After what felt like an eternity, Miri Dreamwell secured victory in the game, thanks to the advantage of her card deck.
Attacking without a strategy was indeed much slower than playing seriously.
“My deck is still too weak,” sighed Eve Nightburn, feeling somewhat helpless. It seemed that during her break from the game, the meta had evolved far too quickly.
Damn developers, wait up for your players.
The two played several rounds, only stopping when noon arrived.
Eve glanced at her phone and grew anxious. “Aren’t Uncle Hui and Aunt Xiang coming back?”
“Mom and Dad won’t be back at noon,” Miri informed her of this unfortunate fact.
There would be no warm meal to mooch off today.
“Alright…”
Resigned, Eve packed up her laptop, tucked it into her bag, and handed it to Miri.
“Thanks for playing with me, sis.”
She gave Miri a smile, hoping to ease her worries. Today, Miri had genuinely frightened Eve.
After putting on her coat, Eve left Miri’s room. At the doorway, she turned back and waved goodbye.
“I’m heading back for lunch now.”
With that, she walked away.
A short while later, the sound of the front door closing told Miri that Eve had truly left.
Once certain, Miri immediately grabbed the pillow from her bed, pressed her face into it, and collapsed onto the mattress.
She could no longer hold back.
She wanted to breathe but didn’t dare. Miri felt like an utter sinner—a wretch who repaid kindness with betrayal. She had pushed her savior into an endless abyss.
“I deserve to die… I deserve to die… I deserve to die!”
“Who can save me? No, don’t save me! Don’t save me! I’m a sinner! A sinner unworthy of love!”
“Why… Why couldn’t you just hate this world a little more? Then… then I could live with myself…”
A kind person will always grieve after destroying another kind soul.
“If no one is at fault, then why must someone die?”
Miri couldn’t understand—who was wrong here?
She couldn’t see—who was the true villain?
“If everyone’s intentions were good, why did things turn out this way?”
“Who can tell me—who is the evil one?”
“If there’s no villain, why is this the result?”
“Am I the villain? But I only acted according to everyone’s wishes…”
“Are they the villains? But they only wanted to protect this world…”
“Surely the world isn’t evil? It doesn’t even have thoughts of its own.”
The weight of the pillow pressed down on the girl’s head as she buried herself beneath it, pressing her face into the sheets like an ostrich hiding underground.
—
Eve stepped out of the elevator, left the apartment block, and headed toward her rented flat.
She walked for a long time, yet her destination never seemed to arrive.
Something felt off. Hesitant, she glanced around but kept moving forward.
At a crossroads, she paused to check the street sign.
Cloudhaven Road No. 2.
Confirming her location, she trudged on, exhausted.
Eventually, she found a park bench and sat down to rest.
The empty streets unsettled her.
“Is everyone staying home today?”
A sliver of fear crept into her heart.
Eve looked up at the sun—not too harsh, yet unnervingly still, as if frozen in the sky.
Once she felt somewhat rested, she stood and continued walking.
After what felt like another eternity, her weary body forced her to stop at another bench.
“Wait… why does everything look so familiar?”
Wiping sweat from her brow, she turned to the street sign beside her.
Cloudhaven Road No. 2.
“…Huh?!”
Eve froze. Hadn’t she been here just moments ago?
—
Unbeknownst to her, a group of S-Rank Magical Girls sat in a screening room, observing her every move through a large display.
A girl who appeared around nineteen years old suddenly entered the theater.
“Thanks to all your efforts, we’ve managed to capture this terrifying entity with minimal losses.”
Her codename was Frostfire—an S-Rank Magical Girl.
During the operation, she had supplied the barrier with the necessary energy. Winter was her domain.
With a faint smile, Frostfire stepped beside the screen, leaving enough space for everyone to see.
She raised her right hand in salute, fingers pressed together, palm tilted downward.
“In the name of the people, we uphold the will of The Republic, safeguard the people’s security, and defend humanity’s tomorrow.”
As she finished, the other Magical Girls stood and repeated the oath in unison.
Once done, Frostfire spoke again.
“Under the orders of Black Sheep, leader of Cloudhaven City’s Magical Girls, I will now enter the barrier zone to stabilize it alongside her. In the meantime, monitor every movement of this entity. We must recover the critical data we’ve lost before.”
With that, she turned and left.
—
Inside the barrier, Eve was losing her composure.
She had stumbled into something far beyond her understanding.
“It can’t be a ghost maze, right?”
“Ghosts aren’t supposed to spawn in broad daylight!”
She forced herself to stay calm, but panic was already flooding her mind.
“M-maybe I’m just sleep-deprived!”
Thinking this, she took off her coat, draped it over herself, and lay down on the bench to sleep.
When she woke—after who knew how long—she groggily sat up and pushed the coat aside.
The sun remained fixed at the zenith of the sky.
Her breath hitched.
She pinched her cheek hard. The sharp pain confirmed this wasn’t a dream or hallucination.
This was a full-blown crisis.
The world had turned bizarre. The absence of people wasn’t because they were resting—it was likely that no one else existed besides her.
