The rustling of the bushes hadn't returned since it had paused earlier, but Rowan remained stiff with tension, his rusted sword gripped with trembling hands as though that alone could ward off the terror that brewed in his gut. "Okay… okay, I've seen this thing in the game," he muttered rapidly to himself, shifting his weight from foot to foot in the dirt, kicking up dust. "It's just a Blinker, right? Easy kill. First monster. Baby-tier mob. Like, even a level one with a spoon can take it out in three hits, right?"
[Frayie: Bro's about to get jumped by the tutorial mob.]
[Frostie: I give him 10 seconds before he trips over his own sword.]
[Toxinitic: He's panicking more than my mom when I said I deleted system32.]
Rowan tried to steady his breathing, which was now more erratic than it should've been, considering how harmless the creature was supposed to be. But then again, that was when he was controlling a character—pixels and commands, stats and cooldowns. Now, everything was visceral. The smell of the forest—moist earth and bark and something subtly metallic—was pungent in his nostrils. His fingers didn't feel like W, A, S, and D anymore—they were shaking, slick with sweat. And the sword? Despite not being particularly heavy, it felt like he was holding a damn steel beam. "Why is it this hard to breathe?" he muttered, one eye squinting in the direction of the bush.
And then, as if summoned by dread alone, it leapt.
The Blinker shot out from the bush like a spring-loaded gremlin, its single bulbous eye wide open and bloodshot, fixating on Rowan with uncanny, twitchy focus. It let out a screech that was too high-pitched to be intimidating but somehow still managed to make Rowan's spine contract.
"Oh sh—!" he swung the sword without thinking, an awkward horizontal slash that started way too far to the left and ended in nothing but air, missing the Blinker by a wide margin.
[Goed: LMAO whiffed like he's in Elden Ring.]
[Reopy: bro didn't even lock on.]
[CAsssI: HE'S GONNA DIE TO A BLINKER I'M SCREAMING]
The Blinker hopped sideways, its skinny limbs flexing unnaturally as it prepared to leap again. Rowan backed away instinctively, nearly stumbling over a root behind him. "Okay, okay, calm down—just gotta hit it—just hit it once, right? No big deal!" he told himself, positioning the sword again with both hands like he'd seen countless characters do in Eon. "You're a gamer, Rowan. You've done this a hundred times. Just translate your skills to real life. It's just like… VR! But with more pain if you mess up!"
[Granfort: You're a gamer, name every sword swing.]
[Salva: "Translate your skills" bro this is real life now.]
This time, when the Blinker lunged, Rowan instinctively ducked—pure, desperate reaction—and managed to shove the sword upward in a crude stab. It grazed the creature's side, drawing a thin line of dark-blue blood, which splashed across his hand and sleeve. The impact sent a dull vibration up his arm, startling him more than the blood.
"It bleeds?! What the hell? I mean, yeah, of course it bleeds, but why does it feel so real?!" Rowan yelled, backing up again. "This isn't some fake-ass damage animation—this thing is alive! It's like I just stabbed a living... thing! Which I did! Oh god... what if I get infected or something?"
[Doka: It's a video game mob, not a disease carrier.]
[FlameFrags: lmao]
The Blinker hissed and circled him with uneven steps. It was small, maybe just up to his knees, but its twitchy movements made it hard to track. Rowan's eyes followed it with a paranoid glare, and he adjusted his stance, trying to imitate how his character stood in the game. His knees were bent, sword held at a diagonal angle—except in practice, his calves were burning already and his wrists ached from gripping the sword so tightly.
"Chat, I swear, this thing is way harder than I remember. I don't care what y'all say, this is not the same Blinker," Rowan panted. "In the game, they just kind of waddled forward and let you stab them like they were legally blind. This one's got moves."
[Terhio: It's called depth perception, bro.]
[Vonly: Watch him TPK himself at level 1.]
The Blinker lunged again, this time faking left before veering right. Rowan panicked and tried to parry with a wild backhand slash that had no form or follow-through. The blade smacked into a branch with a dull clang, doing nothing useful, while the Blinker bit into his leg with tiny sharp teeth that felt way too real.
