A loud gunshot rang out, silencing the chaos. “Everyone calm down!” the warden shouted, his smoking gun pointed towards the roof. Inmates stopped mid-punch and turned to look at the warden. “This is obviously an illusion; there must have been a gas leak. Now isn’t the time for fighting. Return to your cells immediately!” he punctuated the end of his speech with another gunshot.

The prisoners stood befuddled in the sterile white room, unsure of what to do. The warden pointed his thumb behind him, pointing towards the exit.

“Was I not clear? This isn’t real; go back to your cells, now!” Just as the warden finished speaking, the air distorted behind him. For a split second, the air reeked of the familiar void that hung around the golden bell. Then, as soon as it came, the sensation disappeared.

Left in distortion's ephemeral wake, hundreds of small green figures popped into existence, each one letting out a growl that sounded something like a mix between a deflating basketball and a Chihuahua. Before the warden could react, one of the creatures pounced on him and bit his leg, drawing out a strangled cry of pain from the old man. With his leg immobilized, the warden was unable to escape and was quickly buried under a pile of monsters.

Aaron squinted his eyes to see through the press of bodies. Underneath the writhing pile of monsters, the warden was torn apart as the monsters bit chunks out of the man. The most ravenous eaters had their faces dyed completely red with blood, making the once goofy-looking monsters much more intimidating. Finished with their meal, they turned towards the rest of the humans. Aaron gulped.

Sparked by some invisible signal, a veritable tide of green monsters charged forward, crawling over overturned tables, hungry for human flesh. Once more, the cafeteria descended into madness. The braver inmates lunged forward and joined a brutal melee slowing the tide of monsters while the more cowardly ran away - he couldn’t blame them.

A series of sharp gunshots rang out, quickly cutting down the monsters’ numbers. Each bullet penetrated the tightly packed mass of bodies, killing at least two monsters with each shot. Aaron gripped his shoddy plastic weapon as the monsters neared. Due to his position in the room, the green creatures had to get through the rest of the inmates before reaching him, but they were steadily approaching, flowing through the gaps in the inmates like streams of green water.

As they got closer, small blue boxes appeared over their heads.

Goblin: Level 1 Goblin: Level 1

A group of goblins broke off from the main pack and charged him, drool dripping down their mouths in long strands. Aaron glanced at Tony and saw him brandishing a cigarette as if it was a knife. He raised an eyebrow at the man’s odd weapon choice, then entered a basic fighting stance.

Fortunately, his plan of flipping over tables had worked to some effect - due to the goblin’s small stature the barriers slowed them down greatly. He launched a Mana Bolt at the closet goblin but missed. The blue ball of energy crashed into a goblin five feet to the right of where he was aiming, knocking it to the ground. The air behind him flashed blue as Jess launched a Mana Bolt at the knocked-over monster, hitting it in the forehead.

The good part of fighting a literal horde of enemies was that it was impossible to miss. The bad part of fighting a lot of monsters was that you were fighting a lot of monsters. Fairly self-explanatory. The goblin’s continued their charge, getting uncomfortably close – at most a bodies length away. He unleashed a flurry of Mana Bolts into the crowd, rapidly draining his mana reserves, but slowing their approach. A blue screen popped up, blocking his view of the approaching monsters.

Congratulations! Mana Bolt has reached level 3. 1 Skill Point Awarded.

By the time he closed the notification, it was too late; the goblins were already upon him. Adrenaline surged through his veins as he watched in almost slow motion as a goblin swung its sharp white claws at him. He took a step back, dodging the attack, then smashed his plastic plate into the monster. It crumbled to the ground with a howl of pain. However, he wasn’t out of danger yet. Immediately, another goblin swung its claws at him.

He blocked the attack with his plate, but while he was distracted, a goblin behind him tackled him to the ground, its sharp claws cutting into his ribs in the process. The second his back hit the ground, he grabbed the goblin that tackled him and rolled to the side to create some breathing room. A sharp claw swung through the space he occupied a fraction of a second ago.

The goblin struggled out of his grip as they wrestled for position. Due to his superior weight, he managed to flip the goblin on its back and take the top position. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see a goblin running towards his downed form, with its fangs outstretched - ready to eat him. He fired a Mana Bolt at it, hoping to slow it down.

He smashed his fist into the goblin’s ugly face with all his strength. Something cracked beneath his fist, causing a stream of green blood to burst out of the monster’s nose. The monster wiggled but was unable to escape. Before he could kill the goblin, another one slammed into him, knocking him off balance. The injured goblin used the opportunity to slip out from underneath him.

Once again, he was knocked on his back with a monster on top of him. Aaron’s heart raced as he wrestled with the monster, desperately trying to keep its fangs away from him. In the struggle, the monster’s sharp claws tore into his arms, leaving thin trails of blood in their wake. He redoubled his efforts to pull the monster off of him; its sharp teeth were so close to his throat that he felt its rancid breath on his skin.

With a grunt of effort, he conjured a mana bolt a couple inches away from the goblins skull. The monster tried to escape, but it was too late. Blood and bone flew through the air, lightly dusting his glasses in a layer of filth. The goblin collapsed to the ground, its face a mangled mess. He smiled; it was impossible to miss at close range.

