Ol' Bessie rumbled along the open highway northward as the city disappeared behind them. Although the bluebonnets had long since faded, an assortment of late spring wildflowers had risen to take their place with even more vivid colors. They waved gently in the breeze, adorning the grassy fields to either side with splashes of yellow, pink, and orange. It would have been a rather peaceful drive if not for the circumstances.
Chad and Annie drove on without speaking for at least 20 minutes. Once the immediate danger had passed, they risked pulling over briefly to take care of Chad's wound. Annie ripped a strip of cloth off the hem of her shirt to make an impromptu and admittedly amateurish bandage for the bleeding arm. But now that they had a moment to breathe, the reality of the day's events began to sink in.
They started down the highway once more, the asphalt whipping by below their wheels. Eventually, Annie broke the silence. "Chad… what the hell was that?"
"Your guess is as good as mine." He shrugged, genuinely bewildered. "I'm honestly tempted to believe that you snuck something in your 'aromatherapy' stuff and we're both just tripping."
"Be serious, Chad." He felt the woman tremble, and not just from the purr of the engine. "What's happening? What were those things?"
A long sigh escaped his lungs only to be swept away by the wind. "I really dunno, Annie. But between those things and the weird floating text, it definitely feels like we're in some sorta game."
"This is too real to be a game." The words were quiet enough to almost go unheard. "Should we… should we go back? If people are in danger…"
Chad shook his head vigorously. "Nope. We can't. You saw what the situation was like. We'd get eaten alive back there."
"But everyone else will, too..!"
"I really hope not. But I'm pretty sure we ain't gonna be swooping in and saving the day, not without more firepower. I mean, I'm banged up and you've only got so many pistol rounds. What could we even do?"
"I don't know, but…"
"The best we can do is warn other people about what's going on." Chad nodded toward the side of the road. "Like them."
Ahead of them, parked along the shoulder, an old red truck came into view. Beside it, a pair of ranchers stood peering at the distant portal in the sky. Chad slowed slightly, shouting at the men as they passed. "Y'all better get moving! There's monsters n' shit comin' outta that thing!"
The older one cocked his head in confusion. "What?"
Chad didn't stop to explain further. Revving the accelerator, he brought them back up to a comfortable cruising speed of about eighty-five miles per hour. Annie gripped him more tightly as they left the pair behind. "You've gotta warn them better than that."
"Hey, I tried! It's up to them to believe us." He gave a helpless shrug. "Look, Annie. My first priority right now is making sure my gramma is ok. Once I know she's safe and taken care of, then we can figure out what to do next."
He felt her stiffen. "You don't care about anyone else then? If I had family in the city, would you have even stopped to help them?"
"Well, do you?"
She bit her lip. "No, but…"
"Well, why're you asking then?" He glanced back incredulously. "Honestly, if you had anything worth saving back there, I kinda figured you'd have said something before we left the place in the dust. Besides, I dragged you along, didn't I?"
Annie fell silent at that. For a while longer, the pair roared down the street at obviously illegal speeds, weaving around slower-moving vehicles wherever necessary. The chaos didn't extend this far out - not yet. But in case it followed them, Chad wanted to get as much of a head start as possible.
A few minutes later, their thoughts were interrupted by a sudden loud whine cutting through the peaceful countryside. Annie scrambled for her gun, head whipping around to find the new threat. Rather than another monster though, a different kind of threat tore through the skies above. A fleet of fighter jets screeched through the air toward the beleaguered city. Their engines left whitish trails across the clear blue expanse as they traveled with astonishing speed.
"See? The military's on it. They're gonna have a way better shot at dealing with that nonsense than we would."
"...Yeah. Hopefully." She shuddered. "Do you think this is happening all over? Or is it just us?"
"No idea. But if it's happening anywhere else, there's probably plenty of stuff about it online. If TV and phones still work, of course…"
I hope it's just us. It's bad enough that this kinda thing is happening anywhere. But if other places have their own hell portals to deal with, too… He scanned the vast Texas sky, but no other holes in reality made themselves known. Can't worry about it right now. Guess we'll find out soon if the world's really ending, though.
"Here, I grabbed my phone." Annie clung on tight with one arm as she fished in her pocket with the other. "I can check while we go."
