It moved.

It was still barely alive in a mangled mass of limbs, green blood, and bone despite Ray crashing into it with his car. He could see it twitching, struggling to stay alive. Ray looked at it in shock and disbelief, its image searing into his mind.

Could he have inadvertently stumbled into a movie production scene? It didn’t seem likely, though, but it would explain a lot. Movies these days were pretty intense with their graphics. Though, Ray remembered hearing something about CGI. Couldn’t it all just be animated anyway? That meant that this graphic display wasn’t necessary.

Maybe it could be a federal secret? Some genetic mutations on a monkey could potentially cause this kind of look. This creature could have been engineered in a laboratory. Ray similarly shot that from his mind, as he realized it was just too real.

The damn goblin looked too lifelike. Its green blood was gushing onto the ground from its wounds.

He stood there in quiet contemplation for a minute, his mind quickly flipping through the options. Ray didn’t dare to move closer to the dying goblin nor did he move to help. He felt that he needed this information.

Ray could see the light leave its eyes as the goblin suddenly stopped its twitching. It had departed the land of the living.

Then, Ray froze as he came to a realization.

It all came together in an instant. The constant warnings in his mind, the structures above the cities, even the foreboding panic he had felt. This was happening. Whether it was an alien invasion or not; Earth was going to be changed forever.

Ray turned around and ran back to his car, slightly panicked. Even with one headlight gone, he could still probably make it back home. He decided he needed to leave.

Just as Ray started the engine, he remembered that he had forgotten one crucial fact from earlier in the day. He had seen people talk about a stat window of sorts on Reddit. Now that it had been confirmed that the ‘change’ was real, wasn’t it also time to confirm if the stats were real as well?

“Status window, please,” Ray called out into the night, feeling stupid. He came in with low expectations this time, unlike when he had tried to converse with the voices in his head. But, his expectations were broken once more.

Name: Ray Delano

Stats

Value

Level: 1

STR

10

HP: 100/100

MP: 100/100

AGI

10

Total EXP/Percentage to Next Level: 5 / [5%]

INT

10

This seems basic, Ray thought to himself. Shouldn’t I also have a class or something?

He heard sounds coming from behind him, interrupting his thought processes. There were slight thuds nearby, instantly making Ray vigilant. Ray gripped the steering wheel hard, listening in to an unseen threat for a few moments. Then, as quickly as he heard it, the sounds stopped.

Ray rolled up his window and frantically pushed the gas pedal, not even buckling his seatbelt. There were more monsters out there, and he wasn’t about to stick around to find out. His fight or flight instinct had kicked in full force and the adrenaline was coursing through his body.

The car lurched forward in a sputtering manner, the sudden movement unbecoming of a decade-year-old vehicle. In that split second, Ray shuddered as he suddenly had a terrible thought.

If my car breaks down now...

His worries were unfounded, the car stayed true. He found himself accelerating to his normal 40 miles per hour on the backroads. If he could just make it five more minutes without an incident, the backroads and the corpse of the goblin would be left behind.

Ray accelerated even more at this thought, pushing past 40 into the 60 miles per hour range. At this point, he could care less about the speed limit. He just wanted to get back home as soon as possible.

He felt himself thinking back to the events that had transpired earlier, unable to erase them from his mind. Ray felt like he needed to speak to someone about this, preferably his dad. He would know what to do from here, whether to stockpile food or weapons to combat this future threat.

Ray wondered what he would need to do to acquire a gun. It might even be too late, he would have to go in early the next morning before this situation blew up on the forums. He kept his eyes steady on the road while driving, thinking about plans he could take to protect himself and his family.

He felt himself tire as the adrenaline rush wore off. It had been a long, eventful day.

Some music would help, Ray thought to himself. I should turn on some music.

Ray fiddled around for his phone. He kept one eye on the road as he found it, pulling it out from his pocket. Then he looked down for a second to attach the auxiliary cord to the phone, taking one hand off the wheel to do so. Ray started searching for a song to play, periodically looking back to the road in case of an emergency. He looked down once more to select a chill house song.

But that was all it took.

Ray suddenly spotted a figure walking in the dim-lit country road in front of him. There was no time to think. He immediately jerked his wheel to the right, barely missing the guy.

His car went onto the side path awkwardly, skidding across the dirt as Ray frantically slammed on the brakes. A horrendous screech sounded as the tires protested this move. There was a heavy noise as Ray felt the impact of the car running into something on the ground mid-turn.

Ray’s world shifted. His center of gravity fell to the wayside as his vehicle overturned. He only had a split second of consciousness before the world went dark.