Ray saw Uncle Tim take a seat and place his fedora on the table. Similarly, Lana took a seat next to him and crossed her legs. Ray saw her wink at him and blushed. He didn’t know what came over him just a moment before. He’d never stared at someone and made it that obvious before.

Uncle Tim patted the other seat next to him and gestured for Ray to come over.

Ray did just that. He first averted his eyes from Lana and took a deep, calming breath. It wasn’t normal. Something about that girl drew him in and put him in some sort of trance. The room stilled as Ray breathed, with nothing much happening as Lana sat there prettily and Uncle Tim sat there looking peeved.

“So. . . we’re just going to begin,” Uncle Tim said with a sigh, breaking the awkward silence. “It looks like the others are running late.”

“It’s alright!” Lana jumped in optimistically. “They’ll show up.”

“This meeting is meant for addressing the plans of Sunset moving forward,” Uncle Tim explained. “I already know Four-tee-em from last night, and I know RayD from before as well. I was excited to meet the others, but I digress.”

Ray understood what Uncle Tim was saying. The two that were missing from the meeting were ‘ExpressionZ’ and ‘MutosKid’, and that this would be the first time that the guild was meeting. It also meant that Lana’s chosen nickname was TMTMTMTM.

Strange name, Ray wondered as he listened to Uncle Tim.

“I may have founded Sunset on a whim, but that doesn’t mean I’m not serious about it,” Uncle Tim told the two. “It is imperative that we strive to be at the top in this new situation since even I almost died last. That’s not to toot my own horn or anything, but Ray knows what I used to do.”

Even an ex-Navy SEAL like Uncle Tim almost got taken out by monsters in the span of an hour or two. Though Ray could see that Uncle Tim was a little out of shape now, it did not take away from the point. Sunset would need to be prepared for the coming days of the immersion.

“What did you use to do?” Lana asked teasingly as if it were a joke. “Can you go into detail for me?”

“Ex-Navy SEAL,” Uncle Tim deadpanned, furrowing his brows and glaring at Lana. Ray thought that there was no reason for him to be so serious, but Uncle Tim seemed to really mean it. Uncle Tim then looked at Ray.

“I forgot to ask, but how was your night? I noticed that you’re level ten right now,” Uncle Tim looked like he had an idea, suddenly changing the subject.

“Oh, yeah about that. I had a crazy night,” Ray laughed awkwardly. That was putting it mildly. He’d fought off goblins and super goblins, while meeting his ex-girlfriend and her uncle randomly in a horror house in the middle of nowhere. He’d nearly died multiple times and managed to scrape by and survive by the thinnest of margins.

“Well, I’m sure it was tough, getting to level 10 already,” Uncle Tim replied. “I’m honestly surprised. You must have killed a lot of ‘em, right?”

Ray nodded. This much didn’t need to be said. The immersion brought about strong monsters that seemed to harbor a hatred for humans. They weren’t the peaceful kind of goblins like he’d seen before in anime.

These were bloodthirsty ones, out for human flesh. It was like something was controlling them, something sinister and far beyond his imagination.

“So, I kind of wanted to assess where everyone is at as well,” Uncle Tim spread his hands, explaining his question. “It would have been great to do that for everyone. . . if everyone showed up on time.”

Ray laughed at that. Nobody ever showed up on time, even if it killed them. People moved at their own pace, from his experience. Uncle Tim gave him an appreciative nod.

“So, yeah,” Uncle Tim explained. “I want to go over where I see this situation headed.”

Ray sensed that the conversation was coming to a close and leaned in expectantly. What was Uncle Tim going to say about this situation? The night had been crazy enough already.

“We need to prepare for the upcoming apocalypse,” Uncle Tim changed his tone all of a sudden. “It’s important that we level as fast as possible to unlock abilities as fast as possible.”

Uncle Tim then did something supernatural.

He clenched his fist together in front of him and a glowing, pulsating light started shining from his hand. Ray felt warmth and pressure radiating from the fist in slow and steady waves. The yellow light faintly illuminated the room a little more, giving off an odd satiating feeling.

“What is that?” Ray asked, filled with curiosity. He felt like the hand in front of him was filled with life.

“It’s my new ability,” Uncle Tim explained. “I got it off one of the larger monsters I hunted last night.”

“I call it the Hand of Justice,” Uncle Tim grinned. “Get it? Anyway, it has two abilities. It can heal allies apparently as well as deal damage. Apparently, it scales off my strength stat.”

Ray widened his eyes as he realized what Uncle Tim was saying. If this was the case, they needed to get to pushing levels as fast as possible. In a game where abilities scale off stats, the stats would be the most important, right?

“So what you’re saying is--” Ray started.

“Yes,” Uncle Tim interrupted. “We need to hunt monsters as soon as possible to get more abilities like this.”

Ray turned to Lana, his mind still trying to process the phenomena in front of him. She was looking at her phone, barely paying attention to the conversation. It was all starting to come together for him. The goblins, the government meeting, the stat windows, and Uncle Tim’s new ability.

Somehow, the entire world had turned into a game.

Two flashes came from Ray’s left side. He turned his attention toward the edge of the small room as two figures came from out of nowhere. It was two young men, walking towards them side by side. The paler one saluted him, a military gesture while the other one cleared his throat and offered a hand to him while pushing up his glasses.

“Nice to meet you, RayD!” Glasses exclaimed, his hand outstretched and inviting.

Ray took the hand in an attempt to shake it, only to find himself locked in a strong grip. He struggled slightly to break free, shifting his focus from Glasses' guy to his hand. But the vice grip remained steady.

“Um,” Ray questioned his jailer. The handshake wasn’t painful, only overly firm. “Who are you?”

“I’m ExpressionZ. Or you can call me Jed,” Jed smiled. “I’ve heard so much about you!”

“Oh okay, cool,” Ray acknowledged, nodding his head slightly up and down. “Can you let me go now?”

Jed looked surprised like he hadn’t expected Ray to say that. His surprise turned into a wry smile as he let go of Ray’s hand. He shrugged and turned away from Ray for a moment towards Uncle Tim.

“So, what are we doing here? Shouldn’t we be out there farming?” Jed asked Uncle Tim in an expectant manner.

“I don’t know,” Uncle Tim shrugged. “I figured we could all meet up and figure out a way to efficiently survive this thing.”

“It’s pretty obvious what we should do,” the military-looking guy answered, spreading his hands out. Ray assumed he was the last member of the guild, though he wasn’t sure of his name.

“We need to split up and kill as many monsters as possible while the level of the situation is still tenable,” the guy continued, “It is imperative that we gain as much stat as possible to scale up our abilities for the next stage of, whatever this is.”

The military man paused, assessing everyone’s reaction to his words.

“Else, we will likely fall too far behind and suffer the consequences of our negligence. Therefore, I propose we move as a unit into a monster-infested area to level up our stat points.”

“Well analyzed, Tim,” Uncle Tim nodded, seemingly agreeing with Tim. “You’re right. We’ll do just that. On that topic, where should we go to clear out our second monster den? Anyone have any ideas?”

Ray looked around the room. Lana seemed uninterested still, absorbed in her phone. Jed was looking around, while Tim looked like he was in deep thought with head down and shoulders hunched.

“I think I might know a place,” Ray offered.