Sarah Scottsdale
Gideon slowly took in his surroundings, and formulated an idea of how to defeat the creature before him.
He had only the knife in his hand, and his quick reactions. However, would that be enough? Gideon began to doubt his dangerous plan, but he shook those thoughts away.
'The world is changing, I can't keep sitting here doubting myself, I need to take action!'
Gideon steeled his resolve, and bent down slowly. Grabbing the blanket that was on the ground, he kept his knife pointed towards the creature, preventing any sudden moves. There was then a voice behind him, as the window creaked open slightly.
"Don't do anything... Just slowly come out onto the balcony, we can escape and leave the city together..."
The girl's voice was filled with fear and uncertainty, that plucked at Gideon's heart strings, however he replied with the same resolve he just mustered.
"I'm not going to run... the world has changed, and if we don't we will only serve as food for everything else. If we kill things, we can become stronger, you should have seen the screens earlier. The future is up to you to decide."
With that, Gideon turned his full attention to the monster, and gripped his knife.
'Here goes nothing!'
With those famous final words, Gideon threw the blanket at the creature, making sure to spread it as wide as possible to obstruct the creature's vision. He then jumped over the bed, and stabbed the knife down with both hands.
The creature swung through the blanket, catching Gideon in the side, but not stopping him. His knife embedded itself into the creature's flesh, however it was a sickening mush that he stabbed into. No blood flowed out, it was simply like stabbing into a pile of compost... However the pain in his sides did not let him get distracted from his mission.
Pulling the knife out, he stabbed it back in with force again, and again he repeated his actions. It was not until the blanket was fully ripped to shreds, and the creature unmoving, that he stopped. Out of breath, and sweating from the nervousness he felt the whole time.
Falling back, Gideon leaned against the wall looking towards the girl climb through the window. She slowly walked around the bed, and peeped at the creature.
While she observed the creature, Gideon took a good look at the girl next door close up. She had beautiful long blonde hair, and clear blue eyes. Gideon admired her side profile, as she continued inspecting the creature, watching as a lock of hair fell down onto her face. Resisting the urge to fix it, Gideon was thankfully woken out of his trance by Bob, who was jumping and pointing at the corpse of the creature.
Following his pointing, Gideon saw a small glowing orb buried within the creature's chest. Gideon crawled over slowly, and pointed at the orb.
"Can you see this?" Gideon asked, looking at the girl.
"The body? I can see it."
"No, there is something glowing. Can you really not see it?"
"No... It must be because you killed it and I didn't. Anyways, I'm going to make something to eat, but can you throw that thing out the window?" she said as she stood up and walked towards the kitchen.
Gideon watched her walk, before turning his head away and picking up the orb.
[Pick a setting!]
[1. Gain a random skill.
2. Gain a random weapon.
3. Gain a random armor piece.]
'1.' Gideon thought to himself.
Gideon didn't have to think too hard about it, because he learned through the fight with the creature that he needed to strengthen himself. Weapons could make a difference, however he was willing to make do with what he has now until the next time he gets a setting.
As the orb slowly dissipated, seeping into Gideon's body, a prompt appeared before him.
[Universal Language Comprehension skill has been gained.]
'This... wasn't it kinda sh*t? Was he going to have to make a living as a translator... Wait, that wouldn't be that bad of an idea actually.'
Gideon felt a little better about his newly gained skill when he thought of how good it would be in areas other than combat. Or perhaps he could even understand monsters? Who knew. Only time would reveal his capabilities, but he suddenly remembered something.
'Why haven't I leveled up yet? Or why can't I see my status or anything? Is it perhaps not accessible like certain more hard-core games? If so how do I reach level 2?'
As Gideon had these thoughts, the girl came back over, placing a plate in front of him. It had two hotdogs on buns, and she was carrying a bottle of ketchup in her arms.
"Its nothing gourmet but I hope my appreciation can still be expressed nonetheless." she said as she smiled at Gideon.
He blushed slightly, and got up. Picking up the creature, that was surprisingly not heavy at all, he dumped its body out the window. After washing his hands he rejoined the girl who was watching TV on the edge of her bed.
She patted next to her, so Gideon awkwardly took a seat next to her with his plate of hotdogs.
"My name is Sarah Scottsdale by the way, I realized we had never introduced ourselves before. What's youe name?"
