our crappy little poor house, making it black with a tower for Yuto, and make the whole city scandalized!"

Yuto, Yuri, and Yuya all hummed in agreement, and looked for the biggest empty lot in the elite neighborhood. It didn't take them too long to find it. It was an incredibly massive lot of 100 by 100 squares, and it appeared to be on the highest peak in the entire city. Yuya read the price and winced. "It's going to cost us 17,500 ByteCoin to buy this lot. That's literally half our money if I've done the math correctly. Which I probably haven't. We're all 100% certain it's gonna be worth it?"

"Yes," his three counterparts said together. Yuya gave a nod and moved the Zarc-Folk into the lot. As the game loaded, Yuya selected the Renovate button and smiled. "We've got 17,500 ByteCoin to build a poor man's gothic castle. Let's do this!"

There was suddenly a knock at the door and Yoko called out, "Boys, I brought you some cookies and milk!"

Yugo squealed in excitement. "Cookies! I love cookies!"

Yoko opened the door and walked in with a big plate of chocolate chip cookies and four tall glasses of milk on a tray. "Here you go, boys! Eat up!"

"Thanks Mom!" Yuya said happily. "Oh, hey Mom! Say hi to the camera!"

"Oh, are you recording your play session?" Yoko asked, smiling brightly. Yuto nodded, "Yeah, we've decided to start a gaming channel playing Reality Bytes."

"It was my idea," Yuri said proudly. Yoko beamed and said, "Sounds like fun! Enjoy your games!"

As she left the room, Yugo looked at Yuya. "Your mom's awesome!" he said, stuffing his mouth with a cookie. Yuya smiled and replied, "I know. Now, let's build Zarc's house!"

"Okay, so how do we do that?" Yuto asked, scooting a little closer to the computer. At that, Yuya froze and blanked for a moment, before responding. "Uhm, well, we could draw the walls for the building and rooms ourselves but... Oh! This Reality Bytes game has pre-made rooms that we can place on the lot! They come fully furnished!"

"Oh, well if we do that, then the final product will probably look awful and ruin the feng shui of the neighborhood even more..." Yuri mused. "Let's do it!"

"Yeah!" Yugo said eagerly. Yuto chuckled and the boys started searching through the pre-made rooms.

"We gotta keep in mind our budget of 17,500," Yuya reminded his counterparts. "Plus we need to save some money for the tower. So we should probably go with cheap options."

"Let's start with the living room," Yuto suggested. The boys selected the Living Room tab and laughed at the first option. "It's so awful!" Yugo exclaimed. The first and cheapest option had a simple two-seater sofa and matching chair that looked very old and shabby, a coffee table with a small dead-looking houseplant, a poorly-lit ceiling light, and literally nothing else.

"Okay, I know we want to bring shame to the neighborhood, but we can't make Zarc live with such an awful living room," Yuya pointed out. "Folks are affected by environment. Make the house look as out of place as possible from the outside, but we need to at least give Zarc some decent things so he's not uncomfortable."

"Fair enough," Yuri agreed. "The second option looks pretty decent from what I can see." He was right, the second cheapest living room was a much needed upgrade. It had two nice three-seater vinyl-looking sofas and a matching chair, a coffee table with a living houseplant, a rug, a little TV on a console table, two end tables with lamps on them, a matching floor lamp, and a chandelier. It even had a few paintings on the walls!

"Wow, that's actually really nice!" Yuto said, impressed. "And that's just the second cheapest living room?"

"Mhm!" Yuya said, selecting the room and placing it near the front of the lot. Then he zoomed out and the boys laughed at how tiny it was compared to the rest of the massive lot. The living room was only 5 by 6 squares.

"Oh my god, the neighbors are gonna hate us!" Yuto laughed. Yuya giggled and replied, "I know right! And it's only going to get worse! Now let's go to the kitchen!"

He selected the kitchen tab and the boys scooted closer to the screen in anticipation. Yugo blinked at the first kitchen and said, "Okay, we can't do that kitchen. It looks too much like the kitchen Rin and I grew up with. What's the second option?"

The first kitchen was absolutely tiny, only 3 by 4 squares with an old cheap refrigerator that looked like it was one door-slam away from the dump, a stained counter, a cheap stove that looked like it wouldn't even turn on half the time, and a sink. The floors were linoleum and the ceiling light matched the first living room's ceiling light.

The second option was quite nice, a 4 by 4 room with several granite-looking counters, a matching island, a decent stove and fridge, and a better sink than the first one. The floors were tile, the light was a pendant light, and there were even some upper cabinets, a stove vent, and a bowl of fruit!

