Livestream: While Others Flirt, I Catch Ghosts - Chapter 1
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Chapter 1: Uncle, don’t pull, I’m scared!
Shancheng, Taiping Road.
In a dark, rarely visited alley, a man curled up in a ball howled incessantly.
“Uncle, don’t pull! I’m scared!”
From the dark corner, a chubby kid who had been squatting for who knows how long, with half his butt exposed, walked out trembling, his face streaked with tears. He spoke to the man.
The man looked at the kid, who had come to the alley to poop before him, with a face contorted in pain, unable to utter a word.
“Little… friend…”
His teeth chattered, spitting out two vague words.
“Wah! Mom!”
The chubby kid, with half a piece of toilet paper stuck to his butt and pants still around his ankles, rushed out of the alley.
“Damn! This is… so… messed up!”
My name is Dong Jianren, a loser living in Mountain City, or rather an eighteenth-tier struggling streamer eking out a living on a live streaming platform.
The tips from my sponsors each month are only enough to provide me with three bags of Little Raccoon crispy noodles every day, preferably the spicy crab flavor.
Just when I thought I would end my dog’s life one day due to food poisoning from instant noodles, the heavens played a huge joke on me.
Last night, as usual, I started my dull live stream. Seeing that there were only single-digit viewers in the live stream room, I was about to give up when a rare bullet comment (who would even think of sending a bullet comment in a live stream room with only a few viewers? Dream on!) appeared on my screen.
“Thank heavens! Finally, someone is interacting with me!”
Excited, Dong Jianren quickly moved the hand that had been rubbing his feet under the table onto the table, his face suddenly serious, ready to engage with this enthusiastic viewer.
“Do you want to change your destiny? Do you want to become someone superior?”
With just a glance, Dong Jianren burst into laughter.
He had already passed the age where he would call someone “daddy” for a lollipop.
Without any thought, Dong Jianren concluded that this bored viewer was making fun of him.
His body, which had straightened up, immediately collapsed back into his second-hand gaming chair that cost him 50 yuan, like a spring.
Perhaps still holding a glimmer of hope, Dong Jianren said lazily, “Boss, give me a little heart, and I’ll answer your question.”
Looking at the quiet live stream room again, Dong Jianren glanced at his leaderboard.
It was the top one, the top brother, who was still there.
Soon, Dong Jianren was disappointed. The little heart he was hoping for didn’t appear. Instead, a link that looked like garbled code was posted in the comments section of his live stream room.
And the top brother also quit the live stream room at this time.
“Damn! If you’re not sending gifts, at least stay in the live stream room for a while!”
Looking at the empty live stream room again, Dong Jianren clicked his tongue. His eyes also unconsciously fell on the garbled code link.
“This kid wouldn’t be selling porn, would he? If he is, he should be kicked out. Running to my small live stream room, what could he possibly sell?”
Thinking this in his heart, his hand still honestly clicked on the link.
“Check the goods, check the goods! I wonder if it’s pure or not!”* Dong Jianren thought to himself.
[TL/N: This phrase shows Dong Jianren’s wariness and intrigue as he clicks on the suspicious link, unsure of what awaits him.]
But as the mouse button was pressed down, his entire screen flickered with a strange white light.
“Damn! I fell for it! This isn’t an instructional video from my beloved island country teachers,* it’s a damn virus!”
[TL/N: In this context, it is a humorous way for Dong Jianren to express his realization that he’s been tricked.]
Dong Jianren looked at his flashing computer screen with heartache. This was the most valuable possession he had.
Soon, the screen stopped flashing, but something strange happened.
Rows of characters, as if carved in blood, appeared on his live stream page.
Dong Jianren focused his eyes.
[Requirement: Arrive at Xinglong Road No. 17, Heavenly Kingdom Funeral Parlor, before 10 p.m. tomorrow. Failure to arrive on time will result in mission failure. Penalty: Obliteration!]
Main Mission 1: Find the fourteenth corpse. Mission completion reward: 500 exchange points! Mission failure: Obliteration!
Main Mission 2: Survive until 8 a.m. the next day in the funeral parlor without leaving. Mission completion reward: 500 exchange points! Mission failure: Obliteration!
In the upper right corner, where his streamer avatar should have been, two lines of small text appeared.
Immunity Rights Remaining: 1 time.
Exchange Point Balance: 0.
He didn’t know if it was an illusion, but the crimson text, as if digitally superimposed onto the live stream page, carried with it the pungent scent of blood.
The text soon vanished.
After some searching, Dong Jianren didn’t find any strange software installed on his computer.
Still, he was shaken by this incident and hastily closed his live stream.
Having peacefully passed the night, Dong Jianren dismissed what happened as a strange dream.
Hungry from fasting all day, Dong Jianren decided to venture out under the cover of night to eat a bowl of 3 yuan wontons to appease his grumbling stomach.
Before he could reach the wonton restaurant with its swarm of flies, a deafening noise erupted in his head.
“Mission failed! Executing obliteration!”
“Detected 1 remaining immunity right, obliteration canceled.”
Although spared from obliteration, the excruciating pain that felt like his body was being torn apart did not immediately subside. In agony, Dong Jianren could only curl up in the alley, trembling uncontrollably.