Chapter 80

….

"It sounds amazing!"

I grinned.

Though I was still unsatisfied with the final product, it still feels great to be complimented.

Of course, the value decreases when it's a song I stole; but I cleanse my sins by adding my own originality and elements to the song.

I quietly watched the game team listen to the intense songs. Their eyes shone brilliantly as if I had perfectly envisioned what they wanted for their game.

There's no way they'll hesitate at my request to direct the production of the official song now.

"Ahh… This… Are you really human?"

In low voices, I heard people doubting my humanity.

"He's really talented. I thought he'd be a better entertainer than musician."

"I am surprised as well."

The draft ended but even with the limited equipment I had, it still sounded great.

Of course, it'll be soul-shaking when the real and final performance is done for the trailer.

The director offered his hand and I shook it with a smile.

"What a masterpiece of a song… It makes me greedy to have this song for our own royalties…"

I pretended not to hear the last part.

"I am motivated by your team's hard work."

"Hah… that is great to hear," he smiled bitterly aware that I ignored his desire, "well, the song was way above our expectation. When will the final result be out?"

"Hmm…" I grinned, "It'll be done before February."

…

A day later...

Charlie: Happy holidays, everyone.

I sent a message to the group chat with my friends.

Macie: merry christmas to everyone!

Everyone wished each other a happy Christmas.

It would be funny to sing Mariah Carey's All I want for Christmas is you but I don't want to haunt malls to play that song 24/7 from a day before Halloween to the end of the year, every single year.

Maybe sometime in the future.

I then sent a happy holidays post in my socials and got ready to sleep.

Jagger hadn't made it back since yesterday. He's probably going to be really busy with his movie.

I turned off the lights to head to sleep.

[Buzz buzz]

Beside me, my charging phone vibrated.

Ah, I'm too lazy to check the phone…

[Buzz buzz]

Someone's calling me…

I picked up the phone and accepted the call.

"Charlie!"

Ah, flashbang!

The blinding lights contrasting the darkness I was surrounded by made me squint my lights.

I covered my eyes groggily.

"Hello."

Natsumi's honey like voice yelled my name out again excitedly.

She was carrying the phone while walking around a room with the background noise of a lot of people.

"Charlie!"

"Yes yes, I can hear you. Hello Natsumi."

"Merry Christmas!"

It looked like she was at a party.

"Merry Christmas, Mimi!"

It had been a long time since I had used that nickname, but it felt like a fitting moment.

She smiled at the nickname she hadn't heard in a while.

"Chuchu…"

"Yes?"

"... Are you still in Petra?"

"Yes… I'll probably be returning in a few days, though. The company accepted the song and winter break is almost ending."

"Agh, don't remind me that school is starting soon!"

"Yes, yes. School isn't starting soon."

"Hmph."

She jokingly scoffed while shuffling around through people.

I looked at her through the phone, amused.

"Where are you? Is it a Christmas Party?"

"Mhm, mhm," she sat down and sighed, "My family and I usually meet up with cousins and family friends during Christmas time."

"Ah… and here I was thinking you were out partying like an animal."

"What type of person do you take me for? My mom wouldn't even let me."

She acted offended and frowned at the phone.

"Yes yes. You're not a party animal. Natsumi is responsible, conscientious, and sensible."

She giggled as I agreed with her, too groggy to even want to argue.

"What's so funny?"

I smiled hearing her laugh.

"Turn on the lights, you look so silly squinting your eyes in the darkness."

I lazily got up and flicked the lights on.

"There, happy?"

"Yes, yes. Good boy. Charlie is a good boy."

I rolled my eyes.

"... Right right, so why did you call me? I was about to sleep."

I asked her while yawning.

"Don't be so colddddd. Why can't I call you?"

She raised her bottom lip with a pout. Oops, did I sound rude?

"Eh? Cold? I never said you can't. I'm just asking."

"Mmm… so you're granting me permission to call you whenever?"

She ignored my question and asked playfully.

"It's not like I can ignore your call…"

She laughed and her eyes softened.

"...You look so sleepy."

"...I'm not sleepy."

"Haha, you're lying."

"I'm not sleepy. Sleeping is for losers."

She giggled at my very tired and sleepy proclamation.

"Alright, alright… Go to sleep then."

I smiled goofily at the phone. Saying sleeping is for losers but heading to sleep the next second— what a loser I am.

"I'm not going to sleep…"

I collapsed on the bed.

She laughed, "Yes yes, whatever you say…"

I looked tiredly at the phone and we stared at each other virtually.

"Chuchu…"

"Yes?"

