[ ● LIVE ]
[ VIEWERS: 12 ]
The rhythmic thud of iron-shod boots stopped abruptly outside the heavy oak door. The sudden silence was more deafening than the noise, thick with the metallic scent of rusted iron and old blood.
Ye-rin didn't move. She let her body go limp against the freezing limestone floor, her head lolling to the side in the straw. She slowed her breathing, forcing her chest to rise and fall in a shallow, mechanical rhythm.
Screeeech.
The door groaned on rusted hinges, a high-pitched wail that set her teeth on edge. A flickering, orange light bled into the cell, casting a long, jagged shadow that stretched across the floor.
The knight stepped inside. His armor clanked with every movement, a heavy, oppressive sound that filled the small space. He didn't speak and just simply stood over her.
Through her closed eyelids, Ye-rin could feel the intensity of his gaze. She focused on the darkness, pushing away the urge to flinch as a leather-gloved hand reached down. The knight's gauntlet was cold, smelling of old iron and horsehair as he gripped Ye-rin's jaw. He tilted her head back, his thumb pressing firmly against her pulse point.
"Still warm," a muffled voice grunted from behind a steel visor. "She's holding out far longer than what the master expected."
He let go, her head hitting the stone with a dull, hollow thud that vibrated through her skull. The knight stood over her for a moment longer. He didn't offer a drop of water or a word of comfort. Suddenly, the heavy leather of his gauntlet whipped through the air.
The blow caught Ye-rin squarely across the cheek, her head snapping to the side. The force was explosive, sending a blinding white flash across her vision and a searing, metallic heat through her jaw.
Ye-rin gasped, her eyes flying open as she instinctively scrambled back against the damp stone. She wasn't just "playing" a character anymore; the pain was visceral, throbbing in time with her frantic heartbeat.
The chat, which had been a steady trickle of curiosity, suddenly erupted.
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[ CHAT ]
Newbie_Watcher: WAIT. Did he just actually hit her?!
PrettyPrincess1111: Look at her face. Her cheek is literally turning purple in real-time. This difficulty is insane.
Lvl1_Peasant: Someone tell me there's a safety cap on this stream.
Newbie_Watcher: If it's the bio-sync model, then she's feeling 100% of that.
Ghost_in_the_Shell: 12 of us are literally watching her get hurt. This is brutal.
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"Stop pretending," the knight growled, his voice a low, gravelly vibration behind the steel. "I know you're awake, little bird."
Ye-rin's entire body began to tremble. Her breath came in short, ragged hitches, her fingers digging into the grime of the floor as she stared up at the faceless metal helm.
This can't be a game, she thought, the panic a cold, oily slick in her chest.
She tried to swallow, but her throat was like sandpaper, It hurts.
"Who..." she croaked, her voice cracking. "Who are you?"
The knight didn't answer immediately. He leaned down, the lantern light catching the scratches on his breastplate. "Does that even matter when you're gonna die soon?"
The cold indifference in his voice was worse than the slap. Ye-rin's back hit the rough stone, the dampness seeping into her clothes. Her mind raced, a frantic blur of logic trying to find a foothold.
Die soon?
"Who sent you? Which one?", she spat, her voice trembling but sharp.
The knight stiffened. The thumb he had used to check her pulse moved to the hilt of the dagger at his belt. "You speak quite boldly for a blemish."
"Tell me his name," she demanded, her voice steadier now. "Tell me which of my siblings is so afraid of a maid's daughter that he sends a coward in the dark to do his work."
"Afraid?" The knight let out a harsh, barking laugh that echoed in the helmet. "He isn't afraid, little bird. He's cleaning the house. And my name is the last thing you'll ever hear."
He drew the dagger. The steel sang a thin, hungry sound.
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[ CHAT ]
Newbie_Watcher: SHE'S PROVOKING HIM?! Is she insane?
Lvl1_Peasant: No, she's stalling. Look at the timer!
Slayer_Z: What am I even watching?
Ghost_in_the_Shell: He's going to kill her before the quest even starts.
PrettyPrincess1111: DO SOMETHING!!
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Ye-rin watched the blade rise. She squeezed her eyes shut, waiting for the cold bite of steel, but it never came.
"Enough," a commanding voice echoed from outside the cell.
The knight halted instantly, the dagger stopping mere inches from her throat. The heavy door creaked open further, and a woman stepped into the light. She was the definition of predatory elegance — a figure that seemed to absorb the dim lantern light into her fine, dark silks.
It was Isabella Drakenhof, the fifth daughter of the house.
She was strikingly pale, her skin like polished porcelain. Her hair and sharply arched eyebrows were as black as midnight. Her most jarring feature was her eyes: a piercing, unnatural violet. As she moved, her fingers — tipped with long, sharpened silver guards — ticked a rhythmic, impatient beat against her thigh.
Isabella leaned in, her scent of cold lilies and metallic blood overpowering the stench of the dungeon. She tilted her head, a soft giggle dying down into a thin, sharp-edged smirk.
"Look at you," she whispered, her voice like silk sliding over a blade. "I came here to see what you looked like in front of death, but this is quite disappointing."
