The Other Side

This definitely wasn't supposed to happen.

More shocking than getting one-shot by an attack Locke didn't even see was the situation he now finds himself in. For whatever reason, his avatar didn't respawn with him; his body is translucent and hazy like a mirage. Clearly, Fynn had not understated how broken the Scourgelands are. 

Locke's mind begins to race to conclusions, and he begins to worry that he might be stuck like this. Pacing around, he realizes that none of the NPCs or players around him can see him. Maybe he really is a ghost now. Out of curiosity, he wanders back through the gate to the Scourgelands and retraces his steps. He remembers the impasse, then the woods, and then the valley he died in. 

Sure enough, his body is still there, rather embarrassingly splayed on the ground like an overly dramatic opossum. It was definitely a spell that killed him; there are no wounds on his corpse, nor any burn marks, meaning whatever damaged him was something more incorporeal than a rock or a fireball. He scans the valley for any sign of his killer, the Witch from before. After a quick look reveals no trace of them, he hesitantly leaves his corpse to climb the hill he saw them on. From atop the hill, he sees the witch by a campfire in distance. 

After making sure the Witch can't see him (through a bizarre mix of flailing his arms and yelling incomprehensibly), he confidently approaches them to get a better look at who did him in. Their outfit is pretty typical of a female MMORPG avatar, wearing robes that are in equal parts impractical as they are revealing. That isn't what Locke cares about, though; stopping only for a moment to admire the floppiness of their hat, Locke quickly opens the Witch's stat screen. 

Her name is Medea - and that's it, just Medea, that's apparently her whole username - and just as he suspected, she is a level 42 Evoker who specializes in the star aspected elements, namely metal, poison, and blood, which would explain the lack of any wounds on his corpse. Additionally, her stats are unusually allocated for a typical Evoker, which almost always prioritize casting speed; instead, her highest stat is Mind, which is certainly helpful for Evokers, as it boosts the damage of their spells, it's almost never as useful as being able to cast those spells faster. Assuming this to be evidence of her Witch specialization, he closes the menu.

He rushes back to his corpse, making sure its still there and hadn't despawned. It's exactly how he left it, in all of its broken, contorted glory. Absentmindedly, he reaches out to touch his corpse, but perhaps unsurprisingly (though no less of a relief to Locke), his vision fades out again, and when it returns, he is back in his body, fully alive and well.

Dusting off his armor, Locke ponders how to proceed based on what he's learned. Apparently, there is a bug in the Scourgelands that enables some kind of "ghost" feature, where you can roam around outside of your own avatar when you die... assuming it wasn't a fluke, that could be useful, Locke surmises. Moreover, his assailant may have been dramatic, but she wasn't that much stronger than he is, and honestly, anyone with a hat that big can't be a complete asshole. Just to be safe, he checks his inventory, and as far as he can tell, everything is still where it was, including his gold. Now determined to reason with Medea, he sets off confidently towards her campsite.

Medea is enjoying some charred drake meat that she prepared over the open flame while Locke was examining her stat sheet, unbeknownst to her. To her, the best part of fully immersive virtual reality is the food. She can eat as much as she wants, with no risk of indigestion or food poisoning; at least, not in real life. "Yep, this is peak gameplay right here," she thinks to herself.

She gleefully takes an overzealous bite of her food, her vision obscured by the steam rising from the juicy meat; but when the steam clears, she jumps, startled by the sudden appearance of a strangely familiar armored man from behind the steam. After she swallows her food, she says, "Okay, I can see the irony of that one, but c'mon, man, I was eating." 

"You can eat in this game?" Locke inquires genuinely.

Viscerally offended by Locke's ignorant question, she blasts him in the fact with a glob of corrosive acid without hesitation, then once he hits the ground, she does it again just to be safe. Distracted by her desire for food and her anger at Locke, she doesn't stop to think about how unusually quick Locke managed to track her down.