The arena lights detonated to full brightness—
BANG
—blasting Maxx directly in the retinas like the System had personally filed a grievance against his eyeballs.
He slapped a hand over his face. "AAAAAAAA my corneas! What did I ever do to deserve this? …Actually don't answer that."
Across the blinding glow, the cold, metallic announcement boomed:
SURVIVAL ARENA 01 — DIFFICULTY: NIGHTMARE
"COMMENCING NIGHTMARE DIFFICULTY."
Maxx's soul left his body for a second.
"N-nightmare? Can we maybe… I dunno… start on easy mode? Baby mode? Toddler mode? Fetal mode? I'm flexible!"
The System, as always, ignored him with the confidence of a being who didn't even acknowledge his existence.
A silhouette stepped into the center of the arena.
And instantly, Maxx regretted every single life choice that had led him here.
It wasn't a monster.
It wasn't even a demon of the underworld.
It wasn't even humanoid in a way that should be legal.
It was—
A floating ring light.
A giant one. The size of a car tire.
Chained to a twitching, glitching humanoid figure whose face was pixel-blurred like a war criminal in a documentary.
"Oh my god," Maxx whispered. "You've GOT to be kidding me."
A screen on its chest lit up with sterile, almost cheerful formatting:
BOSS: THE OVEREXPOSED
Type: Former Top Streamer
Weakness: None :)
Maxx jabbed a finger at the screen as if he could argue with it.
"Okay I'm sorry—'None'? Not even lactose intolerance? Arachnophobia? Public speaking anxiety? SOMETHING?"
He threw his hands into the air. "Who designs a boss like this?!"
The Overexposed answered with a metallic shriek so loud Maxx felt it in his cavities.
The ring light flared, exploding with violent white illumination.
The shockwave hit before he could curse.
Maxx was blasted off his feet, sliding across the arena floor like a ragdoll someone had thrown out of a moving train. He bounced once, twice, then flopped onto his stomach.
"Ghh—my spine is suing for emotional damages…"
His streamer overlay flickered to life across his vision.
Chat messages flooded in instantly:
"LMAOOOOOO"
"BRO GOT FLASHBANGED IRL"
"MAXX USE YOUR DODGE BUTTON"
"HE DOESN'T HAVE ONE SKULL EMOJI SKULL EMOJI SKULL EMOJI 💀💀💀"
Maxx pushed himself up. "WHERE is the dodge button?! WHERE?!"
Chat replied instantly:
"You don't have one."
The arena shook violently as a giant fist smashed down exactly where Maxx had been lying a second earlier, shattering the reinforced floor into spiderweb cracks.
Maxx didn't think. His body just moved naturally .
He dove sideways then rolled and then screamed.
A second fist followed.
Then a third.
Then a combo that included three punches, a slap, and what Maxx was 87% sure qualified as emotional damage.
"This isn't NIGHTMARE MODE!" Maxx yelled, dodging another blow by tripping over his own legs. "THIS IS CHILDHOOD TRAUMA MODE!"
The Overexposed didn't care.
A massive hand grabbed his hood and hoisted him up like a misbehaving cat.
"Put me down! Put me down—gently! Preferably upright!"
The ring light angled directly into his face. Charging bars appeared.
BLINDING BEAM: CHARGING…
"Oh cool," Maxx croaked, eyes watering. "I always wanted my death to be filmed in 4K with premium lighting.
Really makes the last moments pop."
Suddenly—
KSSHHHHH-BOOOOM.
Something detonated above them.
Maxx blinked as the world filled with—
Rainbows.
Confetti.
Explosions of neon colors.
A giant #SPONSORED banner he has seen before.
A holographic whale wearing sunglasses.
A literal shower of chicken nuggets.
Ten thousand donation alerts had just triggered at once.
The Overexposed froze mid-laser, ring light flickering like a dying flashlight.
Maxx blinked. "Wait… did chat just STUN the boss?!"
Chat:
"DONATION STAGGER LET'S GOOOOOOO"
"PAY TO WIN BABYYYYYY"
"NPC GIRL ON YOUR SIX HURRY—"
The message cut off as the ground behind him exploded.
A maintenance hatch burst open and NPC-4531—broom still in hand—tumbled out, coughing and panting like someone had unplugged her ability to breathe.
"MAXX!" she gasped. "I bypassed three restricted zones, two security bots, and one existential crisis!"
Maxx stared. "You WHAT?! You're not even allowed to be here!"
