The Day it All Began

It was December 24 2019, Christmas Eve, a 27 year old man named Alipio Buhawi lives in a condominium in Metro - Manila Philippines. He lives in the 22nd floor, overlooking the University of Saint Thomas, where one could see the busy streets filled with students and vendors alike. The streets covered with bright lights of carol and late night shoppers flood the silence with their barters. Alipio looks old for his age, maybe this is because he serves in the military and was deployed 3 times already. He has a black straight hair, hidden with a clean cut shave, dark brown eyes, pointy nose and a fair complexion. His left earlobe is chipped and his right hand has a patch of burn scar. Alipio is busy preparing a hot soup and fresh fruits for dinner when he was shortly interrupted by a cute and girly voice,

"Daddy Daddy look! I drew daddy and mommy and me!"

Thalia Buhawi, a 5 year old little girl, daughter of Alipio. She possesses a curly hair running down to her shoulders, her light complexion contradicts her father's, her brown eyes sparkle with wonder and joy as she happily shows her crude drawing to her father.

Alipio smiles as he picks up her drawing. He examines the drawing, it was him dressed as a soldier, her mom dressed as a chef, and the little girl as...

"Wow, this is beautiful Thalia! However, what is this?"

He points at the crudely drawn little girl in white holding a brown smudge. Thalia simply giggles and proudly says,

"That is me as a monkey doctor! See? I am healing the sick monkey."

Alipio pins the drawing at the refrigerator and picks Thalia up. He smiles and pats her head while saying,

"Well, you better 'heal' yourself first before you heal any monkeys. Come on, let's eat our dinner!"

He gently sits Thalia on her high chair and prepares her hot soup and her medicine. Alipio sighs and thought to himself that he needs to get a new batch of medicine for his daughter. He places his palm on Thalia's forehead and feels that it is still hot. Thalia suffers from a simple fever. Alipio simply smiles and is grateful that Thalia is still quite energetic despite her fever. Before they started to eat their dinner, Thalia asks,

"When can I go to school daddy?"

Alipio smiles and says,

"When you get better. So you have to eat your fruits and veggies to be better. After dinner, lets play that game you always talk about, before mommy comes home."

"Okay!"

The father and daughter enjoys their dinner, with the Television running on the background. As soon as Alipio sips the soup, the television suddenly went quiet. He looks around and everything seemed normal, but the telivision has stopped playing, like a pause, and Thalia is wide eyed staring at something in front of her. Almost as if she is reading something, but Alipio cannot see it. He quickly stands up and glanced at the television, it was paused. The pot boiling, is also paused with the bubbles perfectly still. The fire is on but is not moving. He quickly reaches into the topshelf above the kitchen counter when Thalia asks,

"Daddy? What is soo-mon?"

The confused Alipio asks,

"What do you mean?"

Thalia points in nothingness and says,

"It says, ch-... Choose a class. Con... Con... Congurer. Soo-mon pet. What is soo-mon?

Alipio is surprised at the question, but more so at the fact that Thalia is reading something that he cannot see. He thought to himself,

Choose a class... Sounds like something out of those RPG I played back then. Congurer... Is it Conjurer? If so, then Soo-mon must be summon...

"Summon means to call upon something or someone. It means..."

Alipio was interrupted when Thalia gleefully yells,

"I soo-mon monkey!"

Thalia puts her hands up in excitement, while still holding the spoon. Then suddenly, a small monkey pops up out of thin air. The monkey is a small Macaque with brown fur. Alipio was shocked and could not believe his eyes as he grabbed his M1911 Pistol due to his instinct. To his surprise, the monkey delightfully hugs its master, Thalia and enjoys eating the fruits on the table. With a sigh of relief, Alipio sits down and stares at his daughter who was busy teaching the monkey how to peel a banana.

Before Alipio could even process what was happening, a blue screen suddenly popped up in front of him. The screen had a text that says:

Profile

Name: Alipio Buhawi

Type: Non-Player Character

Class: Not Available

Rank: Common

Stats

Level: 1 (NPC has a set level and cannot change)

Strength: 6

Agility: 7

Endurance: 7

HP: 50

MP: 0

Learn Skills

Common NPC cannot learn skills.

Equipment

NPC cannot view equipment

NPC Bio

Not Available

With familiarity, Alipio immediately recognized the screen. It was a stat window. Alipio thought to himself,

This looked like the character sheet from that one game I played when I was a teen. Of all the... Why am I an NPC?

Alipio grits his teeth upon learning that he is an NPC according to the character sheet. Alipio looks at Thalia who seems to be reading her own Character Sheet. She seems to be pressing her own screen but Alipio cannot see it.

*Ding*

A notification showed up on Alipio's screen that says.

Attention!

You have been marked as Essential by Player Thalia Buhawi. Player Thalia can now view your Character Sheet. All exp gained by the Essential NPCs will be gained by their respective player instead. Essential NPCs can still gain gold. Essential NPCs can give Exclusive Quests to their respective Players.

Alipio thought to himself,

Aww... My baby loves me... She must have been playing my old games, she knows her stuff...

Alipio's thoughts was interrupted when the television started to make a sound again. The boiling pot started to boil again, and the fire started to burn once more. It seemed like someone had pressed the play button. Alipio quickly glanced around to see everything back to normal, except for one thing, the sinking feeling that Alipio felt.

A loud deafening roar thundered throughout the city, the roar was so loud that it shook the whole building where Alipio and Thalia resides in. Thalia starts to cry in fear. Loud bangs on the door broke it down and there appeared three strange bipedal creatures, two of them are small, green, had pointy ears, pointy nose, their faces covered in warts, with teeth like that of human's but dirty, and both of them holds a crooked dagger. The other creature is bigger with a darker shade of green complexion, and wields a large club.

Alipio, startled, quickly grabbed his gun the M1911, turned the safety off, and shot 7 consecutive shots upon the creatures. 2 bullets hit the small creature on the left on its forehead, 1 bullet hit the other small creature on its neck then another 1 hit its forehead, 3 bullets hit the larger creatures face. All three of the creatures lay dead within seconds.

Without hesitation, Alipio went to calm the crying Thalia. The monkey came out of hiding behind the couch. Alipio hugs Thalia and rubs her back, comforting her,

"Its okay, its safe now. Daddy's here."

Thalia's cry softens and she starts to calm down. Her cries turns to soft sobs as she hugs her father tightly. Alipio reassures her,

"I love you, and I will keep you safe. Both you and mommy."

With Thalia's heart calmed down, she fell drowsy and quickly fell asleep. Alipio thought that it must be because of the medicine. He gently places the sleeling little girl on the couch and kissed her forehead.

The bluescreen pops up once again in front of Alipio saying,

ACHIEVEMENT

First Blood!

-First to kill any living creature

- (+1) Agility

Quickdraw

-Using a ranged weapon, kill 3 enemies within 2 seconds

-(+1) Agility

That's just an NPC, Right?

-First NPC to kill any living creature

-(+1) Strength

Alipio closes the screen and peeks out the window. There he saw the night sky covered in black smoke, the streets in chaos, fire blazing in a few buildings, gunshots can be heard from far away, police sirens blanket the screams of people in the city.

"I hope my beloved Sina is okay..." Alipio mutters.

Alipio swallows his spit as he quickly regains his composure. Determined to protect his daughter, he begins his preparation.