Those white, glowing eyes...
The thought sent a shiver down Steve's spine, goosebumps rising all over his skin.
Immediately, he blurted out his discovery.
"The monsters are being controlled! That's why they haven't attacked you yet!"
"Run! He's right next to you!!"
Because Steve's ID was marked as an expert, his chat comments stood out in bold colors. He had chosen red for his font, and now the words "Run! He's right next to you!" flashed across half the screen in glaring crimson.
Combined with the eerie atmosphere captured on the stream, the scene sent chills down everyone's spine.
The moment the players saw Steve's warning, an uncomfortable sensation crept over them, making their skin crawl.
"Damn… I knew something was off! The monsters didn't attack Brother Mang!"
"If it was before, they would've pounced on him by now!"
"Shit! I'm getting freaked out by a game?! Evil spirits, go away!"
"God, is it really that white-eyed monster doing this?!"
"What the hell?! Why would he do that? Could he actually have intelligence?"
"Stop it… you're scaring the crap out of me! I'm logging off for now!"
"Warning: High danger ahead! Non-combatants evacuate immediately!"
In the live stream, the audience was reeling from Steve's message. Even though they knew it was just a game, the game's hyper-realistic graphics made it feel like a first-person VR experience. With the ominous environment amplifying their fear, many of the viewers felt their hair standing on end.
Sometimes, subtle, creeping terror is far more unsettling than outright shock. And what was happening to Brother Mang right now was the embodiment of such creeping dread.
Everyone was beginning to suspect that the white-eyed monster Steve mentioned was behind everything. And the more certain they became, the scarier it was.
If the white-eyed monster was truly responsible, it would mean Steve's description was accurate. The creature wasn't just a mindless beast—it had intelligence.
No one knew exactly what it wanted, but its actions clearly didn't follow the usual behavior of typical monsters. If it were just a regular elite or boss-level monster, it would've already killed Brother Mang. But it hadn't.
Its thought process was more akin to a human's.
The chat in Brother Mang's stream exploded. Messages poured in, urging him to run.
Brother Mang, too, had seen Steve's warning. He was already starting to grasp the severity of the situation. If the viewers watching from the safety of their homes were terrified, how could he, standing right in the middle of it, not be?
He was trembling now, trying to calm his racing heart by mentally chanting, "It's just a game! It's just a game!"
"This is just a freaking game!"
But no matter how hard he tried to reassure himself, reason couldn't overpower fear.
It was like being in a haunted house—you knew the actors were just people in costumes, and they couldn't actually harm you. But in that setting, it was impossible not to be scared.
At this point, Brother Mang didn't care about his pride anymore. He took a deep breath, trying to gather his courage, and turned to leave.
But just as he turned around, before he could take a step, he froze in place.
In front of him, a pair of hollow eyes, glowing with a white light, stared straight at him.
Only now did Brother Mang understand what Steve meant by the white-eyed monster.
The face in front of him was almost identical to Steve's, with the sole difference being those blazing, white eyes.
The light from those eyes was like the grim reaper's scythe, cutting through Brother Mang's last shreds of hope and plunging him into despair.
Just as he saw the monster's face, there was a loud "boom," and his screen went black.
In Brother Mang's live stream, even though the screen had gone dark, the viewers hadn't left. The chat was flooded with comments, even more active than when the stream was still up.
"???? What was that?!"
"What the hell was that thing?! It looked all pixelated, like I couldn't see it clearly!"
"We couldn't make it out, but it was definitely humanoid… with glowing white eyes…"
"So… that was the white-eyed monster?"
"What's going on?! Why couldn't the camera capture it?!"
"It only appeared for a second and killed Brother Mang instantly… brutal."
"Why couldn't the camera pick it up?!"
"Holy shit! Could that white-eyed monster be a ghost?!"
If the players had clearly seen the monster's appearance, they might've just been startled. But the image on the stream had been so unclear, it made everything worse.
The monster appeared to be cloaked in a mosaic of pixelation, making its true form impossible to discern. Only a rough outline of its figure could be guessed.
The only thing that stood out—despite the distortion—was those white, glowing eyes.
It was this ambiguity, this feeling of something being there but not fully visible, that made the players' skin crawl.
Humans naturally fear the unknown. And at this moment, the white-eyed monster was the very embodiment of that fear for the players.
Steve was equally stunned by what he saw. It took him a long time to snap out of his daze.
Now, more than ever, he was convinced that the white-eyed monster wasn't just an ordinary creature. It was something special, something unique.
Otherwise, how could it avoid being captured by the game's built-in streaming system?
The thought of it sent a shudder through Steve. He didn't dare dwell on it any longer, his mind swirling with questions.
What was this creature?
What other abilities did it have?
What was its motive?
If it could control the other monsters, why didn't it just command them to kill Brother Mang? Why make the monsters stop attacking?
Though his mind was flooded with questions, Steve didn't have time to ponder them now. He and the other players in the area were in immediate danger.
The white-eyed monster had come here for a reason. Since its first appearance, it had already claimed four lives.
Steve had survived by sheer luck before—probably because of his resemblance to the monster—but he knew his luck wouldn't hold out this time.
Without wasting another moment, Steve bolted out of his door.
"This place isn't safe! Everyone, grab your stuff and run! Don't stay here any longer!"
Steve ran from door to door, banging on them, yelling at the other players to leave.
His outburst caused quite a commotion. Many players came out, though not all of them took his warning seriously.
Most of the players had watched Brother Mang's stream. Though some were scared, they thought moving just because of one monster seemed unnecessary.
Besides, there were so many players gathered here. Surely they could take the monster on together.
"I saw the stream too. That monster can control other creatures and cause explosions, but that's about it. It's just scary because it shows up so suddenly. We've got the numbers. Why should we be afraid?"
"Exactly! It's just one life. We can fail a thousand times, but the monster only needs to screw up once, and it's done for."
"I want to take my chances. A monster that strong has to drop some great loot!"
"Instead of running, why don't we prepare and face it head-on? Go big or go home!"
The players' reasoning was simple—they wanted to gamble.
At this stage, most players didn't have anything too valuable. If the white-eyed monster came for them, they'd just lose a life. They'd already died countless times to zombies, skeletons, and other creatures.
Whether they died here or somewhere else didn't make much difference to them.
═❀═❀═❀═❀═❀═❀═
patreon.com/AmbitiousTranslator
🥰 Support the translation and help me grow.🤓
Read upto 20 Extra chapter in Patreon