[Congratulations! Your channel has reached 10,000,000 subscribers! A new Mod is now available!]
Yuzen's eyes widened at the message. His finger slammed down on the option before he could even think.
[You have bought 1x Large Mod]
[You have used 1x Large Mod]
[Choose your Mod:
1. A noise distracts the Yeti from your hero
2. A person appears and kills the Yeti
3. 1x Rejuvenation Potion
4. Destroy the Yeti charging at your hero
Any Mod you choose is permanent and can't be undone! Think carefully!]
Yuzen's pulse hammered in his ears as his gaze flicked over the glowing options.
Option one was something he would never have chosen again. Not after what had happened before.
Option three was pointless because his MC would just throw it away.
That left two or four.
He breathed heavily as he tried to decide. Two meant waiting for a random savior, while four meant ending it instantly.
His trembling finger hovered over the screen.
In the end, he pressed four.
[Warning! You have chosen option 4, which violates System Rule #387: Channel Owners are forbidden from making direct alterations to enemies or the balance of the MC's world. Backlash activated!]
"What?!"
Yuzen's voice cracked.
On the livestream, the last Yeti halted mid-charge. Its massive body froze, then broke apart into drifting dust that scattered on the wind. Jaein was left kneeling alone in the ruined street, sword still clutched in his hand.
But Yuzen never got to see the rest.
A sharp pain hit his chest. His heart clenched as if a fist had closed around it and squeezed. The agony spread like fire racing through every vein.
He dropped to the ground and writhed.
"Arghhhhhh! Ughh—kkhh—ahhhhhh!"
He screamed, and spit flew from his mouth. His nose and eyes started to run. All the muscles in his body tightened at once, making his arms and legs jerk against the ground.
His back arched up and then slammed back down. The movement forced all the air out of his lungs. He couldn't catch his breath.
It felt like electricity was running through his body. The feeling twisted him over and over. He couldn't feel anything but pain.
He coughed and gagged until his throat burned. His nails dug into his palms and made them bleed. His vision flashed with light each time his body jerked.
The pain didn't stop. Every time he felt like he was about to lose consciousness, another wave of pain hit him, forcing him awake inside the torment.
His body shuddered violently, rolling side to side, and his eyes rolled back until only the whites showed.
He could only hear his own panting. His vision narrowed until he could see only a little in front of him.
The last thing he saw before everything went dark was a person walking toward him.
A pair of black boots stopped right in front of his face.
*****
"Aaaaghh… haa… haa…"
Yuzen jolted upright, breathing heavily as if the pain had still been tearing him apart. His skin was damp with sweat, and his throat ached with a soreness that felt like he had screamed for hours.
He looked around the room, which was so familiar it made his head spin. Dark blue walls were lined with shelves, and his VR pod rested in the corner while the sofa faced the wall where he always projected his channel.
His fingers clutched the blanket beneath him, and the soft fabric felt exactly as he remembered.
"It's… just a dream? It was all a dream?"
"What dream?"
The voice made his heart jump, and a face appeared from behind a bookshelf that separated his bed from his closets.
"Rin? What are you doing here?"
"To check on you, obviously! Do you have any idea how long you've been gone? What kind of pity party is it this time? Still about your channel?"
"W-what?"
"You've been ignoring my texts for two days straight, and when I came to check, you were on the floor with saliva all over your mouth. Which is gross, by the way. And how much did you drink to get wasted like that?"
Yuzen's mind went blank as he tried to process her words.
So it really was a dream? My channel! I need to see my channel!
He flicked open his watch, and the projection hovered above his watch, showing his MC holding two ice creams.
"Hah… thank God. Thank God, it was all just a dream."
"You… are you... high?"
Yuzen blinked at Rin, not understanding her at first. When he realized what she meant, his jaw dropped.
"What?! No, no, no, of course not! What the hell? How can you think that?"
"W-well, you kept rambling about weird things, and you looked half dead."
Yuzen let out a laugh that was too loud and too fast, but he couldn't stop himself. He had been so sure he was going to die, yet here he was, alive and safe, with his channel returned to a boring romance story.
"Hahahahaha!"
Rin just stared at him with an expression that made it clear she thought he had lost his mind.
"Wait… where did you find me again?"
"On the floor. Right near the wall over there."
Yuzen followed her finger, and his breath caught in his throat. She was pointing to the exact spot where he always projected his channel, the place he had touched Jaein's hovering hand before everything went dark.
Sweat slid down his temple as a new wave of confusion hit him.
If this was just a dream, why was I lying there? Had I really been drinking, and if so, when? Why can't I remember any of it?
"Why are you so shocked?"
Rin's voice came out warped and distorted, making Yuzen turn back to look at her slowly.
Her face was gone, replaced by a glitching void of static and distortion that had no eyes, mouth, or nose.
"What's wrong? Why do you look so scared?"
Yuzen backed away fast until his shoulders hit what he thought was a wall, but it was someone's back.
The next time he blinked, the room was gone, and he was in the middle of a crowd. His body hit the pavement as people streamed around him.
"Sorry, are you okay?"
A young man stood over him, smiling. He wore a soft blue cardigan over a crisp white shirt.
"Geez! I told you not to walk backward like that!"
A girl with long black hair ran up to them, her red cardigan swinging as she playfully slapped the man's arm. He pretended to wince as if it hurt.
"Sorry about that. Are you okay?"
Her hand reached toward him.
"I—"
Yuzen reached out and took her hand. The moment his fingers closed around hers, a deep cut split open across her wrist and sprayed hot blood across his skin.
The girl's hand tore clean off her arm, and Yuzen stared in horror, still clutching the severed hand as it twitched in his grip.
His muscles locked up, and he couldn't open his hand, as if the hand itself had latched onto him.
He shook his arm wildly, but the weight stayed fixed in his grasp while blood dripped down his sleeve and onto the pavement.
"Let go, let go, let go!"
But his fingers wouldn't move, and the hand remained stuck in his grasp. Then another scream, louder than his own, split the air.
Yuzen's head snapped up.
The young man in the blue cardigan was kneeling on the ground. His face was twisted with snot and tears, his white shirt drenched in so much blood that the fabric had turned dark red.
He hugged the girl's upper body, or what was left of it, against his chest, rocking her limp frame.
"NO, NO, NO, NO! WHY, GOD, WHY? WHY DID YOU DO THIS TO ME? WHY DID YOU TAKE EVERYTHING FROM ME?!"
Yuzen's ears rang as the voice cracked into begging sobs.
"NO, NO, NO! PLEASE, SERIN, PLEASE… NOT HER! PLEASE, I BEG YOU! GOD, PLEASE… JUST TAKE ME! PLEASE… plea..se.. ple.. hic…"
The screams shrank to a broken whisper as Yuzen stared, his body shaking and his hand still locked around the severed wrist. His brain struggled to process the nightmare.
The MC's head lifted. Slowly, unnaturally slow.
Jaein's face came into view, his brown eyes locking onto Yuzen.
But there was no pain on that face.
Only a smile.
A wide smile stretched across his lips, sharp and hollow, and it never reached his eyes.
"How is it? Do you like it? Is this entertaining enough for you?"