"Eat dirt you loser!"

  With a powerful kick, a bully unched his victim onto the ground while his peers watched amusingly in a circle. The eyes of the entrapped young boy were fraught with tears, and he had temporarily lost the ability to speak from the onsught of punches.

  "Aren't you gonna say something? If you plead, just maybe I'll let you leave."

  The group leader spoke up, taunting the boy who was trying to lift himself off the ground. Unfortunately, when the student attempted a response to his tormentor, he only let out a yelp of pain.

  "Haha, he whimpered like a dog."

  "What a pathetic little bitch…"

  "Are you ready for another beating? I want to hear you squeal more."

  The boy winced in anticipation of the next blow from his assaints—but nothing came. Instead, the rapid ccks of footsteps consumed the bullies' attention.

  "Get away from Quinn you jerks!"

  A wave of fear fell over the crowd as they heard the voice. With haste, the group pivoted their feet and unched themselves away from the incoming girl. The bullies paraded away with such coordination that they could have been mistaken for a marching band.

  "I guess they were worried about me calling the teacher again."

  After letting her thoughts slip out, the girl approached Quinn and smiled, offering her hand; the boy hesitated but accepted her offer and hoisted himself up.

  "Alice, thank you for scaring them off."

  "Don't worry about it... Oh wait, I just remembered something! I was looking for you so that I could give you this!"

  He could make out a small neckce in the girl's hand through his teary eyes. Alice fastened the jewelry around his neck before taking out her own neckce from within her shirt.

  "See, they're matching! You are the sun to my moon."

  She connected Quinn's sun neckce with her crescent moon neckce, creating a perfect circle between the two.

  ???

  Quinn's eyes shot wide open as if waking from a nightmare.

  Ahh, another dream of the past.

  While deliberating over his dream, he noticed the sun's bright rays filtering through the leaves above. Beneath him, he could feel grass rubbing up against his back and something unknown bending awkwardly to support his weight.

  That's weird. I thought I was inside celebrating with Alice.

  Quinn remembered celebrating their 19th birthdays earlier in the day; the two would usually celebrate together as they had been born on the same day. Of more urgency, however, was Quinn's amnesia over what followed the start of their celebrations. He knew they pnned on trying a newly released game that Alice had become obsessed with days prior, but he couldn't remember having traveled outdoors with her.

  Feeling a sudden jolt of anxiety, he picked himself up from the floor and investigated his surroundings. Around him rested a secluded forest decorated with flowers, various shrubbery, and what looked to be a river in the distance. The bright sun and fair weather created what would be a peaceful image if it weren't for the mysterious circumstances that Quinn faced.

  A pile of questions was forming at the base of Quinn's mind, and unfortunately, another rge mystery was about to be added to the stack. He was suddenly struck with nausea, and he noticed his upper chest feeling especially heavy. It was at this point he gazed down.

  Why do I have b-b-breasts?

  While bracing himself against a tree to prevent himself from fainting, he had posed this rhetorical question to himself. However, his mind interrupted his thoughts as he noticed other changes: His short brownish hair had turned into long purple hair partly braided to the side, his fingers had become daintier, and his attire completely switched. He was fitted with a white cloak, a short white dress that accentuated his cleavage, bck thigh highs, and a pair of brown boots that reached almost halfway up to his knees. Not being able to help his curiosity, he pulled down a frilly piece of bck underwear around his privates and pulled up the dress's hem.

  It's gone.

  While the sight of this girl clinging to a tree may have been somewhat humorous to any onlookers, the girl was in the midst of a crisis. He, or rather she, had lost part of her memory, been thrust into god knows where, and had her entire sex changed. Luckily, something brought her attention away from the sex change: upon Quinn's back were a pair of wings slowly pulsating with her breath.

  Upon this examination, it was clear that her current situation was just a continuation of her earlier dream, quite an imaginative and realistic continuation, but a continuation nonetheless. Thus, she id back down and waited for the dream to end.

  While she was gathering her thoughts and wishing to wake up, a single scream echoed through the forest. Quinn couldn't determine the gender of the voice, but she was able to decipher the direction it came from: the nearby river. Quinn was alone and had no inkling as to what had happened to her, so this was a chance to find answers. The scream, however, served as a counterargument in itself.

  Reluctantly, Quinn began following the river toward the disturbing scream. She couldn't quite believe her decision to pursue the screaming individual; maybe being alone in the wild was less preferable than witnessing a murder or an animal attacking someone. Nothing really made sense to them anymore, so they found that sort of logic satisfactory despite it being questionable in nature.

  While she was following the stream, an idea sparked in her mind: What if she could take flight with the wings extending from her back? An obvious thought that had escaped her chaotic state of mind. If the cause of the screams were a ravenous wild animal, the ability to fly would likely save her from any danger. She also couldn't help but think how "video gamey" this all sounded, and despite her attempts to stay mindful, Quinn had been building a theory about the game-like nature of this world in the back of her mind.

