What's he doing?!

The warrior watched blankly as the guy right next to her walked into the horde, as if in a trance. She grabbed his shoulder, but he shook her off as he stumbled further in. He looked around, his head shaking from side to side, like he was sleepwalking. The horde nipped at his ankles, but slowly made a path for him. She looked around in amazement as the entire horde stopped fighting, focusing on the player. She didn't waste this chance, killing two wabbits easily, and kicking away a third.

The guy came to a stop in an open space, right before a single wabbit. The warrior stared in confusion. This wabbit had red and grey fur and was standing on two legs. In other words, it was an elite. But the only monsters that were supposed to spawn in the first wave were regular wabbits and laser wabbits. She tried Examine on it, but nothing happened.

The player stumbled and fell as the horde closed in around him.

"Wait, what the fuck is he doing?"

She heard someone mutter next to her. Their face was covered in a cowl, making it hard for her to distinguish their features.

"Hey Milo, do you see that rabbit?"

"A little occupied here, Gav!" Behind her, she saw an archer desperately fending off three wabbits.

"My bad," Gav said, helping out the archer, distracting the monsters long enough for the archer to shoot them. "Anyway, just shoot that red rabbit over there, okay?"

"What red rabbit? Wait, what the hell is D-"

"Just do it!"

Then Gav disappeared, running into the horde, and pulled away the player.

The rabbit growled, an unearthly sound coming from its mouth. It jumped, as if to snatch back its catch. Then an arrow came flying past Gav, right in its forehead. It shrieked, blood spurting out of the wound. It shimmered, its figure growing hazy, like how rogues used Stealth. Gav swung a knife across its chest, finishing it off.

Gav set the player down on the ground. Their eyes were closed and their face had turned pallid and gray. "Shit, is he asleep?" The cloaked guy said. He clicked his tongue, poking him a few times. "What did that thing do to him?"

With the sudden removal, the horde came back to life, attacking once more and giving the warrior no time to ask what had happened.

"Nix, what are you doing?! They're almost all dead!" Her teammate, Damon, yelled from behind her. He swung his sword, batting away a wabbit close to her chest. His wooden sword looked horrible, like it was on the verge of breaking. Even though he had an iron sword, he refused to use it, saying that he wanted a "challenge."

"You're still using that thing? Seriously?"

Damon threw it past her, nailing a laser wabbit. "Nah, I just picked this up from the ground. My sword broke like a few seconds ago."

She looked back at the horde and whistled. Only a few laser wabbits were left, and one or two regulars.

A few seconds later, a blue screen popped up in front of everyone.

The first wave has been cleared. The second wave is starting in ten minutes.

Nix sank to the ground, exhausted. It seemed everyone else felt the same way. Damon took a seat beside her, fiddling with his broken sword. Nix glanced behind her.

"Is it just the two of us left?" She asked.

"No, Lira's still here. Shio should be alive too." Lira was the tanker in their party, while Shio was their archer. Hina and Trio, the two buffers in their team, had gotten killed in the ambush on the backline. "I had no idea they could dig that fast," Damon remarked. "Now the two of them'll be sulking in the corner later." He laid down in the grass and sighed.

An unexpected event has occurred!

"What's this?" Nix asked.

"Oh great, don't tell me it's gonna throw some level 10 shit at us." Damon groaned.

A hidden boss has been defeated! Mad Hare Lvl 5 Participants: 1. Gav (35%) 2. Milo (30%) 3. Daru (25%) 4. Nix (15%)

Nix scanned through the list of names, then stopped when she got to hers.

"Hey, Jackie, what the hell? There was a hidden boss?" Damon asked, calling her by her real name.

"Yeah, I have no idea what I did." She replied.

"No, I don't care about that. I care that there was a hidden boss, and you didn't tell me. Half the people on our team are dead-"

"I didn't know it was a hidden boss! I only saw since that guy over there," she gestured to the player lying on the ground, "that guy just started walking through the horde for some reason."

"What do you mean, "walking through?" That makes no sense! The second you step into that mess you die!"

"I don't know. It was some Moses shit, alright?"

"What's that supposed to mean? What, they just let him walk through?" He looked at her incredulously. They were monsters, but beyond that, bits of code. Why would they go against their programming?

"Yeah, that's basically what happened."

Rewards will be distributed afterwards.

"What?! There's rewards for this shit?! Actually, never mind, why wouldn't there be rewards? Urghhh...." Damon put his head in his hands. "You lucky bastard."

Nix laughed. "Funny thing is, I didn't even do anything. I just saw it happen and somehow got 15%."

