The Watcher had finished his meal, two shrivelled up corpses laid underneath it. The Watcher was confused as the corpses didn’t disappear. “If humans die here do they immediately die for real?” It thought as it picked the corpses up with a few of its tendrils. A dumpster near by offered a perfect hiding spot for disposing of the bodies. 

The Watcher quickly hid the bodies in the dumpster before gaining some altitude. The rooftops were much safe a route for it to travel as no one could easily see it. A small soft spot of rain began to pelt down causing the people on the streets below to quickly seek shelter. The small shower soon became a strong thunderstorm with rain bolting down and hitting the ground with tremendous force. The Watcher didn’t mind this new predicament but rather enjoyed it since the humans were soon driven from the streets. A bolt of lightning shone in the distance causing its frightening visage to be carved out by the sudden light.

————————————————————————

James continued his search of the orphanage looking for any more clues to the place’s wrong doings. He had come across a few pieces of loot, a full cheap disposable lighter, a box of matches and a few protein bars. He had found something interesting in one of the rooms. A small dirty rabbit teddy, its white outer body was caked in dirt and grime whilst it was missing its right button eye. Annabelle seemed worried when he picked the toy up. “Please be careful with that” she said nervously. Her dark mattered hair began to twist and float slightly. 

Her green eyes gazed at James with worry. James ruffled his brown hair and handed the doll to her. “This must mean a lot to you” he smiled as his blue eyes met her green eyes. 

“It’s my core, my worldly anchor if this is destroyed, I will die” she said solemnly. James knew how much this information could be worth to the community forming around this game. No one was able to damage Annabelle so they thought she was an invincible boss. If word came out that she had a weakness and such a critical one at that. “Will you keep this a secret please?”

“Of course I will” 

“Pinky promise” Annabelle stuck out the her right hands pinky.

“Pinky promise” James said sealing the age old tradition of pinky promises. Annabelle smiled as she could tell if someone was lying to her and he wasn’t. “Can you leave this place?” James asked and Annabelle shook her head.

“I can’t it won’t let me” Annabelle looked sad.

“It, who’s it?” James asked with a worried expression.

Annabelle looked at him with panic “I’ve already said too much” James’s vision started to go black until he was back in the real world.

[Forceful Log off Initiated]

[Reason Continued Gameplay for more than 15 hours]

[You won’t be able to log in for 24h]

[Take this as a lesson and take regular breaks and take care of your body]

————————————————————————

A few days later

David watched idly as he continued to write the complex code of the new reward system. He was heavily focusing on it because he wanted to reward that players in hopes that more players would join. But most importantly he wanted the random expansion. 

There was one slight problem though and that was the army of players with agent names taking over. Betsey’s attack didn’t seem to faze them, instead it seemed to embolden them. Standard Twisted weren’t standing any chances against them, not even the Hunters. At the pace they were going the entirety of New York would be theirs in a matter of months. They had even started taxing other players and NPC’s just to move through their territory. 

“The rewards can wait these players need to learn their place” David said with spite as he brought up a special update he wasn’t planning on releasing until multiple large groups had formed. The update wasn’t much just a few new features and a special event. “Be careful now because the red fog is coming” David laughed as the software was implemented into the game.

David watched the agent named players panic as a notification popped up before them.

Red fog clung to the ground as groans and growls could be heard.

Countless eyes glared at the agents from beyond the mist. “Get the floodlights on!” Screamed one of the agents. Bright lights cut through the darkness like a hot knife through butter. The agents lost hope as the Twisted numbered in the thousands. 

“Defend the base!” The thunderous sound of gunfire echoed out. The bullets normally would be able to fell Hopeless Twisted. But thanks to the fog they stood strong as they screeched and charged forward. The Hunters were the fastest and made quick work closing the distance. They clambered up the walls made of wood, scrap metal, brick and cars only to be met with bats, knives, machetes and all manner of melee weapons. Spears made from broken mops strapped with sharpened fragments of sheet metal stabbed into their flanks. Machetes sliced at their limbs and bats cracked against their skulls. The Hunters just wore a sick smile of satisfaction in seeing the panicked expressions of their prey. 

One Hunter grabbed an agent and just flung him to the mob of Hopeless that had started to pound at the walls. The agent screamed as he was stabbed, bitten and mauled by the Hopeless. Some agents rightfully began to run away in the name of tactical withdrawal and not at all because they were pissing themselves in fear. The walls were soon devoid of players as the Hunters began tearing them down to allow their fellow Twisted in. A massive murder of Crows took to the air and began dragging the agents that thought the roofs safe high into the air. Some agents were dropped to the mob of Twisted below, some were just torn apart and eaten by the crows whilst some were given to the Watchers.

Black Widow and Hawkeye were fighting tooth and nail to survive. They had finally ran out of ammunition and had to switch to their melee weapons. Widow had a hatchet and knife whilst Hawkeye had a shovel. They were surrounded with their backs quite literally against a wall. Hawkeye was the first to go as his shovel was grabbed by a Watcher and a Hunter suplexed him into the ground. Black Widow died shortly after by a special monster. It was a Hunter but much, much bigger it simply held her in a firm grip and bit her head off.

Black Widow screamed as she came back to reality, the VR headset was immediately taken off her. She rubbed her neck and arms in pain and looked at Hawkeye who was getting check over by a medic. The slaughter was beginning viewed on several monitors. Only agent Coulson remained but he was kind of unrecognisable. He looked like he was having the time of his life. 

He stood on a growing mound of dead Twisted armed with a sawed off double barrel shotgun and a machete. Widow watched him with both amazement and surprise at this new side of Coulson. ‘He must be like this because he knows he won’t die’ she thought as Coulson decapitated a Hopeless Twisted with a few swings of his machete. But soon a familiar sight came at Coulson it was the same Hunter that had killed her. Coulson looked at it with a steely gaze as it loomed over him. 

Coulson lasted as long as she did, but instead of being eaten he was eviscerated by its claws and then his still living body was spartan kicked into the mob around. Coulson screamed as he was eaten alive by the Twisted. Everyone shuddered at the sight and hoped Fury was wrong and that these things couldn’t actually come to this world.