  Having been a fan of isekai stories, she had a sneaking suspicion that this was the world of a video game, the likely culprit being "Fairy Overture Online" or "FOO" for short. It was the very game she and Alice pnned to py during their birthday celebrations earlier in the day. Despite not having pyed the game, she knew from Alice that pyers could fly. Therefore, these wings served as evidence that this game was indeed FOO. In fact, this theory was becoming more likely every second Quinn did not "wake up" from their dream.

  And so, the girl attempted to fly through the sky. Even with the ck of knowledge about wings and flying, she slowly ascended into the air after a few minutes of fumbling around. Then, suddenly, she was barreling through into the air while letting out a small scream of her own.

  Too fast, too fast, too fast!!!

  She crashed into a tree and then fell to the ground from its branches. At the speed she was going and the height she fell from, any normal human would have suffered some injuries.

  Well, that's one way to prove that this is a video game.

  There was a problem that arose from her seemingly confirmed theory: Whatever was lying in wait for her could also have the ability to fly. Spotting her approach from the sky would be easy, and the entity could follow after her. Therefore, Quinn concluded that a ground approach would be more effective when she came closer to the screaming.

  All the theorizing had inadvertently quelled her queasiness, and the ck of nausea made the act of flying much more enjoyable. Gliding through the air on a sunny day with a nice breeze produced a sensation like no other could in the real world. Quinn could feel her hair gently tossing about in the wind, and the fresh air on her face felt revolutionary compared to her musky room.

  By the time she heard another scream, it was much closer, and she could more easily pitch herself in the correct direction. Quinn also returned to the ground and braced herself for whatever was coming next. Sneaking from tree to bush, she eventually found herself overlooking the "situation."

  A vilge of people was under attack, or rather, it looked as if the attack had reached its end. A few winged individuals were tormenting the vilge people with their weapons and ughing at their continual screams. Quinn's face became a painful mixture of anxiety and anger as her eyes fixated on one bandit beating up a woman.

  Quinn recognized that she was a coward and that it would be best to just turn around—but the same thought continuously gnawed at her rational processes.

  If I don't do something here, I am truly evil.

  She then proceeded to scream.

  "HEY GUYS, WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING?"

  A truly brave—no, suicidal set of words to loudly procim in an audience of bandits. The maneuver did have its intended effect as the bandits collectively rotated their heads and stared directly at the girl with a stone-cold gaze.

  The sternness of their gazes generated a yer of frost over her entire body. Quinn could not move nor say a word. She attempted to calm her anxiety and mount a response to their stares, but it was instead one of the bandits who cimed the first response.

  "Oh, I see what's going on. Did you just spawn in? If so, we would gdly guide you."

  "...Are you not bandits? Why are you being nice to me? What in the world is going on???"

  "Your confusion is understandable. We were all in your position at one point. However, let me first introduce ourselves: We are known as "Mourning Raven," and we are one of the strongest guilds in this here game! And we are not "bandits," we own this little pce here. That means we get to do what we want with it. These vilgers may resemble people, but they are NPCs who cannot fly and respawn like us. Don't you have any memories of FOO?"

  It seemed her initial theory about FOO was true, but the ck of empathy for the so-called NPCs dampened her initial excitement over confirming her theory. The suffering of the vilgers created conflicting feelings within her. On the one hand, she could recognize their argument: the vilgers were likely just collections of code mimicking human behavior, but on the other, how the bandits treated them still seemed so cruel for no discernable reason. During this moment of internal conflict, one part of the bandit's response started to especially stick out in her mind.

  "...We can respawn?"

  Suddenly, the great smog of anxiety in Quinn's heart cleared away. Even if the bandits killed her, she would "respawn" in a different location. This new realization allowed her mind to revisit the current predicament surrounding the NPCs. On the ground, a young woman was being beaten as they whimpered; her abuser tilted his head upwards at Lucia with a sly smile.

  Disgusting, these people were truly disgusting.

  Quinn internally cringed at the scene before her, and a tiny ember of rage ignited within her heart. The ruin brought by this "Mourning Raven" even touched the children of the vilge; next to the whimpering young woman y a child with a bruised eye. After seeing this abused child, the mere embers in Quinn's heart grew into a bzing fire. She knew that Mourning Raven would most likely wipe the floor with her, but she wanted to try doing something righteous for once. Unsheathing the rapier at her side, she jumped at the bandit closer to her.

  The unexpected nature of Quinn's attack allowed her to catch one of the bandits off guard and sneak a few stabs in. Surprisingly, the dragon-horned man before her perished the first blow. The body of the bandit had whisked away in the form of tiny digital crystals representing his downfall. At the same time, transparent images started filling Quinn's vision. She could see a health bar, a level, and various other game-like information. Alongside these, another piece of information she couldn't quite identify filled her vision. It seemed to be some sort of magical symbol that could hold up to 10 charges. While acclimatizing to the new information before her, the bandits rushed after her with a battle cry.

