Multiversal Livestreaming System : I Can Copy My Viewers Skills

A long time ago...

My mother told me two things.

The first was simple:

"Never forget to smile."

The second was even simpler:

"Your father loves you, even if he doesn't show it."

I believed her.

I always believed her.

Because back then, I was just a little girl who wanted nothing more than to hold her dad's hand and hear him say he was proud of me.

But when Mother passed away, only one of those truths stayed with me.

I kept smiling.

And Father… well, Father became everything.

He wasn't a bad man at first.

When he first awakened as a Stream Hunter, he was so happy.

He kept telling me over and over, "C-rank! Your dad is C-rank!"

He bought food that day.

He laughed.

He said we would finally have a better life.

I didn't understand what it meant back then, but I clapped my hands and laughed with him, because his smile was all I needed.

But things changed when I awakened too.

I was only ten.

I still remember the way Father stared at me that day.

His eyes… they didn't shine with joy.

Instead they seemed to represent something else, something I was too young to name...

I thought he was proud.

I thought the silence meant he was too shocked to say anything.

But the truth?

The truth was that I had stolen his light.

Because I had awakened as an A-rank.

My ability was strange, but powerful.

Whenever something threatened me, the world around me seemed to freeze.

Time itself bent away from me.

My barrier would hold, and the bullets, blades, or claws would stop in midair like toys hanging on invisible strings.

Father called it Absolute Stasis.

I didn't really care what it was called.

I was just happy when Father looked at me again, even if his gaze had changed.

From that day on, Father and I entered the Tower together.

I was scared at first, but Father held my shoulder and told me to trust him.

"Just do as I say, Guin. Nothing more, nothing less."

And so, I listened.

When monsters appeared, I would freeze them in place.

Father would rush forward, spear in hand, and strike them down.

He told me not to kill them myself.

"You don't need to fight. Just support me."

I believed him...

He was my father.

He knew better.

And when the Tower offered rewards for kills, I noticed Father always claimed them before I could.

I didn't complain.

I thought it was normal.

I thought he was just protecting me from leveling too quickly.

After all, he said often, "You're too young to carry that weight."

So I smiled and said.

"Okay, Dad."

Days turned into weeks.

Weeks into months.

We cleared floor after floor, Father growing better, faster, more skilled.

I stayed at his side, freezing the enemies that scared him most.

Sometimes, when the monsters roared too loudly or rushed too quickly, I wanted to cry.

But when I looked at Father and saw his back standing tall, I forced myself to smile.

Because I believed in him.

Because Mother told me he loved me.

Even when he rarely spoke.

Even when he stopped looking at me the same way.

Even when his words became commands instead of comfort.

I told myself... He's just carrying a burden I can't understand yet.

When we reached the Sixth Floor, everything changed.

The city was huge and strange.

Filled with machines that walked like people.

Father's eyes shone with an emotion the moment he saw it...

Not with fear… but with greed.

An artificial human, different from the rest.

It held something in its hands...

A weapon that gleamed with a power even I could feel!

His grip on my shoulder tightened.

"Guin. Freeze it. Kill it. Bring me that weapon."

I hesitated.

My heart pounded.

It wasn't like the monsters before... It looked too much like a person!

A cold fear trickled down my spine.

I'd never killed anything before. I

only ever stopped things.

"Dad, I…"

"Do it!"

He hissed, his voice losing all patience.

"Now, Guin! This is our chance! Do you want us to be nobodies forever?"

The words struck me like a physical blow.

Nobodies...

I didn't want that.

I wanted him to be proud.

I wanted us to be a team.

I took a shaky breath.

I focused on the Artificial Human.

I didn't want to kill it...

I just wanted it to stop.

To be still.

I reached for my power, but my father's command voiced out constantly in my head: Kill it.

I pushed my ability further than I ever had.

Instead of just freezing the space around it,

I focused the stasis inward, on the delicate energy core at its chest.

There was a sound like shattering crystal.

The Artificial Human's glowing eyes flickered and died.

It crumpled to the ground, motionless.

The spear clattered on the metal ground.

For a single, heart-lifting moment, I thought I'd done it...

I'd made him proud!

I turned to him, a small, hopeful smile on my lips.

But he wasn't looking at me.

[You have been marked as an enemy by the sixth floor]

[The entirety of the sixth floor will now be against your existence and will hunt you down]

The artificial humans turned towards me...

Every single one of them.

Their eyes glowed red, their arms lifted, their weapons aimed.

And then the bullets came.

I froze them at first... I always did.

But there were too many.

Too fast...!

My barrier cracked again and again, healing only by instinct.

My knees trembled as my throat went dry.

I turned to Father.

I thought he would stand by me.

I thought he would protect me like always.

But when I reached for him, he was gone.

He had run.

Without a word and without a look.

He left me there.

The first day, I waited.

I told myself he went to find help.

Maybe he needed time to plan.

He would come back... He had to.

The second day, I told myself the same.

The third day, my stomach hurt so much I could barely stand.

My eyes burned, but no tears came out anymore.

The fourth day, I stopped calling his name.

By the fifth, the bullets never stopped.

I stayed pressed against the wall, holding my barrier as tightly as I could.

Sixth day, seventh day… time blurred.

I no longer knew how many hours had passed.

The machines never grew tired.

They never stopped firing.

I hadn't eaten... I hadn't slept.

My body screamed.

My mind begged me to collapse.

But every time I almost let go, I remembered my father's voice.

"Do as I say, Guin. Nothing more, nothing less."

So I held on.

Because if I gave up… he would never come back.

And now.

Now, after all this time, after the endless rain of bullets and the silence of my own heart, someone walked into the line of fire.

A man with pitch black hair and eyes that resembled a calm black night.

There was no hesitation with his steps.

He walked forward as if the bullets meant nothing, as if the whole world couldn't touch him...

He knelt in front of me.

His eyes met mine.

I looked up.

The light was behind him, outlining his form.

For a heart-stopping, foolish second, the shape of him, the timing of it…

"Do you want to be saved?"

He asked.

The words cut through the numbness in my chest.

Do I want to be saved?

My lips trembled.

My throat ached.

I couldn't answer.

But in my heart, a thought surfaced.

Had Dad chosen to come back after all?