Torn Between Destinies - Chapter 1 - One

Samuel, a high schooler, got summoned with his classmates to another world as prophesied heroes. He expected glory, adventure, and a chance to save a kingdom. But those hopes were shattered when he discovered the truth, they were sacrifices, the gods who summoned them are no saviors, but monsters that feed on human souls. Among the victims is his little sister, dragged into the summoning by accident while she was delivering his lunch. Betrayed and marked for sacrifice, Samuel survives andmade a deal with (Arithmos) the God of war, with its power, he now vows to destroy every god and declares to take everything from them.

-- 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…

“Zhong Nuannuan, your charges have been withdrawn. The courts have declared you innocent and pronounced you not guilty for murder. You can leave prison now. Your family is waiting for you in the waiting room outside.” Zhong Nuannuan was startled. She pushed the female prison guard to the side and ran toward the waiting room. She did not even bother to put on her shoes. If not for the icy feeling she felt at every step of the way reminding her that this was not a dream, Zhong Nuannuan would not have believed that she had resurrected.
As she burst through the doors and saw him again, she knew in her heart, that this time she would get it right. This time she would cherish him properly and hopefully, just hopefully, turn her own fate around.

It is an era of artificial superintelligences, interstellar travel, gene medicine, and virtual reality worlds. Far into Earth’s future, 15-year-old Gu Ding is a student of Cerulean Military Academy by day, and tavern waiter by night. His ambition: Become the space pirate with the highest bounty offered by the Universal Federation Government. With the help of Neptune, a neonate super-intelligence, Gu Ding finds himself thrust into a galaxy of shadowy organizations, political underdealings, and otherworldly forces that lie beyond human comprehension…