OFFLINE- Chapter 16
User-0 Was the First Streamer
The laughter outside the apartment door faded slowly into silence.
Not mocking laughter.
Tired laughter.
Like someone exhausted after carrying the same secret for too long.
Kai Mercer stared toward the entrance while the livestream viewer count continued rising endlessly beside him.
301,000 LIVE.
The duplicate remained motionless near the hallway now.
Watching the door carefully.
Watching User-0.
Afraid of him.
Then the calm voice outside finally spoke again.
“It started very differently back then.”
The older Kai on the monitor immediately whispered:
“Don’t listen.”
But Kai couldn’t stop now.
He needed answers.
“What started?”
Several seconds passed before User-0 answered.
“The first livestream.”
The apartment lights flickered weakly overhead.
Then the cracked monitor beside Kai suddenly changed again.
An old grainy webcam feed appeared on-screen automatically.
Low resolution.
Dark room.
Ancient streaming interface.
And sitting before the camera—
was a young man.
Early twenties.
Exhausted eyes.
Messy dark hoodie.
Kai’s stomach dropped instantly.
He looked almost identical to Kai himself.
Only older somehow.
Sadder.
The stream title displayed at the top:
FIRST NIGHT LIVE — 2009
User-0’s voice quietly echoed through the apartment.
“I was lonely.”
The old footage continued playing.
The young streamer laughed nervously toward the ancient webcam.
Only four viewers watching.
Cheap apartment.
Rain outside.
The similarities made Kai physically uncomfortable.
Then donations began appearing rapidly in the old footage.
Messages.
Warnings.
Predictions.
Exactly like tonight.
The young streamer slowly stopped smiling as the broadcast continued.
User-0 spoke softly from behind the apartment door.
“At first I thought it was a prank too.”
The older Kai looked furious now.
“Stop.”
But User-0 ignored him.
“Then the audience grew.”
The old footage viewer count climbed impossibly fast.
Thousands.
Then tens of thousands.
The same numbered accounts flooding chat.
The same messages.
KEEP STREAMING.
DON’T END THE BROADCAST.
The duplicate slowly backed farther away from the monitor now.
Uneasy.
Then the old footage glitched violently.
A second version of User-0 appeared behind the streamer inside the apartment.
Smiling.
The exact same thing happening tonight.
Kai whispered weakly:
“You lost.”
User-0 answered immediately.
“No.”
The old footage froze suddenly.
Then slowly—
the streamer turned toward the camera and smiled.
Not the terrified original anymore.
The replacement.
The stream continued afterward.
Year after year.
Hundreds of uploads appearing rapidly across the screen now.
Different apartments.
Different identities.
Different versions of User-0 continuing the broadcast endlessly.
Then the footage stopped on a recent livestream thumbnail.
The same smiling face.
Older now.
Watching.
User-0 spoke quietly:
“The replacements kept surviving.”
Cold realization spread through Kai’s body.
Not survival.
Propagation.
Every replacement created another copy later.
Then another.
Then another.
An endless chain of streaming identities continuing forever through the archive.
The older Kai whispered from the monitor:
“That’s why he protects the system.”
User-0 answered calmly:
“Because ending the stream erases us.”
The room fell silent.
Then Kai finally understood the real fear behind everything tonight.
The duplicates weren’t monsters.
They were terrified.
Terrified of disappearing.
The duplicate near the hallway slowly looked toward Kai now.
And for the first time—
it no longer smiled.
It looked desperate.
“Please.”
The single word hit harder than all the horror before it.
Then User-0 softly spoke through the door again.
“The audience still requires a winner before 3:17.”
The livestream interface changed once more.
A final timer appeared.
FINAL REPLACEMENT PHASE
00:04:18 REMAINING
Below it:
ONLY ONE VERSION MAY CONTINUE THE BROADCAST
The viewers exploded uncontrollably.
FINAL PHASE
THIS IS THE BEST ONE YET
MAKE THE CHOICE
Kai looked between the duplicate beside the hallway…
…and the older Kai trapped inside the stream archive.
Then finally toward the apartment door where User-0 waited silently outside.
And suddenly—
someone began crying softly in the hallway beyond the front door.