"Are all the second cheapest options this nice?" Yuya asked, tilting his head as the boys placed the kitchen right behind the living room. Yugo shrugged. "I don't know, but we need to get some barstools for the island so Zarc can sit down to eat."

He took the mouse and accidentally clicked on the stove as he was moving the mouse toward the catalog. The stove moved with the mouse, and Yugo yelped. "Ack! No! Stop! Go away stove! Go back to where you were! Shoo! Yuya! Yuya, help! I don't know how to control this game!"

Yuya quickly took the mouse and moved the stove back to where it was supposed to be, clicking to place it. "You click once to pick up and click a second time to put down," he explained, smiling. Yugo blushed. "Oh, I knew that..."

Yuri snorted and took the mouse from Yuya, being very careful not to click. He selected the catalog and searched for barstools. He selected a rather cute pink barstool and placed it at the island, then selected a second, purple barstool and placed it as well.

At this, Yuto raised an eyebrow. "Two?" he asked. Yuri looked at him. "Well, what if he has a date come over for dinner?"

"They'll be scared away by Zarc's datewear," Yuya said with a grin. At this, the four boys started giggling like maniacs, remembering the teddy bear mascot costume.

After his giggles subsided, Yuri grinned. "Okay, now, before anything else, Zarc needs a bedroom and then a bathroom. Let's see the options!"

The first pre-made bedroom was just as disappointing as the cheapest kitchen and living room. All it had was a cot, a dresser, and the same ceiling light as the others. Yuya made a face. "No. Just no. This is a house, not a prison!"

He selected the second option expectantly. This one was nicer, as the boys had come to expect, a 4 by 5 room with a double bed, a wall light and painting over the bed, a chair that matched the one in the living room, a rug, a wardrobe, a floor lamp, and a globe pendant ceiling light.

"Ah, yeah, now that's more like it!" Yuya said, pleased as punch as he placed the bedroom directly next to the living room. Then he said, "Now it's time for the bathroom! Who wants to bet that the cheapest one sucks and the second-cheapest one is really nice?"

Just as they suspected, the cheapest bathroom was simply awful. A 2 by 3 room with a toilet, sink, bathtub, and flimsy-looking mirror, as well as the same linoleum as the cheapest kitchen and the same ceiling lights they'd come to expect. The second cheapest bathroom was, as expected, much nicer, a 3 by 4 room with a shower, a fancy sink, a nicer looking toilet, a better mirror, and a houseplant. The floor was tile, the ceiling light was a chandelier, and the walls were white tile with one blue-painted accent wall.

"Bam!" Yuya said, placing the room directly behind the bedroom and next to the kitchen. Yuri nodded in approval. "Gotta have that bathroom close to the bedroom so nobody uses the sink as a urinal in the middle of the night!" Everyone looked at him in confusion, and Yuri scowled. "Someone did that once at Academia. True story."

"Seriously?" Yuya asked. "Who does that?" Yuri shrugged. "The Obelisk Force, apparently."

"Weren't they supposed to be the elite students?" Yuto asked, unimpressed. Yuri just shrugged again.

Suddenly, Yuya's duel disk played a little tune, and Yuya's eyes widened. He dropped the mouse and scrambled over Yuri and Yugo, who were sitting between him and his duel disk. The two counterparts yelped and tried to get out from under him, but the tomato-head appeared to be very determined to get to his duel disk at any cost. He managed to grab his duel disk and clambered back over Yuri and Yugo back to his own seat, looking down at his duel disk with a lovey-dovey look on his face.

"Yuya!" Yugo scolded, pouting at the tomato. Yuya glanced up at him innocently and said, "Shingo's texting me!"

"Someone's in loooooove!~" Yuri teased, causing Yuya to blush brightly. "W-well if I don't text him back within fifteen minutes of him texting me, he'll start spamming me with messages until I respond!" he protested.

"A fifteen-minute time limit, and yet you drop everything and rush to check your texts the moment you hear his text sound go off?" Yuto raised his eyebrow in slight amusement.

"Yep, someone's in love!" Yuri grinned. Yuya blushed brighter, and pouted, looking down at Shingo's text. He lit up in delight when he read it. "Oh! Shingo's inviting me and Reiji out to the skating rink this evening!"

"Really?" Yuri asked. "Both of you? Don't he and Reiji normally only invite you out, and not each other?"

"Maybe he wants to show off, and have a competition between him and Reiji to impress Yuya with their skating skills?" Yugo suggested. "After all, both of them do tend to try to one-up each other to impress him."

"That's actually a good point," Yuri conceded. "I wouldn't be too