207 Boss Is Mad
“Two million isn’t enough at all,” that grandmaster shook his head before adding, “this curse can’t be removed without paying ten million views at least.”
“Ten million…” Damn! That number was almost five times my current channel views. In fact I didn’t mind paying views to them. After all, what was the current value of views compared to my cursed and banned channel?
I had to break this curse no matter what!
“But there is a way for you here,” as I was dejected and lost in thoughts, that grandmaster said, “you can take a loan from us after joining our impact. It’s not a big thing actually for us, but you’ll have to pay back fifteen million views once you reach them.”
“I agree,” I didn’t mind paying even one hundred million views to get my channel freed!
“That’s good to hear,” he grinned, “Sissy, bring a fine silver blue robe for him please.”
“Silver blue?!!!” Sissy exclaimed in clear shock before bellowing out, “this is one rank higher than mine!”
“He is already much better than the current you,” the brown eyes of that grandmaster narrowed while his tone returned to its icy cold nature, “go, go now before I get angry at you.”
“O… Ok grandmaster,” I couldn’t see her face but her body shook when he said the last threatening words of his. This dude seemed to be a real powerhouse, one who would scare anyone here.
“Sorry about that,” as she retreated behind one of the many doors here, the grandmaster’s tone and attitude returned to the calm side, “I’m not that dictator who would force everyone to keep their thoughts to themselves.”
Yeah, that was obvious dude!
“Can I get any info related to the one who cursed my channel? And why would anyone do that?!!” As things got sorted out at last for me, I had to seek these answers to prepare my vengeance in the future.
“This…” but the face of that dude changed slightly before adding, “I don’t know who did this to your channel. But I can tell you when exactly that happened. As for the reasons behind this, you have to think about these yourself.”
“Ok,” I didn’t have anything else to do but to accept what he just offered. If I knew the timing of what happened, I could easily deduct the reason behind all this.
“Let’s see… The curse landed over your channel just at this moment.”
He played a video in a floating screen midair. The screen popped up without any warning, as if it was formed out of pure dust particles in the air.
In front of my eyes, I saw myself saying:
“I only have one request, a reasonable one,” I paused before adding, “as you can see, the sheer number of gods asking me to accept their blessing and sponsorship is immense! So I need to sort things out here, and I need your help to do that.”
My eyes went wide when I heard me saying these words. I knew where I was and when that happened. It was just outside Hamilton fort, where I first met Karoline.
I recalled what happened and didn’t need to hear the rest of my words there. It was where I gave the offer for the gods following my channel to help me in return to selecting one of them as a sponsor.
Of course I ended up solving everything without their help, but it was indeed a remarkable moment. Since that talk with them I never heard from any of them again.
I was jolted awake when I heard myself saying:
[All the gods are delighted by this time limit]
[Many gods are now contacting their friends]
[A big impact is being noticed in the world of gods]
“World of gods?!!
In front of my eyes, many messages appeared in front of me. These were the last ever received messages from these gods.
“This is the moment when everything started,” the grandmaster said while the screen that was lit up in an unknown way to me turned dim slowly before vanishing in thin air.
“It feels like ages passed since then,” I couldn’t help but sigh before turning to him, “thanks for showing this to me.”
“I hope this can help,” he said before adding, “ah, there is also something we can salvage from solving this curse.”
“Which is?” I was still lost in my melancholic feelings. I haven’t heard anything from my supporting gods since then. It was really bad, but it was something I couldn’t help either.
I got false intel from the jumper’s god. Also went to the death shrine and met Nero before coming back and receiving a message from that mysterious war god.
“I might have a chance to know the general location of that bastard who did that.”
I looked at him and didn’t say what I had in my mind. How could knowing the place of that bastard help me?
But saying this to him would be rude. So I kept this to myself and instead asked:
“Can a cursed channel receive messages from gods?” I asked and he shook his head first before pausing as his eyes flashed.
“If that god paid a hefty price to do so, and that is a very rare thing for gods to do,” he said and I could relate perfectly to his words. ρꪖꪕᦔꪖꪕꪫꪣꫀꪶ
“I already got warned from one of my gods using this way,” I said before adding, “but I mean if a god can send me a message without the need to pay any price at all.”
“That’s impossible!” I saw the shock in his eyes when I said I got a message from one of my following gods.
“But I got a message from one of the gods after the channel was cursed,” I said in a firm tone, “it was a message from the god of war, or that was what I thought at that moment.”
“Really?” he gave me such an interesting look before adding, “let me scan the channel videos then. Do you know when that happened? Or even where?”
