"I said, who is it?"
There was still no response from the other side of the door.
Cassiel suddenly felt nervous. 'Did they find me already?' he thought, his eyes widening in fear.
One of the other reasons Cassiel moved, besides the fact that he couldn't afford his old apartment anymore, was that his address had been leaked.
But there was always that lingering fear that his new address could get leaked again.
It was highly possible, especially since he still didn't know who "BlackBunny" was.
And if they were able to get his address the first time, his information, and basically everything about him before, there was no doubt they could do it again now.
Maybe they even anticipated his move to a crappy apartment in a dangerous neighborhood just to come after him here.
At this point, anything felt possible.
'I'm going to call the police as soon as I hear them try to break in,' Cassiel thinks as he immediately dials emergency services.
He was ready to hit the call and run to his bathroom to barricade himself the moment he heard even a single hit on the door.
So, he waited.
He didn't call out again.
He had watched enough break-in and slasher films to know that constantly calling out and acting stupid was what got people killed.
He just kept waiting.
And waiting.
To the point where his hands started to ache from gripping his phone, his body tense as he stayed ready to run at any second.
However, even after almost ten minutes of waiting…
There was no sound.
No knock.
Nothing at all.
"What the hell?" Cassiel mumbles as he moves closer to the door, slow and careful, not wanting to risk getting caught off guard.
He was practically a ballerina with how quiet his steps were, tiptoeing as he held his breath just to avoid making any sound.
It didn't take long for him to reach the door.
'Let me listen first,' he thinks as he slowly presses his ear against it, trying to catch anything from the other side.
Nothing.
No breathing.
No footsteps.
No muttering.
No sound at all.
If anything, Cassiel could only hear his own nervous heartbeat.
"Should I go check outside?" Cassiel whispers to himself, unsure of what to do now.
He doesn't really see the point in checking, but then again, whoever was knocking could've trashed the outside of his apartment.
And he couldn't let his landlord or neighbors get a bad impression of him this early into his stay.
'But what if they're still waiting outside?' The thought lingers.
There was only one way to find out.
And Cassiel was too drunk to care anymore. He just wanted to see what had been done.
So, he takes a deep breath.
He grips the doorknob.
"Here we go," he mumbles, then twists it, and finally—
"I'VE ALREADY CALLED THE POLICE, DON'T DO ANYTHING—Oh."
As soon as the door swings open, his eyes widen in surprise.
Because no one was there.
In the first place, he knew no one was there.
Well, no.
He thought someone might be.
'Ugh. I'm still drunk,' Cassiel thinks as he rubs the back of his head with a sigh, then looks around.
Everything is clean.
Well, as clean as it could be.
There's no trash, nothing out of the ordinary.
"Hm. Must've been some kids?" Cassiel says. His landlord did mention that his neighbors had kids who liked pulling pranks. "Ah. I'm getting too paranoid."
He's about to head back inside, wash his face, and then sleep.
However…
"Huh?" Cassiel notices something on the ground.
It's small and rectangular.
It looks like a—
"A card?" Cassiel bends down to pick it up, inspecting it.
KILLTECH.
It wasn't written, it was engraved.
The font was sharp, and the gold color was so polished that Cassiel could see a faint reflection of himself on it.
"What is this?" Cassiel takes a nervous step back into his apartment, closes the door, and immediately locks it.
Because someone left him something with the word "KILL" on it, and yeah, he wasn't about to take that lightly.
As soon as he convinces himself everything's fine, he opens the card.
"Oh." He lets out a small, surprised breath.
CONGRATULATIONS, Pink Bunny!
You have been invited by KILLTECH to have the chance to be the face of our brand new game:
ARENA OF LEGENDS
If you are interested, send us a thumbs up via SMS, and we will send a car for you!
We hope to hear from you soon.
Cassiel stares at the message, his eyebrows furrowing. "Bullshit."
He doesn't believe it for a second.
First of all, he hasn't even heard of a company called KILLTECH.
Second, if this was legit, how did they even know his address?
And third, why would they want Pink Bunny?
Oh, right.
Because this was obviously a fucking joke played by assholes who think Cassiel is stupid enough to go to some random place and get himself killed.
"Way to be discreet," Cassiel mumbles sarcastically as he throws the card onto the ground. "Go scam some other poor fucker."
He was angry, but he was still worried, because someone, or some group, knew his new address.
'I'll call the police the next time something happens.'
And maybe he'd use what little money he had left to get a cheap CCTV.
For now, he'd just do nothing and hope they took the hint.
"Time for an afternoon nap," Cassiel says, trying not to let his nerves get to him.
Nothing like an hour-long nap to forget about all his problems.
-ˋˏ✄┈┈┈┈
"That wasn't an hour nap." Cassiel stares at his phone. He slept at 1 PM, and now it was 7:55 PM.
"Way to be productive."
He places his phone on his forehead, letting the faint light hit his eyes. He honestly feels defeated.
Maybe because this is the first time it's really sunk in that his life was a mess… again.
And what's worse?
'I've run out of beer.' Cassiel thinks as he heaves himself up from the couch, checking his phone again and seeing a notification from Dischord.
RickyRoll: Hey dude, saw my gf's post. Not sure if you saw it, but uh… it was bad. Sorry, bro. Didn't mean for her to think those things, I cleared it up with her and made her delete it.
RickyRoll:Hope you're doing well. Call if you need anything.
"Ah, whatever." The damage was done anyway.
It's not like Precious Heart could damage him anymore, and with that name in this society? If anything, Cassiel almost felt bad for her.
Either way, he didn't care anymore.
He had bigger problems.
"I need to go job hunting tomorrow," Cassiel mutters.
Getting a job wasn't easy.
But getting a job while his face was plastered all over the news?
That would be a miracle.
But he couldn't afford to stay jobless, especially since he only had enough money for food and maybe two months of rent and utilities.
He had to try.
But if only there were an easy way to get money again.
Streaming had been the easiest money he'd ever made, even if he hated every second of pretending to be a woman.
It still put food and beer in his fridge, and a lot of extras.
"Hm." Cassiel glances at the card he threw on the ground, then quickly shakes his head. "No. Nope. That's a scam. You're not that stupid."
However…
"Let me search it up," he mumbles, pulling out his phone and looking up KILLTECH.
Of course, he isn't expecting anything.
He isn't expecting it to be real.
But—
"It's real," Cassiel murmurs, his eyes widening as results start to load.
It was a small company.
Nothing impressive.
They've made indie games that Cassiel vaguely recognizes because he's seen other ViewTubers play them.
"They mostly made those fake AI girlfriend games that use players' microphones…why are they suddenly making a MOBA?"
And more importantly, why did they want him?
'Something's still not adding up,' Cassiel thinks. But now he knows the company is real, not just some random prank.
Cassiel takes a slow breath. 'I'll think about it.'
After all, they didn't even give him a timeline.
And something still felt off.
He might be better off finding an actual job than jumping into something he might not be able to walk away from again.