Mrs. Smith had gone on to explain that various ‘monsters’ have been appearing worldwide, as well as people like me and the little boy gaining various powers. After she finished her explanations I returned to my apartment.

Since it was around noon when I got back and I was hungry for the first time in a week, I started cooking lunch. I pulled out a pack of high-quality steak. I was trying not to think too much about the possible end of the world. While I was cooking, my mind started to wander until I was thinking about what types of food I could eat in the future. Eventually, my mind wandered to Pokémon. “What would a Snorlax steak taste like?” (It would definitely be oily). I also started to wonder what the berries would taste like and how their effects would transfer over.

Once the steak was finished, I moved it over to a plate and began washing the pan. As I washed it I considered my next step, I should, no, have to study what has been happening to the world that I completely neglected for the last week. After what Mrs. Smith showed me there was too much that I had missed. While I was playing around with my own powers. As I was about to place the pan down on the other side of the sink for it to dry, I heard a door open. Looking around, out of the corner of my eye I saw my closet door opening. When I turned to look at it, I saw a goblin! A goblin was coming out of the closet!

My next action was completely on reflex, I was still holding the frying pan, before I pulled it back, giving it a heavy wind up before throwing it. As the pan started to fly the goblin was looking around the area only to turn its head as the pan made contact with his face. With a *Thunk* the pan struck crushing his nose and seemingly knocking him out as he fell to the floor.  After a few moments for my brain to catch up with my body, I went to look at the thing.

Dark green skin, large nose (Even though this one is quite broken), beady yellow eyes, large ears. Height was about 5'5, it was taller than any of the goblins I fought during the last week. Decently muscled, If I were to compare to what I’ve been fighting over the last week, these are like the Olympic version while what I’ve been playing with were their inbred cousins. I know for a fact none of the goblins I used while training could escape. Was this like that wolfman Mrs. Smith showed me?

Looking up at my closet, “The fuck happened to the closet!?” It was a typical small closet that I used to store a couple of coats and a spare pair of shoes. Instead, now there was a stairway made of stone descending into the darkness. “Fuck! Well, there go my plans, and I was about to start eating”.

Cleaning up the goblin’s body came first. After he was placed away in a beautiful landscape with the help of the TV, I started collecting for exploration. Normally I just trained with some leather armor because of the mobility and because it didn’t really matter if I got a few scrapes. A cut or two would be no problem since Senzu Beans can regenerate lost limbs. (I should really investigate healing potions). However, in a proper fight, I will lose. I'm barely any different from a normal person.

There was also the creatures from my playtime, everything I’ve played with so far has been handicapped due to the nature of their existence as beginner monsters. I even dulled the dagger I gave the goblin.  Compared to what the one that came out of my closet was wearing. It had a black knife made from some sort of stone with a sharpened edge. A fur skirt and leather, no, animal skin body straps, he even had a bag filled with stone tools (This one was clearly intelligent by this alone).  Comparing the two is ridiculous. 

Over the years I've read more than a few stories with mysterious portals opening around the world.  Monsters invading through dungeons and the like. One of my pet peeves with these stories was always hand waving away guns by saying that ‘guns don’t work’ when they go into dungeons or the monsters in question are too sturdy for a bullet. While I preferred the ladder because it made some sense (Rhinos are kinda immune to low-caliber arms). Of course, I was going to test that theory.

So far, I haven’t tested guns on anything yet, I felt no need. Nothing I was playing with was dangerous to the point I had to kill them before they killed me. To be fair, the worst so far was getting my index finger dissolved. I got some shivers remembering the pain from the whole experience.

Anyway, if I’m going to explore a dark dungeon I need to be prepared. For gear, I grabbed a bulletproof vest, combat boots, and helmet. I added a headlamp to the front of the helmet. I also grabbed an item bag I found over the last week. I needed somewhere to store the bodies, I don’t know if they’ll be useful, as experiments perhaps? Either way, I didn’t want to leave them lying around. What would happen if they rot? At this point zombies were next. 

The new bag was similar to the pouch where I was storing my stuff currently. The difference being the isekai manga game world it came from. The over-the-shoulder satchel came with a quirk. While the original pouch required items to fit inside the bag normally if you wanted to store them. The satchel sucks items placed at the entrance of the bag inside. And from some early tests, large objects would stretch as they were sucked inside.

As for my weapon of choice, I held a Soma Prime (Warframe) in my hands. The heavy golden assault rifle had a base ammo capacity of 300 rounds. Using the in-game mod system and gave it close to 500 rounds. I had to take all the mods I had off to replace them this this set. Why this gun? My potato laptop had gone through some upgrades over the last week (replacing more than a few components). I, a gamer, had still been using it over the last year. Of the few games it could run, Warframe was one of them. Also, The ludicrous ammo capacity. I don't know how many I will use but with close to 500 rounds as long as it's not human wave tactics I will come out on top (probably). Holding the golden rifle in my hands I noticed a difference compared to the in-game depiction, the half-moon-shaped magazine was about 3/4 a full circle likely to account for the additional ammo. Though I do wonder "Does this count as overkill?” 

Putting on my ensemble of equipment and fastening the invisibility cloak over my shoulder before turning on the lamp on my helmet, I started down into the dark stone stairway to find out.

END

The Frying Pan: The only weapon with a 100% crit rate.

What do you think a Snorlax steak would taste like? Personally, I think it tastes like bear or pork, maybe bacon?

Soma: