Second World

It was just a normal news show, Jack thought in relief.

He looked around the room again. This place brought back the memory. This was originally his parentʼs house. His parents had died in a car accident when he was still a baby. He had lived with his grandfather since then. They were not living in this house at first. His grandfather owned a martial art training school. It was not a large school, but all the ones training there were amongst the best. His grandfather was, after all, an internationally renowned martial art grandmaster.

His grandfather enjoyed teaching martial arts, he had goaded Jack to learn it since he was small. Jack, on the other hand, only show little interest as he did it partly as a normal hobby, and the other part was simply to honor his grandfather.

He did enjoy watching his grandfatherʼs pupils in training though. His time living in his grandfatherʼs training school was also full of fondness until an incident claimed the life of his grandfatherʼs most talented student. This student had just won the national championship and was just about to head out to compete for the world championship title, but he was murdered. The news said that it was an incident involving underworld gangsters, but his grandpa never believed it. He knew that this pride student of him would never involve himself with that kind of bullshit.

After that incident, his grandfather lost interest in teaching anymore and closed his training school. He and Jack went back to stay in his late parentʼs suburb house. This one.

The last he remembered, his grandfather still stayed in this house, enjoying the peace of suburb in his old age. He wondered if the geezer was still here.

”hihihi…”

While he was pondering about his grandfather, the giggle of the eerie woman was heard again. He swiveled and saw the woman on the TV screen.

ʼHoly merciful lord! That b*tch really shows up on TV!ʼ

Jack was lost down the memory lane that he completely forgot about what had led him to this place. That unnerving cackle had brought him back to reality.

Intending to keep his words, Jack lunged at the TV. He saw the woman was about to touch the screen from the inside. He had to do it before the bloody thing came out! He was not sure if he was brave enough to hit it if it came out.

”F*ck you!!” Jack yelled as his quarterstaff smashed violently onto the TV. His dread and anxiety caused him to not hold back at all in his swing. The flat and light TV set was practically being hit to a home run as it was flung from one side of the room to the other, hitting and bouncing off the wall in the process.

Jack was not done, he chased after the TV which was now on the floor. He brought his quarterstaff up in the air, then swung it down without reservation. A hard smashing sound was heard as the quarterstaff cracked the TV. Jack continued to hit it again and again. All the while screaming, ”letʼs see how you get out! Letʼs see how you get out!”

Only when the TV became multiple unrecognizable pieces on the ground, did he stop. He was panting as he used the quarterstaff to help him stand.

As he was panting, his eyes caught something at the opening that linked this living room to the kitchen. There was a head peeking out from behind the wall. It was the woman with her hair still covering her face.

Jack was frozen by the sight, he even forgot to breathe.

The peeking head disappeared back into the wall.

Then only Jackʼs lungs returned to suck air. But before he could make anything out of the scene just now. A very long naked leg suddenly came out from that opening. Soon the owner of the leg showed itself in all its splendor. It squatted down and ducked its head to fit itself through the opening. The head was still the woman with its long hair covering the face. The body, however, was a deformed shape of grotesque that composed of a large belly and four very long limbs. All of the body was naked with cracked skin.

”Why donʼt you want to play with me…? Why donʼt you play with me…?!!” The monstrous creature screamed as it approached. Each step of its long legs made a loud stomp and caused the flooring to crack.

Jack turned back and ran without hesitation. This was not something he could fight with a mere quarterstaff. He ran upstairs to the second floor. Half the way up he unconsciously thought of the past when he used to mock those victims in horror movies. About how when they were chased by killers, seven out of ten they always ran upstairs while they should have run out the front door. But in his defense, the front door was where he came from, so it was not his first choice when he ran.

He continued to run through the corridor after arriving upstairs. His quarterstaff was somewhere in the middle of the staircase. It had hindered his running through the narrow staircase so he let it go. He could hear the sound of the creatureʼs heavy footsteps as it climbed up the stairs.

Jack tried to open every door he encountered.

Locked!

Locked!

Locked!

ʼWhat the f*ck! I remember the doors in this house were never locked! Why are they all locked now?ʼ

The fourth door that he tried, which was also the one his grandfather used to sleep in, was fortunately not locked. He already saw the creatureʼs leg turning the corner when he barged into his grandfatherʼs room and hurriedly closed and locked the door.

ʼHow many times have I done this already? All I did is run, open a door, close a door. This is getting very annoying.ʼ While he was grumbling in his mind, he heard a familiar voice from behind, ”Afei?”

Jack looked back and saw his grandfather with his back to him. He unconsciously approached. ”Grandpa! I am so worried about you. There is something really wrong here. Do you…”

His words halted abruptly when his grandfatherʼs head turned to him. Problem was, only his head turned. His back was still facing him while his head turned a hundred eighty degrees to him. His grandfatherʼs face was full of unnatural wrinkles while his two eyes were absent. In place of the two eyes were two large empty sockets with the darkness inside that seemed to suck anything into it.

Anyone would have been scared shitless by the horror of the sight. However, instead of feeling the horror, a deep rage instead well up inside Jack. His hand clenched into a fist as it shot out. This fist of fury connected with the head of the abomination in front of him and sent it reeling back.

”Screw you! Do you think you are scary? My gramps is way scarier than you. How dare you impersonate him!”

He had had it with these constant scares and surprises. He lunged forward and sent a roundhouse kick at the abomination.

His kick was stopped by a strong grip of the fake grandfatherʼs hand. The mutated head of the grandfather swiveled back to a normal position. Its mouth started speaking, ”okay, kid. Itʼs enough.”

Jack was not hearing, he was already up in the air when his one leg was grabbed. He spun in the air and delivered another downward kick targeting the fake grandpaʼs head.

”Hey, I said itʼs enough!” the fake grandpa shouted. A shockwave stopped Jackʼs second kick on track before it pushed him flying back. Jack crashed on the door before bouncing back and landed on all four.

”Damn, kid. You are really energetic,” the fake grandpa said as he massaged his chin which had been the target of Jackʼs punch.

Jack quickly stood up and put on a fighting pose.

”Hey, you still want to go on? I said enough already. You have passed the test,” the fake grandpa said.

”Test?” Jack was confused. ”What do you mean?”

While he was talking, Jack realized something. He looked down at himself and saw that he was in a full armored suit. It was the ones he last wore in his dream before he woke up.

”This…”

He then heard a notification voice, ”Congratulations, you have passed the Test of Courage.”

He received a generous sum of exp points. This exp pushed his mage class past level 30. Now both his Warrior class and Mage class were ready to become elite classes.

”Itʼs not a dream?” Jack asked absent-mindedly. He was still having trouble absorbing all this. He summoned his status window and looked at the stats.

”Itʼs really not a dream?” A strange kind of relief washed over him. The feeling of losing something important and then rediscovering it again.

”Congratulations, young man.” Jack looked to the front to the source of the voice. The grotesque face of his grandfatherʼs doppelganger was very close to him.

”Holy mother of…!” Jack took out his Storm Breaker and was about to attack again.

”Hey! Hey! Can you calm down already? The test is over!” The fake grandpa uttered.

”Then stop freaking me out with that damn face! Canʼt you change it? Donʼt tell me your real face is a mutated version of my grandfather?!” Jack shot back.

😉