A bus trundled down a dirt path, jostling its passengers with every errant bump. The headlights illuminated the night before the bus, revealing a winding path with what appeared to be an endless row of potholes.
The passengers didn’t mind the bumpy ride. They were mostly asleep, after all. The soldiers were packed tight on the bus’ benches, three to a side. Their broad shoulders fought for space as M16s and tactical gear sprawled across their laps. The cramped nature pressed their bodies together, preventing the bumps from jostling any of the exhausted soldiers awake.
Far to the east, the sun was already past its zenith and the lunch crowd was flooding the streets of Beijing for all manner of purpose. Li Hua navigated expertly through the crowds. The sharp clacking of her heels on concrete was lost to the crowd's noise. She held a double drink carrier in her arms with six coffees crammed into it. The recycled cardboard flexed dangerously with her every stride as she rushed back to the office.
Li Hua wasn’t late precisely, but that didn’t mean she didn’t hurry. Despite the crowds, she avoided touching any of the other passersby. Not out of disgust but rather polite indifference. Her mind was occupied with the latest advertising trends and how her company, qTee, would leverage the rapidly changing whims of consumers. Everyone on the street was a seasoned veteran of the midday rush. They all worked together to get out of each other's way because they all had other, more important, things on their mind.
Even farther south, in a luxury beach house on the edges of Melbourne, Liam flopped down onto the pristine white sheets beside his wife. Sofia embraced her husband with a chuckle as he groaned into the comforter. Liam turned over, complaining about how little sleep they were getting on this vacation due to Rachel, their four-month-old daughter.
Sofia smiled wickedly, making an innuendo that had Liam roll to his knees and push her over. She shrieked in mock indignation, halfheartedly pushing him away as he leaned down and claimed her lips. She melted into his arms, pulling his head down to deepen their kiss. Liam caressed her cheek, breaking the kiss momentarily to get lost in her eyes.
In the adjoining room, Rachel gurgled at the slowly swirling mobile carrying colorful giraffes, kangaroos and other exotic animals. She waved her pudgy fingers, inches from touching the hanging wooden toys. She flexed her neck, lifting her heavy head off the soft sheets to get that tiny extra inch to grab at the tantalizing wooden animals.
‘ding!’
Rachel gasped! Suddenly, glowing lights flickered and danced across her eyes. They were beautiful and distracting. Somehow, she knew they were welcoming her. Just like a big hug! She wanted to hug them back! Her hands reached out, clutching as best she could at the shapes before suddenly everything went black.
And she was falling.
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Carlos jerked awake, staggering, then falling onto his ass as the rigid bus bench vanished from under him. His hand instinctively went to his rifle, only for Luiz’s elbow to smack him right in the nose.
Carlos sputtered and rolled onto his hands and knees, cursing in Portuguese as what felt like Pedro’s fat ass landed on his back. He shoved off the bigger man, who landed in a puddle, soaking all three with damp cave water.
What followed was more scuffling and significantly more cursing as the three comrades righted themselves. They rose, ready to tear into each other, only to pause as they became aware of their surroundings.
It was a cave. The air was clammy and wet, with a faint, musty scent that came from stagnant air. Dim illumination came from a carpet of strange glowing moss that covered the walls, ceiling and parts of the floor. Two exits led off to who knew where.
The last thing any of them remembered was falling asleep on the lorry heading back to camp.
Suddenly, glowing letters appeared in their vision, and a new round of cursing echoed across the empty cave walls. The three argued, with Luiz taking the lead to convince the others that these letters were a sign of the devil.
Pedro disagreed vehemently, going as far as selecting a skill from the interface to show to the others. That escalated the argument between the pair to the point where they were nearly shouting. Carlos glanced briefly at the menu but quickly dismissed it. He glanced nervously around the cave, unease from nearly fourteen years of active duty eating a hole in his calm.
Naturally, Carlos was the first to spot the Grothlit. It flowed through the left tunnel like an eldritch manta ray. Carlos jerked, then punched Pedro in the back before screaming and raising his rifle. Luiz and Pedro staggered, fumbling their rifles, which only encouraged the Grothlit. It accelerated, filling the chamber with the clicking drone of hundreds of claws on stone.
Pedro dropped to his knee, squeezing the trigger and firing off three precise 5.56 rounds at the creature's faceless mass. The harsh retort of gunfire nearly deafened the three soldiers as the full metal projectiles tore through the fleshy abomination, ripping massive holes as the bullets exited out of the back.
The monster chittered, slowing down, but its flesh writhed, sealing the holes in real time as Luiz and Pedro joined Carlos in pelting the creature with bullets. The creature slowed further, falling to a standstill but still writhed wildly as its wounds healed.
Luiz screamed for them to stop, and Carlos froze as the big man rushed forward and stomped on the rapidly regenerating creature.
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‘ding!’ ‘Your party has slain a lvl 4 Grothlit. Experience awarded’
'ding!' 'Congratulations! Your level has increased to 2. 5 stat points awarded'
The words scrolled across the soldiers’ vision as the mutilated corpse stilled.
Luiz spat on the corpse.
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Sofia screamed as she sprinted, buck naked, through the dank cavern. The Grothlit chased after her, filling the cavern with goosebump-inducing clicks and croons. The half-dozen clawed appendages waved hungrily above its back. They clawed into the ground and walls, eager to help propel the main mass closer to its meal.
