Nightmare Game
Copyright© 2025 by CaffeinatedTales
Chapter 78
Ethan raised an eyebrow, piecing together the truth from their scattered words.
Blackwood Castle, a Dreamplay from over a decade ago, wasn’t your standard rookie trial. Most starter rounds tested newbies’ mettle, kept things light, even handed out Blessings to the standouts for an edge in future games. Not this one. From the day it appeared, Blackwood Castle was a slaughterhouse. No one walked out. Rookies stepped in, and it was one foot in the grave. Veterans couldn’t enter, leaving it a grim legend among them: the rookie gauntlet of doom.
They could see the Dreamplay roster in the club, and Blackwood Castle’s name had squatted at the top of the trial list, unyielding. Until two weeks ago, when it vanished from the board.
The club erupted when word spread. Someone had cracked the unbreakable. Veterans buzzed, itching to know: how many survived, and what kind of grit did they have?
But hope fizzled fast. Protocol said survivors got whisked to a Dreamplay hub, where club reps greeted them. Veterans could scout talent, even pull strings to pair up for future rounds. That day, though, no one from the Castle showed. A glitch, maybe, or something stranger.
Ethan frowned. “Hold up. A friend mentioned the club, but isn’t that an offline thing?”
Oliver’s eyes narrowed, sizing him up. “Where’d you crawl out of, man? You keep saying the wildest stuff.”
“The club in Dreamplay’s not the offline one. Anyone can hit the Dreamplay club; the offline’s for big shots who’ve cleared high-tier games and got a name.”
“Whoever you know must be a heavy hitter. No shock you cracked Blackwood Castle.”
A misunderstanding, but Ethan let it slide, his mind snagging on something else. Clara likely knew he’d survived Blackwood Castle, hence the Nightmare Game card she’d slipped him. But she’d left out plenty: her own high-roller status, the Castle’s rep as a newbie graveyard.
“So you’re the only one who walked out of Blackwood Castle?” Bennett asked, disbelief rippling through the group as they exchanged looks.
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