"So... what was this meeting about exactly?" Demea asked as she looked at Lily rather nervously.
The two of them were sat in a private meeting room in a rather well known book shop back in Resovult. Demea was sat on a sofa meanwhile Lily was sat in a rather large and comfy looking chair.
"This meeting is simple, I need to know everything you know about this game and its setting. Nothing is too important to be left out." Lily replies with a surprising amount of calmness and... charisma? To Demea it feels like she's not talking to Lily at all, she's holding herself a little too well.
"Everything?" Demea rather meekly replies. "You know I-I don't know everything, I wasn't trusted with that much-"
"I'll be the judge of that, just tell me everything you can think of, it could help save the lives of many people here after all." Lily replies with a kind smile and a slight tilt of her head. "I know how hard it can be to divulge such information to another, but in this current situation you have nothing to worry about as your former employer can't do anything to you... this entire situation is out of their control after all."
Demea's eyes widen a bit, her mouth opens a bit to question this but she choses not to, in her time dealing with this world she's come to accept that there are just some things that are better left unquestioned. For a moment she seems to be hesitating, trying to decide whether or not she should actually divulge any of this information to Lily and the rest of this group.
"What the hell, at this point its being fired or die anyways... and chances are death is the more likely option between the two" Demea responds with a sigh while leaning back into the sofa some more. "Get comfortable though, cause this is going to be a lot to take in, it especially was for me."
Lily just smiles and nods at this, motioning to Demea a bit "Whenever you're ready feel free to begin."
"Well where to start... this setting, it wasn't originally this detailed... I mean it was to an extent but this? It far exceeds anything we'd originally planned." Demea admits with a sigh. "Sometime after the servers went live things began to change, lore rewrote itself, NPCs became more lively, and important characters like "The Dark Lord" became entirely different characters with more depth and history than originally planned."
"So you all didn't originally plan this?" Lily asks, though she doesn't really seem surprised at this at all.
"NO! Gods no, could you imagine? A game of this size and scale would easily be more than we could ever fully fit on the disc, not to mention the way the story has been adapting to our choices is tech that even the best dev teams haven't fully figured out yet... normally you've just got branching choices and that's it." Demea actually produces some kind of pipe now and uses a bit of fire magic to let it out, inhaling a bit of the smoke before exhaling it and continuing. "Now, the crazy part is I figured out what the original plan was, the one with that insane announcement back then."
"Do you mean the one announcing we were trapped in the game?" Lily calmly asks, somehow unfazed by the smoke drifting her way.
"Yes, that damned announcement... now look, I had to do some rather sketchy digging to find this, but I found out what was being planned with that, it was something called D.I.A or Digital Immortality Augmentation... long story short they were planning on using this to transfer someone's mind into the digital sphere, but only one person... in fact I found notes suggesting that the players who have died so far were just booted out of the game and had their Reflections bricked."
"Okay... then let me ask, if that's the case why hasn't someone broken into the game yet? Surely the security isn't that advanced, right?" Lily questions, now producing an odd silver coin that she begins to rub between her thumb and index while in thought. "Surely after the first people got out there'd be some greater attempt at a rescue now that they knew people wouldn't die, right?"
"You'd think, but that's why I say it was the original plan... I think the reason we've been cut off from the outside world is twofold honestly, and it's going to be crazy when I say this but I need you to trust me." Demea gets a rather serious look in her eye as she points the pipe at Lily now. It seems even Demea herself doesn't fully believe what she's thinking right now, chances are she's likely not even told anyone about her main theory.
"I trust you, this situation has been weird enough that I believe nothing is impossible right now." Lily replies with a kind smile, all the while still rubbing that coin.
"Alright, so, for starters I think something happened in the real world, something BAD. As a former dev team member I have access to some special in game windows, one of which is an instant messenger that lets me get in contact with people on the outside in case of emergencies like this. Every single person has been radio silent, even the people we pay to be our emergency support for these kinds of situations."
"They've been Radio silent the entire time? Then either we're disconnected from them..." Lily begins, only to have her thought finished by Demea.
"Or something catastrophic happened while this D.I.A operation was being launched, something bad enough that those of us in the Reflection can't even be considered right now." Demea shakily and hastily takes another puff from her pipe in an attempt to calm her nerves. "That's not even the scariest or craziest thing though, if I'm right our situation is a lot more confusing and horrifying."
"And how would it be so much more confusing?" Lily pauses rubbing the coin for a second, entirely focused on Demea now who seems to be questioning even herself.
"It's that this world isn't a game anymore, it hasn't been since the start... the change in NPC behavior, the out of worlds levels we never designed, the new lore, none of it makes any sense unless you start thinking outside the box and in a way this world begins to present itself!" Demea stands up and begins pacing around the room now. "The mashed up areas with differing flows of time, the depth of history, even the way magic works... its like all of it is real, but jumbled too... like some giant puzzle that you can't look at until you look at it from the right angle." she pauses, looking at the smoldering herbs in her pipe with fascination before resuming. "I think we're trapped in something in something insane, an anomaly, a dream, a ritual, something that I can't fully understand but have evidence to support." Demea quickly reaches into her robe and produces a large pitch black leather bound journal which she tosses to Lily who quickly catches it. "That is my research notes from what a site labeled the Forbidden Ground, read up on it."
Lily hesitantly opens the journal and begins flipping through the ink smeared pages. The notes were clearly taken in a hurry and by someone who wasn't in the best state of mind but as Lily begins getting deeper and deeper into the pages she can't help but grow more worried, each note further building this sense of dread in her stomach. Soon enough she closes the book and stands up herself, the coin clutched firmly in one hand and the journal in the other. "Demea, can I borrow this? I have something I need to look into and I think this will be of great help."
"Take it." Demea quietly replies while taking another puff from the pipe, a tired look in her eyes. "I've got it all memorized now anyways, and it's not like you'll run away and destroy it."
With a small nod and bow Lily quickly leaves the room and begins making her way to a more secluded location, as she does so a voice speaks in her head.
"Great, your plan worked without an issue!" Lily, the real Lily spoke in her mind...
"Yes, but we've got another issue now" Six replied, absentmindedly rubbing the coin as he navigates through the streets of Resovult, clearly looking for some very specific location. "One that we'll have to confirm with our own eyes."
"Was Demea telling the truth?" Lily asks, far more concerned than she was a moment ago.
"Yes, and unfortunately if she's right about both accounts... well... this isn't going to end as easily as I thought, sending you back in time won't solve all our issues." Six admits with a bit of frustration. "We'll need a more solid foundation than that."
"How do we get a more solid foundation than that? If something bad is happening in the real world then-" Lily starts, only to stop upon seeing Six literally walk through a wall in a back alley.
What opens up before her is a large building, one larger than should be reasonably hidden in a place like this.
"Damn, really was hoping this wasn't here... it might be to our advantage that it is though." Six calmly says as he steps forward towards the two grand doors.
"Where are we? how is this place even here? space magic?" Lily questions slightly, trying to take in the sights while not in control of her body.
"Yes, its a hideout created deep within Resovult using a powerful spatial and dimensional spell, I actually created this place... It's an archive of the truth of this world."
"Wait, you made this?! seriously?!" Lily practically shouts in her own mind.
"Yes, welcome to the Nameless Archive, the only place in Velstan where the truth is recorded on paper." Six replies as he pushes the grand doors open. "Now, let's get to work."