The moon cast its gentle sheen over the dense forest.
The tall trees cast jagged shadows over the earth.
The rustle of leaves could be heard as a small group made their way through the forest.
Their hurried breaths could be heard as they dragged their bodies through the forest trees.
"Those greedy people! How can they be so greedy!" the large figure leading the group groaned in annoyance, clutching his bleeding arm as he led the group.
The red blood painted his tunic, a contrast to his green-colored skin.
He held an axe on his injured arm, the weight of the axe pulling it down, but he dragged on.
Right by his side, another figure, a female with long curly black hair sprawled over her shoulders, held her stomach, wincing in pain.
"Just 'cause they managed to maintain human forms after mutation! How can they treat us like we're intruders?" The man continued to bicker, apparently still annoyed by what had happened.
"Nibo, shouting won't change anything. We lost a lot of our men there, and the villagers are still suffering from the plague..." She paused momentarily, gritting her teeth, fingers curled into a fist.
"We've come far enough. We should rest. Our stats are better than that of the others; they aren't faring as well as we are," she suggested, scanning their surroundings.
Nibo looked behind them. It was just like she had said.
The others looked like they would drop dead if they kept pushing.
Their green skin had gone pale white.
He couldn't blame them; he knew how far they had to run to get as far as possible from the human settlement.
He looked around. He couldn't sense any immediate danger, so resting within the forest wouldn't be a bad idea.
"You're right. We should be safe here," Nibo said after checking again to make sure everything was alright. "We'll take thirty minutes at best. The village isn't too far from here. We need to head back and know what we'll do next."
All the orcs nodded before taking a deep sigh of relief as they finally got an opportunity to rest.
Nibo rested his back on a large tree, his sheer weight making the tree tremble as he leaned onto it.
He closed his eyes momentarily, calming his nerves.
"I know how you feel. It's not easy for any of us." The lady walked up to him, taking a seat right next to him.
"Who knew a day would come when we would be chased by our own race? All it took was for us to turn into a bunch of green-skinned orcs," she said, her words dripping with emotion.
"You're not wrong. I guess to them we're not humans anymore... we've turned into animals," Nibo replied, tightening his fist.
"It's just funny how the sides turned..." Aria laughed awkwardly, running her hand through her hair.
"Well, if any one of us here didn't end up becoming orcs after the game transmission, I guess we would've acted the same way." Nibo took a deep breath.
"You're not wrong... I would've been scared too," Aria replied, remembering the terrified faces of the humans the moment they came to their settlement.
Everything had changed right after the 'Transmission,' as they popularly called it.
Some people were turned into creatures from the game, completely losing their sanity and becoming monsters.
Chaos tore through the civilization that was built over decades and millennia passed.
Humans all expected the grand AI 'takeover' with all the advancement they had made through the years.
Over time, the topic became a stupid theory proposed by a bunch of scared scientists who didn't want humanity to progress.
The idea was wrapped and tossed in the bin.
Who would've thought that the almighty takeover would occur in the most absurd way no one ever thought of?
It wasn't the AI bots carrying weapons, attacking humans.
Neither was it some grand master plan from the AI gathering information on humans only to use it later against them.
No, it was none of this. Instead, it was a game!
A freaking game!
And it happened as a mistake, where the highly advanced AI technology that was inputted into the game system to manage bugs and whatnot thought it was best to mutate humans and make a game into reality.
It caused a major division, creating several new races and lots more... all bound by a system.
None could escape the predicament.
Even those who didn't get the VR set.
In this new world of mutants, they were considered NPCs, becoming the least in the food chain.
Left with the choice to either remain that way in constant threat or take the risk of getting a VR set and accept the new fate of their world.
All in all, the entire world had practically become the ultimate Virtual Reality.
Only in this case... it really couldn't be called virtual.
Nibo and Aria sat quietly for a moment, remembering their life before the transmission.
After what felt like a long hour, Aria took a deep breath.
"But hey! On second thought, having sharp canines doesn't seem so bad!" she said, touching the large canines sticking out from Nibo's mouth.
"Hey! I didn't give you permission to touch them!" he shouted, trying to pull her hands away from his canines.
In the distance, while the two of them were struggling, unbeknownst to them, a little mosquito had just spotted its first prey.
{30 Minutes left}
Akhil's breath hitched as he saw the notification pop up in front of him.
Thankfully though, he didn't have to search anymore, as he could finally see a source of food for him.
'Damn it! Never thought a day would come when I'd be going around searching for someone to sip blood from...' Akhil thought, annoyed. But his annoyance was quickly washed away as he remembered his abilities.
His anticipation grew as he remembered the abilities. 'Let's get this over with,' Akhil thought as he focused his gaze on Nibo, the person with the strongest life force.
The red outline all over him was so strong that Akhil felt his entire body jolt with excitement just by looking at him.
He had his target in sight.
Now.
All he had to do was attack!
With speed, Akhil shot straight for his target.
'Set the proboscis for instant insertion!' he thought excitedly as his long needle shot forward like a spike.
In an instant, he had arrived.
And now?
'Stab!'
OUCHHHHH!!!!