Conspiracy Time

"Somehow, the clothes fit like they're exactly my size."

Bob observed the creases of his shirt and armor. From when he received it, he thought that it would at least have a little bit of breathing room because Enma had a bigger build than him.

"Of course. I guess this is your first MMORPG then?" Enma asked Bob. He deduced that Bob did not know about the wonders of one-fit-for all equipment.

"Hmm." Bob clutched his chin to think of an answer. He could deduce that this term was connected with the world he was living in. He turned towards Annera to ask for a bit of help.

Annera stared at Bob straight in the eye and nodded her head discreetly.

She didn't need to hide their somewhat creepy relationship from everyone but she felt that the more others get curious, the more they'll look for details.

"Yea. This is my first MMOPRG." Bob said with confidence. He could now answer the questions that confused him from days ago.

"You spelled MMORPG wrong. Are you having fun so far?" E asked from the side.

"Fun? I just lost my mother last night."

"Oh. Sorry. My apologies."

The conversation ended with an awkward tone.

'Yikes.'

E stepped on a landmine. Now, their journey consisted of the sound of footsteps landing on dirt. There was metal, flip flops, and an awkward rhythm.

Step. Pause. Step. Pause. Pause. Step. Half a pause. Step.

'Dafuq is he doing?'

Minion easily became annoyed at the sound. The rhythm was unsettling and his ears were going to rot should it continue. The cause of the sound was Bob, who was walking in an awkward manner.

'Seriously. What the hell? Does he feel STDs in-game?' Minion observed Bob's movement. Everyone else also noticed that Bob was acting weird but no one dared to voice out a concern.

They were worried that they'd step on a landmine.

However, the man in question had a different concern.

'Damn. These leggings are tight and Enma didn't give me underwear.' His balls were sticking to the leather.

He irked when he walked, his steps became—as stated earlier—awkward. Wide step. Then a short one. Then a flick. Bob moved his legs in ways he never did before in his life.

-

"We have arrived at the destination. That was a surprisingly long walk, didn't expect such a quest to take us into a separate village altogether. But this is where we need to be to get the next clue." E explained.

They were at the forefront of a village that none of them ever have been in before.

"Sunny Side Village. That's a very nice name." Annera commented upon seeing the huge entrance name sign.

"Well, Maral led us to this place, but to be perfectly honest, I don't know what we need to do." E was clueless.

Flashback to when E accepted the quest, Annera's eyes sparkled upon hearing of the quest name. But when she read the details, there was hardly anything that could help her.

'Hmm. This quest smells fishy. My senses are tingling but is it really worth it?' She thought.

Annera was a calculative person. Despite getting whatever she wanted in real life, she never became a spoiled child due to one reason. She wasn't an idiot.

'Maybe it's best that I give this one to E. I have my hands full of Bob's secrecy for now. I still haven't given him a proper deliberation on what to keep to himself.'

She was not a genius, this novel isn't cliche after all. However, any functioning adult would know when to back off. And she was right.

[Hey. I accepted the quest, the rewards are great but the quest failure penalty is just plain stupid.] E sent her a whisper.

[Oh shit. What does it say?] She replied, in a whisper of course. Their silent conversation continued to irritate Crazy Dude Maral.

[It says I'll lose stats permanently. This is crazy!]

[What? Which stat?]

[It doesn't specify! It says I'll lose 40 stats, that's 4 levels worth of stats.]

[My condolences.]

[Hey! Help me out here.]

E was troubled. This was the first time he ever got a quest that had this much of a penalty. From his past experiences with games, there were penalties that reduced your experienced and revoked items but never stats.

"You fools are disrespectful. But I like that you're silent. Do this task, and I shall reward you handsomely." Crazy Dude Maral turned his back towards the two and started walking.

Seeing Maral suddenly retreating, E called out to him in panic. He still needed more information about this task aside from the details in the prompt.

"If ever I finish this quest, where do I find you?"

Crazy Dude Maral stopped in his tracks. He didn't look back and simply spoke.

"I'll know when you have it, and I shall reach out to you then. Remember, do it post-haste. Kikikikiki."

Those were Maral's last words before he vanished into the morning fog.