As Annie did her research, his mind wandered back to what they'd just seen. What was that portal? Where did it come from, and where did it lead? To another planet? To hell or some sort of different dimension? Also, what was up with those monsters? The shapes, sizes, and colors of the things seemed to share nothing at all in common. It was as though a child took a discount bargain bin of comic book mooks, mashed their parts together, then poured the whole bucket out over Dallas. In fact, if not for some of them being actual threats, he'd have laughed at some of the more absurd ones like the Shlug.
Too many questions… He sighed, focusing once more on the road. If nothing else though, I'm pretty certain this's gotta be related to the weird text that's been popping up. If I had to make an educated guess.
The thought brought him back to the present. "Hey Annie, did you get one of those weird blue windows too?"
"Huh?" She looked up from whatever she'd been reading. "Yeah, I did. I thought it was some kind of joke until… well, all this."
Ok, it's not just me then. "What did it say?"
"It said… Here, I think I can pull it up."
She went silent for a moment. "It says I'm a level 2 Massage Therapist. Looks like there's a bunch of other info too. I have stats, apparently…" She clicked her tongue in annoyance. "Why is my constitution so low? I'm perfectly healthy! Aside from the allergies. And I don't get sick that often…"
"Stats? Definitely a video game thing." Chad nodded sagely. "What else?"
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"There's also traits, skills, titles, and proficiencies. I don't have any skills or titles, but it looks like the traits are related to the massage therapist thing mostly. The proficiencies kinda seem like general things I'm good at? I picked up a Firearms one back there, apparently."
Annie hummed to herself thoughtfully, checking through invisible menus as they drove. "There's a lot of stuff here. Seems like I can get more info by focusing on a particular section, too."
Chad frowned, peering ahead at the road. It stretched before them in a long, straight, empty expanse. "Mind watching the road for me? I wanna see for myself."
With a thought, he willed his own screen to appear. Instantly a wall of notifications scrolled before him. Luckily, the window was just transparent enough that it didn't entirely cover the road.
You have defeated a Blood Imp (Lvl 1)! +1 Exp.
You have defeated a Blood Imp (Lvl 1)! +1 Exp.
You have defeated a Frost Imp (Lvl 1)! +1 Exp.
You have displayed rudimentary knowledge of how to hit things the old-fashioned way - without any of those prissy "weapons". Fistfighting (E) proficiency earned!
You have defeated a Bebeef'uloch (Lvl 1)! +1 Exp.
You have defeated a Bebeef'uloch (Lvl 1)! +1 Exp.
You have defeated a Shlug (Lvl 1)! +1 Exp.
The notifications continued scrolling by, documenting all of the monsters he and Annie had slain. Interestingly, he was getting credit for things he hadn't even killed or seen himself. Maybe steering the bike had been enough to share credit or something. The proficiency notification in particular stood out to him though. It felt oddly lighthearted compared to the others, kind of like the trait descriptions for his class. A few more notifications passed across his vision until a new one appeared.
You have displayed rudimentary knowledge of how to move using machinery rather than your own appendages, you slacker. Driving (E) proficiency earned!
He found himself suppressing a chuckle before his gaze flicked to the next line of text.
You have reached Level 2!
Rewards:
+3 Stat points
"Huh. Guess I leveled up, too," Chad mused.
"Have you checked your stats?"
"Getting there." With a bit of trial and error, he cleared the notifications and pulled up his status.
Name: Chadwick Armstrong
Class: Arm Wrestler (Lvl 2)
Race: Human
Stats
STR: 17
DEX: 9
CON: 12
INT: 6
WIS: 12
CHA: 13
Available Points: 3
Traits
Specialized Training (I)
Arm-ed Combat (I)
Late Bloomer (I)
Skills
N/A
Proficiencies
Fistfighting (E)
Driving (E)
Titles
Champion Arm Wrestler
Woah… That's weird. Chad frowned. My intelligence is only 6? That can't be right. I'm one of the best minds in the game! Maybe they're underestimating me because of how shit I did in high school.
Still, the title of "Champion Arm Wrestler" did make him perk up a bit. Apparently, whatever this system was recognized his accomplishments even more than he had initially realized. Just another reason to celebrate beating The Leviathan, he supposed.
Glancing down at his traits and proficiencies, Chad focused on them as Annie had suggested.
