A jingle from my phone woke me up.

I groaned and blinked my eyes open as I blindly reached for it. When I finally fished it out and squinted at it, I saw an unread message from Casey.

As I went to unlock it and take a look, it jingled again. Casey had sent a link to some news website and then Frank had replied with ‘Fuuuck’ right after that.

That woke me up.

I sat up in alarm and opened the link to read whatever was happening. As soon as I saw the title, I paled.

‘Starlift employees turning into zombies?’

No. Nonono. NO!

I read further, the pit in my stomach only got deeper and deeper.

Someone had brought the plague into space with them where Casey’s global surge of magic couldn’t reach. The plague had just continued developing in those people and now it was at a critical point.

‘Also, headaches,’ Casey wrote. ‘I drained myself of mana too…’

My heart sank.

Casey was getting headaches? Had the virus been dormant in all of us, only held back by the mana? Had we doomed the world by draining it of mana?

My phone began ringing as I stared at the news article in horror. I picked it up.

“Guys… This is… uh, really bad, isn’t it?” Frank said, sounding as horrified as I was. “Speaking of headaches, I feel like I’m also getting some mild ones.”

I was too, now that I thought about it. Well, it could have just been my morning tiredness, but…

‘What do we do…?’ Casey’s shaking voice asked over the line.

‘We could just… flood the world with mana again…?’ Frank suggested.

‘That would bring magic to this world… Foreign laws of physics… Utter chaos, probably…’

‘Well… Yeah… But better than a zombie apocalypse…?’

We had accomplished nothing with our stunt. If anything, we might have even made things worse. Why had I thought everything had been solved? I knew about the stupid dream…

Maybe I was still hoping it wouldn’t have to come to pass.

I took a deep breath.

‘Guys… We have one more option…’

There was a moment of silence from both of them before Frank spoke with some trepidation.

‘We go fight the octopus boss… right?’

‘Yeah…’

‘Right… Everyone agrees it’s what we have to do…?’ Frank asked, seemingly hoping for someone to say no.

‘I… Yeah. We have to. We need to take responsibility. This is all our fault,’ Casey confirmed, seeming resolute despite her weak voice.

I took another deep breath.

‘Yeah… Let’s do it. I’ll be waiting for you two.’

‘Right… Okay, fine! I’m on my way! We can do this, guys! That oversized calamari has nothing on us!’ Frank exclaimed before disconnecting from the call.

‘Yeah… I’m coming too,’ Casey confirmed.

The call ended and I finally got out of my sitting position on the bed and looked around. My room was still littered with the various items we had smuggled here with Frank yesterday. What did we need? What could we use? 

I took a deep shuddering breath.

For the time being, I needed to calm down. Rushing in panic and being high-strung had ended up with us causing thousands of deaths last time. I needed to take a deep breath and take it slow. Frank and Casey weren’t here yet, anyway. Rushing more would just end up with me making more mistakes.

“Okay…” I mumbled.

I ignored the items and headed to the bathroom to take care of morning hygiene, all while trying to ignore the fact that there were people out there slowly turning into zombies because of what we had done.

After that, I changed straight into my battle dress, wore the phoenix amulet, and made sure my extra ruby seeds were safe and secure. Lastly, I logged onto RLO and grabbed the water-breathing items out of my bank. I had the potions and necklaces, although… I wondered whether wearing both the phoenix amulet and the necklace would work at the same time. You couldn’t equip two neck slot items at the same time in the game, but in real life…? Would both of them work if I wore them simultaneously?

I didn’t want to risk it. The phoenix amulet had saved my life once and now we were going into what could possibly be our most dangerous expedition yet. I wasn’t too keen on compromising my safety net.

We would have to keep drinking the potions, then.

Other than that, I also grabbed some buff potions and then hesitated for a second as I eyed my best equipment. Part of me didn’t want to lose all this since it took so much effort to get… but then I realized that I was being stupid.

Sure, my character might not be getting those items back if I smuggled them over, but so what? What use were these items on my game character if I needed to fight with my real body?

None. I was being pointlessly vain and it could get us killed.

With that in mind, I grabbed anything that could even remotely be useful and teleported to Golden Woods once more. After confirming that nobody was looking, I tore open the portal and smuggled everything back into my room.

Just as I brought the last few items back, I heard the doorbell.

I rushed to open it and ushered Frank and Casey – who had run into each other on their way here – into my room.

