Life's a Beach

| Monday, April 1st, 2019 (2:33 PM) |

Before Rem could get home, droplets of rain began to fall.

'Oh, great. At least it's not—'

*Boom!

The sound of thunder could be heard. The sky became darker as the clouds turned gray in a mere second.

*Whoosh!

The rain started pouring down.

Rem was now drenched. It was as if a bucket of water was suddenly thrown at her.

"...Life's a beach." Rem sighed in disbelief.

Rem cursed mother nature and ran as fast as she could towards her apartment.

As she ran, she saw a huge beam of red light in the distance.

'What is that...?' Rem squinted her eyes, stopping in her tracks.

In the distance, she could see a few more beams of red light appear.

'What's up with today?' Confused yet curious about what these beams of light were, Rem decided to run towards the beam of light that was the closest to her.

When she arrived near one of the beams of red light, Rem noticed a crowd of people surrounding it. She managed to get past the crowd to get a better look.

'Is this some kind of prank? How did they manage to make the red light reach the sky??? Is that even possible...?' All of this didn't make sense to Rem.

Her thoughts were interrupted when the beam of light, including all the other beams, began to disappear.

*Whoosh...!

All of a sudden, there was an extremely bright flash of red light, causing everyone to cover their eyes.

'What's going on? Where's the science in this??!'

A few seconds later, the bright red light disappeared. Replacing what was once a beam of red light is a large, crimson portal.

"What's happening?????"

"I've seen this in a manga before!"

"Hey, is this real?"

"I'm going to take a video of this! I bet I'll get millions of views!!!"

"Am I dreaming...?"

Rem heard the people within the crowd say.

'A portal?' Rem tilted her head slightly to one side in confusion.

Someone from the crowd tried touching the portal, but nothing happened. Everyone else was just as confused as Rem was.

*Bzzz!

'What's that noise?' Rem became wary and looked around her surroundings.

'There's nothing... Did I hear wrong?' Rem questioned herself.

*BZZZ!!!

'No… The noise is coming from the portal!' Rem covered her ears in response to the loud buzzing noise.

It was indeed a very unpleasant sound to one's ears.

'Is it just me or are there spirals appearing in the portal…?' Rem stared at the portal for a few seconds, ignoring the loud chattering of those around her.

'I have a bad feeling about this...!' Rem backed away from the portal.

The portal was giving off an… ominous feeling.

Suddenly, the portal began to become larger and larger. Strange creatures of all sizes began to come out of the red portal.

"AHHHHHHHHH!" A woman screamed as one of the creatures ripped her arm off mercilessly.

Rem could hear screams everywhere. Everyone ran for their lives while Rem was frozen, traumatized by what she's seeing.

'I-I have to get out of here, fast! C'mon...! Move, move, MOVE!!!' Rem yelled in her head.

Everyone was in a panic.

After a few seconds, Rem finally got her legs to move how she wanted them to. Though, they were slightly trembling. She was terrified. Who wouldn't be after seeing people get eaten alive?

(A/N: Imagine titans from Attack on Titan feasting on everyone they see… Just thinking about it makes me get goosebumps! GahhhhHHHHHHH!!!)

There were creatures of all shapes and sizes. Some could fly while others could climb buildings. Some were fast while others were slow. Although all the monsters were different in their ways, they all had one thing in common.

They're all DANGEROUS.

*GuRgLe!!!

The sound was close to Rem. She quickly turned around, seeing a large, green slime-like creature.

The gooey icky slime attacked Rem by throwing a green substance at her. Thankfully, the slime was pretty slow, so Rem managed to dodge most of its attacks. However, a little of the green substance got on her pants.

The substance melted the bottom of her pants.

Rem threw all her notebooks at the slime creature. She wore her empty backpack and broke into a run. She ran towards her apartment with all her might as if her life depended on it. Well, her life did depend on it.

Thankfully, Rem didn't encounter any monsters on her way there.

Rem proceeded to the rooftop. The apartment Rem lived has 7 floors. It was tall enough for Rem to have a clear glance at several parts of the city.

Rem didn't even realize that the Moon was out until now.

'How's the Moon out even though it's the afternoon???' Rem sighed, not wanting to fry her brain from overthinking.

Nothing made sense. Based on everything that happened today, she inferred that there's no point in wasting her time trying to apply science to this.

The sky was dark, and the clouds were grey. The rain was bloody red, just like the Moon. Everything looked red in Rem's eyes.

'It's probably the rain.' Rem thought.

On the rooftop, Rem could see all kinds of creatures. They were taking over and causing chaos in the city. The city was now in havoc thanks to that. To make it worse, the monsters that are coming out of the portals didn't seem like it was going to stop anytime soon.

