"Hey... hey... open your eyes..."
"Are you okay? Come on, wake up..."
Hearing that voice, I opened my eyes with difficulty and looked up.
There was a young man with a dirty face and torn clothes.
I stared at him for a moment, trying to process the situation.
"Where am I?!" I shouted immediately, confused.
"Easy," he said in a tense voice while holding me in place. "It's okay, there's nothing to worry about," he said, trying to calm me down.
It took me a second to calm down. I looked around, somewhat confused.
I was in a clearing in the middle of a lush forest. Looking in any direction, I could only see countless trees all around.
If it were just that, it wouldn't be so creepy, but the trees weren't just enormous—they had twisted trunks and leaves of an overly intense green.
Also, the place wasn't devoid of people at all; quite the opposite. I could count at least several dozen people. They were all men and women, young and old, dressed in normal, everyday clothes as if they had been dragged to this place while going about their business.
But what caught my attention even more wasn't the people or the place itself, but rather a small mountain of weapons scattered on the ground: rusty swords, clubs, a couple of cracked wooden shields. The number and variety of weapons were too great to count easily.
('Where am I?' The last thing I remembered was... what? Eating dinner alone in my apartment. I had checked my phone... I don't remember much else). I tried to remember, but nothing came to mind; there was just a blank space in my memories.
"Does anyone know what's going on?" asked a woman, her voice trembling.
"Of course not!" shouted a burly man, waving a club as if trying to shake off the stress of being in a new place. "This is a sick joke! I have to get back home!"
The young man who had helped me sighed wearily as he watched everyone argue.
"Do you know what happened?" I asked him.
He immediately shook his head. "I woke up here just before everyone else, about an hour ago. I tried to walk through the forest, but I preferred to wait for everyone to wake up before trying again," he explained.
I nodded and stood up, feeling somewhat exhausted. "What do you think is going on?" I asked.
"No idea," he replied tiredly, as if he'd heard the same question several times.
[The Tutorial has begun.]
Immediately, that voice appeared in everyone's minds at the same time. A cold, metallic sound that came from nowhere, yet resonated clearly inside each skull.
The murmurs and arguments stopped abruptly, as each person, confused and frightened, paid full attention to the mysterious voice speaking directly into their heads.
[Players have been summoned.]
[The Safe Zone will deactivate in 10 seconds.]
[Tutorial Objective: Survive.]
[Main Mission available.]
[Mission – The First Battle: You have been thrown into a hostile world. Survive and eliminate the threat. Kill the invading Goblins. (0/5)]
"What?!" someone shouted.
"This can't be!" someone in the crowd howled.
"This joke has gone too far, send us back!" roared the burly man angrily, as if he finally had someone to direct his anger at.
The panic, contained until now, exploded, and no one knew what the hell to do.
I put my hand on my chin and thought carefully about what that mysterious voice had said.
"That voice said 'safe zone'; what does it mean by that?" I wondered.
I looked around. I couldn't see anything resembling a barrier. Was it farther into the forest? Or was it invisible?
And in 10 seconds?
Many thoughts raced through my head, and I didn't know where the hell to start.
But a scream forced me back to my senses.
"SOMETHING'S COMING FROM THE FOREST!!"
I turned my gaze toward the forest.
From among the bushes emerged small, twisted green figures, no more than a meter tall, with greenish skin, pointed ears, and black, malicious eyes. They were half-naked, wielding notched knives, crude axes, and clubs with nails.
I could recognize it immediately: a fantasy monster I couldn't forget even if I wanted to, and that after this day would appear even in my nightmares.
A Goblin.
"Ggireuk! Ggireuk!" A strange, unintelligible sound came from these beings.
The first figure to emerge lunged like an uncontrollable beast toward the nearest person.
"Hey, what? Me?!" shouted one of the countless people as the Goblin approached.
He stepped back trembling, as if he hadn't expected that. "No, no, not me!" he pleaded with the creature.
"Beast, back off!" roared the burly man, charging at the Goblin with a club.
The Goblin looked at him, confused, as if it hadn't expected that, when, with a single blow to the head, the Goblin's skull caved in with a wet crunch. Blood and brain matter splattered the ground.
Its body wobbled unsteadily before falling heavily to the ground, lifeless.
"Pathetic beast!" the man shouted with a triumphant smile, kicking the inert body as if it were mere garbage.
"They're weak and useless, don't worry so much!" he said to everyone, as if it were a spectacle, trying to draw attention, but all he found were faces pale with horror.
"Why those faces? Didn't you see?" he asked, confused, turning around.
From among the trees, a dozen more creatures emerged from the undergrowth. Not from a single direction, but from all of them. Not hundreds, but they seemed to be thousands.
"Ah... ah..." was all someone could manage to say, as the light in their eyes went out.
"We're done for," someone finally said.
And as if it were a signal, countless Goblins lunged at us. Human screams of fear and the guttural shrieks of the goblins mixed into a symphony of horror.
"Grab weapons, quickly!" someone shouted amidst the tumult.
Some, driven by desperation, grabbed weapons and began to fight. Others froze, instantly surrounded, and their fate was something no one wanted to look at.
What followed was a senseless slaughter.