My Glitched Streaming System: I Can Steal Sponsored Gifts

Quietness blanketed the Event hall. Everyone froze in place, disbelief written on their faces.

It had taken several seconds too long before they all realized they were still alive.

Sighs escaped everyone as they fell to the ground, their limbs weak and shaking.

Sae-wee was the only one standing. Despite being covered in wounds and bleeding, she stood, peering at the wall Min-ho’s and Ji-su’s puzzle room rested behind.

Inside, Ji-su crumbled to the ground, his heart hammering in his chest.

He was shaken and deathly pale.

Besides the heavy breathing filling the air, no one said anything.

Opening his eyes, Min-ho jolted up. He felt his skin crawl due to the eerie silence that overtook the environment.

For a moment, he feared the worst.

But just then, a familiar voice rang out.

"Ji-su?" Dok-su called out. His voice finally audible from the other side of the wall.

Upon hearing his brother’s voice, something inside Ji-su snapped, suddenly bringing him to tears.

"Ji-su!" Dok-su called out once more, his voice shaken.

Aware that keeping him silent would send the wrong message, Min-ho decided to speak up, since Ji-su was too shaken to do so.

"We..." his voice broke, his throat weak. It would seem he too was affected.

Fighting against the exhaustion, Min-ho forced himself to stand, then he spoke.

"We’re... we’re alright," he barely said, leaning against the wall as he spoke.

As per his memory, Min-ho didn’t remember ever straining himself physically to be this weak. But the toil on his mind was far too great, eating into his core. And that message he received from his System did not help matters.

’This Event? Culling Games?’ he thought, the name sending a chill down his spine, making him even weaker.

The Culling Games was one of the hardest and worst Events in the Z-Tower. It was mostly avoided by Z-Streamers, as it always had a high death ratio.

’How could such a thing happen? This was supposed to be the Treasure Hunt Event, why did it change?’

He continued to contemplate while making his way to the exit. An inch away, the walls groaned, then, it began to rise.

Not long after, enough of a gap was made for Dok-su to roll under.

He got onto his feet and ran toward his brother, barely giving Min-ho a glance.

"Ji-su!" Dok-su screamed as he crumbled in front of his brother and pulled him into an embrace.

Min-ho did not stare at them for long before turning to the exit.

Once the door had completely opened, Min-ho could see the aftermath of the chaos in its entirety.

The ground had overturned from housing pools of blood to becoming a lake of it.

Above the lake of blood was a pile of corpses stretching into the hundreds. Spectors and Z-Streamers alike.

There was nowhere to step that wouldn’t put a pile of flesh and guts under their feet.

The sight was draining in and of itself, but it was finally over.

Drawing his line of sight was Sae-wee.

She was covered in blood and cuts. Her left sleeve was gone and the rest of her clothes were barely intact.

She held her right arm as she limped toward him.

Behind her, Jang-book, Im-hee and the rest of the surviving Z-Streamers were sprawled on the floor, moaning and panting hard.

Half of them had turned off their Z-Eyes, others were too tired to even think of it.

Out of the seven or so dozen that had come into this hall for the Event, only fifteen remained.

So much death.

"Turn off..." Sae-wee did not get to finish her words before a notification appeared in front of her and everyone else.

[’Mee Min-ho’ Registered For Next Culling Games]

[’Cho Im-hee’ Registered For Next Culling Games]

[’Ji Jang-book’ Registered For Next Culling Games]

[’Han Dok-su’ Registered For Next Culling Games]

[’Han Ji-su’ Registered For Next Culling Games]

[Reward For Event Completion Granted]

[50,000 Coins Acquired]

As the notifications appeared in front of every Z-Streamer, gasps and murmurs had risen into the air. Though the reward they received was incredible, its tangibility was overshadowed by the grim message they received a second prior.

Confusion settled as no one knew for sure what this meant. Such a thing had never been heard of before.

The information written was already telling enough, yet that didn’t stop people from asking.

"What is this?"

"What’s going on?"

"What does this mean?"

Similar words were said, fear coating each word.

"Do you know what this means?" Min-ho asked Sae-wee, turning to face her.

Had he looked at her sooner, he wouldn’t have to ask, because the confusion illustrated on her face was evidence she too was in the dark.

He sighed, unsure of how to feel. The reward was great, but the cost was far greater, and it would seem they would be called back to do it again.

Thinking on this, he barely reacted, he was just too tired.

"We should get out of here..."

"Min-ho!" Dok-su’s voice exploded from the room.

All eyes snapped to their direction, even before Min-ho himself could fully turn to Dok-su.

He was marching out of the room, anger fuming from him.

"What is the meaning of this?!" he asked, further confusing Min-ho.

"What does this message mean? Registered, registered for what?!" he yelled, stopping in front of Min-ho.

Ji-su came up behind him, his feet barely working properly.

"Calm down Dok-su."

"Does this message mean we’ll have to do this again?!"

The words rippled across the hall like a wave of electricity, stirring something dreaded inside everyone as the realization sank in.

Min-ho made to speak, but Sae-wee beat him to the punch.

"Why the hell are you shouting at him like it’s his fault?" she said, getting in front of Min-ho.

Standing behind her, Min-ho didn’t know what to make of any of this. Not the message, the changed Event, not Sae-wee.

"Not his fault? You made us come here in the first place?!" Dok-su yelled.

Just then, the other puzzle solvers had approached, watching from a close distance.

Pink-hair especially kept a close eye on Min-ho.

"You can’t say that, brother. We all voted to come here," Ji-su defended.

"But it was his idea in the first place! Not only were we an inch away from death, but now we’ll have to do it again! How the fuck do we get out of this?!" Dok-su screamed, gripping his hair as frustration and fear began to tear away his logic and reasoning.

"I may have a solution," Pink-hair said, his voice so close to Min-ho it had taken him by surprise. But even more surprising was the sword he placed on Min-ho’s throat.