"AUGHHH! IT BIT ME?!" he howled, stumbling and shaking his leg violently. "Why does it have teeth?! That's not even part of the Blinker model! I swear to god, it never bit me before! I'm gonna get rabies!"
[Goldi: Bitten by a Blinker, now he's gonna turn into one.]
[Hai: Next up, Blinker Rowan boss fight.]
Despite the pain—which was surprisingly sharp and throbbed almost instantly—Rowan swung downward and struck the creature on the head. The blade made contact with a sickening crunch, and the Blinker crumpled to the ground like a broken puppet, its body dissolving slowly into faint pixels of blue light that floated away into the air like dust caught in sunlight.
Rowan stood there for several seconds, bent over and panting, the sword hanging limply from his hands. "I... I did it... I freaking did it," he gasped, letting himself fall onto his knees. "I just killed something. I mean, yeah, it was a Blinker... but still! That was... exhausting. Holy hell."
Then, a soft ding echoed in his ears, and a green notification box blinked into existence in front of his vision:
***
LEVEL UP!
***
You are now Level 2.
Unused Stat Points: 3
Another box popped up, wider and with stylized glowing letters:
[STATS]
Strength: 1
Speed: 1
Mana: 1
Intelligence: 1
Durability: 1
Dexterity: 1
Endurance: 1
Luck: 1
Perception: 1
Agility: 1
Unused Points: 3
"Oh hell yes!" Rowan grinned for the first time since entering this madness, his fatigue momentarily forgotten. "I knew I could level up by fighting! That's how it works in Eon, and it works the same here—thank god. That means I can grind! I can get stronger!"
[Ghost: Did bro just get a power-up from beating a goblin with one eye.]
[Salva: It took him like 4 minutes to beat a Blinker and he's hyped.]
[FlameFrags: Let him have this moment, he almost died lol.]
Now kneeling and studying the stat screen like it was a divine gift, Rowan rested his chin on his hand, muttering to himself. "Okay, three stat points... what do I go for? I mean, I was slow as hell just now—couldn't even dodge properly. If I was faster, I could've landed a hit quicker and dodged that weird little lunge, right?"
Without waiting for a response, he tapped the word Speed three times. The number jumped to 4, and a rush of energy surged through his legs, like adrenaline being force-fed into his muscles.
"There. Done. I'm officially faster! That's gotta help—better footwork, better dodging, better everything. Speed's king, right?"
[Frayie: WHAT? All in speed? Seriously?]
[Reopy: Oh no, he's a Sonic main.]
[Toxinitic: You should've put it in strength, idiot.]
[Frostie: Mana! You should've done MANA, now you can't cast spells, dumbass.]
Rowan stood up, suddenly hyperaware of the chat's flood of opinions. "No, no, no, listen! Listen!" he said, raising a hand as if they could see his pleading expression. "Speed makes sense, okay? You can't hit what you can't catch, right? Like—like Muhammad Ali said: float like a butterfly, stab like an idiot!"
[Granfort: That's not what he said.]
[Doh: Can't hit what you can't think.]
[Toxinitic: Bro's cooking with a broken stove.]
"I don't need strength right now!" Rowan continued, pacing in a small circle, his words tumbling out in a rambling frenzy. "If I'm fast enough, I can run circles around anything! I'll kite mobs, run up behind 'em, poke, and dash! Classic rogue strategy! Hit and run, baby! This is tactical!"
[CAsssI: You're gonna die to a squirrel.]
[Goed: Tactical cowardice at its finest.]
"But seriously!" Rowan threw his hands in the air, still holding the sword in one. "I just need to survive long enough to get better gear, better skills. Once I get a ranged weapon or some actual abilities—maybe even a class—then we're cooking. Then I'll build properly."
He paused, sighed, and looked at his bloodstained sleeve where the Blinker had bit him. "I mean... assuming I don't bleed out from this."
[Manepare: You should've put points in Durability, bro.]
"Shat up"