He wiped the blood off his glasses just in time to see an injured goblin leap towards him. Before it could touch him, Tony snatched it out of the air and used his weaponized cigarette to slice its throat open. The old man tossed away the monster like two-week-old trash, leaving a trail of green blood on the hard linoleum-tiled floor.

“Are you having trouble over there, kid?” Tony said in between gasps for air. Sweat dripped down his face; his old body couldn’t keep up with this level of exertion.

Aaron pulled himself to his feet, exhausted on a level that wasn’t physical. He was out of mana. “Yes, I’m not an expert at killing green midgets; I could use some help.” He flinched as a stray gunshot impacted the wall right next to his head. The brutal brawl had engulfed all of the room, but he could tell it was winding down. The humans were winning.

Even with the guard’s terrible aim, the advantage guns provided was too much for the small monsters to overcome.

In the middle of the chaotic battlefield, a goblin covered in red blood stood with a rock clenched within its grasp let out a scream. For some reason, it was staring right at Aaron, ignoring the battlefield around it. Displaying a level of tactical knowledge he hadn’t seen from a goblin before, it threw the rock at him. Fortunately, the monster had terrible aim. The rock hit the wall and clattered to the floor.

In return, he threw his plastic plate at it like a frisbee. The disc flew through the air and slammed directly into the monster’s throat, causing it to collapse to the ground with a strangled cough. Like a pack of piranhas, the criminals in the area stomped on it, not letting it get up.

Tony wordlessly walked past him into the fray with a rock in his hand, searching for more prey. The old man killed the occasional goblin that ran into him. Though there weren’t that many left in their area, the last dredges of fighting had centered itself around the exit on the opposite side of the room. Strangely enough, this was the happiest he had ever seen Tony.

“Nice shot,” Jess said from behind him. Five thin lines were cut into her orange jumpsuit, but other than that, she looked mostly unharmed.

“Thanks.” He grinned, too tired to stop himself from saying something he might regret. “What was that about the starting levels of games being easy?”

She scratched the back of her head, and a light dusting of red colored her cheeks. “Sorry, I…” Aaron swore as shards of glass rained to the floor around them; a guard had accidentally shot a lightbulb. He winced; at this rate, a stray shot was more likely to kill him than a goblin. “Would it kill them to aim before shooting?” Jess said, her previous embarrassment forgotten.

He watched as the guards gunned down the monsters at a rapid rate. “Probably.”

He used the brief moment of respite to check the host of blue boxes he had been ignoring. After the first disaster where the notification for Mana Bolt leveling up had blinded him, he had taken to minimizing the boxes as soon as they appeared. Interestingly enough, the process wasn’t difficult. All it took was a single thought, and the system would respond to his commands. I wonder how they do it.

Level 1 Goblin Slain! 25 Exp Gained.

Level 1 Goblin Slain! 25 Exp Gained.

…

Congratulations! Class: [Mage] has reached level 2. +1 Strength, +1 Endurance, +1 Recovery, +1 Defense, +2 Dexterity, +1 Agility, +2 Perception, +3 Mind, +3 Magic, +1 Spirit.

He clenched his fist as a warm feeling flowed through him, improving his body in every way. His muscles tightened, his vision sharpened, and new connections were formed in his mind, allowing him to think faster. I could get used to this.

While he was busy leveling up, the sounds of fighting stopped, drowning the cafeteria in a deafening silence. The once pristine white room was dyed green by the sheer amounts of goblin blood on the floor and walls. The humans had won the battle, but not without casualties. The floor was littered with overturned tables and dead bodies, the majority of which belonged to the goblins. Even still, he was disgusted by the sight; the cafeteria looked like a tornado had blown through it.

“That wasn’t so bad,” Tony said, sporting a series of small scratches on his arms. He kicked his way through a pile of goblins as he walked towards them. Aaron looked down at his torn-up arms and ribs; it definitely was that bad. Once the adrenaline wore off he knew he would be in for a world of hurt.

Dan, the cocaine dealer, walked over to their corner of the room. From the looks of the blue box over his head, he had picked the warrior class and had managed to reach level two. “Not too bad. I kind of liked it.” Aaron shook his head; only someone with a screw loose would enjoy getting used as a chew toy by goblins. Though, he did have to admit it was pretty fun when he was able to blast the monsters with Mana Bolt from a distance.

For a moment the room was at peace, then disaster struck.

A glowing red heart of energy popped into existence in the center of the room. With each beat, the heart grew in size, reinforcing its structure. Slowly, the red light took physical form, transforming into a scalding heart of lava. The green blood pooled on the ground beneath it began to evaporate as the intense heat reflected off of it.

The heart rippled then slammed into the, completely submerging itself. Red lines of a foreign rock-like material that reeked of sulfur snaked out across the room, cracking the floor.

The walls shook as the red lines began to catch on fire, igniting in a clockwise pattern. Fire arced through the air, converging at a central point and forming a large gateway.

“What the fuck is going on?” Dan asked. Everyone stood perfectly still, transfixed by the sight. Aaron’s instincts screamed at him to run away but found he was unable to. He couldn’t move his legs; something was gluing him to the ground.

High mana zone located. Beginning world merge…