The Heavenly Demon's Mischief
Harin, who had been watching Hwaryeong's stream, found it difficult to understand why Dang So-il was fleeing with trembling legs while chattering his teeth. That guy was ridiculously timid. What on earth was he so scared of? What was the point of someone who had even received training from Hwaryeong acting like that? It was only natural for Harin to look at Dang So-il with contempt. After all, Hwaryeong's stream had maintained a lighthearted atmosphere from start to finish.
Hwaryeong's stream was essentially from the perpetrator's point of view. It felt like a ghost working at a haunted house saying, "Now I'm going to scare this person!" and showing others' terrified reactions. For example, before tormenting Dang So-il, the process of Hwaryeong tracking someone named Kabi went like this. First, she only made her presence known nearby. Footsteps. The sound of fabric brushing. Something falling. When sounds kept coming from places where there should have been nothing, people naturally grew frightened. Kabi was no exception. She began communicating more actively with viewers to calm her fear, yet she never stopped glancing around with anxious eyes.
Then, at the peak of her anxiety, Hwaryeong extinguished the torch Kabi was holding from a distance. Suddenly plunged from light into darkness, Kabi panicked and frantically relit it. With a tearful expression, she muttered that it was too scary here, then looked up—only to see Hwaryeong with long hair covering her entire face. Unprepared for the sight, Kabi screamed and collapsed to the floor. Forced into a horror game, Kabi sobbed and begged for help, but from the viewers' perspective, her terrified appearance was incredibly satisfying. It was easy to see why hidden-camera content had always been popular, especially with Hwaryeong having the justification of being a robbery victim.
The pursuit of Dang So-il followed a similar pattern. "Watch closely. I will now make only he hear the footsteps through voice transmission." When Hwaryeong deliberately let only Dang So-il hear the footsteps, he stopped in his tracks. At first, he thought he had misheard, but as it repeated, he grew flustered, muttered something to the viewers, and began glancing repeatedly behind him.
"He can't even notice this. How pathetic. Truly pathetic." Viewers and Harin alike couldn't hold back their laughter at the gap between the thoroughly cowed Dang So-il and Hwaryeong looking down on him with disdain. The rest of the process was the same. His terrified sprinting. His failure to notice Hwaryeong mimicking Kabi. His shock upon realizing the truth. His trembling yet tough act the moment the lights went out. On Hwaryeong's stream, it all felt like a comedy skit.
"Hmm. At this rate, I can't make a tasty edit. It would be more fun if I could explain why the other person is reacting that way. Should I turn off Hwaryeong's stream for a bit and watch from Dang So-il's perspective? She seems like she'll keep playing with him for a while."
"Shit... What the hell is this really?" Harin couldn't suppress her laughter at Dang So-il's appearance—eyes constantly darting around, teeth chattering, clutching the torch tightly as if it were precious, and muttering nonstop. It was obvious he was terrified no matter where you looked. The same guy who always put on a strong front and bluffed shamelessly during 1v1 fights in Apis was now making a face like he was about to cry. Ah, what do I do? This is too funny. I have to tease him with this when we meet later. I'll keep teasing him until his face turns red and he gets genuinely angry!
"Hehe. Hehehehe. Just imagining it sounds so entertaining." Harin had been grinning while fantasizing about that, but as time passed, she gradually began to understand Dang So-il's feelings. From the perspective of someone who knew nothing, Hwaryeong was truly terror incarnate.
"Please stop joking around. I'm really scared." Sounds only he could hear. "Ah shit! Why did the lights go out again... Please... Let's not do this." Lights going out for no reason. "Damn it! It's another dead end!" Paths where you couldn't see an inch ahead. "Dang So-il!" "So-il!" "Dang So-il!" "Shut up! Be quiet! I told you to shut up!" Countless voices coming from all directions. That was right. Hwaryeong was turning this place into a scene from a horror game, just as she had said. Given the situation, even Harin, who had been full of thoughts about teasing Dang So-il, couldn't help but feel sorry for him.
...I shouldn't tease him when we meet. That would be like executing someone who's already dead. But... yeah. Posting it on MyTube should be fine, right? It can't be helped. If I don't put this in, what else would I put? Dang So-il will understand. Besides, Hwaryeong's MyTube has way more views than Dang So-il's. At first he'll be embarrassed, but after enjoying the trickle-down effect once, he'll realize that realistic happiness outweighs the shame and laugh about it, won't he?
Excited at the thought of being able to embarrass her acquaintance, Harin smiled and contacted her editor senior, Hansik. If she was going to do it, she might as well do the editing properly.
*
"Dang So-il?" While fleeing blindly from the sound chasing him, Dang So-il happened to encounter someone else. Byeol-ttuk, one of Thread's veteran players, tilted his head upon seeing Dang So-il's pale, terrified face. "Is something wrong?"
