My mind raced. Was it a bot? A glitch? Had I somehow managed to summon a digital phantom from the depths of the internet?
No. Beside the number, a tiny name had popped up in the chat window. "Hadreted."
My jaw dropped. My fingers trembled as I reached for the keyboard. A real person. A real, actual person had just stumbled into my little corner of the internet. After hours of silence, after contemplating a career change to adult content, someone was actually here.
A nervous, giddy energy surged through me, banishing some of the exhaustion. My voice, a little shaky, finally broke the silence in my room.
"Uh… hi, Had-Re-ted" I stammered, my eyes glued to the screen. "Welcome… to the stream?" I say, my voice a little rough.
A quick reply pops up in the chat. "HI! What'd you playing?"
My fingers flew across the keyboard, adrenaline coursing through me. "Stardew Valley!" I typed back, maybe a little too enthusiastically. "Just… just finished up for the night, actually." I mentally slapped myself. Why did I say that? Was I about to scare off my only viewer?
Another message popped up almost instantly. "Oh, cool! I love that game. Just started playing myself."
A genuine smile stretched across my face. Someone who actually knew the game! Someone who wasn't a bot or a figment of my sleep-deprived imagination. "Really?" I replied, trying to keep the excitement from overwhelming my typing. "What season are you in?"
"Spring, year one. Still figuring things out, haha."
A wave of warmth washed over me. This was it. This was the connection I'd been craving. "Oh, you're in for a treat! It gets so much better as you go." I paused, then a thought struck me. "Hey, if you're just starting, maybe I could… I could show you some tips? If you're interested, of course." I added the last part quickly, not wanting to sound too desperate.
There was a slight delay this time, each second feeling like an eternity. Was I being too forward? Had I already scared them off? My stomach did a little flip.
Then, the message appeared. "That would be awesome! I keep accidentally watering rocks." They even added a "haha" at the end. Relief washed over me, so potent it almost made me dizzy.
"Okay, rock-watering rookie," I chuckled, the sound actually reaching my own ears this time and not just the silent walls of my apartment. "You've come to the right place."
I quickly alt-tabbed back into Stardew Valley, my fingers flying across the controls. "Alright, Hadreted," I said, my voice sounding more confident now, the tremor almost completely gone. "Let me just load up my farm. It's year three, so things are a little… established. But I can show you the basics, the best crops to plant, how to befriend the villagers…"
I felt a surge of energy I hadn't felt in hours, maybe even days. It was like a switch had been flipped. The loneliness that had been clinging to me like a damp shroud started to dissipate, replaced by a nervous excitement, a flicker of purpose.
"So, Hadreted," I continued, loading my save file, the familiar cheerful music filling my headphones. "Are you on PC? We could even try the multiplayer if you want to see things in action."
The chat window remained silent for a moment, and I held my breath, a tiny seed of anxiety starting to sprout. Then, another message. "Yeah, I'm on PC! Multiplayer sounds cool, but maybe later? I'm still kinda overwhelmed by everything."
"Totally understandable," I replied quickly. "No pressure at all. We can just hang out here for now."
My farm loaded, the vibrant colors of my well-tended fields a welcome sight. I navigated my character back to the farmhouse. "Okay, so first things first," I began, launching into an explanation of the basics of farming, pointing out the different tools and their uses.
As I talked, I kept glancing at the viewer count. Still one. But it wasn't just a number anymore. It was Hadreted. A real person, out there somewhere, listening to me, asking questions, sharing their own experiences.
The conversation flowed surprisingly easily. Hadreted asked about different crops, about fishing, about the best way to upgrade tools. Then, out of nowhere, they typed, "So, you play any scary games on here?"
I paused, a small smirk playing on my lips. "Sometimes. I'm not, like, a dedicated horror streamer, but I dabble."
"Not afraid, are you?" Hadreted teased.
I smirked back at the screen, widening my eyes in fake offense. "Of a video game? Oh please."
I laughed, the sound coming out a bit hoarse, but there was still some energy there. "I've seen, like, way scarier stuff than whatever this game could throw at me. I just got it 'cause it looked cool."
