Alone Once More?

[Corrupted Gourmet's Knight] [Recurring]

-The blood within your system rejects your alignment.

-Every time you use a skill, your blood will boil and you will take damage in proportion to the skill damage (150%).

-You can not regenerate HP naturally until you die.

-Once revived, the corruption will be removed. [Meteder's blessing]

-Your attacks will now carry a chaotic element from the combination of holy unholy energy.

-

If a usual Gourmet's Knight or any other paladin of any belief got corrupted, they would have experienced pain beyond measure. And in the case of getting corrupted via blood vow, they would have no control of themselves.

And since their blood will reject their alignment, they will eventually die and get revived if they were a player. However, corruption is a recurring effect that stays in effect if it wasn't removed by someone of a higher power and divinity.

Luckily for Bob, the re-emergence of the vampire caught Meteder's attention, ultimately canceling the blood vow's completion.

In the world of Immersion Online, plenty of Gods hold a convention as to their influences and region of power. A great exemplar is Meteder himself with his quirks and ideals being reflected in his area of influence.

But all of that didn't matter to Bob.

Bob was just thinking of what just happened. He knew that his new friends, his party members, suffered and died in the battle that just occurred. He couldn't take it off his mind, resorting to staring at Annera to gather strength.

'How is she unfazed by it?'

Annera didn't look too devastated in his eyes. She was disturbed, yes, but nothing more. And she got disturbed not because of the deaths of their party members but because of experiencing r-18 scenes for herself.

Bob remained silent. He didn't want to seem rude, asking whether or not Annera was truly feeling that way. He didn't know the party for more than 2 days so it wasn't his place to ask such insensitive questions.

"Well, Bob. I guess this will be it for today. Everyone else will log in at this time, so do wait for us."

Annera spoke. Her tone was clear and straight. Much like spaghetti when it's dry.

Bob kept his mouth shut and just looked forward. He didn't have much to say, and even if he did, he still wouldn't know what to say. The silence was a bit too chilly, causing an awkward scene where a person got ignored.

"Uhmm. See you tomorrow, I guess?" Annera said as she pressed invisible buttons in a certain way.

"Wait."

Bob interrupted her and held her wrist in an effort to keep her online.

"What is it?"

"Are they alive?"

Annera bobbed her head at Bob's question. At this point, Annera forgot about the part where she thought of Bob as an AI. Despite it being a game, the event that just transpired was too heavy after all.

"Oh, yea! I forgot about that. I guess I can spare a few minutes." Annera replied and closed her menu settings.

While the tattletales were busying themselves with looking at all the details within the recked hall and master bedroom, Annera was telling Bob about the world.

"Cars, plains, and even boneless chicken wings!"

They're not boneless chicken wings, they're chicken tender. She explained about the world beyond the game. How everyone in that world was weak and couldn't be as strong as people in this world.

"Listen here. You might think that the people over there are weak. But be warned. This world is created for entertainment purposes. This world you live in, it's all fake."

The words that Annera spoke to Bob would sound like a person that would tell you that the moon landing is fake and that the earth was flat. It was plain ridiculous to take in.

Anyone in their right mind wouldn't believe all of those facts that could be considered as horse shit, but Bob wasn't in the right mind at this moment.

It might have seemed like the death of his mother happened long ago chapter-wise, but only it hasn't been more than 2 days. This novel just has really slow pacing.

Bob couldn't believe all of the information Annera told him but it made him seriously reconsider his beliefs.

'Am I real?'

He looked at both of his hands before slapping his face in full force. He could feel minimal pain because he set it that way.

'Wait. The pain factor itself is something suspicious.'

Indeed, the real world wouldn't have configurable parameters. With the seed of doubt on his head, he eventually spiraled into deep thought and no longer communicated with Annera.

Annera logged off soon after, leaving him with a plethora of questions he couldn't answer and confirm by himself.

At some point, Bob was held in custody by the local village security. The guards were the same guys that held them in detention earlier.

"You again? Where are your friends?" A guard asked Bob.

But Bob couldn't say anything.

"Cluck Cluck."

"Ah. Okay. I'll leave him to himself."

The guard led Bob back to detention and that was all for that night. Bob fell asleep on the stone-cold floor while Lavanuk rested easily on his back.

When the morning came, the questions that bugged him the night before was temporarily cleared from his head.

"I want to eat."

His head couldn't focus on anything other than food. He didn't need to eat, he just had a sudden desire to eat.

He was genuinely worried about the party's current situation but he was more concerned about breakfast at this time.

The guards gave him quite a delectable breakfast, a few properly cooked rolled eggs, and even an apple. He was also offered pineapple juice, which he gladly accepted.

The guards were informed of what transpired last night and were told to release Bob as he did not cause this trouble. They couldn't detain the man who survived a first confrontation with the old menace.

When he got released, Bob first began walking around. He couldn't quite observe how the town looked at first glance yesterday, they arrived when the sun was down so it's only to be expected.

"Sunnyside, it looks like a nice place."

The theme of the houses here was yellow and white. The shapes of the houses didn't match that of eggs but were the traditional house, unlike Donut City and Bagel Village.

Seconds, minutes, hours. Lunch came to a close yet he hasn't heard a word from anyone within the party.

Eventually, Bob got fed up with waiting. He brought his chicken with him and walked beyond the outskirts of the village.

He sat down on a rock beside the road and just hummed. Lavanuk, still a chicken, perched on his head and didn't say anything much.

"Cluck."

With the silence from the unpopulated road and the bliss of lunch, brought Bob to cloud 9. Although when he recalled yesterday, his mood instantly dropped to unprecedented levels.

"Sigh. Does this mean this world isn't real?"

He was now just like any other flat earth believer.

"Does this also mean that Mother and I aren't real?"

Sadly for Bob, there was no one present to answer his questions. He only just think that his whole life was a lie.

-

"Hey. You see that guy over there?" A man pointed a dagger at Bob's back as he talked to his friend.

"Yea. What about him?" The friend replied.

"Let's go mug em."

"Are you sure? He doesn't look like he'll give us plenty for our troubles."

"So? Let's go mug em."

"Let's just wait for a caravan."

"Hey!"

The first man screamed right by the second man's right ear. The second man winced in fear as the first man repeated his popular line.

"What are we?" The man asked the second man a question.

"We-we're muggers."

"And what do muggers do?"

"Th-they mug people."

"So? Let's go mug em!"

When they arrived just behind Bob, they said their typical mugger line.

"Hey! Give us all of your gold and we'll let you live." Both of them said synchronously.

But Bob just behind and didn't give them his gold. He didn't have much money, therefore he knew the value that each of the coins had had.

Slice!

Bob's arm suddenly got slashed. It seems that one of the burglars drew a fast dagger and threw it at Bob as a warning. They were impatient.

Bob was dealt with at least 30% of his maximum hp Pool.

That graze alone took a third of his life, it was a good thing that he couldn't die no matter what.

Bob relented and drew his spear. Stabbing it in one of the muggers.

'Sugarcoat.'

Churn!

His blood started to boil, damaging his insides, but it didn't matter at all, he can't die!

"Eeek. What the hell? You were a Gourmet's Knight?"

But it was too late for that man.

"Hunger strike!"

Bob used the most damaging skill. After dealing with one of them, dealing with the other is relatively easy. The muggers were killed, Bob couldn't think straight and burned them with his chaotic element.

And when he finally conquered them both, a prompt showed on his vision once more.

[Your contracted monster "Lavanuk", has gained a level.]

[Your contracted monster "Lavanuk" is now level 15.]

[Monster Evolution underway.]