Chapter 2

“Hello? Hello?” Stacy readjusted her microphone. She went back to the Settings and checked for about the fifth time that everything was set up exactly the way the video tutorial told her to. She then readjusted the camera and made sure the screen recording was working properly.

“Hello? Anybody there?” It felt so different to what she expected. When she watched other streamers, they were always chatting with the audience, as if they were there. But being on the other side of it now, she realized that the streamers only ever talk to a camera. How strange.
“Oh well, I guess I’ll just start up the game then.” She talked to herself, a habit she’d been practicing the last two days. She started up one of her favourite games: Cities Skylines.

“I guess… We’ll be building a city today… guys.” It felt so awkward. “Who am I kidding. Nobody’s gonna watch this.” She said, knowing nobody heard it. The viewer count was still zero. “Well, I guess I’ll be going on a paid vacation, heh.”

Stacy got herself a drink, a small snack, and started building her city in the game. She more or less stopped talking to the camera, except for some occasions where she pretended that there were people listening. After one hour of playing, Stacy was ready to turn the camera off. But just when she was saving the game, something happened! Her first viewer!

It took her by such a surprise, that she almost choked on her drink.
“Shit… sorry. I mean… hi! Hi and welcome!” She stuttered. “Oh my god, I can’t believe somebody’s actually watching me. Hi! What’s your name?” She asked timidly. She squinted her eyes at the screen to try and read the username. But it was hard without glasses.

Then, just as suddenly as he came, the mystery man left again. She was back to 0 viewers.

Stacy let out a sigh. “Oh well, I guess that’s the way it goes on here.” She turned off the stream.

Stream one down, nine more to go.

Two days later, she started her second stream. She had just showered and cooked herself some pasta for dinner, so she made herself comfortable at her desk and started up her favourite game again. Remembering that she was still on a bet with Amy, she set up the stream and left it running in the background. If she wasn’t going to stream at least once every two days, she wouldn’t be able to complete the bet on time. But who cared anyway if some stream was running in the background.

Half an hour into her game, just when she reached 15k population, she heard a bling. “What was that?” Stacy quickly checked her stream. There were 2 viewers, and one of them just wrote something in the chat: “ur cute.”

Stacy blushed. This was too awkward for her, and she didn’t know what to say. “Uh, hi! Welcome!” She hesitated a bit. “How long have you been here?” She scratched her head.

After a few seconds an answer came in the chat: “hopped on like 10 minutes ago”. A few seconds later: “I love how you play the game btw. You take it real serious. Most streamer girls out there are shit at games.”

Stacy read it out loud – a tip that the video tutorial gave her. “Well, Mr….” She put on her glasses and read his username, “Mr. XxxWitcher69, I appreciate your comment. But I wouldn’t call the other girls shit. That’s rude.”

A short moment passed. Then the number of viewers changed from two to one.
“Shit. I guess that was the wrong thing to say.”

Quickly, however, another two people joined, and suddenly there were three viewers.

“Oh wow, hi everybody!”

A waving hand emoji appeared in chat. ‘God, this is so strange’, Stacy thought to herself. The whole environment was almost a little spooky. She checked her watch. Twenty minutes to go, then she could stop this strangeness. These twenty minutes passed alright, with viewers leaving and coming, always around three to five people at once. Stacy ignored this though, as well as chat, and just focused on gaming. She did make an effort to comment everything though. That felt kind of exciting. She was like one of those YouTubers she used to watch when she was younger. When the timer hit the one-hour mark, she said goodbye to everybody, and promised she’d be back soon.

Stream two down, eight to go.

Then, Stream three and four were of the same fashion.
Stacy peaked on her fifth stream, with as many as 8 viewers at one point. The sixth stream was quieter, when she started a new game. She tried a harder location, plus she tried to build a city relying only on green energy.

Her seventh stream was on a Sunday. She had spent most of the day outside, because the weather was just beautiful. She went for a long walk, read some more in her book, and did her groceries. This time she decided to buy some snacks specifically for streaming, as she would allow herself a two-hour session today. Also, she bought herself a cute dress at the market, which she thought she could wear for the stream today. And so she did. When it was 7pm, she prepared for the seventh stream. She even did some make up. Stacy rarely put in this much effort for anything, really, but today felt special. She would treat herself, as she would every now and then.

This stream, she wanted to finish the city, all in one go. She wanted to reach 100k population. She opened the large back of chips, and her half-a-gallon bottle of soda. To her surprise, almost immediately there were around 15 viewers, which was a new record. She didn’t mind too much though. She just kept commenting her decisions and played the game as she normally would.

After around half an hour, she checked the chat. And wow, the comments were so positive! Her favourite one would have to be: “WOW this is so rare. She’s actually playing this game really smartly. I’m impressed! And she’s cute too ofc.” As well as the following: “100% agree.”

Stacy blushed. She had never been called smart, let alone cute. Well, Amy excluded. Stacy tried to talk to the audience. “Th-thank you so much people. I really appreciate the kind comments. I didn’t even see them until now! I’m glad you like it. Anyway, I’ll get back to building.”

Over the course of another hour, there were around 32 viewers, double of what she had started off with. But Stacy, unfazed, continued to build, as if she was alone, talking to herself. But then, there was one comment that caught her eye: Guest931 said: “yooo, u up for a challenge?”

Stacy smiled. “Sure, Guest931. What is it?” She thought about how her tutorial video recommended to interact with the audience as much as possible.

Guest931: “Set a timer for twenty minutes, and if you can’t reach 100k population by then, then you have to chug the rest of the soda.”

Stacy chuckled. She didn’t really want to chug the rest of the soda. It was still half full. But then again, she thought a challenge would be exciting. And of course, she thought she could beat the challenge. “Alright, let’s do it. But don’t underestimate me. I know how to play this game.”

And so, she focused on the game only. She kept her comments short. She was serious.
The timer rang. Twenty minutes were over. “Shit, already?” Stacy blurted out. She had lost track of time. “Fuck – I mean, sorry. Shit. I… I didn’t know… Shit.” Stacy had to admit defeat. She was at 98k population and a bit. She let out a deep sigh. “Well, I hope you enjoy the show.”

Guest931: “I sure will.”
Guest102: “Hahaha”

And so, Stacy forced herself to chug the soda. “God, this is so much,” she said, halfway through and overwhelmed. “Oh shit… I can feel a BUUUUUUURP.” A huge burp came forth. Stacy was grasping for air. “Oh my god, I’m not sure I can do this.”

Guest931: “u a quitter?”
LtBarfington: “and you were only 2k away from your goal too… rip”

Stacy finished the job. She chugged the rest of the soda. Her stomach was bloated and stuck out through the dress. She was overwhelmed by the pressure, and looked a bit worried. But then, with one loooong burp, she released the pressure.

“Oh my god. Alright. I did it. Not doing that again, hahaha” she said shyly. “Sorry for the burping though, that wasn’t very nice.”

Stacy played until she reached 100k, and then announced that she would be ending the stream. To her surprise, there were now over 40 people watching, and there were several comments saying how much fun she was and how they’ll be back.

‘Damn. I’m like, almost popular’. The rush was surreal. She wanted to do it again right away. But she saved it for next week.