The next thing I know, everyone was dragged away, picked off one by one.

I thought the druid may create a sinkhole, may move a tree to block our path and lead us to an endless maze, the druid may change the ground into quicksand and slowly consume us as we suffocate unable to move as we struggled.

I thought there would be monsters going haywire on us from multiple angles, surrounding us like mini little Titan of Ashen Barks, yet, there were only confusions.

As Marc disappeared, and the four of us were looking back to see where he went, that was our second mistake, because right afterwards, we suddenly felt rustling coming from the front, and we turned to see that Akira, who was out of our vision; was also gone.

No sound of struggle and, no screaming. She had just… stopped existing, as if she was never real.

"Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck." I spammed the hell out of my voiceline as I gripped tight on my sword.

My body were screaming and telling me to run, but my brain refused for some reason, perhaps addrenaline, confusion, and just the pure thought of whatever voodoo was the world cooking up next and how I could cheese it.

"Everyone, get closer!" Rina yelled, which snapped Hailie back from her fear and confusion, and snapped me back from my fighting urges.

"Back to back!" I added.

We did just that, closing the distance until our shoulders pressed together. I felt Hailie's trembling hand brush my arm. The angelic smell of Rina's hair and the faint sweetness of Hailie's robe perfume filled my nose, especially when the rears of those two scraped against mine… Mhm, heavenly, beautiful.

Yet, my lust died down quite fast as I realized the situation was much more better than the immediately temporary pleasure.

I could hear the faint crackling of wood and tree branches, like the forest itself was shaping.

"This could be… The druid's doing… But I don't know where to go from here." I commented.

"I knew we should've just head back to Avalon…" Rina clicked her tongue.

The sound came before the panic, a wet, crunching noise beneath us, followed by the soft shift of soil.

Then something coiled around Hailie's ankle.

"Eh?" she whispered

Then a gasp of fright came from her, before I could even look, she was yanked off her feet and dropped her staff, though she barely managed to grab onto it last second.

Little Hailie didn't even have time to scream properly, in one blink and one second she was there, the next she was already several meters away, being dragged into the dark pines.

"HAILIE!" I screamed, bolting forward.

"Cory, wait!"

Rina gave another 'tch' in annoyance and immediately sprinted to follow right beside me, with her bow drawn, she pulled out a fire arrow, planning to burn this place to the ground, yet I heard shifting once more and turned around to look at her as I ran.

My worst fear came true, because when forest moved, a hidden root rose and caught her ankle, sending her tumbling face-first.

I guess that's one thing no one could really defend against, right?

"Rina!" I yelled,

Then, the dilemma came, I stopped my footsteps, my body were already turning towards Rina, who was being drag away, while my eyes were darting back at the disappearing trail of priest white robes being pulled away.

I hesitated. That moment of indecision—one heartbeat too long—felt like an eternity.

Then I, obviously, chose the rich kid that had been sheltering me and feeding me and giving me free food, free electricity, free gaming set up, free bathroom, free maid (though a horrible human being for one).

I sprinted toward Hailie, adrenaline roaring in my ears.

She reached a hand out toward me, eyes wide and terrified as a vine was over her mouth, stopping her from making a scream.

I barely caught her wrist and wrapped my leg around a tree trunk before the root could pull her any further into a distant clearing. Its speed was so fast I think we're already like a kilometre away from where we were standing.

With one hand on Hailie's grip, the other hand gripped my sword, and I struggled a bit, before ultimately yanking both Hailie and the vine closer, enough to create a gap for me to get in there and cut the roots in half.

Sparks flew as steel met something that was definitely not wood, it was like cutting through rubbery flesh.

The root screeched, a low, unnatural groan that vibrated through the dirt as it recoiled, snapping away.

Both of us collapsed backward, gasping, covered in dirt. My hand was still gripping hers so tightly it hurt.

"Hailie… Hailie, are you alright?"

"Oh… I'm fine, Cory! Um, did you get hurt? Here, let me heal y…"

She must've noticed the utter cosmic horror in my eyes, the way my jaws dropped, because she stopped talking.

Hailie turned around to see the same thing, and she dropped to her rear, also in complete shock.

There was a shadow above us.

A colossal one, I'd argue taller than the atmosphere of this world.

A single trunk… No, a tree trunk would be merely an ant to this thing if it was comparable to a human.