"I'm not allowed to FEEL, Maxx!" she cried. "Illegal actions are becoming a pattern!"
The Overexposed twitched, shaking off the donation stun.
Its censored face twisted into something sinister.
"STREAMER: MAXIMUS RAVE," it intoned.
"COMMENCE INFLUENCE EXTRACTION."
A tendril of digitized static cracked through the air, shooting toward Maxx like a lightning whip.
He shoved NPC-4531 aside and braced—
But the hit never landed.
Something appeared around him instead. Something glowing. Something loud.
A shield?
No—
not a shield.
A dome made entirely of floating chat bubbles.
Thousands of glowing translucent comments whirled around him like a cyclone of internet nonsense.
NPC-4531 stared, eyes wide.
"You… weaponized your viewers?"
Overhead, the System stuttered.
"UNREGISTERED ABILITY DETECTED."
"TAG: ANOMALY — CROWD AMPLIFIER."
Maxx blinked at the swirling dome.
"…Wait. I can make chat REAL?!"
The Overexposed lunged.
The dome retaliated.
BOOM.
The punch struck the dome—
and the dome HIT BACK, exploding into a burst of emojis that ricocheted through the arena like digital shrapnel.
Chat absolutely lost their collective minds:
"NEW POWER LET'S GOOOOOOO"
"EXTROVERT SORCERER BUILD UNLOCKED"
"NUKE HIM WITH SUPERCHAT!!!"
"I DON'T KNOW HOW TO NUKE ANYTHING!" Maxx shouted.
The Overexposed charged again.
Maxx panicked.
Chat panicked with him.
Alerts erupted around him like a star exploding.
The dome pulsed—
Swelled—
Built pressure—
Vibrated like it was about to go Super Saiyan—
And then—
KABOOOOOOOOOOM.
A shockwave of pure influencer energy blasted across the arena, launching the Overexposed into a wall so hard its ring light cracked like a cheap phone screen.
Maxx staggered, smoke drifting off his clothes.
NPC-4531 caught him before he collapsed completely.
"UNAUTHORIZED ABILITY GROWTH DETECTED," the System hissed.
"ARENA STABILITY COMPROMISED."
"EVACUATION INITIATED."
Panels retracted. Walkways unfolded. Sirens wailed.
"Evacuation?" Maxx wheezed. "As in—"
The entire arena started falling apart.
"Don't let go!" Maxx yelled, sprinting beside her.
"I'm not supposed to HOLD the anomaly!" she cried. "This violates seventeen emotional regulations!"
"Oh COME ON!"
A laser grid activated behind them, blasting wild beams like a rave that had decided to become homicidal.
Maxx ducked one beam.
NPC-4531 slid under another with surprising style.
"Where did you learn that?!" Maxx yelled. "That was so ANIME!"
"I WATCHED YOU DO IT EARLIER!" she screamed.
"Oh my god—I'm a bad influence!"
"You're the ONLY influence!"
A narrow walkway extended across a bottomless pit.
They sprinted.
The Overexposed rose again behind them, cracked ring light glowing hellfire red. It fired a beam that tore the walkway apart piece by piece.
"RUN FASTER!" Maxx screamed.
"I AM RUNNING AT MAXIMUM SPEED!"
Another section collapsed.
They jumped—
—just barely landing inside the exit corridor as the rest of the walkway crumbled into the void.
The metal doors slammed shut behind them.
BOOM.
Silence washed over them like a heavy blanket.
Maxx lay flat on the ground, staring up at the ceiling with the expression of someone who desperately wanted to file a customer service complaint to the universe.
NPC-4531 knelt beside him, trembling.
"A-are you alive?"
"More or less," Maxx groaned. "Mostly less."
He lifted his hands. They were still shaking.
"I unlocked a power…"
He swallowed.
"No. Chat unlocked it with me."
NPC-4531's face softened. A tiny, glitchy smile flickered across her lips.
"You unlocked three probable felonies," she corrected quietly. "But… thank you. For protecting me again."
"Well—yeah," Maxx muttered. "I wasn't gonna let you get erased. That would totally ruin my whole day."
Her cheeks flickered glitch-pink.
For a moment, they just sat there, breathing in the rare quiet.
But far behind them—
From the sealed arena—
The Overexposed's cracked ring light flickered.
Once.
Twice.
Then its distorted voice rasped through the dark:
"…ANOMALY…"
The Overexposed was still alive.
And very, very angry.