When I open my eyes, the world is spinning.

  Blackness.

  Am I dead?

  My throat is dry. My head throbs.

  I’m lying on the ground. I take slow, steady breaths until my vision clears.

  Mom is beside me. Pale as wax. Watching me with panic in her eyes.

  “Jackie! Jackie! Can you hear me?”

  I hear you, Mom. I hear you.

  I push myself up onto my elbows and look around.

  The cockroach lies a few meters away in a pool of black blood. Its outline gleams faintly.

  Loot.

  Notifications flash at the edge of my vision.

  I ignore them.

  The girl is slumped beside me. Unconscious.

  I can’t remember her name.

  Mom reads my expression.

  “She saved you, Jackie. That girl—Alicia. She came to you while you were unconscious and saved you. I don’t know how. Her hands were… light.”

  So she healed me.

  And then she collapsed too.

  She owes me her life.

  I owe her mine.

  I don’t feel like a hero.

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  Just lucky.

  My health bar isn’t red anymore. Not green yet, but I’m not dying. The pain is faint. The wound in my shoulder is already closing.

  This is insane.

  Noise pulls my attention outward.

  Shapes move at the edges of the square.

  More mobs.

  Shit. There’s never any peace.

  “We have to go,” I tell Mom.

  “But the girl hasn’t woken up yet,” she says. “We can’t just leave her here!”

  I hear claws scraping across cobblestone.

  Rats.

  Drawn by the blood.

  I stand.

  They’re not a real threat.

  But I hate losing time.

  I cut down the first few easily. Then more arrive. And more after that.

  I keep killing.

  Looting.

  Gaining XP.

  Between swings, I glance back to make sure Mom and Alicia are safe.

  Alicia’s health bar is climbing slowly.

  She’ll wake up soon.

  The sooner we get to the fields, the better.

  At least I hope so.

  The square is a slaughterhouse by the time Mom calls out to me.

  Alicia is awake.

  She stands slowly and looks at me as I approach.

  She’s small. Wide-eyed like a startled deer. Even covered in blood, exhausted and terrified, she radiates something steady. Calm. Like the tide pulling in and out.

  She smiles.

  “Thank you. You saved my life.”

  “I was about to say the same.”

  “I saw. I’m not sure how I did it, but I think I healed you.”

  “You’re a doctor? I mean… before all this?”

  “Yes. And you’re a lumberjack. Besides the class label next to your name, that axe gave it away.”

  I give an uncertain smile.

  “It’s time to leave. The noise and blood attract mobs. We have a house in the countryside. That’s where we’re heading. What about you?”

  “Plans?” She lets out a breathless laugh. “None. My parents live in another city. I’m here for work. I’m alone.”

  “Then come with us. If you want.”

  “I’m unarmed, alone, and surrounded by monsters. I’m not about to refuse an invitation from a big guy holding a bloody axe.” She smiles again.

  [Alicia Lynn – Level 2 | Class: Medic]

  Joined Party

  In online games, having a healer is convenient.

  In the real world, it’s survival.

  I would’ve died without her.

  I finish looting the mobs around us, including the cockroach. I ignore the notifications for now.

  We’ll check them when we’re safe.

  As we pass the bar’s veranda, I notice something.

  The wooden beams.

  The tables.

  The chairs.

  All of them shimmer faintly.

  I reach out.

  Poof.

  Into the inventory.

  This will be useful.

  I can build a wall. A barricade. Structures. Weapons.

  We step off the road and into the fields.

  A few lingering mobs follow us from the square. They don’t seem committed. They’re slow.

  We’ll outrun them.

  Or they’ll give up.

  Leaving the city behind gives me a strange relief.

  Fewer people.

  Fewer dangers.

  People have always been the real danger.

  Now I have two people to protect.

  Mom.

  Alicia.

  Maybe I should be terrified.

  Instead…

  I feel ready.