30 Seconds of Hell
On Jin-seok's dusty, worn-out desk, the smartphone's front camera flickered to life with a red glow, like the hungry eye of a bloodthirsty predator. As soon as the live broadcast notification hit the devices of readers worldwide, viewer numbers skyrocketed exponentially from the shadowy corners of the internet. The real-time comment section turned into a cesspool spewing the rawest, basest human desires hidden behind masks of anonymity. There was no morality, no ethics, not even a shred of pity. Only a collective madness swirled, eager to gawk at the dignity of one woman being butchered on the blurred line between virtual and reality.
Jin-seok cackled as he meticulously adjusted the angle of the desk lamp. Its cold, intense white light cruelly licked across Siyeon's pale, festering face.
"Alright, everyone, you've been waiting a long time, right? Our 'Siyeon' here is super worked up today. The second she heard her so-called husband was closing in, she lost her shit. As a fan service, I've prepared a special show, so enjoy it hot and heavy. Come on, wallets out? Hit me with those donations! The more you give, the louder Siyeon's voice gets!"
Jin-seok swallowed his foul saliva and lifted the phone for an extreme close-up of Siyeon's face. On the screen, she shook her head weakly, her face a mess of tears and snot from terror and shame. Her pupils were dilated to the extreme, trembling, and her lips were bitten raw until blood beaded up. The gaze of tens of thousands pouring through the thin glass wall felt like sharp arrows piercing her naked body and soul alike.
"Don't... please turn it off... don't watch! Jihun, please don't look! Don't watch this...!"
Siyeon felt her soul being shredded at the thought that her husband Jihun might be witnessing this hellish scene live. The horror of displaying her ugliest, most pathetic self to the man she loved was worse than death. She wanted to bite her tongue and end it right then, but the app's System denied her even the will to die. Jin-seok cackled louder as her screams grew more desperate, typing new lines into the Author's Note window.
Real-Time Mission: Siyeon must imagine the camera lens as her husband's eyes, caress her body, and spit out seductive lines.
Refusal or hesitation triggers 220V full-body electric shock. Pain amplified to character's maximum limit.
The moment the command registered, Siyeon's body convulsed forcibly, her hand starting to move. Her brain screamed refusal, but her digitally rewired nerves obeyed the author's orders, sliding faithfully down her thigh.
At that moment, in Hacker K's workshop. Jihun's laptop screen streamed Siyeon's pathetic live feed in real time. Beside it, complex source code and packet data cascaded like a chaotic waterfall, too dense to parse. Jihun's face was no longer that of a living man. Thick sweat poured down his ashen cheeks like rain, and his eyes, fixed on the screen, were bloodshot to the point of bursting.
"Bro, it's starting! Got the live signal! It's bouncing like crazy—the bastard's chaining proxies. From now, 30 seconds... no, data's too heavy, need at least 40 for a solid lock! Don't close the screen, hyungnim! Don't look away! If it cuts now, we'll never find it! Your wife's right there!"
Jihun wanted to shut his eyes. Plug his ears and flee this cruel reality forever. But he couldn't. His wife on screen was sobbing as she stroked her slender thighs herself, spewing the humiliating lines Jin-seok had programmed.
"Ji... Jihun... look at me... I'm... so... good right now... sob, ugh... please, look at me... don't you... want me? More than you... this author... feels better..."
Jihun's nails dug into the desk, blood dripping from his fingertips. Watching his wife's noble soul and their precious shared memories crumble under the finger taps of that trash hiding in some dingy room—it was a punishment broadcast live, robbing him of even a single breath. Time dragged, each second feeling like a year in this exquisite torment. His heart had long shattered to dust, his lungs scorching with agony.
> [20 seconds elapsed... Data analysis 55%]
> [25 seconds elapsed... Packet noise detected, re-analyzing algorithm]
"Please! Just a bit more! Hold on, hyungnim! Don't lose the screen! We're almost there!"
With K's desperate shout, Jihun saw the tears pooling in his wife's eyes on screen. She was pleading toward him beyond the lens—not for rescue, but for death, to be spared this sight and abandoned. Jihun clenched his teeth so hard blood filled his mouth, the crack of a molar breaking the workshop's silence. That desperate glint in her eyes tore through his mind.
> [40 seconds complete. Origin confirmed: Seoul, Seongbuk-gu, Sinseoldong OO Goshiwon Room 302]
"Got it! Hyungnim, it's up! Room 302! Near Sinseoldong Station Exit 1!"
Before K finished, Jihun grabbed the heavy camera tripod from his bag and kicked open the underground workshop door. His eyes burned with the feral hunger of a beast stripped of reason. No time to look back. His mind blazed with one mad obsession: smash into 302, drag his wife from that hell.
"Hold on, Siyeon. Just a little longer... I'm coming now. I'll rip that fucker apart with my own hands. Hang in there...!"
Jihun bolted down the stairs, jumped into his car, and the engine roared as it tore toward Sinseoldong. Ignoring signals, weaving lanes, his car was a chariot risen from hell for vengeance. In his mind, the coordinates—302—burned like a red brand.
At the same time, Jin-seok, lost in the live stream and readers' reactions, felt a strange chill. His security tool at the phone screen's bottom blinked a small red warning: [External Trace Detected].
"Hoo, the little rat found the hole, huh? That photographer's got a damn competent sidekick. Or did he grease some palms? This serialization's getting more spectacular than I thought."
Far from panicked, Jin-seok gripped his phone in mounting thrill. He approached the gasping Siyeon on the floor and whispered evilly. His voice dripped with unbridled madness. To Siyeon, his breath slithered like a massive serpent, sticky and grotesque.
"Siyeon, your husband's coming soon. Probably pissed out of his mind, right? But hey, what if he bursts in and sees you sprawled like this? What face would make him despair the most pathetically in the world? Yeah? I wanna snapshot that for my novel's next chapter best shot. Just imagining it gives me chills. He'll probably go insane, never forgetting that scene."
Jin-seok hastily tidied the room, slung his pre-packed bag, and prepared to bolt. He wasn't dumb enough to risk a face-off with Jihun. But before leaving, he planned one final, indelible scar. He opened the settings window and hammered in commands to eternally strip Jihun of his wife.
Character 'Park Siyeon' GPS location permanently hidden.
User 'Jihun' all shared cloud access permanently revoked and IP blocked.
From now on, character 'Siyeon' status visible only to 'paid readers' and author.
Jin-seok flashed a sinister grin, pocketed the phone deep, and slipped out the goshiwon's back emergency stairs. His footsteps echoed hollowly on the cracked concrete. Just two minutes after he vanished into the alley shadows, Jihun's car screeched to a halt at the goshiwon entrance, tires smoking, brakes screaming.
Gripping the tripod tight, Jihun charged up the infernal stairs toward Room 302 where his wife was trapped. His lungs heaved on the verge of bursting, his mouth thick with the metallic tang of blood. With just one door between them, the longest 30 seconds of hell in Jihun's life was about to enter a new phase.