Second World

The Skeleton Captain let out another roar before charging towards them. He was half expecting the monster to jump directly up to where they were, he was ready to sprint out of the room if it did. Instead, it rammed through the front door underneath their room. He could hear it crashing everything down there, trying to find the stairs up. Luckily the stairs were at the middle section of the house, unlike other residential which have stairs immediately after the entrance. It should take him some time to come up to this floor.

He tried to open the window, it didnʼt budge. His hand went to the latch before realizing it was not in a locking position.

”Canʼt open your window!” He said to Bill.

The guy was still sitting on the floor with a pale face, he seemed lost.

”Hey! We need to go out the window or we are toast!” He yelled to get his attention.

”I–Itʼs jammed,” he stammered. ”It has jammed for years. Ca– canʼt be opened.”

To hell with this! Jack summoned out his sword.

”Power Strike!”

The window was blasted into pieces.

He looked out the window, it was at least four meters from the ground. Shouldnʼt be a problem, with the game physique he had now, even if he got hurt from the fall, he should only lose a few HP.

”Come on, letʼs jump.” He said as he turned back to see Bill was still sitting there on the floor.

The sounds of crashing were getting louder.

”Man, you seriously gonna freeze up at a time like this?”

Heavy footsteps were heard on the stairs outside, with several thumps as the monster must have hit the wall trying to fit its colossal body onto the tiny stairs. He could feel the house shaking.

Bill was still on the floor with a blank look on his face.

He went down and gripped the manʼs shoulders. ”Look, man! This might be a game, might be not. Might be the real world, might be not. You might really die here, or you might get resurrect again like what happens in a game. But do you really want to try to find out? That thing will charge in here and it will hurt you. And trust me, it will hurt, the pain will be real! Iʼve seen it happens to someone. I have felt pain when fighting those things outside. That is real! Now if you donʼt get your butt up now, Iʼm going to leave you. I mean it!”

Some awareness seemed to come back to the older manʼs eyes. He focused on Jack, gasped a few times, and nodded heavily. The loud thump was heard outside the room. Jack pulled Bill up, they went to the crashed window. Bill looked down and pulled himself back. He shook his head fiercely.

Motherf***er! Jack cursed in his heart.

The wall with the door tore apart like paper, revealing the gigantic figure. It glared at both men. It lifted its saber up high. It scrapped the ceiling of the room as it was swung towards Bill.

Jack dashed in front and brandished his sword.

Parry!

A loud metallic clank sounded out as he flew back due to the force of the impact. Red numbers of 62 appeared above him. He was shocked to see such high damage. His HP was already high due to the combined starting bonus of two classes, even with Parry skill, the monster still took out more than one-fifth of his Health. If he didnʼt use Parry, he might not even last three hits. And it looked like that was only the monsterʼs normal attack. What if it used a skill? In a normal game, a specially named monster usually possessed additional skill in addition to normal attack.

As he was flying back, he grabbed the petrified fool who was still unmoving. Utilizing the force of the impact, he shoved Bill out of the window and jumped out himself. Bill landed heavily on his side, he lost 16 HP. Jack landed safely with both feet. He immediately pulled Bill up, who seemed to be in pain but didnʼt seem to have broken any bone. He then scanned his radar.

”Crap!” He cursed out loud.

There were red dots around them. They were outside those monstersʼ range of perceptions, but any direction they ran to, they would attract those monsters. If they got blocked while being pursued by the Skeleton Captain, it would be the end for them.

He heard a roar from above. He instinctively pulled Bill away from where they stood. He felt a rush of wind at their back and heard a loud crash. The ground shook beneath them. He turned and saw the Skeleton Captain at the place where they stood before with its saber deep in the ground. He could feel Billʼs shivering.

He slapped Bill on his face. ”We donʼt have time to mess around. We are trapped, we have to fight here. Take out your knife and protective vest!”

”Wh– What vest..?”

He fought the urge to slap the man again. ”The equipment you received from the black box. I explained them to you before, the ones that are in your storage bag.”

He made a few gestures, and thank goodness, the knife came out and a vest appeared on his body.

”Stay back! I will deal with it. You just try not to get killed!” Jack warned him as he signaled for him to put some distance. Asking a level 1 single-class player to fight a level 6 special monster would provide no help at all. The guy might get instant-killed instead, might as well asked him to stay away than be a distraction.

He shifted his attention back to the Skeleton Captain. He took out his magic staff and got ready to combat the monster. It was having a difficult time trying to pull its saber out from the ground. It made a powerful tug and finally, the saber was free. Chunks of rocks were flying due to the forceful heave. Although it was very powerful, it didnʼt seem to be quick with its movements, so there might still be a chance to defeat this foe. Jack focused all his attention, he will evade it once it made its lunge, then counter-attacked when it was off-balance.

It lifted its saber up. Jack tensed up and made a ready to jump to one side. The saber swung, but it was in the wrong direction. The saber left the monsterʼs hand. Did it slip? Was such a stupid mistake allowed by the game program? The saber twirled as it traveled further. Jack didnʼt dare to let the monster out of his sight, it might have thrown the saber as a distraction.

Hence, even as the twirling saber left his field of vision, he kept his eyes on the Skeleton Captain. However, when he heard a pained cry, he realized it never tried to distract him. He turned to see Bill impaled by the saber. It went right through his chest with the sharp point coming out of his back. His eyes slowly lost color and he fell down to the ground.

Jack was dumbstruck, the fellow really got instant-killed!

😉