"Yeah right. In that case, how come only four people got listed then? There's no way only four people saw some weird shit was going down," Damon retorted, gesturing to the other three.

"Well, did you see it?"

"What? No, of course not-"

"Exactly." She said, shrugging.

"What do you mean?" His forehead wrinkled. "Of course, I wouldn't have seen it-"

"You weren't that far from me though, right? And if you didn't see it, don't you think a lot of other people wouldn't have either?"

She stretched her arm across her chest. "Besides, it said it was a hidden event or whatever, right? Wouldn't really be hidden if everyone saw it, you know."

Damon scowled. "Fair enough. Anyway, want a potion?" He tossed her a vial of light green liquid, filled 80% of the way to the top.

"How many do we have left?" Nix asked, uncorking the top. She tilted her head back, swallowing the contents in one gulp.

"We still have plenty. We ended up not using as many as I thought we would, since Hina and Trio basically got one-shot." He sighed. "Seriously, what the fuck is up with the balance in this game? What about this entire thing seems like a dungeon, anyway?"

"It feels more like survival, you know, like in zombie games." Suddenly, a light thud came down on her head.

"Ow!" She said, clutching her head. Nix looked behind her and punched Shio.

"Guh... You didn't have to hit me so hard," Shio said, putting a hand over his chest dramatically. His gloves and boots were on the verge of turning into scraps and his black hair was a mess, but otherwise he seemed to be doing okay.

"That's what you get, you idiot. Why'd you hit me?"

Shio stuck out his tongue. "I just wanted to stop Damon from boring you to death, okay? You looked kinda like you were in a trance or something like that Daru guy."

"Wait, you saw it too?" Damon butted in, turning to him unexpectedly.

"If by saw you mean I saw that guy's half-dead body over there, then yeah, I saw him." Daru still wasn't moving, though his complexion had returned to normal by now. He had held on to his weapons the entire time, the wood firmly glued to his ice-cold fingers. Gav, pressed two fingers to Daru's neck, checking his pulse. Looking at the lines on his face, it didn't seem good.

Shio clicked his tongue. "Ya know, it's kind of a good thing we didn't get wrapped up in that."

"What are you talking about? It's a hidden boss! Who knows what kind of rewards you could get from killing that?"

Shio shrugged. "I mean, think about it. It's a monster that can basically one shot you, not to mention," he said, pointing at Daru, "it kind of puts you in a coma. If that thing had gotten out of control, it'd be game over." He yawned. An empty laugh escaped from his mouth. "It's only been the first round, and I'm beat!"

I had to get away. The great forest was shaking. Louder than I ever heard it. And then I found my escape. That human. That's how they did it, Father said. You bite them and then you go inside of them. He didn't know what happened afterwards. But you were safe, weren't you.

Father disappeared shortly after. Sister did too. Brother thought he died. But I knew they had gone with the humans. They always felt different from the rest of us.

The human was weak. A youngling, Brother would have called him. Too naive to recognize the predator. And too easy to take advantage of.

And now I am here. Where is here? Is this inside of humans? It's too white to be, isn't it? It feels... I don't know. I feel warmth, but I don't feel... alive. Or dead. What happened to me?

Wait. It is shaking. But not as much as the forest was. What is going on?

It's dark...

The weight on him disappeared. Daru opened his eyes, wincing. He was... where was he?

He wasn't in the fields anymore, that he could tell. But he didn't know where this was, either. He could only see white. Just white, everywhere, all around him, even below him, which startled him. He reached down to touch the ground and his hand passed through. So he was floating? Floating high up in the sky, or wherever he was.

No, didn't I die? So this is... game heaven?

At least it was better than... being shoved into the ground by zombie hands, or whatever that shit was. Jesus Christ. He didn't want to think about it, but the gory images of the streamer being eaten kept shoving themselves into his brain.

A sudden noise snapped him out of his thoughts. It echoed around him, as if he was in a large hallway.

Is that a... dog- Gah!

A gray blur crashed into him. He could feel a warm, humid breath on his face.

"What the-"

He looked up.

"What the hell? What's a dog doing here?" He muttered. A large dog sat on top of him.

The human is here! Tell me, human! Release me from this prison! You must know, wouldn't you?

Wait. He seems weak. Much weaker than before. I can barely feel his life force. He isn't dying, is he?

Ah! He is dying, I can feel it! Quickly, quickly, I must-

The dog barked again, louder, and he covered his ears. It wriggled happily as his arms reached out to touch it. Suddenly, his fingers passed through its fur. The dog whined and tilted its head, before snuggling closer into his arms.

