I had no excuse at the ready as Rina marched forward and pick me up by my shirt collar. Of course, I was stronger than her, but I was not heavy, so about anyone could do this if I didn't want to break their arm.

"What did you do to my body?" Rina screamed, which confused the rest of the team who was looking at us with question marks.

"Wait wait wait no think about it, it wasn't you, its was, uh, fucking- uh… An illusion created by the butterfly!"

"And that gives you the right?" Her face got worse, literal disgust, "And you did that knowing full well it's a shapeshifter trying to impersonate me?"

"ALLEGEDLY!" I yelled, prying her hand away while trying not to harm her, "Look, I swear to god the butterfly fucked with my mind and I sincerely thought it's you trying to hit on me!"

I looked towards Marc's frown, Hailie's confused blinking, and Akira's motionless iron helmet covering her face as I searched for help.

"You're lying!" She yelled,

"Well- I- I- I am… Uh- I want a lawyer!"

"What are you guys talking about? Stop fighting already!" Marc came between us and looked up to Rina, "Release her, this is not how we deal with issues."

Rina clicked her tongue and dropped me down… Thank god for that, because if she had held me up any longer it would've been dripping down there.

Hailie voice came cracking through, curious and innocent as a dove,

"Oh… I think… Um-" She lowered her voice with some shame, "I think they were insinuating sexual intercourse? With armpits?"

…

That armpit comment was supposed to be quiet only for me and Rina to hear, yet somehow, Hailie caught it with those round lil ears of hers.

"I can explain-" I raised my hands up all innocent,

"No." Rina cut me off, "sigh… it's fine, I don't- just, control your friend, Hailie."

Rina was pissed off, Marc and Akira was staring at me, Hailie was all red in her cheeks as she looked down on the orange grass.

Now apart from knowing my real name, they know I'm a pervert.

Worst, Hailie knew I'm a pervert.

Hailie Sonder, of all people.

…

Fuck you, Rina.

I felt something weird in my stomach, emotions rising through within me, it was like… How to describe it? I was getting emotional as I realize this was my social death.

I never cared what people think about me online, ever, literally never, but like, when it's VR and I can feel their eyes, and I can see that they're real people living real lives and the illusion of just texts on the screen got shattered?

It felt devestating.

And it was awkward, because now I'm the center of the reason why everyone's silent.

Rina was the first to break the silence.

"Well… Since my quest just updated," She brushed some ash off her armor, adjusted her bowstring, and said matter-of-factly, "We should get back to Avalon. That's where I found the knight who gave me this quest, about time we cash in the 5000XP per person."

Marc shrugged, Hailie tilted her head and Akira nodded, none of them seems to question it.

But there was… Something I was still bothered about.

"Um… Sorry… Please- Can I, uh… Can I say something?" I spoke up.

I kicked a bit of dirt near one of the fallen bears, frowning.

The bodies still hadn't despawned. That… No, yeah, no, that wasn't normal.

Normally, monster corpses faded into shimmering dust within a few seconds after combat, even players. These had been sitting here for more than a minute, and they're heavy, so they were real flesh and bone, especially when I could smell it as they're radiating a faint earthy stench.

Rina turned toward me, her expression sharp but patient, one that felt hurtful in a way.

I took a deep breath:

"Worsetingale was infamous for being a dragonborn wizard that did nineteen half-successful experiments that created nineteen special monsters… I thought that his storyline wouldn't come up until the Eastern continent open a trade route with Danielle and Klakku, but I was wrong," I continued. "We already dealt with one, uh… the Eastern Blue-Winged Butterfly, that's what Rina and I saw in the tower, by the way, long story short, we defeated it.

I cleared my throat, continuing.

"But these bears" I gestured toward the bodies, "They don't make sense, I guess it could be wild ones or a random thing that triggered with Rina's quest of investigating the area, but it's unlikely considering it's basically confirmed his experiments were on the loose."

"Oh yeah… You're right!" Marc raised an eyebrow. "So is this another experiment?"

