“Big Brother!”
Jason wiped the sweat from his forehead and panted as the burning sun shone down on him. He glanced around and noticed four masked figures, three men with muscular builds and a young girl dressed in rags.
The little girl's radiant blue eyes sparkled with determination in stark contrast to her roughed-up appearance, and her porcelain-doll appearance had already made her a beauty. Though she seemed to be only around 14 to 15 years of age, the girl's long silver locks, sharp teeth, and delicate cheeks made her stand out far and above the ski-masked bullies beside her.
"Glacial Freeze!"
"Rock pellet!"
"Rock pellet!"
The three dark men bombarded the poor girl with magic spells as she fell to the ground with a thud.
"Please stop," the girl whimpered. "I-It hurts."
Though she was barely conscious, the ski-masked bullies ignored her pleas and refused to let her go. It had been months since they had last found another live target for magic accuracy, and they would be stupid to lose such a precious opportunity. Hollering and shouting, they froze the young girl's legs, pelleted her with rocks, and alternated attacking patterns until they were exhausted.
As the bullies collapsed against the walls with fatigue, Jason took his cue to leave. He clasped his mouth tightly and cautiously tiptoed toward the street without making a sound.
'I am no hero,' he thought to himself pathetically. 'I have no powers, no abilities, and my lives crumble like paper.'
He shook his head disappointingly and released a heavy sigh.
'Harassment happens all the time. I can't stop all of it. I should just take care of myself first.'
With an air of indifference, the black-haired teenager looked straight ahead once more and marched toward the street. A small vibrating sensation spread throughout the hate reader's neck as beads of sweat dropped from his forehead. He carefully looked down at the notification, and his jaw slacked wide open.
"First Hidden Curse Condition: Hater must repeat his comments in front of said individuals."
"You useless mob characters look so asinine," he shouted loudly with a hint of confusion. "Are you only covering your faces because you're too ugly?"
He sneered at the black-masked bullies and tried to close his mouth, but the curse continued.
"Why would you bully the weak when you're also weak? Have you no shame? You know that you're just going to get beaten up by the main character anyways, right?"
He paused for dramatic effect before finishing.
"These scenarios are just way too cliché nowadays."
Though the foolish gangsters didn't understand what a main character was or how cliché scenarios were relevant, they understood his mockery of their magic and ugly looks. Immediately, shouts of incantations filled the air as circles of frost and earth began to form.
'Shit, when did I even write this?' Jason questioned to himself, scratching his chin. 'I am going to have to fight the main villain at this rate. Damn, I really should stop raising death flags when I don't have to…'
He raised his hands defensively and backpedaled toward the edge of the alleyway. His feet froze beneath him as a roar of laughter burst through the air.
"WHAT HAHAHAHAH?" one masked figure snickered. "We caught another stupid one."
"Let's practice with this one too. Maybe next week, you can finally get your revenge on your brother, Charles!"
Jason's eyes flickered with hatred at the mention of revenge and suddenly, a brilliant idea crossed his mind.
"Yes," he murmured as an evil grin spread across his face. "What a brilliant idea."
Jason lowered his hands and walked fearlessly toward the delinquents. Silence filled the air, and as the hate reader glanced toward the clouds, a string of curses hurled from his mouth.
"You ugly old hag! The master must be as stupid as the disciple if you think this world and its progression is any good with all of these copy and paste scenarios. I dare you to send me back immediately so that I can write more comments about your saggy skin, sadistic personality, and disgustingly low intellect. Hell, even my grandmother looks prettier than you."
He took a deep inhale and caught his breath before continuing.
"I only proposed to you because…" he paused, deep in thought. "Because I was DESPERATE. You looked like you would put out, and I'm a virgin, so I thought I'd take the chance. Mhm. That's right."
From her throne above, Nemesis's face flushed red with anger as she heard the revolting words from Jason's mouth. Gripping her chair tightly, she dug her fingers deep into the armrest and sent a loud clap of thunder down toward the Isles.
She vowed to chase the hate reader until his soul crumbled to dust and swore to never let him live a happy day in his life.
Hearing the familiar sound of thunder in the air, Jason gazed menacingly into the eyes of the bullies.
"Leave before you feel my divine wrath," he said chillingly as the first bolt of lightning struck the hate reader on the head.
Ding!
Hate Counter: 895
"G-Glacial F-Free—"
Stumbling backwards, the three magicians cowered in each other's arms and began to chant, but time was not on their side.
