Muck and Dirge

"There is one impostor among us."

It wasn't clear who said that in the crowd of people within the pathetic excuse of a detention center. However, they have a more pressing matter to attend.

"Hey, Muck. Go and inform the mayor." Dirge, one of the guards, told his companion.

"I'm not taking part in any of this." Muck did not want to get involved in this mess.

Dirge was the guard that brought the body to detention. Unlike Muck, who was passively guarding the detention cells, Dirge patrols around the village to keep things in order.

'Something isn't right.' Dirge thought to himself.

Muck was afraid of losing his job. Dirge knew that since he's been a long time friend of Muck. They're both juvenile slobs just wasting away oxygen at home, and they were recruited by the mayor to do honest work.

'He changed, the bastard.'

They were both excited upon finally being of use to everyone in the village. But now, it seems that Muck is giving up his role as a peacekeeper and wussed out.

Dirge threw the thought aside. It was too far-fetched to think that Muck was suspicious. Dirge looked at the other people in the detention center, and the only other people were E's party.

'It can't be any of them. The adventurers wouldn't have the time to do any of this.'

Dirge wracked his brain but could not think of an answer. There was no clue as to who did this at all. Their only lead, Ligma, is no longer in Sunnyside as per what the tattletales said and the adventurer's accounts.

"We don't have any leads. What more can we do?" Muck flat out said. He wanted to stay away from the situation.

"We do have a lead. Annera here would like to ask you a few questions, mister." Minion took center stage and said towards Dirge—whose eyes were filled with confusion.

"That is true. Mister Dirge. How did you find the 3 cases of naked young men by yourself in the middle of the night?" Annera went straight to the point.

Dirge indeed was suspicious. He always found them in the night even though there were no reports of missing people. However, Dirge was more concerned about something else.

'They know my name?' Dirge's eyes rattled in their sockets.

"I-I didn't do it!" He exclaimed.

However, his defense was not necessary at all as the suspect was a female who may have an oddly specific set of skills.

"We know you didn't. However, how do we know that you were in control as you clean the scene?" Annera continued.

She was skeptical that Dirge may have been controlled and became enthralled by the mystic powers of vampires. It wasn't a far off guess, it wasn't right, however.

"No! NO!" Dirge screamed and threw the noodle body aside as he ran for the exit.

Not one of them stopped him. To be fair, they were only asking out of suspicion and not out of certainty that Dirge would be a catalyst for the events. The culprit is out there and Dirge himself is the lead, or at least that's what Annera was thinking.

"Well? What are you guys waiting for? Follow his tracks!" Annera looked at Blight as she said.

Annera may have said that in anticipation of a few tracking skills to be activated, but that wasn't the case.

"Hello? Blight?"

"Sorry to burst your bubble, but I'm a Marksman." Blight replied.

"So? Use your skills!"

"I'm not a Hunter."

Marksman and hunter were two separate classes. Unlike Marksmen, Hunter had a shorter effective attack range and had a variety of crowd control skills, and tracing an enemy was one of them.

"Oh. So that's why you deal so much damage." Annera just realized.

With that conversation ending in a somewhat awkward tone, E interrupted.

"So, uhh. Should we run after him?" He was unsure.

Before anyone could reply, a blazing figure suddenly shot into the sky and flew straight after Dirge.

"Eh? Lavanuk?" Bob panicked at first. After a while, his eyes twinkled with delight as he saw how majestic Lavanuk while flying under the pale moonlight.

"Follow her!" He said as he ran after Lavanuk.

Bob was delighted that Lavanuk now had the freedom to fly. Too delighted that he forgot about his usual reaction when staying away from Lavanuk.

'Haha. Fly!'

Reverting to a regular old NPC was not an issue anymore. After the update, he shouldn't revert to an NPC, but his inner-programming forced him to act as such. However, the delight overwhelmed his old inner-programming at this moment.

Bob was now a fully independent player.

He didn't know about such personal development though. He was caught up in the moment and just ran after Lavanuk. And everyone else also followed after him. Essentially leaving a somewhat naked person by himself.

"Hehe." The limp noodle laughed within the confines of the cold and dark cell without anyone to hear him.

-

"Huff. Puff. Hey! Slow down!" Bob was short of breath as he chased after Dirge.

Everyone else ran at a relatively comfortable pace so it was only Bob—who was hellbent on following Dirge—was having a hard time.

Grab~

He successfully grabbed Dirge's shoulder and pulled without much strength. However, as he had over 100 points in strength, Dirge was pulled back and was driven into the ground.

Bob also fell, he ran out of breath and could no longer support his legs. His agility was only average and he went beyond what he was capable of just because of his will.

To add to that, Lavanuk landed on top of his head.

The others caught up to them in a few. The first thing that they noticed was that they were no longer within the village.

"Where the hell are we?" Minion wasn't quite sure.

They were in a forest clearing a short distance from the village. Presumably, it was still within Sunnyside Village's area of responsibility.

"Hey look! It's a cabin in the woods!" Enma exclaimed as he pointed at a shabby shed in the forest.

Ignoring Bob and Dirge, most of them went towards the shed. The only person that didn't take interest in the shed was Muck—who tried to help Bob up.

"Hey, Dirge. Why did you run away like that?"

Muck asked as he moved Bob away from Dirge. They were positioned as if Bob had tackled Dirge but it was just Bob pulling Dirge back too hard.

Dirge didn't answer. He was out of breath, just like Bob, and only focused on breathing. Bob and Dirge sat up and silence ensued. Other than heavy breathing caused by two breathless men, nothing else was said.

"Hey! Take a look at this here!" Enma said towards Muck and Bob.

It seems that they found something interesting within the shed.

Dirge's forehead—which was already full of sweat—was dripping wet. Even more so now, his tension rose as Enma and the rest discovered the shed and its contents.

"Don't re-" Dirge's voice was quite loud. But he couldn't finish his statement due to being short of breath.

"I wonder who this is?" E exclaimed.

Enma was already inside the shed, presumably taking something out. The rest just stood outside and formed a semi-circle. They were somewhat disgusted by what they see before them.

And when Enma finally pulled the content outside the shed, moonlight finally came across the object and revealed to everyone what it was.

"That's a dead-ass dead body, isn't it?" Minion said.

"You! You lead us here, did you do this?" Annera's voice was aggressive but her eyes were shining a hopeful light.

Dirge was suddenly put in the hot-seat. He didn't say anything, nay, he couldn't. He still was out of breath.

"But don't you think it's weird? Why is there a dead body or a corpse left behind when things that die usually turn to blue light?" Enma said as he shook his hands in disgust.

He was dragging a dead body with his hands, albeit it's all virtual, it was still disgusting.

"Don't you remember the contents of the promotional video for the update? NPCs leave their bodies now, or at least that works for those essential to quests." E reminded Enma.

They all stood and inspected the body. Muck joined them soon and was alarmed at what he discovered.

"This is. What is this? Dirge, you sick bastard!" Muck raised his voice in anger. Just like his voice, he raised his fist and hit Dirge in the face with a thunderous thud.

Grunt~

Dirge was put out cold by Muck's heavy punch.

"Woah Woah Woah. Calm down." Bob—who was right beside Dirge as they caught their breath—was nearly affected. Dirge was sent into Bob's lap and was now dreaming stars.

"This bastard! You killed a person and dared to put your ornaments on him! Who did you kill!? Tell me!" Muck shook Dirge who was still out of it.

SLAP!

"WHO!?" Muck screamed.

Cricket sound~

Well, you really shouldn't ask questions to a person who passed out.

"...." The party couldn't say anything.