You Can't Speedrun Healing

Chapter 2

Vague, foggy memories of screaming and begging for somebody to stop plagued my mind. They seemed too real to be a dream, but too fake to be real memories. If I tried to focus on any one aspect of it, that 'memory' would disappear.

I shook those thoughts out of my head as I started the stream. It didn't take long for people to start watching because I was quickly gaining popularity, and now that I had a couple of tier 3 subs they were all over my Twitch. As a joke I called them simps, but sometimes I wondered...

"Alright simps, you know the drill. I'm just playing more Subnautica, tryna get that sub 40. Maybe casually break the world record," I snickered at that outrageous idea, "Nah, just kidding about the world record. For now, anyways. Y'all know ya enby royal gonna try for that world record eventually."

Chat was immediately pretty responsive, making me genuinely laugh at their wacky responses. My community was really fun, and it was such a blessing to have this as my job.

People came and went during the stream, but I had an average of nearly 150 viewers, which was insane to me. Chat also started a 'hype chant' at the start of every run, which I thought was kind of funny. About five hours in, I somehow managed to get an incredibly fast time compared to my previous PB- it was a sub 40! The final time was 39:21:989, which felt like an accomplishment. One of the admins of the Subnautica speedrunning records surprised me by congratulating me in chat on my latest PB, and saying I was excited and happy was an understatement. I felt like a celebrity.

For the rest of the stream I kept trying to beat my new PB, but I didn't have any luck. It was eventually time to call it quits for the day, so I ended the stream. I then took my new PB run and submitted it to speedrun.com so I could claim my rightful spot. I'd told my viewers I'd only start submitting records once I got at least a sub 40, and now that I had one I was going to deliver on my promise.

My phone went off with a text message, so I checked it. Immediately, I paled once I realized it was Dominic congratulating me on my sub 40. What the hell was his username and why was he tormenting me by watching my stream?! Couldn't he leave me alone?

He then sent another text that simply read, "Hope you get that world record, sweetie♥"

I gagged and turned my phone off, sticking it in my drawer so I wouldn't have to read any more of his disgusting messages. I didn't want to think about the fact the man who'd helped me throughout my entire childhood actually...

I started playing on my creative world to take my mind off of things. I started building the part of my megabase that extended into the bulb zone, which was my favorite biome. Minus the bonesharks, I didn't consider it too dangerous as long as you didn't leave your Seamoth every 5 seconds and made sure there were no nearby mesmers or ampeels. On top of that, it was incredibly aesthetic. The only truly negative memory I had of the bulb zone was getting lost in a cave with a boneshark and a mesmer, and my Seamoth only had about 30% power left. Even then, I ended up with so many rubies that I didn't need any more for the rest of the game!

I didn't realize how much time passed, and before I knew it, it was nearly 3 AM because I'd spent so much time expanding and decorating my creative megabase. I logged off for the day, feeling happy with my progress- although that save now ran at a fully optimized 7 FPS. I was sure by the time it was finished, I'd get less than 1 FPS.

I checked my phone before I went to bed, not even bothering to read Dominic's creepy texts anymore. He was going to torment me either way so why help him?