Maria stood by a window in the lobby area talking to someone through her phone.

“You need to help me out of here, these monsters are crawling at the ground floor. I’ve got no way out of here,” said Maria.

“There’s bad news and also good news, so which one do you want to hear first?”

“Quit playing games and cough it up, I’ve got no time for games,” the frown on her face was enough to tell what she felt.

“...”

The caller fell silent. Maria didn’t expect him to respond like that. She grew nervous seeing there was no response.

“Hey, sorry about that, I-” her words cut off as the caller spoke back.

“Maria, the Pentagon is sending in the bombers.”

That one line alone left her speechless with her jaw wide open.

It took her a while to snapped out of it.

“Don’t joke around. They're still people in the city, are you telling me the government is abandoning New York City? It had only been a single night, and the whole damn government already gave up on us?”

Maria burst into a fit of anger and the victim was none other than the caller at the other side.

“Maria, me and the guys had abandoned Fort Hamilton. Right now, we’re holding off at Outerbridge Crossing.”

The caller paused for a while and continued.

“I’m not going to lie, the situation is pretty bad. We’re not going to be able to take back the city.”

His solemn voice intensified Maria’s frustration. She was at the brink of giving up as she knew the implication of not getting any aid.

“What about the military? I’m sure they can-” the caller cut her off as he said.

“What left of the police force at Fort Hamilton have joined up with the military. We’re taking refuge under their care.”

His words only dug Maria’s frustration deeper.

“I’m sorry Maria, but we can’t do a single thing to those monsters. Every bullet we throw at them did nothing, even explosives are like fire-crackers to them,” said the caller.

Then Maria realized something. Something only she and another person had experienced. The memories were still vivid in her mind.

“The eyes,” said Maria as the tone of her voice raised up.

“What?”

“You need to shoot them in the eyes,” said Maria.

She remembered how Jason killed those two creatures and she didn’t forget how he did it. A stab right in the eye of the silver raptor and shooting at point-blank range at the gouged-out eye of the ebony pterodactyl.

It was hard to believe seeing how someone she knew deeply acted out like that. It made her think of how much he had changed.

“What do you mean?” the caller was confused. Her words didn't make any sense to him.

“It’s for the damn monsters. You need to shoot it through the eye to kill it off,” her tone was raised up by a notch. She knew her words are hard to believe considering the situation they were in. But she didn’t lie.

She saw it with her own two eyes. The act of a man who was neither police or a soldier, killing off those freakish monsters like no one else could do.

There was a long silence as the caller had a hard time believing it. Even though Maria is his partner, he still had his doubts.

“Let’s put that aside for now,” his words irked Maria and she was about to burst her lid.

“What-” before she could even say anything else, he interfered.

“Listen up, you’ve got a window of opportunity here. Those bombers won’t be sending any explosive not until someone gets out of the city.”

“and what’s that supposed to do with me? Do you think I can use that time to run away from this hotel? are you out of your mind?” Maria was complaining hard at this partner of hers.

“Well, you’re in luck. The son and daughter of Rawlings conglomerate are staying at your hotel. I’ve heard the military is sending a rescue team at the hotel rooftop by this evening,” his words made her heart thump louder.

A smile couldn’t escape from her face as this news was the only path for her survival.

“Be there and get in the chopper,” his words were cut off as Maria could hear a loud voice through the phone.

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“Hey, I got to go. Be sure to get on the chopper, bye.”

In a split second, the call ended. Maria didn’t have time to thank him but knowing this piece of information was enough.

“I need to tell Jason,” said Maria. She paused and fell in deep thought, surprised by what she just said.

The first thing that ran through her mind after hearing the good news was the thought of that man.

Her ex.

“No, I’m not going through this again,” she shook her head side to side.

“I’m just doing my job. I need to protect the people,” she tried hard to convince herself.

After taking a deep breath she prepared to step out of the room. The door handle turned and as she stepped out, a person stood in front of her.

She took a few steps back surprised by the sudden appearance of this woman.