"You asked why I called, right?"

"Mhm…"

"I called because I miss you."

"...I miss you too."

We looked at each other with smiles.

"Remember when we went shopping and I got a haircut? Let's do something like that again when I come back," I suggested.

"Hahahaha…"

I raised my eyebrows.

"...What are you laughing at?" Weirdo.

"Are you asking me on a date?"

My heartbeat accelerated as I realized that what I asked did indeed sound like an invitation to a date.

"...What do you want me to say?"

I hid my shame and asked back.

"Hmmm, well you sound so sleepy I couldn't hear you properly…"

"...Let's go to the mall when I come back," my mouth twitched.

"I don't understand what you're saying."

She smiled angelically at the phone.

"...Let's go on a date," I finally relented.

"Hehe, okay."

She smiled childishly, looking like a cute innocent devil whose plans finally came to fruition.

I smiled at the thought while she excitedly told me what's been going on around in Weath.

At the end, I ended up a loser sleeping a blissful dream.

…

Next Morning.

[Rykun: charlie i heard youre here in petra?]

While brushing my teeth, I received a notification from Rykun the man himself.

Too lazy to use one hand to type, I clumsily clicked the face call button in the social media app.

He picked up shortly.

["Charlie? You… Haha are you brushing your teeth"]

I nodded.

["Thanks for the free material. I'll be posting that picture soon."]

"...Bwyouw wou'lnt," I tried threatening him with the toothbrush in my mouth.

["Haha, did you just say 'You wouldn't?'"]

I spat out the toothpaste.

"You live in Petra, right?"

["Yap."]

"Let's meet up."

["Okay okay. You have to appear on my stream though, for the clout."]

He joked.

"Whatever you say."

I smiled back and splashed water on my face.

["Okay, send me your location and I'll pick you up."]

"Sure thing."

…

"You're shorter than I imagined," I remarked.

He frowned and squinted his eyes at me.

"...I'm not short. You're just tall."

I had nothing to counter that so I did the next thing and patted his head.

"Alright, alright, don't be displeased. You're not short," I teased, treating him like a child jokingly.

Seeing as he didn't feel mocked or even insulted at the headpats, I asked him,

"You're used to people patting your head?"

"...Yeah. My friends always say my hair is fluffy so I just let them pat it."

I raised my eyebrows at that. There was something else to it, but I didn't ask.

"...Man your subway system is cooler than the one at Weath."

"I've never been to Weath before… You should invite me soon… Or how about everyone else too? Not everyone has been to Weath either."

"That's a cool idea… By the way, I saw you uploaded the picture. It seems you want to get beat up?"

"...Haha…" Rykun backed off slowly.

…

"Have you ever played VR?"

"No… Is it fun?"

He cackled maniacally and disappeared inside his room.

"You have to play this one game. It's really fun."

He popped out soon with his VR headset and quickly handed it to me.

"Quick quick. Put it on!"

I put on the VR headset and my phone vibrated but I paid it no attention.

I was immediately greeted by a garage, a car, and a white screen showing me equipment and 1 / 4 players.

"Er… Rykun what do I do here?"

He handed me the controllers.

"Just click play in that white thingy."

"...Okay. What's the name of this game, by the way?"

"...It's a surprise."

From the bottom of the headset, I saw him pointing his phone camera at me.

Was that the reason why my phone is vibrating? Because he started streaming from his phone?

Well, I don't mind it. If he's recording, it's just more achievement points…

I was in a van with a computer screen, some cameras, flashlights, and other strange equipment I did not recognize.

Is this a child kidnapper van?

"...Rykun… Is this a ghost hunting game?"

"WHAT?! No. Haha no."

"..."

"..."

"Are you lying?"

"...N-...No."

"Why do the instructions say I have to look for this ghost named Archibald Russell and find out what type of ghost he is?"

"...I dunno what you're talking about… Just go inside the house."

"...How do I even move?"

I looked around the van.

"Figure it out man, you've got this," he declared encouragingly.

I'm really bad at horror games… but if it's for content then I have to do it.

"How do I open the van door?"

He pressed on my finger that was near the trigger button.

"I see…" I moved around sluggishly and was greeted by a creepy stranded house. Along the street, there were zero other cars and the rest of the houses were dark with no lights.

"What type of game is this, Rykun?"

"...It's… It's a cooking simulator."

I almost fell at his ridiculous answer.

"...It doesn't look like a cooking simulator Rykun."

I deadpanned.

"Whaddya mean, just go in the house."

"Are you seeing this?"

