Moros sat there, staring at the donation total as it hit $9,975. His heart raced. The chat was a storm of emojis, exclamations, and wild suggestions. The timer he'd set was ticking down—five minutes left to hit the $10,000 goal. He could practically hear the collective bated breath of his viewers.
"Alright, alright!" he said, standing up and pacing behind his desk. "I can't believe we're this close! You guys are insane! And I love it!" He pointed dramatically at the camera, barely noticing that his chair rolled away and crashed into the wall behind him. The chat laughed as he ran to pick it up.
"$25 more! That's it! Just one more push!" he shouted, spinning in circles with the chair, his face a mix of excitement and panic. "C'mon, chat! We're so close I can taste it, and I swear if it's a giant cupcake behind that door, I'll eat it!"
As the seconds ticked by, a new notification dinged on his screen.
$25 donation from PizzaPriest
"AND YOU'VE DONE IT, CHAT! WE HIT TEN THOUSAND DOLLARS!"
Moros screamed into the camera, shaking his fists in victory like he'd just won the Super Bowl. "Ten. Thousand. Dollars. You absolute legends. You maniacs! We've done it!"
The chat exploded into a frenzy of confetti GIFs, celebratory memes, and congratulations. Moros took a deep breath, standing tall and proud as if he had just completed a real-life heroic quest. "I'm proud of you all. Now, the moment you've all been waiting for…"
He reached for the game controller, his hands trembling with excitement. "Let's open this door and see what secrets lie behind it. If it's an ancient curse, remember: you asked for this."
He navigated his character to the large, ornately decorated door. It stood ominously in the dim light of the virtual dungeon, etched with strange runes and guarded by statues of long-forgotten gods. The door creaked open slowly, and the screen filled with swirling, golden light.
The chat went wild.
User213: "IS IT TREASURE?"
Lurker42: "OMGOMGOMG"
HeroicGamer87: "I'M FREAKING OUT!"
Moros could barely contain his own excitement as he pressed forward. His character stepped into the light, and suddenly, the screen cut to black. The music went silent. The entire game froze.
"No. No, no, no, no, no," Moros muttered, clicking furiously at his keyboard. "Did it just crash?! After all this hype, did it actually crash?!"
The chat was in hysterics.
BigMoneyMike: "HAHAHA THE ULTIMATE TROLL!"
PizzaPriest: "THAT'S WHAT YOU GET FOR MAKING US WAIT!"
Moros looked into the camera, his eyes wide in disbelief. "Okay, okay. Everyone chill. I've got this. I'll reboot it, and we'll be back in no time." He frantically worked on restarting the game, muttering to himself about technical glitches and how it was all part of the adventure. Meanwhile, the chat continued to flood with memes about epic fails, trolls, and suggestions that the door really did contain nothing but a giant, metaphorical cupcake of disappointment.
Finally, after what felt like an eternity, the game loaded back up. Moros took a deep breath. "Okay, we're back in. No more delays! We're going to see what's behind this door, even if it kills me."
He navigated his character back to the door and stepped inside. This time, the screen didn't crash. The swirling golden light filled the screen again, and finally, it revealed the hidden chamber.
It was… a broom closet.
Moros froze. His character was standing in a tiny, dark room, with a couple of old, pixelated brooms leaning against the wall and a dusty bucket in the corner.
The chat went insane.
User213: "A BROOM CLOSET?! REALLY?!"
Lurker42: "LOL I CAN'T BELIEVE THIS"
PizzaPriest: "$10,000 FOR A BROOM CLOSET. I'M DYING."
Moros couldn't help it. He started laughing—big, uncontrollable belly laughs. "I CAN'T BELIEVE IT! We raised ten thousand dollars… for a BROOM CLOSET! This has to be the greatest troll in gaming history!" He leaned back in his chair, wiping tears of laughter from his eyes. "But hey, we did it. We opened the door, and honestly? I wouldn't have it any other way."
The chat was flooded with laughter and camaraderie. Everyone was in on the joke, and somehow, the anticlimactic reveal only made the moment better.
Still chuckling, Moros caught his breath and leaned into the camera. "Alright, alright. A deal's a deal. We hit the $10,000 mark, and you get your Q&A. So, hit me with your wildest questions while I prepare to eat… whatever item you choose from my collection."
