"Thank you for your hard work today here at-
*SLAM!*
Ignoring the words of the automated computer which was set in place to lift the spirits of the drained company employees, 29-year old Daiji Yaru makes a beeline to his car.
He was a tall male, around 6'2 ft. to be exact with browned-skin, jet black hair, and light brown eyes that often sparkled in the sunlight.
However, he was nothing special. Just a regular commoner like the billions of other people on this damned planet everyone calls Earth.
*Beep beep!*
Opening the driver's side door of his car, Daiji gets in and takes a sigh of relief.
"Jeez, working a 9-5 ain't easy. Especially not at this place."
"This place" was what he referred to as his job. The higher-ups often overworked their employees to the point where some even found their way into an intensive care unit.
He wished there was another way to earn money, but unfortunately for him, he barely had any other talents.
Starting the car, Daiji immediately leaves the parking lot and turns onto the main road, quickly braking behind a line of other cars.
"And there's traffic, how wonder-
Looking up at the sky, the man's eyes widen as it slowly begins to fade from blue, turning into an eerie yellow.
Just like the majority of the people in front and behind him, Daiji steps out of his car, trying to get a better view of the sky.
"Look at it, mommy!" a little boy says in awe as he points up at the sky. "Isn't it cool?!"
All of a sudden, the ground begins to shake and the crowd screams in horror, climbing on top of their cars for safety.
"Shit!"
Running for higher ground, the tired male quickly makes his way up a small hillside, crawling at the end, before watching as part of the ground he once stood on caved in.
"Why didn't you warn the others?"
Turning around, Daiji watches as a tallish, tanned-skin man with green eyes and short yet neatly styled dark hair, stares down at the chaos below.
"I would, but I ain't really the leadership type, you know? You can be my guest and help them, though."
The man shakes his head.
"It is not in my contract to interfere with such destruction."
Daiji raises a brow.
"Not in your contract? What're you? An exorcist?"
"No. Please, follow me for more." the mysterious man says, motioning for Daiji to follow him.
Daiji follows the man to a black sedan who climbs into the driver's seat. After looking out of the passenger window for a few minutes, Daiji decides to start a conversation.
"So what kinda company do you work for?"
"No questions as of now."
the man replies, as he parks in front of a tall building.
The two men exit the car and make their way inside the building where the man leads Daiji into a small room.
"Use my tablet to enter information regarding your person."
"Before I do anything else, may I have an answer to what exactly is this for?" Daiji asks, taking the tablet.
"It isn't like you have much of a choice. Just enter your name as prompted or I'll throw you back out." the man replies, folding his arms.
"He's gotta hell of a welcome." Daiji mutters under his breath as he taps the glass screen.
Once finished
he hands the device back to the seemingly rude man.
"I'll need to pick your finger for your blood type." the man says, poking a needle into Daiji's pointer finger. "Believe me, you won't want to argue with me on this part."
Placing a splotch on his tablet, the man looks at the screen as it begins to scan the small blood droplet.
"Mystic, enter blood type A under Daiji Yaru."
A female A.I. assistant pops up and twirls around on the screen.
"Information successfully added!"
Wiping his tablet off, the man walks out of the room and Daiji follows behind.
The two walk down a long hallway, the lights beginning to grow dimmer and dimmer until there was nothing left that could be visibly seen.
The mystery man stomps his foot twice and the floor suddenly gives way to an foggy atmosphere.
Looking forward, Daiji curiously stares at the abandoned house which stood in front of him.
"Congratulations on being the 1,007th person out of 1,010 people to make it here in one piece, Daiji. I am your new assistant, Lucien Rinova. You're to come to me for any help and additional advice you may need."
"So I couldn't choose my own assistant?" Daiji asks, frowning a little.
"Don't worry, we assistants couldn't pick who we wanted as a partner, either." Lucien replies. "To your right is a wooden box filled with useful supplies that'll help us on our journey. Choose six of these supplies wisely."
