MrBoness

-- WSA 2025 Entry --

“Five… Four… Three… Two… One…”
As the countdown towards the new year went on to the last second, Miles looked up to the sky, just as everybody else did.

In the middle of the crowded street, Miles for once felt like he belonged. Being a teenage gamer, living with his parents, and trying to build a life as a streamer, he did not feel like leaving his room every day.

But there, in the middle of that crowded street, with everyone around him paying attention to the sky, the countdown on the digital billboard, and mostly anything else but him., Miles felt like a ghost.

A welcomed ghost, but a ghost, after all.

With a smile on his unseen face, he looked up as the countdown reached one, and everybody sang in unison.
‘HAPPY NEW YEAR!”

But Miles’ eyes widened as he watched in utter horror, and curiosity, even, hovering above him, a holographic screen with a few lines of text written in it.

All around him, although he did not pay much attention to it, a few other people seemed to experience the same situation.

[Updating home-world 39515’s version]

[Version 20.25 update brings a lot of fun and games with the new and improved survival mode]

[Do you want to convert your previous avatar to home-world 39515’s latest version?]

[Yes] [No]

“Survival… Mode?” Miles’ lips quivered.

Before he could think of anything else, though, the people around him began to scream…

Mad Hatter's Guide to Clearing The Game

Darkness swallowed Miles as he plummeted, the ruined structure collapsing above him in a storm of shattered stone and twisted metal. Wind rushed past his ears, his limbs flailing against gravity as his stomach lurched. For a split second, he felt weightless, adrift in the void.

The impact drove the air from his lungs. He tumbled across jagged debris, rolling uncontrollably before slamming into a pillar with a sickening crack. Stars exploded behind his eyelids, and pain seared through his ribs. His scythe clattered somewhere into the dark, immediately dismissing itself in a storm of black sparks.

Everything went dark, and after a while, Miles woke up with a startle, but everything around him was silent.

No Revenant, No Kurt. Just him, pain, and stillness.

Miles coughed, tasting iron. Every part of his body ached, but he was alive.

Ch99. Pain as a teacher (23) - Lost to self