The questions came flying in. They ranged from the ridiculous—"What's your favorite flavor of pizza?"—to the personal—"Why did you start streaming?"—to the absurd—"Would you rather fight 100 duck-sized horses or one horse-sized duck?"
Moros answered each one with a mix of sincerity and humor, keeping the energy light and fun. Finally, after about fifteen minutes of rapid-fire Q&A, the moment of truth arrived.
BigMoneyMike: "Eat the bug. You promised."
Moros grinned nervously and held up a jar with a preserved, very dead, very large beetle. "Alright, chat. You wanted it. I'm doing this for you. Remember this moment, because I sure won't forget it."
The chat exploded with cheering, GIFs of people eating weird things, and even more laughing emojis.
Moros closed his eyes, popped the beetle into his mouth, and crunched down. It tasted like stale dirt and regret. He gagged slightly but powered through as the chat roared with approval.
"IT'S SO DRY!" he shouted, reaching desperately for his water. "WHY IS IT SO DRY?!"
The chat was in hysterics, and Moros couldn't help but laugh through his disgust. "You better clip this, because I'm never doing this again!"
As he recovered, wiping his mouth and taking a long swig of water, he grinned at the camera. "That's it, folks. We opened the broom closet of doom, answered your crazy questions, and I ate a bug. This has been one epic stream."
He raised his water bottle in a toast to the camera. "Thanks for being part of this insane journey. You're all legends. Until next time… stay heroic, my friends."
And with that, he ended the stream, sitting back in his chair, exhausted but exhilarated. It wasn't the treasure he expected behind that door, but somehow, it felt even better.
Moros smiled to himself. Sometimes, it wasn't about the destination. It was about the laughs along the way.
As Moros leaned back in his chair, the adrenaline slowly began to fade. His muscles relaxed, but his mind buzzed with excitement. He clicked through the stream's stats, watching the numbers tick up: subscribers, followers, donations—it was all surreal. His notifications were still flooding in, even though the stream had ended.
The chat replay scrolled past at a speed too fast for him to catch everything, but one comment stuck out:
User213: "Moros, you're the hero we didn't know we needed."
He chuckled. "Hero, huh? More like the guy who ate a bug for money."
Moros stood up, stretching his arms above his head, feeling the tension in his back release. His tiny apartment was now quiet, the only sound being the faint hum of his computer. He glanced around at the empty pizza boxes, the cluttered desk, and the pile of laundry he'd ignored for the past few days.
"Alright, time to get back to real life," he muttered to himself.
As he shuffled toward the kitchen, he pulled up his phone and opened his message app. His friends had been blowing it up during the stream, but one message caught his eye—his brother, Asher, had sent a voice note.
"Dude, just watched the stream. You're insane, man. But, seriously, call me back when you can. Got something important to talk about."
Moros furrowed his brow. Asher wasn't the type to leave cryptic messages like that. The two of them had always been close, but ever since Moros had thrown himself into streaming full-time, they hadn't spoken as much as they used to.
He grabbed a slice of cold pizza from the counter, chewing thoughtfully as he considered calling him back. But something about Asher's tone in the voice note didn't sit right with him. It was urgent, but also… off.
Moros put the pizza down, wiped his hands on his jeans, and tapped the phone to call back. It rang twice before Asher picked up.
"Hey, man, what's up?" Moros asked, trying to keep the tone light.
"Hey. Uh, great stream by the way. But listen, I need to talk to you about something. It's kind of weird, and I wasn't sure if I should tell you, but I figured you should know."
Moros's stomach tightened. "Okay… what's going on?"
There was a pause on the other end of the line, long enough for Moros to start pacing again, his mind running through possibilities. Asher wasn't the type to beat around the bush.
"So, you remember that old warehouse near the train tracks? The one we used to play around as kids?" Asher finally said.
"Yeah…?" Moros replied, drawing the word out. "What about it?"
"Well, I was driving by it the other night, and something caught my eye. There were lights on inside. Like, not just flashlights or anything. It looked like a whole setup. It gave me a weird vibe, man."
Moros stopped in his tracks. "Are you saying someone's using that place now?"