“Oh, did you level up?” Jason said as he went up to the deceased dragon and… cut it open.

“What the fuck are you doing Jason!?” I asked, curios and creeped out.

“I’m just grabbing the gem… huh? weird, there isn’t a gem… Ashton, look” he said, gesturing me to go to him.

“What do you mean? There is something sparkly right there.” I pointed to a large purple gem inside the dragon.

“Don’t lie to me Ash, I can’t see it!” He said, dismissing what I said.

“But it’s… right here!” I said as I pulled the gem out and showed it to Jason.

“I can’t see anything!” he said, angrily:

“Oh, shiny gem. Where did’cha get it from?” The old man asked, staring at the gem.

“THERE ISN’T A FUCKING GEM!!!” Jason shouted, enraged.

But then there was a shuffling amidst the debris where we escaped from. A reaper emerged, orientating itself before spotting us, then it launched itself at Jason.

“Godfucking, no! Not again!” Jason hastily sidestepped the attack. The reaper got confused by the sudden evasive movement and halted in its track. Jason used the time to quickly launch a barrage of fireballs at it. Soon the reaper was only all charcoal and I got my first chance to inspect one up close.

The head was just a burnt outer shell, the one spiders had. There where his mouth was supposed to be, only 2 nasty looking fangs

He grabbed a sharp piece of debris and sliced its chest open and he said:

“THIS IS A GEM!” He said. I looked at his hand. Nope, he held nothing at all in his hand.

“Jason, there’s nothing in your hand…” I said, as I walked towards him.

“Well, there’s nothing in your hand!” He said, pointing at my hand, which had a gem in it.

“Wait, if we can’t see each others gems… is it because we’re different… I mean, you can use magic… and I can’t…” I started saying until I was cut off by a screen.

You received a notice.

You are only able to loot things you have killed yourself.

You receive a bonus when killing beings from Valhalla.

Stealing the loot is prohibited.

“Wait, are you from… Valhalla?” I said as I walked closer to him.

“Yeah, why?” He said as he looked down to his own screen, then said: “Oh.”

“So, I’m from earth… and I killed this monster, that’s why I can see the gem and you can’t!” I said as I walked right in front of Jason and grabbed the invisible gem. I could feel something, but I couldn’t take it away, it’s like there was an invisible forcefield stopping me.

“So, we just received some kind of notice?” Jason said as he sat down.

“I think so…” I said as I also sat down.

The old man walked to us and said:

“Why the heck are you sitting down? There are goddamn monsters out there!!!” as he said that, we heard a deafening roar coming from the east.

“Old man, there were already monsters here… we just have more” I said in a monotone voice.

“Yeah, but those fuckers in the sky can breathe fire! and fly!!! Do you know how many people live on the roofs of skyscrapers, thinking that they’re safe… looks like they’re not safe anymore!” The old man said, with a strangely happy voice.

“Oh, right… I forgot to introduce myself. I’m Glenn, who are you two?” he asked as he extended his hand for us to shake it.

“Jason, and that’s Ashton” Jason said as he shook his hand.

“Well, if it weren’t for you two, i’d be dead… or worse, one of those monsters out there, so from the bottom of my heart, thank you.” Glenn said with an incredibly happy face.

“One of the monsters?” Jason asked.

“One of the monsters out there, the reapers and zombies… mostly, when they bite ya… you turn within 12 hours. I know, scary.” Glenn said, with fear evident in his voice.

Jason stared at Glenn. He was probably pretty weirded out.

Jason sobbed shortly.

Yes, definitely weirded out.

“Then… my wife… my kids… they’re probably dead… or… worse… oh god!” Jason fell to his knees, crying.

“Oh, damn… you had family. They’re probably dead by now… those things in the sky... And the ones below… I’m sorry” Glenn said as he tried to comfort Jason.

