"I have more than thirteen thousand by now."
Puck's voice exploded like a thunderclap.
For a moment, silence reigned. The others blinked in disbelief, wondering if they had misheard.
But no, they hadn't. The declaration was loud, clear, and impossible to ignore.
Their stunned expressions were everything he'd hoped for.
Jin's face twisted in envy, lips pressed into a hard line. Blue's eyes widened, while Green and Yellow sat frozen, their silence louder than any outburst. It wasn't that they didn't care, it was that they couldn't even begin to process it.
"Oh, come on, don't be like that," Puck said, his grin stretching wider. "You'll get your moment too… eventually. I mean, who could've expected me to luck out like this, right?"
The smugness in his voice was impossible to miss. He was reveling in their discomfort, his sadistic tendencies bubbling to the surface.
Jin scoffed. "Hmph. Don't get too full of yourself. There's a reason it's called impossible to clear."
Blue jumped in. "Yeah, they're only here for the initial phase. Once it's done, the viewers will move on. Mid-rank streamer? Please, you're dreaming."
Green and Yellow remained silent. They weren't as petty as Blue or as threatened as Jin, but deep down, their own frustrations brewed.
Why am I like this? they both thought, trapped in the same spiral of inferiority.
Puck's grin twitched. He could practically taste their bitterness.
If the viewership drop applied to him, then surely it would apply to Jin too, but he didn't press that angle. Not yet. He had a bigger revelation coming.
"Well," he said slowly, savoring every word. "What if I told you... this phase might actually be cleared?"
The room went still.
The idea itself was blasphemous.
Clear the SSS-ranked phase? It had been deemed impossible ever since this world had been dragged into a lesser reality. Even with the undead restricted by the world's laws, no one had ever come close to completing the phase.
"It can't be," Jin snarled, slamming his hand down on the table.
Blue, for once, didn't argue. He simply froze.
Because Puck, twisted as he was, never lied.
If he said something was possible, then it could be possible.
"...Are you serious?" Blue asked, voice nearly a whisper.
"Oh, I'm dead serious," Puck replied with theatrical glee. "There's a human here. One who didn't just survive the first wave but dominated it."
They stared at him, minds racing.
"Even when swarmed by hundreds of undead," he continued, "That person was able cut them down. Alone."
A chill swept through the room.
"And more importantly..." Puck leaned forward, lowering his voice to build suspense. "...that human might already have a title."
"Ridiculous!" Jin barked. "There's no way someone has a title this early!"
"Are you sure?" asked Green named Biu, his voice low, almost trembling. "Titles aren't something you can just get. It's… it's rare even after multiple cleared phases."
Everyone nodded.
In the Voidnet, titles weren't just status, they were everything. They signified power, potential, fate.
Getting one before completing the first phase?
That was unheard of.
"I didn't say I'm one hundred percent sure," Puck admitted. "But my gut tells me I'm right."
Jin rolled his eyes. "So you're just making assumptions? What a joke."
Puck smirked.
'Let them think that.Brag? I'll brag every single day if I have to.'
He hadn't seen one skill. He hadn't seen two.
He'd seen three.
Three distinct abilities used seamlessly in the first hour of awakening.
There was no way a normal human could start with three skills unless... unless they had been granted a title that bent the system's rules.
'But what kind of title is that? What kind of anomaly are we dealing with?'
He shivered, not from fear, but from excitement.
This was content gold.
"Believe what you want," Puck said, rising from his seat. "You're just bitter. I've seen enough to know: if this person can't end the curse, then no one can."
'Unless an even greater anomaly appears...'
He glanced around at the stunned faces one last time and chuckled.
"Anyway, I should get back. Unlike some people, I actually have viewers to entertain. And I can't afford to slack off, not when eyes that even I dare not offend are watching."
With that, he vanished, his laughter echoing behind him.
The remaining streamers sat in stunned silence.
"There are people... even he can't offend?" Blur, the blue streamer, whispered.
"It means those people are here," Biu replied solemnly.
A heavy silence fell over the room.
"I am a bit scared now," Rin, the Yellow streamer, murmured.
"Don't be. This might be our chance too," Biu said, placing a reassuring hand on her shoulder. "If they turn their gaze to our sectors, we might rise too. There are more phases to come. Who's to say we won't get a tough one next?"
Rin nodded slowly. "You're right."
With nothing more to say, the rest of them vanished as well, returning to their stations, their minds clouded with a mix of fear and anticipation.
The first hour of the apocalypse had passed.
Thousands were already dead. A handful had survived. A few had awakened their powers.
And perhaps, just perhaps, one had already received a title.
But was that enough?
Was it enough to endure a month of endless torment?
Was it enough to survive what was to come?
Because now... the real apocalypse had begun.
"The curse that has long lingered in silence… has finally taken root," came a whisper from the void, dark and euphoric. "Are you all as excited as I am?"
"If yes, then brace yourselves. The undead shall rise again. The night that went grey... will now go red."
The voice twisted into a gleeful cackle.
"The Cursed King has awakened."
And as the final syllables echoed into the void, the ground trembled.
In the very heart of the region, a monstrous castle erupted from the earth, bathed in black flames and blood-red mist.
The Castle of the Cursed King had returned.
And with it, the apocalypse truly began.
***
Thanks for reading.