'looks like Sean is having trouble breathing.'
'Haha, stop it, guys. Sean's struggling.'
'"Horror games are as easy as breathing to me"—yeah right!'
'Hahaha, someone bring a breathing machine for our guy, he's gasping for air!'
'Don't panic, bro. If it's too much, just stop the stream—we get it.'
'You guys don't get it, he's doing this for the stream!'
Even though it was a horror game, and they'd only just started playing, the chat room was already blowing up like it was New Year's.
Watching the flood of comments, Sean couldn't help but feel a little embarrassed.
This game was nothing like what he thought horror games would be.
The mood, the visuals—it was all way too immersive.
It honestly didn't even feel any less intense than a VR game.
That's the nature of horror games.
From a psychological point of view, when players are fully focused on a game, they become deeply immersed in it.
Most other games rely on things like story or music to slowly pull players in.
But horror games are different.
Players know they're going to be scared, but they don't know when.
Combined with the music and the setting, it naturally keeps players on edge and focused.
It's kind of the same with FPS games too.
That's also why games like this are so exhausting to play—because you have to stay alert the whole time.
Looking at the game on screen, then glancing at the chat again, Sean slowly slid his chair back.
He pulled the mouse and keyboard farther away, resting them on his knees and a small side table nearby.
He was trying to put some distance between himself and the screen, hoping it would help him relax a little.
But all that did was invite more sarcastic comments from the chat.
And on top of that, it made controlling the game a bit awkward.
Worst of all—none of it actually helped.
In fact, putting distance between him and the screen just made him feel like someone was behind him.
He squeezed through a crack in the wall, crawled into a vent, glanced again at the chat on his second screen, and just felt off.
Sean looked around his room without thinking, and raised his voice a bit to hype himself up.
"Come on! What's there to be scared of?! Damn it!"
"Pfft! What am I even freaking out about?!"
"Does panicking help?!"
"Damn it, I've still gotta keep moving forward step by step!"
"What's the point of being scared?"
"I'm not scared at all!"
Crawling out of the vent, he looked at the blood-smeared walls around him and quietly swallowed.
At this point, he had moved his in-game character to a half-open door.
Without thinking, he pushed it open.
And in the next second, the game's music suddenly turned sharp and fast—and a hanging corpse behind the door swung violently toward the main character.
The screen was instantly filled.
The game's main character and Sean outside the game both let out a sharp scream.
"Ahhhh!"
That sudden scare made Sean repeat the exact same motion as before—covering his face.
Breathing heavily, he could clearly feel his heart pounding.
Thump, thump—loud and strong.
It was all from the scare just now.
"Damn it! Damn it! It's fine if I scream, but why is the character yelling too?!" Sean heard the in-game character gasping through his headphones and tried to change the subject.
No one would believe it if he said it, but what really startled him wasn't just the jump scare when the door opened—it was the fact that the in-game character spoke first.
He was already spooked, but when he heard the character scream, he couldn't help blurting out too without thinking.
His legs, hidden under the desk, were shaking a bit, and he could feel the cold sweat from earlier soaking through the back of his shirt.
Resting one hand on his chest, Sean took two deep breaths to calm down.
He glanced at the screen, hesitated for a second, then stood up and turned the air conditioner down a few degrees. He also grabbed a hooded down jacket from the nearby cabinet.
"Guys, the AC's too cold. I'm just putting on a jacket," he said as he put it on, pulled the hood over his head, and slipped his headphones back on over it.
Seeing this, the livestream viewers instantly flooded the chat with comments.
'????????'
'Sean is awesome. He's wearing a hoodie because his head's cold, not because he's scared.'
'Exactly, horror games are nothing for Sean. Like breathing. Why would he be scared?'
'Don't worry, Sean, we all know you're not scared.'
Looking at the chat turning sarcastic, Sean was fuming but couldn't find any good comeback.
All geared up, he swapped out the dead battery in his camera and continued exploring.
Inside the room was a mess of broken furniture, blood all over the walls and floor, and mysterious bodies stuffed into cabinets—all of them headless.
In night vision mode, the sickly green view made everything feel even creepier and more disturbing.
He didn't even dare look straight at the bodies or the dismembered limbs on the floor.
"Run!"
Just as Sean reached the middle of the room, one of the 'bodies' suddenly spoke.
He jumped in shock, eyes snapping wide open—even though this time, he managed not to scream.
"Damn it! You can scare someone to death doing that!"
He turned toward the voice and saw it was coming from a man impaled on a steel bar—like a human kebab.
"Run... run…!"
"They killed us... all of us... while they haven't found you yet… run…"
"Run out… of this… building…"
With that, the dying man fell silent. Clearly, he was just a plot device to deliver a message—once his lines were done, he was no longer needed.
But at that moment, Sean had no interest in uncovering the dark secrets of Mount Massive Asylum.
He had only one thought: Run!
Because the whole scene and atmosphere were way too suffocating.
Everything felt off—strange and unsettling.
Why was he playing this game? Why was he even exploring this asylum?!
"Damn it, let me out! Let me out!"
Using the night vision on the camera, Sean got out of the claustrophobic dark room and into a hallway that was at least a bit better lit.
What he didn't notice was the shadow that quickly flashed past one of the side doors as he entered the hallway.
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