"Welcome back, everybody—well, everybody meaning the five of you who still watch me for some reason."
Adrian forced a crooked smile at the camera, though his stomach churned. His face looked hollow in the pale ring light, and the peeling posters behind him screamed wannabe gamer.
The chat box blinked in the corner of his second monitor, stubbornly silent. Same five names in the viewer list as always.
[xxNoScopeArcherxx]
[HotMomsBakePie]
[PixelPunk88]
[LoneWolf69]
[AkoiBoi]
His long-suffering regulars.
He fumbled with his headset and tried to sound alive. "Tonight we're ranking medieval weapons in Fantasy Realms Online. Spears, halberds, longswords. Well, you know, real riveting content."
Silence.
The corner of his mouth twitched. He knew what they were thinking: Why bother? His numbers had flatlined years ago.
While other streamers exploded overnight, pulling sponsorships and fan art and subscriber armies, Adrian had stayed right here.
Five pity viewers, barely a trickle of donations, and endless nights talking to himself and sometimes, even answering questions he'd asked as though he was someone with a split personality.
Finally, one line appeared in chat.
[LoneWolf69 is typing...]
Seconds later, a comment popped up.
[LoneWolf69: just quit already dude]
His laugh cracked into bitterness. "Yeah, thanks for the pep talk."
His mouse hovered over the End Stream button. He had rehearsed this moment in his head a thousand times.
The tearful speech he was supposed to give, the dramatic farewell. But now, with the silence pressing in, he couldn't muster even that.
"Guess this is it," he whispered. "Time to—"
Ding!
«New Email Received»
The notification chimed loud in his headset. Adrian blinked. "...Seriously? Now?"
Curiosity won over defeat. He clicked.
«Subject line: CONGRATULATIONS! YOU QUALIFY FOR A PROMOTION PACKAGE!»
He almost laughed.
'Another scam.' He said in a thought, almost ignoring it completely but he soon got devoured by his curiosity and he sighed. "Let's just check it out before he farewell, shall we?"
But when he opened it, the email wasn't spammy or colorful. Just sterile black text:
««•••»»
We are pleased to inform you that your channel has been selected for the Global Immersive Promotion Program.
Please configure your upgraded streamer features below:
«Enable physical donations from viewers?»
«Audience access via distributed viewing devices?»
«Itemized Gift Inventory Panel?»
«Chat integration with local translation?»
«Anonymous Streaming Voice Filter?»
««•••»»
Adrian rubbed his eyes. "What kind of… next-level ARG crap is this?"
Still, if he was about to quit anyway… why not?
He ticked every box.
Another line appeared.
«Do you wish to proceed with activation?»
"Sure," he muttered. "What's the worst that can happen?"
He clicked the «Confirm» option that popped up.
Bzzzt!
The screen flickered light there was an electric surge. The overlay froze.
[xxNoScopeArcherxx: bruh?]
Woooosh~
Then the black spread outward. His monitor dissolved. His desk, his walls, his hands—everything pixelated into static.
"What the—hey! Stop!"
The void swallowed his shout. He fell—limbs thrashing through empty space—until light smashed against him.
Bang!
He landed hard on cobblestones, air bursting from his lungs.
Adrian groaned and pushed himself up. The stink of horse dung and smoke filled his nose.
He blinked at timber-framed houses looming overhead, merchants calling in strange accents.
Ting! Ting!!
He even noticed two smiths hammering sparks into the evening sky he soon noticed.
He struggled but eventually rose to his feet and stumbled to a fountain. Cold water splashed his sneakers. This wasn't a game. His lungs burned with real air. His palms stung from the scraped stones he'd slammed onto earlier.
"This… this is…" His voice cracked. "Where the hell am I?"
Ding!
«System Notification: Stream is LIVE.»
He froze. A faint overlay glowed in the corner of his vision.
««•••»»
Viewers: 5
Chat: —
««•••»»
His blood ran cold. "No. No no no… you've gotta be kidding me."
A message popped up:
[HotMomsBakePie: new irl content who dis?]
[PixelPunk88: wait this isn't green screen??]
[xxNoScopeArcherxx: bro actually outside?]
Adrian's stomach dropped. Could they see him?
He yanked his hoodie up, ducked into the nearest alley, heart pounding. The narrow street stank of mold and piss. Rats skittered past. He pressed against a wall, panting.
Ding!
«Feature Activated: Anonymous Voice Filter.»
When he whispered, his words rolled out in a deep, resonant echo, like a prophet's decree.
"Oh, great," he hissed. "Now I sound like Batman doing a church sermon."
The chat howled.
[PixelPunk88: LMAOOO]
[HotMomsBakePie: actual god voice]
[xxNoScopeArcherxx: POG FILTER]
~~~~~
But across the continent, the impact was very different.
While things seemed to have been simple even though they seemed unbelievable to Adrian, something wilder was going on across the globe of wherever he now was.
A nobleman in a velvet doublet gasped when a crystal orb materialized on his banquet table, glowing with the image of a hooded figure creeping through shadow.
"The heavens…!" he whispered.
In a distant chapel, a priest dropped to his knees as another orb floated into his hands.
"The gods have sent down their messenger!"
A scholar mage in a candlelit study stared wide-eyed, quill scratching furiously. "Impossible… a scrying artifact of divine scale…"
Wherever the orbs appeared, they broadcast Adrian's every step. His distorted mutterings were seized upon as prophecy.
But back in the alley, Adrian fiddled with the overlay until another panel appeared.
««•••»»
[Stats: Adrian Wells]
Strength: 8 (Below Average)
Speed: 7 (Below Average)
Endurance: 6 (Poor)
Intelligence: 13 (Above Average)
Charisma: 5 (Cringe)
««•••»»
"Awesome," he groaned. "I get isekai'd into Skyrim and the game calls me cringe."
Another line blinked beneath it:
«Note: Stats adjustable using Stream Coins.»
«Current Balance: 0.»
"Stream coins…?" He tapped the word. A tooltip expanded.
«Stream Coins are earned through gifts and viewer engagement. Use them to upgrade your stats or unlock new features.»
Adrian's jaw dropped. "So I'm stuck with six endurance until some rando decides to drop bits on me? Great. Just great."
Chat cackled.
[PixelPunk88: LMFAO BRO STUCK AT 6 ENDURANCE]
[HotMomsBakePie: coinless cringe build]
[xxNoScopeArcherxx: grind begins boys]
Adrian pressed both hands to his hood. "Shut. Up."
But when he glanced at the viewer counter again, his stomach flipped.
Viewers: 15
More names scrolled in. People he didn't recognize.
[SwordKid77: yo is this real??]
[AnimeTearsLOL: ARG??? this is wild]
[StreamFan999: holy crap this guy's outside in medieval world cosplay?]
Adrian's pulse raced. Fifteen viewers. Fifteen.
That was more than he'd had in weeks.
He peered out of the alley. Merchants still shouted in a language he didn't understand.
The orb hovering above the square glowed faintly, their watchers in distant cities hanging onto every muffled word.
Adrian swallowed, then forced a grin at his invisible audience.
"Okay, chat," he murmured. "You wanted content? Let's… take a little tour."
The counter ticked upward again as he stepped from the shadows, every move watched by peasants and nobles, priests and pranksters, Earth and this new place alike.
For the first time in his life, Adrian Wells had gone viral.