"Fuck. I got duped." E complained.

"Well, don't you think that the greater the risk, the greater the reward?" Annera honestly felt relieved that she dodged that bullet, but she couldn't show it to E.

"Sigh. I'll be busy with this for a while. It probably shouldn't take a whole day, right?"

"Dunno. You haven't told me the proper details yet."

-

[One of the Twelve]

-Jovanni's Beastiary has a list of monsters that could destroy kingdoms by themselves. Find out the secret of Jovanni's list and secure the Rainbow Egg.

-Crazy Dude Maral specifically asked for the Rainbow Egg to be given to him, unharmed.

-'I've been told that there were records of Jovanni held within Sunny Side Village. Begin your search there.'

-Quest Reward: Epic Rated Levelled Set, 2 levels, and Mythical Seasoning x1.

"That's all of the details. It doesn't say what exactly I should do." E explained to everyone within the party.

Although everyone already knew about the quest, there was one person who was never informed. It was Bob.

"I see. Then it's best we ask the locals then?" Bob suggested.

Everyone nodded at his suggestion. It was obvious that they needed to ask around. And because of Bob's initiative, they started splitting up to make the work more efficient.

Bob turned around and walked by himself. He didn't have a proper place to walk to, he doesn't know that village layout after all.

"I'm coming with you." Annera caught up to Bob and tapped his should before uttering.

'I still have to teach you to keep your mouth shut.' Annera thought.

Annera remembered the quest she had which had worse penalties than E's quest. She double-checked and saw the quest that was written in comic sans, red font, bold.

[Keep Your Mouth Shut] Quest given by 'The System.'

-N/A

-Rewards: N/A

-Quest Penalty: N/A.

Upon seeing this, Annera felt a bit threatened. The blank quest details, rewards, and penalties meant that the moderators did not want her to save a screenshot of the quest.

'Security is pretty tight. Well, it's not like I have genuine friends in real life that I'd want to inform. Jokes on them.' Annera thought that the restrictions weren't something that held her back.

But that's just sad.

"So. Where do you think we should check first? If you don't have an idea, then let's go to the village pub." Annera voiced out her suggestion.

"Pub? Why would we go to a place filled with smelly people?" Bob could not understand why Annera would want to ask people in a pub.

"Don't you think that's where people talk? It's a great place to ask."

"No. It isn't. Have you ever been to a real pub before? Most people there are rough people who spit in your eye. If you want information, then I have a better suggestion."

"Pray tell."

"We go ask the tattletales. The chismosas. Housewives, if you aren't familiar with them."

Housewives held information that could destroy a person's life. But instead of making things public, they just use the information for entertainment. And with their high-speed data transfer network, the probably caught wind of Jovanni.

Knock Knock~

Bob knocked on a random door. But he didn't get an answer.

"We have a problem." Bob uttered.

"Hmm. Is no one home?" Annera asked.

"No. They're asleep."

The world of Immersion Online was set in a fantasy world where technology did not develop. Instead, there was magic, and swords, and mythical creatures. But there was no publicly available and convenient lighting system.

"Oh. It's still early though? Why would they be asleep?"

"What kind of question is that? People can't see in the dark so they prefer to sleep instead of working."

Early to bed, early to rise. That was the motto of every peasant household, who would consider lantern fuel as a luxury.

Knock Knock~

"Still nothing."

Bob tried every residential house that they passed by.

Knock Knock~

"Should we ask around in the morning?"

Knock Knock~

And when they reached the last residential house, Bob knocked once more.

Knock Knock~

But still, he didn't get a reply.

Giving up, Bob and Annera languidly walked away. They took the liberty to chat with their teammates via party chat to meet up, saying that they didn't get anything useful.

But when they were almost out of the residential area, numerous doors suddenly swung open.

Creeeeeeaaaaaakkkk~~

A single figure from every household suddenly walked outside of their residences and congregated.

[Muffled Noises]

Bob crouched and tried to eavesdrop on their conversation but he couldn't make anything out of it.

The figures silently moved in the dark.

"Let's follow them." Bob moved as if he knew this would happen from the start.

"I have no idea what's happening, but OK!" Annera replied.

"Shhhhh! Hush."