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When Vivian Frost left the company building and returned to her small apartment, she didn't even bother changing her shoes. The moment she stepped inside, she tossed her bag aside, powered on her laptop, and logged straight into the official account.
Work came first. Always.
No matter how reasonable Ethan Reed's arguments had sounded during the meeting, one truth remained unshakable—a game without a trailer was invisible.
Northstar Games didn't have the luxury of massive budgets or professional marketing teams. Their promotional methods were crude, minimal, and honestly… a little embarrassing.
But for now, that was all they had.
Vivian cracked her knuckles, logged into Northstar Games' official social account, and took a deep breath.
"Alright," she muttered. "Let's do this properly."
She organized her thoughts for a moment, fingers hovering above the keyboard.
Then she typed.
And tagged someone very, very boldly.
@NorthstarGames Lead Planner Ethan Reed
Vivian paused, staring at the screen.
"…He's really doing this with his real name?"
Was he insane?
Across the internet, streamers were still hunting for that cursed voice-over from Getting Over It. People hated it. People remembered it. People wanted blood.
And now the same person was stepping into the spotlight?
Her eyes widened.
Wait.
"…Oh my god."
A terrifying realization struck her.
Was this his plan from the very beginning?
By revealing himself, he wasn't running away from attention—he was dragging every streamer straight toward him. Free exposure. Free traffic. Endless discussions.
And if all those streamers followed him…
Vivian's lips twitched.
"…There's no way his followers end up higher than mine. Absolutely not."
She felt wronged. Deeply.
After all, there were only two people in the company. And for the longest time, Northstar Games' account had basically been hers alone.
With a huff, Vivian began typing the official announcement.
---
> Northstar Games:
Hello everyone! This is Northstar Girl speaking 💫
First of all, thank you so much for your support of Getting Over It!
🎉 The game has officially reached #1 on the new releases chart! 🎉
Secondly, we're extremely excited to announce that following Getting Over It, our Lead Planner has already completed the concept for our second game!
Just imagining it meeting everyone soon makes Northstar Girl incredibly excited!
This time, we're stepping away from the style of Getting Over It and bringing you something completely different—a dark fairy-tale themed card game.
In the game, you can become one of nine powerful professions, continuously acquiring items and abilities to strengthen yourself, and finally defeat the "evil and hateful" BOSS.
Below is the protagonist of the game—can anyone guess who she is? (≧▽≦)
Vivian leaned back, rereading it.
"…Perfect."
Cute tone? Check.
Official charm? Check.
Just enough mystery? Absolutely.
Calling herself Northstar Girl felt completely natural. Using emojis? Even better.
Because, objectively speaking, she really was that cute.
At the bottom of the post, she attached the revised character artwork.
A girl in a red hood, snow-white hair spilling down her shoulders.
Large, expressive eyes.
A soft, youthful face.
She stood beneath a towering, twisted tree, clutching her cloak nervously.
And behind her—
Two glowing crimson eyes stared out from the darkness.
At the very top of the image, four twisted golden letters gleamed ominously:
Night of the Full Moon
Vivian clicked Post.
And closed the page.
"…Yeah. No one's going to see that."
Northstar Games had just over twenty thousand followers, and a noticeable chunk of them were bought months ago to pad numbers.
Real engagement?
Probably close to zero.
She sighed, shut the laptop, and went to make herself dinner.
---
— — — — — —
Aaron Zhou was what people liked to call a "new-generation grinder."
A talented university student with an unhealthy sleep schedule and a stubborn love for games.
Streaming was his passion.
Card games were his specialty.
Over the years, he had played nearly every well-known card game on the market and could analyze mechanics faster than most professionals.
By day, he was a student.
By night, he was a mid-tier card-game content creator, with around 60,000 followers on his channel.
Not famous.
But far from irrelevant.
However, over the past two days, something strange had happened.
For reasons unknown to him, every streamer—big or small—was being forced by their audience to play Getting Over It.
Aaron was no exception.
When his fans used paid requests to force him into it, he agreed without hesitation.
That was a mistake.
A massive one.
An hour later, he was already regretting his life choices.
"What kind of psycho made this game?!"
The controls were hell.
The mechanics were cruel.
And the frustration was unreal.
The audience loved it.
Aaron did not.
Watching a streamer mentally collapse was peak entertainment, apparently.
And today—once again—he was forced to stream it.
Despite the suffering, there was no denying the results.
His viewership skyrocketed.
After every stream, his fan group exploded with 99+ messages—mockery, sarcasm, screenshots of his failures.
And yet…
His follower count kept climbing.
So even while being tormented, Aaron found himself oddly grateful.
Because every time he streamed Getting Over It, his channel was pushed to the front page.
New viewers poured in.
Some stayed.
Some followed.
That's why Aaron had followed Northstar Games on social media.
That night, after another brutal session and the unfortunate retirement of his third mouse, Aaron slammed his desk and shouted:
"Alright! That's enough for today!"
"For the rest of the stream, we're playing something else!"
"This game is not meant to be played continuously!"
"If I actually die from rage on stream, all of you are legally responsible!"
The comments flooded in.
"Card games again? I'll come back tomorrow."
"Just thirty more minutes!"
"I didn't even see the bat scare yet!"
"Boring, I'm out."
Aaron saw everything.
And ignored it.
Card games were his foundation. His identity.
Getting Over It brought traffic, sure—but playing it every day would destroy his sanity.
He had only lasted two days.
His mouse of three years had not.
If he continued, he'd be replacing hardware weekly.
So he decided to look for new card games.
That's when his phone buzzed.
A notification.
From social media.
He picked it up.
> The blogger Northstar Games you follow has posted new content.
"…Northstar Games?"
Curious, Aaron opened the app.
And froze.
His eyes widened.
He immediately switched his live stream screen, opened the post, and pointed at it.
"No way."
"Chat—listen to this."
"This company that's been torturing me for two days…"
"They're making a card game."
A chill ran down his spine.
"With the same planner?"
"…Why do I feel afraid?"
With Getting Over It as a precedent, how could he not be nervous?
What if the card game was just as cruel?
But then he looked closer.
At the artwork.
At the description.
His expression slowly changed.
"Strengthening yourself… collecting items… defeating a BOSS…"
"This isn't PvP."
"This sounds like a single-player, stage-based card game."
He scrolled.
And saw the tagged account.
@NorthstarGames Lead Planner Ethan Reed
Aaron clicked.
The page loaded.
And then—
Nine character images appeared.
Each one different.
Each one powerful.
Each one a variation of the same girl.
Nine professions.
And beneath them, a single line of text:
"Have you heard the story of the werewolf?"
Aaron swallowed.
"…Chat."
"I think this one…"
"…might actually be something special."
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