Viral…?
I stared at Jamie’s phone screen, my eyes focusing on the chat that rolled down rapidly. It was moving so fast that I could hardly see a thing. But that wasn’t all.
The number of viewers…
‘Wasn’t it way lower before?’
Yes, it was.
It was almost thirty times more. This was hard for me to process. Why were there so many viewers?
Surely the stream of me almost dying wasn’t that entertaining, right?
“This is nuts… I’ve never seen so many viewers before.”
Overhearing Jamie’s mumbles, I turned to look at him and then towards the distance, where I saw the police officers bring the bodies into a van.
Weren’t they his friends?
Why did he look so unconcerned?
“Oh, crap!”
Jamie suddenly looked around, hastily patting his pants and clothes.
“Where’s the camera? Shit…! We must’ve dropped it before! I need to talk to chat. I—”
“If it’s about the camera, the Senior Officer should have it.”
Cutting Jamie off, I explained the situation to him. About how I had grabbed the camera, and once all this was over, I handed it to the Senior Officer for review.
“Oh.”
Jamie’s face deflated after learning about the situation.
I felt my eyes narrow when looking at him.
“Stream aside…”
I turned towards the distant van.
“…Your two friends died. Why do you seem so unconcerned?”
“Hm?”
Jamie turned before his face fell.
“Right, yeah.”
He scratched the back of his head.
“They’re not exactly my friends. It was purely a business transaction.”
His words sounded cold as he spoke. However, after a brief pause, his face fell a little.
“And… It’s not like I’m not affected, but I’ve seen stuff like this happen so much that I just try not to let it affect me. My parents died like that too… I’ll eventually hit me. For sure. I just try to delay that for as long as possible.”
“….Oh, I see. You have my condolences.”
“Thanks.”
Perhaps he was the type of person who didn’t like to display weakness when there were people around. The type that liked to suffer in silence.
He was also most likely using this situation to take his mind off these matters.
‘If that’s the case, then it makes more sense.’
But nonetheless, I wouldn’t have been surprised if he didn’t care at all. This world’s common sense was messed up.
“Oh, look.”
As Jamie tugged my shoulder, he shoved the phone right next to my face as he snickered.
“Look at the chat.”
Chat?
I blinked, then looked towards the chat. However, the moment I tried, I felt my head throb. It was… moving way too fast for me.
“Oh, right. Sorry.”
As if noticing my struggle, Jamie apologized before he made a few adjustments.
The chat slowed down, and it was only then that I was able to see the chat.
—This wasn’t fake, right? That was… intense.
—Ong. That shit was crazy. What kind of dogshit like did they have to encounter something like this?
—…And talk about the guy with the sunglasses. I thought he was just there for the comedy, but he was a total lunatic.
—Yeah, who tf was he?
—Does anyone know the identity of the lunatic with the sunglasses? Does he have a streamer code?
“…..”
Reading the chat, I didn’t know how to react. I just felt my face slowly growing more and more grim.
Especially seeing everyone call me by the same name.
Lunatic with the sunglasses?
‘That’s stupid. How am I a lunatic? I’m obviously a victim here.’
“Pfttt.”
Jamie, on the other hand, seemed to be enjoying the situation, laughing as he looked at the chat.
“Kuek… Lunatic with the sunglasses… kak.”
He cackled while nudging my shoulder.
“That’s… kuek!”
He was really starting to piss me off.
But then, just as he was about to laugh again, he stopped, and I watched as his face gradually started to fall.
I only needed to look once to know why.
—This stream was obviously fake. Come on, why are you all believing this shit?
—Yeah, lmao. You’d have to be stupid to believe this sort of shit. There’s just no way they meet a cult the same fucking day they go explore the place. This shit is so obviously staged.
—….They must’ve paid a shit ton of money for the production.
—They’re all like this anyway. Most stuff is fake these days.
“My ass is fake!”
It was?
“The hell do you mean fake? You think that the deaths are fake and that I didn’t just almost lose my life?”
He looked really pissed by the claims as he hurriedly started to type on the phone. He was writing all sorts of colorful words to fight back.
I just shook my head and placed my hand over his shoulder.
“Just stop.”
“Huh? What? Why would I stop? Are you seriously okay with them saying that our stuff was fake after everything that we’ve gone through? I don’t know about you, but I…”
“Just look around you.”
I pointed towards the cop around us before looking back at him.
“Once they’re done with their investigation, they’ll release a police report. If anyone doubts that what happened is fake, tell them to just check the police report about the situation. Nobody will be able to say a single thing then.”
“…Ah.”
Jamie’s hand paused then. He seemed to have suddenly been enlightened as he struggled to find any words to say.
Then, with a chuckle, he looked at his phone and shook his head.
“You’re right. I got too heated.”
“…Alright.”
Jamie then proceeded to write one single thing in the chat.
—To those who believe this is fake, a police report will soon come out. You can check it out yourself once it’s out.
The chat exploded shortly after his words, but Jamie ignored it and put his phone away, taking a deep breath while staring at the night sky.
His shoulders started to relax.
…And as a subtle silence settled over us, he finally broke the silence.
“You know, this was supposed to be a setup, right? I was asked by someone to scare you and embarrass you on stream.”
“I know.”
“I just wanted to—Uh?”
Jamie’s head snapped in my direction, and I shrugged.
“I overheard your conversation with the cops earlier.”
“Ohhh…”
Jamie put up an embarrassed expression.
“Actually, yeah… I was supposed to scare you. I did it because my channel was dying and I wanted to revive it. I didn’t think a situation like this would’ve happened, though.”
“….It’s not like things turned out bad for you.”
“I guess you’re right.”
Jamie chuckled before moving his phone in my direction. I raised my brow.
What did he want?
“Give me your contact. If you ever need my help, just call me. I’ll try my best to help you.”
“Uh? But—”
“Are you going to give it, or not?”
I raised both of my hands and obliged. There was no way I was going to reject such an offer. Depending on how well he took advantage of the current situation, I could see him doing exceptionally well in the future.
‘When the time comes, I’ll just have him advertise my new game.’
This wasn’t a chance I was going to waste.
“Alright, I’ll be heading off now. Call me if you need anything from me in the future.”
“…Will do.”
Watching Jamie leave, I stood waiting for several minutes before the Senior Officer arrived, and I moved towards the back of his car.
“I’ll bring you home now. I’ve already gotten your address.”
“Oh, okay.”
This saved me some trouble.
‘I’m really tired.’
This entire event had probably shaved five years off my life. As the car started and we started to move, my eyelids gradually started to grow heavier.
I was just about to fall asleep when…
Ding!
My phone buzzed, and a notification appeared.
Looking down, I read the notification.
———
Hello, we are currently reviewing your game A Regular Day in the Office, due to a sudden spike in purchases, which has raised a potential concern about botting activity. We will follow up with you shortly once the review is complete.
———
I quickly sobered up.
“???”