Early morning.
Dawn had just broken.
But some streamers had not yet gone to sleep.
Take the streamer known as [Li Baitu] for example.
He livestreamed on an old video website, mainly focusing on painting. Now that virtual streamers were quite popular, Li Baitu was the one creating character images for them. Originally working behind the scenes, he eventually decided to design his own persona and start streaming himself.
Since the virtual streamers Li Baitu designed for were doing quite well, he also gained a following. As a night owl, Li Baitu often streamed from midnight until dawn, just like today.
"... I'll watch a few more videos and then end the stream."
Li Baitu yawned as he spoke.
His virtual avatar was a cute little boy with rabbit ears, which contrasted with his real-life self: a sporty male standing at a height of 1.8 meters. Right now, Li Baitu was at the stage of streaming where he'd typically pass time by watching some videos before going off-air.
For some reason, viewers seem to enjoy watching streamers browse through silly videos on video sites, especially secondary creations related to themselves. Baitu, being obsessed with self-searching, added even more fun to the mix.
He browsed videos at random, refreshing the smart recommendations.
By chance, Li Baitu caught sight of a video with a somewhat odd thumbnail, titled [Do not open at night!!!].
On the thumbnail, in a dimly lit room, a man lay on a bed. While he seemed quite common, there was something inexplicably eerie about it.
Perhaps because Li Baitu was an artist, keen on inspiration, the thumbnail immediately caught his eye.
"Interesting, it's not considered night now, is it?"
Although the video had only been uploaded a short while and had just a few hundred views, Li Baitu was still intrigued and clicked on it.
[It's one of those scary supernatural videos, right?]
[I'm done with these Netherworld thumbnails; can't we have some more common content?]
[I bet it's one of those videos where everything is calm in the beginning and then suddenly a ghost face appears and scares you!]
[Baitu is not afraid, mommy's here with you]
[No to male mommies]
[I found this video, I'll scout ahead and fast forward to the end]
To create a sense of presence, Li Baitu had deliberately set the stream delay to the lowest, which made the live feed and his actions almost synchronous.
In the video, the man checked under the bed, threw away a doll, and lay back down.
The entire process showed no signs of filming, resembling footage from a surveillance camera, adding a sense of realism and immediacy.
As the screen darkened, a heartbeat sound suddenly emanated from the computer's speakers.
Thump—
Thump—
Thump—
Li Baitu raised his eyebrows; the heartbeat sound was somewhat unexpected, but it did not scare him.
He sat up a little straighter and distanced his eyes from the screen, braced for the jump-scare tactic of a face suddenly appearing.
The heartbeat sound continued to slow down, and Li Baitu felt oddly as if it was syncing with his own.
"When the heartbeat completely stops, that's when the ghost face will appear. I get it."
Li Baitu laughed.
Just then, suddenly, the wardrobe by the man's bed began to creep open.
Creak—
Without any person or mechanism, the closet door just opened by itself.
"Hiss—"
Li Baitu took a sharp breath in.
At the same time, the live chat started to get busier.
[wdnmd my closet just moved, I'm done playing!]
[After seeing that, I couldn't help but look back at my wardrobe, thankfully, I can't afford one]
[This must be some mechanical switch, a smart closet, I get it, it's just furniture companies cashing in]
[What's inside the closet, surely it's not the neighbor old Wang]
[Hello everyone, I'm the person inside the closet, currently hiding in here]
[Any high alerts from those who went to watch the video in advance?]
The barrage of comments grew, but it didn't alleviate the eeriness of the video.
Li Baitu felt the video was more uncanny than scary, not so much frightening but with an indescribable sense of wrongness.
He watched the open cabinet intently, trying to figure out the principle behind it.
Suddenly, a grating scratching sound erupted.
Scritch, scratch, scritch—
"Holy shit!"
Li Baitu heard, from his own speakers, a scratching sound that was several times more strident than the heartbeat sound before, emanating from his computer as if scratching right on his own skull. It was so clear, and being loud, the entire room was instantly filled with this noise, chilling to the bone.
Hurriedly turning the volume down a bit, Li Baitu then saw the man on the bed jerk as if he was about to wake up.
But he couldn't get up, instead, he seemed trapped by something, struggling slightly with an ashen face.
The performance was so realistic that Li Baitu couldn't help but hold his breath.
He also saw deep shadows on the man's arms and ankles, as if something was gripping him tightly.
This extremely eerie scene, coupled with the nerve-wracking scratching sounds, were hammering away at Li Baitu's sanity.
He didn't notice the previous playful comments had almost disappeared.
Finally, the man seemed to break free from the restraints, sat up, and, taking a crowbar, climbed off the bed.
However, the man's movements were like a marionette, very uncomfortable to watch, as if some malevolent entity were masquerading as a human.
The perspective switched, following the man's gaze and head movement towards under the bed.
Li Baitu leaned forcefully into his chair, trying to distance himself from the screen, and couldn't help but glance aside, only to see that the other screen also displayed the live stream, the same video playing.
The frame shifted, and the previously discarded silly Lanlanlu puppet was staring dead into the camera, making Li Baitu hold his breath unconsciously. He wanted to close his eyes, but like the man in the video earlier, his body wouldn't move and he could only witness the whole process.
The volume, which had been turned down, was inexplicably loud again, the scritch-scratch echoing in Li Baitu's room, tormenting his sanity together with the puppet's fixed gaze from the screen.
At that moment, the screen finally went black, and Li Baitu exhaled, feeling his body could move again.
Though he was just sitting there, he was sweating profusely.
After a brief blackout, the audience seemed to have reclaimed their keyboards, and the barrage of comments exploded.
[What the hell kind of Netherworld video is this, almost scared the life out of me!]
[I almost threw my phone just now]
[Damn, is this uploader taking revenge on society late at night? Can a living person even pull this off?]
[I just want to ask, is that person in the video okay?]
[Didn't feel a thing, not scary at all, I just changed my pants]
[That special effect looks so real, especially the part where the guy's hand was being choked, million-dollar effect!]
A series of comments swept by, and Li Baitu watched as the screen lit up again—it was the man lying on the bed, as if he had just woken up.
The camera, adopting his point of view, checked under the bed and inside the cabinet—nothing was amiss.
Li Baitu heaved a sigh of relief.
Then he saw, accompanied by the slowly zooming out camera, the Lanlanlu puppet with the sinister smile was perched on the man's shoulder, staring in the direction of the camera.
Looking outside the screen at Li Baitu.
"Fuck!"
Li Baitu cursed with a quivering voice.
He had no time to watch the explosive comments, Li Baitu just felt a chill down his back, as if something was pressing on his shoulder.
Mustering his courage, Li Baitu touched both shoulders to make sure there was nothing there before he dared to look back and check his room. He quickly noticed that his cabinet was not closed properly, a corner of a piece of clothing caught in the door.
"...Did I not close my cabinet properly before?"
Li Baitu didn't dare dwell on it and decided to deceive himself.
His mind was a mess, as if it had been stirred several times by a red-hot iron rod. The items in his room all seemed a bit distorted.
Closing his eyes, Li Baitu took several deep breaths and it took a while to calm his pounding heart.
Then with trembling hands, he shared the video to his virtual host group.
I can't be the only one scared!!!