~January 1st, 2017~

Buzz Buzz Buzz

‘I swore I turned off my phone…’

Reaching out from underneath a bundle of bed sheets, a calloused pair of hands fumbled twice before gripping onto a red-cased iPhone.

Ignoring the message that popped up, the man firmly held down the power button. After the familiar power off jingle, the man tucked his hands back in. Unable to sink back into sleep, the man thought,

‘Maybe I should make a quick trip to the bathroom. Ugh, forget it. I’ll get a glass of milk and call it a night.’

~Crash!~

A loud clattering noise echoed from the kitchen.

“Who’s there?!” he screamed

‘I thought I locked up tonight?!’

After tossing aside the bedsheets he bolted towards the kitchen. Preparing himself to confront the intruder, he stealthy walked towards the kitchen knives.

“Oh, you’re one ugly sun ova bitch aren’t you.”

Behind the kitchen’s marble cutting table, he came face to face with a green-skinned three-foot tall creature. A deep sense of dread flickered in the goblin's beady eyes as it watched the lean five-foot-ten man with raven black hair and dark blue eyes moving ever closer.

“Don’t look at me with those judge-y beady eyes you piece of shit. All my life, it’s always Peter this or Peter don’t do that, but you—you don’t get to do that to me”

Peter curled his fist into a ball and threw a punch at the goblin hitting it square in the face. Flustered by the human's sudden hostility, the goblin picked itself up and started running.

‘Oh no you don’t’

Before the goblin got out of range, he tackled it to the floor and effortlessly forced it into a chokehold. The goblin began futilely clawing at the human, but with a quick maneuver from the man's left hand, a resonating crack sounded the goblin's death.

‘It wasn’t human…that’s right, it wasn’t human!’

“Ding!”

[You are the 33rd person to kill an NPC!]

[Reward: Random Skill book!]

“Ding!”

[Unique skill: Mind’s Eye]

Before the guilt of taking away a life sunk in, a lightly glowing book fell on top of Peter’s hands. Fascinated by the blue text box floating in mid-air, he didn’t realize a book was in his hands until it suddenly vanished in thin air.

“AHHHH! M…My HEAD!” His body began to twitch uncontrollably as his brain was filled with new information about the skill [Mind’s Eye].

After what felt like a grand mal seizure, Peter looked around his room. Everything felt disorienting; his hearing felt like it was working overtime and his vision was swirling. With both eyes closed, he could even hear his own heartbeat.

‘Holy crap! This is amazing!!’

As soon as he adjusted to his newfound hearing abilities, an electrifying sensation jolted his skin. Despite being at room temperature, he felt goosebumps form as his hair follicles stood on edge. This made him feel extra sensitive and as a result, he would feel ticklish each time his skin brushed against the floor.

After a minute of uncontrollable laughter, his nose flared up. The laundry bin from the bathroom suddenly smelled worse than vomit, but at the same time, the leftover sandwich crust smelled like fresh bread out of the oven.

As the smell faded away, Peter whispered, “This is soo trippy”

Looking at the grandfather clock Peter kept in the living room, he noticed that not even a minute passed since the sudden acute pain. It was 12:02 am.

“No…No way! I have 20/20 vision again! No, wait a minute… Isn’t there a wall there? Huh? Am I seeing through the wall!?” Yet, when Peter closed his eyes he could still see a blurry outline of the grandfather clock. ‘It's not x-ray...Maybe…’

To test his theory, Peter tapped his foot twice and concentrated on hearing the subtle noise moving across the wooden floor panel. As the noise rippled across the floorboard, his mind began to visualize the surroundings. Once the noise completely disappeared, a mental image of the entire apartment appeared in his mind.

“This…this ability is amazing. Although it’s a bit of a strain, I can create a general outline of surrounding through sight and hearing.” Sighing in awe, Peter walked back towards the dead goblin in the kitchen.

“Sorry little guy. It’s a rough night for both of us.”

After his little eulogy, Peter grabbed the goblin by the arms and dragged it towards the bathroom tub. Then he went into his closet and found a bottle of sulfuric acid and poured the entirety onto the dead goblin.

Tearing his gaze away from the goblin soaked in sulfuric acid, Peter grabbed the bar soap onto his hands and scrubbed hard. Rinse. Repeat. Rinse. Repeat.

‘It’s not that bad, right? No blood, I’m sure of it. No, I broke my promise.’

Rinse. Repeat.

Softly sighing, Peter grimaced, “Ahh, my hands hurt. One more time”

Rinse. Repeat.

