Page 62 of Now Streaming

And then she heard it. Someone cheering.

She paused, wondering if she was hallucinating, and turned back to the audience. Her eyes scanning until she found Randall. Standing and towering over the rest of the people seated around him, dressed in an impeccable FlameThrower cosplay, Randall cheered his head off for her, his yelling and whistles echoing through the room. He was shortly joined by Min’s friends, Brittany and Robbie and Gus, all losing their minds screaming for her. She smiled, waving, feeling the love and a little emboldened even with her mostly quiet reception. It wasn’t the welcome Alex had received, nowhere near, but as Min waved at Randall she could have cried at the sweet moment. She had support. She could do this.

She kept walking to her bay, settling in, when the announcer picked up again.

“And streaming from a secret location, please welcome: DeathsHead!”

Min almost needed to cover her ears, the crowd’s screams were so loud. She glanced up, several screens above them flipping through the players’ streams just in time to see DeathsHead’s avatar join the game. Her heart flipped at the sight, even as she tried to keep a straight face, knowing the camera would capture her reaction. Her and DeathsHead’s rivalry was legendary, after all. A lot of people were here not only to root for him but to watch them battle each other.

And to watch her lose.

Min schooled her face, concentrating. She needed to win this. She’d figure out the rest, including Hayden, after.

The final round of the tournament involved dropping the remaining players onto a brand-new player map, one that would be uploaded to the regular game following the tournament for worldwide players. It was a great promotional tool for Bleeding Sword, and a great way to keep the competition fair for the remaining players.

Min loved the anticipation of a new map.

As per usual, there were ten of them left, all the best of the best that the company had either recruited or auditioned. Min was only familiar with Hayden and Alex—the others were new to the tournament and were probably skilled, unknown streamers hoping to make their big break. Luckily, Min knew the ratings from the tournament in previous days already must have boosted the new players’ audience, so no matter what the noobs were coming out winning.

Min’s avatar spawned on top of a building, and she took a moment to both take in her surroundings and admire the game. The under-appreciated part of video games was often the artistry behind it. The art of the locations themselves could take Min’s breath away, and from the looks of it, the team at Bleeding Sword had outdone themselves with this new map.

It was large, larger than any of the previous maps, and looked to be modeled after a medieval castle, one that was crumbling with age. The detail, the atmosphere, everything was beautiful in a way that made Min want to savor it, to take screenshot after screenshot so she could admire it later. Min had spawned in the woods surrounding the property, hidden in the dense trees and foliage. She immediately had her avatar crouch behind a thick tree and began to systematically search for items and weapons, while keeping an eye out for her fellow competitors. There was no knowing where the game had randomly spawned them, or where any NPC zombies could be hiding, so she had to be careful not to get caught by surprise.

Min’s careful efforts paid off after a few minutes, locating a few low-level firearms, as well as a combat knife. Nothing to get excited about, and certainly nothing that would sway the game in her favor, but enough to hold her own if she happened to come upon another player. She circled the castle, searching for an entrance other than the large drawbridge that was currently half open as if trying to seduce a player into revealing themselves to open it. But Min wasn’t dumb, so she ignored the bait in favor of looking for an entrance with more coverage. She was guessing the castle itself held the best weapons, and she needed every advantage she could get.

The other players were in her headset, joking and talking trash, but Min ignored them. Chances were that they were all doing exactly what she was doing, searching for weapons and a solid location to claim for home base. She kept an ear out in case they were dumb enough to let slip their positions, but she figured if they had all made it that far into the tournament, then they were smart enough to keep quiet about things like that. Alex, she noted, was talking enough to fill the whole stream, probably so in love with his voice that he couldn’t imagine letting anyone else get a word in edgewise. The other players were egging him on, eating it up, but she and DeathsHead stayed quiet. From experience with playing against him, she knew that meant he was in the middle of plotting something terrifying, and her blood thrilled with the thought.

Another few minutes of searching had Min switching out her shotgun for a machine gun and she smiled. She had a high-level weapon. She had her infrared goggles. She was still lacking med kits, but she couldn’t wait any longer. It was time to get the real game started. It was time to find her opponents.

A heat signature through the trees told her she was close to someone, and she froze, uncertain if the other player had spotted her. The name hovering over the avatar showed it was a player she was unfamiliar with, so she had her character crouch, readying her gun as she slowly, so slowly, crept up behind him.

In a blink, she realized she had misjudged—the player had known she was there—and when an unfamiliar voice in her ears yelled,“Eat metal, FlameThrower!”she couldn’t stop the grin on her face as she fired—hitting the guy’s character right in the chest with her bullets. She took damage, but he only had a handgun, whereas her machine gun tore through him. His avatar fell to the ground and dropped his items around his body. She quickly scooped up what she needed, ignoring the yellow warning flash of her health. All that mattered was that she lived.

She vaguely heard the guy complaining over the comms that he had been hoping to last longer, and then his voice came through just for her.

“FlameThrower, it’s an honor.”

She smiled, not expecting the tribute—most male players get an attitude playing with women, especially losing to them. And since Min was considered a pariah right now, she certainly hadn’t expected any sort of respect from the players she didn’t know. It was a nice gesture on his part, one that touched her in a way she wasn’t expecting.

“Come find me on stream in the future,” she told him. “I’ll be happy to plaster you with more bullets.”

He didn’t respond, and she assumed his mic had been cut off since he was officially out. She focused instead on her search, knowing she needed a med kit fast.

A while later, she heard another male voice taunting.

“Don’t tell me you’re afraid to face me, Death.”

A deep, dark laugh that she knew she would always feel in her bones came through her headset. Despite herself, she felt her ears perk.

“Never. Usually, people are afraid to faceme.”

The comms went quiet for a moment in anticipation. And then there was nothing but gunfire, the other man yelling into his comms, almost screaming with the bullets, until suddenly the feed went silent. Min held her breath.

“Goddamnit, DeathsHead.”

“Sorry, Gargletoon. I have a final opponent in mind, and you just weren’t it.”

Min shivered at that. The deafening sound of the audience around them cheering for DeathsHead filled her with pride, even though she knew she had no claim on him. Hayden was good at this, and Min loved that he was good at this game she loved, that he took it as seriously as she did.

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