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Despite the timer for the undead event trickling away, it felt like an eternity before the game forcibly shut down the enemy NPCs and cleared the area for the battle-weary players. In that time, Black Cat wouldn’t have been able to find any useful hints or tricks via the internet or even Gudanko’s stream. It was more so a collection of angry gamer complaints at the unfairness of the beta and compilations of player fails during the event than anything useful or worthwhile. However, on the other side of the playing field, both Pestilent and her loyal knight survived the horde.

With survival came, hopefully, an energized and curious approach to the event’s mechanics. In time, it wouldn’t be long before the Deputy could construct a strategy guide of her own regarding the undead enemies. As for Thea, her attacker would go unknown for the rest of the night, but it wasn’t like she’d keep it secret for long. Indeed, it wasn’t long before Kenji was told of the strange encounter. Mention of Moon Rider, or specifically, a player taking the title of the infamous Black Guild player back in the days of archaic Deep Ground Online, soon sparked a charge within the game’s community.

In the span of overnight, HGO became the trending topic of discussion once again for two reasons. First was of course the new circulated rumors and public interest in the so-called new Moon Rider. Where had she come from? Was she an enemy NPC that only spawned during the undead event? Was Thea making her up just for publicity? The last part was disproven as quickly as it sprung up if only by Thea’s laced and not so subtle threats to anyone who dared to question her validity. But it wasn’t the only discussion going around.

It was a bittersweet day charged with confusing emotions run rampant, not entirely helped by the news that Jin Adamano was dead. More aptly named Saffron Star, it wasn’t long for the discovery to break out of the Blue Deputy’s passing. Nor was it long to find the body riddled with holes in specific locations of her corpse, hoddled in the darkness of a back alleyway. Not wanting to face legality pursuits or negative coverage, it was understandable that HGO’s devs would be upfront and honest about the tragic passing of an unknown murder.

That was probably why the game was put on a technical hiatus, much to the outcry of many. As tragic as Saffron’s death was to those who knew her, most players saw it unfair to suspend the game just for a death that was still under investigation. Coupled with promises to fix the undead mode and make it more balanced meant there were few and far opportunities for HGO to be playable. As a last-ditch effort to please its customers, an online version was released entirely in VR.

Granted, as an outdated model, no doubt a beta in its own right, the new “HGO” was sure to detract some players. But with no other alternative and with all AR functions being suspended for the time being, it was deemed safer both by the media and the general public to move the game over to an older but more reliable method. Knowing this, just as many players stayed to at least try out the VR method. Such as it were then that the first day of true VR HGO began, many a player settling into what was a crude version of a character selection hub room. Still, there were many strange anomalies that were too off-putting to ignore forever.
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