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The Hunter Becomes the Hunted
The Hunter Becomes the Hunted
Author: Window Raindrops

Chapter 1

Author: Window Raindrops
After that quest was posted on the Goddess Hunter app, my world fell apart.

On my way to the classroom building, I felt like a naked animal. Stares, whispers, and whistles closed in from every direction, drowning me.

I kept my head down and rushed back to my dorm as fast as I could, then locked myself inside. Only when my back hit the cold door did I realize my whole body was shaking.

I opened the app.

My class schedule, my dorm floor, and even my usual seat in the study room had all been pinned at the top in highlighted text. I had become prey with no privacy at all.

However, anger burned through my fear.

With my eyes red, I rushed to the counselor Jack Miller's office.

Jack was sipping coffee when I arrived at his office. When he saw my bloodshot eyes, he only adjusted his glasses with cool indifference.

"This is just a prank, Sinead. Don't make such a big deal out of it. Students these days like to joke around."

I shuddered with rage. "This isn't a joke! This is harassment! It's a crime!"

He set down his glass, impatience in his voice as he said, "Then have you thought about why, out of all those girls, you're the one being targeted the worst? Maybe because you're too aloof? Too antisocial? Maybe you crossed someone?"

I looked at his face as he deflected responsibility, and my heart sank.

Without a choice, I went to campus security. After listening to me, the security guard on duty yawned and scribbled a few lines in his notebook.

"This counts as online harassment, miss. Since the app's server is based overseas, we have no way of investigating it. Besides, it hasn't caused any real harm yet. I suggest you put up with it for now. Everything will be fine once the attention dies down."

Put up with it…

Four easy words.

That night, when I returned to the dorm from the library, I deliberately avoided the quieter paths.

But I was still too late.

In the small garden below the dorm building, three young men with dyed hair suddenly stepped out of the darkness and blocked my way. They grinned as they approached me.

"Hey, don't run."

"That's one thousand dollars. Let us finish the quest."

One of them had already reached for my skirt.

I screamed, shoved him away with all my strength, then turned and ran. They yanked my backpack hard and the strap snapped, the books and papers inside scattered across the ground.

I did not even dare turn back to pick them up.

I stumbled into the dorm building with their wild laughter still echoing behind me. I curled up in the corner of my room, tears of fear rolled down my face.

I looked at the figures wandering outside the window and listened as new comments kept popping up in the app.

[I heard someone tried it just now. Too bad she got away.]

[I'll do it tomorrow! I can definitely rip the skirt off!]

[One thousand dollars is enough for the latest phone!]

I wiped my tears away in silence and slowly stood up from the floor before walking to my desk. In the dark, my eyes turned colder and calmer than they had ever been.

You wanted to play a game, did you?

Fine.

I would play this game with you to the end.

I opened my laptop, and my fingers danced across the keyboard.
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  • The Hunter Becomes the Hunted   Chapter 9

    A high-definition camera and a glaring LED light hung beneath each drone that was flying into the factory. They were from the "Hunters" who had accepted the fifty-thousand-dollar quest.Almost at the same time, police sirens sounded from the outside. Red and blue lights flooded the factory. Flashes from the reporters' cameras captured the panicked faces of Frank and his bodyguards.I looked at Frank, who had been pinned hard to the ground by several police officers. He was still roaring like a madman.Calmly, I said my final words to him. "I told you, it's time to end this."For attempted kidnapping, intimidation, corruption, and several other crimes, Frank received a combined sentence and was sentenced to prison.York Group collapsed completely in the storm that followed. It was then liquidated and auctioned off.Gary was also officially placed under investigation for organizing the spread of obscene materials, violating personal privacy, defamation, and several other crimes. Pr

