Finally, the sun came up. And everyone started to wake up... Except for one. Me. I didn't wake up. Because I never slept in the first place...
Why did I kept being paranoid throughout the night?! It's a different world anyways... How would I know if something's normal or not in this world...
Haaaa.... I'm so tired. F*ck, I should've just slept. Now my mood is even worse. My nose still hurts because there's no way to heal it...
And no one's paying any attention to me because I'm a non-player. It's quite nice but it makes me feel small a little... I'd rather be alone than get a hand broken next though.
Other people were discussing like before from yesterday, they seemed hesitant to explore the forest as well.
Even so, if we stay idle like this... How would we survive? What do we eat?... Yawns... I really want to sleep.
...I really want to... sle-ep..
So I finally fell asleep but someone woke me up an hour later.
"..hey there, you should get up now." It was a soft and calming voice.
I opened my eyes to see a girl talking to me, how kind of her to wake me up... but I still want to sleep... Why did she wake me up?
"We'll start to get moving now. You can go that that group," she pointed at a group of non-players and continued, "and don't worry, we'll try our best to get all of us out of here. We've discussed everything and exchanged informations among players."
That's reassuring... Are you sure this is a good idea though? Can't we try waiting for the system?...
Yawns, "...alright, thank you." I got up slowly and went to my group.
She just stared at my direction for a bit before returning to her own group of players.
I was still sleepy but I held on. There was about 14 non-players here. Which is small compared to the 33 players... I still feel like some numbers are missing though? But numbers can be random, let's not overthink it.
Another non-player spoke to me, "You look quite sleepy. Didn't you get any sleep?" They spoke in a flat tone but it wasn't of any impolite reason.
"...yeah, I didn't." I answered honestly, still feeling sleepy.
"That's quite reasonable... It's hard to trust a group of strangers after all." He said.
He looked to be just about a little older than me... I think I should try to talk to them now that they've started a conversation with me.
"How exactly did you get here?" I asked without the sleepy voice from before.
It wasn't that I didn't feel sleepy but I "suppressed" it. I'm a professional night owl, I've played games overnight without sleep before... Not that it's something to be proud of. I slept like an unmoving statue the next day anyways.
"Everyone says they got here through speaking to the system in the white world. How about you?" He said.
"The same." I answered shortly.
And then it was silent. I didn't want to ask any personal questions and so I kept quiet. Not knowing what to say.
Then the group of players spoke, the highest player leading them, "We'll now start exploring the forest. We'll try our best to keep everyone safe. You can stay here if you don't trust us." He said.
... it's not like we have any choices either. If we stay here then we will die one way or another.
No one spoke and so the leader of the players added, "Alright, no objections, then let's get moving." His voice was loud enough for all of us to hear and he was quite confident.
He led the way, going to the south part of the forest. For the reason? He had an intuition that it'd be the safest path, he says...
I don't trust that though. I've already observed for long enough yesterday... And this area seems to give off bad vibes the most. It's just an intuition though.
The forest was really really quiet. No sound at all. More importantly, the stars at night looked weird... yet so normal. I think it's just my imagination though.
..."hmm, could this be a world filled with spiritual type monsters?" I muttered quietly to myself.
There was no such things mentioned in the game but I've read about it in a novel somewhere before.
"...an empty space in the middle and the quiet forest that seems to lack of life. Even the trees look like they're not really alive. They look normal yet they lack of a "soul"..." I muttered quietly again.
I was speaking rubbish about things I've read in a novel but it felt similar to a horror novel. More importantly, it really did feel that way according to my strange feelings and observation of the night yesterday.
"Wait, you... Say that again." Someone heard me this time as they told me to say it again.
"The night is way too quiet and it seems normal yet it lacks of life...?" I didn't repeat what I said earlier but said something else instead, as I was continuing my mumbling.
"Ah, that's right... I remember now. This is the forest of spirits. That's why there's no systems here." She spoke in enlightenment as everyone heard her voice in this quiet forest.
...forest of spirit? No ghosts right?
"No horror, right?..." I asked carefully.
"Luckily, no." She answered back quickly.
Phew... I'd die first if it was a horror... But I now feel quite relieved than before.
I feel like a genius, heh, just kidding... I was saying a bunch of nonsense and someone just somehow understood me. I think everyone has noticed that this forest lacked of life already. But the point is that the trees also lacks of life. And this entire world lacks of it. Even the night and day... They didn't consider this point unlike me who was feeling paranoid all day. Maybe it's not the world and just the forest like she said though... How interesting.
Everyone started chatting with each others and considered the possibilities, then I noticed something amiss after counting all the players... There was only 43 players now.
'Laris and Ragna went missing aswell...'
"Guys, people are miss-" Just as I raised my voice to speak, the supposedly highest level player started attacking all players in range with a ranged type ablity.
One that set fire on the surroundings that reached all of us. The players then went down to 31 just in a few moments as some burned completely to ashes.