Walt, frightened, hopped back into his van and entered the parking garage. Out of curiosity, he turned the radio back on to see what people were saying. The first station had been replaced by a recording, “Warning, this is the Emergency Broadcast System. This is not a test. A nationwide state of emergency is in effect. Please stand by and await further instructions. This is not a test.”

He switched to another station. It was the same message on a loop.

Walt parked the van in the usual spot in front of the small employee office where he usually unloaded the packages for the condo staff. Alice, the security guard that was always on duty at this time during the week, was inside, eyes glued to her television.

His phone buzzed. It was a text message from the National Alert System: UNKNOWN HOSTILE THREAT. SEEK IMMEDIATE SHELTER. THIS IS NOT A DRILL.

He got out of the van and Alice saw him. She gestured him to come inside. He hurried to the door and opened it. “Yo, what the fuck is going on?”

Alice pointed at the televisions. “It’s gotta be aliens right? The invasion is finally happening. And of course it would happen during an eclipse…”

There was an array of screens, most of them being the closed circuit security cameras, but two of the screens were on different news stations. One was CNN and the other was Fox News and they were both broadcasting the same bizarre image.

The tickers at the bottom of the screens read, “Mysterious Object Appears in the Sky over The Bering Sea” and “Solar Eclipse Brings Alien First Contact”.

There was a circular object floating in the sky. It was hard to tell how big it was until something emerged onto the platform. Not something, but someone.

As it appeared, a window popped up on Walt’s interface, making him stumble. It was a live-feed of the event, but from a much closer angle.

“You okay?” Alice said. He noticed she was acting like she didn’t have a visual disturbance. Was she not seeing the interface? She was still glued to the television.

He averted his eyes from the television and watched the personal feed in his vision.

It was a tall human being. Not an alien, but a tall person with close enough human features. The lanky man was dressed in a shimmering shirt and tie, sleeves rolled up to reveal glowing tattoos. They had ostentatious hair, big and colorful. Like they had walked straight out of a colorful anime reality and the barrier between worlds didn’t bother to translate these features into Walt’s world.

There was some type of holographic apparatus rotating around their head. Kind of looked like a helmet and broadcasting device fused together. Walt was reminded of a hipster esports announcer, but with fashion flourishes he had never seen before.

It must be an Announcer. They spoke.

“Attention, citizens of Earth, number X two point nine! Congratulations! You have been chosen as the battle arena for this year’s Psycho Slinger World Championships! You must be asking yourself --what the hell does that mean?

“Pay attention! Because I won’t repeat myself! Or just watch this announcement later as it has been saved to your personal Slaynami System Media Files! If you survive until later!”

A video began to play and it became clear within a few seconds that it was footage edited together from past tournaments.

The first clip appeared to be visuals of smoking impact craters from different locations. As if meteors had landed in the middle of farm fields, busy city streets, forests, deserts, ice. The cameras pushed into each one, revealing glowing coffin-shaped objects as the cause of the impacts.

They were vessels that seemed to be made out of light. In several of the craters, there were trickles of fire spreading from the object. There was a shimmer and they dematerialized, revealing their contents.

It was people.

Each light coffin vessel had a human being inside. There were all ages. Kids, teenagers, adults, older people. The only similarity they shared were the translucent, light-filled gauntlets encasing their left hands. Walt couldn't tell what they were made of, but it wasn't metal. They looked closer to an aura or an imbue, with some corporeal parts indicating it was a device of some kind.

The announcer continued. "The competitors, known as Psycho Slingers, have arrived to duel each other. The last Psycho Slinger standing, or who has possession of their deck, will be the winner."

The footage switched to a split-screen of two different people wearing those strange, otherworldly gauntlets.

There was a girl of about twelve with an afro, wearing an Atlanta Braves Jersey and jeans, but there were armored pauldrons on her shoulders. The other was a man in his thirties dressed in an Armani suit with combat boots.

Then close-ups of a gauntlet as a deck of glowing cards shuffled inside a panel on the device. Five of the glowing cards popped out, hovering above the gauntlet.

The girl in the Braves Jersey gestured, grabbing one of the cards out of the air. An insert showed a holographic, ultra-real image of a Tyrannasaurs Rex. She flicked the card through the air. It landed in front of her in a flash of light. A fucking T-Rex materialized before her. It roared at the suited man.

This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

The man in the Armani suit chose one of his own glowing cards rotating in the air before him. It had a bazooka rotating inside. He flicked it through the air and a high-tech rocket launcher appeared, floating in front of him. He grabbed it. He propped the bazooka on his shoulder and aimed at the T-Rex.

The dinosaur roared, charging him. The man fired. A rocket erupted from the weapon and travelled through the air screeching, leaving a smoke trail. There was an explosion as it hit the T-Rex and the camera cut away in the smoke.

The footage became a rapid-fire succession of quick edits showcasing the mayhem these Psycho Slingers brought to each world during their duels.

The summoned minions and monsters and weapons that caused collateral damage. A tentacled kaiju stomped through a football arena, destroying it as rockets rained from fighter jets overhead, some poor world’s meager military defense system, causing more damage. A squadron of green-skinned goblinoid creatures ran amok in a supermarket, killing civilians as they battled with knights in platemail armed with swords. A Greyhound bus caught in the crossfire of two Psycho Slingers. The card duelists attacked each other, one shooting bursts of magic out of their hands and the other firing a bow and arrow with inhuman speed.