"Don't come near me." Dang So-il swatted away Byeol-ttuk's concerned outstretched hand and backed away hesitantly. He had been toyed with by Hwaryeong until now. Knowing that an unknown monster could approach while changing faces and voices, it was only natural to be suspicious of anyone he met by chance.
"Huh? Why are you acting like this—" "Just answer my questions." Though Byeol-ttuk blinked in confusion at Dang So-il's behavior, he still obediently answered what was asked. Playtime, the tone he usually used during streams, personal stories they had shared—Byeol-ttuk answered without hesitation to various questions that someone not close to him normally wouldn't know. Only after the entire process ended did Dang So-il raise his head with a trembling voice. "Are you really Byeol-ttuk?"
"I told you I am." "Waaah!" Startled by the sight of another man crying and clinging to him, Byeol-ttuk was nonetheless moved by how desperate he must have been and patted his shoulder. After some time, Dang So-il, who had barely calmed down, explained the situation to Byeol-ttuk in a slightly hoarse voice. There was a monster living in this underground area.
"What do you mean?" Unlike Dang So-il, Byeol-ttuk, who had been enjoying Thread until recently and had read all the patch notes, couldn't help but ask what he was talking about. After all, no monsters appeared in this underground area.
"It's real. I'm not lying!" "If Dang So-il is saying this much, it's definitely not acting. That means there's really something in this underground area. Considering that no monsters spawn here..." "It must be a person." Naturally, the conclusion was that the culprit behind all this was a person. Given that they had persistently tormented and chased Dang So-il, it was highly likely Hwaryeong's doing. His answer was logically sound. Logically speaking.
"Does that make sense?!" However, to Dang So-il, who had been suffering in an abnormal situation, those words could only sound like nonsense. Irresponsible words spoken casually by someone who hadn't witnessed the phenomena he had experienced firsthand. "Changing faces! Changing voices! Driving me into a corner like that, and you call that a person?!"
"I understand it might sound strange. But—" "Shut up! You don't know because you haven't experienced this! I... I can still hear the sounds even now." "Sounds?" What sounds? There were no sounds in this maze right now. When Byeol-ttuk answered that way, Dang So-il's eyes widened before he began laughing like a madman. "Thud. Thud. Footsteps. From behind. Getting louder and louder, enough to echo throughout this entire path. But no one else can hear these sounds!"
"Calm down! Dang So-il! This is just a game! There must be some kind of bug!" "I wish it was a bug too! But it doesn't end!" "You're just tired from playing too long. First, forget about the materials and just log out—" "Right. Log out! If I log out, I can escape from here..." It was at that moment that the torches both were holding went out. "What is this?" "Shit! Again?! This time..." While Byeol-ttuk responded calmly, Dang So-il, who had experienced this several times, reacted sensitively. As Byeol-ttuk ignored Dang So-il's frantic insistence that they needed to relight the torches quickly, Dang So-il's voice suddenly disappeared. It hadn't diminished or been replaced by another sound. It had simply vanished. As if someone had muted his voice.
In his confusion, when Byeol-ttuk relit the torch, Dang So-il, who had been standing right in front of him moments ago, had vanished without a trace. "What the..." "Aaaagh!" Hearing Dang So-il's scream from afar, Byeol-ttuk moved his feet before he could even think. Damn it. Hwaryeong. Your tastes are too cruel. It's true we attacked first, but there's no need to go this far for revenge. Though he gritted his teeth and ran, there was nothing at the place where the scream had come from moments ago. No corpse. No bag that would have come from a corpse. No person who would have taken items from the bag. Instead, there was something else. Footsteps. Thud. Thud. Footsteps echoing through the labyrinth. Footsteps that hadn't been audible until moments ago. The very footsteps Dang So-il had been making a fuss about hearing until just now.
Upon hearing them, Byeol-ttuk's pupils trembled as he swallowed and asked the viewers in a shaky voice, "Hey. Can you hear the footsteps right now?"
Those footsteps could only be heard by Byeol-ttuk. The moment he realized this, Byeol-ttuk considered one thing. Whether, regardless of materials or whatever, returning everything he had to Hwaryeong and kowtowing might spare him.
*
"What exactly did you do?" Pipi, who had been blankly staring at Byeol-ttuk's team gathered in front of the castle undergoing repairs and performing a formal apology, turned her head to look at me and asked. "I merely tormented them a bit because it was displeasing that they did not fear me." "A bit?" "...I did torment them quite a lot." Watching the children cry and tremble in fear had been rather entertaining. It seems I went slightly. Very slightly overboard. When I said this, the viewers began to have a fit, but I skillfully ignored them. "More importantly, Pipi. If we add the materials I brought to what they brought, won't we be able to make Wol-wol's shampoo?"