“Please,” Gina stared desperately at Maria.

“Can I use your phone?” she asked.

Maria was speechless for a while, as she didn’t expect to see Gina. Yet before she can answer to Gina, Jason appeared walking behind Gina.

She walked passed Gina and went straight to Jason.

“We need to talk,” said Maria.

She grabbed Jason by the arm and dragged him into a room. Her hand was quick as she locked the door to the room. A few seconds later, a banging noise came from the outside.

“Hey,” it was Gina. She kept on knocking making a scene outside of the room.

Maria gave him the eye hinting at Jason’s noisy cousin.

Jason turned the knob opened and opened the door.

He only showed a glimpse of his face.

“Gina, give us a minute here,” said Jason.

“But-” before Gina could say anything else, the door was shut closed in front of her.

Both Maria and Jason could hear the loud stomping footsteps of Gina going away.

“Your cousin definitely got an attitude,” said Maria.

“She’s family, I don't have a choice,” he paused taking a glance at her.

“So, why dragging me here?” Jason replied.

“A helicopter is coming this evening. That’s the only choice we have to escape, before…” she fell silent before she could finish her words.

Jason could sense something was up.

“Before what?”

“Nothing,” she replied. She tried to feign ignorance but Jason wasn’t an idiot.

He knew when she was lying.

Jason stood there thinking about what was possible. Then something bad just flashed inside his head.

His eyes turned wide open after having that thought. The possibility of that thing happening was too much for him to just let it be.

His hands grabbed on to both of Maria’s shoulders.

“Is it the bombing?” he sounds agitated.

She averted her eyes away from Jason. Her light nod affirmed the worst possible outcome.

In an instant, his forehead was sweating buckets. The thought of being bombed from the sky was definitely not within his plan. He knew even with the game-like system, he wouldn’t survive being bombed at.

“Then we got to move,” Jason was quick in his action as he left the room.

Maria followed from behind.

From a distance, Gina saw these two came out from the room. She was about to ask for Maria’s phone but Jason already grabbed her by the arm.

“Let’s go. We can’t waste any more time,” said Jason.

Gina couldn’t say anything as she saw the look on Jason’s face.

They were about to arrive at the room where Eugene and her parents were staying but something else was happening.

Loud noises came from the elevator area.

“What is that noise?” asked Gina.

Jason’s eyes narrowed, he glanced at Maria.

“Take Gina and those inside the room. Use the staircase at the other end,” said Jason.

“Jason, what are you going to do?” she wasn't pleased hearing those words.

“Just do it. Go now, I’ll catch up later,” said Jason.

“No, I’m staying with you. You need all the help you can,” said Maria as she showed off the gun in her hand.

“Don’t be ridiculous. You know how useless that thing is. Just go and bring them to the rooftop,” Jason fired back at her and left without looking back.

Maria gnashed her teeth as she knew Jason spoke the truth.

“Let’s go,” said Maria as she glanced at Gina.

==

Jason walked closer to the elevator area. His steps were slow and careful. Trying not to make a sound. He took cover behind the wall as he peeks towards the elevator area.

He snooped down the moment he saw something.

Shit. Where the heck did these things came from?

His eyes didn’t leave the elevator area particularly in front of the staircase door.

Something was eating the fresh corpse of a human.

A velociraptor? But I think it looks much smaller than in the movies.

From sight alone, the thing he saw looks like a velociraptor but the size was definitely at the smaller side. Comparable to the height of an average Doberman.

I think I can take it on.

For some reason, he had the confidence to fight against this miniature size velociraptor. After going against a few large monstrous beasts, his experience made him pretty bold at the moment. He didn’t even realize that the mini-velociraptor just killed an adult man.

His grip tightened around the belt hilt. His heartbeat went faster as his eyes maintained upon the sight of the mini-velociraptor.

Let’s do this.

The moment he fully exhaled his breath, he sprinted with his eyes on the target.

Three points to agility.

A simple whim of his own thought and within an instant, his speed accelerated like never before.

