But wait, how did I hear that from here?! It's about 35 meters from there to here?! Even with a window that takes up almost the entire front wall, there would still be a bathroom in the way, beyond the hallway.
Well, it doesn't matter (not at the moment, at least, but later...). What matters is that I could hear at least two people up ahead doing who knows what. My first reaction was to hide and grab something to defend myself, and the best I could find was a large shard of one of the plates.
The next moment, I considered it was the people who robbed us coming to see if they'd left anything valuable behind, or even if they were actually kidnappers and had come to take what they'd left (me), perhaps due to lack of space or something.
Although that still didn't make sense as to why the cars weren't in the garage but the remotes were still here.
But if that were the case, I'll be perfectly honest and say I feel quite offended at being left last. They even took the dogs before me? Com'on Man!!, right?!
As soon as I thought this, I decided to act and crouched down to the door that led to the hallway, which would lead to the living room, which would lead to the backyard. I moved as quickly and quietly as possible, always looking straight ahead, and saw two little ones doing it.
Luckily, they were just sitting and seemed busy checking out some injuries. Then I realized something else was wrong: how could a nearsighted person like me see so clearly from almost 10 meters away?!
No! I'd leave that for after I'd dealt with whoever was in front of me. From my position, I could only see two people facing me, one squatting and the other sitting. Both seemed to be looking straight ahead and hadn't noticed me until now. I could see that they were both wearing some kind of olive-green clothing that was very tight, it almost looked like their skin.
Well, fashion choices weren't my priority at the moment; concentrating, I crept closer and closer. Thankfully, they not only had their backs turned but were also turned slightly to the left as I approached from the right side of the corridor.
When one of the shadows seemed to turn and head right, luckily, I had already reached the bathroom and was able to hide just in time. As soon as I turned to check on things, I realized the bathroom had also been ransacked and vandalized. Ointments, shampoos, conditioners, even my mother and sister's hair clips had been stolen, and the mirror had been broken.
'Someone out there is about to get seven years of bad luck.'
I was furious seeing the extreme disregard these people had for my house. Even if you stole, there's no reason to do this kind of thing, right?
But I took advantage of the broken glass and grabbed the largest shard I could find. Leaning back against the wall, I placed the shard in the lowest corner in front of the door so I could see the front yard. And I couldn't believe what I saw.
I might have expected to see some guys crouched down with hoods or masks, maybe not necessarily big and strong (especially since that would be a problem for me, so I was hoping they were the skinny druggie type), but I didn't expect them to be so small.
Or that they were wearing nothing but loincloths, or that they were holding weapons made of stone wrapped around wooden branches. Or that they were both bald, with pointy ears and noses, and warts scattered across their faces.
And I definitely didn't expect that what I thought were sweatshirts or extremely tight green t-shirts, looking like a second skin, were actually their skin.
As an otaku and nerd, I recognized these creatures as soon as I looked at them.
Goblins, one of the most well-known races in all of fiction, are among the weakest creatures, but they can vary greatly in strength. They range from trash, low, medium, to medium-high, if they're antagonists. If they're protagonists, they can become overpowered.
As soon as I thought about it, I threw the idea out the window. Could goblins actually exist in the real world?
Only if they were an artificial race created by scientists in secret and had somehow escaped confinement would that be believable (if you really tightened your grip on reality and rationality). But no matter how hard I tried to convince myself I'd misjudged them, the fact that they were out there didn't change.
And they continued speaking in high-pitched, rapid-fire voices, using "gigigig" gestures and pointing outside with their stone weapons, or at each other. Until one of them seemed to get tired and came toward the room. The closer he got, the more real his existence seemed to me, and I could see he had several scratches, from which a dark green, almost black liquid oozed that I imagined was his blood.
How could goblins really exist? Could it have anything to do with my family disappearing, especially with the cars? Why did they leave me behind? How could one thing be related to the other? I'm not even making sense to myself!!!
