Jonas and Jason were shocked when at the entrance of the hotel dropped a helicopter and George told them to get inside. It was crazy to even imagine that this was a coincidence, but they were non the less happy to see them.

"Were you also attacked?"

George asked as they were flying, making the two remember their prior encounter with that monster.

"Is all this real?"

Jonas still couldn't believe what he had been through, it was simply insane to think that they had survived the encounter with that monster.

"I'm afraid that Nick was right, the system won't let us be, we're being hunted by these monsters and the helicopter only only has enough fuel for around an hour"

George informed them, making the two newest arrivals feel the pressure again, just moments ago they thought they were safe and now they were once again told that they were walking on thin ice.

It wasn't even an hour before they stopped to refuel, the monsters however didn't show up at all. It made one wonder if the system was as miraculous as they thought it was or if the monster attack was even caused by the system to begin with, which the NPCs immediately disputed, after all they didn't believe their world was fake for even a moment, for them this world was as real as it went and it was very probable that this was a parallel reality.

The question was why would Nick call them NPCs, it didn't make much sense if you thought about it and George deep inside also didn't register them as real, he wanted to believe they were, but he had read too many novels and his perception of them was inwardly leaning towards registering them as nothing more than NPCs.

"Is it safe to have him onboard?"

Jonas asked, pointing at Chris or what was left of him, as time passed he looked more and more like some sort of monster growling and howling as if all his sanity had long left him.

"You can leave the helicopter if you think you'll be safer out there"

Xiao taunted, causing Jonas to simply shut up. If he had to decide sitting next to a bound and restrained zombie and that beast from before he would prefer the first, it was less dangerous and his chances of dying were miniscule.

"I've brought the gas, should be enough to arrive at our next destination"

Alice said as she brought back a gasoline canister.

"Will it even fly on plain fuel?"

George asked, but to his question he saw everyone look at him as if he was a monkey in the zoo. Was he serious, did he think that the Red Empress would send them on a wild goose chase, while her host was dying.

Before long they were once more in the air, but nobody was content, because they had at last heard their destination and the plan. They were to capture a facility, produce the cure and then leave the facility with the cure and the cure was only useful in order to let Chris survive, it did nothing for them and of course they were disatisfied with the plan, but didn't dare to speak up against Rain and Alice, this deadly duo that could at any moment throw them out of the helicopter and leave them to fend for themselves.

While they were on their way, Nick was having the time of his life, trying to stay alive as he was besieged by monsters, his traps could take a few of them down, but he was running short on both ammo and hidding places, he had prepared so many places and yet only one last hidding place remained. In 3 days he had bought 7 hidding spots and 6 of them were turned into death traps, only leaving 1 for him to live in.

Now he was mentaly tired, he could have sworn he had gotten numb to this feeling and yet every time it's the same. Every mission he has to put in his best to survive, he didn't doubt one second that everyone else would die long before he would croak, but it was exhausting.

He was sure that he had escaped ad there was no way they could find his last hiding place, since this wasn't even house or a facility, he just hid in an alley without any way of communication, disguised as a homeless person.

Nobody would even associate the dirty looking beggar with the handsome man he was, he did everything in his powers to blend with the scenary, using a trash bin he himself bought and placed as his hidden stash of weapons and food.

As for why it wasn't looted by homeless beggars, because it was placed in a really awkward place, far away from any populated area, it was a really awkward place to live, but he was sure he wouldn't be found.

As he was sitting in a spot with his hand extended in the most stereotypical way possible. He was shocked that a child approached him, in all his missions, in all the times he had used this strat nobody would even look at him. The child took out a few pennies and put them in his hand, waiting for some sort of blessing or thanks, but its good gesture was followed by nothing other than silence.

The child could feel a weird chill down its spine as it left dissatisfied from the spot. It was really irritating to feel unapreciated when you do a good thing, but the dirty old man felt off.

If they lived in a fake society he would have went immediately to the police, but everybody knows about the kid that cried wolf, nobody believes a child, unless there's some sort of evidence and telling a cop that there's something wrong with a homeless person, wouldn't go well even in a fantasy world.

"I told you Jerry would do it, he's not a chicken!"