He was about to close the distance but mini-velociraptor noticed his sudden ambush. Its head raised up high looking at the incoming Jason. The mini-velociraptor released a sound within the air before it pounced at the incoming human.

It felt no fear against Jason as within its instinct, humans are merely food. A single pounce from the mini-velociraptor and the distance between them came closer to a meter.

Shit, it’s fast.

He didn’t expect the mini-velociraptor to be this agile. Yet the moment the distance narrowed down, his arm swung at the incoming mini-velociraptor.

A horizontal sword swing coming from the side.

Die.

Thought Jason but something else happened contrary to his expectation.

Shit.

The blade missed its target as the mini-velociraptor ducked down at the last second. What came next was a butt load of pain.

Mouth wide opened, and both his feet raised from the floor. He definitely didn’t expect this to happen. The mini-velociraptor exploded in its speed and headbutt Jason right at the pit of his stomach.

He spouted a mouthful of blood as the damage was immense. Jason was about to blackout from that single attack but kept his conscience as he grit his teeth.

Staring down at the sight of the head of this mini-velociraptor, rather than fear, he felt an immense amount of anger. Rather than running away, he did what he does best.

His arms lock across the neck of the mini-velociraptor with no intention of letting go. The mini-velociraptor struggled as it tried to break free from the headlock. At close proximity, its claws ravaged across Jason’s body. But it wasn’t the only one attacking.

Bearing the pain, Jason stabbed the mini-velociraptor multiple times with the blade horn in his hand.

“Argh,” he yelled.

Different from the katana he bought from an online store. The blade horn pierced deep within the small body of the mini-velociraptor without a problem. Both battled it out with blood pooling underneath them.

From afar, a woman saw the scene as blood kept spouting like a fountain from these two bodies. She was one of the lucky ones that managed to escape from downstairs just a while ago.

Then, the last stab right across the body of the mini-velociraptor.

Jason stared at the mini-velociraptor as he mumbled a word.

“Die.”

The mini-velociraptor went limped as its body fell on the floor. Yet the winner doesn’t seem like the winner. Jason looked down and saw huge claw marks riddled across his body with blood pouring out from those wounds like an open tap.

A new blue window appeared but his attention was somewhere else.

“Ah, shit.”

His knees grew weak as both dropped on the pool of blood. His vision started to blacken out but it wasn’t time for him to drop dead.

The left hand touched his torso as he mumbled.

“Minor Heal+.”

Greenlight engulfed his whole torso. A second later those wounds started to close and heal. But a single time wasn’t enough.

With no EP left, Jason was crawling back to death’s door.

Three points to energy.

At the brink of death, he relied upon these unused points.

“Minor Heal+, Minor Heal+, Minor Heal+,” three times he spoke the same words.

The result, his whole body was engulfed in bright green light.

A blue window appeared during the whole healing process as it only gave Jason good news.

Minor Heal+ level up to level 3

His whole body was recovering at a rapid pace. As the light dies down, it revealed Jason’s body in his tattered bloody cloth. Rather than riddled with wounds, his whole body was fully healed.

Jason regained his composure as he stood up once more.

“Fuh, that was close,” said Jason.

But before he could enjoy his survival, a scream came from across the lobby. His eyes glanced at a woman who was hiding underneath the receptionist's desk as she was terrified by the thing in front of her.

“More of them?” said Jason as another mini-velociraptor appeared.

The mini-velociraptor who was scaring the poor woman let out a familiar sound in the air and a few seconds later, more of those mini-velociraptors appeared out of nowhere gathering in front of the elevator area.

Then these mini-velociraptors kept on releasing these sounds as if communicating with one another. Then one of them noticed the dead corpse of its brethren. It let out a cry catching the attention of the rest of the whole pack.

Jason gulped down a mouthful of his saliva as he saw the whole pack staring at him. He knew the situation doesn’t look good. He didn’t even pay attention to the woman under the desk as she was being mauled by a few of those mini-velociraptors.

The only thing that was going across his mind was only one thing.

Run.