Traits
Specialized Training (I) - Allows allocation of stat points to specific areas of the body. Physical Stats Only. Stat point effectiveness is prorated based on specificity.
Rank I - 6 total selectable areas.
Arm-ed Combat (I) - Increased effectiveness in unarmed combat involving arms and fists.
Rank I - 10% increase to STR when engaged in unarmed combat utilizing arms and fists.
Late Bloomer (I) - Increased viability and growth later in development.
Rank I - increases stat points gained on level up by 1 every 20 levels.
Proficiencies
Fistfighting (E) - Applies a minuscule increase to skill and STR when striking with your fists.
Driving (E) - Applies a minuscule increase to skill and DEX when operating a vehicle.
It took a moment to take it all in. The amount of information and what it suggested was simply staggering. Against all odds, Chad had to admit it really did feel like they'd been dropped into some kind of video game. Admittedly, it wouldn't be the strangest thing that had happened that day, but still. It boggled his mind.
However, one thing in particular caught his attention and held it fast. His first trait - Specialized Training.
Does that mean what I think it means?
"Anything interesting?" Annie called forward, jolting him out of his thoughts.
"Yeah," he responded. "I got a title - Champion Arm Wrestler. Dunno if it does anything. Got a few traits too - Specialized Training, Arm-ed Combat, and Late Bloomer."
"Huh. I also got Late Bloomer, but my others are Relaxing Touch and Muscle Sense." She cocked her head slightly. "But why Armed Combat? That makes no sense–"
"Not armed, arm-ed. Y'know, with a dash before the -ed." Chad grinned. "Get it? Cuz I fight with my arm."
From his position on the bike, he couldn't turn back and see Annie's face. However, he could somehow feel her roll her eyes at him from behind. "If that's supposed to be a joke… Anyway. What do we do with these stats? I feel like they're pretty important…"
Chad thought for a moment. "Give me a sec. I'll see what happens when I mess with mine."
Would it be smarter to wait on trying things out until they'd reached their destination? Probably. But Chad had a hunch and wasn't certain he could handle the suspense. Not when they still had another half an hour or so to drive.
So if I do this… Focusing on his available points, a prompt appeared before him.
Stat assignment: would you like to use the trait Specialized Training (I)?
Of course.
The prompt disappeared, only to be replaced with a new box.
Select the area(s) to assign stats to.
Below the line of text hung a 2D model of a human body. The model possessed no distinguishing features, consisting of only a generic outline sectioned off into six separate parts: two arms, two legs, a torso, and a head. It stood before him with arms extended to either side in a T-pose.
So then… Chad's heart beat a little faster. Can I just select ol' faithful?
Chad selected the right arm. The sectioned-off limb glowed red against the blue background.
Select the stat(s) to apply to the selected area(s).
With another thought, he focused on adding strength. Just one point, for now. To test things out. He felt a twinge of pride at his restraint.
Stat +1 STR will be applied to the following:
Right Arm
Please confirm your selection.
Yes.
In an instant, Chad felt his arm shift. A wave of sudden heat coursed through the limb, followed by a kind of swelling pressure. His muscles swelled and tightened as the already beefy limb grew noticeably. He tightened his grip on the bike in surprise and nearly swerved off the road.
"Chad?!"
Annie gripped him in panic as the sensations faded. In their place, Chad was left with a newfound feeling of, fittingly, strength. His arm felt better than it ever had. Like he could take on any other arm wrestler on the spot. It took a minute to acclimate to the changes as he gingerly straightened the bike out. "Fine, we're fine! Don't worry!"
"What was that?! Are you ok?" Annie spared a glance toward his bicep. "Shoot, your bandage! You're bleeding again."
"Uh…"
With everything under control, Chad dismissed his status window and looked down at his arm. What was once a disproportionately sized mass of muscle and sinew had been replaced with… well, a more disproportionately sized mass of muscle and sinew. His familiar tree trunk of an arm had grown by at least a quarter of its original size, leaving the rest of his body untouched.
The sight left Chad speechless. All thoughts of monsters, demonic portals, and the end of the world fled from his mind. Right now, all he felt was pure, unadulterated elation.
This might be the best day of my life.
"Chad?" Annie followed his gaze with wide eyes. "Did… did your arm get bigger?"
"Yeah," A massive grin spread to his face as he flexed his massive hand. "Yeah. I think it did."