I paused for a long minute. It was really hard to recall all the things that happened in the apocalypse to me so far.
I really did many things, travelled to many places, and fought in many wars. Just thinking back to all my achievements made me feel how grand my deeds here were.
“I believe it happened just after my return from the death shrine,” I slowly said, “I think it happened just after crossing the Hudson river, just in the start of my attack over Jersey city.”
“Ok,” the grandmaster said as I saw his fingers flashing as if he was typing what I just said, “any time perhaps? It will help to narrow down the videos I have.”
“Hmm… It feels like a year has passed since then but I think a week perhaps?” I was hesitant to give a firm answer to him.
“Let’s search for five to nine days,” he decided and then his fingers returned to flash again for a few seconds before stopping.
“Aha, I found it,” he waved his hand and another screen appeared just like the first one.
And there I saw myself standing idle beside someone while messages appeared in front of my eyes. My smile went wide as I recalled how happy I felt back then.
[Unknown god just sent you a private message]
[The message: War is only a one directional path of venturing forward and never looking back! Show your courage and raise your head high above all other races. Victory or defeat is just secondary to any warlord, bloody hard battles are the only interesting thing]
“What’s wrong?”
It was the jumper’s voice. At that time, I just returned back from the visit to the death shrine and was feeling conflicted about Nero’s meeting.
And that message just came at such perfect timing, giving me hope to slip away from the ongoing fight in the death shrine and join the war shrine.
“That’s weird…” the voice of the grandmaster jolted me awake from my memories and feelings. He seemed more conflicted than me. “The time… This message was sent through your channel… But your channel was cursed by that time… Weird… Totally weird… Yet…”
He stopped there and left me hanging and waiting for his words.
“Yet… What?” but my wait took a long five minutes. During which he kept flashing his fingers sometimes, looking at nothing for others.
“I heard once about a curse that can be used against us, streamers,” he slowly said, “it’s not a simple curse. It’s one that requires the presence of something related to the one doing it near the person.”
“Sorry, I don’t understand,” I didn’t get what he meant, “do you mean I got cursed when I visited that death god?” my thoughts jumped towards that Nero.
Bastard! Did you curse me or what? Damn you!
“The one capable of doing this curse must be a god, a higher grade god actually. Also he has to spend lots of treasure to acquire this curse.”
“I never thought my value was this big before!” I said in sarcasm but he shook his head.
“It’s not about you… This curse can work on anyone and give an endless number of curses to people in the apocalypse. But it’s specifically meant for streamers. In other words, the one doing this was targeting our people, not just simply you.”
I knew he spoke about all the streamers when he said: Our people. But who would have such a twisted soul and dark heart to target all of the streamers? What? Someone who hated streaming and streamers? Can such a person truly exist?
“Your situation looks more complicated than I thought,” just as I was lost in my thoughts he sighed, “frankly breaking this curse will require more, much more than what we agreed upon before.”
“But…” I had to say something or else I’d be indebted with much more than I could pay! I already had one debt weighing over my shoulders, adding one more wasn’t a joke!
“Just wait,” yet he raised his fist and stopped me. At this moment I noticed something else. He clenched both fists while his body started to tremble faintly.
When I closely looked at his face, I noticed his rage. It was so intense that it didn’t cause anything except a few changes over his face, like clenching and relaxing his jaw repeatedly, or slightly narrowing his eyes and faint wrinkles appearing over his forehead.
He was mad! He was very mad! For a moment I hoped he wasn’t mad at me. But why would he be? I didn’t do anything wrong here! I was the victim sir.
“That son of b*tch… I hate this curse! I hate those people making and selling it! And I hate, much more hate those who are daring enough to go and buy these curses to use on our people!”
His voice was so loud and rumbling like thunder. I felt true fear in the depth of my soul, like I was standing in front of my deadly predator.
I wanted to leave, turn around and run. But I crushed down such desire with difficulty before he turned to me and said such good news:
“Forget about paying anything. The toll of lifting this curse is on my house.”
I blinked twice and stood like an idiot in all silence in front of him for a few seconds before I realised what just happened.
He wasn’t mad at me but mad at those who did this to the streamers like me.
“Thanks boss,” from his stance I felt the need to address him as my boss. After all he proved to be my boss with actions and not just authority or mere useless words.
“That’s nothing,” he waved his hand yet his face didn’t relax, “anyway just like I said earlier, for that curse to be used that hideous person must be near you, or have someone related to him nearby.”