Lilith had arrived at the Beverly Hills villa. She first checked on Jennifer and Nidi's physical bodies, then examined the game disc.
All of this was done without pausing the game—who knew what might happen if they stopped it?
"Lilith, what's the situation?" Roy asked, noticing her furrowed brow and grim expression.
"It's tricky. This disc is definitely an anchor to some kind of space—a purely mental realm where only souls can enter. The conditions for entry are strict: you need to have heard the prayer twice and be playing the game. That's the only way to access that world."
"But this game only supports two-player split-screen at most. Unless I can find a second copy of the disc."
Even then, playing a second disc wouldn't guarantee they'd enter the same game world as Jennifer and Nidi, since it's a single-player game, not online multiplayer.
Ashley, standing nearby, was visibly worried for her friends.
"I could try forcing the space open, but I have no idea what kind of consequences that might cause," Lilith offered.
Video games were new territory for her, and she wasn't confident in dealing with them.
"Lilith, give it a shot. If something feels off, we'll stop," Roy said.
Lilith nodded and began preparing for the ritual.
Just then, the game on the TV screen flickered.
"Roy, look!" Ashley exclaimed.
Roy's eyes snapped to the screen. It was glitching hard—mosaics, jagged edges, and screen tearing everywhere.
This kind of thing usually meant a graphics card issue, but the game didn't crash. It kept running.
Inside the game, Jennifer and Nidi saw the same glitches and jumped in surprise.
"Nidi, what's happening?" Jennifer asked.
"No clue. Maybe a bug, or the console's hardware can't handle it!" Nidi replied.
"Will this affect us?"
"Jennifer, I'm just as new to this game-world thing as you are. How would I know?"
Thankfully, the weirdness didn't last long. As the in-game elevator reached the bottom, the screen tearing stopped.
But when Jennifer and Nidi stepped out into the underground corridor, they found it bathed in a blinding, garish red. The walls were riddled with texture errors and exposed code.
It was like stepping into a bug-riddled world.
"I think I get it," Nidi said. "The game must've messed up loading the map, which caused all this."
"So we're stuck playing in this eye-searing nightmare? I'm not sure we'll even spot that red figure in this mess!" Jennifer groaned.
"What choice do we have? The elevator's busted. We can only move forward."
Jennifer shook her head helplessly and followed Nidi.
The harsh red environment was mentally draining, but Jennifer and Nidi's willpower held strong—barely.
Soon, though, they hit a new problem.
This area had monsters, but the loading errors screwed up their textures, making them impossible to spot visually. The two had to rely on sound to pinpoint their locations.
That was fine for moving monsters, but some stood still, blending into the glitched surroundings.
Worse, supplies were hard to identify. They missed a ton of pickups, and their inventories were dwindling fast.
Even Nidi, the gaming enthusiast, was losing patience.
"Argh! What is this garbage game? I thought it was fun at first, but this? Negative score! I'm giving it a negative score!"
Nidi tugged at her hair, clearly on the verge of a breakdown.
Jennifer, watching her, had an idea.
"If this game sucks so bad, why don't we just cheat and speedrun it?"
Nidi looked at her.
"How?"
"Like this."
Jennifer conjured a fireball and hurled it at a monster approaching them.
Boom!
The fireball exploded, incinerating the monster and causing noticeable screen tearing from the fiery effects.
Nidi stared, deadpan.
"I think I smell the motherboard frying."
Jennifer shrugged.
"What else are we supposed to do? I'm almost out of bullets, and this game doesn't let us melee. We can't keep playing like this."
"Fine, I'm done with this too. Let's finish it quick!"
And so, Jennifer became a fireball-slinging mage, tossing flames everywhere, while Nidi transformed into a cleric, blasting enemies with holy light. Their progress sped up dramatically.
Before long, they reached what looked like a prison. The iron bars, thankfully, weren't glitched, but the gruesome scene made both girls grimace.
The prison was filled with the corpses of women, all drained of blood. The dried-up husks wandering the mansion and garden likely came from here.
Pushing forward, they entered a heavily glitched laboratory where Dr. Stoke stood with his back to them, triggering a cutscene.
Dr. Stoke: "I'm surprised you two made it this far."
His model was riddled with texture errors, making his dramatic boss speech feel oddly comical.
Jack: "What the hell have you done?!"
Dr. Stoke: "Haven't you seen it for yourselves?"
Nicole: "You're a monster!"
Dr. Stoke: "Everything I've done is to bring my wife back! You can't understand the depth of my love for her. To revive Lisa, no price is too high!"
Jack: "You're insane, Stoke!"
Dr. Stoke: "Crazy or not, I'd do anything to bring Lisa back!"
With that, Dr. Stoke pressed a button. Doors around the lab opened, releasing a horde of dried corpses, while a mechanical arm lifted him to a platform above.
Dr. Stoke: "You'll become materials for Lisa's resurrection too!"
The cutscene ended, and Jennifer and Nidi struck simultaneously. A fireball and a blast of holy light hit Dr. Stoke, insta-killing him.
It felt like something straight out of the Wind Spirit Moon Shadow Sect—a cheat code-level beatdown.
