A week has passed since the battle in the town and the Mystics and Lisandra have returned to the Forest of Eternal Moonlight, which was one of the lands that appeared on the continent of Elindra with the release of the expansion.  The people of the surrounding plains consider the forest cursed because of the fact of its sudden appearance, and the fact that no matter what, it is always nighttime, with a large full moon overhead.


    Normally, only the Instanced Dungeons that NPCs aren''t able to enter are able to be set to a specific state, and so it is only because of the fact that the Goddess has messed with the code was she able to watch over the remaining worshipers she had smuggled from their homeworld.  Upon entering the Forest, Lisandra had received an odd pop up.


    <table><tbody><tr><td colspan=''2''>System Notification</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>ERROR!!!</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>You have entered into an area not registered in the database.  Please contact Customer Support.


    VR-Technics is not liable for what happens in areas not registered in the database.</td></tr></tbody></table>


    Sure, I''d love to contact Support, and my uncle...  It''s not like I''m going insane here from the constant violence between me and my captors... Lisandra thinks.  I do not wish to enter this area.  The Corporation refuses liability for what happens inside as it is not part of their database.  You have bullied me far to much for my acceptance, and I refuse to enter there without explanation or freedom.


    Of course, this just set off Alana again.  "You have no choice but to obey, you worthless slut.  Hell, I can''t wait to get you to the temple, as I plan on offering you up to the goddess as a sacrifice considering how many times you''ve insulted her!"  Alana did a spin-kick, and knocked the wind out of Lisandra''s lungs, flattening her to the ground.  She then grabs Lisandra by the hair and drags her, flailing and struggling into the woods.


    Loran sighs and shakes his head.  "We really shouldn''t be so angry with her.  She has every right to hate us and our goddess, if the goddess did manipulate her into the situation she is in right now..."


    Jelliba giggles at that.  "I think the goddess was just angry because she lost our homeworld and had to move us cross-dimensionally to save what she could of her powerbase...  We need to get her to help us, if her story about being the Paladin is true...  Do you really think Alana will sacrifice her in the temple when we get back?"


    Raphael frowns before speaking, "Perhaps it would be best if we let Alana have her way for now...  Time in here is I believe I heard what Lisandra termed ''players'' say something like three times faster than time out there, so we have about six months to convince her to help us and free her before anything ''traumatic'' starts to happen to her real body."


    Aurian shakes his head, "Seluna won''t be happy with the fact that you are questioning her methods, Prince."


    "Aurian, I''m sorry, but I was never much of a pious man, and the actions she has taken are a confusion for me.  If she truly wanted us to receive the best help, this does not seem to be the way," Loran whispers.  "I''m thinking it is time to separate the Church and Crown again.  I appreciate the recommendations and assistance the church has given the Crown, especially with the relocation..."


    "But you wish to make decisions not bound by the desires of our people''s Goddess?"


    "Something like that.  We don''t know these ''players'', let alone how they think or what their emotions are.  We need to understand these ''players''.  We cannot anger them, when they have power equaling our home world''s minor deities."


    "You''re just afraid of backlash.  What we need to do is crush Lisandra''s spirit and break her into our tool to be used outside of here!"


    Loran and Aurian glare at each other.  "Seeing as Lisandra is the property of the Crown, I will not be allowing you to break her."


    Raphael steps between them and motions for them to hurry forward.  "Better be careful, or we will get too far behind, and Alana will take the choice out of either of your hands."


    <hr />


    Phillip frowns as he is going through the player database by hand, combing it for any inconsistencies he can find, knowing that somewhere in this haystack is a clue to his precious nephew''s whereabouts.


    "Are you even listening to me?" Patricia snaps at Phillip from the holo-call she is on.  "Or is it that you don''t care about Jonas being missing?"


    "Damn it, Patty, I''m more worried than you.  Do you know how much effort I put into reviving the Paladin Slayer so that we could film it for the promotional movie?"


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    "You''re upset he''s missing because it pushes back the expansion!?  How inhumane are you?"


