It sure felt odd being inside a gigantic bubble that could flood at any moment. It made me quite anxious even though I could always teleport out with my ruby seed.

But even that fear didn’t stop me from looking around the unknown place. I leisurely scanned through the ruined houses and cracked bricks paving the floor. The main spectacle, though, was the large circular structure in the distance. That had to be the boss colosseum. My portal sense was telling me our goal was in that direction.

“Sooo, you said something about people coming here from another world, right? Who exactly are those people? Where are they now?” Frank asked as we strolled through the street of what could have once been a thriving city.

“Well… I think it was trying to imply that the monsters here are those people.”

“Wait, seriously? That’s messed up.”

“Yeah… I mean, it could also be someone else. Maybe they came in through the portal and were scared off by these monsters and now are hiding somewhere?”

“Ooor, were promptly eaten by them.”

I grimaced. “Yeah…”

“Well, alright. How about we try talking to them? The monsters, I mean.”

I turned to Frank with a raised eyebrow. “Talking to monsters? You think they would do anything?”

He shrugged. “Hey, it worked in that one game. Understory or whatever. Can’t see why we couldn’t at least try it.” He looked at me. “Also! Didn’t you have some magical talking powers that turned NPCs into real boys and girls?”

“I guess…” I agreed in the end.

We made our way to the plaza without meeting a single one of the monsters who supposedly inhabited this place… Or without meeting any players, now that I thought about it.

“This is weird. Where are all the players? You would think everyone would flock to the new content,” I pointed out.

“Well, it’s been like a week, so it’s not that new anymore.” Frank shrugged. “Hold on, let me ask.” He stared into space for a minute again before getting back to me.

“Oh… so apparently the main spawn point for monsters moves around the city, and the rest only gets some stragglers. Most players camp either that or the boss.”

“Right…” Spawn points… “Still, it’s odd that we didn’t see anyone even on our way here.”

“I mean… it’s a pretty high-level area, so most people here are gonna be the hardcore drop farmer type, right?”

“I guess…?”

We moved through the plaza as we discussed the oddity.

“Huh, there’s water inside this,” Frank pointed out as we passed by the half-wrecked fountain.

I leaned in to look and found out he was right. “Weird. Why didn’t the bubble drain this as well?”

“Eh, maybe the bubble uses its own special ethereal magic water, and ignores normal water?”

“Hmm… I guess it would make sense… Isn’t the human body something like fifty percent water too? It would kill everyone if it drained all the water.”

“Yeah, exactly!” Frank nodded.

“Wait.” I stopped. “But this thing isn’t a human,” I said whilst poking Frank’s avatar. “Does it even have any water in it? What if real people are drained of water in here?”

“Well, uh… That would be really bad, wouldn’t it?”

I frowned at him. “Maybe that’s the reason why the refugees turned into monsters! Had their body water replaced by some kind of magical bubble water and it corrupted them!”

“Huh… That sounds very bad. Do you… wanna go back then? I mean, we should still have a lot of time till the bubble fills again, but…” Frank trailed off, waiting for my answer.

In truth, I was quite scared of the bubble water having any side effects, but I wasn’t ready to go back quite yet without confirming where the portal was.

“No, let’s keep going, at least until we know for sure where the portal is.”

“Alright then, your call. Forward we go!”

We pressed on, toward the colosseum.

“Say… the world of these people had been flooded and they escaped into this one, right?” Frank asked.

“Mhmm?”

“Do you think the bubble is like… the thing that flooded that world? Like, part of it got through the portal?”

“Huh… yeah, that could be it. That would mean the portal should be roughly in the middle of the bubble, which –” I looked around, scanning the edges of the bubble. “– I think it is.”

“Welp, that solves that. Now the only question is, what the hell is this bubble? Who made it? Why?”

I merely shrugged.

Just as I was starting to think we would make it to the colosseum without ever running into one of those monsters, one of them wandered out in front of us from a side-street.

It looked like a cross of a zombie and a fish, wearing roman-styled armor and a spear.

“Oh, here we go! Time for your talking magic, general!” Frank yelled out as he prepared his axe.

I looked the monster in the eye and hesitated for a second. Would my words really get through?

Before it could charge at us, I shouted, “Hey! You there!”

The thing’s head snapped to me, making me flinch.

“I… Uh, do you understand me?!”

It kept staring without moving or making a sound. I didn’t know whether that was good or bad, but it was definitely creeping me out.

The staring contest went on for a minute as I organized my thoughts.

“Are you… from the other world? The one that got flooded? Do you still remember anything?”

As soon as I finished this time, the thing growled, gripped its spear, and began charging at us.

“Aaah, seems like you hit a sore spot, general!” Frank yelled out and prepared to intercept the attack.

“Argh, sorry! I didn’t mean to offend you… or something!” I still tried communicating as I jumped behind my bull-headed friend.

“I think our negotiations failed!” Frank shouted as the spear tip clinked against his axe’s blade. Frank was using its large area as a shield.

“Dang it!” I pulled out my own weapon, and circled the two, trying to find a way to join the fray. But with both the spear and the axe wildly swinging around, I had trouble doing so.

“Argh! Shit, this thing is stronger than it looks!” Frank shouted as the spear got through his blocks and hit his leg.

With Frank not swinging his axe around, though, I finally found an opening and went in for the slash at the monster’s spine from behind.

I didn’t expect the thing to react instantly and stab me with the blunt end of the spear.

“Agh!”

Right in the stomach.

“No! Dammit! I’m the meat shield! Attack me!” I heard Frank shout as I gathered myself off the ground.

Once I finally overcame the pain and lifted up my head, I saw the monster stabbing through my friend again. This time, Frank turned into a ragdoll, dropped to the ground, and then began glowing.

The monster immediately turned to me and charged me.

“Shi–”

Despite my panic, I managed to fish out a ruby seed out of my pockets and tossed it into my mouth just as the spear came down on me. I jerked out of the way but still felt something puncture my arm even as the world swirled in bright red.

A moment that felt like an eternity later, I found myself back in my room, next to my plant pot, holding my injured arm.

I whimpered and panted as tears gathered in my eyes.

Getting stabbed in real life hurt! 

Worse still, if I hadn’t dodged at all, I would have a hole in my stomach and probably be dead.

I breathed in and released a shaky sigh. “Well, that could have gone better,” I murmured to myself.

But at least I was alive.

Safe and sound at home, I went to grab one of the healing potions I had stashed away.