Mad Hatter's Guide to Clearing The Game
Chapter 154: Ch152. [World Quest] (12) - So that he would never lose anyone ever again

Chapter 154: Ch152. [World Quest] (12) - So that he would never lose anyone ever again

Everything happened in less than a moment.

A blink of an eye, a fraction of a fraction of a fraction of a second. And yet, it was enough to change everything.

Miles fell to his knees, Sarissa’s blade piercing his chest cleanly, its tip protruding from his back.

"BIG BRO!?" Diego screamed from the balcony, jumping and falling gracelessly, where he would once be able to absorb the impact and get straight back up, like a cat.

But Miles did not hear him, and neither did Sarissa.

Because when her blade trespassed Miles’ heart, their world shuddered and warped, reality folding in and over itself until there was nothing but staggering void, their minds being violently thrown into somewhere else.

Sarissa’s eyes widened as she could see Miles’ life from the very start.

However, Cheshire had been smart in how he chose to give Miles this only chance of stopping their fight, because Sarissa was not just witnessing Miles’ life like a spectator, no.

She was seeing it and living it.

All in that briefest of brief moments, with her skin, her bones, her flesh, and her heart.

Miles’ loving family, his shut-in personality, the years of bullying in school, the comfort he found in playing videogames and showing his less-than-average skills to whomever wanted to watch his streamings...

And then, when the night of New Year’s Eve happened, and The Glitch descended upon everyone.

She felt his disorientation and the relief of being saved, followed immediately by the pang of pain that her own scorn gave him.

Because he was weak, but he had not chosen to be weak.

He had not awakened some miraculous – and treacherous – skill like Sarissa’s.

Miles was just a rookie, trying to fight for his life and escape. Live to fight another day.

’No...’ Sarissa thought when Miles saw the strange flicker of light back in a dark alley.

It was clearly something related to the game.

Something that could give him a quest or some power that would help him survive, but no.

As soon as the luminous rabbit disappeared without a trace, Miles darted away from the battlefield.

’Idiot... why are you running from the fight?’ She disdained him for it.

She hated him for it.

But then...

He was running from the fight, yes, but when Sarissa saw why, something within her cracked.

She opened the door to his apartment, drowned in darkness, and as soon as she stepped inside, the smell invaded her nostrils like a punch to the gut, and she – Miles – fell on her – his – knees, vomiting everything eaten just hours before.

Blood, iron, the stench of something alive that had not showered in gods knew how long...

And then the sounds.

The squelching of feet stepping on sludgy puddles, the shrieks, the... Munching on something fleshy...

’No... It can’t be...’ She thought, but it was.

"Mom...? Dad...?" Miles’ voice echoed from her throat as soon as she saw the [Tutorial Spawns] feasting on their dead bodies.

She felt her face grow hot from tears that were not hers. Or were they?

Suddenly, immediately, out of nowhere, there was a fire. Not like Sarissa’s magical, outlandish fire, no.

She felt it burning within her. Within Miles.

He still carried the small, frail wooden sword that the system had given him, and for the first time in gods knew how long, Sarissa felt true anger. The boiling kind that could burn a person alive if it were palpable enough to be physical.

Miles lunged at the first [Tutorial Spawn], the Goblin-like creature getting to its feet as soon as Miles called out to his mom and dad, followed by the others, but they weren’t fast enough.

Miles had gotten in reach before they could even blink, moved by what could only be the adrenaline-fueled hatred for his parents’ killers, describing a vertical arc with his wooden sword with such violence that the first [Tutorial Spawn] simply tumbled down with its skull nearly split in half.

After that, everything was just red.

Blood, hate, the breaking of bones, and the tearing of flesh.

Miles did not sleep that night, and thank the gods that no other monstrosity sent by the game came into his home then, because Miles was willing to die ripping the last head of theirs off.

If only he could move, but he didn’t.

He spent the next two days without eating or sleeping. The grief of his parents’ death was still fresh in front of him, like a wound that would open again and again, just for the pleasure of seeing its bearer’s suffering.

And by the end of the second day, the [Safe Zones] appeared with a pop-up notification from the system directed to all remaining players in the city.

Sarissa’s throat burned from Miles’ screams, and it kept burning until Miles was only able to cough up blood.

By then, something broke inside him, and as if to remedy the madness that had been sprouting, blooming within himself like Poison Ivy, he got up mechanically, automatically, and like it was just another day, Miles began cleaning the house.

Two days later, Miles dragged his frail, hungry, and thirsty body to the bathroom sink, the house now clean as if nothing had ever happened there, with only his memories and the absence of his parents to prove that the last few days were as real as a living nightmare... He opened the tap...

And drank from it, feeling the revitalizing freshness of the water filling his mouth, his empty stomach, his dry muscles, his entire soul...

He cried again, and Sarissa felt it.

She knew his thoughts, his guilt for being the sole survivor, the weight of the world in his heart for the impossibility – to turn back time to when they were still alive.

To when he still could have saved them.

If only he was faster, more focused, more resilient...

If only he was stronger.

Like that girl who scorned him, but saved his life nevertheless.

And from that moment on, Miles decided that he would become strong like her, so that he would never feel the pain of losing someone ever again.