Sofia crashed into the craggy cave wall, barely registering the pain as the rough wall scraped the skin off her bare palm. She spun, wide-eyed, just in time to watch Liam tackle the spiny creature.
They rolled. Liam somehow gained the upper hand and pinned the smaller abomination with the torn remains of a once-white comforter. Hundreds of tiny claws slashed across his bare legs but only released tiny orange sparks as they skittered across the seemingly iron-hard skin.
Liam roared and slammed the rock down on the monster. The first hit stunned it. It collapsed on the second and died on the third.
‘ding!’ ‘Your party has slain a lvl 4 Grothlit. Experience awarded’
'ding!' 'Congratulations! Your level has increased to 2. 5 stat points awarded'
Sofia rushed to Liam as he staggered to his feet. Despite [Ironhide], dozens of tiny lacerations covered his lower body and forearms. She grasped him by the shoulders, giving him a quick once over before their eyes met with a single, shared concern.
Where was Rachel?
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Rachel burbled happily in her cradle. The lights were so bright and pretty! She reached up to grasp at them, but they always escaped. It was frustrating! Rachel persevered, however. She was used to toys trying to run away from her, so she focused mightily as she reached up.
No! The lights changed!
Rachel’s eyes widened in awe as she suddenly understood. The lights were showing her herself. Like a mirror! And many choices were hanging before her, like the yellow giraffe and the kangaroo.
Rachel pursed her lips but then decided that the new lights were awesome!
She burbled happily and grasped her toes through the footed onesie. She liked options. She reached for the option on the left but then hesitated. Somehow...somehow, she knew that the option on the right would be prettier. And brighter!
Giggling and trailing a little drool onto her cheek, Rachel chose that option.
Knowledge flooded her nascent mind.
Rachel raised a chubby finger and gasped as a sparkle of light rose from her finger! And more and more! Rachel giggled as lights dotted the ceiling, making the space brighter than daylight.
But...oh. Rachel slumped. She was tired. The pretty lights told her so. But she didn’t need the lights to know. She knew what night-night time felt like. The lights were also fading away, kinda like the sun when it was night-night time.
With one final coo, Rachel closed her eyes and babbled night-night to the pretty lights.
If Rachel had been awake, she might have heard the gentle clicking of claws on stone. Or perhaps she would have noticed the shadow possessing a half dozen waving claws fall over her. But she was asleep. So Rachel didn’t notice any of this.
Not until the claws scythed down, that is.
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Carlos ripped the grimy bowie from the writhing Grothlit, grimacing as some of the greenish-blue blood splattered on him. Exhaustion weighed on him, but he stood quickly to join his two brothers in arms.
Luiz smoothly reloaded, slipping his last magazine into the rifle as he stalked through the tunnel. The telltale clicking sounded, followed quickly by a quick staccato of six rounds. Carlos took his cue and lunged at the struggling monster that was somehow immune to bullets and stabbed it in the body.
The kill message rang out in their heads, and they warily continued. The first chamber had been easy compared to the other chambers. The place was a maze of rooms, each one containing up to three of the Grothlits. Some were small and weak. Others were enormous and powerful. While they were immune to bullets, they were stunned and weakened by the projectiles, which allowed Carlos and sometimes Luiz to rush in with boots and knives to finish the job.
Finally, they rounded the bend and stopped. Before them was the largest chamber by far. It was inset into the ground some ten feet with a single large Grothlit guarding a swirling portal of white light. Even from this far away, all three soldiers recognized the image of a familiar empty bus seat on the other side of the portal.
Carlos cracked his neck and glanced at his fellows. Their eyes were hard, but they nodded back at him quickly enough.
With one more second to mentally prepare. Carlos hopped down the slope and rushed the giant Grothlit as gunfire sounded from above and behind him.
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Li Hua was incensed. She staggered into the final room, fueled by pure, righteous anger and scathing hatred. The emotion had burned initially bright, but by now, she was running on fumes. At first, she had refused to use the walls for support, but by now, she was freely leaning her bleeding body on the craggy cave walls. Anything to help her get closer to her goal.
Her face was locked into a permanent snarl that refused to budge even as her broken fingernail scraped painfully against the rough stone. Her chic jacket was stained with coffee, and the skin underneath smarted from the burns the scalding hot coffee had inflicted on her.
That didn’t matter. Nothing mattered except getting out of here. She took another step, angrily pushing a strand of hair that had escaped her bun out of her face.
There it was. A portal. A portal displaying the bit of crosswalk she’d been in the middle of crossing not so long ago. The only thing that stood in her way was one final foe.
She raised a grimy finger and pointed imperiously at the hideous fiend. A beam of blinding white light arced out of her pointed finger and sliced off one of the waving appendages.
It charged her, but she held her ground. Her eyes narrowed dangerously as she raised both hands and burned twin holes into the creature's main mass with blinding white lasers. The holes looked up at her like eyes, but she didn’t care anymore.
She blasted the creature repeatedly until that dreaded ‘ding!’ sounded in her mind.
Exhaustion ate at her. It pulled at her limbs as if someone had strapped weights to her arms. She ached and looked at her status sheet, which revealed why. Her mana was dreadfully low. Not that it mattered now.
With staggering steps, Li Hua stumbled to the portal and fell through.