Ep. 2 — Chapter 7: First World (2)

The sun was fully up then. And when I checked my phone, it was around 8:30AM now. It was only two hours, but the boy had gotten even smaller than before.

Alarming as it was, I still hadn't come up with a name for him—if that was the way to stop his shrinking.

A Minimi. A type of creature that didn't appear in the early stages of the Game. I doubt that my knowledge of [World Ascension] would be much useful now, especailly since that this 'official' release had other things added into it.

The kid sat on my shoulder and I headed for the fromt door. I don't know how long it's been exactly, but Lia was still outside, sitting in front of her mom's grave.

I slowly approached her and knelt down beside her.

"Why did you come back?" Lia suddenly asked, still staring ahead at her mom's grave.

I stayed silent, thought about it for a moment before opening my mouth, only to close them again. After a bit more time, these were the only words I was able to come up with.

"I'm not sure." I replied, looking ahead, but not at the same thing Lia was. I stared at the horizon, where the sunlight pierced through from. The entire neighbourhood that I grew up in was now turned upside down.

Lia was still not saying anything. I took something from my pocket and placed it on the grass in front of her.

A dagger.

"He's always giving you gifts right?" I didn't need to say who for her to know. Our neighbour had long been some sort of a father figure for us. For Lia, at least. "That's what he was holding. Don't tell me what happened, I'd rather have him die thinking he tried to protect you."

I got up and brushed my pants. The 'Minimi' in sitting on my shoulder wriggling around until I lightly flicked it.

"We're leaving soon. We can't stay here."

I went back inside, staring once more into my childhood home. Total emptiness. It had long become unfamiliar to me—if it ever was.

I took the car key that was hung up on the wall and picked up a coat from the couch, but suddenly, a screen popped up.

—

Item: Brown Coat ≪D-≫

[Just a normal brown coat.]

Passive: +1 Endurance, +.5 Speed

—

It really is starting to feel like a video game. Even earlier when I had to face off against zombie-like creatures, the realisation hadn't hit me until now.

(Go, go…)

"Yeah, okay. Give me a minute."

I went around the place for a while before heading back out. Lia was standing in front of the car, the dagger in her hand. She flicked her fingers at me and I tossed the keys at her.

"Let's go." She said as she unlocked the car doors and went into the driver's seat.

I followed up, going into the passenger seat with the boy heading to the back. As Lia started the car, I turned back to look at our home again.

The empty front lawn now had three mounds of dirt in front of them, one right below the large tree.

I felt Lia's gaze going past me but I decided to ignore it. After all, this had always been her home. Unlike me, who moved out as soon as I got the chance, Lia spent her entire life in this place and was able to have some sort of relationship with her mom.

Lia drove forward, turning the car around and headed to the end of the street.

"You know about this thing, don't you?" Lia suddenly asked, her eyes still on the road.

"What?"

"This whole…thing. It's a lot like that game you used to play. Ascension or whatever it was."

I stayed quiet for a moment. "Yeah, it is."

Lia nodded her head and I glanced at her, catching a glimpse of the Minimi in the back bobbing his head from drowsiness.

"When you said it wasn't over, did you think that your game became real?"

"I didn't think that it did."

"Then—"

"I know it did."

The car pulled into the empty main road. Unlike before, there was no other cars that drove past. There were, however, cars parked along the sides of the road—and some even in the middle of the road.

I rolled down my window and allowed the air to flow in.

"Then, this Game…do we have to play it?"

I let out a sigh. "What choice do we have? I'm pretty sure you saw it too; if we failed to do what the Game asks us to do, we'll die. And you've witnessed it yourself."

I thought I tapped into a topic that I shouldn't have brought up, but I continued on. She had seen it herself. There was no other way.

"We either survive, or we don't."

"Maybe, death would be a better option." Lia added in, still steering the wheels of the car. She firmly grasped onto the steering wheels and bit her lips, her voice becoming agitated. "I mean, rather than having to always live like this, on the run. Always fighting for survival…isn't death just—"

She stopped talking and stopped the car in the middle of the road. Her voice cracked slightly as she spoke, "…Wouldn't that be the better option?"

"Maybe you're right." I said, leaning back on my seat. "But what if there's a chance that we could go back?"

"…To what? You left the house and rarely ever contact mom. Nevermind mom, you don't even talk to me. What is there that you possibly want to go back to?"

"Then, if we could return…I'd make up for those times."

"It's a strong 'if'."

"But it's worth the shot."

Lia did not reply after that. Instead, the pressed on the gas and started moving the car again. I watched as the scenery passed by us—of what used to be our old world.

I went to my phone and saw that all of the news stations talked about the same thing. The apocalypse. All over the world, from Korea to America. The contents of the news were the same, just spoken in different languages.

But there was nothing now. No more news stations to broadcast anything.

