Short, Light, Free - Chapter 155
I’m not sure how long I went on with my live stream that night.
Because I had retired, my newer computer had no webcam and microphone. I was convinced that I would never play again, clearly not expecting that to last only half a year. At this point, I could only play and stream old games that I was familiar with. However, this generated a spike in the number of fans, from a few hundred to a few thousand. I had close to 30,000 fans following my account by the time I logged out.
My heyday was when there were over 200,000 fans watching. I was still far away from that. There were also all kinds of strange comments, and a part of my fans believed that I was an imposter who had hacked into the account. Only after a few rounds of good results did they acknowledged my return.
At midnight, Xiaoai’s virtual projection appeared behind me. “You’ve been sitting in front of your computer for more than eight hours now. Please take breaks and pay attention to your health. It’s getting late and you should be sleeping now.”
It was then that I realized the time. I finished up my last game, opened up a drawing application, and wrote a ‘goodbye’ with my mouse.
Two minutes later, I shut off my computer.
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It was a wonderful experience to return to the very beginning. However, I understood that no matter how skillful I am, I’m never going to be able to participate in competitions again.
After all, that was the reason why I gave up on games altogether.
I turned around and made eye contact with Xiaoai.
“Time for bed, Master,” Xiaoai told me with a smile.
I got up and moved to my room. Without changing my clothes, I hopped into bed.
I was woken up by continuous knocks on my apartment door.
Half-awake, I walked out to open the door and was greeted by a man in a polo tee. On his shirt was a big Xiaomi logo.
He handed me a leather case and bowed.
I took the case and before I could ask him what it was, he said a cheery, “Have a good day.”
He was long gone before I could even put the case down and process what had just happened.
I shut the door, squatted down, and opened the case.
There wasn’t any seal. The moment I opened it, I heard a cat meowing insistently.
It was then that I remembered about my order. There were a few other bags in the case as well.
They contained saw cat grains, cat litter, and a cute plastic bowl.
“The case itself can be torn and dismantled into a cat litter box. Tear along the dotted line at the bottom. Do you need me to do it with you?”
I took everything out and raised the case up. Indeed, there was a row of dotted lines that took ten minutes to tear up.
It was only when I started pouring the litter into the box did I wonder where the cat had gone to.
Upon a closer look, I noticed that it had already found a comfortable spot above my system unit and had fallen asleep. I was amazed by its ability to jump since the system unit was placed significantly high.
I put the bowl on the floor and filled half of it with grains.
“Any reminder function?” I asked, looking at Xiaoai.
“Yes.”
“Remind me to top up the grains during meal times,” I ordered, walking toward my computer even before she could reply.
I turned it on and got my live stream and game ready.
I then remembered that I had no microphone and webcam.
Xiaoai and Xiaomi’s products came to mind immediately, but I covered my mouth before I could say anything.
Frustrated, I went on my phone and found two of the cheapest brands and quickly made my purchase, along with more cat grains and grooming tools.
When that was done, I started on a MOBA game but was interrupted by a call after the first round.
It was the webmaster from the night before.
I picked up the phone.
“So Brother Chalk, are you planning to return to your old trade for good?”
“Will you take me back to my days of glory if I say yes?” I asked faintly.
“For sure. You don’t know how many fans you took along when you left us. A whole 10% of them! All we hear now are fans screaming your name. We’re willing to promote you as best as we can if you come back to us.”
“Words are useless. What’s the shortest contract term?” I questioned.
“Three years. I promise to push you onto all platforms.”
“Those are internal. What about the external?” I challenged.
“Aren’t you making things difficult for me?”
“Am I worth only internal platforms?” I asked bitterly.
“Fine, I’ll appeal for the navy with 100,000.”
“You’re able to do that?” I asked doubtfully.
“It’s been half a year, Brother Chalk. I’m no longer the same lowly webmaster. I’m the one in-charge now.”
“Fine, three years then. I’ll send the contract over tomorrow.”
“I’m relieved. I’ll email the contract to you right now. I’m already filling up the first page for you. I know there’s nothing for me to worry about because I have faith in you.”
The call ended and I noticed that the number of comments had doubled.
30,000 fans turned into 60,000, but I was still far from what I had achieved during my peak days.
I found a decent game that I had dabbled in half a year ago and started a chatroom.
I opened a word document and started typing, “First ten accounts, 10,000 a person, per region.”
The chatroom exploded the next instant and I was spammed with private messages containing account names and 1,000 deposit and so on.
I picked one at random, collected the payment and paused my broadcast.
The account password had been sent over and I started doing what I did best.
After some thought, I made a call.
“Is anything else the matter, Boss Chalk?”
“How many orders did I receive a month in my heyday?”
“One in two days? 15 accounts?”
“Give me one a day, so that’s 30 orders a month. Set a base price and start an auction. I’m sure you know the procedures, so get it done quickly.”
“Sure, I’ll take care of it for you. I’ve sent the contract over so just fill it up and send me a copy.”
I hung up and sent to the chatroom, “First gen fighter’s back.”
I did not press send, however, since things were already crazy in the chatroom.
When the gifts filled half the screen, I turned to look at Xiaoai and thought about the future.
I had started to cook, clean, and wash for half a month at that point.
I was living like any normal person, except for the fact that I had a Xiaoai behind me.
I chatted with her from time to time, and if it weren’t for the additional fees, I would think that Xiaoai made a decent friend.
Without the cleaning robot and washing fees, I was left with a 10,000 per month payment for the smart housekeeper. With what I could earn from my live stream, this amount wasn’t too big of a problem.
Ever since I started using the webcam and microphone, fans would greet Xiaoai warmly and call her sister-in-law.
No matter how hard I tried to explain it to them, it was to no avail.
It was popular science and everyone knew that she was Xiaomi’s limited edition housekeeper. Nevertheless, I never stopped hearing the word ‘sister-in-law’.
I started mass-accepting orders and within another half a month, my fans gradually increased back to 130,000 and 170,000.
My cat would climb up to my keyboard and take over my mouse at times, tearing at whatever cables it could get its hands on.
Everything was good until one morning when I was woken up by a stream of messages.
