Became the Mother of Virtual YouTubers - Chapter 84
Spring and Winter froze at the same time, turning their heads towards the sound.
At the end of their gaze.
The wheelchair, which had been sitting in the middle of the room, began to move slowly.
“Uh, sister… That, that…!”
“Shh. Turn your head back to the front. Pretend you didn’t see anything.”
Winter put down the controller, held Spring’s head with both hands, and turned it so that Spring’s gaze was directed forward.
Despite being terrified, Winter faithfully followed the instructions written in the notebook.
Creeeak, creak, creeeak—
The wheelchair squeaked as it slowly approached the two.
The sound echoed in their ears like a scream.
Feeling like her heart was going to burst, Winter tightly gripped the notebook in her hand.
It may be surprising, but the notebook was not a weapon either.
“I told you to never look back…”
“…Yeah.”
“Spring, don’t turn your head, just move slowly.”
“U, uhh…”
The two slowly headed towards the exit behind them, turning their backs to the wheelchair.
Creeeak, creeeak—
As they moved, the horrifying noise drew closer behind them.
– Oh no, right behind you…!
– Aaaah! Look back! You messed up!!
At that very moment, when the sound was right next to them.
“Uh…? The chat says we’re in danger…?”
Unable to hold her curiosity, Spring turned her head back.
“Hey, what the hell…!”
The moment the eye tracker recognized that Spring’s gaze was exactly on the wheelchair.
The old metal frame twisted grotesquely with a loud crack!
The noise stopped.
[Spring… Winter…]
What appeared before the two, along with a chilling voice, was a humanoid transformation with its joints grotesquely twisted.
[Come into our embrace…]
Its ‘head’…
[You’ll become… ONE!]
It resembled both Spring and Winter’s avatars in a peculiar way.
“AAAAAH-!!”
“Ugh, seriously!! I told you not to look back!!”
“But how can I not look back-!!”
“Just run!!”
Winter screamed and desperately pulled on the doorknob.
Click—
As soon as the door opened, the two slammed buttons on the controller as if trying to break it.
Bam-!
As soon as they rushed into the room, the movements of the transformation suddenly stopped, almost like a lie.
[Ahh— our cute and lovely younger siblings—]
[You can’t… go far, can you? Hehehehe—]
Through the quickly closing door, a chilling smile spread across the transformation’s lips.
*
The two stood with their backs against the door they had just exited, panting heavily for a while.
In the darkness, finally calming their heartbeats, they faced each other.
Spring’s eyes were moist, and Winter’s forehead was drenched with cold sweat.
– Why did the corners of its mouth rise at the end?
– Hmm… It’s not that scary (while changing pants)
– If you want to quit the game now, downvote it! hahaha
– This game really sucks (as a compliment)
– But don’t the monsters oddly resemble Spring and Winter??
“So true!! Isn’t it just too much? It’s so mean…!”
With tears welling in her eyes, Spring suddenly cried out “Wahhh—.”
Winter gently patted her back as if to comfort her.
“Let’s hold on a little longer. Okay? We need to break out quickly and go confront Mama.”
Winter muttered to herself in resentment as she slowly looked around.
Ahead was another long and dark hallway.
Under the dim light, the hallway stretched, looking like a dark tunnel with no end in sight.
On the walls were clear scars, as if someone had desperately clawed their way out.
The floor tiles were cracked and broken, and black mold spread between the gaps.
“It, it would have been better to just take the courage test in reality…”
– No way, did we really teleport or something? hahaha
– Ah… did we just ‘create’ a ‘world’…?
The two cautiously proceeded down the hallway, their tense faces betraying their anxiety.
The rustling, the sound of crunching fragments underfoot oddly scraped their nerves.
Creeeak—
At that moment, from the darkness at the end of the hallway, an extremely small and faint sound was heard.
The two flinched and shivered simultaneously.
“…Did you hear that, Spring?”
“U, uhh…”
Winter gulped, swallowing dryly, looking around.
There was no safe front or back.
Thud, thud.
Footsteps slowly approached from behind, echoing softly.
A chilling sensation ran down Winter’s spine.
“Uhhh… We shouldn’t look back again, right?”
“Yeah. Don’t slow down, just look ahead.”
The presence coming from behind them seemed to test the two, getting closer and closer.
As the footsteps grew louder, tears welled in Spring’s eyes.
Thud… thud.
The footsteps stopped right behind them.
[…] Found you—
A cold breath seemed to touch the nape of their necks.
[Shall we stop playing hide and seek… now?]
[Then… it’s time to go home?]
In fear that felt like their hearts had stopped, the two froze.
“…”
Winter inhaled deeply, quietly, and finally squeezed out her voice.
“When I say one, two, three, we’ll run as fast as we can, using all our stamina. Don’t you dare look back.”
One.
At Winter’s quiet whisper, Spring’s body stiffened.
Two.
The presence behind them began to let out a low, muffled laugh.
It was damp and eerie.
…Three!
