Beautiful orange glow filled the room, gently hitting the faces of its inhabitants. Adam slowly got up, stretched his arms and ended the morning routine with a wide yawn. He got up from the bed, and with a decisive move opened the curtains.
The sun was shining, the clouds were roaming the sky. Today was a good day
*inhales* a deep breath *ouch ouch * as Adam`s chest started to inflate, all the cuts from the prior fight started to remind about themselves. And then his back, and his legs.
He stumbled back into the room to see Iris in the bathroom, scrolling on her phone, but she was a mess.
"How long have you been up?" Adam asked yawning again.
"umm..... I don`t know , what time it is" not even looking up, still scrolling very fast
Adam checked his phone, 10 AM
"10. damm I slept for a while".
"So .....5 hours now" still not looking at him
"And you`ve been.....scrolling memes?"
"Adam. can you be serious, for once. please" she finally looked.
"Fine fine. What`s the news then"
She got up and showed him the articles. Goblins, riots, casualties. The thing you would expect from the monster attack. But, the next one was a bit more interesting.
Today`s date, 8 AM. A news broadcast of an army officer rallying up the nation. Typical in a crisis, but he finished it up differently.
"Yesterday, we were surprised by the enemy. We still are. But tomorrow. Tomorrow we will be ready, because we are not alone" A flame showed up in his chest. "We got the gift from the heavens, AND WE WILL USE IT" He pulled out a sword out of his chest, just like Adam did before "Brothers and sisters, TO ARMS"
"huh. I thought I was special. Oh well" he gave back the phone.
"Yeah well you`re not. There are millions of "soldiers" in the country now, and who knows how many worldwide"
*Bang bang* someone at the door "HEY is anyone there???"
Adam opened it up, to see the hotel receptionist lady nervously knocking at the door.
"Yes I am, what`s up" he leaned on the door frame. shirtless and flirtingly smiling.
a bit of a blush later
"Sorry to bother s-sir, we are checking on our guests after.....yesterday" she was still scared after the attack.
"We are....okey I`M fine, Iris is not hurt but..." they looked at her, still clinging onto her phone "she`s fine too" he smiled back at the lady.
"... Alright. please take care" and she left.
Adam tossed Iris out of the bathroom, got himself into a presentable state, cleaned his cuts, fixed the hair and got himself ready to go out.
"See ya someday. Call me " He packed his bags, and left.
Outside was still a mess, someone cleaned up the bodies, but the blood and broken bits and things still stayed. As Adam walked the street, he tried to get a cab home, but taxi apps were all out of cars available. Okey, fine, happens.
There`s a bus stop, beaten up and bent, but still a bus stop. So he popped in his headphones, sat down and waited. 5 minutes, 10 minutes. He checked his messages, mostly asking if he`s alive, some from a while ago trying to set up a party date and a few scam calls. He wrote a response and mass answered all of them.
and then he realized - no bus driver is dumb enough to ride down the street where there were literal monsters hours earlier.
"UUUUUUGHHHHH" he exhaled very loudly and started a slow walk towards his house.
~30 minutes later~
As he was checking his music playlist, his flame started to act out.
Nothing much, just more movement, heat and god damn sparks flying out of his chest.
'Alright alright, the f**k you want' he tried patting the flames down. As he did, the familiar pop-up window showed up
[2nd Tutorial Gate is about to begin]
[Please get ready]
[4:57:23]
Countdown was going down.
Adam looked around. Some people were pointing there fingers in the air, with open mouths and disbelief on their faces. Other started to run around.
Adam took off his headphones.
"NOT AGAIN" / "WE`RE ALL GONNA DIE" / "SOMEBODY CALL THE COPS"
"WHAT ARE THE POLICE GOING TO DO, GET THE NUKES"
'Why are people idiots' Adam asked himself and put his headphones away.
[Equipment tutorial]
[To summon a weapon, name the weapon in your inventory out loud]
[Current weapon : Infantry Common sword]
[To equip armor, say Armor]
[Current armor : Infantry Common armor]
[For more information, open status by firmly pressing on your flame]
[Good luck]
the pop-up window stayed up for a minute, but Adam read the whole thing in 5 seconds.
"ARMOR, SWORD TO ME" He put his hand high above his head.
A sword from yesterday, dropped to the ground, missing his hand entirely.
But when he looked down at it, and tried to pick it up, he couldn`t fully bend over.
His body was heavier, hand covered in..... metal. White and golden metal.
Legs, torso, head and arms. All in a full armor. Well, not fully. It wasn`t a beautiful painting like plate armor, but still pretty and pretty cool.
"Dammmmmmmnnnnn" Adam started to admire his new suit of armor. Back of all his limbs were covered in leather, fronts in metal. It was heavy, but not too heavy. Adam could still move around freely, almost freely maybe. He squated, with a slight trouble, and picked up the blade. The sword fit his armored hands perfectly. Probably designed to be this way.
People were starring at him, some in admiration, some very confused. But somehow, no more panicking was heard around. Civilians calmed down, the army was here.
Some guy crashed open a set of doors, wearing a similar armor, but a larger blade. Well his armor was larger too, since the guy was a good head taller than Adam.
More "soldiers" started to gather, men and females, some smaller, some bigger, some without helmets, some without swords. A good 12 soldiers were standing on the street at this point, touching each other armors, examining them and admiring the works.
"So now what?" someone asked.
A loud crack was heard from behind.
[The 2nd tutorial gate will now begin]
[Your task]
[Kill the enemies]
[Ensure the survival of civilians]
[Penalty]
[Demotion]
[Good Luck soldiers]
And black circular gate opened in front of them.