  • The Hunter Becomes the Hunted   Chapter 8

    What fell out were photos of my parents.They were taking a leisurely stroll through the park in the small town back home, with gentle smiles on their faces. But in the photos, someone had drawn precise red crosshairs over both their heads.Below the photos was a handwritten note. The handwriting was full of arrogance, pressed so hard it nearly cut through the paper. [You're very capable online. But what about in the real world? Young people shouldn't push things too far.]It was Gary's father, Frank's, handwriting.A cold fear gripped my heart with a metallic taste in my mouth.They had found my family.They had dragged this war from online to the real world. They had dragged it to my most vulnerable place.For the first time, I felt real fear.This was no longer a game.This was a life-or-death threat from someone with no limits.I realized that to deal with a madman who had completely lost control and no longer had any limits, I had to be even crazier than him.I took a

  • The Hunter Becomes the Hunted   Chapter 7

    While I waited for Gary, I took out my phone and calmly tapped the screen. Using an anonymous account, I made a post on the university message board.[If you want to know the whole truth about 'Goddess Hunter' and 'Scumbag Hunter,' gather outside the Academic Affairs Office in ten minutes. Livestream.]At the same time, I activated the backup plan I had prepared a long time ago.I enabled every public Wi-Fi network on campus where I had left backdoors, including the library, cafeteria, and classroom buildings.In the backend, I changed all their names to "Gary's Hookup Scandal Video Livestream." Anyone who connected to those networks would be redirected to the livestream.Finally, I peeled a thin film off the badge on my chest, revealing a tiny pinhole camera underneath, smaller than a grain of rice.A good performance needed a large enough audience.And I was going to make this show play out in front of every university student and faculty member.Gary came in, his shady-loo

  • The Hunter Becomes the Hunted   Chapter 6

    "No way! Is this for real? Gary cheated on his exams?""And this video! This woman isn't his girlfriend? Wait, I think I know that face... She's that woman from the business school!""Gary really is something else!""This is way more exciting than catching Sinead! The reward is higher too!"The way they looked at me changed. Their eyes were filled with surprise, wariness, and even a hint of awe.The way they looked at Gary changed even more. They looked at him like prey, their eyes filled with greed and excitement.Gary's face went white as paper.He frantically tapped at his phone, trying to shut down the server and revoke the quests. Then he discovered all his admin privileges had been revoked.He was like someone who had fallen into the hole he dug himself, and he could do nothing but rage uselessly."Sinead! I'm going to kill you!" He roared and charged at me like a madman, trying to snatch my phone.Meanwhile, his phone was vibrating in his pocket. No doubt his girlfrien

  • The Hunter Becomes the Hunted   Chapter 5

    I did not rush to shut down the "Goddess Hunter" server.Instead, through a backdoor I had left behind when I analyzed the code earlier, I quietly prepared a brand new module I had already written.I named it "Scumbag Hunter."I sorted all the evidence of his academic fraud, along with the videos and photos of his cheating, into categories and packaged everything together.Then, I turned it all into "Hunting Quests."-After I finished everything, I checked the time.Eleven at night.I sent Gary my first and last messages.[Midnight tonight, abandoned classroom building to the north. I'll be waiting for you on my own.][Let's end this.]At midnight, I turned off every communication function on my phone, leaving only that accursed app running.I walked toward the long-abandoned classroom building on my own.Behind me, dozens of young men whose minds had been corrupted by the promise of the ten-thousand-dollar reward followed at a distance at their own pace. They were like s

  • The Hunter Becomes the Hunted   Chapter 4

    My retaliation was a public humiliation in front of the entire university that Gary could not simply ignore.The game of humiliation he had carefully planned had turned into a public judgment of him and his lackeys. It broke the last of his restraint and made him go mad. He dropped the civility and stopped testing the waters.That night, the app posted an unprecedented "Ultimate Hunting" Quest.The title was crimson red.[Ultimate Hunting Quest. Capture Sinead alive and take her to the abandoned classroom building in the north.]The bounty was enough to drive people mad. Ten thousand dollars.Many male students on campus lost their minds over it. Ten thousand dollars was an irresistible temptation to any student.I looked down from the dorm window and saw groups of people wandering everywhere down below. Their eyes were filled with madness as they set their eyes on the women's dorm.I even saw a few people in the crowd who were clearly not students. They were thugs from off c

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