I woke up face-down on the cold, dusty floor.
I heard groaning, and thankfully, Rina Wenswood was right next to me, safe and sound.
For a second, I thought I was still dreaming, because the digital world as I knew it was no different from the fake world created by the Eastern Blue-Winged Butterfly.
The tower appeared again as I picked up my torch on the floor; already extinguished and require a kindle, sound came back, and my lungs remembered how to breathe again.
A dull ringing filled my ears, and when I sat up, Rina started groaning too.
Her hair was a mess, golden strands sticking to her face as she blinked in confusion. We were still in Worsetingale’s tower, second floor, the one with the old bed and the heavy curtains, presumably right where we killed the goat.
"...You okay?" I croaked, my voice hoarse like I’d been screaming. "Are you the real Rina?"
"I should ask you that!" She groaned a bit, brushing off her shoulder. "But yeah... I think so... Was it one of Worsetingale creation?"
We looked at each other as we sat on the floor, I groggily stood up with the help of my longsword, while Rina started tapping the air, accessing her popup UI, I assumed.
"God, that felt unreal, I feel drools in my mouth like I actually slept."
That said, would that mean Darkmoon Adventure VR have a sleep mode?
"Cory..." Rina whispered, "Check the time."
I frowned, getting deja vu and hoping that this wasn’t another fake Rina for some reason. I did as she asked and opened my UI... Sure enough, my eyes widened out of shock.
The time read 18:33:20.
We, allegedly, entered at around 18:31:02
Barely two minutes after we’d entered the tower.
That made a lot of sense, we entered the tower, checked out the first floor, freaked out about the second floor’s goat, and killed it, then dropped dead.
All of that would’ve taken approximately two minutes.
My mind began spinning, trying to rearrange my memories, and thankfully it made sense... Me and her checking out the floors, us gradually misremember our friends, the supposed empty front door now had a large gate blocking the way.
Those hours were just barely half a second in the real world.
That damned Eastern Blue-Winged Butterfly, warping perception of time, make split a second feel like lifetimes while the body stayed still.
Does the butterfly alter memories? I thought it would just send you to sleep and convince you to stay. ᴛʜɪs ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀ ɪs ᴜᴘᴅᴀᴛᴇ ʙʏ NoveI(F)ire.net
I began explaining everything to Rina, giving her my side of the story and my theory which I wholeheartedly believe is what happened.
The moment Rina shot the goat, we both fell unconscious, and in those one or two seconds before we woke up... the butterfly attempted to kill us and feed on us.
Everything after the shot, like the locked door, we laying down together, Rina’s sudden change of personality, was all an illusion.
An hour-long search through the tower, stretched into infinity, and all in the blink of an eye. I wonder how long I could’ve stayed until the Butterfly got agitated and lunged on me?
At least, that’s what happened in my world, because things should’ve been different in Rina’s world.
So, I turned to Rina.
"How long were you in there?" I asked
She thought about it for a second.
"Five minutes, I think? Just when we were searching the third floor. My fake you told me you still lived with your parents."
"She actually said that?" That made me wince, "Big fumble."
"Mhm... Hailie told me you live with her family now, so I figured something was off." Rina raised an eyebrow, "Besides, if I was wrong, you could easily retaliate if it’s really you."
"Ugh..." I groaned, covering my face with both hands. "Hailie needs to stop sharing my personal information around, I swear to god, just a month ago, only like 6 alive person knew my real name."
"She meant well," Rina said with a small grin. "Besides, that’s what made me realize it wasn’t real."
That hit me harder than I expected. She figured it out because she knew me better than the butterfly did. Meanwhile, I didn’t knwo shit about her and only figured it out by the fact that I was... Well, a nerd who’ve spent too much time dealing with monsters in Darkmoon Adventure.
Still, it was weirdly comforting knowing we both woke up at the same time. Like even if time got scrambled, I spent 2 hours in there and she spent 5 minutes, our consciousness synced back up at the same time in the real world somehow.
She struggled a bit to stand, so I gave out a hand and helped her up.
Rina stood, brushing dust off her knees and butt, before patting my head with a smile.
"My quest log just updated," she said, looking at the air towards a screen I couldn’t see, "It’s telling me to return to the knight who sent us to investigate Worsetingale’s tower."
"Good," I muttered. "Means we’re done with this butterfly nonsense."
I stretched and added:
"Once everyone affected by the illusion, aka you and me, is freed, the butterfly starves and die on itself after spending its strongest ability without any return, as far as my knowledge during the Early Access goes, it’s dead."
"Guess so." Rina gave a tired laugh.
We stood and stretched for a bit longer, yawning too at that, before she tapped my shoulder plate and nodded toward the stairwell.
"Want to check the other floors? If the illusion messed with what we saw, we should confirm what’s real."
"Nope," I said, spinning my heel around 360 out of neurodivergency, "It’s boring and a waste of time, the quest’s finished, can’t we just go?"
Rina hesitated for a bit, but then she nodded.
"Then let’s go, I wanna see what actually exists up there."
We descended the stairs, step by careful step. The archway that was sealed shut in my dream, was now wide open. No door and no obstruction, just the dim light of sunset spilling inside.