1.01 I’m Not The Hero

Chapter 1

The start of the Apocalypse is never as simple and straight forward as people seem to think it is. There’s no fireworks, no call over the phone letting you know the entire world was changing, and certainly no big explosions.

Though, those last two things did happen, to some degree.

I’d love to consider myself smart and open minded. And yet…

If anyone had told me that portals would open up across the world and that these portals were connected to magical dungeons filled with deadly monsters, I would call them crazy. If they said they also contained not only monsters, but also granted special powers, classes like in video games, magical items, and stats, I’d tell them to screw off.

But that’s how it happened.

Barely a day into the shitshow since the first portals appeared, I found myself fighting for my life. I watched my friends die all around me, even as people who claimed to be our protectors floundered. Those weaklings could barely save themselves, so I took them out at the first opportunity, confident in my ability to survive without the dead weight.

Despite my rather janky start, I clawed my way to the top and cemented my position as #1 on the global system leaderboards. Killing those useless fucks didn’t turn out so badly for me in the end.

So, I imagine you are curious about how I managed that on my own. Well, I’m going to tell you everything, and I’ll even tell you the truth of it.

Eh, maybe not the truth in the way you’d like to think of it, because I might not be able to resist embellishing for the sake of dramaticism, if just a little bit. That’s why you are reading this anyway, right? For the drama.

Therefore, yes, I won’t lie to you.

Let’s get something straight right out of the gate. I’m not the Hero. I killed Barry Schilling. I eradicated the entire Saints Guild. That day in Detroit, I killed that kid. And, by the end, I was responsible for the death of two million people.

Why I did those things is a bit of a tough question. And I’ll answer that eventually.

Yet, I can say that I had some very good reasons. You might not agree with them all, hell, you still might think I am a psychotic lunatic who deserves the electric chair (as if that would kill me at this point anyway) let alone be looked at with any fucking iota of understanding or sympathized with by anyone. But that’s what I ask that you do anyway.

Go ahead, damn me to hell, or wish for my slow and torturous death. Spit on my corpse, do whatever you need to do, I don’t care. But, with the power invested in me by every bit of cheese locked inside those Missouri caves, you’ll make it to the end of my story.

So let’s get into it, shall we?

April 12th, 2088, 8 hours after the start of the Apocalypse.

The goblin’s teeth tore through Michael’s Veltech labcoat and into his entrails with a squelch. Blood leaked from the corners of its mouth in rivulets of crimson, and my lab partner failed to stop himself from screaming.

Beside me, three of the green little bastards were on top of Gwen, one pinned her to the ground, while two others ripped off her hands with serrated teeth, evil smiles showing on their faces. Her screams mixed with everyone else’s.

Frank was already cooling on the ground to my left, having his neck pincushioned and perforated by one of the goblin’s daggers to the point he was almost headless. He was far more blood and hole than human by the time they were done. His white coat was so deeply dyed red it was hard to imagine it had ever been any other color.

“Fall back, this way!”

To my right, the soldiers had already started a retreat into the trees. Victoria huddled with them, so it looked like she managed to get away from the initial attack. But it wasn’t like the soldiers would provide much help; we had already learned the hard way that our guns didn’t work. Rifles, pistols, didn’t matter; all they did was click.

The small shortsword I had pulled from the wall-alcoves of the starting cave was still held fast in my hand. The blade glinted in the light, the gleaming metal a stark contrast to the greenish blood dripping from its surface.

I’d killed the goblin that had gotten Frank, but that bit of revenge was nothing that could sate the anger I felt for the pudgy, ugly assholes.

Another of the creatures came at me, its dagger flailing in front of it. I stepped back to avoid the weapon and thrust my sword forward right after. The blade caught it high in the chest, and the wound ejected a green spray. The goblin squealed and then quickly fell silent as my follow-up slash caught its throat.

It crumbled to the dirt in a gurgle. I gave an extra kick to its skull, just for the pleasure of it. Fuck goblins.

“Pierce, come on!” Again, one of the soldiers called out.

Two more goblins came at me, and I saw more already piling in behind. I needed to rethink my approach. Numbers might be the smart option after all. I turned tail and ran after the others into the treeline.

The goblins were quick for their size, and their violent bloodlust meant they’d continue to chase us. I could barely look back as we sprinted ahead.

I passed Victoria and one of the soldiers, Perez, gaining speed with my long strides. The vest I had been given still rubbed and chaffed as I ran, and my helmet was gone in the initial scuffle, but I didn’t mind that.

My eyes scanned the trees as we went, heart pounding, looking for the goblins I knew were hunting us. The system had said we had to survive the entire assault, and I doubted it would be only that first group of goblins.

But I kept my theories to myself. No one was interested in talking strategy and game tactics when running for their life.

I suddenly heard a scream, Victoria’s voice. The goblins must have caught up to her. I didn’t bother imagining what they were doing to her. It didn’t take a brain surgeon to know the assholes wouldn’t take prisoners, and she would be gone.

Sure enough, her screams were cut off abruptly.

Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

My legs pumped even faster, bringing me stride-for-stride with the soldiers. Poor Victoria, had only just joined the crew a month ago. She was the newest member of the lab, and yet now… she was the slowest runner of the group, so the things catching her might have been inevitable.

We ran for quite some time. Thirty minutes, maybe more, without stopping. We had perhaps reached two miles in and stumbled our way toward a new cave that was set into the impossibly high cliff face.

The cliff ran along the right-hand side for as far as I could see into the wooded expanse. Its face even peaked over the tops of the large trees, and I assumed it would eventually curve in a gigantic circle until looping back to the starting point.

Which made sense, a Tutorial Dungeon set in a large circular map was rather common. Something the world as a whole would come to learn much later. But I had been working on that assumption even then.

Reitlin, Johnson, and the other soldiers all ducked into the cave, with me following.

“Holy fuck, what was that? What are those things?” Johnson shook as he spoke; his hands trembled when they squeezed the stock of his rifle.

“Goblins,” I said. “You read the notification, yes?”

“Goblins? This is insane. That wasn’t some game out there, those four were—”

“Killed, yes. It said we had to survive. I don’t think it was lying to us.” I cut him off in a dry, matter-of-fact tone. I hate having to talk panicky idiots through Dungeon fights, and that was true even then, at the very beginning.