Robin was so excited to log into WEO that she'd opted to simply throw on a large shirt, bottoms and nothing else as she'd gotten out of the shower. As she took a hairdryer to her white hair she scrolled through the VR MMO's official forums. The forums weren't as active as they'd once been but there was still the occasional bit of interesting news posted every now and then. Today there didn't seem to be anything new. In the sub-forum dedicated to theories and future game content there was a thread created by a user named Sophos, it was full of people talking about a mysterious shrine in the game. Most people thought the OP was trolling, some telling them to prove it with screen shots, a few just telling them to 'kys.' 

A screen shot had in fact been posted, but it was quickly dismissed as being fake. The area did look far different compared to the rest of the game for sure, Robin had been there herself and even she had a hard time believing it. The publishers hadn't put out anything regarding new content, especially something as significant as a new area. It was unlikely to simply be unused content, as it would have been found a long time ago as well. 

Robin clenched her teeth and put the phone away. She was hoping to have learned something new by posting the thread, but it seemed as if the area really was a secret for the most part. She turned off her hairdryer and moved over to her bed. She quickly booted up her computer and put on her VR headgear. From there the interface was hands free, within moments she found herself inside Worlds End Online as her dark elf avatar Sophos. As soon as she had control she opened up her menu and accessed the teleport menu. Among the many listed locations was an out of place blank space, the shine she had visited by chance the other day. Selecting the blank menu item her vision was filled with stretched light of various hues as the game simulated moving through space to mask loading. It reminded her of when spaceships moved through hyperspace in science fiction stories.

The game quickly finished loading as Sophos found herself at her destination, at least she thought it was the right place. She looked around for the shrine, but as far as she could see there was nothing but grass, a white expanse, a strange red gate, and an even stranger maid with bunny ears. Other players were here as well, so she figured she hadn't entered some weird debugging area by mistake. 

The bunny suddenly began to speak, using lines that sounded like rehearsed company jargon. Sophos looked at the scroll in front of her, at least this was as normal as everything else. She quickly read through the scroll just in case anything strange had been mixed in, and then accepted it. With that out of the way, Sophos approached the bunny maid, a mischievous grin on her face.

"I've never seen an NPC like this before, are these real?" She reached out with her hands, lightly grabbing the floppy ears. "Ohhh~" The ears certainly felt real, they weren't simply fancy accessories. She resisted the urge to rub them any longer and stepped back. Before she stepped into the ominous gate she assumed the bunny had more to say.