Part 24: Candy Planet

The transition was so smooth that it caught me off guard. I was no longer being pinned down. I found myself standing up rather quickly as the world I knew was gone.

I pinched my skin this time around and it did hurt. Oh no. This was real.

Although I was shocked at the world I was in, it looked unusual. The realistic environment made me feel out of place. I seemed to have landed in one of the locations outside of Tartropolatté that is known as Jelly Jungle. I recognized it, especially with how sticky the ground was in-game. I was apparently stuck to it like glue.

My feet were panicking mostly because I started hearing unnatural jiggling noises running through the grape-coated jelly leaves that wiggled around like Jello. My eyes stared above, switching around quickly out of fear. This wasn’t what I wanted to think of after knowing what Imagi did to me. That meant that the four supposed survivors were probably the ones behind both the fabricated stories and actual murders. I couldn’t be entirely certain, but they had to be up to something. Of course, that made me ask what happened to Cherry.

Deep into those thoughts, a high pitched bubbly sound came to my attention. I closed my eyes until I didn’t hear anything. Peeking through my hands, I saw a small creature peeking. It had two white pudgy legs connected to its macaroni shaped body and a large oval head.

Wait a minute.

This was one of wild pets in the game called a Bibbly Bubble. Yes it’s a weird name but they are really cute. I had a green one in the game in which they are often customizable in many bright neon type colors. Their big beady eyes were even more adorable. They are pretty happy most of the time, so I am fortunate to even encounter one.

Unfortunately, they don’t have hands. So I don’t think it’s going to be able to do anything to get me out of this mess sadly.

I hate Imagi so much now because of this. No wonder she was talking down about the secrets behind those stories. Was there some sort of plot going on? Were these people being recruited to start controversies surrounding the game? Perhaps Imagi had ties to UVOCA which is why she knew the cherry sending me here would cause problems.

There is one thing she forgot though. Especially if my theory is correct. I would have to travel to Candiere’s Cafe and likely bust through the boarded doorway. It wasn’t possible to do it in the game, but surely there was going to be a way to bust through it back into my world. It has never been done by anyone before, so I would technically be the first.

This made me mixed on my perspective of Princess Candiere herself. She was the one managing the cafe. How could she not know about this? In many instances, when you are first given a tour for the job, she says not to go into The Cafe Catalog because they were working on its renovation. To my knowledge, not a single player has been caught by any of the staff in that cafe. Even though the game warns you that they will catch you, it never happens. The walls and doors must be soundproof. For a library, this would make sense to keep outside noises from distracting those who once used the place to read about the cafe’s history.

With all of the random crayons and empty bookshelves, I would have to believe someone wanted to get rid of the cafe’s entire past. Only one thing connected the dots to this particular place still. UVOCA. I never got the chance to ask Cherry what the acronym stood for.

UVOCA was behind creating reality shifting inventions. The portals in the planetarium Cherry mentioned seemed to have a certain connection to the boarded door having one of these blocking its path. Maybe UVOCA built this place?

As I was lost in thought about what was going on a male voice came out of nowhere. It sounded quite like an accent which was able to speak nearly the same language as on Animearth.

“Hello? You okay? What’s your name?”

I panicked at seeing a humanoid figure which looked similar to a pale mannequin with candy cane colored hair and the garments of a noble figure. The only thing he didn’t have on was a crown. His irises were a hot pink and he had brown heart shaped blushes on his cheeks.

No way... It was Prince Cinnamint, the secret stepbrother of Princess Candiere.

But what was he doing here?