Another cutscene began.
Dr. Stoke collapsed, reaching toward the tower.
Dr. Stoke: "No! Blood Queen, you promised! If I brought you blood, you'd revive Lisa! Why…?"
He died before finishing, leaving a new mystery.
Jack: "Did he just say 'Blood Queen'?"
Nicole: "I heard it too! Could that weird book be telling the truth?"
The ground began to shake violently. Jack and Nicole glanced around, alarmed.
Jack: "This place is collapsing. We need to get out!"
Nicole: "No kidding!"
Classic post-boss collapse trope!
Jack and Nicole might as well be cousins of Uncharted's Nathan Drake, with how everything crumbles around them.
Regaining control, Jennifer and Nidi bolted. The game didn't throw any convoluted escape routes at them—they just ran straight ahead, opened the greenhouse door, and escaped the underground area.
"Phew! That was intense!" Nidi said, grinning at Jennifer, clearly thrilled by the escape sequence.
Jennifer scanned their surroundings, relieved.
"The textures are normal here. Our eyes can finally take a break."
Nidi nodded.
"Jennifer, I think we're close to the final stage. Let's go!"
Normal textures didn't solve their supply problem. Their ammo and items were still low.
Worse, as they exited the greenhouse, they encountered a new type of monster: dried corpses wrapped in vines, highly resistant to bullets. Their revolvers were useless.
No choice but to keep cheating, clearing the enemies with fireballs and holy light.
"Why are these things so tough?" Jennifer asked.
She wasn't a gaming pro like Nidi, but she'd played enough to know something was off.
Nidi had a theory.
"I bet there's a stronger weapon we missed because we rushed through. Probably back in that glitchy underground mess."
"No way I'm going back there!" Jennifer said.
As they talked, they reached the tower. Jennifer placed a stone tablet on the door, triggering a cutscene.
The tower doors swung open, and the two protagonists stepped inside.
But then, the cutscene skipped abruptly, catching Jennifer and Nidi off guard.
The screen distorted again—not the mosaic mess from before, but something else. When it cleared, the game's visuals had upgraded.
Before, the game world had the same jagged, low-res look as the real-world screen. Now, it was next-gen high-definition, leaving both girls stunned.
"Nidi, what's going on?" Jennifer asked.
"I have no idea! This is way beyond the graphics tech of your era!"
Then they noticed the iron door behind them had turned into a solid wall. They were trapped in the tower.
"You've finally arrived," a low, feminine voice echoed through the tower.
"Who are you?" Jennifer called out.
It was a test. Normally, game characters couldn't hear Jennifer and Nidi's real voices—only Jack and Nicole's dialogue registered, since they were role-playing as them.
But if this voice responded to Jennifer directly, it meant this wasn't just a game anymore.
"I am Bloody Queen Mary. Come to the top floor and meet me."
Jennifer and Nidi exchanged a glance.
"Nidi, should we go up?"
"Do we have a choice?"
The tower was a confined space, and with their exit blocked, they had none.
"Might as well see what's up there," Jennifer said.
The tower was much taller than it looked from outside. It took them nearly half an hour to reach the top.
At the summit was a bedroom-like space. A pale woman in a red gown lay on a bed, eyes closed, looking dead.
"Was she the one talking? She looks dead," Nidi said, eyeing the bed warily, not trusting the woman wasn't faking.
Then the low voice spoke again.
"She is dead. But I am very much alive."
Following the voice, Jennifer and Nidi saw an identical woman—same face, same red gown—lounging on a nearby sofa, legs crossed, holding a goblet with an aristocratic air.
If Jennifer had to guess, that goblet was filled with blood.
"You're Bloody Queen Mary?" Jennifer asked.
The woman gave her a haughty look, as if speaking to Jennifer was a favor.
"Indeed, I am. Are you ready?"
"For what?"
"To become the materials for my resurrection, of course!"
As she spoke, Mary extended a hand toward them. Instantly, Jennifer and Nidi felt their blood surge, like it was boiling.
This was bad. They'd entered the game world as souls, so they shouldn't feel physical sensations like this.
Which meant their souls and bodies were synced—any harm to their souls could affect their real bodies.
"Jennifer, get back!" Nidi shouted.
She transformed into a four-winged angel, and the boiling sensation vanished. Her holy light dispelled the magic affecting Jennifer.
Mary was dumbfounded. She hadn't expected Nidi to be an angel.
It was like a tiger catching a pig, only to find out the pig was Wu Song in disguise, ready to pummel the tiger to death.
"How is this possible…?" Mary stammered.
"Go to hell!"
Nidi didn't let her finish. Spreading her light wings, she unleashed a barrage of white feathers, riddling Mary like a sieve.
Holy light was devastating to dark creatures like Mary. She had no defense and melted into a puddle of dark red ooze.
At that moment, a hole burst open in the wall, and Roy climbed through.
[Ding! Obtained Bloody Queen Mary's Fate Chest! Open it now?]
"Whoops, did I show up a bit late?" Roy asked.
"Yup!" Nidi smirked. "Roy, this was one hell of a game!"