"FUCK!!"
The headset bounced off the keyboard as [Defeated] glowed on the screen.
Noah, a plain-looking young man in his twenties, his face reddened from the rage boiling out of him.
"This is what I get for playing top lane! I've been carrying their ass for 40 minutes and YOU, ADC, still can't do shit!!"
Noah sighed and stood up from his computer and looked out into the sky.
This is the second year since he left home and started living alone.
While studying computer science right when the AI boom hit, his future didn't look great.
Still, at least he wasn't in the ghetto selling crack.
At this time most students would be out drinking and such, but for him, playing video games in his room was the best way to relax after a stressful day of classes.
Well, most of the time at least.
"Huh… I wish I could play all the roles at once."
He looked into the night sky from his balcony as a cold breeze from the night wind calmed his thoughts.
Tonight the sky was clear. Since his university is not in the metropolis, the sky was filled with stars and a bright moon.
He calmed down while looking and decided to hop back into the game.
Then suddenly, a streak of bright red light flew across the sky.
"Red comet?"
Noah watched in awe. He had never seen anything like this before in his life.
But something was strange. Deep inside him, something told him that.
Even after the "comet" long passed, the line of red light did not disappear. It stayed on the sky like a giant red line across the horizon.
Then suddenly, a loud crackling sound resonated from the sky, the rhythm so loud it made his bones rattle.
"What the fuck, is Israel doing something?"
Noah's first instinct was to grab his phone, but not for recording like social media crowds.
He grabbed the phone to call his father.
And family thinks alike. Before he could even press call, his father was already calling him.
"Dad, did you see the sky!?" Noah quickly spoke up since the pressure didn't stop yet.
He was worried about his family at home since his father had his mother and little sister to take care off.
"Yeah I see, Noah are you ok any—th—" His father's sentence began to stutter.
"Dad! What are you saying, Dad!?" Noah screamed into the phone.
"G—b—h—" Before he could listen to what his dad was saying, the sound turned into a long beep and the signal cut off completely.
People started to pour out into the street, looking up at the sky. And then something happened.
A flow of red glowing liquid started pouring from the sky, and instead of dropping down, it floated and began spreading thinly across the vast sky, turning the black veil of night into a red curtain.
And when it hit the clouds, the clouds absorbed the liquid and turned bright red.
Then the rain came. Scarlet rain started to pour down from the sky.
"Is this… is this the rupture?"
Noah touched the rain and felt its cold, slushy texture. It felt more like cold gel than water. As it poured more and more from the sky, it flowed and gathered together into a puddle that did not go into the drain pipe.
Then it started to twist unnaturally.
"This is bad news..."
Noah put down his phone and reached into his bedside cabinet. He pulled out a 9mm pistol just in case.
He had a bad feeling about this.
And he would be right.
"AHHHHH!!!!"
A scream came from down below. Noah rushed to the balcony again and saw something he could not believe.
A wolf. A massive one, about 2 meters tall, crawled out of the red whirlpool and started tearing people apart.
1 death, 2 deaths, more and more people started dropping dead from the beasts coming out of the crimson whirlpool.
"What is going on?"
Noah looked down and then at his door to weigh his options. If he went down right now, chances were he would have to fight those wolves with only his pistol. And while he was contemplating, he heard it, a loud siren across the city as helicopters started approaching.
BOOM!! BOOM!!
Loud explosions erupted in the distance as helicopters and planes began dropping bombs, blowing the beasts to pieces.
"Yeah! That's the power of America, motherfucker!"
Someone from his dorm shouted as the beasts in the distance got torn apart.
They forgot there was also a threat right below their doorstep as one of the wolves looked up at them.
Some of the students who had guns started shooting at the wolf below. The bullets pierced its hide, but then horror struck because it didn't pierce deep enough to cause bleeding.
It only irritated them.
The wolf pack howled and spread out like a coordinated pack, heading straight into their dorm.
"Damn!"
Now that he knew the soldiers had started moving, his task was to keep himself safe by any means. So, he started to move all his existing furniture to block the door, including his gaming setup.
Now his priority was to get out of here alive.
'I hope Dad is ok, but knowing him, he would be fine.'
His family lived in Texas near a military base.
Honestly, they should be worrying about him, not the other way around.
Outside his room, he could hear screams and gunshots going off at intervals, before it all went silent.
'Was it over?'
Noah's sweat started to drip from the anxiety tightening in his chest. He lived on the highest floor, so the wolves should be drenched in blood by now before reaching him, which made him question what the fuck was going on.
The sky outside was still red, but the red rain had already stopped.
Then, BANG!
A loud claw slammed into his door. With just one strike, the wolf tore off his door and revealed its red gleaming eyes locked on him. Seeing it up close made his breath stop. Its size was far more intimidating in person.
"Go away!!"
Noah steadied his gun and fired three bullets.
They hit the target, one striking the wolf's eye.
That only made it enraged.
It tore apart the door and his blockade, including the drywall holding everything in place, and jumped toward him.
Noah tried to shoot again, but it still rushed in and pounced on him.
With a swift snap, it bit down on his left arm.
"AGH!!!!"
Noah screamed in pain as the wolf tore apart his arm in one bite.
Still, he gritted his teeth, shoved the gun into the wolf's eye hole, and emptied the mag.
BANG BANG BANG
The bullets went deeper until they reached its brain. The wolf stopped chewing his arm and let go, but his arm was already severed, and blood was flowing out.
"FUCK!!"
Noah clenched his fist from the excruciating pain in his empty left arm. He quickly went to his cabinet and smashed through the items inside before grabbing the alcohol. Using his mouth, he opened it and splashed it onto the wound.
"Ah!!"
He tried to reach for the bandages when he heard footsteps and saw another wolf outside the doorway.
In that moment he dropped everything and ran for the balcony as the wolf's jaws came from behind.
Instinctively, he jumped.
He expected free fall and braced for impact, but what awaited him were tree leaves.
"Ouch!"
He smacked into many branches and awkwardly descended before hitting the ground.
Surprised he didn't die, he sucked in a breath and, through the pain, used his right hand to push himself up slowly and started running.
Then he noticed his shadow expanding quickly and with a slight tilt of his head upward.
He saw the wolf's massive fangs above him.
At that moment, Noah's past flashed before his eyes.
Albeit all the moments he recalled were him playing video games most of the time, and when he got rejected by his crush in various grades.
But then the memory of him and his father trying to grill the brisket.
His mother and her turkey, which his sister played with the timer and burned.
And when his sister finally spoke and called to him, "Brother!"
'I lived a good life…'
At that last moment, he felt like the world had stopped.
For a very long time he felt at peace, like there was nothing moving in the world.
He closed his eyes and accepted his death.
'Lord Jesus, please keep my family safe.'
Time passed, and he expected to open his eyes again at the pearly gates.
But when he opened his eyes, he was still in the very same place.
Unlike before, something new appeared in front of him.
Something he was familiar with from being a gamer all his life.
[Warning: Earth being attacked by another dimension]
[Initiating emergency adaptation]
A blue panel resembling a game UI appeared in front of his eyes.
[Detected foreign power source, beginning assimilation, finalizing….]
[Finished: Calculating individual starting class, please select your class]