The Awakening II

"YOU PUNY HUMANS DARE CONSIDER YOURSELF AS JUDGE OF LIFE OVER MY CREATIONS ?!?" a thunderous voice resounded. This voice felt very real and powerful to Fang. Going as far as causing intense pain throughout his body, unlike any other he felt in the game so far, as if somebody was grinding on his spine with a cold iron spike.

"YOU THINK YOU CAN SCARE GOD'S CREATION WITH THAT THING ON YOUR SHOULDER, AND THEN MASSACRE THEM MERCILESSLY WITHOUT ANY CONSEQUENCE ?!", it sounded again, causing even more pain than the previous time. Golden Goose fell to the ground, fainting from the pain.

"I WILL MAKE YOU SUFFER JUST AS MY CHILDREN DID". The next scene was imprinted forever in the mind of Fang. He had killed many beasts in this game but never a human. When he saw the body of Kirk getting slowly torn apart, organ by organ, limb by limb; seeing the blood splashing everywhere, like a flowing red river, he was truly stricken by fear. He couldn't move. The next scene of the body of Golden Goose getting killed was even worst. It truly couldn't be described with any words, Golden Goose screamed, inhumanly, as her bones got grinded to dust and as she was slowly getting skinned alive.

While being frozen in place by the deep fear that could be felt through his whole body, the voice resounded one last time : "AND NOW, YOU SHALL LIVE WITH THE REPERCUSSIONS OF YOUR ACTIONS FOREVER". Immediately, Fang blacked out.

***

A scream resounded in a forest. Fang had woken up.

[You have been cursed by the God of Beasts]

[You shall face a curse every 10 days]

[10D:00H:00M:00S]

[The Tribunal has chosen to bless the Player's shoulder guard in response to the God of Beasts' actions]

[??? Guard]

[???]

[Defense : 10]

[A piece of gear blessed by the Gods responsible for justice in ???]

[It has the following effects :

-Defense will grow with the Player's level

-Grants the Player a ??? talent for magic

-Makes all rabbits feel threatened by you

-Cannot be unequipped]

Still shook to his core by the previous event, Fang didn't even take the time to read his notifications and quickly contacted his party members to see their situation, surprisingly they were all still online.

-What happened ?! he asked, on the group chat.

-What do you mean, honey, Golden Goose replied.

-ARE YOU KIDDING ME ? ARE YOU GUYS OKAY ?

-Hum, are you fine, Fang ? Kirk asked.

Fang felt his soul leaving his body. As he was going to explain the situation in the best way he could to his teammates, a notification blocked him :

[The Tribunal is censoring your message]

Not understanding the situation at all, Fang decided to read the previous notifications to see if it would help him get a better understanding. It did. He got an idea of what had happened. "So I guess it's like that..." he said out loud, deep in thought. Now understanding that, for some reason, his party members must've lost the memory of the whole situation, he replied back in the group chat :

-Ah, sorry guys, wrong chat. I meant to send the message to my classmates.

-So... Are the sweeties from your class fine ?

-Yes.

***

"So the game can modify memories..." Fang shuddered at this thought, " Did my memory get altered too ?" With no answers to any of his questions and still shook from the previous events, Fang decided to walk towards Irka'r, the first encampment he encountered, to disconnect without any risk. Luckily for him, the place where he woke up wasn't that far from the encampment, on his way though, his eyes met with a rabbit and he felt a cold chill crawling on his back.

***

Getting out of his capsule, the first thing Boeros noticed, was the time. Normally, since the time spent in the capsule could somewhat replace sleep, Boeros would get out of the capsule early in the morning. However, it was now 2 in the morning and Boeros decided to get his first real night of sleep since game had started

When Boeros woke up, his mind was a bit clearer. He now understood that the events of yesterday were probably part of a special one-time event, and, to be honest, he was very hyped to be in the center of it all. Still, the idea of the game being able to tangle with memories scared him a bit.

Before going to school, Boeros decided to take a look on the game's forum. He was proud that his post, "The Guide to Levelling Your Spells" had passed 20 000 votes and was still getting more. He checked the forum for a bit, eventually sorting the posts from popularity. This led him to the top post. "So we can only use one Element ?". The poster explained that he had tried to use another spell after learning his first one, only to get a prompt from the system that said : "Player already has chosen an element". Boeros was a bit bummed out by this since he always wanted to be a mixed element mage. He then closed his computer and did a few push-up and ate breakfast before going to school.

***

Nothing having really happened at his school today, Boeros went back to his capsule has soon as he finished his homework for the day.

<Welcome back to Oak's Will>

Now that Fang was more involved in the game, he started to ponder on the title of the game. He didn't think about it for too long though, since most of the information the game gave him was heavily censored.

Fang talked a bit in the game chat with his party members and they had all agreed to meet near the encampment's Adventurer Quest's board for another quest. While walking towards it, Fang heard something that made him remember what he saw when he first entered Irka'r :

-Did you hear about the Elves fighting ?

-Tell me about it. It's truly horrible that the 8 kings can't seem to agree with each other on the situation. We shouldn't have to leave our villages to please the kings...

His curiosity now a little piqued at the NPC's discussion, he still continued toward the board, until he saw Golden Goose waving at him.