Ath3na's eyelids fluttered open, and after a blurry moment of confusion, she recognized the face peering down at her. It was the platinum blonde teenager from the commentator's box, the one named Morgue.
"There you are," Morgue smiled warmly down on Ath3na. "You had us worried there for a moment, dearie."
"W…what happened?" Ath3na asked.
As she tried to sit up, a hand appeared at her back to help her. It belonged to Maestro who was standing on the other side of the cot Ath3na lay in.
"What happened?" Ath3na repeated.
"You depleted your soul core," Maestro answered. "We call this affliction... soul drain."
"A very dangerous thing to do in the Abyss," Morgue added. "We nearly lost you…"
"Lost me?" Ath3na asked confused. "I…I don't understand… I passed out inside a game…?"
"The Abyss emulates real-life situations as accurately as possible," Maestro explained quickly.
Ath3na's brow furrowed. "I still don't understand… What would have happened to me?"
"A spiritual body starved of energy becomes susceptible to invasion from the corruption of outside forces," Morgue explained.
"Outside forces?" Ath3na repeated.
"The very air we breathe contains in it all kinds of malicious bacteria that carry the corruption of all manner of the Abyss' denizens," Morgue explained further.
"Some of them like to spew nasty stuff into the air," Maestro translated.
"This is normally not a concern because the soul core is insulated from corruption by one's soul energy," Morgue continued.
"But you ran out of gas in your tank," Maestro chimed in. "And an empty tank can be refilled by a different kind of poison."
"Turning you into a creature far removed from what you'd call human," Morgue added ominously.
There was a pause as they waited for Ath3na to absorb this sudden info drop, and despite the intense migraine currently assaulting her brain, she quickly realized what they were getting at.
"Abomination," Ath3na whispered.
Morgue patted her reassuringly on the shoulder. "Don't worry, dearie… I managed to insert a bit of my own soul energy into you in time to avoid that complication."
Ath3na shut her eyes and searched within herself for that ball of light pulsating inside her. She found it rather quickly for it exuded a purplish light that was quite different from the sky blue glow she was used to. Even stranger, Ath3na's core pulsed much faster than usual, like a heart beating twice as fast after a good workout.
"This is a bit of energy?" Ath3na asked.
Morgue laughed a tinkling laugh that Ath3na could have sworn she'd heard before.
"You'll need time to assimilate the soul energy I gave you before it can be useful," Morgue explained.
"How long will that take?" Ath3na asked.
"Days to weeks," Morgue answered. "Or no time at all if…"
"If?" Ath3na pressed.
"Well, I took a peek into your core and noticed that you're already on the verge of reaching the next stage of your evolution… leveling up now will automatically assimilate my energy into yours," Morgue explained.
Ath3na's brow furrowed even further. This was a choice she wasn't sure she was ready to make yet.
"You're lucky Morgue here managed to resuscitate you… otherwise," Maestro slid his finger across his neck. "Let's just say turning into an abomination shouldn't be on anyone's bucket list."
Instead of feeling reassured by their comments, Ath3na frowned at the pair of them.
"This is one f*cked up scenario the devs cooked up…" she sighed. "Who codes this kind of problem into a game?"
"As I said, the Abyss emulates real-life situations as accurately as possible," Maestro repeated.
"Passing out from overwork doesn't turn humans into monsters in real life," Ath3na replied with her eyebrow raised.
There was another pause where Ath3na watched Maestro and Morgue exchange looks, the kind people do when they're figuring out what to say next. It was a very real expression and not at all how NPCs should have behaved.
Another thing Ath3na noticed was that Maestro had just referred to the Abyss as a game. She wasn't sure NPCs would have known that.
Ath3na's eyes narrowed as her suspicions were aroused, and she would have asked them what they were hiding if another thought hadn't just popped into her head at that exact moment.
"What happens to my character if I become an abomination?" Ath3na asked, curiosity getting the better of her frustration.
"I'm not sure what you mean by character," Maestro answered. "But you, Ath3na, would no longer be yourself but a creature enslaved to your base nature."
His brow furrowed, almost like he was debating internally if he should say more. To Ath3na's mind, this made him a rather convincing NPC, or more likely, not an NPC at all. Perhaps the rumors were true and Maestro really was a dev pretending to be an NPC.
"There is no cure once one becomes an abomination… the condition is permanent," Maestro added after his brief pause.
"I wouldn't be able to use my character anymore?" Ath3na asked incredulously.
Maestro nodded.
"That's just… wow…" Ath3na was repeatedly shaking her head. "A game designed to have real stakes involved when playing…"
Neither Maestro nor Morgue responded to her comment.
"Now that we've answered all your questions," Morgue interrupted. "I have one of my own."
Ath3na raised an eyebrow at the NPC who was smiling sweetly back at her.
"Why would you risk depleting your soul core like this?" Morgue asked.
"I…" Ath3na couldn't bring herself to admit out loud that she was afraid of the consequences of ingesting too much soul essence. She didn't want to say the A-word out loud either. But the perky teenage girl standing over her in her comfy blue coat was hard to ignore. "There are issues with soul essence that I'm uncomfortable with…"
"Ah," Maestro nodded his head. "We're aware of how addictive absorbing essence can be for Substitute Reapers… we're working on it."
Ath3na raised a bushy eyebrow at him. "You're working on it? Are you really an NPC?"
"I don't understand what you mean," Maestro answered flatly.
Ath3na sighed. There was no point pressing the issue when she didn't have any proof to back up her suspicions.
"Well, work on it faster," she said after a brief pause. "Better yet, tell your devs to cut that sh*t out of the game… I get the real stakes thing but come on… no need to make things too difficult for your paying customers."
As she said this, Ath3na frowned. She realized that she's never paid to play the game. All she did was find the Easter egg and she was in. Even now, with ten thousand players logging into the Abyss, she hadn't heard of anyone shelling out money to play.
"That's weird," she whispered.
"What is?" Morgue piped in.
"Everything in this game is," Ath3na replied.
She got off her cot and rose to her feet. There was not much point talking with these two as she wasn't likely to get any real answers from them. Ath3na would have to research the Abyss' development on her own once she got back to reality.
"Thanks for saving my life, I guess," she said to Morgue.
"My pleasure," Morgue said right before she handed Ath3na a piece of paper.
"What's this?" Ath3na took the paper and scanned its contents. Her eyebrows rose higher and higher the longer she stared at it." Seriously… you're charging me for the rescue?"
"Nothing's free in the Abyss, dearie," Morgue replied with a smile.
"E…eighty low-grade soul stones?" Ath3na reread the bill in her hand. "A resurrection costs just half of that…"
"For level ones', sure, but you're a level two," Morgue reminded Ath3na. "Plus, emergency services are always more expensive, dearie."
"Seriously," Ath3na placed her hands on her hips. "Are you two really NPCs?"
For an answer, Morgue put out her hand. "Best get to paying, dearie. You don't want to miss the second match of the semi-finals, do you?"