Not far away, the kid's friends who were watching the show were really lively, this was of course a truth or dare and the kid had won.

"Guys, there's something really wrong with that guy, I think he's a wanted criminal, trying to hide from the police"

Jerry said and the other kids were excited, even thinking of that being a possibility made them piss themselves from joy.

"That would be good, but you know adults, they're always weird, he's probably some ex-convict that was released from prison and has nowhere to go"

Another kid said, his words made some sense, but as they were all kids, tons of conjectures and stories begun to appear one after the other, until the kids were, bored of guessing and decided to leave.

It was then they were leaving that they saw a black truck arriving and stoping at a nearby construction site, not too far from the beggar's location. They were shocked to see monsters coming out of the truck, now it was that nobody would believe them, even if they said it was real.

The kids were curious and begun to spy on these creatures from afar, the creatures were fast, but they couldn't escape the children's excellent sight.

Before long they arrived back at the spot where the beggar was, only to see the beggar, guns blazing and a machete in his other hand, dispatching the monsters as if they were chicken.

"Not again! My disguise was perfect, what could have given me away?"

Nick asked as he begun to throw away the disguise and took his new outfit out of his trash bin, together with a sack voyage and begun to change. Leaving the children godsmacked, it was insane to even think that the beggar in reality was a super hero, fighting monsters to save earth. Tons of stories like that begun circulating around the youth of the city, making the adults laugh and the children wondered whether there were alien monsters trying to take over their world, even the police were working to hide it.

If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

As Nick was about to escape, it was those very local children that approached him and asked him if he needed help. Nick had an evil smirk on his face as he agreed to follow them. He had no idea where they were leading him, but he was out of options anyways, he could as well take his chances, at worst he would have to silence them or the monsters would do that for him, either way.

Jerry was the lucky kid to lead the super hero to his house, he was really excited and the other kids were envious of him. they knew that their parents would never let them invite a grown man into their house, but Jerry's parents were never home and his elder sister always brought guys home, so he didn't see a problem in bringing a guy home himself.

Jerry's dog begun to bark as it saw Nick whom was following behind him, but it didn't take long for Jerry to calm the dog down.

"Roger doesn't bite, he's the best dog in the world, it's a she, but we named it Roger and just kept with it"

Jerry explained, causing Nick to just Yawn.

"Jerry why are you so late! Mom won't be happy! the whole world is going crazy, there's even words of a curfew being imposed, after what happened at the hospital in X city?"

A female voice came from inside and a young teenage girl, in just her bra, leaned out of the window, but once she saw Nick, she became red faced and went back inside.

"Jerry, who's that guy, is he your teacher? what did you do again?"

She sounded angry, but there was a coyness in her voice, making it seem as if she cared about him. In reality however she was shocked because of how good Nick looked, he was really handsome and even with the disguise on, one could tell that he was A tier material.

"He's not my teacher, you won't believe it Jessy!"

Jerry was really excited as he opend the door and let Nick in, while his sister was trying her best to apply makeup and other cosmetics to make herself look more presentable for the total bloke her little brother brought with him.

"Jerry, mom will not be happy with you bringing a stranger home"

Jessy said, but her heart was still pounding, because the guy could be said to rival hollywood stars in appearance.

"I'll go talk to her"

Nick said to the kid as he took his stuff and went towards her room, judging just from where her voice was coming from on the second floor.

Jessy was scared shitless when the guy burged into her room, what followed could only be heard by Jerry whom was really irritated about it, it was no different than the sounds that came when all the other guys she invited came, just her moans, until it was time for them to make an escape out of the back window of her room.

Inside however the girl was crying, when Nick came inside, he pointed his gun at her, unlike Jerry she wasn't a kid, she knew that he could kill her with a single press of the trigger. He then forced her to do things, he made her his little pet and told her that if she tried anything funny, he would kill her entire family as he begun to trap her window with explosives.

It was always easier to just threaten people instead of trying to explain to them the existence of monsters, which most people wouldn't believe either way. After making sure that the window was trapped he cut their telephone line, it didn't need to work in order for him to feel safer, but Jessy seeing this was now desperate, she was sure that this guy was up to no good as she panted exhausted on the bed, unsure if she would be able to walk, he was too rough with her, seeing however his face and well built body she would have forgiven him, if he said "I love you" once.

