eyes burned again. Her thumb hovered a mi

a sharp ping echoed from her phone

ead: Alp

d back. She took a q

the cheap microphone. "Welco

st sat in the viewer list. His profile

edge of her desk. She des

rocery store earlier. I had to buy the generic brand oatmeal because it was on sale f

, but her voice wa

Then, white text app

Life is ha

off Chelsi's chest. Her tense shoulders dropped. She

of digital gold fireworks erup

n bright yellow: AlphaRoach has g

er eyes went wide. Because of the extreme AR filter,

wildly against her ribs. "Fifty dollars? You didn

e clunky menu. She quickly clicked on AlphaRoach's name

appeared nex

: [Sunglas

ugh. The crushing anxiety i

ped up on the Apex homepage. It was a site-wide random

ide 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 accou

flashed b

pted the Co-stream Ba

en instantly

ce in the dark basement. On the right, a blindin

t-shirt and expensive gaming headset. His dark hair was slightly messy from wearing the headset, but it

of Kamron's screen, the

to the shared stream. Chelsi's phone be

stopped talking. He leaned closer to his monitor, his dark eyebr

ne. He let out a deep, mocking scoff tha

Kamron's deep voice vib

of toxic comments flo

k at tha

ish

the filte

turned ice-cold. She grabbed the edge of her

the screen, looking for

sconnecting from an official PK will result in a

he disconnected, she would lose the fifty dollars Al

aking hand back.

istic smirk pulled at his lips. He sna

h authority. "The loser of this battle has to accept a penalty. And th

Her voice was so quiet it was completely drowned

thousand people. Her stomach churned so

comment cut through the s

a rookie? How patheti

arrowed into sharp, dangerous slits. He

y on his mechanical key

imer appeared at the top of th