Chapter 2Reaper Butterfly

"You playing fantasy RPGs in the chat, bro? If my wife is a killer butterfly, then I am the God of War!"

Being mocked by the entire chat did not deter CryptidWatcher at all. He started dropping biological lore.

"The Reaper Butterfly, also known as the Tiger-Banded Flesh-Eater, is infamous for its terrifying carnivorous nature. In 1966, a boy collecting insect specimens accidentally stumbled into a swarm of them. He was picked completely clean down to his skeleton in minutes. That is why they are called Reaper Butterflies."

He probably thought he was helping, but his warning only drew more insults.

"Even if you are jealous that his wife is hot, you do not have to make up schizo conspiracy theories! Has she not suffered enough?"

"Exactly! How the hell does a butterfly turn into a person? Wake up, buddy, this is not a sci-fi movie!"

Some viewers even accused CryptidWatcher of being a paid actor, claiming this was just a new script Dexter wrote for views.

Dexter started to panic. He was terrified that this weirdo was going to ruin his cash flow. He reached for his mouse to ban the user.

But then another message popped up.

"Has your wife ever been pronounced dead by doctors, only to mysteriously come back to life?"

"And ever since then, you have been having night terrors, right? The scales on a Reaper Butterfly carry a potent, hallucinogenic neurotoxin. The more you beat her, the more of that dust you inhale. Eventually, you will just become her food."

Reading those words, Dexter froze.

He never used to dream. But ever since we got together, he was plagued by suffocating nightmares every single night. Sometimes, he could not even tell the difference between reality and his dreams.

Three months ago, he got blackout drunk and hit me way too hard. He practically beat me to death.

When they rushed me to the hospital, the doctors pronounced me dead on arrival.

But an hour after the time of death, I crawled right out of the morgue.

The story of the dead woman coming back to life had dominated the local news for a week.

Most importantly, he suddenly realized I never seemed to sweat. Even in the dead of summer, my skin was always cool and dry.

Cold sweat began to bead on Dexter's forehead. The more he thought about it, the more terrified he became. He shot a highly unnatural, paranoid glance in my direction.

"So what do I do?" Dexter typed back quietly on his phone.

"If you do not believe me, sneak in on her while she is taking a shower. I guarantee you she never lets a single drop of water touch her skin. If I am wrong, I will gift you ten superchats right now!"

The live chat exploded again.

"Are you that down bad, dude? You are trying to trick this guy into streaming his wife in the shower?"

"Streamer, you are not actually going to force your wife to bathe on camera to prove a point, right?"

"Yo, do it! If you stream her in the bathroom, I will drop a thousand bucks right now!"

The endless stream of donations and hype made Dexter's eyes light up. Right at this moment, his concurrent viewer count broke one million.

His subscriber count was skyrocketing.

Sure, most of them were cursing him and the CryptidWatcher guy out, but traffic was traffic.

Dexter's eyes shifted. He made a split-second decision.

"Keep the donations coming, boys! Tonight, we are going myth-busting. We are going to see if this CryptidWatcher is full of crap!"