It's all your fault.
Even I know that.
So, just wondering, why do we keep ending up back here?
You mean at the Wal-Mart at fuck-all o'clock?
It's 9AM. Is cursing really necessary?
How about you go fuck yourself, you motherfucker?
Guys! Guys... I need something to eat.
How much money do we have?
Take a lucky guess, bitch.
What are these?
Lottery tickets.
Are you-!? ... how much money DO we have now?
We can't go back unless we have a good reason.
Ain't that a kick in the teeth? I can't tell. I can't tell if I have any left.
It's just like granny.
"What do we actually do now?" the ashy haired man mumbled. His eyes struggled to capture the shaky transient of the road snaking into the small town. His heart was rattling from the pressure pounding in his head. The quiet hum of the convertible was all he had to battle against the impulse to start strangling the long-haired man sitting beside him.
"Come on! Imagine if we make it rich, man!" He spread his arms out laughing, refusing to look at either of the men in the car. "No more work! No more expectations! Easy street, baby!"
He snuck quick glances at each man's face. Pressing his forehead in his hand, pinching the bridge of his nose like he was trying to yank it off. And the other man slumped in his seat, staring out at the supermarket. Nothing but longing for something he thinks he can find inside but knows better.
"Both of you are idiots! "Honest work"! What good has THAT ever gotten us?"
"Validation."
"Money."
"A home."
Every suggestion sent a rush of blood pumping through the man's temples. But even he had to admit that there was no denying keeping a job was important. No matter how impossible it seems.
"Hey, look at this."
He raised a lazy arm to the driver. Rolling his eyes, he sighed looking at whatever ridiculous waste of time his best friend was so eager to show him.
"You're joking."
"It can't be-"
"'World Transfer'. Alex, it's not even a game. It's just some LitRPG thing."
"Like DeviantArt?"
"Like DeviantArt. Just get off of that page before you give some scammed whatever we have left." He brought his eyes and fingers back to tapping and glancing across his phone. Looking for some job opportunities that would take idiots like them. Preferably before they starve. Or at least before Alex does something stupid again.
"Come on! It's just a little trinket. What's the harm of a good ol' time waster?"
Regi knew the look on Alex's face too well.
"Regi, all we have to do is this and the girls will line up!"
We got in trouble for bringing animals on campus.
"Regi! Don't worry! You like that guy? I've got just the thing!"
Jack Mately avoided me for the rest of middle school. And everyone else did.
"Re-"
"For the last time- I'm not going to let you rope me into anymore stupid stunts!"
"It's literally just a text form, dude. A few drop down menus with some parameters. There's even a guide. Stop worrying about that for a second."
"Getting a job? Staying employed? Being, you know, ALIVE!?"
"Reg, Alex is just trying to lighten the mood. The last job was a bust and you're trying to throw our applications at every organization in business but you're definitely not right in the head right now."
"Jan, I'm fine."
"You flipped the bird at least five times. And that was just driving here. You cursed at that car for almost cutting you off."
"They were-"
"Two lanes away. We only got to the exit because Alex slapped you."
"You're welcome, by the way." He pointed at me grinning, still holding the phone with the page open.
"Let me see it so he can shut up about it."
"Yes! Okay."
"It's like D&D."
"But there's a... beta test?"
"An HTML page for a beta test? Can you find it on Steam?"
"Let me see... 'World Trans'. There's a good few people signed up. ... huh?" the thin man peered at his phone.
"What's up?" Alex asked pushing himself into the man's phone to see what he was confused about.
Alex whistled with his eyes widening.
"There's... a lot of people waiting for this game."
"Come on, like that's-" Regi scoffed but their reactions made his fingers flick away the job search portal and clicked against the screen to find the Steam page for the game.
Over one hundred thousand.
"How hasn't this been talked about on the Internet?" Regi warily asked.
"They just posted the page today. I put in our names already, so we made the cut." Alex said waving his phone with the acceptance notification for Reginald.
"When did you-!?"
"While we were talking. They won't take too many more applicants. ... oh. The page disappeared. Well, we should just forget about it for now since we don't have a job right now." Alex rattled on looking at the driver who was staring outside of the windshield.
He looked back at the man in the backseat only to see him doing the same thing. Pushing his face against the glass. Then, slapping himself across the face.
"Let me guess, 'we got summoned to another-... world'." Alex cockily mocked before he looked in the direction Regi was staring.
They were surrounded by six black spires jutting out in roughly forty-five degree angles. Strange fixtures were sticking out from the sides of each one. A crystal fixture was shattered, evident by the incomplete chunk missing. In spite of its condition, it continued to flash slowly, and dimly with a white light.
Beyond that was a massive lake, going for at least four to seven miles long. Crystal clear water so pure it was possible to watch little glistening fish zip by from where they were seated.
"... everyone, stay calm." Reginald said slowly looking at their immediate area.
No one here? Just us in the middle of nowhere, in some kind of Stonehenge tribute.
"Just because you get summoned to another world doesn't mean the world revolves around you. Or that you're automatically given magic powers- oh, the circles lighting up agai-!"
A fiery blast of light pierces through the floor of the car, sending shards of metal into the men and their flesh and bones into the area around them. The impact of the blast forced the entire structure to be blown away.
As passerby run over to the site of the explosion, all that was left was the carcass of metal and the hint smell of charred viscera.