Hadreted's reply came quickly. "Oh really? And what kind of 'way scarier stuff' have you seen, little streamer?" Their tone had a slight edge to it, mocking almost.
I narrowed my eyes playfully at the screen, resting my chin on one of my hands. "Oh, just… many things." I drew out the word with a smirk, playing along. "Demons, the occult, serial killers, stuff like that. Oh, and politics." I added the last word with a shudder, making another jokey jab.
"Ah, a true connoisseur of the horrifying, I see. And let me guess… you watch creepy YouTube videos with the lights off and everything, don't you?"
I grinned, resting my other hand on my chin so both were propped up. "Well, yeah, obviously. It's like the proper way to watch creepy stuff." I mock-shuddered, my eyes glittering in the dim light. "Lights off, headphones on, volume maxed. The whole shebang. It's a vibe."
Suddenly, the monitor screen flickered. Just for a second, then it was back to normal.
My smile dropped for a moment, a jolt of unease hitting me. "Huh… weird." I stared at the screen, waiting to see if it would happen again. My face felt a little pinched, confused and a bit worried.
Then, a notification popped up in the corner of my screen. I hadn't gotten a sound. It just… appeared. "Within the Berlin night is ready for play." A skull emoji sat next to it.
I blink in surprise, my eyes narrowing at the notification. "What… the hell-" I lean closer, reading it over and over, making sure I'm not seeing things. Then, I hover my cursor over it. "Within the Berlin night?" I mutter, curiosity mixed with a growing sense of wrongness. "I… didn't download this, I'm sure…"
Hadreted's message popped up in the chat. "What's wrong?"
My eyes darted back to the chat, then to the notification, then back to the chat again. A knot of unease tightened in my stomach. "Uh… Hadreted," I typed, my fingers hovering over the keyboard, a strange prickling sensation on the back of my neck. "I just got a notification for… a game I've never seen before. Never heard of it."
"What's it called?" Hadreted replied instantly.
I read the notification aloud, slowly. "'Within the Berlin night.' With a skull emoji."
There was a pause in the chat this time, a beat longer than usual. Then, Hadreted's response appeared, and it was… different. The playful teasing was gone, replaced by something else. Something that made the hairs on my arms stand on end.
"Within the Berlin Night?" Hadreted typed, the words appearing in the chat in rapid succession, almost frantic. "You've never heard of that?"
I frowned, confused by their reaction. "No? Should I have? Is it… a thing?"
"A thing?" Hadreted's next message was practically shouting in text. "Are you serious? That game… that game is legendary. Infamous."
My confusion deepened, tinged with a growing sense of foreboding. "Legendary how? Good legendary?"
"Good?" Hadreted's reply was a single word, but it was laced with a chilling disbelief. "No. Not good. Horror. Like, next-level, messed-up horror. People say… people say it's cursed."
Cursed? My eyebrows shot up. "Cursed? Seriously? It's just a game, right?"
"That's what everyone says," Hadreted replied, their messages coming slower now, each word seeming to carry a weight. "Until they play it. It's… it's not like other games. It gets under your skin. Stays with you."
I swallowed, my mouth suddenly feeling dry. "Okay… you're kind of freaking me out now. I really don't remember downloading it. Maybe it was a mistake? A random pop-up?"
"A random pop-up that installs a full game?" Hadreted typed skeptically. "That's really weird…" Hadreted replies after a short pause. "Honestly, you look pretty tired. And you know how you pre-order games sometimes and forget? 'Within the Berlin Night' had a massive hype train like a year ago. Maybe you just spaced it out? Might be worth checking."
I raise an eyebrow, the lingering exhaustion from the dead stream making it hard to focus. "Haaah…" I sigh, running a hand through my already messy hair. "Maybe… yeah, you know what? That actually sounds like something I'd do." I glance at the desktop, my eyes landing on a new icon with a stylized skull against a dark cityscape – the "Berlin Night" icon. A morbid curiosity, mixed with a healthy dose of apprehension, starts to win over me. "Alright… fine. Can't hurt to just… see what it is, I guess."
With a hesitant click, I open "Within the Berlin Night." And then… it just starts. Instantly. No loading screen, no company logos, nothing. Just a stark black screen that fades into a first-person view.