Chapter 236
Chapter 236
“Whoa, those effects are pretty good.”
“Yeah. How did they do that? The screams started as soon as he lit the candles.”
“Look. I think there are human faces on the candles.”
At that moment, a user named Guiwa Doesn’t Want Milk floated a comment across the screen.
“Those are soul candles. They burn souls as fuel. Once lit, they can kill Fiends and steady the spirit.”
“The guy above must be a shill.”
“They’re probably about to start selling something.”
“Same old routine.”
The online viewers scoffed at the user’s explanation.
To their surprise, Liu Ye did not try to sell anything. He simply began the game.
“Bloody Mary. Bloody Mary. Bloody Mary.”
After saying the name three times, Liu Ye discovered that… nothing happened.
“Fei, in that video, a huge face appeared as soon as the streamer finished. Why isn’t anything happening here?”
“Brother, give her a moment. She’s coming from overseas. There has to be a time difference. Just wait.”
As Xiaoshuai spoke, he glanced at the two burning candles. If Bloody Mary came after seeing those things, she would be an idiot.
He secretly took out a severed finger and tossed it beneath the mirror.
The finger had belonged to one of his Illuminati teammates. The man had left it with John out of fear, but John had never used it.
When they learned that Brother Liu intended to play the Bloody Mary game, they worried the Fiend might refuse to come, so they brought the finger along.
Events unfolded exactly as Xiaoshuai expected. The moment the finger landed, ripples spread across the mirror’s surface. The face they had seen before appeared inside.
Unlike the terrifying Bloody Mary from the earlier stream, this Bloody Mary looked distinctly uneasy.
“W-What would you like to ask?”
The viewers fell silent.
“Come on, this is too fake. Who hired the actress?”
“Exactly! Since when is a Fiend this polite?”
“I’m leaving. Nothing to see here!”
Viewers streamed out of the room. The acting in this broadcast was terrible. In other streams, everyone wore terrified expressions and frightening scenes unfolded one after another. That was exciting to watch.
Liu Ye’s stream offered no atmosphere at all.
Watching the viewer count plummet, Liu Ye complained to Bloody Mary in dissatisfaction.
He did not find her appearance strange. He had watched another streamer perform the ritual and summon Bloody Mary. Naturally, he assumed the same thing should happen when he copied the steps.
What bothered him was Bloody Mary’s lack of professionalism.
“Why are you treating me differently? When you visit other streamers, you’re terrifying. There’s blood and wind and everything. Why did you do nothing here? Look, all my viewers are leaving.”
“…I’m sorry.”
Bloody Mary apologized with an aggrieved expression. It was not her fault! Other streamers did not place two things like those candles beside their mirrors.
“Why don’t you spray some phenolphthalein and add baking soda? You’ll get the same effect.”
The remaining viewers fell silent.
Brother, we came for a paranormal stream, not a science lesson!
Even more viewers left.
Liu Ye grew furious. This was his first broadcast, and he had wanted to make a strong start. Instead, everything had fallen apart.
He glared at Bloody Mary.
Bloody Mary looked terrified. She stared fearfully at the two candles beside the mirror. If one of her fingers had not been here, nothing could have persuaded her to come.
She wanted only to finish quickly and leave with the finger.
“Please ask your question. Otherwise, I’ll be going.”
“Oh, right. You’re a foreigner, aren’t you? How did you get so good at the language of the Xia Kingdom?”
“My eldest sister is from here. I learned it from her.”
The mirror flashed, and Bloody Mary vanished.
Liu Ye fell silent.
“Why did she leave? I hadn’t asked anything yet!”
“Brother, you did ask.”
“What did I ask?”
“You asked why she could speak the language of the Xia Kingdom.”
“That counts?!” Liu Ye shouted in shock.
He glanced at the viewer count. Technically, he had completed the game, but fewer and fewer people remained.
Liu Ye saw that this would not do, so he called toward the mirror once more.
“Bloody Mary! Bloody Mary! Bloody Mary!”
Bloody Mary returned and looked at him pitifully.
“What do you want now?”
“I want to ask when I’ll become rich.”
This was the question Liu Ye cared about most.
The viewer count stopped falling. Apparently, people still wanted to see this kind of content. Streamers had asked similar questions before and died for it.
But after Liu Ye asked, Bloody Mary fell silent.
“Could you choose another question?”
Liu Ye fell silent.
The viewers fell silent.
Xiaoshuai fell silent.
She had not answered, yet somehow she had given him an answer.
“Fine. How old will I be when I get married?”
“…”
“When will I have children?”
“…”
“When will I be able to buy a home?”
“…”
“What’s your problem? You refuse to answer anything I ask. Are you discriminating against me?”
That was not even what angered Liu Ye most. Her refusal to answer implied that he would never become rich, never marry, never have children, and never buy a home.
Was his future truly that miserable? What was the point of living at all?!
“I’m sorry.”
Bloody Mary burst into tears. She wanted to answer, but whenever she tried to activate her ability, an inexplicable force slammed into her true body and nearly erased her from existence. Bloody tears now streamed down her face.
“Yes! That’s the effect I wanted. My friends, look-”
“Brother Liu, all the viewers are gone,” Xiaoshuai said cautiously.
Liu Ye fell silent.
“Can I leave now?”
“Like hell. It’s late, and we have nothing else to do. Stay and play Fight the Landlord for a while.”
Liu Ye was a new streamer still undergoing evaluation, and the platform required a minimum broadcast duration. He dragged Bloody Mary into a game of Fight the Landlord.
The stream earned almost no money. The card game, however, won Liu Ye the right to flick Bloody Mary’s forehead more than fifty times.
Bloody Mary left with bumps covering her head and a dark expression. A Fiend acquaintance who saw her even complimented her retro hairstyle.
Once the broadcast ended, Bloody Mary departed without looking back. From that day forward, no matter which streamer played her game, she refused to appear again.
When Officer Han learned what had happened, he excitedly presented Liu Ye with a commendation.
He sent Liu Ye daily necessities, rice, pork, and other supplies-anything except money. This had also been a test by the Fiend Investigation Bureau. If Liu Ye could truly resolve these entities without adverse side effects, they could use him against other Fiends!
The employee who proposed that idea encountered a Fiend incident a few days later and died inside it.
Liu Ye was quite pleased with his earnings, but the Driver and the other Fiends were deeply dissatisfied.
“Little Liu, I’m saying this as your big brother. Other people stream, and so do you. Fine, you openly demanded gifts. But why did you start playing cards afterward? The platform nearly shut down your room.”
“There was nothing else to do,” Liu Ye replied with a pout.
“All right. It’s clearly difficult for you to handle this kind of stream alone, so I found a friend of mine. He’s a major streamer. I’ll ask him to show you the ropes.”
A few days later, Liu Ye and Xiaoshuai arrived at Huicheng Mental Hospital.
This was also the location of their next broadcast. According to rumor, it was exceptionally dangerous. Almost no one who entered ever came out alive.
The major streamer had chosen the hospital for his broadcast because he intended to seize an enormous wave of traffic.
After the two waited a while, a sports car drifted to a stop in front of them.
“Hey, you’re here really early. The stream doesn’t start for another hour.”
The newcomer was a young man with distinctive features. His online name was Brother Biao, and he was considered the top outdoor paranormal streamer. Everyone ranked ahead of him had vanished.
Brother Biao did not believe in supernatural incidents. As far as he was concerned, those people had been cowards frightened away by the slightest disturbance.
He would never be so useless.