“I have always dreamed… of a second life. If all hell breaks loose, I’d want to move to another country, restarting my life. Sadly, in this day and age, people will easily find who I am. Not like I am a criminal or something. I just want to live another life if it so happens. A foolish idea to execute a plan when there are no safety nets at all.

“Though… I do not know why I am thinking of this, maybe something won’t happen in my life. Maybe it’ll be calm! But for some reason, I don’t want either option to happen. I live a stable life, no wife, but I have a nice job, enough where I am not rich, but able to live a somewhat comfortable life in an apartment with different nets to catch myself, or at least ensure I can continue my life.

“But here I am thinking that I am some kind of main character, a protagonist with supreme plot armor or some kind of crazy things. Ah, maybe I shouldn’t be thinking too hard… Can’t even get a damn drink, but after tomorrow is done I’ll be set to have a bit of time to myself!”

The sound of sirens quickly passes by, speeding past the large skyscrapers blocking the night sky. “Typical cops. Kind of wish I had more of a view instead of this window that faces… another skyscraper. Ah, Carl was right, should’ve sprinted down when this crazed old man started yelling and watched it play out. Though that does say something about how boring life is here. Felt bad for him, at least from what the news told us of his background, but man I should find a better hobby than watching live crime.”

As soon as the man finished thinking, preparing to get up from laying on a couch, a knock could be heard nearby, an adult woman who appears quite young knocked on the wooden table nearby, “Yuu, why are you still here, shouldn’t you go home to prepare yourself for tomorrow?”

“Ah, how did you find me? Usually, no one comes here,” the man called Yuu stood up, trying to look slightly more professional.

Walking forward, the woman took off her glasses and sighed, “Jerald told me. I saw your car was still parked even though you finished a tad bit earlier than the others so I asked him. Seems like when all the others finish work and start heading out, you use this place to sleep instead of going home.”

“Uh, am I banned from here-” a clipboard quickly tapped him on the head, “ow…”

“That didn’t hurt, stop overreacting,” she sat on the couch and took an unopened can of soda resting on the table.

“You know that’s mine right?”

“Exactly why I’m drinking it.”

Sensing a pulse of annoyance in his forehead, he picked up his things and started to head out.

Before he could get far, he felt a hand rest on his shoulder, “You know you can just relax and not be over professional in front of me right? At least outside of actual work and other people, just chill with me.”

“Seeing you talk like that reminds me of when you were the domineering delinquent-”

“I will kick you”

“Yup, there it is your royal highness-” sensing a kick coming, he quickly booked it, running towards the hallway.

“Damn kid…” she stared at the direction he left at before staring back at the can, pondering on something for a second before drinking it until it was empty.

===

Heading all the way down to the parking garage, Yuu took out a wallet from his bag. “Huh?” reaching in his bag more, he panicked slightly, “Must have left my keys. Guess I have to go back. Though spending a bit of time with her won’t be so bad... eh screw it, sure.”

However, as soon as he almost pushed the elevator button, a weird grunting noise echoed behind a wall. He looked towards that direction, quickly pushing the elevator button just in case it was dangerous.

Thinking to himself, he stood still, making no noise, “Surely no homeless person or drunkard could’ve gotten in. Even though things go down sometimes there is at least a security guard around near the entrance…”

Just as he was counting and yelling at the elevator to hurry up, he heard the sound again, yet this time something actually walked out. A green humanoid monster wielding a weird jagged knife walked out from the shadows. It wasn’t as tall as an adult, probably as tall as a small teen, yet it seemed a bit dangerous. There were clear outlines of at least muscle, showing that it wasn’t entirely weak, but in some parts, there were old wounds and it didn’t look like it ate recently at all.

Taking a second to realize, Yuu panicked even more before thinking “This appearance… what... it looks like a goblin from Fantasy RPGs or something.” Though last time he checked, he hasn’t drunk any alcohol in a few days, he hasn’t taken acid or hallucinogens, even though he doesn’t do that at all, and even though he’s tired, he certainly wasn’t that sleepy.

“This thing is certainly a goblin, or at least similar to one.” As he internally panicked for the elevator to hurry up, the goblin saw him and ran towards him, still making grunting noises, as if Yuu had to die, it was not an option, but a fact.

Without hesitation, he dodged the incoming knife attack and ran towards the entrance, hoping the security guard would notice and help out. Though the entrance was a few levels above, and it wasn’t guaranteed that he could actually escape.

Despite him running as hard as an athlete, the goblin quickly caught up and thrust its knife towards him. He quickly dodged, but he still ended up with a small wound around his arm.

Knowing he wasn’t in some sort of novel with obvious plot armor, he ignored the pain as much as possible and looked toward the goblin. Luckily, he had time to react since the goblin was not going to give him time to recover and unleashed another attack.

With all the inner knowledge from those Kung-Fu movies and those immortals from novels where they destroy the ocean and mountains, he dodged to the left before grabbing onto the arm that wielded the knife while the other grabbed towards his neck, thinking this might be a way to at least stop the attacks.

As the goblin tried to resist, he kicked the goblin in a place where a man would unconsciously protect and kept doing it until the goblin dropped the knife due to the pain and not being able to stay entirely conscious due to its throat being somewhat strangled, not allowing it to breathe properly as pain infested him from head to toe, causing it to drop to the ground.

Realizing that the knife finally dropped, he took the weapon and randomly stabbed it at the goblin while looking away, clearly scared to actually go for the kill properly. After feeling some sort of warm liquid splash on him and the goblin no longer making any sort of sound, he opened his eyes and looked at the body. He gagged on the spot and almost threw up, but he persisted and held it in.

Despite it feeling like ages, this only happened in a matter of a few minutes. He fell on the ground away from the goblin and breathed for a few seconds before noticing a pouch on his waist. Almost gagging again, he quickly yanked on it, ripping apart from the waist. He looked away and took long breaths before opening it.

Instead of finding something disgusting like suspicious meat, or something stereotypical from Fantasy related contents, he instead found a stone mixed with blue and yellow materials and a few oval coins. Ignoring the coins, his hand went for the stone. As soon as he touched it, it glowed slightly before exploding into a ball of light.

Clearly scared, he backed off, but the ball of light slammed into his body before causing his body to lighten up. His whole body, now shining, suddenly disappeared.

A minute later, an elevator made a dinging noise and a woman came out. This was the same lady as before. “Ah, this damn elevator getting stuck again! I’m going to smack whoever got that crappy company to repair it last month, it clearly ain’t working!!!”

Walking to her car, she noticed something peculiar. Red liquid flowed down the path going up, while a green thing laid there. Upon realizing what it was, she screamed extremely loudly, almost falling on her bottom. She quickly took pictures in a panic and dialed the police after confirming what she had seen. This wasn’t a prop, this was an actual living being… or at least was once a living being.

“W-wait, where’s Yuu!” After finishing her call, she searched around. His car was clearly there still, yet he was not…