"Ah, right! Doppelgangers also exists in this world!" The girl from earlier exclaimed... Why are you mentioning such important information now?
Ragna and Laris died, huh...? That red haired duo with a color of hair that didn't suit their faces... Rest in peace except for Ragna. I hope you're born with a broken nose your next life.
Luckily, only my clothes burned as I was in the Non-player group. Same goes for that girl too... Then is she also a player that killed their character like me? I mean, died in the game like me...
Anyways, there's no time for that! Let's run to the west direction! So I ran while forgetting my sleepiness as my survival instincts were pushed to max.
The players were fighting the doppelganger but why is a doppelganger so high level?... I'm sure these guys are said to get stronger after consuming one's soul. They've probably consumed more than one already... That's why..
The players soon realized this as they ordered everyone to run for their lives and scattered. Luckily, it was just one doppelganger, meaning not all of us will be screwed!
The girl that enclosed important information too late also followed my direction for no reasons...
Still, everyone else was also scattered in groups. Uh, there was only 2 this direction though. Did she think I'm reliable and run with me? It was only a lucky guess that I knew what this world could be...
So we ran towards the west and finally got further from the forest fires... The trees didn't look like they were losing lives since they looked lifeless from the start with just the natural greenish leafs... Sigh, how do I even say a tree is lifeless or not?
After running for a while and having reached far enough to be safe, I spoke to the girl that followed me.
"Why did you follow me of all?..." I asked confusedly.
"You were the closest to me among the group." She answered blunty.
"You could've followed a player instead if you wanted to be safe..." I could only say this helplessly. I wanted to be alone because I didn't trust anybody! I don't trust her either...
There's no reason for it but my broken nose... It still hurts. Damn you Ragna, I didn't even get the chance for revenge... not that it'd heal my broken nose.
But she ignored my comment and just looked at my face.
"Hmm... Your nose is broken.." she said this as she looked at my nose that seemed a bit flat than normal.
Then she recalled what happened to me and said, "Ah right... That red haired guy picked on you for some reasons and punched you in the face." ...
"It's not so nice to recall such a sight so please refrain from saying it so casually..." I feel really pathetic for getting punched like an idiot but I couldn't do anything at the moment.
I mean, I knew and I had a feeling that I wasn't strong enough. I'm not confident in fighting either...
She chuckled, finding my reaction amusing, "You're rather calm for someone with a broken nose."
And I'm also rather energetic for a sleepless person... That reminds me, I wants to sleep... I should've stayed back in the tent, probably... That doppelganger probably wanted to get the advantage and consume us all... Now, it seems like it's already consumed over 15 souls, according to my guess.
I muttered to myself, not replying to her comment from earlier, "A doppelganger right off the start isn't too kind for a bunch of low levels and non-players ..."
She still heard me even though my voice was quiet, and said, "I think so too."...
Then she asked curiously, "Why did that red haired guy pick on you at the start?"
..."it's apparently because a guy that looks like me supposedly stole his "Relina"... But he died to that doppelganger." I said with my usual tone.
"Relina? That's a popular gaming streamer." She said with a tone of surprise.
"Ah, is that so?... I knew something was wrong. But who's Johnson, then?" I asked, finally enlightened of the doubts I had before.
"Johnson is a global ranked player of this game, Yellow Fantasy." She answered me, and looked at my face carefully.
"...ah? So he was just being delusional. He still broke my nose before he died though." And it still hurts aswell.
"Your eyes really do look like that guy's eyes but your hair and facial expressions are different. I can tell that for sure." She said after careful consideration...
"...maybe he was just looking for someone to vent out his frustrations." I said after thinking for a while.
She looked at my face for a while before talking again, "A lot of Relina's male fans complained about the fact she became Johnson's girlfriend."
"...and that red haired guy was one of them, an extreme one at that." I sighed as I said this.
She chuckled, finding my reactions amusing yet again, "You're interesting."
What's so interesting about me?... You're just laughing at me for getting my nose bone broken.
We were walking slowly towards the west direction, but why? Is there an exit this way?
"Uh, are we really going the right way?" I asked even though I was the one leading the way.
"... I don't know? You're the one leading the way so I thought you'd know." She replied but her expression didn't change. She wasn't annoyed by the fact I was clueless, after all it's normal to be clueless...
Sigh, We're a bunch of low level players... No, I'm not even a player because my character died... It looked more handsome than me, what a pity.
She chuckled and said, "This reminds me of times where you follow a friend in a group and then this exact scenarios occurs..."
Right, that used to happen... Most of the time I wasn't the one leading though.
"My intuition tells me we'll be safe in this direction, even if we aren't, we just die, right?" I said casually.
"You talk about dying so easily... I'm still too young to die in a place like this. You die alone." She said coldly.
Ouch, where did your normally social persona go? You became colder instantly... If you thinks I'm interesting then you shouldn't tell me to die.
"You're still quite young too so don't die here..." She added quietly, just quiet enough for me to hear.
...right, I'm only still 21... Sigh, I can't be dying here, can I? A pro gamer like me shouldn't be dying in the first episode.
Just as we walked to the west direction slowly, as to not make any sounds... We heard a strange voice coming from the north.
It was the voice of a doppelganger and it sounded both human and ghost-like. Horror-like...
"Help!" A player was running towards another direction as they were quickly being chased down by a doppelganger.
It seems like they're also a non-player as well... That doppelganger seems to have gotten stronger too.
I observed quietly and hid, the girl following me also did the same. She was quick witted after all. At least, I think so...?
The doppelganger caught up to the guy that was asking for help and consumed him. The doppelganger's entire body opened up like a mouth as it consumed the guy and it's appearance also changed... There was no traces of his body left behind as it consumed him whole.
My expression stayed the same after witnessing such a scene, not because I wasn't scared but because... I was too sleep deprived to think about this now! I want to get out and sleep already...
The girl didn't react at all either. She seemed pretty fine even after witnessing it... Is she a psycho?
Anyways, the doppelganger quickly went like hundreds of metre away from us as it didn't notice us...
At this point, the doppelganger's already consumed over 25 players.
"..hey, what's your name?" A voice whispered to me, it was the voice of the girl following me.
Right, we haven't exchanged names yet...
"I'm Rion... And you?" My voice was quiet, I was still wary of the doppelganger.
"...Elenora." she answered quietly aswell.
'Elenora, huh? That names fits her.'
She had long black hair with bangs, her facial expressions were soft and she was quite cute.