[WOULD YOU LIKE TO PLACE THESE ITEMS INTO YOUR INVENTORY?]

“What? Yeah, sure.”

As I watched, the seven remaining cubes of Starsteel disappeared in a dull flash of light. I looked around quickly and searched my pockets for the cubes.

[ITEMS ADDED TO INVENTORY: 7 STARSTEEL]

I paused and thought about it for a second. The Starsteel was moved to my [Inventory], which probably functioned like the inventory of a video game. The items were no longer on my body, but I was sure I could reclaim them through my [Menu].

Deciding that I was ready to return to the campus and face whatever threats were present there, I sprinted back to my car. After brushing the shattered glass off my seat, I sat down and started the car once more. Despite its advanced age, my 2007 Honda Accord started without any issues. The air conditioner didn’t work and the bumper was dented from a recent fender-bender, but it was incredibly reliable.

I took my sedan back onto the highway and glanced at my character sheet out of the corner of my eye.

Name: None

Class: Eldritch Alchemist

Level: 1

MDC: 20/20

SDC: 12/12

Body: 12

Mind: 16

[WOULD YOU LIKE TO SET YOUR NAME?]

Without thinking about it too hard, I said the first name that popped into my head. “Vinzadir.”

Name: Vinzadir

Name Vinzadir Class Eldritch Alchemist Level 1 MDC 20/20 SDC 12/12 Body 12 Mind 16

As I drove back toward central Chapel Hill, the scenes of carnage around me were not heartening. Within minutes, I passed by the flaming wreckage of several damaged cars. I had to slow down to 20 mph as I navigated around the destroyed vehicles. Based on the tire patterns and thoroughness of the damage, I could tell that they were destroyed with some kind of weapon. No collision would cause a car to crumple like tissue paper and explode in a fireball.

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With one hand still on the wheel, I opened my campaign group’s Discord server and checked for any messages that had been posted in the past few minutes. A few new messages had been posted while I was in the forest with the crashed ship, and I read them with great interest.

[Vin98: Something is going to happen at 11:00 A.M. Arm yourself with whatever you can find. Your lives are in danger.] 10:42

[Elizabeth/Elstine: What the hell was that, Vincent! This had better not be a prank.] 10:55

[Carlos/Slader: Not a prank Liz. You seeing this?] 11:05

[Elizabeth/Elstine: Yes? Unless we’ve all gone crazy. It keeps telling me to choose a class. It says there will be a “conflict” in ten minutes.] 11:08

[Carlos/Slader: You might want to choose quickly. Vincent was right, something is happening. YouTube is filled with videos of people being attacked by demons and orcs.] 11:10

[Carlos/Slader: The recording from the ISS shows a massive meteor shower over the entire world right now. Here’s the link. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xRPjKQtRXR8] 11:12

That was the last message sent on the Discord. I checked the time on my phone and saw that it was already 11:18. No one had sent a message in six minutes, and I feared for the worst. Not paying attention to the road, I wrote a message.

[Vin98: Are you guys okay?] 11:18

After a few seconds of not getting an answer, I clicked on the link sent by Carlos. Immediately, I was brought to a 24-hour livestream of the International Space Station. As Carlos said, hundreds of bright asteroid trails streamed through the atmosphere. Many of them crashed into the ground, causing massive plumes of smoke to rise up, and others crashed into the water, causing large waves to rise.

I barely noticed those meteors, however, because the screen was dominated by a single object falling down to Earth. Over the Atlantic Ocean, a metal object the size of a small continent was descending to the planet below. The top of the object resembled a landmass, though the bottom seemed closer to a gargantuan spaceship.

My heart dropped as I realized everyone on the planet was doomed. An asteroid the size of a city was big enough to wipe out the dinosaurs. That thing falling down to Earth would be enough to vaporize everyone on the surface of the planet instantly.

Perhaps that was the purpose of Mega Damage, I thought. With my Shield Generator, I could probably survive such an Earth-shattering blast. Even if I survived the explosion, however, such a collision would completely tear apart the atmosphere. I would be left in a vacuum without hope for survival.

Looking at the continental starship, I realized something. I had seen it before. No, I hadn’t seen it. Epsilon had, and the memories I saw when our minds connected featured such an object. I remembered vague references to a humanoid species afflicted with albinism. The elders hated that race the most. Was “race” the right word there? I couldn’t be sure, because the symbolic representation of meaning used in Epsilon’s memories didn’t perfectly translate over to English. The word “tribe” could also be used, but “species” would be incorrect. All of the lesser beings were from the same species.

There were several other races that flitted to the surface when I recalled the first: one with horns, one with pointed ears, and one with an unnatural pigmentation. They all spent their adolescence on different planets, but they were still the same species.

Now, they were coming to the blue marble, fleeing from the great elders in the sky. Those lesser beings thought that they could find a new ally in the hirsute round-eared denizens of Earth. The fools.

The battery pack of my Laser Pistol hummed quietly as I flipped off the safety and pressed the barrel to my head.

“Stay out of my mind!” I screamed. “I don’t care how subtle you are! I won’t allow you to interfere with my thoughts!”