Ray decided to go for it.

Sunset looked good. That guy from the forums, DarkOverlord, was the leader of the guild. The comment had been downvoted, but Ray had believed in the content. The guy had been telling the truth, as evidenced by all the monsters that had been cropping up around the Dublin backroads.

Ray wanted to talk to DarkOverlord. He tapped Sunset, bringing up an application menu.

Sunset

Would you like to apply?

Yes! Ray selected by tapping on “apply”.

Sunset

Application Question: Who are you and why are you joining?

To this, Ray had to think. He was mildly surprised he prompted another screen with his decision. Then again, he wasn’t all that surprised since there were a lot of crazy things happening that night.

“Let’s say, I’m RayD and I want to speak with DarkOverlord,” Ray went with his usual gamer name. He’d always used this name in almost every single game he’d ever played. An application pending screen then popped up, leading Ray to exit out of that automatically.

Having done that, Ray reassessed himself.

He was acutely aware of his situation. He was level ten with twenty stat points left to input. There were already twenty points in strength and twenty-five in agility, and he didn’t feel like intelligence was worth putting points into. Ray guessed that, in terms of game mechanics that he’d seen before, it wouldn’t give him any bonuses for his current build.

He was aiming for a strength and speed heavy one. Ray figured that it would be best given his current situation. Though, he didn’t know for sure. There was too little information available to him. An accurate analysis didn’t seem plausible to him.

Ray also had questions about the hundred and sixty people ahead of him in levels. Were they already well on their way to greater strength? He wanted to ask someone, namely DarkOverlord, about what to expect in the coming levels. That man was higher level than him, given that he founded Sunset. The prerequisite for that was a higher level, though Ray didn’t exactly know what.

There were too many questions and too little information. Given that, wouldn’t the best course of action be to head back home and charge his phone to find more information on this?

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All of a sudden, Ray broke out in cold sweat. His face changed as he was pulled back to reality. There was something extremely important that he had forgotten, in all of his battle fever.

Mom! Mrs. Lufrin! Ray screamed in his mind. What was happening back home? He had no way of knowing if goblins had taken over his house or not. Ray’s mind ran through the possibilities quickly, finding clues within the past few hours.

There was the goblin on the road once the clock hit ten. Then, more came at me in a non-populated area. After that, I fought my way out while getting chased by special goblins into a weird mansion-house. I met Mr. Xue, then fought with some more insane special goblins. It turns out it was some sort of sick test, or whatever. They were weird. And here I am, fighting goblins like a psycho after they gave me a supercar. . .

Ray’s mind began backtracking. He quickly decided that there wasn’t enough information to go off of. The night had been one hell of a ride. There would be enough to unpack later. Now was the time for action, not thinking.

A roar broke him out of his thoughts. It sounded like a freight train, only vaguely human and extremely angry. Ray shifted his glance over to the side, where he saw trees swaying to make way.

A massive goblin, several times larger than the elite he had run over earlier, appeared from the trees. It was coming towards him, closing the distance surprisingly quickly. It held an entire tree branch in its hands, no doubt ripped from a similarly massive tree, brandishing it with killing intent towards him.

Ray was interested in gaining EXP, but those plans didn’t include suicide. He felt the hairs on his neck stand up in opposition to this new threat. There would be no chance against the towering monstrosity, were he to face it head on. Luckily, he didn’t have to.

He smartly reversed the supercar and drove onto the road once more, directly opposite of the incoming mountainous goblin. The car sped up like usual, extremely fast, undamaged from the crashes into the goblin squad.

Ray found the voice-activated command and ordered it to navigate him back home. He saw that it would take ten minutes from his position, but that was only going at the speed limit.

Ray was way past that now. He sped the car to seventy miles-per-hour and quickly got back to a road that he knew. On the way, he encountered numerous goblins and goblin-kind, but he swerved around them easily. It seemed as though his driving skills had improved along with his dexterity and strength. Gripping the wheel, while never difficult before, was extremely easy to him now. Ray felt like he could steer with a single finger.

He left the area quickly, speeding into familiar territory. As Ray got closer to residential areas, he felt himself slowing down for a very good reason.

It was completely normal. There were a few cars on the road, moving at slow speeds. The stoplights were working just fine as well and things were extremely quiet. It was as the middle of the night should be, in a suburban town like Dublin.

Most importantly, however, there were no killer goblins on the loose. That was a promising sign.

Ray drove more cautiously as he didn’t want to be accosted by the police at this time. They would no doubt throw him into questioning with one look at him and his stolen car.

Luckily, he reached his house without incident. It was the middle of the night, and Dublin police likely had better things to do. Ray found that it was strange that the police were seemingly unaware of the developments in the backroads, but there was nothing he could do about it.

Reporting the incident wouldn’t do him any good, and he wouldn’t take the chance. There was no point, the news would spread without his involvement anyway.

He reached into his pocket for his keys. Luckily, his right pocket was still intact and contained his key. Ray produced the key to unlock the door, quietly getting in. Once in, he couldn’t help but let out a sigh.

He was safe.