"What... it's not real?" The dog licked him on the face, as if to deny his thoughts.

"Eugh... Wait, my face isn't wet. What the hell?" The spot where he had been licked was completely dry to the touch.

The dog came closer, wrapping itself in his arms. Daru softened, leaning on it, only to pass right through it. He caught himself before he hit the floor- or whatever his legs were floating on anyway.

He stood up, bewildered. The dog just looked at him, its tongue sticking out.

Woof!

Daru took a breath. "So the dog's not real, I guess. Which makes this..." He looked around again. Not a single clue on where he was in sight. "Some sort of lucid dream in the game?" He repeated his words, laughing incredulously. "A lucid dream inside of a game. What the fuck."

Woof! Woof!

The dog wagged its tail, tilting its head.

He laughed again, reaching down to pet it. And just like before, his hand passed through it, like it was an ghost. A warm, moist, ghostly dog. It radiated heat, but it had no substance.

Wait. Was this even a dog? He had no idea what kind of breed this was, but surely they weren't this big, right? When he stood up, the dog was waist height, maybe chest or even shoulder height. The head looked slightly off too, but it-

Woof!

"...Ah, fuck it. It's a dog." Daru said, letting go of his thoughts. He sat down, running his hand through its fur. The warmth soothed him as he closed his eyes.

"So comfortable," he murmured. He could feel the heat taking all his aches away.

Thud.

The space around him shook, snapping him out of his reverie. The dog barked, leaping through him. He turned around to see a pitch-black mass.

What the hell is that? Some sort of shadow blob thing? He didn't know how to describe it. It was like some sort of shifting mass, like a moving black hole that didn't suck but just existed.

The blob shuddered, as if performing some sort of transformation. It grew horns, shrank, and molded together a face.

A horned wabbit?

Black, shadowy tendrils sprouted from its back.

Oh fuck, it's got tentacles. I don't like where this is going.

He quickly moved into a fighting stance, before realizing he didn't have any weapons. Actually, he had nothing, just a shirt and pants. It must've disappeared after he died. Then again, if he was here, was he really dead, or-

He punched himself. Right. Rabbit blob thing, with tentacles. Back to reality.

The dog growled, jumping at the monster. It leaped, pouncing on a tentacle, biting it ferociously.

"No!" Daru shouted, running at the wabbit.

The monster paused, as if processing the attack, then simply pierced through with the tentacle.

Daru gritted his teeth, pulling the dog away as quick as he could. "Get away from that thing!" The dog only whimpered, shaking in his arms. He felt something slick on his leg. He looked down, only to see a tentacle coming right at him, quick as a flash, for his head.

Suddenly, a commotion came from where Daru's body lay.

"What the fuck?" the group heard someone mutter.

"His arm's glowing!" Someone shouted. A reddish light came out of Daru's arm, then disappeared after a few seconds.

Then they heard a small groan. Daru's body began to vibrate slowly.

"Shit, what the hell's going on?" Gav mumbled, fumbling for his pack. He quickly uncapped a potion and gave it to Daru, but his lips wouldn't budge open. Rather, they were sealed shut, his teeth grinding against each other.

Suddenly, they opened, a black blob coming out. It trickled out of his mouth and dissolved upon touching the grass. Gav quickly poured the potion into his brother's mouth, but it was too late. Daru began to shine, turning brighter and brighter, before turning into shards of light.

The four of them each took a deep breath. Shio looked at Damon with a raised eyebrow. "Alright, so a curse that puts you in a coma and kills you. You sure you want to face that next time, Damon?"

"That... thing..." Nix said in a small voice.

"Huh?"

"What?" Shio and Damon turned towards her simultaneously.

"It just... I'm going to be sick, oh my god." Nix put her hand over her mouth.

Shio frowned. "Wait. Did you not put on the filter?"

"What filter?!"

"You.. didn't know? You can configure this stuff in settings-"

"There's a settings feature? What, do you just say 'settings'-" A blue box popped up in front of her face. She sighed. "Couldn't you have told me about this earlier?"

"Oh yeah, sorry, I forgot all you do is study," Damon said. "It's pretty standard in games to have a settings feature."

"No, I don't just study, I play games! I just didn't expect there'd be one in a VR game!"

"Why not?"

"I don't know, it just kinda ruins the whole 'fantasy' experience. Do you know what I- ah, fuck it, I'm gonna go throw up after this," she said, turning on the gore filter.