LightReader

Chapter 6 - Chapter 6: A Million Screams

"Oh my—!" "Wow, this is so good!" "Mmmph. Mmmph. Mmmph."

Leo sat at the small, rickety dining table, a faint smile on his lips as he watched his sister inhale the food he'd cooked. Her cheeks were puffed out like a hamster's, and her chopsticks moved with a speed and precision that was almost hypnotic.

From the memories he'd inherited, he knew this family had a love for spicy food. In his past life, Alex Vance had developed a passion for cooking fiery Sichuan cuisine. It was a perfect, serendipitous match. He watched as Maya, completely devoid of any ladylike composure, shoveled another mouthful of mapo tofu into her mouth, her eyes closing in bliss.

The table held four simple dishes and a soup, but Maya had single-handedly demolished a third of it all. For someone so slender, she had an astonishing appetite.

Finally, she set her bowl down with a loud, satisfied thud, let out a surprisingly robust burp, and wiped her glistening mouth with a napkin. Her bright, crystal-clear eyes were fixed on him, a new and unfamiliar gleam in their depths.

"Okay, seriously," she said, leaning forward. "When did you learn to cook like this!?"

Leo simply took a slow sip from his glass of water, the corner of his mouth twitching. The quiet satisfaction of providing a good meal was a feeling he hadn't realized he'd missed. "Is it any good?"

Maya nodded so vigorously her ponytail bounced. "Good? It's amazing! Brother, your food is incredible! Next time Mom and Dad work overtime, you're on dinner duty, okay? Deal?"

He shrugged, a silent, amused consent.

Maya patted her swollen belly, looking content as a cat in a sunbeam. She reached for the crutches leaning against her chair. "Okay, I'm officially in a food coma. Help me back to my room, I can't move."

Leo nodded, rising to help his sister hobble back to her room. After settling her in, he returned to the living room and glanced at the cheap plastic clock on the wall. It was just past eight o'clock. His parents would be home any minute.

As if on cue, he heard the familiar, rhythmic clinking of a bicycle chain from outside. This family didn't have a car, not even a small electric scooter. Just two old, reliable bicycles that carried his parents to and from their grueling jobs each day.

He went back to the kitchen and began plating the food he'd kept warm in the pots. He had made plenty, anticipating his parents' return. Just as he set the last steaming dish on the table, the front door creaked open.

His parents walked in, and the sight of them sent a pang through Leo's chest. They were etched with a weariness that went bone-deep. His mother moved slowly, her shoulders slumped, her face pale with exhaustion. His father, a man who was not tall to begin with, seemed smaller, his hair thinning, his shoulders uneven from years of heavy lifting. They were aging too fast, burning themselves out to keep this small, struggling family afloat.

They stopped in the doorway, their tired eyes first finding Leo, then widening in surprise as they saw the four dishes and soup arranged on the table, steam still rising from them.

"Did you order takeout, son?" his mother asked, her voice raspy. "Have you and Maya eaten?"

Leo shook his head, a gentle smile touching his lips. "I made it. You're back so late, you must be starving. Come on, eat first."

His parents exchanged a look, a silent communication of shared, utter astonishment passing between them. Our son… cooked? When did he ever learn to cook?

The next morning, the sky was still a pale, pre-dawn gray when Leo got out of bed. He moved quietly through the sleeping apartment, preparing a simple breakfast for his parents: pumpkin porridge, boiled corn, and fried eggs. He set their portions on the table before returning to his room. It was only 6:30 AM; Maya would be dead to the world for hours yet.

It was time to get back to work. A new day to continue building the world of Dark Forest. But first, he had to know. Had yesterday's upload made any ripples at all?

He picked up his phone and opened the StreamVerse app.

The screen immediately exploded.

A bright red circle with 99+screamed at him from the corner of the screen, a digital siren announcing that something had happened. His breath caught in his throat. He tapped the notification icon, and his thumb froze.

Replies: 99+. Private messages: 99+. Likes: 99+.

It blew up.

His heart began to hammer against his ribs. He scanned the messages, a dizzying flood of reactions. There was praise, demands for the full game, and even a few incoherent insults. Tucked among them were several private messages from mobile game companies, offering him jobs, extending tentative olive branches. But, he noted with a grim sense of validation, not a single one offered to invest in or sponsor Dark Forest. They'd hire the talent, but they wouldn't touch the project. The industry's fear of horror was as palpable as ever.

He navigated back to the homepage, intending to find the video on his personal profile, but stopped dead. There, in the main, rotating carousel—the most coveted spot on the entire platform—was the thumbnail for his game.

It's on the homepage? They actually featured it?

His fingers trembled slightly as he tapped the video. The stats loaded, and his eyes widened in disbelief.

Views: 1.6 Million.Likes: 840,000.Shares: 140,000.

The numbers were staggering, almost nonsensical. He'd seen established channels take weeks to hit figures like these. He had done it overnight. It was a miracle. It was proof that the audience was there, starved for something real. Even now, in the early morning, over a thousand people were currently watching. The video had nearly twenty thousand scrolling comments. His subscriber count had leaped from a pathetic 4 to over 4,000.

Every number was a shout, telling him one simple, undeniable truth: his video had gone viral.

A powerful, unfamiliar thrill surged through him. In two lifetimes, this was his first true, public victory. The passion he felt was intoxicating. He scrolled down to the comments, hungry to see the reactions for himself. The section was a warzone of terror and disbelief.

"Played this last night. All I can say is HOLY S*** IT'S SCARY."

"You're telling me ONE person made this? Yeah right, I've read books, you can't fool me."

"I downloaded it too. This isn't a game, it's a social revenge project from the developer!"

"Just downloaded, haven't played. Is it really that bad? I thought horror games were all just cheap jump scares."

">> To the guy above: DO NOT PLAY IF YOU ARE TIMID. I'm warning you. This is not like those other cash-grab 'horror' games. This thing is the real deal. Don't say I didn't tell you!"

The sheer terror expressed by the players had naturally attracted skeptics.

"This looks okay, but a top-down horror game? Really? Sounds like a gimmick." "Are these all paid comments? Everyone knows horror is a dead genre. No big company will touch it, and now some random indie dev is blowing up? Smells fishy to me." ">> To the guy above: Why don't you download it and find out, you cloud gamer? Or is your PC a potato? Don't compare this to the trash we've been fed for years." "Okay, the quality looks amazing for a solo dev. I'm gonna give it a try." "What game is this? Where can I get it? Can I play on my phone??"

The comments went on and on. Leo knew he could spend the entire day reading them. He ignored the job offers. The thought of working for someone else, of being a cog in a machine making soulless mobile games, was suffocating. In his last life, he had been a creator, a founder who built a company from nothing.

He would walk that path again.

And this time, with the system at his back, the difficulty had been changed from 'Nightmare' to 'Story Mode.' The only thing he was missing was capital.

He looked at the view counter again, a slow, determined smile spreading across his face. This video wasn't just about views and likes. It was about fear. With every person who downloaded that demo, with every scream in a darkened room, his true currency was growing. The publicity was just the beginning. The real feedback was coming.

PLS SUPPORT ME AND THROW POWERSTONES .

More Chapters