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

The Master's voice echoed through the chamber, reverberating off the metal walls as his eyes flicked over Miles. The silent observers, the masked figures, remained unmoving, as if the air itself had thickened with the tension in the room.

For a moment, the Master's stillness was unbroken, but his eyes, dark, calculating, and wide, betrayed an emotion that did not quite fit the control he had carefully crafted.

It was subtle, a flicker of something behind his cracked porcelain mask. His lips parted slightly, and the air seemed to grow colder.

"How do you know of the Card Soldiers?" The words came softly, as though he had not quite processed them fully. His fingers twitched almost imperceptibly.

Miles did not flinch. His stance was firm, and his grip on the scythe had tightened, not out of aggression but from sheer readiness. The moment hung in the air between them, the question suspended like a challenge Miles had no intention of avoiding.

Ch121. Challenge for answers