[center][h2][color=pink]Selena[/color][/h2][/center]
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When the shift happened, Selena was merrily conversing with her newfound companions. Thus, she didn't realize that the timer had hit zero and everything was supposed to go blank.

But instead, she felt a terrible ringing inside her head, making her pause in her tale, closing her eyes and pressing both of her hands onto her forehead. Thankfully, the terrible sensation didn't last long, so soon enough, she opened her eyes once more.

And what she saw really, really surprised her.

Everything seemed so realer than before, as if this was not a game at all. She looked down to her wine cup and saw how smooth everything looked with no pixels whatsoever. And the way the wine moved inside the cup, it was just like in real life. They didn't have anything like that before.

And then, she smelled it. The scent of the wine assaulting her nose. She took a sip at the wine and sure enough, it actually tasted like proper wine this time. Quickly, she put it down. She had a feeling if she continued, she would really be drunk.

What happened? Wasn't the game supposed to be over now? This looked like a massive update in realism instead.

She then tried to open her system setting to check the version of the game, but soon found out that she couldn't do it. The menu just wouldn't appear.

[color=pink]"H-hey, what's going o--"[/color]

She reflectively jumped out of her seat, pushing the chair she was down to the floor with a loud crash, and drew her knife when she saw the beast sitting where December should've been. When the knight made his appearance and bowed down to the creature, saying things like "punishing the mortals" and the like, Selena became even more suspicious on the creature. Only after the creature spoke that she understood that it was December all along.

[color=pink]"D-December, i-is that you? W-what happened?"[/color]

Meanwhile, she heard her other companion, the demoness, laughing at the situation. She said the game somehow had become so much more real, and she had to agree with her. When she moved, she could feel the rustle of her dress on her skin, something she could never feel before. She tried twirling around and sure enough, the hem of her skirt moved fluidly, just like how it was supposed to in the real world.

And then, she saw the battle going on across the room with the beholder. And even from this distance, she could feel its evil aura, granting fear into her heart. She never really felt something like this before. It was as if the creature was truly real, and not just a monster.

[color=pink]"No time to think now. Let's take down that thing first,"[/color] she announced to December and Senna. After they took care of it, then they could all gather together and figure out what in the world had just happened.

She began casting her hexes one by one to the creature from a distance. Anything you can name of; poison, paralysis, blindness. She also used her debuffs, decreasing each and every stat the creature has. To her perplexion however, she couldn't see any of the usual messages when someone got hit by her curses. Could it be that none of it was working? But from what she could tell, it seemed the creature was slowing down, so it should work? So then why were the pop-up messages and symbols not appearing?

[@Rune_Alchemist][@BurningDaisies]