"My name is Gideon Linovol.. I just turned 18 this year. Um, has there been any news on the television?" Gideon asked, glancing at the TV. As much as he wanted to talk to Sarah, he was still nervous about the state of the world.
"Yeah, basically it's like an invasion of another dimension? The response from the government has been to spread out armed forces to major cities, and focus on creating a new organization to oversee the 'Players' who have potentially powerful abilities. It's not going to be functional for a while, so they've said that everyone should try their best to survive..."
I could see Sarah's anxiety start to rise, however I didn't know what to say that would make her feel better. I wasn't in a position of power so I could not say something heroic like 'I will protect you.' It would be the worst if I said those things and didn't have the power to protect her.
I did have something though: video game knowledge. I could help her get stronger.
"Sarah, what is your class? The one you chose when this all started?" Gideon changed the subject.
After a couple quiet sniffles, and wiping away some tears, Sarah finally responded.
"I chose the class [Priest], I thought it would be like the video games my boyfriend plays, where Priest's are like healers. However when I realized that they were extremely weak by themselves, I decided to stay inside until my boyfriend got here, however he called me a while after it all started and told me that he wasn't going to risk his life for me... So I just hid inside... Then I heard a knocking at my door and thought it was my boyfriend. When I opened the door I saw that creature, and that's when I ran to the balcony." After catching her breath, Sarah began to continue narrating. "Whether it was luck or not, the thing at the door actually ended up saving me, since there was another creature that appeared in my bathroom. It would have only been a matter of time before I fell asleep and that thing could have attacked me in my sleep... Then I saw you break into my apartment... Which was weird..."
With that, Sarah looked at me with an accusatory look, and became silent. Waiting for an explanation from me.
"I swear it wasn't what you're thinking! Look, this is Bob, he is something I received with my class and he told me to come here." With that, I picked up Bob out of my pocket, and placed him quietly on the table. He seemed to be sleeping, which was confusing because I had no idea what the heck he was and didn't know he even needed sleep.
"Mm..." replied Sarah, still skeptical but not having a good reason to continue pursue the subject after my reasonable explanation and Bob's appearance. "Well, either way thanks for killing the creature... Do you have family you're planning to regroup with?"
"Ah... No, my parents died a few years ago, and I don't have any other relatives..." Gideon said, looking away embarrassed. He had felt uncomfortable whenever people ask him about his family, because after telling them there is typically a look of pity that appears.
"Oh, I'm sorry if I brought up something unpleasant!" Sarah exclaimed.
"No! I mean, no its okay!" Gideon quickly said, hoping to avoid making it more awkward than it already was. "How about you? Do you have any family you're trying to meet up with?"
"Yeah, my parents and my older brother... They're about 40 minutes from here by car, so I don't know how we're gonna get there because I don't have a car.. Do you?" she asked, looking at me expectantly.
"Sigh... No... I ride the bus to work and back... But we can figure something out. How about we stay together for a while? Two is better than one right?" Gideon suggested. However he wasn't pure with his intentions... A priest was always highly sought after in games, because a healer was always important to reduce casualties, and are a necessity to push end game content.
It was definitely not because Gideon was simping over her... Definitely not... However he couldn't deny that he didn't feel happy that her boyfriend abandoned her to die.
Wait, was that messed up?
Gideon shook his head to clear those thoughts as Sarah finally responded.
"That... Would be okay. I don't know how much help I'll be but I appreciate your help." Sarah finally revealed a sweet smile, it was the first time she let go of her nerves since the end of the world started.
Gideon smiled, and stood up.
"Its late, I'll head back to my apartment and we can talk again in the morning." Gideon walked towards the door, and when he got closer to it he slowed his steps. Waiting for the cliché line: Wait! Don't go, why don't you stay the night here...
As he turned around, he noticed that Sarah was simply looking at him, confused.
"Ahem... If there is anything wrong, just knock hard on the wall, I'll wake up." Gideon said, scratching the back of his neck.
"Okay! Good night Gideon!" Sarah said, smiling.
Gideon simply smiled and left, closing the door dejectedly behind him.
"Sigh... I guess I'm not the main character of a harem fantasy. Whatever, let's head back and go to sleep."
When Gideon finished securing his apartment from intruders, he laid down and instantly fell asleep. The accumulated stress had finally worn him down, and when he finally relaxed he instantly gave in to drowsiness.