Like a never-ending barrage of arrows, thousands of lightning spears rained from the sky and razed the alleyway, direct from the goddess herself.
At the sight of such a divine retribution, the magicians dropped their jaws and fell to their knees in despair. At once, a stray spear struck a bully in the leg, while another pierced through his friend's chest, burning him to a crisp. Of course, Jason wasn't so lucky either as the notifications rang loudly in his ear.
Ding! Ding! Ding!
Hate Counter: 894
Hate Counter: 893
.
.
.
Hate Counter: 890
His deaths were instantaneous, and the pain he felt before resetting was negligible relative to the torture he had felt in the goddess's realm. Standing courageously with a grin, he raised his arm to the sky and flicked off the blond woman above. He was no hero, but in this moment, he looked rather godly himself.
The two ski-masks tossed their staffs to the floor and ran as fast as they could. As the bullies finally left the alleyway, Jason slowly approached the trembling girl and grabbed his jacket, ready to offer a hand.
As he stuck out his hand in a gesture of kindness, a glimmer of red rushed across the girl's azure blue eyes.
She smiled weakly and bared her fangs, digging them deep into the hate reader's arm before he could move a muscle. His arm fell limp to his side, and for the second time since he had left home that morning, he lost consciousness. Jason had barely slept the night before, and with so many new events occurring around him, his mind collapsed in this new and dangerous world.
The feeble silver-haired vampire stabbed her fangs into his arm time and again like a ravaged beast. Jason slowly fluttered back to life and propped himself up against the nearby rubble.
Rubbing his eyes, he glanced to the corner as a sudden scream escaped his lips.
Hate Counter: 870
"NO WAY! HOW?"
"I LOST TWENTY MORE LIVES?"
Jason turned to face the unknown girl and jumped back in fear.
"You! What did you do to me?"
Covered in blood from head to toe, the little girl licked her lips and stared blankly at Jason in a daze. Her injuries from before had completely healed, and she no longer held any resemblance to the frail teenager he had seen before.
Jason scrunched his eyebrows and sat down with a groan, trying to put the pieces together.
"I'm sorry," the young vampire said cutely with a pout, casting her gaze downward. "I was hungry."
"Y-you drank my blood?" he replied, his heart beating out of his chest.
Rage filled the hate reader's mind, and he roared internally at the dire situation. Pressing the two temples on the side of his head, he tried to make sense of the recent events, but his mind only came to one conclusion.
'Shit, she must be a vampire,' he thought to himself, recalling the novel's description of the fearsome species. 'Sharp fangs, heightened senses, powerful regeneration, and control over blood.'
He paused for a second and took a deep breath as logic prevailed in his mind.
'Calm down, Jason. Calm down. You can't take that on no matter how hard you try,' he murmured to himself. 'Why am I so mad? All she did was bite me anyways.'
The silver-haired girl tilted her head quizzically and sat down beside the hate reader as he sighed heavily.
'It's not the girl's fault that I'm stuck down here in this shitty place,' he reasoned to himself. 'My revenge should just be toward the stupid author and goddess that ruined my life, not the citizens of this world. Plus, she...she seems just as scared and clueless as I am.'
He placed his hand on his heart and attempted to calm himself down, remembering the teachings of his mother.
Yes, he was a hate reader online when it didn't matter to anyone, but in the real world, he had been raised properly with respect and knew how to forgive and forget when dealing with people's mistakes.
He breathed a heavy sigh and swiveled to face the azure blue-eyed vampire.
'Not even a full day has passed, and I have already lost 30 lives,' he chuckled to himself, lost in thought. 'Who knows how much longer I can survive in this world? If I knew this would happen, I would've typed more comments when I was on Earth.'
Seeing the black-haired teenager scrunching his forehead in despair, the unknown girl rushed over to her savior and decided to cheer him up in the same way that her father had once done for her.
She pat his head and hugged his arm with a shout as she attempted to wash away the young man's negative thoughts.
"Big Brother! Thank you!" she screamed adorably. "You saved me from those bullies!"
Jason glanced upwards at the cheerful vampire, who smiled in spite of her horrifying experience, and a small smile began to form on his face.
Frankly, he despised the world that he was sent to, and the thought of never being able to see his parents again frightened him like no other. He was scared, stressed, and frustrated by his lack of power, but with just a single head pat and smile from his new "little sister," Jason finally felt his heart lighten.
For the first time in a day, he thought, just for a second,
'Maybe this world isn't so bad after all…'