The door collapsed after a taking a few more hits.

Alexander hid himself using a blanket, crouching next to the now-ruined door as the monsters rushed in and swung at everything they could find.

A few seconds went by, during which Alex's heart raced and his mind went into a state of hyper-focus. Such a state of focus and concentration was not a new feeling to him, after all, he had played video games professionally for an extended period of time.

Video games taught him how to enter and maintain the state, but also when to rush and not to rush. So, he bided his time until he was sure every monster outside, had stormed into the room.

3 goblins...

5 goblins...

7 goblins were inside the room and things started to get hairy.

The blanket covering him was very thin, and he could see through the fabric when he smothered his eye against it.

But with so many monsters in the room, it was bound that one of them would get close to where Alexander was hiding.

A goblin reached out his hand to grasp the thin blanket covering him, strange that it did not swing its club without thought like the others.

The blanket flew and so did Alex, as he rounded the corner at record-breaking speed, shouldering past the goblin who took of his veil and dashing out the storage room.

Inside the shop, he witnessed the sight of a completely destroyed shop where even the shelves were collapsed in splintered pieces of wood. He placed his footing carefully, and perfectly to not lose balance from the debris sprawled around.

He did not think about anything, and just reacted with extreme focus.

Even when he was close to the exit, there was no rejoice in Alexander's heart, for he knew that multiple steps were following close behind wanting to kill him.

This was the battles he fought, a battle for survival.

A goblin came from outside and into the shop, and Alex moved forwards faster. He hoped his momentum would be enough to bypass the little green humanoid, and if it wasn't enough, he still had his screwdriver to do some damage.

The goblin spotted Alex and swung the club from the left to the right, trying to hit the side of Alex's chest. The swing was a perfect decision for the goblin.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

Alex grasped his very blunt-screwdriver in his right hand, and lifted his left arm to block the crushing blow. A sacrifice must be made to stop it, and a broken arm is nothing in the face of victory.

The two made impact.

Sound of bones being crushed - a small grunt as response - and a swing of the arm. Dark crimson blood flew everywhere and a body fell while a body flew out the shop like a bullet and ran down the street.

Alexander's arm must be broken, and the weapon he used was very efficient.

'I held a shiv...not a screwdriver.'

He looked with a fearful expression down at the weapon used to inflict critical damage on the goblin, and glanced back at the shop were a presumably dead corpse was lying on the ground.

He had killed.

Alex, forgetting the pain from his broken arm, thought back to the moment of dashing out the storage room and colliding with the goblin.

'It went by too fast.'

'I could have prevented it if I used my screwdriver.'

But, his thoughts collided.

'Me killing something was bound to happen, and will happen more in the future.'

'In Ginlore, I killed the whole universe.'

Suddenly, the bad feelings he held about slaying the goblin fell away and a desensitized expression fell about Alex's face.

'Emotionless and mechanical.'

He thought back to how he played Ginlore and interacted with anyone around him. Even the NPCs who possessed an artificial intelligence and seemed like actual players living in a different world, were all slain in cold blood murder. Those he couldn't take down due to a large level difference, he trapped and assassinated. Those that directly opposed his path became a minority.

The players playing at the time were so far down the stages, that when they moved up, a decimated and barren safe zone town welcomed them.

Ginlore as a game was broken like that, none of the new players received any starter inventory or gifts. Neither any quests or classes were given out due to the NPCs being dead, and the players who were supposed to guard them were scared of losing experience from being killed alongside them.

Actually, the stages from 5392 to 5600 were protected by a large guild who with the power they had combined, gave fierce competition to Alex. However, they started to lose out after the 5625 disaster.

5625 disaster happened because the players at those stages started to feel too safe, and more guilds were being created that slowly opposed the very core defense of the NPCs. The battle was too multi-sided and Alex's fierce competition fell to ruin.

While the rivalry between him and the main guild lasted a few months, the collapse of stages 5390 to 5640 happened in an instant. The NPCs that were slowly being revived and migrated to lower stages, were killed and taken off Ginlore. The players were forced back multiple levels and lost tremendous experience points after dying to Alexander's surprise attacks and direct confrontations.

Since then, Alex experienced breakthroughs in his gaming skill and flew up the stages and made a large distance between the players, to the point where the game started to lose gamers because they quit from being unable to receive any quest.

Grinding dungeons and paying the transport toll to go up a level was all they could do...

That's how Alexander had lived for the previous years, and now as he remembered all this, he felt a little sympathy for the players. Since they must have felt a little like what he is feeling right now.

Dungeon isolation with no NPCs whatsoever, no one to save or help you out.

Only YOU were responsible for making a change in the life you lived within Ginlore.