In the distance, there was a huge tower that poerced the skies. A building that wasn't originally there. But I knew exactly what the building was.

"Is that where we are going?" Lia asked.

I nodded my head. "I'm not sure how long we have, but we need to get there fast."

"Why?"

"The next quest will come soon."

Lia didn't ask any further, knowing that I must have gotten the knowledge from [World Ascension].

I had expected the entire game system to be applied in our world, but it seemed to have some sort of a time delay. If that is the case, soon enough, the entire city would be in ruins and infested by creatures and monsters.

The tower in the distance would be the safest place to be at. The Guild Tower, also the safe zone of this entire city. That was the case in the game.

"Go faster, we don't have much time." I ordered Lia and she quickly listened.

She pressed on the gas and the car started to accelerate, moving quickly, zooming down the main road. It didn't matter if the lights were red, she kept going. It wasn't as if there was anyone to enforce the law now.

We could still see the cube floating in the sky, still rotating slowly. There was a timer being displayed on it,

[0 hours 12 minutes]

I guess that once the timer ended, monsters would be spawned in. Meaning that we had much less time than I had anticipated.

For a while, we drove in total silence while I continued to stare outside the window, seeing the abandoned buildings and homes. The post office, empty. The truck rental company office was also empty with several trucks flipped over—almost in a dominoe-like fashion.

A flagpost teared down and a tyre laid in the middle of the road, detached from a car to the side.

Suddenly, our car came to a halt. It was so sudden that I had to slam the dashboard with my hands to prevent myself from slamming my head on it.

I quickly picked up my head and stared at Lia with confused eyes, "What are you doing?"

Lia pointed to the front, where a few people were standing. Two elderly women and a young man were standing in the middle of the road, looking ragged.

They were waving their arms in the air to get our attention. I unlocked my door and turned to them both.

"Stay here."

Lia nodded and I stepped out of the car approaching the three people with slight vigilance.

The first one to approach me was the elderly woman and she stopped about a metre ahead. "Are you headed to that tower there?"

She asks as she points to the Guild Tower in the distance. Before I could answer, she clasped my hands. "If you are, please be so kind and take us there as well. We don't have any transport, you see?"

"Is that so…?" I narrowed my eyes. "Why do you think that it's a good idea?"

"Wha…"

"It is a big and ominous tower. Anyone with a good sense would know to stay away from it."

The young man quickly stepped in between me and the grandma, spreading his hands out. "Let's not…!"

He quickly turned to me with an apologetic look, but also frustration.

"Please don't think anything of it. We just heard some people telling us to go there, is all."

"Some people?"

The man scratched the back of his head and chuckled a bit. "Yeah, they said they were from the Guild Tower."

The Guild Tower?

"And we met them a few hours ago, as soon as daybreak came…" He continued talking. "They told us that we should head to the Guild Tower at our earliest convenience."

It was rather unexpected, but it definitely seemed like something the Guild Tower would do. First responders were no longer in service, therefore the Guild Tower was in charge of protecting, evacuating, and maintaining the areas around them.

In the game, players would be given missions from the Guild Tower if they were not directly involved in a certain guild. And some of them included evacuation of a certain area.

I should've guessed something like that would happen.

However, taking them with us was a little…

"I'm sorry, there's not enough room for all of you." I said, shaking my head. Their faces became more anxious.

"Please, we can all fit in. I can take the kid on my lap—"

"No, there's not enough room. I'm sorry, but you must find your own way there."

"Please…!"

I shook my head and started walking back to the car. The man called out a few more times, but I decided to not look back and get back into the car before anything else happened.

That was until I heard footsteps approaching and I quickly turned around and grabbed his fist that came flying to my face.

"What—"

"I'm telling you…! Just let us go with you, dammit!"

Despite his bigger build, my strength level was higher than his, making it easier for me to hold him back.

The car door behind me slammed and the guy backed away, only to be toppled down by Lia shooting across the air and kicking him in the chest.

The grannies stepped forward but she quickly took out her dagger.

"Damn…!" The guy got up, brushing his back and tried to catch his breath. "We were only asking for help…!"

At that moment, the two grannies stapped forward, picking up their walking sticks and spinning it around like it was a staff.

Turns out that they had learned the use of Points and had invested some in agility and strength.

The guy also flexed his muscles and I watched him increase in size by a little, black marks appearing on his arms. I took a few steps back to analyse their overall skills.

Considering the weight of his punch earlier, I should still have almost no problem in taking him down now. However, the old women on the other hand…

"I'll take them." Lia said and ran ahead, tossing her dagger to the other hand. At the same time, the Minimi ran forward and jumped in the air, baring its teeth at the other woman.

Seeing them move, I turned around to face the guy in front of me.

[Your Skill, 'Basic Martial Arts' is currently at level 5.]