We immediately began strategizing as the two changed into their own battle gear. From the pile of my extra expensive items, I put on the Pegasus Bracers – which boosted speed and dexterity, and allowed me to double jump and float in the air – and the Ring of Storms – which gave a massive boost to movement and attack speed while the enchantment boosted all my attacks with electricity.

“I wish we could use the skill scrolls, ugh…” Frank whined as he put on a breastplate made out of blizzard hydra scales.

“Why can’t we…?” Casey asked, as her feet slid into the enchanted shoes.

“I don’t know! We couldn’t figure it out! We even deciphered the text, but it just says what the skill does!”

“Let me look…” Casey picked up the flash step skill scroll, unrolled it, and frowned at it from various angles.

Then, a moment later, the scroll shimmered and disappeared in motes of light as Casey’s eyes widened.

Frank and I stared at her.

“What the heck?! How did you do that?! Did you get the skill?!”

“Uhh… I just activated the runes on it. Just like the staff,” she said with a shrug.

I palmed my face with a groan and once again cursed my utter inability to use magical items.

“There were runes on it?!” Frank demanded. “Dammit! We should have known!”

“... Anyway, I think I can now do… this!” Casey said a moment before she blurred past us to the other side of the room– “Whoa?!” – and crashed into the wall.

I continued to stare, but I could tell that Frank was holding in his laughter.

“I… might need to practice a bit with it,” Casey said with a hint of embarrassment in her voice as she picked herself back up. “But this is going to be really useful for dodging.”

“You’re right!” Frank agreed with a grim before picking up the stone skin skill scroll. “Alright… Let’s see… Activating runes…”

It took him a couple of seconds, but after a while, just like with Casey, the scroll eventually turned into motes of light and Frank whooped in excitement.

“Awesome! Okay, and then…” His skin rippled and darkened even further, going from pale brown to dark gray. “Nice!” He turned to me. “Try stabbing me!”

I looked at him, deadpan for a second… before complying. I drew my katana and in one smooth motion slashed at his hand… before stopping right next to it.

He yelped and jumped back. “Whoa, what the heck?! I was joking!”

My deadpan look continued as I took a quick step closer and tapped his hand with the tip of my sword. It let out a metallic ding.

“Huh… Neat.” He looked at his iron-skinned hand in wonder. “Anyway! I still need my weapon and I think I have some more skill scrolls on my character too! Can I log in here?”

I sheathed my katana and gave him a shrug. “Go ahead. We’re going to need everything we can get.”

With my permission, Frank logged me out and logged into his own account before grabbing everything he wanted from his own bank and teleporting to the Golden Woods. Casey, in the meantime, kept practicing the flash step.

One more smuggling session later and we had one more flash step skill scroll – Frank had apparently also done the treasure hunt at some point – two keen eye skill scrolls, one inhuman strength skill scroll, and an adamantium axe.

I grabbed the flash step skill scroll, and although it took me almost a minute, successfully managed to use it and learn the skill. It felt different from learning the true form skill. I felt disoriented at the information entering my head at first, but quickly adapted to it. After all, I had experience with a certain telepathic dragon. The only real difference here was that this information latched on and stuck around.

With that one out of the way, Casey and I used the keen eye skill scrolls – granting us the skill that enhanced precision and timing – while Frank used the inhuman strength one – which, as expected, increased his strength by a substantial amount.

“Damn, I wonder if I can lift trucks and stuff now,” he murmured as he flexed his hands.

I also tried the flash step skill, but unlike Casey, I seemed to be a natural at using it. I could use it to cross precise distances and could use it to jump in any direction, not just forward. Casey might have grumbled a bit about unfairness, but…

“I’m terrible at magic in exchange,” I reminded her with a shrug. “It’s only fair.”

“Right… Anyway, this is all great, but we should really get going. We can’t get distracted by the skills,” Casey said.

I winced. She was right. This was no time to be playing around. We needed to stop the zombie apocalypse.

“Okay, okay! Time to go fight the boss, then!” Frank clapped his hands and looked between us. “Everyone ready?”

I swallowed.

“Everyone has a phoenix amulet?” Casey asked and we nodded. “Ruby seeds secured?” More nods. “Water breathing potions? Buff potions? Healing potions? The teleport flower?”

After double-checking we had everything we needed, Casey took a deep breath and gripped her staff tighter.

“Okay. If you guys are ready, then I’m ready too.”

“Yeah… I’m ready,” I confirmed.

“Let’s do this!”

All three of us took the blue withered teleport flower, raised it above our heads, and a flash of gray enveloped us.

The accompanying chill going down my spine made me even more nervous than the first time I’d experienced this teleport.