The more I tried to think, the more lost I became, and the hunger I felt wasn't helping at all. As soon as I turned my attention back to my hunger and thirst, an overwhelming urge took over.
I honestly don't know how or why, but one moment I was sitting on the toilet inside the house, the next I was running across the room toward the wide-open, broken living room window (oh great, so it didn't do any good to close the gate). And the next I was shoving the sharp piece of plate into the goblin's head.
He seemed more startled than afraid or angry when I did this, but he didn't have much time to understand what had happened.
Soon, dark green blood began to gush from the wound like a fountain.
The same sensation that had taken over my body returned. Instead of raising my arm and attacking again, I lowered my head and bit hard into the goblin's neck. As soon as my tongue touched the green skin, I wanted to pull my mouth away as quickly as possible, but my body wouldn't listen, and soon, green blood gushed into my mouth.
It was the worst sensation I'd ever felt in my life. The blood not only looked like a greenish tar, but its texture was also oily, with a taste almost as undiluted as fish oil mixed with beef entrails, boiled with boldo leaves.
Nourishing? Maybe.
Tasty? Even if it cured all the diseases in the world, I couldn't say that.
Besides, I didn't even know if it could do me any harm, but at the moment I wasn't in control of my body, and who knows why, my hunger and thirst were slowly diminishing. Even though I was sure I would vomit it all up as soon as I got the chance,
My willpower aside, my body didn't stop, and I continued sucking blood until the goblin's limp body suddenly glowed and disappeared, leaving only a small red stone, the size of a pebble, on the ground. And soon after, I heard two.
[Experience gained
Congratulations on increasing your level
Level 0 —> Level 1]
The first sounded exactly like a game system announcement, just like in the novels. The second was—
"Gi?! Gigigig!!! Gig gigigig!!!!!!!"
The irritating sound of the second goblin, already coming at me with a stone dagger ready to stab me. But strangely, I didn't feel any fear, even though my body still felt heavy, as if I had 5-kilo weights tied to my arms and legs.
I had a certainty, coming from nowhere, that the goblin couldn't hit me, and as soon as the dagger came toward me, I calmly turned to the right, and the goblin passed in front of me, almost as if in slow motion.
As I dodged, I raised my hand with the shard of glass, which immediately impaled him. Just to make sure he was dead, I hit him in the back of the head with the shard of the plate.
[Experience gained]
At the same time this notification appeared, the goblin's body flashed and disappeared, leaving behind the knife, a rock, and the fang necklace he was wearing.
I just stood there in the backyard staring at the two small pools of dark green blood, trying to find some "logical" explanation for what had just happened.
1. I fainted out of nowhere with my family.
2. I woke up, found no one, and the house was completely torn apart as if a typhoon had passed through.
3. Shortly after, I encountered two goblins in the backyard, and I managed to cover a distance of at least 10 meters in 2 seconds, or even less.
4th I turn one of them into a juice box (hhhaaaannn I better get rid of that memory, remembering it makes me remember the taste and that makes me want to vomit), and the other I killed without even hesitating with as much ease as I would kill an ant.
And 5th, to top it all off, an RPG-style notification appeared when I killed them both. Besides getting a stone, probably a magic core, their weapons, and maybe their equipment? (I couldn't tell if the necklace was equipment or an accessory.)
Not that I had much time to try to organize myself.
"Uhhhhuuuuhhhhhuuuuunnnnnn Auuuuuuu"
As soon as I heard that howl, I involuntarily shivered and looked around, trying to figure out where it came from. Unlike the goblins' "gigis," which were merely annoying, this howl gave me a tremendous wave of fear. And it gets worse.
"Uhhhhuuuuuhhhhhuuuuunnnnnn Auuuuuuu"
The howls were getting louder and closer.
I can't say why, but I was sure they were coming specifically this way. But I sure as hell don't want to have to fight whatever's coming.