Free Web NovelChapter 2: Going Viral Feels A Lot Like Dying
Kai woke up to the sound of his phone vibrating itself off the desk. It hit the floor with a small crack, and for a few seconds he just lay there staring at the ceiling, still half trapped in sleep, trying to figure out why his apartment smelled like cold fries and stress.
Then his eyes drifted to the monitor.
The donation total from last night was still open.
Right. That.
The rich internet stalker.
Adrenaline hit him instantly. Kai sat up too fast, his vision briefly swimming, and muttered, "Jesus Christ," under his breath.
In daylight, his room looked worse than he remembered. Neon lights off, curtains half-open, empty cans scattered across every surface, and one sock hanging off the lamp like it had given up on life. The glamorous life of an up-and-coming streamer.
His phone kept buzzing on the floor without stopping, and when he finally picked it up it felt like holding something dangerous. The lockscreen alone was enough to make his stomach drop. 127 notifications stacked up across Discord, Twitter, emails, texts, and missed calls from work.
"I should’ve died in high school," he muttered.
Twitter was the worst.
Clips from last night were everywhere. His face had already become meme material, and #LunaLove was trending like this was some kind of event instead of his actual life collapsing in real time.
One clip showed him staring blankly after the second twenty-thousand-dollar donation. It had over three million views, captioned: POV: a mentally ill woman financially claims you.
Against his better judgment, Kai kept scrolling. People were already shipping him with Luna. Fan edits existed. Fan art too, drawn faster than seemed physically possible, showing him being carried like a princess by a shadowy anime girl made of donation alerts.
He locked his phone and dropped it onto the bed like it had burned him.
"Nope."
His PC pinged again.
Discord.
This time it was his manager.
WHERE ARE YOU
Kai checked the time and froze.
10:47 AM. His shift had started at eight.
"...Oh."
A second message appeared almost immediately.
Dude you alive?
Kai stared at it for a long moment before typing, slowly and honestly.
honestly unclear
Three dots appeared immediately, then stopped, then the response came through.
Don’t come in today.
Kai blinked at the screen. For a second he didn’t process it. Then it hit him that his job had just... stopped expecting him.
Another message followed right after.
Corporate saw your stream.
His stomach dropped so hard it felt physical.
He opened TikTok without thinking.
There it was. A clip of him ranting mid-stream, calling his manager "the human embodiment of low battery mode." It had twelve million views.
Kai covered his face with both hands.
"I need to fake my death."
Another Discord ping interrupted him. ƒreewebɳovel.com
Also congrats lol
He stared at that message for a long time. Weirdly, that one hit harder than everything else. Nobody had ever really congratulated him for streaming before. Not properly. Usually it was just variations of "keep grinding," which was internet code for "destroy yourself quietly and call it ambition."
Something tight settled in his chest, uncomfortable and unfamiliar.
Before he could spiral further, another notification appeared.
A direct message from LunaLove.
His pulse reacted before he even opened it.
Did you sleep at all?
Not a greeting. Not congratulations. Just concern.
That alone made it worse.
kinda
The typing indicator appeared immediately.
Liar.
Kai let out a short laugh despite himself. ƒгeewebnovёl.com
wow okay psychic behavior
Your eyes looked exhausted near the end of stream.
There it was again. That sensation he couldn’t shake. Not fear exactly, but the feeling of being observed too precisely, like someone had been paying attention longer than he had realized.
are u always this observant
The typing bubble stayed longer this time, long enough that he actually waited for it.
Only with things I care about.
Kai stared at the message longer than he meant to. It shouldn’t have mattered. He barely knew her. He didn’t even know if "her" was real. For all he knew, LunaLove could be some bored guy running a dozen accounts from a basement with stolen crypto.
And yet the messages didn’t feel fake. They felt... warm in a way that was hard to dismiss. Personal. Like someone who had already figured out parts of him he usually hid behind jokes and exhaustion.
He dropped back onto his bed and stared at the ceiling.
This is how people die in documentaries.
His phone buzzed again.
You should eat something healthier today.
Kai slowly turned his head toward the kitchen.
There was a single banana on the counter and a ketchup packet beside it.
"How the hell—"
He stopped himself.
There had to be a normal explanation. There always was.
Probably.
Maybe.
But nothing about it felt normal.
The apartment suddenly felt too quiet.
Kai sat up and looked toward the window. Rain slid down the glass in thin, silver lines. Outside, there was only the neighboring building and a flat gray sky.
Still, he got up and checked the front door anyway. Locked. Chain secured. Nothing wrong. Nothing out of place. Nothing that should have made him feel uneasy.
His phone buzzed again.
Did something happen?
Kai stared at the message, then at the door, then back again. A short laugh slipped out before he could stop it, nervous and sharp.
"What the hell is my life?"
He typed carefully.
just checking my door because you talk like the final boss of a true crime documentary sometimes
The typing indicator appeared instantly, paused, then returned.
Sorry.
Then another message followed almost immediately.
I don’t want you to be scared of me.
Kai read it twice.
There was nothing theatrical about it. No manipulation. No performance. Just sincerity, plain and direct, which somehow made it harder to ignore.
Because if she was lying, it was easy to dismiss.
If she wasn’t, it meant something else entirely.
im not scared
A pause.
Then:
You should be a little.
His heartbeat picked up.
Before he could respond, another message came through.
But I’d never hurt you.
The room felt colder after that.
Kai swallowed, staring at the screen longer than he should have. That sentence should not have done what it did to him, and yet it settled in his chest anyway, heavy and strangely reassuring in the worst possible way.
By midnight, he was streaming again.
Of course he was.
Going viral didn’t just give attention; it rewired something. The thought of not streaming now felt stranger than streaming itself.
His viewer count passed twenty thousand before the game even started loading. The chat was already moving too fast to read properly, a constant flood of noise and usernames and jokes that barely made sense.
Kai adjusted his headset and forced himself into routine.
"First of all, all of you need therapy," he said.
A donation sound cut him off almost immediately.
$100.
stream daddy noticed me
Kai closed his eyes for a second.
"I miss being poor."
The chat kept moving, faster now, clipping everything he said, every pause, every glance, turning him into something larger than he actually was.
It was intoxicating in a way he didn’t want to admit.
And somewhere deep down, he already knew he wasn’t going to be able to give it up.
Then the stream alert flashed pink.
The entire chat stalled for half a second before exploding.
LunaLove donated $10,000:
You ate the banana. Good boy ♡
Silence hit the room harder than the noise that followed. The chat broke instantly into chaos, theories and jokes overlapping so fast the stream lagged.
Kai didn’t react at first.
Then slowly, he turned his head toward the kitchen.
The banana peel was still on the counter.
His throat tightened.
There were no cameras in there. No open blinds. Nothing obvious. No explanation that made sense.
His heartbeat grew heavier, louder, until it felt like it was filling his entire chest.
Then a sound cut through it.
A knock at the front door.
Soft. Measured. Polite.
The chat immediately noticed his expression change.
His viewer count spiked again in seconds.
Kai didn’t move.
Another knock followed.
Still calm.
Still patient.
And then his phone buzzed.
A message from LunaLove.
Don’t open it.