  "You've messed up now, missy."

  The time for conversation had passed thanks to the sudden attack, but she didn't regret it; instead, she pnted herself on the ground and further steeled herself against the swarm of bandits. Two were directly in front of her, one steadily holding an axe and the other filing a massive greatsword about. She received a direct blow from the axe user while delivering a stab to the man with a greatsword. Again, the man in her presence disappeared after only a single blow.

  The axe user clicked his tongue.

  "You must have been a real low-life if your level is that high."

  Quinn ignored the man's monologue and thrusted her rapier forward, aiming directly at his chest. The axe-wielder dodged the bde with elegance and countered with a swing directly to Quinn's face. From this maneuver, it was clear the bandit was significantly more skilled despite their difference in level. While Quinn was able to successfully deflect the swing with her rapier, an arrow struck her directly in the chest. Her health bar fell only slightly from the attack, but it was clear that Mourning Raven were not imbeciles.

  The purple-haired girl used her quick thinking to devise a pn to lose the archer's attention. She flew upwards and continued the battle with the axeman in the sky. For a split second, she was out of the archer's range and took the opportunity to finish off the axe bandit with a single strike.

  After taking a deep breath, the girl noticed that two more bandits were in pursuit. One was the archer from before, who nocked another arrow while hovering. The other charged through the air with a massive halberd. Despite blocking the halberd’s handle with her rapier, the halberd's head plummeted down, nding a direct hit and taking away considerable health. Another arrow also stung Quinn in the chest while she was tumbling through the air from the heavy hit. Her health bar lowered to just above the halfway point, and her breathing became much heavier.

  Another pn formed in her mind. She ignored the greatsword user and blitzed towards the archer. Though there was some distance between them, Quinn closed it in mere seconds and aimed her rapier directly at his heart. The archer successfully nded another arrow, but Quinn thrusted right through him, causing his health bar to empty. Taking advantage of their battle, the halberd user charged through the digital crystals left by his ally and attempted to nd another blow. This time, however, Quinn swiftly dodged the vertical slice with a twirl. Before the bandit had time to react, his body crystallized into the wind.

  This is so easy, but there are so many bandits and I'm already halfway dead.

  Recognizing the reality of her situation, Quinn momentarily considered retreating before remembering the look on the vilgers' faces. She would not leave them to their fates even if the vilgers were likely just advanced collections of artificial intelligence. However, something was strange, there was a noticeable ck of bandits flying through the air. Not a single bit of noise could be heard from the ground either, not from Mourning Raven or the vilgers. She reluctantly decided to return to the ground to see a single man fashioned in a long bck coat throwing insults at the bandits.

  The grim-looking man turned his head and greeted the purple-haired girl standing confused.

  "Ah, hello there. My name is Sirius. I am the leader of this guild and would like to apologize for whatever trouble we have caused you. Is there any way we could get you to leave, money perhaps?"

  "I want you and your party of sadists to leave this pce. Otherwise, I'm staying."

  Quinn readied her rapier and waited for a response. Sirius chuckled, the dark circles under his eyes quaking up and down with the rest of his face.

  "Well this is a problem, you see, we can't quite leave this pce to you. How unfortunate…"

  Sirius started to grab his head erratically as he searched for a solution to the issue at hand, but Quinn presented one with a mischievous smile instead.

  "My guild, Violet Refrain, is currently en route to this destination. I say we have a duel, just you and me. The winner gets to keep the vilge. That way, we can avoid an endless war between our guilds."

  Quinn wasn't exactly sure how owning an area worked in this game or if Mourning Raven really owned the vilge at all, but she thought this bluff was the only real chance she had at liberating the people here. Sirius also looked to be in deep consideration, with his pacing coming to a sudden stop from the proposition.

  "I quite like you, young girl. In fact, your pn seems exquisite! It seems neither of us can quite afford the "deed" to this pce, so it would indeed turn into an endless bloodbath."

  Thus, the two had struck a deal. Quinn obviously had a great deal of suspicion over Sirius's honesty. There was a good chance he would simply refuse to uphold his end of the bargain if she won, but there were also no alternative courses of action for the purple-haired girl.

  The two proceeded with preparations for combat just outside the vilge. Setup for the event sted a few hours as Mourning Raven treated the whole ordeal as entertainment. In fact, they all seemed more excited about the duel than nervous.

  When the duel was finally starting, Sirius had also allowed Quinn one of their potions so they would both be at full strength for the upcoming battle. One of the bandits, who was apparently promoted to announcer, began his countdown speech as Quinn and Sirius readied themselves.

  "On the count of three, these two will have their bdes csh!"

  With these words, the countdown began.

  "One"

  Quinn could feel her heartbeat increasing.

  "Two"

  She took a deep breath and cleared her mind.

  "Three"

  Both combatants unsheathed their weapons and the duel officially began.