    He sighs and shakes his head.  "I''m not upset he''s missing because of the expansion, you silly woman.  That''s like saying you''re upset because his being missing pushes back your ability to experiment on him in secret thanks to that special capsule that allows you to reprogram the nanobots at will."


    "You know I would never do anything that would harm my husband!"


    "And I would never do anything to harm my nephew.  Right now, I''m going through the player database looking for a missing connection of some kind.  In fact, if what I think is accurate happened, then we need to find a ''Slave'' status character with an enormous debt..."


    "Why a slave character?"


    "Because they are unable to contact Support, and if he was in-game as we suspect, he would have contacted us already.  What''s more worrying is the fact that there are areas in the game that aren''t listed on our database, so we have no control over the areas there.  The only thing that we can make sure there is that respawns occur."


    "Why not check for data regarding that girl he saved?"


    "Already did, and she deleted her character over two months ago...  She probably had arranged a special ''Slave'' capsule and was going to blackmail her own father into paying for her ''release''..."


    "Damn it.  So, those mafia people dared to hurt my husband...?  I''ll find them in the game and ruin them!  I''ll make them tell me what I want to know..."


    "You know that ability is not supposed to be used on players!"


    "I don''t know what ability you are talking about, but I know that by being part of that Mafia guild allows me to beat them into a pulp.  Also, my Hidden Class allows me to take them out even if they were double my level."


    "Yes, I remember programming that very odd class...  It''s what I based the Slayer off of, with a lot of work afterwards."


    "Since it was the Mayor''s Daughter, you might search for recently sold female players," Patricia growls.


    Phillip does a quick search via another tab, and blinks as he sees a notification for Support and Programming.  "There was one sold a week ago in game, which is about when he went missing..."


    Phillip whistles as he checks the character''s data, and blinks as he frowns.  "Well, if this is him, he''s earned the enmity of a goddess named Se...luna...?  There wasn''t a goddess Seluna in our programming!  What the hell is going on?  Patty, I''m gonna have to call you back."


    He hangs up the call, and marches out of his office and down the hall, before pounding on ''Religious'' Robert Riblik''s door.  "BOB!  YOU BASTARD!  Did you implement another hidden goddess?"


    "Eh?  Which goddess ya be talkin'' ''bout?" Bob asks as the door opens.  He just sits there, tired, his white hair looking like he was making an Einstein cosplay.


    "Seluna," Phillip growls.


    Bob frowns and taps his lips.  "Nope, don''t know that goddess.  Is it another bug in the system?"


    Phillip sighs.  "Apparently, she''s handing out divine curses.  Could you look into fixing it?"


    "Sure Phil, I''ll get right on it."


    Phillip returns to his room and accesses the ''live camera'' function of the character ''Lisandra'', as he was highly interested in this odd ''Slave'' character.  He frowns as he debugs her code and quickly removes the ''Divine Curse'', as well as undoing the artificial inflation of the debt.


    <hr />


    <table><tbody><tr><td colspan=''2''>System Notification</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>System Support Staff</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>A Developer has connected to your Live Action Camera


    A Developer has removed the debuff ''Divine Curse of Seluna''


    A Developer has adjusted your Debt.  Current Debt: 2,499,000</td></tr></tbody></table>


    A Developer is watching!? Lisandra quickly thinks.  Help!  Me: Paladin Jonas!  Missing!  Help!


    "What the hell are you writing there, you worthless slave?" Alana snarls.


    <hr />


    Well!  "Call: Patricia," Phillip states.  "Patty, I found him!  He''s a slave named Lisandra!  He just entered an Undesignated Forest area on the plains of Elindra."


    "Thank you, Phillip!"


    "Be careful, he''s got a debt of 2,499,000 still.  I did what I could by removing 45,000,000 of the debt, considering it was originally programmed as 5,000,000.  Someone hacked the character data to up it to 50,000,000."


    "I''ll go and find him.  I have a teleport to a village right by that new forest.  I had intended to check out there."