“That, no, it wasn’t human.”

Reassuring himself, Peter flipped off the lights once again and decided to take a nap.

“HELLLP!!”

‘That scream came from outside’

“Not my problem, not my problem, not my problem.”

Although he chanted “Not my problem” every fiber of his being shook, urging him to go out there. “I’m done, no more killing.” He bent over the nightstand and looked fondly at the picture of a smiling little girl.

In the picture, the little girl’s brown hair was tied into a braid and her unblemished skin was milky white. Similarly, the girl also had crystal blue eyes like her father.

“My little Amy, I told you daddy wouldn’t do it again.”

His eyes began to water and every second made it harder to hold in his tears. Gently, he took the picture out of the frame and held it in his hands. He tenderly caressed the little girl in the picture as if he was holding the most fragile piece of glass in the world.

The dam broke and the water from his eyes dripped downwards. “Fucking hell” he snarled. Another scream, this time from his neighbor José, reverberated in the hallway.

Peter squat down and pulled out a large briefcase under his bed. A yellow sticker with the words, “Hasta la vista” streaked across the center of the briefcase. Opening the metal case were two Glock 26s 9mm, four 9mm ammo holders, a machete, 9 short daggers, and a bullet proof vest.

“Last time baby. Last time.”

He slipped the picture and phone into his jeans and wore a bulletproof vest over his casual plain white T-shirt. Then he slung his belt with the nine daggers over his right shoulder. Finally, he holstered both Glocks and calmly walked towards the door holding onto his machete with both hands. Straining his ears, he could hear ragged panting and numerous footsteps in the hallway.

“Now I know how Spiderman feels.” He pulled out a machete and then unlocked the 8 different locks on the door.

‘One, two, three!’

He kicked the door and bashed the goblin directly outside the door into the wall. Then he chopped downwards towards his second victim on his left. The goblin’s head was cleanly sliced through and it fell with a thud.

Surprisingly, the other goblins seemed indifferent to their companion’s brutal death and charged towards Peter.

“Hmph, little shrimps got nothing on me.” With a disdainful look in his eyes, Peter quickly threw a dagger into the throat of the second charging goblin and then beheaded the closest goblin with a two handed swing.

He kicked away the next goblin and used his left foot as a fulcrum to swing his body around for a heavy horizontal slash.

The slash cut through two sternums and one leg.

“Gahhh!! Gacck!”

The two injured goblins screamed in pain as the remaining 3 goblins started to hesitate. Seeing their hesitation, Peter threw two daggers at the injured goblins and only three were left standing. “Tom, Dick, and Harry, which one of you wants to die first?”

Peter let the adredaline take its natural course and grinned evilly at the three remaining goblins. He rushed at the goblin on the left and nailed it to the wall with a swift kick to the shoulder.

Then he slashed twice, beheading two goblins in a breath. The last goblin, pinned onto the wall, began to shiver like the first goblin in the kitchen.

“Sorry little guy.”

Peter retrieved the daggers from the corpses and made his way down the staircase. With his new ability, despite the lack of lights, he could see as clear as day.

“Growl!”

It was a black wolf, almost as big as a tiger. The black wolf stared menacingly at Peter. Tightening his grip on his machete, Peter wordlessly jumped at the wolf and landed on top of it. Before the wolf could throw him off its back, he drove his machete into the wolf’s head. Slumping downwards, the wolf gave its last whine.

Continuing down the flight of stairs, Peter encountered no enemies until he reached the main lobby. Upon opening the stairwell door, he saw blood stains and human corpses everywhere. The flickering overhead lights revealed the perpetrators. Unlike the goblins before, these blue-skinned goblins were 4-feet tall.

“Shriek!! Shriek!”

Peter threw three daggers with pin-point accuracy before the first goblin reached him. Swinging his machete side-ways he slit the goblin's throat. However, as the group of goblins charging at him, he ran back to the stairwell. Taking advantage of the narrow space, the first two goblins that entered were immediately beheaded.

After beheading two goblins, he went up three steps and threw a dagger at the goblin jumping over its companions’ corpses. The three dead goblins stockpiled near the entry to the stairwell, transforming the entry into a guillotine.

The goblins that jumped over their companions’ corpses ended up having their necks sliced the second they entered Peter’s vision. With the help of his enhanced senses, Peter easily cleaned up the group of seven. Kicking over the corpses, he dislodged his daggers from their necks and hastily walked towards the main entrance to the apartment.

“Grrr…”

“Well hello there.”