[Player QiLeren has commenced quest: Witchcraft Sacrifice]

[Quest background: There exists a tradition in Makah Village and several others around it of sacrificing thirteen young girls to demons every three years. These thirteen girls are driven into the depths of the forest, where they must unlock the four sealed towers to reveal the sacred sacrificial palace. There, one girl shall be chosen to become a witch and the demon for eternity.]

[Due to quest specifics, male players will be granted female bodies for the quest duration, reversible upon completion.]

[Witchcraft Sacrifice (Stage 1): Unseal the four towers. Current progress: 0/4.]

[Sync Countdown: 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, Sync Complete]

Awareness came in pieces. QiLeren could feel the ground faintly shaking beneath him, the distant sound of hooves and hushed female voices feathering at the edges of his consciousness. With a jolt, he opened his eyes.

He was on a carriage.

Lines of game notifications flashed across his mind, and he subconsciously looked down at his chest when it came to a certain one - lo and behold, there were two things on there that definitely shouldn"t be. At all.

What the f.u.c.k?! Whoever designed this quest desperately needed to see a psychiatrist, because this had crossed the line from questionable taste to psychopathy. With a sinking feeling, he clenched his legs together, and felt - yeah, nope, the important thing between them was gone.

This f.u.c.king game.

QiLeren was never going to choose another female avatar for the aesthetics in his life. The trauma ran too deep.

"Are you alright?" the person sitting across from him asked.

QiLeren wiped the expression off his face as he raised his head, though he paused at the distinctly Asian woman before him. His gaze darted to her waist - she didn"t have a belt on, but the fact that they both wore identical white sacrificial gowns made it unclear if she had no belt in the first place or simply chose to hide it. NPC? Or player?

"I"m YeXia, nice to meet you. We"re…the same." With a flick of her handsome face, she unflinchingly patted her waist and gave away her ident.i.ty as a player.

YeXia…with a name like that, could this person be male as well? But considering the easy att.i.tude of her introduction, maybe that wasn"t the case.

QiLeren moved his attention to the other two women on the carriage. One of them looked like a halfie, a pair of beautiful emerald eyes shining from the corner she was quietly curled into, while the other had the cla.s.sic appearance of a blonde hair blue-eyed doll.

The blonde, clearly the youngest, fixed them with a watery look. "Have you seen my big sister?"

"Who"s your sister?" YeXia asked.

"My sister"s name is Elsa, and mine is Elle. If you see her, could you please bring her to me?" Elle begged. "She gets sick really easily and I"m scared something"s going to happen to her while she"s all alone."

Almost immediately, QiLeren received a notification:

[Branch quest: Locate Elsa. Help Elle reunite with her sister, Elsa, before completing the primary objective. Reward: 10 day(s) + Lucky Draw x1. No penalties apply for quest failure.]

When he looked enquiringly at YeXia, he found her staring back - she had clearly received the same quest. "Looks like we can consider working together for now."

"My thoughts exactly." QiLeren startled at the sounds that came out of his own mouth. The h.e.l.l was this loli voice? Could someone please save him from this nightmare?!

YeXia laughed and fluttered her eyelashes at him. "Adorable little girls like you shouldn"t act so solemn."

Did…did he just get teased? QiLeren took a moment to feel indignant about his designation as an "adorable little girl"; he may not be as handsome as SuHe, but he was still good-looking enough to coax an extra ladle of food from canteen ladies. Why was his female counterpart a loli?!

"QiLeren. My name." Thank G.o.d his name sounded androgynous. It"d be way too awkward for him to reveal his true gender at this point in time.

"What about you?" YeXia asked the girl huddled in the corner.

The girl hesitated, unease flashing through her eyes. "My, my name is Anna…" She lowered her head and fell silent.

It seemed that Anna was more aware of the gravity of their situation than Elle, who was still young and somewhat naive. "A girl from the village next to ours was chosen three years ago," Elle said, telling YeXia about the legend in her village. "The adults all said she went to serve the n.o.ble demon and now it"s me and my sister"s turn. My sister was really scared and kept saying she didn"t want to go, but we get locked up if we don"t… A few girls ran away together a few days ago. Chief sent so many people after them. I wonder if they got away."

Ran away together? QiLeren looked at the back of his left hand, which had shrunk a few glove sizes after his transformation; the emblem on it was probably from one of the girls who ran away.

An idea came to mind. "Do you know how many girls ran away?"

Elle started counting off her fingers, "One, two, three, four, five…six, there were six girls that ran away."

Then there were probably six players in this quest.

Elle scrunched up her nose and wilted a little. "I miss my big sister…"

"Don"t worry," YeXia rea.s.sured as she gently petted Elle"s hair, "we"ll find your sister."

Cute…

This was not the time for cute. QiLeren wrenched his thoughts away from frivolous matters and onto the situation at hand. "Where are we going now?"

"We"re going to Demon Woods. Chief said that we need to unlock four sealed towers before going to the underground palace to see the n.o.ble demon. But…but I really want to go home…"

Elle"s information was more or less in line with the quest background. Closing his eyes, he combed through the details; they first needed to find the four towers, and then unseal them in some way, and then enter the palace and become a witch.

His strength and speed were definitely lowered in this body. He had bought some potentially useful items with what little lifespan he had left, but whether or not he"ll actually get to use them was uncertain. Thankfully, SuHe had left his [Bloodthirsty Dagger] with him before leaving…

"I"m afraid this quest will prove to be quite difficult for you," SuHe said as they stood before the entrance of Makah Village, calm and gentle as always. "I can"t help much, but I hope this"ll prove to be some use to you." Here, he delivered the ornate dagger into QiLeren"s hands.

Before QiLeren could protest, SuHe interrupted him with a smile. "Please hold your words until I finish. This may sound like a boast, but I am in no need for weapons such as these. To me, this dagger is but another item for my collection, whereas to you it may prove to be incredibly useful. Your S/L skill is very compatible with it; perhaps you"ll be able to unlock its ability quite quickly. But most importantly…

"I dearly hope we"ll meet again." SuHe"s voice was soft as it danced upon the breeze, so gentle QiLeren thought the sight before him might shatter at the slightest touch. "So make sure you live on, alright? Let"s go on another adventure together sometime; I can hardly wait for the day."

The carriage came to a sudden stop. Amidst the vicious barking of dogs outside, the carriage door was thrown open and the four pa.s.sengers were ushered out.

The world outside of Eventide, abiding by the cycles of the sun, was current bathed in the hazy darkness of twilight. The woods before them exuded a cold eeriness that made QiLeren hesitate to approach.

A few villagers, all armed, were muttering amongst themselves nearby. QiLeren strained his ears to their whispers - apparently two other carriages were not yet at their destination.

"Alright, that"s time." An elderly villager emerged from the crowd, closely followed by four snarling, s...o...b..ring dogs, held back by their leashes. Elle and Anna flinched at each bark, attempting to hide behind the other two.

"It"s very cruel, but we have no other choice…we"ll all die if we fail to satisfy Their Excellency." The elderly villager"s wrinkled features were twisted in a shallow mockery of sympathy as he waved his hand at the villagers behind him. "Do it."

The moment their leashes were released, the dogs pounced.

Elle screamed, lifting up her dress as she ran into the woods. QiLeren did likewise, but the sacrificial gown proved to be a major hinderance to his ability to move. As a first time dress-wearer, he quickly fell far behind the other three, the dogs nipping at his heels.

The four sacrifices were mercilessly driven into the forest and soon separated in their desperate flight for survival.

萝luó莉lì, loan word from j.a.panese (ロroリri) that means young girl. Basically the female equivalent of shota.