Chapter 5

He, however, suddenly turned his head toward the drone camera still livestreaming behind me, and flashed an eerie smile.

“Look, everyone,” his voice, clear through the microphone, echoed across the entire livestream, “she's trembling with fear. How cute.”

The livestream exploded instantly.

[OMG! This bodyguard is the Ghost King?!]

[So possessive! What kind of forced romance plot is this?! I'm totally shipping it!]

[Streamer, run! I feel like he's going to sacrifice you to a demon!]

Just then, my phone vibrated wildly.

It was an encrypted DM from Brenda, my agent. I opened it, and there was only one line, but every word slammed into my skull like a hammer.

Brenda's voice was trembling: “It's over! Chloe! Run! He's an undercover agent from a rival platform! He's 'The Reaper,' that streamer with ten million followers! He's here to ruin you!”

The Reaper?!

My mind buzzed, as if a bomb had just exploded inside it.

The Reaper, real name unknown, was the ace horror streamer from the rival platform, known for being calm, hardcore, and never, ever screaming.

They said he could catch snakes bare-handed, eat bugs raw, and sleeping in a graveyard was like going home for him.

He was widely recognized as the ultimate competitor in the industry, and my sworn enemy.

But him... how could he possibly...

I snapped my head up, looking at his face again. Lean and pale, gloomy eyes, a high nose bridge, thin lips pressed together...

That face...

It was identical to the face of the student council president I'd secretly crushed on for three years in college – Damon Vance, the senior who always wore a white shirt and smiled gently in the sunlight...

Identical!

Back then, I was just a nobody, too timid to even confess my feelings to him.

After graduation, he vanished without a trace. I thought he'd gone abroad for further studies and become some kind of social elite.

How did he end up as a rival streamer, here to sabotage my career?!

My heart froze solid. It was over. Not only was my career doomed today, but my first love was going down with it.

I was completely stiff, my mind blank, letting 'The Reaper'—no, Damon—drag me into that eerie patient room.

The room was a mess, a lonely iron bed sat in the center, its sheets covered in dark brown stains.

The source of the loud noise had been a metal basin, fallen to the floor.

“See? Nothing.” Damon released my wrist, his tone as flat as if he were commenting on the weather.

I looked at the red marks on my wrist from his grip, then at his utterly expressionless face, a mix of sorrow and indignation churning inside me.

He ruined my livestream, messed with my feelings, and now he wanted to torment me?!

Overwhelmed by grief, I forgot all about my livestream persona, pointing a finger at his nose as I began my accusations: “Damon Vance! You liar! You're no bodyguard, you're The Reaper! What do you want by sneaking in here? Do you want to make a fool of me? Do you want me to be humiliated in front of millions of people?!”

Damon raised an eyebrow at my words, seemingly surprised that I knew his identity.

Not only did he not deny it, but he calmly admitted: “Yes.”

That single 'yes' plunged into my already battered heart like an ice blade.

I was trembling with rage: “You... you're shameless! Why are you doing this to me? I have no past grievances with you, so why use such low-blow tactics?”

“No past grievances?” He chuckled lightly, stepping closer to me. “Chloe, your memory is truly terrible.”

I backed away repeatedly as he advanced, until my back hit the cold wall, with nowhere left to retreat.

“Have you forgotten sophomore year, at the freshman welcoming party, who swapped my speech that I’d prepared for half a month with a presentation on 'The Secret Lives of Earthworms?'"

Me: (Speechless)