"Yeah, it's connected to my computer."

"How does this l— Sigh, never mind...I'll go in then…"

I walked around the creepy house radiating an insecure atmosphere.

The entire house's lights were turned off except for one in the living room connected to the entrance.

I flicked on the switches at the sides and the place lit up.

The place was horribly organized with clothes, pillows, and other items piling around the place… Is this a dild—

"Rykun. What the hell did I just see?"

"...What the hell is that. Charlie, I think the game's glitched or something."

He said, terrified at the prospect of being banned from the platform.

I looked directly at where Rykun was sitting from the bottom of the headset turned to stare at him. He pointed his phone at me.

"Charlie I swear, I've never seen that."

"...Okay…"

"By the way, what's the ghost's name?"

"Archibald Russ—"

I heard a loud whoosh next to my ear and quickly jumped away.

Knowing where Rykun was in the real world, I turned to stare at him with mock anger.

"God, damn! Does the ghost get angry when I call out his name?"

"...Hahaha yeap. I'm sorry. Now you'll be hunted so you better run…"

I could hear his mischievous tone under the proud declaration.

"Archibald Russell Archibald—"

"Eh?" Rykun was visibly confused.

"Russell Archibald Russell Archibald Russell Archibald Russell Archibald Russell."

"Wait wait, Charlie. What are you doing? He's going to come for you! You're dead!! Why?"

I kept repeating the name.

"Agh, Charlie what the heck?! Are you a psycho? This was not what was supposed to happen."

Finally, the ghost appeared in front of me as the lights in the room spazzed out and his bloody figure approached me slowly.

I brought my hands up to my face in a boxing stance and delivered a right hook to the bastard's face, though the punch went through his face.

"You're ugly, Archibald!"

I violently berated the ghost. This is all for content.

"Think you can scare me? Stupid ghost."

The ghost stopped approaching me.

"What are you looking at? Want to get beat up?"

It started backing away in a glitch.

Since the ghost was never supposed to walk backwards, the animators never made an animation for the ghost to walk backwards, and therefore the ghost stupidly with no animation floated behind.

Without using the game's controller, I physically started moving in real life towards the ghost.

"Uh, Charlie?"

"What type of ghost are you, Archibald?"

With no response, Archibald disappeared and the lights turned to normal.

"Uh… Charlie. How did you even… You scared him off!"

Honestly, I was planning on getting killed by the ghost trying to fight it for content but it started backing off. Well, it's free content and views.

"Rykun? Did I beat the game yet?"

I asked puzzledly, acting oblivious to what just happened.

"Uh… Charlie… Yeah."

"How do I beat the game? Is there something else? Do I just go out of the house?"

"...Yeah just… go out of the house."

He started laughing and blurted.

"Poor Archibald."

"What do you mean poor Archibald? The dude tried jumpscaring me. Had an ugly mug too. What's with the man?—"

"—Uh… Charlie…"

"Had a dumb axe and was raising it as if it would kill me but ended up running away. What sort of ghost is that?"

I kept scolding the ghost behind his back while walking out of the house into the van.

[Manicklepo has donated 5000 bits: Someone please animate this it would be hilarious!]

I took off the headset and turned to Rykun's twitching mouth.

"That was pretty easy. I just had to yell out his name a lot?"

"...That… No. That is not how you play the game and I'm confused on how you even survived…"

He laughed nervously.

"Confused? The guy was slow as heck. I was almost turning into an ancestor by the time he reached me."

He burst out in laughter.

"By the way, were you recording me?"

"...Haha… Say hello to chat…"

"You wanna die?"

[Chat:

olliever: the fucken balls in this man LOL

Koalakoala: LMFAOOO WTF

Eastwestblank: is the game glitched or something? Lol

Deadwaste: i feel bad for archibald

archibald231: what did i do to you charlie

Allidaws: LMFAOOOOO

Jakekk: LOL THERES SOMEONE NAMED ARCHIBALD]

I smiled at the camera and waved.

"Hello, how's everyone doing?"

"Pretty good. I was planning on getting a reaction of you getting jumpscared live but we got something even better."

"I mean, I did get creeped out, but when I saw his face I just had the urge to laugh."

He began laughing and covered his mouth.

"You're still insulting him even when you scared him off."

He turned on the volume in his computer and the stream donations were heard with messages.

[cucemma has donated 500 bits:

"I love u rykun"]

"Thank you for the 500 bits cucemma. I love you guys too."

...

Author Note:

Thank you for the patience, and apologies for the delay.

To those who kept commenting and giving power stones, you have a special place in my heart.