Lucien hesitated for a moment in front of the incoming screen. It was something he was going to do anyway, but the idea of accepting a quest stirred up the game addict buried deep inside him. Besides, whatever this so-called Story was, he would be able to get information about it.
"No… don't come, stay away!"
the girl lying on the ground screamed. She was crawling on the floor, trying to get away from the goblins approaching her.
Lucien took a deep breath. 'Only three goblins. The easiest creatures in every game. You can do this.'He tightly gripped the metal handle of his umbrella and charged at the goblins.
The girl and the three goblins turned their heads toward Lucien's sound, trying to understand what was happening. Lucien attacked the goblin standing at the very back with his umbrella. The goblin was thrown back by the blow to its head and crashed into the cabinets several meters away before falling to the ground.
The fallen goblin first stopped moving slowly, then after a few seconds, it rose into the air as a mixture of white and light blue cubes and disappeared.
Lucien felt the excitement of defeating his first enemy and the confusion caused by what he had just witnessed at the same time. There was no time to lose. Lucien had killed the first goblin, but two goblins were still there and had already shaken off their confusion.
One of the goblins leapt at Lucien with a short, hollow metal rod that looked like it was made from the leg of a school desk. Lucien blocked the incoming strike with his umbrella, but he was still pushed back a bit.
"This can't be right. How can a goblin be this strong?"
The goblin continued its attacks, pushing Lucien back step by step. After a few more steps, he felt something solid behind him—he had already reached the wall. There was nowhere left to escape.
While blocking the first goblin, he noticed the other goblin approaching from behind. This one was holding a spear that looked like it was made from a broom handle—smooth, but clearly amateurish.
It approached slowly, then suddenly started running, jumped, and thrust the spear toward Lucien to stab him.
Lucien dodged to the side at the last moment. The spear hit the wall and broke, and the goblin began to fall to the ground.
"This is my chance."
Lucien swung his umbrella with all his strength. The goblin took a heavy blow to the head without being able to retaliate or escape, and it turned into cubes midair and vanished.
"Now it's just you and me, you filthy goblin."
Lucien looked at the last goblin in exhaustion. How could something so short and scrawny be this strong?
The final goblin charged at him. Lucien stepped back to escape, but there was nowhere left to go.
Unexpectedly, for the first time in his life, instead of retreating from danger, he took a step forward and ran toward the goblin, delivering a powerful kick.
The goblin fell to the ground but did not break into cubes—it was clearly not dead yet.
"Let's finish this."
Lucien walked up to the wounded goblin lying on the ground and made one final move with the sharp metal tip of his umbrella, ending it.
As the last goblin also broke into cubes, Lucien was exhausted, terrified, and on the verge of passing out—but he was happier, more excited, and prouder than ever before.
Just a few hours ago, he had been a humiliated coward. Now, he was a hero who had fought three goblins alone, defeated them, and saved the girl.
"Hey, are you okay?"
Lucien approached the girl.
The girl was trembling with fear, looking at Lucien with teary eyes. Her orange hair, tied back with a hairband, was messy, and her school uniform was stained in several places with what Lucien assumed was blood.
"I, um… yes, I'm okay. Thank you."
The girl slowly stood up and looked at Lucien in disbelief.
"Aren't you the boy from this morning? The one Rowan humiliated in front of the whole school? If you're this strong, why did you put up with his bullying?"
All of Lucien's pride and happiness vanished in an instant. He was no longer the hero who saved the girl—he was the boy bullied by Rowan.
"Uh, yeah. My name is Lucien. I've had some problems until today, but I've decided to be someone else now."
He looked at the girl with curious eyes.
"Who are you?"
"My name is Mai. I'm a senior. When all this started, class was about to begin, so I was heading to my classroom. Then everything happened."
Lucien's curiosity grew even more. Something had happened while he was unconscious, and it had affected the entire school.
"What happened? The last thing I remember is fighting with Rowan and accidentally falling down. When I opened my eyes, there was no one there, and I saw some strange text."
Mai looked at Lucien in disbelief.
"Were you asleep all this time? You mean you didn't see anything at all?"
Lucien shook his head to say no.
"Well, I guess I can tell you what I know as a way of thanking you. I think everything happened just before the second class started. It began to rain outside, and suddenly it got violent. Before we could understand what was going on, the power went out, and the doors stopped opening as if they were locked. Even doors that were already open slammed shut on their own. Some people were standing near the doors and were seriously injured.
While everyone was trying to understand what was happening, a sudden silence fell. Everyone said that something appeared in front of them. Our names, height, age, weight—all our personal information was there. Some thought it was some kind of government experiment. Anyway, it felt like it knew us very well.
While everyone was arguing about what was happening, we noticed something different for each person—a player class. Some of us were labeled as Forced Players, but a few were described differently. There were some kids in the class who were always talking about games and anime. Their player classes looked different. One was labeled FPS Player, and the other two were Adventure Players.
As we discussed what was happening, we realized that these matched their favorite game genres. The rest of us weren't really into games.
A short while later, a quest called 'training mission' appeared for all of us, demanding that we survive or defeat a boss monster. That was when real chaos began.
All the doors suddenly opened wide on their own. Some of the boys went out into the hallway to see what was happening—and that's when we saw them. Goblins. Hundreds of them.
They attacked all the classrooms. Some of us ran, some stayed behind to buy time, but none of them came back. Some people managed to hide in certain parts of the school and built barricades. Instead of trying to break those barricades, the goblins started chasing those who were left outside.
It was like they were hunting. Chasing those who ran away.
You already know the rest. No one took me or my friend Rei in. Everywhere was already sealed off with barricades."
Lucien froze, his breath caught in his chest at what he had heard. Goblins in the real world and a task they had to complete—it sounded insane.
The FPS Player, Adventure Player, and Forced Player concepts also made things even more interesting. He wondered about his own player class.
He immediately opened the system screen again.
"Congratulations. You have successfully defeated the goblin hunters. Reward: Story Book, Bronze Mystery Box, Access to the Key Market."
Lucien read the text on the screen. As he finished reading, an old green-covered book and a small, unremarkable box about the size of a fist appeared in front of him.
After picking up the box and the book, Lucien opened his character page again. The information was the same, but this time two things caught his attention—a button labeled "Shop" and a line written under his name:
"GENRE MASTER : Extreme Mode Player."