Lost Media (Please Read On)

"Accept the Nightmare Mission."

Zhang Ze immediately accepted the Nightmare Mission.

Taiwan Novel Network was incredibly convenient, t͜͜͡͡w͜͜͡͡k͜͜͜͡͡a͜͜͡͡n͜͜͡͡.c͜͜͡͡o͜͜͡͡m͜͜͡͡ let you read anytime.

[⑥ (Nightmare): Have you ever heard of Lost Media? You once watched a video online or heard an audio clip that remained vivid in your memory. But many years later, when you wanted to watch it again, you discovered that you could no longer find it no matter how hard you searched, as if that video had never existed at all. You were certain this was not the Mandela Effect or some collective memory fabricated by your own brain. You tried to find that video again, only to discover that what was in it was different from what you remembered...]

[There are many examples of Lost Media: the murderous music known as Black Friday, Soviet Sleep Deprivation Experiment Footage, Squidward's Suicide... You already know that ghosts truly exist in this world. Aren't you curious why these videos were lost, and what they actually contained?]

[At midnight, alone in a room, find Lost Media No. 021 and livestream yourself watching it.]

Lost Media? The concept itself was nothing new.

Zhang Ze remembered that the music Black Friday, which Chen Ge had received as a reward for completing the Black Phone mission for the first time, was Lost Media. Looking at it now, the system and the Black Phone did share a few similarities.

As for Lost Media No. 021...

Zhang Ze's first thought was the videotape he had won from the prize wheel earlier. It was No. 009, not No. 021.

It did not meet the system's requirements.

He checked the time. It was a little past seven in the evening, still some time away from midnight.

Zhang Ze thought it over. He did not own a computer, so he could not livestream while watching a video. Thus, he searched online for nearby internet cafes.

Speed Net Cafe.

Hmm... that name seemed a little unlucky.

But whatever.

Zhang Ze packed up his things and took a cab to the internet cafe.

Hanjiang City, Western Outskirts.

Outside Speed Net Cafe.

The moment Zhang Ze got out of the cab, he smelled secondhand smoke. Game sounds drifted out from the lobby now and then, along with the occasional passionate roar, like a group of unevolved apes.

"Healer! Healer! Mommy!"

"Fuck! This guy definitely hacked! He jumped, shot through the wall and smoke, and headshotted me! That huge spinning move wasn't even trying to hide it!"

"Mid-lane Azir, who do you think you are, Faker?"

Zhang Ze walked up to the front desk. The receptionist was a spirited young woman with short hair and earrings.

"A single private room. How much for an overnight session? Fine, I'll scan the code to pay."

"Betel nut? Cigarettes? No, no. I'll just get a bottle of Happy Water."

Zhang Ze bought a bottle of Happy Water and a pack of spicy strips. For a moment, he felt as though he had returned to childhood, gripped by a distinctly Chinese dreamcore sense of déjà vu. But he quickly returned to reality.

Speed Net Cafe was huge.

The lobby was divided into Area A and Area B.

Area C mainly contained single and group private rooms, while Area D was reserved for rich guys, with rooms that came with beds. The sanitation was excellent and the setups were high-end, but unfortunately, they had long since been fully booked.

Zhang Ze carried his Happy Water and spicy strips into Area C.

He looked up at the room number.

021.

Tsk, what a coincidence.

After turning on the computer, Zhang Ze mounted his phone on a stand behind the chair. He adjusted the angle so it captured his back and the computer screen, then started the livestream.

"Beep~"

His phone rang again.

Zhang Ze glanced at it and saw that it was a message from Yue Pan. He looked away and pretended not to notice.

"Hello, everyone. We meet again. My livestream room was banned for so long last time, but it's finally been unbanned. Just like before, I'll bring you all the most horrifying and terrifying livestream experience."

"Give me some hearts, everyone. If you buy my haunted house tickets through the livestream room, you'll get twenty percent off."

After exchanging a few pleasantries, the viewer count quickly exceeded a thousand, and Zhang Ze got to the point.

"Have you all heard of Lost Media?"

"There was once some form of media that had been shared through public channels. It might have been an audio clip, a video, or even an image. But later, it completely vanished from the internet. No method could ever recover it, and it existed only in people's memories."

"This time, I'll be searching with everyone for Lost Media No. 021. I'll use every search method available to find that video for you. Those of you who are easily scared can leave the stream playing in the background and just listen."

As Zhang Ze spoke, he typed on the keyboard.

He first tried searching the browser for the words "Lost Media No. 021."

Only a handful of news articles popped up.

Zhang Ze skimmed them and filtered out the automatically generated ads, leaving only one worthwhile result.

<For your own safety, please do not actively search for or watch any Lost Media. The number of related disappearances has reached 167!>

The source of the article was...

Mystery Case Tracking Studio?

Zhang Ze froze.

He clicked in to read the article.

"According to statistics, disappearances caused by Lost Media nationwide... This type of media possesses a certain psychological effect and mental influence. It is currently known to trigger latent psychological disorders and may even endanger lives."

"We interviewed Gao Ming, a renowned psychologist in Hanjiang City. We invited Doctor Gao to offer his opinion on this type of Lost Media."

Zhang Ze:?

Doctor Gao?

Zhang Ze was dumbfounded. He had actually seen Doctor Gao in a place like this.

There was a video embedded halfway through the article. When he clicked it open, he saw that it was two minutes long. Reporter Lin Xiaomei was interviewing Doctor Gao and handed him the microphone.

Doctor Gao in the video looked somewhat young, even a little immature. It was clearly footage from his earlier years. Zhang Ze could not even connect him with the strange man he imagined carrying a coffin on his back.

Doctor Gao said, "There are many reasons why Lost Media becomes lost. One of them is that it contains bloody and violent elements, as well as scenes that cause discomfort, such as abuse, verbal manipulation, PUA, or sensory impacts on other levels."

"These images can easily cause patients who already have latent mental health issues to recall unpleasant experiences, lose control of their emotions, suffer an episode, and thereby trigger tragedies."

"Even mentally healthy adults are not advised to look through Lost Media while alone, much less redistribute it."

Zhang Ze finished watching the video.

The rest of the article basically repeated what Doctor Gao had said. Zhang Ze closed the page, opened a video website, and typed "No. 021" into its search bar.

The videos that appeared were almost entirely unrelated.

Not even the video tags had anything to do with it.

Time passed second by second, from seven in the evening to eight, then nine.

The number of viewers in the livestream did not decrease.

Zhang Ze repeatedly tried several video websites.

From the most mainstream platforms, like Douyin, Kuaishou, and Pili Pili, to Baidu Tieba, Zhihu...

He changed the keywords again and again.

Yet he could never find any information about No. 021.

As eleven o'clock approached and midnight drew closer and closer, an announcement sounded through the corridor of Area C, notifying everyone that the overnight period had begun.

Zhang Ze began to feel a trace of tension.

Could it be... that I really won't be able to find this video?