Chapter 3 - The Moon.

Hours crawled by.

Stormc7ut was deep in my computer, rummaging through.

Sera and Dominus9 were online, in the guild chat. We were all waiting.

Finally, a message blinked into existence, breaking the silence.

Stormc7ut: Got something.

Relief, sharp and immediate, flooded through me.

Anythng: What did you find?

Stormc7ut: Client-side logs are cleaner than the server’s, like we hoped. MoonVoid’s actions are still weird, but more defined.

Seraphina39: Defined weird? Is that good weird or bad weird?

Stormc7ut: Bad weird, Sera. Like structured bad weird. Their movement patterns, attack sequences they’re not random. They’re following something. Something that isn’t in the standard combat algorithms.

Dominus9: Like a script? Or an external command?

Stormc7ut: Not a script. Too fluid, too adaptive. And not external commands in the way I recognize them. It’s like they’re reading the game world in a way we’re not supposed to. Exploiting unintended pathways.

Anythng: Pathways to where? Any clues in the logs?

Stormc7ut: Hard to say exactly. But there’s a recurring data signature associated with MoonVoid’s movements. A string of code that keeps popping up right before they do something impossible. It’s tied to environmental triggers.

Seraphina39: Environmental triggers! Like the moonpetal blossoms! Remember I said they were weird under the full moon? Maybe MoonVoid is connected to that! Maybe they’re activated by the full moon, or something moon-related!

Seraphina39: I knew it! Okay, okay, think, think Moon lore, full moon events There was that old whisper questline ‘Whispers of the Void’! It talked about a hidden zone, corrupted by moon energy or something. Said it only opened up during full moons!

Whispers of the Void. I vaguely remembered the questline.

Old, obscure, mostly forgotten by the player base. Something about a corrupted heart of 7 Haven, sealed away. Dismissed as flavour text, atmospheric world-building.

Anythng: Where was this zone supposed to be?

Seraphina39: Vague hints. Something about the ‘marketplace heart’ corrupted by moonlight. And a ‘hidden bloom’, opening the way. Marketplace heart that could be the central marketplace in 7 Haven City. But ‘hidden bloom’ that’s cryptic.

Marketplace heart I pictured the bustling central marketplace in 7 Haven, the heart of the city’s commerce, always crowded, always vibrant.

Dominus9: ‘Hidden bloom’ could that be connected to the moonpetal blossoms? Maybe they weren’t just hostile flowers. Maybe they were keys?

Keys to a hidden zone. The pieces were starting to click together.

Anythng: Stormc7ut, that data signature you found is it linked to anything in the game files? Any mention of ‘Whispers of the Void’ or ‘hidden zones’?

Stormc7ut was silent for a moment.

Stormc7ut: Running scans now. deep scans This is going to take a bit. Game files are massive, and they bury this kind of stuff deep.

We waited again, the silence stretched taut with anticipation.

I logged back into 7 Haven, my avatar appearing back in the muted marketplace. The viscous moonlight still poured down, casting long, distorted shadows.

The usual hustle and bustle was still subdued, NPCs murmuring their calls in hushed tones. It felt different now, charged with a new layer of unease, a sense of hidden things lurking just beneath the surface.

Then, Stormc7ut’s message broke the silence again.

Stormc7ut: Jackpot. Partial jackpot, anyway. Found a hidden data packet, deeply buried in the environment files. Tagged ‘FullMoonEvent_CorruptedZone_Access’. Contains location coordinates. And activation sequence.

The hidden zone was real. It wasn’t just lore. It was coded into the game, waiting to be unlocked.

Anythng: Coordinates? Marketplace area? Activation sequence ‘hidden bloom’? Moonpetal blossoms?

Seraphina39: Maybe they weren’t just hostile, maybe they were reacting to something!

Dominus9: Activation sequence could be timed to the full moon. Or triggered by something specific during the full moon.

Stormc7ut: Coordinates point to the central marketplace. Activation sequence is complex. Involves interacting with a specific market stall. During peak moonlight. Tonight.

Tonight. The full moon was still high in the sky, its viscous light bathing the marketplace in its unsettling glow. Peak moonlight that had to be soon.

Anythng: Market stall which stall? Activation sequence details? Stormc7ut, give us everything.

Stormc7ut: Okay, wait. Coordinates are pinpointed to the central fountain in the marketplace. Activation stall the old apothecary stall, the one near the fountain, run by Old Man Hemlock. Activation sequence involves purchasing a specific item from him. A ‘Moonpetal Essence’. But it’s not listed in his normal inventory.

Seraphina39: Old Man Hemlock! He always seemed a bit shady. Always muttering about strange herbs and forgotten lore..

Anythng: Alright, Operation: Corrupted Heart of Haven is a go. Meet me at the central marketplace fountain. Now. And Sera maybe bring some of those health potions you’re always hoarding.

My heart was pounding, a mixture of adrenaline and a prickle of genuine fear.

This wasn’t just a game anymore. It felt like we were peeling back the layers of 7 Haven, uncovering something dark and unknown, something that might be far more than just code and pixels.

But I would be lying if I said that I wasn't exited.

I navigated my avatar to the central marketplace fountain. Sera and Dominus9 materialized beside me.

“Ready?” I typed in guild chat, my fingers hovering over the keys.

Seraphina39: Ready as I’ll ever be

Dominus9: Let’s proceed with caution.

Stormc7ut: I’ll be running diagnostics from here, monitoring server activity. And good luck. Something about this feels off.

Off. That was the word that kept coming back.

And as we approached Old Man Hemlock’s stall, nestled in the shadow of the marketplace fountain, under the viscous, oppressive light of the full moon, ‘off’ felt like a colossal understatement.

Old Man Hemlock stood behind his stall, his usual jovial NPC greeting replaced by a vacant, unsettling stare.

His usual wares, brightly colored herbs and potions, were now muted, almost greyed out.

I steeled myself and initiated dialogue with the NPC.

The usual dialogue window didn’t appear. Instead, a single line of text materialized above Hemlock’s head, in a font I’d never seen before, jagged and unsettling.

“The moon bleeds.”

Then, the inventory window flickered open. It was almost empty. Just one item, sitting alone in the center slot.

‘Moonpetal Essence’.

The icon was disturbing.

Not a vibrant, blooming flower, but a withered, black petal, pulsing with a faint, sickly green light. The description text was even more unsettling, flickering and distorted, barely legible.

I clicked ‘Purchase’. The gold cost was zero.

As soon as I took the essence, the marketplace around us seemed to shift. The muted sounds faded further, replaced by a low, guttural hum that vibrated through my headset, through my very bones.

The viscous moonlight intensified, becoming almost tangible, pressing down on us like a physical weight.

And then, the fountain in the center of the marketplace it began to change. The water, usually clear and sparkling, turned black as ink, swirling and churning as if something was rising from the depths. The cobblestones around it cracked and warped, forming strange, unsettling patterns.

From the inky depths of the fountain, a sickly green light pulsed outwards, illuminating a newly formed opening in the ground, a gaping maw of darkness leading down into the unknown.

It was open. And we were about to step inside.