Suddenly, Isabella's hand moved in a blur.
SLAP.
The strike was so fast Ye-rin didn't see it coming. Her head snapped to the right, the sting blooming instantly into a deep, throbbing heat. Before she could breathe, Isabella backhanded her.
SLAP.
Ye-rin's head whipped back the other way. The taste of copper filled her mouth as her lip split against her teeth.
SLAP. SLAP.
Two more strikes followed in rapid succession, rhythmic and brutal. Isabella wasn't hitting her in a rage; she was hitting her as if she's trying to mold her face into a specific shape.
Ye-rin slumped against the stone, her vision swimming in a haze of white sparks and her cheek felt twice its size. She gasped for air, her fingers trembling in the straw as she struggled to keep her eyes open.
"There it is," Isabella whispered, leaning down so close their noses almost touched. She grabbed Ye-rin's chin with her silver-tipped fingers, forcing her to look up. "That look. That's the face I was expecting to see."
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[ CHAT ]
Newbie_Watcher: HOLY— FOUR TIMES? She just combo-slapped her!
PrettyPrincess1111: STOP IT! Her face is ruined!
Ghost_in_the_Shell: We're watching a complete newbie get dismantled.
IdolTrash_00: I can't watch this...
Rogue_Runner: Did you see the speed on that last hit? Isabella isn't even trying.
————— *** —————
"Don't let that look fade, Elara," Isabella giggled, her breath cold against Ye-rin's skin. "If you lose it, I'll have to start all over again."
Isabella stood up straight, the amusement vanishing from her face as she smoothed her dark silks. She turned toward the knight and spat, not even looking back at the shivering girl in the straw, "Leave this bitch alone."
"Let her rot in this filth until she starves to death."
The knight bowed his head instantly, his armor clanking as he stepped back to clear her path. "As you command, Lady Isabella."
With a final sharp giggle, Isabella swept out of the cell. The knight followed, the orange glow of his lantern retreating into the corridor and the heavy oak door groaned shut for the last time.
Clack.
The darkness returned, heavier than before.
Ye-rin clawed at the air, her vision tunneling into a red, pulsing blur. The crushing weight of the silence, the phantom sting of her face, and the cold finality of the iron bolt was too much.
Logout. Logout now.
Ye-rin focused on the mental command, her panic overriding the "True-Sense" synchronization. In an instant, the black stone walls dissolved into static and the freezing mud vanished as her consciousness was ripped from the virtual world.
Ye-rin surged upward, the Bio-Sync Capsule hissing as the pressurized lid flew open. She gasped for air, her lungs burning with the clean, filtered oxygen of her penthouse.
She looked at her reflection in the darkened window of the capsule. There were no bruises. No blood. Just the pale, exhausted, shocked face that couldn't process what had just happened.
It felt too real, she thought, her fingers tracing the jawline where the knight's gauntlet had struck.
In the silence of the room, her own heartbeat felt like a frantic drum.
How can a machine simulate the hatred in Isabella's voice? How the game create that kind of cruelty?, she whispered to herself, her reflection staring back with hollow, wide eyes.
A jagged, bitter laugh caught in her throat. If I go back... if that timer hits zero... will I really die?
She looked at the tablet sitting on the bedside table. Once she reached for the device, it buzzed. A single, sharp vibration that made her flinch as if she'd been struck again.
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[ 1 NEW MESSAGE: MANAGER PARK ]
"Ye-rin? Your bio-stats just spiked into the red zone. The capsule's emergency alert hit my phone. Are you okay? Answer me immediately."
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She stared at the text, the blue light washing over her face. She did not reply to Manager Park instead, she took a ragged breath and tapped the app icon.
Ye-rin's fingers shook as she tapped the "Past Broadcasts" tab. The thumbnail for the stream was a graining, high-contrast shot of her own face, eyes wide with terror, pinned against the black stone by a faceless knight.
She hit play.
The recording was brutal. From the viewer's standpoint, the immersion was terrifyingly absolute. The way the camera, her own eyes shuddered when the knight's gauntlet struck her made the impact feel twice as heavy. Watching herself get slapped repeatedly by Isabella was sickening; the sound was sharp, and the way her character model's skin reacted — turning a deep, mottled purple in seconds looked less like a game and more like a snuff film.
Then she saw the data overlay.
The viewer count hadn't just stayed at twelve. Toward the end, as Isabella began the slaps, the number had spiked to 25 live viewers. In the heat of the moment, she'd been so drowned in the sensory overload that she hadn't realized a small crowd was growing, witnessing her humiliation in real-time.
Another notification from Manager Park buzzed at the top of the screen.
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[ 1 NEW MESSAGE: MANAGER PARK ]
"Ye-rin, answer me. What is happening in that capsule?"
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Ye-rin didn't hesitate. She didn't have the energy to type a lie. She attached the raw file of the last ten minutes showing the knight's strike, the sister's cold giggle, and the final command to let her starve and hit send.
After a short while, another message was received from Manager Park.
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[ 1 NEW MESSAGE: MANAGER PARK ]
"What the hell is this? Ye-rin, stay right there!"
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