Chapter 18: Echoes Beyond Borders
The morning sun filtered through the dusty blinds of Cal's room, casting thin rays across his cluttered desk. His monitor still glowed faintly with the afterimage of last night's stream interface, left open as if he couldn't bear to close it. The viewership had broken every record he'd ever imagined—20,000 live. It felt surreal.
And yet, this was just the beginning.
[System Notice: Stream Replays Cross-Uploaded to Timeline Channels]
[YouTube Viral Rank (Timeline 2010): #2 – "GhostFrame vs Margit – WHAT GAME IS THIS?"]
[Influence Surge Detected – Regional Spike: North America, Europe, South Korea]
[You have earned +500 Points for Global Curiosity Impact]
He blinked hard.
"Global curiosity…?" he murmured. The thought hadn't really hit him until now. This wasn't just a Japanese audience anymore. His streams—archived, clipped, and translated—were leaping beyond language and time.
He opened the system's new forum feature—unlocked after Tier 2 activation. Viewer suggestions poured in like a tidal wave.
"Show us more of the paint-shooter game!"
"Is there a zombie game from the future?"
"GhostFrame, play something dark! Horror! Survival! Anything!"
"Did Nintendo make that ink shooter?!"
"Can we see a game with dragons or cyberpunk stuff??"
The interface translated everything on the fly—Japanese, Korean, English, even broken Portuguese.
Cal scrolled, eyebrows slightly raised at how fast this community was forming. This wasn't a fanbase anymore. It was a movement.
He cracked his knuckles. "Alright. You want dark?"
He clicked the stream setup for the night.
That night, he picked something unexpected: Resident Evil Village. The eighth mainline game in the horror series—released in 2021.
He didn't start with exposition. The system warned him to avoid spoilers unless it was part of a mission. So he loaded into Castle Dimitrescu cold, letting the atmosphere do the talking.
Moonlight spilled into gothic halls. Shadows danced. Wind whispered through ornate iron grates. Then came the click of high heels and that infamous voice.
"Ah, Ethan Winters…"
The chat went wild.
"WHO IS SHE?"
"Tall lady?? WHY??"
"Bro this is RESIDENT EVIL???"
"Capcom outdid themselves in the future…"
Then someone from Capcom in Osaka logged in. Unofficially, under a personal account.
They watched quietly as Cal fought ghoulish enemies with precision—his every shotgun blast and dodge clipped in real time. When Lady Dimitrescu lifted him and snarled into the camera, the screen chat nearly exploded. Screencaps spread within minutes.
Unknowingly, Cal had just become the sole catalyst for a future design movement. Developers across the globe, upon seeing the reactions, would start shifting toward narrative-driven horror again.
And all of it was being seeded from a single bedroom in 2025, broadcasted into 2010.
[System Reward: "You've Altered a Genre's Future Path"]
[Bonus: 1000 Points | Timeline Perception +3 | Hidden Mission Chain Unlocked: "The Horror Revival"]
[Note: Your influence now extends to Game Developer Networks. Watch for shadows.]
Cal exhaled. The points were great. But that last part... shadows?
He stared at the blinking message, wondering if someone from the other side was beginning to notice things they shouldn't.
But then the chat flooded again.
"You HAVE to show us the block game!!"
"Yes! Minecraft! You said that name once! DO IT!"
He hesitated.
Minecraft had technically existed in alpha form in 2010, but the version the system granted him was the 2024 RTX-enhanced edition—ridiculously beautiful, with real-time lighting and cloud mod integration.
He loaded it.
And jaws dropped.
"This is Minecraft? No way."
A digital landscape loaded in: softly glowing torches, realistic water, shadows that shifted as the sun rose. He punched a tree. Built a house. Crafted a diamond sword. All with a calm rhythm, letting the ambience and occasional piano notes do the storytelling.
People who had only heard whispers of Minecraft in obscure forums were now witnessing a fully evolved version of it—one not even Notch had thought possible yet.
The replay would go viral again. Young devs, inspired by what they saw, would begin prototyping voxel engines far earlier than the timeline should have allowed.
But Cal didn't know that yet. He was too focused, too immersed.
By the end of the stream, his total viewership had peaked at 37,000.
[System Message: Milestone Achieved – "The Nexus Gamer"]
[Title Unlocked: "The Vanguard" – You are now considered a leading temporal influence on modern digital culture.]
[Function Unlock: Sponsored Missions – Earn points by fulfilling viewer-inspired themes]
He rubbed his temples, blinking away the tiredness. More options. More missions. More influence. The system was evolving with him—adapting.
But in a small lab tucked away in Shinjuku, an underground group of archivists had also been watching.
"We've confirmed it," one of them said to his colleague. "That streamer is showing content that hasn't existed yet. This isn't just early access. He's… broadcasting from the future. Or to the past."
Their eyes met.
"It's not just anime anymore. We need to talk to the old game associations."
"Someone needs to find GhostFrame."
Meanwhile, Cal stared at his screen, unaware of the discussions unraveling behind firewalled forums and secret threads.
The only thing on his mind?
"What should I stream next?"
And deep in the system interface, another prompt appeared.
[Upcoming Game Permission Available: Cyberpunk 2077 – Phantom Liberty Patch]
[Estimated Viewer Impact: Unknown | Timeline Disruption Probability: High]
Cal smirked.
"Let's keep bending reality."
End of Chapter 18