Time passes by, and as night falls, the woods start to get darker. Searching for the herbs was harder than I had anticipated. Anderson and I kept wandering for an hour, and yet we were out of luck.

We found the herbs mostly at the base of trees, or in thorny bushes, where in Anderson and I struggled to collect. We tried avoiding as many Grievers as possible, by hiding in bushes, or on the top of tall trees.

A couple of times, when we couldn't escape, we had to battle. Soon, we realized that Anderson's fire magic was super effective against grievers.

Apart from the Grievers, I started to observe the dark woods even more clearly. The whole sky, was covered with the canopy formed by the tall trees, showing traces of moon light at some spots. A couple of times, we heard gunfire and howls of grievers which creeped me out.

As we kept moving deeper, we also found a bridge, which separated the woods into two halves. The bridge appeared as though it might fall off, and it also had many griever claw marks and bullet holes on it, showing that people have crossed this before. And underneath the bridge, was a huge dark space, that made it impossible to see what's underneath. I tried looking down using my sniper scope, but all I could see was thick, black clouds.

We decided not to cross the bridge, as it appeared scary, and you may never know what might happen beyond it.
So, we backed away from the bridge and kept on searching for the herbs before it.

But, that's when we heard the third scream. This time, I could identify that it was a girl's voice. It was not too distant, so Anderson and I sprint forward to save her.

On the way, I check my minimap and realized Amber and Shu were separated, and now we're miles apart!
Amber was running fast back towards where the others were, and Shu remained motionless, at some point away. But ahat would have happened?! And why isn't Shu moving?!

Anderson and I decide to split up. Anderson decided to go save Amber and I decided to go for Shu.

I run as fast as I can, towards the point where Shu was. After running a certain distance, I realized I was running back to the same spot where the bridge was. Upon reaching, I couldn't find Shu, but a pack of three grievers at the bridge looking down and trying to claw something.

This was my chance! I climb up a tree so that the grievers wouldn't notice me. First, I aim at one of the grievers, and shoot it down. Before I could attack the second griever, they had already noticed me. The grievers switch target, and run towards the tree, trying to attack me. Before it could even leave the bridge, I successfully took down the second griever. But before I realized, the third griever had already climbed the tree I was on, and was just a few inches away from the branch!

Before it could even take a step forward, I jump back, with my spine facing the ground. I aim for the third griever mid air, and shoot it down.

I groan as my back back hits the ground. Falling from that height, reduced my health to 40%! I immediately get back to my feet and sprint towards the spot where the grievers once stood. I look down, to find Shu hanging onto a rope attached to the bridge. I pull the rope up, helping Shu to get back on the ground.

I look at him as he gasps for breath. He had turned purple and the cloth around his shoulder had been ripped off, indicating that the grievers had got a hit on him. His health had been reduced down to 20% and the poison kept reducing his health slowly. He looks up at me and grins. Who in the whole world would grin in that condition?!

"Hey! I guess I found something cool down there.", He says with a wide smile.

"And what's that?", I ask.

"Well, it's hard to explain. So, follow me!", He says as he turns around.

I grab his shoulder and shout, "No! you are not gonna go anywhere with that condition."

He pushes my hand away and says, "Would you say the same if I've found the Easter egg of this game?"

"Wait what?!", I look at him with an astonished look.

Shu looks at me unsurprisingly and says, "Did you forget that we are in a world where in all the game realms are collided into a single game? And I guess I've found the Easter egg of one of the games."

"And how do you know where's the it?", I ask.

Shu replies, "When the grievers were chasing me down. I jumped down the bridge and clinged to a rope before the grievers could catch me. And that's when I found this."

He goes to a tree, and chops one of the vines, and makes a rope out of it. Then he ties it to the bridge, and jumps down, hanging onto the rope. I do the same.

As I jump down, I find a ladder just a few inches away from me. Shu and I swing forward and jump onto the ladder. The ladder, was connected deep down, where I couldn't even see where the end was!

We start climbing down. I look down at Shu as he says, "Ever since I've entered this map, I felt I've been here before, and there's something I haven't been noticing."

He pauses and speaks again, "Then i realized, that The Dark Woods was taken from the game, 'Monster Gun Shooter Online' or MGSO for short. It was released quite a long time ago and, there's a rumour that developer has hidden an Easter Egg in the current map. But until now, noone could ever find it. I've tried searching for it too, but I had given it up half way."

I look at him, amused. Yeah, he is quite lazy sometimes, and yet he managed to find the Easter Egg of an entire game!

"So what do you think must be hidden there?", I ask Shu.

Shu looks at me, and then replies, "Well I'm not sure of it either. The developer called it, 'The garden of the hand'. Well, some believe that there's an over powered weapon hiding in there, but noone really knows what could it be."

We start to go deeper, and soon the sky was covered with the dark clouds. After a few minutes, we finally reach the bottom. There was a stream flowing at the bottom, and opposite to that was a small entrance into a dungeon.

The entrance, was illuminated, which made it look like an exit to out of this place. Shu and I walk through the entrance, and after that, the light blinds my eyes.

I try opening my eyes, to find a huge garden! I neither could find the roof of the cave, nor the other end. It looked like paradise!

Then, I could feel a calming and soothing effect, enveloping my mind. Shu turns back to normal, as the poison effect wears off. I realized, the atmosphere here, could heal status conditions like poison, but my health status remained the same

I stare at the garden for a while. Then, I realize we do not have much time left, and the others must be waiting for us. I signal Shu and start collecting all the herbs required for the poison potion.

Shu puts his hand under his chin and asks as he thinks, "Nuke, why don't we just get Matthew here, rather than waste our time collecting the herbs?"

"Shu that's impossible! By the time we get him here, he would already be dead!", I shout.

After collecting all the herbs we needed, I add them to my inventory and decide to leave. Just then, Shu looks back and says, "Wait a minute, I feel there's something more to this place. Mind if we check go a bit ahead and check out if there's anything else?"

Yup, Shu was right. There has to be something else, to make this place an Easter egg. Something, we haven't looked for yet.

Shu and I walk further, and then we see something in a far off distance. We sprint forward and then find a small pillar on which, there was a metal glove.

Shu looks at it as he says, "Do you think this could be it?"

"Maybe?", I reply.

Shu grabs the glove and puts it on to his right arm. He moves his hand trying to find out what does it do.

Suddenly, the dungeon starts to tear apart. It gets dark, and the walls start to fall off. From somewhere high above, huge rocks started to fall down, making me realize that the dungeon is gonna collapse!

I look at Shu and then find something strange! The glove starts to glow, and then suddenly attack and speed stats rises rapidly!

He grabs my hand and sprints forward, at lighting speed! I could feel thick dust brushing past me, as Shu helps me escape out of the dungeon. After we get out, the entrance collapses as well.

Shu falls to his knees and grasps for breath. "Man, this is way too tiring but cool!", He says, breathing heavily.

Shu looked completely worn out. The glove drew out all his energy, raising his speed and attack stats by 200%!

After a few minutes, he gets back onto his feet as he says, "I guess it's time to go back now."

"You are fine now?", I ask him.

"Yup, I guess I've regained back all the energy I lost, and now I'm good to go!", he replies, excited.

Before we start, I once again look at the map, to make sure if everyone are safe. Suddenly, I find them moving fast towards the bridge!

What on Earth could have even happened?!