The structure, the monolith, the fucking deity's cock, a giant pillar of living wood rose out of the earth and stretched upward past the clouds, past what any human mind could comprehend as being imaginable, past what I thought was even renderable geometry of Darkmoon Adventure VR.

I craned my neck back as far as I could, but I couldn't see the top. The leaves glowed faintly in patterns like veins of gold.

"C- Cory… Cory?" Hailie's voice trembled as she stuttered a few times. "Cory… what is that?"

"I… I don't know… I genuinely don't know."

My heart dropped into my stomach. I'd never seen this before, not in Early Access, not in any patch notes and definitely not in the lore compendium.

"This isn't in the game," I whispered. "What even is this…"

The wind howled as a way to signal our doom with the sight of ravens flying. I stared with my eyes twitching like a stroke as I saw those branches twisted like ribs of some ancient creature flexing its body.

Then I saw them—Marc, Akira, and Rina—all entangled in roots that were dragging them upward, into the sky.

They were still moving, struggling, their armor clanking faintly as they rose higher and higher toward the sky, and I couldn't see where they were ending up, because… That's the clouds blocking my sight just one fifth of the way up this "trunk"

"Rina! Akira!" I screamed. "Marc, hold on!"

"What do we do?" Hailie's voice cracked, high-pitched, panicked.

"I don't… Let's, okay, I have a plan, we could maybe try-"

Something cold wrapped around my ankle.

"... Hailie, run." I whispered,

It tightened so fast I barely had time to react before it ripped me off the ground. My sword slipped from my hand as I was hoisted upside down, spinning mid-air as dirt and leaves swirled around my face.

"Cory!" Hailie shouted, diving after me.

"Hailie, get back!" I yelled, clawing at the vine around my leg.

But she didn't listen, she grabbed my fallen sword and sprinted under me, her robes fluttering.

"Hailie, no!"

"It's okay!" She yelled, "I just drank a speed potion, I can run!"

Before I knew it, Hailie hurled the sword upward, and I saw the silver gleamed in the sun.

I caught it mid-spin and swung, I screamed loudly as a war cry as I brought the blade down across the vine.

Snap

For one terrifying instant, everything went silent.

And then I was falling.

Wind tore through my ears, roaring like thunder. The forest floor spun farther and farther away until it became a distant blur. Everything was loud it drowned out my thoughts. My limbs flailed uselessly; my short hair snapped against my face like flags in a storm.

I could smell the ozone, that bitter-metal scent of lightning mixed with pine. The air grew warmer the faster I fell, the friction of speed turning the world into a vibrating blur.

I must have been at least a three football fields up (normal football, not tackling football).

"Okay, okay, okay… think, Cory." I muttered, gripping the hilt so tight my knuckles hurt. "Exploit… fall-reset… cancel animation frame. I can do this, I can reset my animation and state of character, practically resetting my velocity to zero at the last possible second like double-jumping, yeah yeah, that, and I can do that.."

I'd land safely. I could do this, I'd done it before a million times.

But then the sky darkened.

Out of nowhere, a black cloud formed above me—like ink spreading through water—and a single bolt of lightning tore through it.

It struck me square in the chest.

"FUCK!"

I didn't feel pain due to an old unpatched debug-intended exploit I've been using ever since fighting those 3 random players on the way to Wroeg's Hollow, of course, but the flash disoriented me and sent my body into shock, unable to move my fingers.

"FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCKKKKKKKKKKK!"

This fall was going to kill me, because fall damage counts straight into the health bar while ignoring armor, buffs damage resistance, damage reduct-

SPLAT

The next thing I knew, the pod hissed.

A rush of cold air hit my skin as the VR seal disengaged. I gasped, blinking, and the real world poured back in.

I've barely been online for half an hour, I believed… The tower of Worsetingale took 3 minutes, and the walk into the forest took like 5.

The faint hum of the mansion's ventilation, the smell of plastic and metal and that faint citrus scent from the cleaning spray the maids used on the game room floors.

When the lid lifted, light poured over me, and I just… collapsed.

I saw Gerald—Hailie's personal butler—sitting on a stool near the door, just reading a book. He seemed pleasantly surprise to see me log out before Hailie, and before the two hours were up.

My knees hit the soft paddings of the game room, and I stayed there, gasping, sweat sticking my hair to my face, my pulse hammering in my throat.

"I fucking died… I fucking died…"

"I FUCKING DIED?!"

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