"Damn it, die already, you bastard!"
"He's on one HP, just hit him already!"
"Shit, I need to reload!"
Bang!
A sniper shot cracked through the air. A head burst like a watermelon. The remaining two players froze, eyes wide with disbelief and rising panic.
"He's five hundred meters away—"
Bang!
Bang!
Two more shots. Two more bodies hit the floor, blood painting the virtual battlefield.
Victory.
A man laughed maniacally in a dim room, the glow of the screen casting shadows across his face. His fingers flew over the keyboard like a true keyboard warrior:
"You think you can beat me with that? You're still in the damn womb compared to me!"
The room was swallowed in darkness, lit only by the flickering RGB lights of the gaming PC. Faint blue light from the monitor cast soft shadows on the face of the black-haired man, his expression sharp.
"You think so too, guys?"
He turned to the second monitor. [Viewers: 56]
[Piers: They are noobs, after all. Lol.]
[Andrea: They should get good.]
[Rex: Haha, it is so fun to see noobs being destroyed.]
[Piers: As if you are not a noob.]
[Rex: You…]
[Truman: When do you usually stream?]
[Tyler sent a superchat of $2: "Destroy some more noobs lol 😈"]
"Hey, thanks for that, Tyler," the man said with a grin. "Don't worry—I'm about to absolutely destroy these noobs."
Just as he smiled, a notification popped up on the screen, a friend request.
"Yo, guys, the noobs just sent me a friend request. Should I accept?"
[Piers: Yes!]
The chat erupted with YES spam.
He sighed, half amused. 'What kind of audience have I grown?' he muttered, glancing at [Viewers: 62] before clicking Accept.
The moment the voice chat opened, a shrill, furious voice screamed through his headset:
"You hacker! How dare you cheat! There's no way you beat us one vs four, you have to be cheating!" The voice wasn't just angry. It sounded desperate, like the speaker was trying to convince themselves more than anyone else.
"Geez, chill dude. Having skill issues doesn't mean that others are hacking," the man said with a snicker while glancing at the viewer count with glee again. [Viewers: 82]
"#$$#^#@"
The four didn't take it well as they started to curse him until their voices became hoarse.
"Hey, are you listening?" One of them felt something was wrong, noticing no response, and couldn't help but ask.
"Oh, are you finished?" the man smirked while taking his headphones off. "I was listening to music."
"This fuc—"
"Get some skills and try again. Bye, guys." Just as he was about to disconnect, he paused as he heard a parting voice from his headphone.
"Go touch some grass and tell me what colour it is before you talk to me about skill issues again."
"Okay, I will touch some grass," he laughed and disconnected while watching the viewer count.
[Viewers: 98]
His eyes immediately lit up.
"Guys, we are about to hit three digits. Tell your girlfriend, father, mother, anyone about the stream," the man laughed loudly while stretching his hand.
"All in a day's work, man. Let's find some more noobs."
The stream lasted until 2 AM when the viewers started to decrease, and the man reluctantly stopped with a sigh.
"Well, I am ending the stream here, guys. Join me in trolling some more at 11 AM as per the stream schedule. Thanks for watching."
…
[Piers: Aww, it's sad that the stream is ending so soon today (╥﹏╥)]
[Tyler: Give him some chill, man. He has dark circles in his eyes already. Cya.]
[Andrea: Cya, we'll meet again in that coffee shop if you want~]
[Truman: Cya, bro]
…
There were numerous goodbyes, and the man had a smile on his face while waving his hand as the stream ended.
"Is it finally over?"
The moment the stream ended, his face sank, the original smile dropping beyond limit.
"My head feels heavy."
The man wobbled as he stumbled across the room, reaching to the switch and flickering it open.
Immediately, a messy room with clothes scattered across the ground and dust accumulated from months of neglect was revealed.
The room was anything but clean!
"Sigh, I am tired. Did I eat too much pizza? I should have eaten more protein as my mother suggested."
"Yes, my mother and father, I have not visited them in ten years, I wonder how they are."
Muttering to himself, he curled up on his small bed, eyes fixed blankly on the dull grey ceiling. His chest ached with a deep, burning pain but he ignored it. His body had grown numb to most things by now.
"Let's sleep," he whispered. "I need to stream again tomorrow, gotta make money."
As he drifted off, a single phrase buzzed in his mind:
"Go touch grass."
His eyes snapped open.
"Maybe… maybe I should take a break," he murmured. "Spend time with family. I think I'm burnt out."
And then, everything went blank.