Van glanced over to see that Sang was hiding behind a tree, as well, her bow drawn. Her eyes were narrow and Van could see she was breathing heavily.
“Time to cut!” the woman said as she held the chicken high in the air. The chicken clucked again quietly as the strange woman turned and disappeared into the woods.
“That was too weird,” Sang said. “There was something so lifeless about her eyes. And did you notice how there was no information on her? I tried to access her profile, but there wasn’t any interface.”
Van frowned. Now that Sang mentioned it, that did seem rather odd, that they hadn’t been able to access any of this strange woman’s information. Something about this situation was bothering him, although he couldn’t put it into words.
“I think I’m going to follow her,” Van said.
“We need to focus on finding some way to access Lemuel’s area,” Sang said. “We don’t have time to chase after some NPC.”
Van shook his head. “I’m sorry, Sang, but look at how much time we have left. It’s over after this. We’re not gonna grab Lemuel in time, so we might as well check this person out.”
“I’ll be able to figure it out,” Sang said. “I might be able to convince the brass to let us have one more day.”
“Are you really going to lie to the both of us?” Van said as he began to walk after the mysterious woman.
“Van, come on!” Sang shouted. “Come on, don’t… don’t go!”
Van ignored her and continued walking through the dark woods. He was fumbling to pull out his own torch, but then a dim light slowly arrived next to him; it was the light of a lantern belonging to Sang.
“This better lead to something…” she hissed.
“Here’s hoping,” Van replied. They walked together in utter silence for a few minutes. The NPC wasn’t hard to track, as the ground was muddy enough for her footprints to be identified easily. They followed the tracks all the way to a small cottage that was sitting by the side of a lake. There was light in this area—almost like a twilight of some sort. Van felt a shiver run down his spine as he looked over the cottage.
The NPC was dragging the chicken over to a large pen where dozens of other chickens were running around. Wordlessly, she placed the chicken in her hand on a tree stump and drew out a cleaver, suddenly hacking the creature’s head off in one clean blow. The words LETHAL BLOW hovered above the chicken. Blood spurted from the headless chicken as it fell to the ground. The strange woman picked up the severed head then and began to tie a rope around it. After she attached the head to the rope, she slid it through her belt, allowing the head to dangle off.
“Okay, that is weird,” Sang whispered. “What kind of psychopath would do that?”
Van shrugged. He had no idea what to think about something so horrible. Why was an NPC acting like this?
“Look alive, pixels!” came a voice from inside the cabin. Van and Sang both instinctively ducked behind trees to avoid being seen. A short man emerged from the cabin, wearing jeans and a T-shirt that read “Beer Hero.” It seemed very out of place for being in a fantasy world.
“He looks like he’s from the regular world,” Sang whispered. “What’s up with that?”
“It must be this area,” Van said. “It might be some kind of… I dunno, test zone or something. I can’t figure it out.”
“Watch it,” Sang hissed as she pointed at the cobblestone road running next to the nearby lake. There was a tall, lizard-like creature walking down the path. It was green and had big eyes. In some ways, it looked similar to the Messenger that Sang and Van had faced a month before. It walked on two legs, but was hunched over, hissing loudly to itself. Above its head were strange symbols instead of words.
“What is that thing?” Van asked.
“What if it’s a Draco? Like an actual part of the species?” Sang suggested.
“How would we know that?”
“Just a guess. Bloodrock is a highly secured area, right? This spot seems different than the others, too. That guy over there’s wearing regular clothes,” Sang whispered, “so what if this place is meant to reflect reality?”
“Hmmm, I don’t know what to tell you there,” Van said. “But you might be onto something. That might be why Jet was positive we’d be killable if we came into this area.”
“Well, I really don’t want to find out if his theory is right,” Sang said. “So, we need to be really careful here.”
Van nodded. “And, Sang, this is very important, but you also need to tell me that I was right. We’re definitely onto something important here.”
“Do you really want to taunt me in an area where you could potentially die for real?” Sang asked back.
Van grinned; it was nice to see her joking again. “Hey, I’ve got to try, right?”
“Shhh,” Sang hissed as she leaned against the tree again. The alien creature was walking toward the man in the T-shirt. The man walked up to the creature and bowed deeply to it. The alien hissed at him and waved its hand toward the forest. The man glanced in their direction, looking directly at where Van and Sang were hiding.
“Ah crap,” Van said. “I think it knows we’re here.”
Sang gripped her bow tightly and took a deep breath. “If he moves towards us, I’m opening fire.”
“I think we should retreat,” Van said.
“We’re not pulling back now. It’s getting too interesting,” Sang said. “If we gotta, we’re just gonna kill that guy and then lay the beat down on that scaled bastard.”
“Unless he’s got some kind of crazy alien powers like that Messenger,” Van said. “Then we’re going to be completely screwed.”
Sang said nothing. The man turned his head back to the lizard and began to talk back in the same, strange hissing language. It was extremely unsettling to hear coming from a human. The alien nodded and then began walking toward the lake. It walked for a few feet toward the water, and then it simply vanished.
“Whoa, did you see that?” Van asked. “Where’d it go?”
“Inside something,” Sang said as she pointed to a piece of moss that was hovering above the lake. “I think there’s some kind of invisible thing there. Like that monitoring station where Trefor took us.”
“There’s gotta be something,” Van said. “Something concrete.”
“I’m going in,” Sang said. The man in the T-shirt had gone back inside of the cottage and the NPC had followed after him.
“Are you sure?” Van asked. “We have no idea what’s in there.”
“You should log out,” Sang said. “If it looks like I’m in trouble, unplug me so I don’t die.”
Van shook his head. “No way. I’m not leaving you in here alone. And don’t forget—Draco can lock our pods. If you end up in trouble, there’s no getting out.”
Sang looked at Van wryly. “I know you’re terrified, Van, and I know you’re not crazy about having to risk your life. You’ve done a great job and we’re here because of you. You don’t have to go in there with me. You don’t have to risk anymore than you have.”
“I appreciate it, Sang,” Van replied as he drew his own short sword out. “But the fact is, I can’t leave you behind. I might be scared out of my wits, but we’re in this together.”
Sang shrugged. “A lot of people say that, and then they get shot and they start singing a different tune.”
“Good thing I’ll be stabbed instead of shot,” Van replied as he began to walk toward the area where the alien vanished. Sang followed after him with her bow drawn, ready for a fight. The two walked together, looking out for any sign of trouble.
“Now, as soon as we see that alien, we’re going to beat it down,” Sang said. “If we can keep it alive, we should, but I won’t hesitate to kill if it looks to be too big of a threat.”
Van nodded, but didn’t say a word. He could barely breathe and his heart kept crashing against his chest. He felt as if he was going to pass out. The adrenaline surge was intense, and he could barely keep his hands from trembling. While he definitely didn’t want to go in there, he knew that if Sang went in alone, she would most likely be killed. She wasn’t thinking straight and could easily make a mistake that would cost her everything.