The announcer appeared again. He made a rockstar pose, gyrating his hips as if he was conducting the chaotic images.

"The best way to survive is to find one of the [Starter Decks] we have placed in a multitude of locations in your world. You’ll find that the minions, spells, creatures, weapons and other surprises in these decks are considerably more powerful than the weapons of your world.

“And becoming a Duelist is the only way to become a competitor yourself in the tournament! And trust me, you’ll want to compete! A plethora of riches and fame awaits!

“Your personal Slaynami System will give you more information on the locations of the [Starter Decks].”

The announcer’s image was replaced by a chaotic scene. A group of normal people were fighting each other for an object in a subway station. A middle-aged man wearing a red hat sprayed bullets into the brawling mass of people. There were screams. When the gunfire stopped, there were moans and cries for help.

The man with the gun walked towards the pile of dead and dying people. Blood trickled across the concrete towards his boots. He grabbed a glowing rectangle out of a dying kid's hands. The words on the glowing box said, [Starter Deck].

The announcer returned. "Now, a few rules. When you find yourself in a Battleboard Zone, there is no way to cross the Battleboard Barriers until a Duel Winner has been established. Trying to circumvent a Battleboard Barrier could be harmful to your well-being."

Then the footage cut to an angle of a teenage boy running away from a Psycho Slinger and the orc minions he's summoned. The boy ran straight into the glowing blue matrix of a Battleboard Barrier.

He passed to the other side and stood there, frozen, a dumb look on his face. Suddenly blood poured out of the grid of lines in his body. He fell apart into gory cubes.

The announcer continued his voice-over as the camera lingered on this unsettling shot. "A Duel Winner is decided when an opponent dies or has conceded. In the case of death, the Duel Winner will be able to collect the Loser's whole deck. In the case of a concession, the Loser will have to give up Five Cards of the Winner's choice to the Winner. The Loser will also lose Psycho Points."

There was a clip of a victorious Psycho Slinger shuffling through a conceding opponent's Deck. He flicked his fingers as the glowing cards rotated in the air before him. He gestured at a card he wanted and it flew into his Card Gauntlet.

"Each Win will net Psycho Points, and there will be a required number of Psycho Points to move onto the next Tournament Phase. If a Psycho Slinger or Duelist doesn't have enough Psycho Points to move to the next Tournament Phase, then they will be stripped of their Card Gauntlets and will be eliminated from the Tournament."

An upset Psycho Slinger stared at their screen interface in horror. They lacked Psycho Points to advance to the next Phase. The Card Gauntlet around their hand, wrist and forearm exploded, taking the lower arm with it.

"To keep the matches flowing and to prevent stalling, we will use a random and rotating grid of Danger Zones that will provide a variety of obstacles and threats to deter anyone from trying to bunker down in the zone for too long.

“Your personal Slaynami Systems will notify you when a zone is about to become a Danger Zone. Just in case the other obvious signs seem to have flown over your heads."

The next clip was a highway jammed with traffic. People were trying to flee a city. A little boy in a car with his scared family turned around to view the tableau behind him.

Buildings were collapsing, sinking into the earth. A God's eye view showed that the city was collapsing into a giant sink hole. It was spreading in all directions. The family made it across into the next zone right as the highway fell away, taking the cars and the people behind them into the bowels of the earth.

The announcer returned, flashing a diabolical and deranged grin. "And this has been Just The Basics, folks! I don't have time to go through all the minutiae as the first matches are about to begin! But, if you're just savvy enough, you'll discover the wonders and depth of this great game yourself! Good luck and happy playing everyone!

"Oh, one last thing. This is being televised back on Earth Prime. Do put in a good performance, as you may find yourself with Patrons who will be able to send you Care Packages! And believe me, you'll feel left out without any Care Packages!"

The live-stream feed disappeared in Walt's vision. It was replaced with a prompt and a timer.

Turn 1

Begin

Walt and Alice looked at each other.

"Is this real life right now?" Alice said.

"I think it's real," Walt said. "I saw one of those blue barriers surrounding this building."

"Are you fucking with me?" Alice said. "Because if this is some elaborate prank by my friends to try and scare me, it's working. Who hired you? Was it Brian?"

Walt shook his head and looked out into the parking garage. "It's not a prank."

That's when a buzzer went off on the security console. A light flashed, indicating an off-limit electronic door had been breached.

Alice looked to the screens showing the security feed on the corresponding floor. She leaned closer to the screen. There was a grotesque dog-like looking creature on the top hallway. It was smacking into the doors of the locked and expensive suites.

After a few rams, one of the doors collapsed and the dog creature disappeared inside. A door to a suite from across the hall opened and an elderly tenant walked out. They were immediately set upon by the creature. They fell underneath the snapping mouth and swiping claws. There was no sound so they couldn't hear the screams.

There was a chime on Walt's system interface. It was an incoming message.

Starter Deck Detected

Located on 10th Floor

Retrieve it to Defend Yourself

Duel the Psycho Slinger to activate Duelist Trial