The pieces clicked into place with the cold, cynical logic of a gamer who's seen this trope a thousand times. These weren't people. They were puppets. The lack of genuine life, the looping actions, the vacant smiles—this whole town was populated by reanimated corpses.
"Okay, so this isn't just a generic starting village," I muttered to Nyx, pulling my cloak's hood lower. "It's a zombie-themed generic starting village."Time to find the muppetman."
My first instinct was to find the source of the magic. A quick scan with my newly focused senses revealed a faint but persistent aura of death magic emanating from the town's ridiculously pristine cemetery. Of course. It was always the cemetery.
I found her in a small mausoleum at the center of the graveyard, surrounded by softly glowing runes. She was an Elflet, just like my current form, with pale skin and eyes that held a deep, profound loneliness. She wasn't some cackling villain; she looked more like a tired artist tending to her only creation.
"Show's over," I said, letting my cloak fall and revealing the canvas-wrapped shape of Moonglaive. "Time to let these people rest."
She flinched, and the puppets outside in the village all froze mid-loop. "Please," she whispered, her voice trembling. "Don't hurt them."
As she spoke, I saw it. The runes on the floor weren't just powering her control; they were drawing energy from a large, ornate headstone in the corner—the grave of the town's founder. That was her power source. Classic boss-fight mechanic.
"I'm not here to fight your puppets," I said, taking a step not toward her, but toward the headstone. "I'm just going to turn off your Wi-Fi."
Panic flashed in her eyes as she realized my plan. She threw a bolt of necrotic energy, but a quick Moon Dash got me clear. Before she could cast another spell, I slammed the pommel of my sheathed glaive into the headstone. The runes cracked, and the magical feedback sent her stumbling back, her connection severed. The ambient hum of death magic vanished.
With her power shut off, she just looked small and defeated. I didn't raise my blade. "Why?" I asked. "This much effort for a puppet show?"
Tears welled in her eyes. "I just wanted… a slow peaceful life," she confessed, her voice cracking. "In my old life, people were cruel. They feared me. I was so lonely." She gestured vaguely toward the silent town. "I found this place—wiped out by plague decades ago—and I raised them. I know it's not real. I know they're just… empty. But their attention, even fake attention, was better than the silence."
And then it hit me. I looked from her tear-streaked face to the frozen, smiling puppets outside, and I felt an unwelcome surge of sympathy. She didn't want a perfect, controllable chat room. She wanted real friends, a real community, but her powers had driven everyone away. This entire town wasn't a monument to her control; it was a monument to her loneliness. She was coping, using these puppets as a substitute for the real connection she craved but couldn't have.
I let out a short, sharp laugh. "You just wanted friends, deadass" I said, shaking my head. "Honestly? I get it. More than you know."
She looked up, confused.
"Building a community is hard. Sometimes the one you end up with isn't the one you wanted, but it's the one you've got," I said, thinking of the thousands of anonymous, parasocial degenerates in my old stream chat. "But playing house with corpses is a dead end. Your skills, though? They're pretty cracked. You built all this by yourself." I leaned Moonglaive against my shoulder. "I'm putting together a party. It's goin to be focused on getting OP, and be high enough level to RP. We're going to get to End game on our own terms."
Her eyes, which had been full of despair, now held a flicker of something else. Hope and confusion.
"You can stay here and pretend these dolls are your friends, or you can come with me and maybe find some real ones," I said with a shrug. "I have a revenge quest and a kingdom to liberate. The pay is terrible, but the content is top-tier. So, what do you say? Ready to join a real raid?"