It was a seemingly normal day for most people in the world. But on the live-streaming app, Glitch, a new streamer started his first broadcast. The title was "Going Ghost Hunting". Clicking on the stream would show a young man standing in a dark room with only the camera's flashlight showing his features.
He had shoulder-length blonde hair with two pink clips to hold his bangs back. He was wearing a pink hoodie with a pair of black shorts and a pair of white running shoes. He was holding an axe at his side.
"Hello and welcome to my very first stream! I don't really know how any of this works but today I'm at the Harrington House. This is a well-known abandoned house that has a reputation for being haunted. I'm going to investigate this place to see if it's really haunted." The young man states.
We must go back a few days ago to find out how this young man got here.
-Three Days Ago-
"Belle! If you're going to freeload in my house I need you to at least clean the fucking basement!" Snaps a voice.
"Yeah, yeah, I'll get to it today." Another voice responds. Belle was sitting in his room, his stuff still in boxes, the only things unpacked being his laptop and mattress. He had just moved into his friend Liz's house after getting laid off from his previous job and not having enough money to pay rent. Belle stands up from where he was lying on the mattress and walks into the hallway.
"Finally, it's not good to sit in your room all day being depressed, cleaning something will make you feel better." Liz softly chides. She's best described as an elegant woman, with chocolate brown skin and raven black hair in a loose ponytail. Her piercing green eyes make her seem cold and distant. But Liz was anything but distant, she was Belle's best friend, they got to know each other in college and had been inseparable since.
"I'm not depressed, just lazy, there's a difference," Belle responds shamelessly.
"Right, then get your lazy ass into my basement, it hasn't been cleaned since the old owners moved out so I'm sure you'll find some goodies." She teases, stalking past Belle toward the front door.
"I'm leaving to go on a date, the basement better be clean when I get back." She says, walking out the door.
"Got it, boss!" Belle shouts after her as she closes the door, "Guess I better get my shit together." Belle mumbles, heading down to the basement. The basement is dusty, filled with cobwebs and tons of old boxes. Belle decides to move the boxes out of the way first and get to dusting. When he's done he shifts his attention to the boxes.
"Let's see what's in here, maybe Liz was right and there are some goodies. Oh! Maybe there's some gold that I can sell." Belle mutters, picking up the first box and rifling through it. There's nothing but some old clothes and picking up the next two boxes reveals the same.
"Okay then, lucky number four." Belle prays, opening up the box. Inside is a bunch of clothes.
"You've got to be kidding me, that was the last one." Belle sighs, "Well, I can at least see if they had good taste." As he starts taking out clothes and looking at them, something inside the box reveals itself.
"Eh, what's this?" He sticks his hand inside the box, grabbing at the old handheld camera sitting in the box. While grabbing at the camera, he fails to notice the sharp edge of broken glass right next to it. He slices his finger on the glass dripping blood onto the old camera.
"Ow, what the hell?" Belle brings his hand out of the box, sucking on his finger where the blood appeared.
"Where did that come from?" He reaches into the box again, more carefully this time, and grabs the camera, pushing aside more clothes to find the source of the glass, a broken picture. Belle pulls the picture out of the box, it's of a family, a dad, a mom, and a kid.
"Cute, guess these were the old owners." He muses, setting the picture and old camera down. He packs up the rest of the boxes, taking only the stuff he likes, and throws them in the trashcan outside. He brings the picture into his room, sets it on a box, and starts to fiddle with the camera. When he manages to open the side screen, he turns the camera on and is met with a blinding headache.
"Ow, ow, ow." He rolls around in pain on the mattress, dropping the camera to the floor. The pain continued for a few minutes before stopping as suddenly as it came.
"What the hell was that?" Belle questions, cracking his eyes open, only to find a bright red screen before him. In bright letters were the words [Welcome to the Ghost Streamer System! Would you like to begin the tutorial?]
[Yes] [No]
"Okay right, so either I bumped my head in the basement and am currently hallucinating, or, I have a system now just like in the stories and I'm going to become an awesome person with powers." He mumbles, "In which case the only correct answer to this dilemma is to click yes." He finishes, reaching his hand out and clicking the [Yes] button.
