+ 25 xp

Another screen appeared. He just closed his eyes and shook his head tiredly.

He breathed in and out, slowly, trying to get a grip of himself. His mind was in disarray. The tension was slowly disappearing and leaving him hollow. Jack offered his hand to Ethan, he accepted the help and stood up.

The smell of blood was the first thing he noticed. It was strange though, it didn't have that irony touch that normal human blood had, it was just sickly. He noticed that the blood had splashed in his uniform.

" That was pretty intense" Jack said.

Jose was just standing up. He was with his back turned to them and he seemed to be holding one of the spears. Two of the things were dead by his feet. He turned to them and...

He fell.

He fell and there was a spear buried in his chest.

Jack hurried to him. Ethan just stood there with his mind blanked. This wasn't a joke, a prank or anything like that. Their lives were really in danger...

He approached Jose worried with what he would see while Jack seemed to be checking the wound. His eyebrows were furrowed in worry. Jose was coughing blood and blood was gurgling from the wound in his chest.

"Tsk, his lung was punctured" Jack said, wiping the sweat in his eyebrows.

Jose was sweating profusely, he asked, white with terror. "Am I going to die?"

His voice was low and unweaven, almost a whisper. Jack didn't' answer, but his expression was answer enough.

"I am going to die, won't I?" Jose said. There was no bravery in his admittance, only unconcealed fear. "Please, stay here..." he said, while holding Jack's pulse. He looked at Ethan who was approaching wide eyed. "Mom...I want to see my mom..." Jose said.

Jack calmed him down and stood up with pain evident in his eyes. He reached for his pockets and brought up a box of cigarettes and a lighter.

"Want a smoke?" he said, while lighting the cigar. That made Jose smile. Jack smiled back while raising his eyebrows. "If you are gonna die anyway, die a cool death." he said, while bending down to put the cigar in Jose's mouth. "You won't be needing these lungs anymore anyway..."

Jose cracked another smile and managed to take a painful pull from the cigar. He spat the cigar and smiled again. "This is marijuana, you bastard." Jack grinned "You will get suspended for it..." Jose said, while closing his eyes.

His breathing was stopping. Ethan just stood there, numb, during the entire spectacle. Someone had died, right in front of him. This wasn't a prank, was it? He shook his head in denial. What the hell? What in the fucking hell?

Jack sighed. "shit..." he said "Fuck this shit! FUCK!" he screamed, while pulling his hair back

He didn't pay attention to Ethan and just turned to the body of one of the creatures. It was lying face down. He kicked it with anger and it turned around. He brought his cell phone's flashlight next to its face and blurted out. "What the fuck is this shit?"

Jack's question brought Ethan back from his stupor. He approached Jack quickly and crouched beside him to examine the thing. He needed to occupy his mind at that moment, he didn't want to stay beside Jose's cooling body. He brought his cell phone to the things face and his eyes widened.

"I't cant' be..." he said.

Jack looked at him. "You know what this shit is?" he spat at the thing "It looks like an overgrown fetus."

The creature was a very small humanoid. It had large yellow catlike eyes. It's body was hairless, aside from some small tufts that grew its neck, and it's skin was white. It's head was proportionally bigger than a human's and Its belly projected outwards like someone with schistosomiasis.

It's overall appearance was greatly disturbing.

"I have never seen this thing..." Ethan said. "But it...It..." He was afraid to sound nerdy in front of a know bully like Jack "Somehow it looks like a globin." he said. Jack looked at him strangely and asked. "Like the ones from 'The lord of the rings?'" he asked.

The goblins on TLOTR weren't really the standard of fantasy. Standard fantasy goblins are far shorter and greener, but there was no need to correct Jack.

Jack took another cigar and lighted it. He breathed three or four times before he said. "did you see the screens?"

The screens? What is he talking about?

"Screens?" Ethan asked.

"Yeah" Jack, said. He looked distant. "Small blue screens. Every time I killed one of that fucks, I saw a weird screen with a "25 xp" message...almost like a..."

"A rpg..." Ethan said, with his eyes widening.

"Yeh..." Jack said. "Almost like a game...so you saw it too uh? I thought I was going insane a while back." He laughed dryly.

What the hell! What the hell did this means? He was now sure he wasn't going insane. Or, if he was, at least he was not the only one. He looked at his hands and noticed they were trembling. The complete wrongness of the situation was starting to get very clear on his head. He looked at his side to look at Jack and noticed he was as relaxed as ever. Damn, why was Jack like this? Ethan felt like a spineless coward.

Where was he? Was he in a game? Was he abducted to be part on some kind of VR gaming experiment?

He was getting dizzy. He found an rock outcrop beside him and sat down while massaging his temples. "Holy shit..." He mumbled.

Jack was still calmly smoking his marijuana, seemingly without a care in the world.

A VR gaming experiment... They probably were a batch of test subjects in some kind of VR gaming experiment. That was the best guess he had, and to be honest, he was already stretching. Whoever did this abduction would have to be insane to choose exactly the students of Goldenfall. This guy could have gotten some unknown orphans in some third rate country who no one would ever miss, but to choose them...

Abducting the Goldenfall's students was kind of insane, it was his best guess though.

"A Game..." he said, wondering. Was it really a game? If this was a game, there would be more game-like elements. Like races, dungeons, status.

Name

Ethan

Strenght

3

Race

Error - Undefined (no modifiers)

Dexterity

3

Level

0

Speed/Evasion

2

Gender

Male

Resistence

3

Equiped Title

One with a brain

Wisdom

3

Luck

3

What?