'Tell me this is just a bad dream...!' Rem pleaded.

She then pinched her right cheek.

'Sh*t!' Rem cursed.

She understood clearly that this wasn't a dream. It was all...

REAL.

(A/N: Reminded me of cake or fake for some reason lol.)

'I'm too young to die!!!' Rem yelled in her head.

After all, she didn't want to attract the attention of any monsters.

*Ding!

'Huh...?'

A blue screen appeared in front of Rem. There was a message on the screen.

[Congratulations, you're now a Player!]

"A… Player…?" Rem stared at the screen in confusion.

'What is this, a game? This is absurd...' Rem shook her head.

The message disappeared along with the blue screen. At the bottom right of her vision, Rem could see a menu button.

'If this is like a game, I can at least know the basics.' Rem thought, pressing the menu button.

A blue screen appeared in front of Rem.

<Menu>

[Status]

[Inventory]

'Maybe there's something in my inventory that could help me.' Rem pressed the inventory button.

<Inventory>

[You have nothing in your inventory!]

'Okay… I guess not.' Rem sighed for who knows how many times she sighed already today, went back to her menu screen, and pressed the status button.

<Status>

[Name: Rem]

[Race: Human]

[Jobs: Mage (x5 More INT), Swordsman (x5 more VIT/STR)]

[Title: Player (x2 More EXP)]

[Level: 1]

[HP: 500/500]

[MP: 500/500]

[VIT: 5]

[INT: 5]

[STR: 8]

[AGI: 12]

[DEX: 19]

[DEF: 37]

[Skill(s): N/A]

[Hidden Abilities: Eye Of Truth (C), Creation Magic (C)]

[Elements: Electric (Tier 1), Wind (Tier 1)]

'I don't have any skills??!' Rem sighed.

As she said before, life's a beach. Life's always a beach. Nothing can change that fact.

'Skills are essential in a game. If I don't have any skills, I'll have to depend on magic to kill those monsters. If I imagine a ball of wind in my hands, would it really appear?' Rem closed her status screen and imagined a ball of wind in her right hand.

Right after imagining it, a ball of wind indeed did appear in her right hand.

'Good to know that it works.' Rem sighed in relief.

She didn't want to test her electric abilities since it was raining at the moment. Who would want to get electrocuted?

'Come to think of it... This was exactly what happened in the game my parents left me. I don't think the game's completed yet, but I did play most of it.' Rem tried to think of what the game was called.

'...I believe that game was called Nemmonis Online. I played the game a long time ago. Probably a few years back. What happened after this…?' Rem pondered for a while in the rain.

'Let's start at the beginning.' Rem thought as she tried to puzzle everything together.

'I'm pretty sure the game started by showing me a clip of portals appearing everywhere on Earth. Creatures came out from these portals. The whole game was about killing monsters, surviving, exploring, and getting stronger. I remember reaching max level, which was level 100. I also defeated the Demon King, and then, I... I don't remember what happened next. I think the game ended just like that.' Rem's brows furrowed.

'If I can, I'll try to find the game again—'

*Clang, clang, clang, CLANG!

Fast, loud, metal noises got louder and louder.

Rem looked down, only to see a humongous monster that resembled that of a wolf. It was probably four times the size of an adult wolf.

'Sh*t!' Rem tried not to panic and backed away from the edge of the building.

She began gathering a giant ball of wind in her right hand.

*BANG!

The wolf-like monster got on the rooftop of the building.

*GrOwL!

The monster pounced at Rem. Rem dodged to the left side and threw the giant ball of wind at the monster.

Unfortunately, this didn't harm the monster much. It only caused the monster's side to bleed. The wolf-like monster growled, scratching Rem's left arm with its claws.

Rem ignored her bleeding arm and ran to the door. The rooftop floor was covered in rain that looked like blood. Rem took a risk and threw a ball of electricity at the floor, slamming the door shut behind her.

*GRARRRRRRRR!!!!!

She heard the monster scream.

*Ding!

[You have leveled up!]

*Ding!

[You have leveled up!]

*Ding!

[You have leveled up!]

*Ding!

[You have leveled up!]

*Ding!

[You have leveled up!]

*Ding!

[You have leveled up!]

*Ding!

[You have leveled up!]

*Ding!

[You have leveled up!]

*Ding!

[You have leveled up!]

*Ding!

[You have leveled up!]

A bunch of dinging noises filled her ears along with ten blue screens with the same message.

Rem couldn't see the messages clearly. She collapsed onto the floor as black dots began to appear, making Rem lose consciousness.