"I think so," I said, my confidence coming back as my yapping session started. "And the fact that these things haven't despawned means they're probably still anchored to someone or something on the map.

"If I had to guess…" I crossed my arms, "...It's also one of the experiments… we are dealing with the Sacrilegious Druid Of The Deep Tree."

"Woah… These monsters have such cool names! Eastern Blue-Winged Butterfly? Sacrilegious Druid Of The Deep Tree? I gotta read more about monsters." Hailie's eyes practically lit up as her voice rising in pitch. "Also, we barely spent a few minutes at the tower, I think we totally spend more time on this cool quest! Oh my god, we should totally go take the Druid down!"

Her excitement was infectious, like a kid seeing a shiny toy across the street. But Rina wasn't really interested in the idea, so glanced at Hailie, then back at me, and sighed.

"I don't think we should," she said. "My quest just updated and it says to return to the knight in Avalon for debriefing. Nothing about the Druid, and according to the Monster Encyclopaedia, the Druid is hard to find as does every other experiment of Worsetingale.'"

"What if…" I pointed out, "There will be additional rewards?"

Rina raised her brows, totally unconvinced, yeah, I would, too.

"It would be best to investigate," Akira spoke up, she had been silent until now, her metallic voice muffled behind her full helmet. "We took on the duty and should fulfill it wholeheartedly, keeping promise is the virtuous thing to do."

"Good point…" Marc nodded thoughtfully, running a hand through his blond curls. "I say we vote."

"All in favor of tracking down the Druid, raise your hand," Marc announced.

Three hands went up: Akira's gauntlet, my gauntlet, and Hailie's pale fingers clutching her staff like a flagpole.

She could've just used her free hand.

"All against?"

Rina's hand went up instantly, with Marc's.

"Majority wins," Marc said, smiling despite the fact that his side won, "Let's double-check our items, I think I'm fine, I'll watch the perimeter."

"Oh, I need to drink a mana potion!" Hailie said.

Rina rolled her eyes but didn't argue any further. And she looked at me with disdain.

Barely a minute later of people fuddling around their items one more time, we set out to go.

Hailie practically skipped ahead despite being the most vulnerable in the group, leading the way toward the edge of the clearing.

Akira followed close behind, shield raised like she was already expecting something to jump out.

Marc walked in the back to keep an eye on everyone, humming lightly, sword sheathed.

That left me and Rina walking in the middle

Before we disappeared into the woods, I turned one last time.

The Tower of Worsetingale stood there, magnificently tall with vines and weak darkened cobblestone protruding out at bits of section on the wall.

Its jagged silhouette cutting through the orange sky . The doorway was still wide open, dark and silent inside…

For some reason, I yawned and started thinking about Worsetingale.

Among the nineteen abysmal creations, I just hope that they nerfed the most dangerous one,

The False Crown

It was the magnum opus of VR engineering, so to speak… It was the more successful version of The Eastern Blue-Winged Butterfly.

If the butterfly changes its own shape into someone you know and try to convince you to lower your guard in its pocket dimension. The False Crown can implant itself into the entire playerbase's memory even if they weren't online, as long as they log on after the mob was triggered.

There is still no counterplay, and the only reason why we managed to take in down in the Early Access version was when… If I remember correctly, the #1 player, DarkHeavens (nicknamed UnnamedMonarch) came online and just killed it, as if he knew, then all the memories came crashing down on us and we realized it was an imposter.

With that said, it was the last time I heard of him… And SeeOh, the #2 player (nicknamed Architech of Hope) for that matter.

In that said Early Access period, the thing posed as a nice and kind NPC merchant that's been there since the server started, selling discounted stuff at times, and was even there when the playerbase took down the boss of the Eastern Continent together.

"Cory, are you coming?"

Marc pulled me back to reality as he overtook me when I slowed my footsteps,

"Hailie, wait up!" Rina yelled in the distance.

I stared for a moment longer, then turned away.

I probably shouldn't overthink it.

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