Chapter 1

Foreword:

Late at night, I'm streaming a game. My viewers, who'd been picking apart my plays a second ago, suddenly start spamming the chat:

"Streamer, streamer! Sounds like someone's getting beaten next door. Go check it out, quick!"

"I hear it too. She sounds like she's in real trouble."

Being the hot-blooded type, I'm on my feet, ready to go help.

But the instant I stand, a line of text appears in front of me:

【Do not open that door!】

【You're an orphan who became a big streamer and makes a lot of money. They've had their eye on you for a long time.】

【The second you open that door, that woman rushes in half-naked, and after that you could have eight hundred mouths and still never explain your way out of it.】

I blink. This chat message isn't on my monitor. It's a glowing line of text, floating in midair.

Right then, a woman's sobbing cry comes from outside my door:

"Please, open the door and let me in, he's going to beat me to death."

1

Every viewer in the chat is spamming now:

"Go save her, man. What are you sitting there for? Don't tell me you're gonna pretend you didn't hear it."

"So you're just gonna let her die? Never thought the streamer was this cold-blooded. Unfollowing."

Somebody even changed their username to 【Trash Streamer】.

My palm is slick with sweat around the mouse.

My hero botches a move, the enemy pounces and takes me out solo, and my screen goes gray.

I just sit there in front of the computer, and it's only when my teammates start hammering the ping signals that I snap out of it.

But the chat doesn't slow down. It swells. The viewer count starts climbing fast.

【Bang bang Bang! 】

And then, out of nowhere.

A round of clear, sharp knocking, and with it a woman crying out:

"Please, I know you're home. Open up and let me hide in there, or my husband's really going to beat me to death!"

"He went downstairs to buy liquor. Just let me hide for a minute, that's all, just a minute."

I don't claim to be some saint. But a woman out there crying and begging me for help, I can't quite steel myself against it.

Just as I'm wavering, the text appears again.

【Her husband never left. She was never beaten either.】

【They're right outside your door right now, with a camera set up, waiting for you to open it.】

I grip the mouse, breathe deep a few times to steady myself, and say:

"I can call the police for you."

Outside goes dead silent for a second. Then the woman's crying turns bitter, hopeless:

"It'll take the cops ten minutes at best. Do you want to watch me die right in front of you?"

That shrill, agonized plea sets the chat off all at once.

Someone gets snide with me:

"Watching a streamer let someone die, live. Real fine young man of our generation. Come on, everybody, boost his numbers, let's get him on the front page so he can enjoy some nationwide praise!"

Others just go straight for the throat:

"What a piece of garbage. Streamer, I hope you walk out your door tomorrow morning and get run over by a car!"

"Everybody remember his ID. Report him every single time you see him. What right does scum like this have to make money online?"

The woman's hopeless voice, the viewers all raging as one, it leaves me dazed for a moment.

I'm only in my twenties. I stream games all day, sure, but I work out too. I'm at my strongest right now.

If there really is a woman being beaten out there, I figure that even if I can't save her, with my build I can at least protect myself.

Just as I lift off the seat, about to get up and open the door, more glowing text floats up in the air:

【There's a plant in your stream. Someone's steering all this.】

【The moment you open the door, that woman throws herself on you. Her man is a degenerate gambler. Once he's latched onto you, you'll never shake him.】

【Bang bang bang】

While I'm still staring hard at the text, the knocking starts up again outside.

This time, I get up and walk to the door.

The chat explodes instantly:

"Finally the streamer's conscience kicked in. This is the summoner I follow!"

"Yes! Boys, chip in what you can, money or muscle."

A huge wave of gifts floats up the stream, and the viewer count spikes again.

Meanwhile I've crept up to the door and slid back the cover over the peephole.

Outside, pitch black.

I wait a few patient seconds, then suddenly kick the door hard.

【Bang! 】

The crash sets off the motion-sensor light in the hallway.

And through the peephole, a woman's face appears, bloody, her head split open.

I frown.

The face is a little familiar, but it doesn't match any neighbor I can remember.

"Please, mister, hurry, open the door! My husband's coming up!"

She pounds frantically on my door, throwing terrified looks at the elevator beside her.

The display above the elevator is creeping closer and closer to my floor.

I clench my jaw and reach for the door handle.

【Click!】

I throw the deadbolt from the inside.