Character LIVE Broadcast
Jin-seok returned to the cramped, musty room of his goshiwon, feeling a surge of adrenaline so intense it was like the blood in his veins was reversing course. The fact that Jihun had chased him all the way to Sinseoldong Station wasn't terrifying—it was the greatest "reader feedback" he'd ever experienced in his life. Knowing his creation had shaken a real human being to such depths drove him insane with delight. He roughly stripped off his sweat-soaked, mania-stained T-shirt and carefully placed the phone under the desk lamp's light. The cold white glow illuminated Siyeon inside the screen in stark detail.
With trembling hands, Jin-seok lit a cigarette. The flickering flame of the lighter came not from fear, but from uncontrollable excitement. He cackled as he watched the view count on his novel skyrocketing in real time on the monitor.
"Siyeon, did you see that just now? Your husband's such a moron. He was right there next to you and couldn't find you, just circling around like an idiot. Photographer, my ass—is his eyesight just for show? Or is that all the love he has for you? I can't stop laughing at how pathetic he is, not recognizing you even when you're right in front of him."
"You... you're not even human. You're a demon bastard... The day Jihun catches you, you're dead. No, worse than dead—he'll make you suffer. I'll make sure of it. I swear I will!"
Trapped in her narrow glass prison, Siyeon snarled at Jin-seok like a wild beast, spitting in fury. Her eyes still blazed with unbroken hatred. But to Jin-seok, even that resistance was just spice enhancing his serialization. He swallowed hard and opened the app's [Advanced Settings] tab. His fingers began tapping the keyboard in a grotesque rhythm.
"Still full of fight, huh? That's what makes breaking a woman so satisfying. Readers love seeing you act all pure and noble, screaming your husband's name as you crumble. Alright, time for you to fully melt into my world. New settings incoming. You're becoming one with me now."
Jin-seok's fingers glided over the keys, arranging cruel commands.
Setting Applied: Synchronize character 'Park Siyeon''s 'olfactory' and 'auditory' functions 100% with the real-world author (Jin-seok).
Additional Setting: Spatial Perception Distortion - Adjust so the author's surrounding environment feels like a massive 'giant's room' to the character.
The moment he hit confirm, Siyeon let out a scream of agony and collapsed face-down on the screen's floor. Every foul odor from Jin-seok's room beyond the phone assaulted her nervous system like data waves. The rancid stench of unwashed clothes piled up for months, the acrid reek of cigarette butts overflowing in the ashtray, and the musty, fishy rot rising from mold in the corner stabbed into her lungs like knives. She retched, her whole body shaking, but there was no escape from the smells. They invaded her airways, polluting her very soul.
Worst of all were the sounds. The ordinary clack of Jin-seok typing boomed in her ears like boulders crashing down. His gulp echoed like a tidal wave slamming her eardrums. His ragged breathing pressed on her like a massive beast roaring right in her face. Even the creak of his chair as he sat felt like a giant ship splitting in two, shredding her brain.
"Aaaagh! Please, the noise! Make it stop! My head's splitting! It's too loud, too scary...! Turn it off, please!"
"This is what 'realism' feels like, Siyeon. You're not just some data fragment anymore. You're my perfect possession, breathing my room's air, hearing every sound from my body in real time. I'm the master of your senses now. Every pain you feel is my pleasure."
At that moment, Jihun, hitting the wall of despair, resorted to his last option. The police's bureaucratic slowness couldn't even find a trace of his wife. He sought out Hacker K, the reclusive master informant from the back alleys he'd met during a high-res photo restoration gig. In the underground workshop thick with cigarette smoke and burning circuit smells, K clicked his tongue at Jihun's hollow, bloodshot eyes and hammered away at a laptop linked to dozens of monitors.
"Bro, this ain't no joke. It's not basic IP spoofing. The data's shredded into tens of thousands of packets through some special encryption rig... and the location keeps shifting in real time. Like it's alive, dodging trackers. The perp's no amateur. Pro tools."
"What? Shifting location? That bastard was definitely near Sinseoldong! He vanished right in front of me!"
"Either he's on the move constantly, or the app itself spins up a new virtual proxy every second to fake the location. At this rate, a month of grinding gets you zilch. But... there's one needle-in-a-haystack shot. When he flips on 'live stream,' server load spikes the signal. Give me 30 seconds then, and I can pinpoint the building and room number. Bro, 30 seconds. You gotta hold out that long."
Jihun gripped his camera bag strap so tight the veins in his hand threatened to burst. Thirty seconds. Hellish seconds watching his wife violated live, broadcast to voyeurs worldwide. His lips quivered. To save his beloved wife, he had to face her most humiliating moment head-on. Tears like blood streaked his cheeks.
Meanwhile, Jin-seok's eyes darted wildly at the nonstop donation pop-ups on his monitor. Each rising amount exploded his dopamine levels. The comments were a frenzy of deranged reader demands.
"Perfect. Fans want it, so fan service it is. Tonight's a festival. Siyeon, you ready? Time to greet your global fans."
Jin-seok hovered his index finger over the phone's [Start Live Broadcast] button. Inside the screen, tormented by thunderous noise and stench, Siyeon instinctively sensed an even greater horror approaching. Holding onto her sense of self was already a struggle. Her nerves screamed under the false sensations Jin-seok had imposed.
"No... don't... Oppa... Jihun's watching... Please don't do this... Don't make me more miserable, please...! Just kill me... Kill me!"
"That's why I'm doing it, you dumb bitch. He needs to see you break in front of him to give up for good. And that'll be my novel's climax. Just cry, scream, and crawl like I tell you."
The instant Jin-seok pressed the button with gleaming eyes, screens worldwide lit up—for starving readers and Jihun's laptop in his hellish pursuit. The blacked-out feed brightened, revealing Siyeon in her bizarre latex outfit, face smeared with tears, exposed raw.
Siyeon's hot tears smeared the cold screen glass. On Jihun's laptop, red text blinked urgently in the bottom right: 'Reverse packet trace initiated... 30 seconds remaining.'
Reverse Packet Trace Initiated...
Remaining Time: 30 Seconds
Jihun locked eyes with Siyeon on screen. The despair, shame, and silent plea for salvation in her gaze tore his heart apart. He gripped the monitor like he wanted to smash it.
As the stream started, thousands of filthy comments flooded the screen. Readers critiqued her exposed body, egging Jin-seok on with crueler demands. He reveled in the madness, slowly reaching toward Siyeon. For Jihun, each second stretched like a year of torment. His wife's screams echoed through the speakers into the studio. He clenched his fists until blood welled, staring at the screen.
"Just hold on a little longer, Siyeon... Just a bit... I'm coming. Coming soon...!"
Jihun growled like a beast at the screen. The trace gauge crept up slowly. Onscreen, Jin-seok's fingers trailed her cheek, then gripped her throat. Thirty seconds. An eternity of hell for some, the cruelest punishment of Jihun's life. Finally, the gauge hit 100%, pinning a red dot on the map. Jihun bolted from the workshop without a second thought.