[This system is designed to help the user defeat spirits, you will take on a mission and stream your adventure, every ten people will give you one Ghost Point which can be used to do things like upgrade your weapons, buy an item in the store, or upgrade the system. The missions will start easy and get harder as they go on, so make sure you can collect Ghost Points to become stronger. After every mission, you will receive a random reward. You can also do side missions which will gift you personal skills you can use to defeat the spirits. The system will handle everything about the stream so all you need to focus on is ghost-hunting! The system will also warn you of any random spirit encounters so you can stream them. The system's goal is to defeat spirits, always keep that in mind!]
"Wow, that's a lot of information, am I even going to remember this shit," Belle mutters.
[As a thanks for completing the tutorial the system would like to gift you a random item and a random personal skill. Do you accept?]
[Yes] [No]
"Okay so, let me think for a minute, ghosts are real, and this system is telling me to fight them, and is giving me abilities to do so. I see no consequences to this." Belle says, clicking on the [Yes] button.
[Congratulations! You have won the item Common Axe, and the personal skill Yin-Yang Eyes.]
"Hmm, Yin-Yang Eyes, that's supposed to let you see ghosts, I think, does that mean the system normally doesn't let you see ghosts or does it give the Yin-Yang Eyes every time?" He questions.
[Home Screen]
[Personal Skills] [Weapons] [Store] [Missions] [Upgrades]
[Start Stream]
Belle first clicks on the [Personal Skills] box, and the screen changes to show his only skill, Yin-Yang Eyes, Belle clicks on it and a description pops up.
[The Yin-Yang Eyes allow the user of this skill to see beyond the mortal plain and into the realm of the afterlife. Gives the user the ability to see ghosts.]
"Pretty much what I thought it was, now what about the axe?" Belle clicks back to the [Home Screen] and switches to the [Weapons] box, looking at the description of the axe.
[Common Axe, an axe that can be found anywhere, the only difference is the slight foreboding feeling one may get from it. Allows the user to hit ghosts to do slight damage.]
"This day has been the best day ever! I can have cool powers, and I know that ghosts are real, all of my dreams are coming true!" Belle shouts, doing a victory pose on the bed.
"What drugs did you find in the basement?" Liz asks, leaning on the doorframe to his room.
"Uhm, sorry." He apologizes, sitting on the bed.
"My date went well, thanks for asking, we're meeting again a few weeks from now, and I bought you a little gift, catch," Liz says, throwing an item to Belle. He catches it and opens the wrapping paper, it's a book on different urban legends.
"Thanks, Liz, once I make some money I'll pay you back, I swear." He promises.
"You better, our favorite drama is on tonight so be on the couch in fifteen minutes cause I'm not waiting for you." She teases, leaving the room. Belle flops down on the bed, taking another look at the red screen that hasn't disappeared. He clicks on the box marked [Missions], finding two columns. One says [Main Missions] while the other says [Side Missions].
"Guess I should start with the first one." He mumbles, clicking on the first main mission [The Harrington House].
[The Harrington house is abandoned in the countryside, the previous owners were killed brutally and the murderer was never discovered. People tried to refurnish the house but terrible accidents always seem to happen, leading every new owner to abandon the house. The house is now known for being haunted. Your job is to figure out what happened in the house and defeat the spirit haunting it. Do you accept this mission?]
[Yes] [No]
Belle hits the yes button and the system lets out a chiming noise and provides an explosion of confetti.
[Congratulations on accepting your first mission! Access to the house will be provided within three days.]
"Well then, let's see where this goes," Belle mutters, pulling himself up to get off the bed. 'Oh yeah, how do I turn this off, erm, system off?' The red box disappears.
"Cool!" He exclaims. He stands up, and walks toward his door, stopping when his foot hits something on the ground. It's the old camera, "Ah, this must be what triggered the system." Belle says, remembering the headache he got when opening it. He picks it up, setting it on a box near the picture. Then he heads out to watch a drama with Liz, a bundle of nerves in his gut at what the future holds.