After a losing consciousness for a few minutes, Matthew opened his eyes and yawned a bit. There were no lights in the basement and the window was completely closed, but there also wasn’t any kind of door at the top of the stairs. Since the kitchen lights were on, there was still a bit of illumination. At least enough for him to see the hand in front of his face.

When he used his two Mana points to Summon the Water Qi Crystals, there was a bright light for a moment. Then it died down, but those tiny gems in his hands were still glowing bright-blue. As if they were radioluminescent. The ten minerals weren’t particularly large; only roughly the size of pebbles. Thus, he got up, placed them on the other bed, before going back to sleep.

Matthew was getting a peaceful rest, but the situation across the world was anything but peaceful. In every country on Earth, Players were starting to make their moves. Even in Baltimore, there were other Players aside from Matt. Most of them were Hardcore Players, who went as far as having their memories suppressed in order to enjoy the game more fully. Of course, there were still some who not only had their memories intact, but also had access to Mods of their own.

***

Time passed by swiftly and before long, it was already dark outside once again.

“Mana? Must be some idiot newbie Modder… I probably wouldn’t even get any experience for killing them.”

High above the buildings, there was a man riding in the back of a news helicopter. He had long black hair, tied in a ponytail, light-green eyes and pale-white skin. Next to him was a brown-skinned anchor-woman who was locally famous, though she was only an NPC. The only strange thing about the man, aside from his extremely feminine and ‘beautiful’ appearance, was the fact that his ears were slightly elongated. They were pointed, but not to an absurd degree.

“Did you say something Richie?” The dark-skinned woman next to him shouted, “I can’t hear you!”

“Nothing! Don’t worry about it! I was just talking to myself!” Richard snickered, shaking his head. Then he aimed the camera in his hand towards the woman and asked “So Tori, do you still feel like you’re gonna throw up?! Heheh~!”

She smiled, slapping his right arm playfully. Then her expression suddenly changed and she screamed “Richie, what’s that?!”

“Damn it!” Richard grabbed Tori by the waist and kicked the door behind her off the hinges. Then he directly jumped out of the helicopter with her in his arms, while she screamed in terror.

*Boom~!*

A missile struck the tail of the helicopter, sending it spinning out of control. It was going to hit Matthew’s house, but then it somehow managed to pull upwards a bit, before crashing into the houses across the street. There was a deafening explosion, as it engulfed half the block in flames. One of the cars parked nearby had its gas tank punctured by a piece of the helicopter’s blade, which resulted in another explosion after a short delay.

Meanwhile, Tori was still screaming her head off with her eyes closed, too afraid to watch herself falling… However, it only took a few seconds before she realized that something was strange. When she opened her eyes, she noticed that their falling speed was absurdly slow. Eventually, Richard’s feet touched down onto the balcony on the roof of a townhouse across the alley from Matt’s backyard.

“Yeah, I think we should probably move Tori… I have a feeling that Baltimore is only gonna get worse from now on.” Richard sighed, putting the shocked and confused woman down onto the wooden balcony. Then he pulled out a cigarette from his pocket and snapped his fingers, creating blazing blue flame out of thin air. The fire lit the cigarette and with a single inhalation, he had completely burnt it all into ashes.

Tori stared at him blankly for a few moments, but then nodded her head and whispered “I’ll go wherever you go Richie…” He smirked, clapped his two hands together and as he pulled them apart, the space around the two of them warped. An instant later, they were gone. Leaving only a cigarette butt to prove that they had actually been there before.

***

“Matty wake up! We have to go, get up!” Matthew opened his eyes to see his mother’s worried face. She didn’t even ask him where those two mysterious hospital beds came from, because she was far too worried about their imminent demise.

“What the fuck? What the fuck’s going on now?!” Matt pushed down the railing on the side of the bed and practically rolled out onto the floor. The power was out to the whole building and it smelled like the house was burning down. He looked around and noticed the glowing blue gems on the other bed, quickly picking them up and searching for a place to store them.

“What are you doing?! Hurry up! There was a huge explosion across the street and now the whole block is burning down over there! We need to get out of here before the fire spreads!” She handed her son some black sweat pants, a white t-shirt, a grey hoodie, along with some socks. Then she said “Your sneakers are upstairs, now hurry up and get dressed! It’s snowing outside!”

Matt coughed a few times, then put the gems into his left pant pocket, before wearing them. The shirt and hoodie were next, followed by the socks. He didn’t even bother talking, as he followed his mother up the stairs. Sirens were blaring and gunshots rang out in the distance. There were some sneakers in the kitchen that he also swiftly put on.

*Vooom~!*

By the time he made it to the kitchen, he could hear jets flying over the city. Right when they opened the back door to leave the house, there was helicopter hovering over their block and shining spotlights into their alleyway. A few people were getting into a silver pickup-truck and stopped moving once they were brightly illuminated.