Without a moment to spare, they both started to run madly towards the end of the hallway.
Shadows of three bodies and four heads flickered under the flashing fluorescent lights.
[Why? Why are you running away?]
[Aren’t you going to go out and, never come back?]
[Will you be the only ones who are loved?]
As the voice of the following presence grew louder.
[We’re just like you.]
[Why were we abandoned?]
[Why weren’t we chosen?!]
[Aaah… Aaaahhh!!]
It finally transformed into a frenzied scream.
“d*mn it!! Spring, don’t make such weird screams!! Stop messing around!!”
“AAAAAH!! Sister, don’t mess around either!! I’m really scared, wahhh!!”
“That’s not me! I’m not the one making those weird sounds!!”
This is also Jin Ha’s surprise.
With Roji’s help, they seamlessly mixed Spring and Winter’s voices into the creature’s noise.
Thus, the two ran on with their eyes tightly closed, without thinking rationally.
*
Rough breathing and heartbeats echoed in their ears.
In a gradually narrowing field of vision, right in the middle of pitch-black darkness.
Spring and Winter held each other’s trembling hands, barely feeling each other’s presence.
Before them was a room with the word ‘EXIT’ written on it, dripping with bl**d.
That room would probably be the last one.
“Huhhh… If it wasn’t for Sister Winter, I wouldn’t have made it this far…”
– Oh no… don’t say that
– In horror movies, kids who say stuff like that always d*e…
– d*ath flag on
Unlike the viewers who were panicking at Spring’s superstitions, Winter nodded with a weary expression.
In fact, Winter had the same thoughts as Spring.
If it weren’t for Spring, she would have been the one sitting on the floor crying.
Still, now that the end was in sight.
Just as Spring and Winter steeled themselves and stepped towards the last door, it opened on its own without them even touching the doorknob.
As if it had been waiting for them.
A faint light flowed into the dark room.
The moment they finally stepped inside.
The two froze in place.
“AAAH!! Sister!!”
In a horrifying form, grotesquely twisted.
A being that was a person but not a person hung upside down from the ceiling.
Its upside-down face was so distorted that it was hard to recognize, and its elongated limbs dangled precariously close to the floor.
[Finally… you’ve come back ‘home’?]
Holding her heart that seemed ready to burst, Winter slowly took a step back.
[Our little sisters are truly beautiful today, too.]
They had to somehow get out of here.
They had to get out, but…
[So, so very, very beautiful…]
The door they entered had already closed tightly behind them.
“No… no no no, d*mn it, this is really crazy!!”
The being slowly descended with a sound as if bones were cracking.
Even in the darkness, its abnormally white and pale skin stood out.
[I want to tear you apart, distort you, crush you…]
Heheh—
The laughter resonating through the wind was bizarre.
“Spring! The last clue! I’ll distract it, so you find the last clue quickly! Hurry!!”
“…”
“…Spring?”
Spring, who should have been screaming louder than anyone, was unusually quiet.
Feeling something was off, Winter turned her head to look beside her.
“…”
“Spring! Hey, Spring! Pull yourself together!!”
– Hahaha, Spring is blanking out while standing!
– No way, this is a serious situation but why are we laughing?
– Flag retrieval – done
It was an hour later that the two cleared the game.
*
“Is this… really a VR game?”
In an office located in a high-rise building in the heart of Seoul.
Through the floor-to-ceiling windows, the dazzling night view of Seoul was visible as a woman sat quietly on a sofa, looking at the tablet screen.
On the screen, Spring and Winter, the VTubers belonging to CosmoLive, were screaming desperately, engulfed in fear.
[Anonymous sponsor donated 10,000 won.]
[This sense of reality is insane, did this game really link us to another world??]
As a voice message came in just at that moment, she slowly nodded, as if agreeing with the statement.
The interior of the abandoned hospital behind them was so elaborately crafted that it felt more like a movie set.
She paused the screen for a moment and zoomed in on a specific spot, carefully examining the detailed texture of the hallway walls.
Stains visible through the cracks in the peeling wallpaper.
A line of weed growing through the cracks in the tiles.
Her brow furrowed, unconsciously taken by the delicate implementation of the smallest details.
“This person is really on another level.”
She had heard plenty about the market disruptor ‘jinha_na’, who appeared like a comet in the 3D modeling industry.
She knew that the craftsmanship in creating avatars was unparalleled.
But she had never expected such a quality in stage backgrounds.
At that moment, the wired phone on her desk rang.
She set down the tablet and answered the call.
[Director, did you see the video I just sent?]
Hearing her manager’s urgent voice, she smiled quietly.
“I was just watching it. It’s truly amazing.”
[With this level of work, can we trust this person with Kamishiro Rei’s stage direction?]
“At this level, absolutely. In this country, they are unparalleled, with no competitors in skill.”
Indeed, she chuckled, saying this was why they were at the top of the recruitment list.
Yoon Se-yeon, the head of the NiseLive Korean branch, chuckled softly.