Chelsi stared at the empty chat box. Her eyes burned again. Her thumb hovered a millimeter above the red End Stream button.
Just before the screen went black, a sharp ping echoed from her phone speaker. A new user entered the room.
The ID read: AlphaRoach.
Chelsi's thumb jerked back. She took a quick, shallow breath.
"H-hi," Chelsi stuttered into the cheap microphone. "Welcome to the stream, AlphaRoach."
AlphaRoach didn't type anything. He just sat in the viewer list. His profile picture was a solid black silhouette.
Chelsi's hands gripped the edge of her desk. She desperately needed him to stay.
"I was just talking about my day," Chelsi said, forcing a soft tone. "I went to the grocery store earlier. I had to buy the generic brand oatmeal because it was on sale for two dollars. It actually doesn't taste that bad if you put enough cinnamon in it."
She sounded clumsy, but her voice was raw and genuine.
A few seconds passed. Then, white text appeared in the chat box.
AlphaRoach: Life is hard sometimes.
Reading those four simple words, a heavy weight lifted off Chelsi's chest. Her tense shoulders dropped. She looked into the camera and gave a small, grateful smile.
Suddenly, a massive explosion of digital gold fireworks erupted in the center of her screen.
The system notification flashed in bright yellow: AlphaRoach has gifted a Starlight Rocket! ($50.00)
Chelsi gasped, slapping both hands over her mouth. Her eyes went wide. Because of the extreme AR filter, her jaw warped and distorted weirdly on the screen.
"Oh my god," Chelsi stammered, her heart hammering wildly against her ribs. "Fifty dollars? You didn't have to do that! Thank you! Thank you so much!"
Her hands shook as she tapped the screen, navigating the clunky menu. She quickly clicked on AlphaRoach's name and assigned him as the sole Moderator of her channel.
A green badge appeared next to his name.
AlphaRoach: [Sunglasses Emoji]
Chelsi let out a breathy laugh. The crushing anxiety in her stomach finally eased.
Right at that moment, a massive promotional banner popped up on the Apex homepage. It was a site-wide random PK challenge, and it covered half of Chelsi's screen.
Chelsi panicked. She reached out to tap the small 'X' in the top right corner. But right before her finger touched the glass, a small warning line at the bottom of the banner caught her eye: Declining a site-wide PK will result in a 30% drop in channel visibility for 48 hours. Her hand froze in mid-air. A 30% drop meant she might not see another viewer for days. She thought of the fourteen dollars in her bank account and the landlord's looming text message. She swallowed hard, her heart pounding in her ears. Bracing herself for whatever was to come, she deliberately pressed her trembling finger against the green button.
The screen flashed bright red.
System: You have accepted the Co-stream Battle from Morningstar!
Chelsi's screen instantly split in half.
On the left was her distorted, alien-filtered face in the dark basement. On the right, a blindingly bright, ultra-luxurious gaming room appeared.
Sitting in a three-thousand-dollar ergonomic leather chair was Kamron Cooper. He wore a designer black t-shirt and expensive gaming headset. His dark hair was slightly messy from wearing the headset, but it did nothing to detract from his sharp, arrogant good looks. His dark eyes held a lazy, predatory stare.
In the top right corner of Kamron's screen, the viewer count read 50,000.
Those fifty thousand viewers flooded into the shared stream. Chelsi's phone began to physically heat up in her hands.
Kamron had been in the middle of bragging about a recent game. He stopped talking. He leaned closer to his monitor, his dark eyebrows pulling together. He stared at Chelsi's heavily filtered face.
Kamron leaned into his high-end microphone. He let out a deep, mocking scoff that blasted through Chelsi's phone speaker.
"What the hell is this?" Kamron's deep voice vibrated with pure disdain.
Instantly, thousands of toxic comments flooded Chelsi's chat box.
Eww, look at that monster!
Catfish alert!
Turn off the filter, alien!
Chelsi's face drained of all color. Her skin turned ice-cold. She grabbed the edge of her desk, her breathing turning rapid and shallow.
She frantically tapped the screen, looking for the disconnect button.
A red warning box popped up: Warning: Forcibly disconnecting from an official PK will result in a 7-day ban and forfeiture of all current earnings.
Chelsi froze. Her hand hovered over the screen. If she disconnected, she would lose the fifty dollars AlphaRoach just gave her. She would lose her rent money.
She pulled her shaking hand back. She couldn't leave.
Kamron watched her panic. A cruel, sadistic smirk pulled at his lips. He snapped his fingers in front of the camera.
"Let's make this interesting," Kamron said, his low voice dripping with authority. "The loser of this battle has to accept a penalty. And the winner gets to dictate exactly what that penalty is. No backing out."
"No, please," Chelsi whispered, shaking her head. Her voice was so quiet it was completely drowned out by Kamron's loud electronic background music.
She was completely alone against fifty thousand people. Her stomach churned so violently she thought she might be sick.
Then, a bright red, bolded comment cut through the sea of hate in the chat box.
AlphaRoach: Picking on a rookie? How pathetic. We accept the battle.
Kamron's lazy smirk vanished. His eyes narrowed into sharp, dangerous slits. He stared at the screen, his jaw clenching.
Kamron hit the enter key on his mechanical keyboard with a loud clack.
The five-minute PK countdown timer appeared at the top of the screen. The battle had begun.