“Mary… Kyle, Lauren… They’re all dead, and I couldn’t do anything to stop it!” Jason said as he stood up and grabbed a gun from the ground and he said:

“I’m gonna kill every single one of those fuckers!” He said, as he walked up to a zombie and:

BANG BANG BANG

Shot it multiple times, even after it died…

And, now we have a horde on our asses.

“RUN!!!” Glenn yelled as he started running faster than I thought that old man could.

Then Jason and I started running from the horde… but not before shooting a couple more of those fuckers!

BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG

Late at night we arrived at the outer circle of Manhattan. Come to think of it, we’ve been travelling for 6 days straight, Manhattan is really big, considering the amount of houses in our way. On the other hand we had to rest a lot because of the ongoing amount of monsters.

The old man called Glenn followed us all the way. I don’t know how the hell he keeps up with our pace, but he has proven to be of huge help. He’s a retired soldier of the federation employed as a security guard in Manhattan for a weapons factory, only his employer died due to a strolling reaper, and so did his income. So he decided to break into the factory, finding tanks orderly lined up after each other.

Normally one man wouldn’t be able to drive a tank, since there are at least five positions within a tank, which need to be filled, for example the driver, the reloader, the lookout, the commander or the communicator.

But he decided to modify one of the smaller tanks into a semi-automatic tank. In the federation he was famous for his engineering skills, next to his reloading skills.

Thus he only needed several months, but after he came out, he noticed, that his semi-broken semi-autonomous semi-tank semi-artillery vehicle was being fried by a giant red thing floating in the sky.

“And you just decided to attack it?” I asked incredulously.

“Ain’t any other solution, kiddo.” He replied.

He’s been calling me kiddo ever since I told him my age. I didn’t know how to react, so I just decided to ignore it.

Soon the shadows of dusk fell over the houses behind us. Up front was only the barren desert.

I sighed.

With the sound of something tearing, a house in my left direction was ripped apart like paper.

Oh heck no.

------------------------------------------

[XD, you wanted no cliffhangers… but you left it ON a cliffhanger] -Writer 1

_I meant that we should always leave it on cliffies, I like the antagonised screams of the readers._ Writer 0

[... I’m on a cliff!!! HOW DID I GET HERE, AAAAH!!!] -Writer 1

_ Don't jump down _ Writer 0

[I was just mimicking the feelings of the readers XD] -Writer 1

_Well, where are we gonna upload it, and how?_ Writer 0

[Maybe after chapter 5 is finished? so we can put it on RRL and Rebirth Online XD] -Writer 1

_What's Rebirth Online? Is it the server where I am in rn?_ Writer 0

[Rebirth Online is a site where you read translated/created books, and it’s actually a pretty good site to read on… while it doesn’t have as many books, they’re probably a LOT better than most of the RRL ones] -Writer 1 (totally not an advertisement XD)

Just checked, I’m in the server _Writer 0

_So, how are we gonna upload them? On RRL I mean, it’s not like 2 authors can co-publish_ Writer 0

[Maybe we make an account together? or something idk XD] -Writer 1 (We actually did this, and he made it seem like HIS idea! [Writer 1])(_I did? Oops_Writer 0)

_I’d rather opt for posting the chapters separately, just to annoy. Not like it’s supposed to be serious_ Writer 0

[So, I post the prologue, you post chapter 1, I do 2. you do 3 I do 4 and you do 5, sounds good XD] -Writer 1

_Nah, let’s change with increments, so, 1, 1, 2, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 or so._ Writer 0

[So, we both post chapter 1.2.3.4.5.(how many chapters there’re gonna be)?] -Writer 1

_Uhh, no clue, but it’s gonna be fun_ Writer 0

[Why don’t we just… uh… um… I’ve got nothing XD] -Writer 1

_ Whatever, let’s go on. It’s already a page long_ Writer 0

_Hope you enjoy it. Review and comment how shitty we are._ Writer 0

[A fucking page long? XD… also, yeah review and comment on how bad we are at this writing thing XD] -Writer 1

_You now know who’s responsible for all the cursing. ONWARDS!_ Writer 0