MrBoness

-- WSA 2025 Entry --
READ THE SYNOPSIS BEFORE JUMPING INTO THE STORY

“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

There was no sensation of falling.

No wind, no gravity, just the tearing of light into shadow, like a veil being drawn over the world.

One moment, they stood inside the strange chamber. The next…

No sound, no floor, no thought. And then, pain.

Sarissa hit the ground hard, her shoulder smashing into the stone with a grunt, the air being punched out from her lungs in a ragged gasp. Her senses reeled, struggling to catch up.

"Mara-?" She started, voice hoarse. "Di-"

"I'm here." The response came quickly.

They were in a corridor, narrower than before, the stone glistening like wet bone. The air was damp and cold, and the only light came from faint veins of bioluminescence threading through the walls like roots, like veins.

A familiar wrongness pulsed in the stone beneath them, but it was distant, muffled, as if something had changed.

Ch159. [World Quest] (19) - Divided