Nick got ready again and begun to ocupy her room, she was even more shocked to see all the money in his sack, it was an insane amount for her, it wasn't full of money, but the stacks she saw were more than enough to live for years. Making him even more mysterious, she couldn't tell why, but the danger excited her, it was as if she was in some sort of movie, just where did her brother find this guy?

Nick was really tired, but he made sure he at least had one room ready for when the monsters arrived again. He'd been on the run for hours, he was sure that everyone else other than Chris were probably dead by now, it's been 16 hours since the survival objective was anounced, there were only 8 hours to go.

After securing the hallway ouside her door, making sure the window was trapped, he came down. Jerry down playing a game on his game console, Nick looked at the screen and laughed as he went around the house, making sure that it was secured.

Jessy came out of his room holding one of his guns, not knowing that it had no ammo inside. It was the biggest gun she could find in his arsenal, it was a grenade launcher, of course she didn't load any grenades inside, knowing nothing about guns like at all.

Nick was preoccupied, when Jerry came to bother him.

"There's a girl inside the TV that wants to talk to you"

Jerry said, making Nick rather irriated, but he non the less decided to go see what this was about, Jessy was also confused with this sentence and forgot to even point the gun at him and threaten.

"Not you again"

Nick said as he saw the Red Empress on the screen of the TV, probably hacked it somehow. The others however were confused as the weird red face of a girl begun to speak to him, causing both of the NPCs to go be shocked.

"Is there a way to complete the mission sooner than the set time?"

The Red Empress got right to the point, since only Nick knew more about the missions, she just had to locate him and ask him.

"Impossible, all timers are set by the system, the mission will be over in around 8 hours, not a moment more or less"

Nick explained, not even caring about carrying favour with her, all he cared about was to end the chit chat sooner and get back to fortifying the house.

"What happens if he turns into a zombie and the mission ends?"

The Red Empress asked next, Nick thought about it a little and then remembered something at the back of his head. It was during one of their past missions, a person was bitten by a werewolf and had turned into a really insane monster, they tried to kill it, but since it wasn't part of the mission's objectives, they forgot all about them, until the mission ended. They were shocked to find that not only was the person alive when they succeeded, but she had even gained extra points for being turned into a werewolf.

"If we succeed, he's live, if we fail he dies"

Nick said, but the Red Empress didn't seem at all happy with what he told her, nor were Alice and the others who heard the answer at the other end. If they knew this info, it could have saved them a lot of time and effort, Alice and the others had successfuly raided a hidden umbrella facility and made more of the cure, only to discover that the virus had mutated inside of Chris, thus making it impossible to keep him "alive" for much longer. Making more of the cure was pointless, since the virus had mutated, it was unfortunate, but it was so.

"Last question, if there's a way to revert them back into humans, why didn't you tell us so before?"

The Empress asked, mostly because the others wanted to know.

"Normaly if a player turns into a monster, it's always better to get rid of them, veteran players are more dangerous than you think, these greenhorns I don't care, but if it was a veteran I would kill them no matter what, unless you need gold or diamond bullets to kill them"

He said jokingly, but was interupted by the kid.

"It's silver bullets"

Jerry corrected him, but it didn't make this any more awkward. Before however the Red Empress decided to disappear she had a last bit to say.

"You've a transmitter in your hair, you should get rid of it"

Nick was shocked to hear that there was a transmitter on his person, he cursed as he went to take a shower immediately, causing the others to stand there looking at the TV, where Jerry's game was resumed, causing him to lose.

"Who is that guy?"

Jessy finaly asked her brother, still holding the grenade launcher, but forgetting all about it.

"A super hero"

Jerry answered without a hint of doubt.

Back at the captured umbrella facility, the group was frantic after learning that all they had to do was protect the four living humans and Chris would survive as well. Alice and Rain weren't sure why they were doing this, but they did want to help Chris return home safe and this was the only way they could help him.

There was only 8 hours left on the clock and they would make sure this mission was a success, even if the monsters came as if there was no tomorrow.