Squatting down, Daiji looks into the box and
selects a knife, two machine guns, a sword, and two handguns. After he finished picking his choice of weapons, he gives Lucien a thumbs up.
"Are you sure you want these supplies? Once you've chosen them, we can't come back to switch anything out."
"Yeah. Why?"
"No reason." Lucien replies, placing a handgun into his pocket.
Extending his arms out to his sides, the man gives Daiji a smirk.
"This is your tutorial, Yaru. Once you've completed this, then we'll be all set to head back out into reality. Your earth is currently being taken over by different creatures; big and small, tall and wide."
"Wait, wait, wait. I didn't sign up for this shit." Daiji says, shaking his head.
"Well, I did tell you that you didn't have much of a choice." Lucien says, stepping on the house's porch. "Your first and only mission for this round is to retrieve the $1000 placed under the yellow toy chest."
Daiji slightly raises a brow.
"I ain't the smartest, but if earth is being taken over, I don't think any type of currency has a purpose anymore."
"It doesn't, but my boss told me to have you retrieve whatever on the tutorial."
"So, might I ask how many people have already gotten past this tutorial thingy?"
"We do not have time to worry about other's pacing, focus on yours alone." Lucien replies, rolling his eyes.
"CREAAAAAKKKK!"
The front door makes a loud creaking sound and the two men enter.
"Eh, it doesn't look that scary." Daiji says as Lucien uses a flashlight to scan around.
*SHRIEEEEEKKKK!* a disembodied figure screams.
"Spoke to soon, huh?"
Taking out his handgun, Daiji walks around the house, looking for whatever the thing was. He couldn't miss it.
"Alright, come out, come out wherever you are, little shit."
Hearing a gunshot behind him, Daiji turns around to see the disembodied figure fall beside him.
"It's important to note that in this game, one must be alert at all times." Lucien says, putting down his machine gun. "Many people don't make it through the tutorial."
"Damn. I didn't even hear it come up behind me." Daiji says, squashing a spider which tried to crawl on his shoe. "Thanks for saving me, man."
"You're welcome. Head upstairs to find the yellow toy chest and collect the $1000."
The two men walk upstairs and Daiji heads over to a small toy chest at the end of the dark hall.
All of a sudden, a small zombie comes from one of the rooms and Daiji points his handgun toward it, pulling the trigger.
The zombie drops dead and he immediately grabs the money from under the toy chest.
"Lucien, I-Where'd he go?"
Sighing, Daiji looks to his left, right, up, and down.
"Damn, I can't even find him. Lucien, I got the money! Quit playing hide and seek so we can get something to eat, I'm getting hungry!"
Softly groaning, Daiji shines the flashlight on spots he couldn't clearly see, before feeling someone pull him back.
"Shit, man! What the-
"Shhh!" Lucien interrupts, holding a finger up.
He points to a small room, where a little girl sat staring at the wall.
"Fuck wrong wit' her?" Daiji asks, shining the light further into the room.
"She's a young girl who has witnessed the deaths of both her parents and older brother. They were all involved in a car accident and she was the only one who survived." Lucien says, adjusting the machine gun in his hand. "You now have two choices; one, kill her and end your tutorial here or two, lift her spirits which will drain you of your energy, before ending the tutorial."
Daiji watches as the young girl puts her head further down.
"Uh, how long has she been staring at the wall?"
"For days. Weeks. Months." Lucien replies. "The only time she doesn't is when she needs to use the restroom, eat, or sleep."
"A'ight then; give me some help on this, Lucien."
Lucien looks up at the ceiling for a few seconds before replying.
"You can look at it this way; would you rather put her out of her misery and let her rest in eternal sleep alongside her family or would you rather spend your personal time helping someone who doesn't want to be helped?"
"Well, I don't wanna kill her, but if she's sulking like this, I'd also want her to go be with her family." Daiji says. "Damn, this is hard."
"Then I guess I'll pick for you."