Tann grabbed onto the spike and pulled it out with her full force. She cried painfully as more blood poured out from her wound. The thing let out a low pitch groan and charged towards her.

“Wait, I am the creator!” Tann shouted and stretched out her blood-stained hand against the thing, “Stop right now!”

It worked, the thing stopped into a freeze-frame, but, its body was vibrating rapidly as it attempts to get rid of the ‘freeze’ program. Tann gazed at her attacker, and what she saw shocked her.

It was a bot. However, unlike the other bots, long, metal spikes penetrated through bubble-like tissues all over its body. Along with the spikes, there were artificial products like broken pipes, metal bars, wires and even phone screens sticking all over its body. It did not have a face, in fact, the original human’s face was ripped right across the jaws, and a huge ball of sponge-like tissue and wires took over were used to be the head of the human.

Tann gasped in horror, but she quickly reached for her keyboard in her bag. However, just as she was about to reach it, the monster let out a roar, and it broke its frozen state. Using its arm, the monster slashed at Tann, in midair, the spikes on its claw grew longer and became blade-like structures. Tann rowed over quickly, causing the slash to miss her by an inch. The blades cut into the ground deeply causing dust and sparks to form all over the place.

With this tiny time gap, Tann took out her keyboard and typed ‘Power_boost_x_’ but before she could type in the time’s number, the monster used its other arm to stab at her head. Without any options, Tann clutched her fist and punched at the approaching attack. Although her power and hardness significantly higher than the average bots, her bare hand was no match to the monster’s blade. With a series of cracking sounds, the blade cut through her finger, into her palm and into her arm.

Damage Taken: 30%

“AAAAA!” Tann screamed as the monster pushed in a bit hard into her arm and the tip of the spike made contact with her sensory neurone. Tears and blood splatter across her face, serges of pain conquered her brain. However, with one of her arm sacrificed to block the attack, Tann used her other hand to type in the final number, ‘9’.

The monster pulled out its blade from the ground and swung it high into the air, ready for the next attack. Yet, there was a huge impact across its waist, before it could launch its attack. Suddenly it lost balance and fell backwards into the ground. As it fell, it could see the rest of its body still remained standing. In a split second, a black, oily liquid blasted out of the cross-sections of the monster, forming two fountains. After a few seconds, the rate of flow decreased as less liquid flow out.

Cells Regenerating: 10%

Having used her final bit of strength, Tann lost consciousness.

—————

“What…what happened?” Tann rubbed her eyes and felt the oily grease on her face. Her wounds had long healed, but her jeans and jacket were stained with blood and grease. She sat up, trying to remember what happened before. However, instead of seeing the body of her defeated opponent, she was surrounded by a pool of metal scraps.

“Huh?” she stood up slowly and picked up her keyboard.

“Phurder?”

“Phurder?”

“ANYONE?”

The radio was dead.

Tann walked towards her log in house, she looked from side to side, trying to work out if the place is no longer hostile. Creeping into the room, she noticed that everything had remained the same as before. Finally, Tann reached the login portal, the mirror. She sat up straight in front of it, waiting to see her reflection change.

BAM!

The mirror exploded, sending shrapnel all over her body.

Damage: 30%

“GOD DAMN IT!” Tann screamed, and typed in a new command ‘Cell_Regeneration_Max’.

Cell regeneration: 90%

As her cells divided rapidly, the newly formed tissue pushed the shrapnels out of her body but she could still feel the pain that remained for a long while. That was not her problem at that moment. Tann stared at where the mirror used to be, her face remained blank as if she was expecting it to magically, no programmatically merge together again.

It didn’t.

Horror. It is the only emotion that Creator of this world could feel, before, she was like a god, now, she felt like a prey who is already in the trap.

“Minimap?”

It was gone, in other words, her virtual display all the statistics were entirely gone.

She punched the wall with all her might, it shattered like thin glass.

Damage: 1%

Cell Regeneration: 100%

“AAAAAAAAAAAA!” She screamed at the top of her lungs, her sound echoed in the room. One by one, large teardrops rowed down her cheeks and landed on her blood-covered hand. What could she do? She had no family. Friends? She considered most of the people she knew as mere colleagues. However, they are the people with means to her, and they are the only ones she could think of.

————

The door of the login house swung open slowly. It was already night, the straight line of stars (caused by Tann) occupied the sky, shinning the rural land with dim, blue light. Dressed in a new pair of jeans, an undersized T-shirt with red and black wiggles that exposed her belly and a black leather jacket, Tann stepped back into the world she created. She carried a large rucksack, filled with replacement clothing. Her keyboard was tied with a rope to her waist so she could access it any time.

“Time to find a new safehouse,”, she walked towards the boxes of energy drinks that she bought before, and filled her bag with a bunch of Monsters. Finally, she popped open one can and drunk it in one go, “Need to find a weapon first” She jumped onto her bike and headed back towards the city.