“This is the National Guard! The City of Baltimore is currently under curfew! All law-abiding citizens must return to their homes immediately and stay off the streets! Anyone found outside after six PM will be considered a terrorist and arrested or shot! Please return to your homes and wait for the curfew to be lifted!”

After hearing that, those people hesitated for a few seconds, but eventually locked up their truck and headed back over to their house across the alley. Then the helicopter left and started checking the other blocks nearby.

“This is the National Guard! The City of Baltimore is currently under curfew! All law-abiding citizens must return to their homes immediately and stay off the streets! Anyone found outside after six PM will be considered a terrorist and arrested or shot! Please return to your homes and wait for the curfew to be lifted!”

The same message was played over and over again, sometimes by multiple speakers simultaneously. However, Matt and his mother were conflicted.

“What should we do Matty?! Are they telling us to stay here and wait for our house to burn down around us?!”

The two of them headed over to the big window at the front end of the living room and moved the curtains. Although the fires were raging pretty fiercely across the street, at least one fire truck was there to slightly quell the inferno.

Matt grumbled “What else can we do? This is basically martial law. The National Guard isn’t the police. If they’ve been called in, then things must’ve gotten even worse after that hospital incident… Have you been watching the news? What happened earlier?”

Anaishe muttered “I went to church with Yolanda and Thomas. We were praying for those who were lost the night before… By the time we got back, the power was out and we didn’t know what was going on. I came over to check on you, but you were sleeping…” Then she turned towards him and asked “Speaking of which, where did you get those hospital beds from?!”

“Would you believe me if I said that I Summoned them with my magical powers?”

The moment he finished talking, she started cackling and complained “I’m serious Matty! How did you even get those beds down the stairs? They shouldn’t even be able to fit through the doorway!”

*Author’s Note*

Okay, I know I do this all the time, but I’m sorry for taking so long to post this. I can barely keep track of the time anymore. I’ve been obsessively playing World of Warcraft lately… And by obsessively, I mean, holy fuck, what is wrong with me?

It started with “Oh hey, I just got my Lightforged Paladin to 110! I should get the Class Mount since it’s really annoying that my Elek can’t fit through doors…”

Then went to “Oh, huh, well ya know what? My Death Knight is already pretty far along in the Class and Legionfall Campaign, why not finish it and get the class mount?”

Ugh, then “Well it’s kinda annoying just waiting for these other characters to finish their missions. And the Warlock Class Mount is so awesome looking…”

“Oh hey! I didn’t know there’s a website that keeps track of all the Legion Assaults! I should use them to level up my Warrior, Mage and Monk! I only have to rush them to 98 real fast…”

“The Monk Class Mount is amazing, I need it…”

“Ah, I should probably get my Hunter Class Mount too… Even if it’s kinda lame.”

“Yay~, I got my Paladin, Death Knight, Warlock, Monk and Hunter Class Mounts! Now I never have to play those characters again this expansion! Muhuhahahaha~!”

I already had the Demon Hunter Class Mount since back in like… September? Idk, I only remember the excruciating and horrible experience of grinding out the Legion Flying. Comparatively, getting that Class Mount was really easy and fast.

Anyway, now I’ve got my Warrior and Mage to lvl 110… But I also used my BFA Pre-Order instant-110 token on a Druid, so I have 3 more 110’s that need Class Mounts. I’ll probably give up on the Mage lmao. The Mage Class Mount is honestly pretty lame. It’d be different if it was some kinda transformation into an astral dragon or some shit, but a fucking flying disk?!

The Warrior Class Mount is a wyvern or proto-drake looking mount that I already have like 10 of, but at least it’s kinda cool looking. Similar to some of the PVP mounts I’ll never get lmao. Plus, Warriors are actually fun to play and can solo trash mobs without getting killed so… I’ll probably get that one.

However, what I really wanna focus on is the Druid, which I only somewhat understand how to play lmao. Sure, my old druid was lvl 72, so I’m not a total noob. But I only ever healed on her, and never tried to quest at all.

Aside from that, I also really want the Priest and Shaman Class Mounts, since they’re two of the coolest imo. But my Priest is only lvl 75 and my Shaman is 90. I’ll probably get the Shaman to 98 and level it through Legion Assaults, but the Priest will take some serious time and effort. She’s a Void Elf though, so there’s a heritage armor if I can just get her to 110.

Phew, aside from all that meaningless WoW bullshit, I actually have to write “Immortal Soul” and edit “Private Server”. I also want to get back into writing “Private Server”, but it feels like there’s just not enough time and I don’t have enough energy either lmao.

Something is seriously wrong with me. Why can’t I ever do anything in moderation?

 

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