"On this footage, we can clearly see the monster that has appeared, destroying our landmark—the Golden Gate Bridge. These shocking images were captured by a witness… the whole world is holding its breath. The government is trying to eliminate it, the creature has destroyed San Francisco and continues moving, and… and soon it will reach Oakland, where the evacuation of civilians has already begun…"
And in my world, something far worse had happened. What is one city compared to the entire world and almost all of humanity? Just numbers… just a huge monster that will probably get nuked once they realize nothing else works.
The world is a strange thing, and it's almost funny… From one hell, I was thrown into another. Smaller, sure, but still. An unusual world… with giant monsters that destroy cities. And it was an astonishing sight, watching an entire city slowly "die" while the military could do nothing to stop it.
"So what am I even supposed to do here?" I asked out loud, looking at the half-destroyed city. The high-rise I was sitting on hadn't been touched by the monster's rampage, so I just watched.
Did I feel anything about all these people dying? Good question. Just a day ago, I would've been horrified and tried to help—I do have the ability to—but now… I didn't see the point. Why help people? So they can shoot you in the back? The only person worth doing that for is dead… because of people. Oh yeah, I could have saved her. I'm a pathetic piece of trash, and I know it. If I had been less passive, I would've left at the first opportunity instead of hesitating… out of fear—fear of other dimensions and of having that conversation with her.
"Hm, I always wondered—could Spider-Man survive a fall from the twentieth floor? I think so…" I said, and… stepped forward. The feeling of free fall was something new to me, but I didn't care.
Anyway, I figured I wouldn't die. I had taken a potion that would still be active for a while, and if anything, I'd just heal.
And then my feet met the asphalt. The impact echoed in all directions, cracks spread across the pavement, and I felt pain in my legs—not broken, more like I'd badly strained them.
"Well… seems fine," I nodded, pulling my legs out of the crater.
"H-help…" a hoarse voice rasped nearby. "P-please…" It was a woman around forty. A car had pinned her against a building—not enough to split her in half, but her legs were definitely broken.
"What for?" I asked with a sigh. Down here, things looked much darker. I could hear sirens, see fire trucks, police, ambulances—people trying to help the injured.
"I…" she had seen me fall from above—it was obvious from her eyes. "Help my daughter… please…" She shifted slightly, revealing a child beneath her—a girl about ten. Her mother had shielded her with her own body, softening the damage, but the girl had still hit her head.
"Why… why can I help you, but couldn't help her?" I whispered quietly. And… I mentally slapped myself.
When did I become such an emotional idiot?
I was pretty sure I still wasn't myself, but I couldn't just walk past a dying woman and her child… What would Mom have said? That I'd be acting, to put it mildly, inhumanly. Especially since for me, this meant nothing—I wasn't losing anything…
Walking over to the sobbing woman, I placed my hand under the car and easily lifted it, then tossed it aside about ten meters. It was a BMW, probably expensive, but I didn't care.
"Well, your legs are done for," I concluded, making her sob even harder. "Hey, at least no more pedicures… or socks…" I offered my arguments, but she didn't laugh.
"The girl… oh. Right." I pulled out healing potions and poured one into the girl's mouth, then into the mother's, even though she tried to resist. She didn't have the strength, and she clearly didn't understand what was happening—plus the pain shock. Hm, looks like a basic potion is enough even for injuries like these.
"Cough…!" she gasped, arching as the bones in her legs snapped back into place and tissues knit together.
"Good luck on the road of life…" I said and walked along the ruined road—until I stopped at a massive footprint. "I wonder how much it weighs…" I muttered, not that I actually cared. But probably a lot.
"D-dad… no, please!" A teenager was trying to pull his father out from under debris. Nearby, people staggered around, blood trickling from their ears, their hands shaking.
Only now was I starting to grasp what had happened…
Today, thousands had died—within an hour. Thousands of mothers, fathers, and children. Just like me, they had lost something important. But because of a monster, not an organization.
"It'll be okay…" A man and a woman stood by an ambulance, each holding a child. They looked around in fear, as if expecting the monster to return.
"Shit…" I muttered aloud, drawing attention.
"Another survivor! Sir, do you need help?" A paramedic approached me. "No, I don't," I replied quietly, pressing my lips together.
"Let me check you… yeah, you seem fine." He smiled; he looked about thirty. "You're lucky. I suggest heading to the subway. Rescue teams are working all over the city, and I heard the military is coming to help… God, what is even happening?" he said tiredly. "In just a few hours, the whole city's life turned upside down."
"Yeah… that's for sure. Upside down…"
"Hm? Are you really okay? You're alone… or… I recognize that look." He put a hand on my shoulder and shook me slightly. "Life goes on… I lost my wife and daughter five years ago." He forced a smile—it was clear it was hard for him to talk about it, but he was trying to help a stranger. "It was a tough time. I even thought about ending it all. But then… I thought about what they would say to me. I'm sure they'd want me to keep living, and be happy."
"I… how? How do you accept death? I could have helped…"
"Kid, sometimes circumstances are just beyond us. A lot of people died in the city today—I don't even want to imagine the numbers. But hardships make us stronger." He shook his head, trying to reassure me.
"But isn't that unfair?"
"There's plenty of unfairness in the world. But you have to learn to look at the bright side. Even if today is a dark streak covering the whole sky, know that it will end someday. Alright, I gotta go—there are still people who need help."
"Wait…" I stopped him, and he turned to me, confused and a bit impatient—he was eager to help others.
Without worrying about secrecy, I pulled out a Greater Healing Potion, which "magically" appeared in my hand. The man's eyes widened, and I stepped closer and pressed it into his hands.
"Here. Give small amounts of this to the severely injured—it'll get them back on their feet fast."
"W-what…" he stared at the bottle, still confused.
He was right.
Loss… it doesn't disappear.
The scars stay for life. And in my case, it had just happened… in my own hands. I couldn't save her—I wasn't ready, I didn't expect anything like that. But here… thousands had died, and thousands more could die.
I think Mom would be proud of me…
I jumped up again and… pulled out a Gravity Globe from Terraria, which disabled gravity for me. Using the momentum from the jump, I began to rise rapidly. At around seven hundred meters, I spotted the monster in the distance, swimming through the San Francisco Bay toward Oakland.
"Good thing I grabbed some useful items back home…" Next, I pulled out a "Flying Carpet" I had found in a golden chest in the pyramids. "Easy…" I carefully stepped onto it and—
"Uh, fly?" After I said it, it shot forward—fast. Around 250 km/h. I quickly caught up with the monster, overtook it, and stopped above the city.
Blow it up with a nuke from Fallout?
No, too risky—what if the explosion is stronger than in the game? And the radiation… so what else?
In Terraria, I hadn't gotten anything powerful enough to kill this thing yet. A spaceship from Mass Effect? I don't know how to pilot one, and it's a damn spaceship—I wouldn't manage it without training.
"I should've played more games and watched more anime…" I muttered, since nothing useful came to mind. I wasn't exactly a hardcore gamer or anime/movie/series fan who had seen everything.
My knowledge was pretty limited.
"What's that…" I noticed another "ridge" emerging from the water, and from above I could clearly see the shadow beneath the surface. And it was huge—even bigger than the first monster. And that's exactly where it was heading. The first monster seemed to sense it too and let out a threatening roar toward the water.
Soon, the second monster's head emerged—reptilian, vaguely familiar to me.
"No way… Godzilla?" I said in surprise. It really did look like Godzilla—and it was clearly heading straight for the first monster…