Volume 1 Chapter 4: Can’t Sleep? Streamer, Sing a Song
W-w-w…
Why hasn’t he left yet?!
Lin Lin stiffly turned her head, her eyes still locked on that user ID.
What is going on? Your ID is “Watching VTubers Makes Me a Dog”, right?
Weren’t you supposed to stop watching?
Ugh…
…………………………………
On the other side—
Gao Liang curled up under his blanket, staring closely at the screen.
He was truly interested now. He wanted to know who this streamer was, the one who could call out such a tempting “Big Brother~”.
But…
Why isn’t she saying anything for such a long time?
Did she mute her mic?
He stared for a while. Seeing no movement, and feeling like the streamer had turned into a statue, Gao Liang slowly lost patience. He yawned and was about to leave the stream.
Suddenly—
…………………………………
【Ding. System notice: your first viewer is about to leave the stream. If there are no viewers when your debut stream ends, the debut will be judged a failure. Time remaining in stream: 46 minutes 32 seconds.】
Huh?!
When Lin Lin heard the system message, her whole body shook.
W-w-w… what?!
The debut stream has to last a whole hour? And there has to be a viewer?!
Gasp—
The girl sucked in a sharp breath and suddenly remembered the system’s earlier words.
No, this can’t happen! I can’t let the viewer who just came in leave!
I need this person to stay until the end!
I don’t want to become a fanservice girl!
So—
The girl took a deep breath. Just as Gao Liang was about to exit the stream, she gathered her courage and shouted into the microphone.
“Don’t go—!”
Gao Liang’s hand jolted, and his phone almost slipped out of his grip.
“W-what… huh?”
He laughed awkwardly. Now he really didn’t feel like leaving anymore.
Was… was that little vampire girl calling out to him?
Huh?
…………………………………
Uh…
Lin Lin stared at the screen, thinking hard.
The viewer list still showed “Watching VTubers Makes Me a Dog.”
Let’s just call him Brother Dog for now.
Clearly, Brother Dog had been startled by her sudden shout and had given up on leaving for the moment.
But Lin Lin still had to do something, or he would leave sooner or later.
After thinking for a long time, she finally, very unwillingly, started to properly stream.
She spoke stiffly, reading off the screen:
“Um… welcome ‘Watching VTubers Makes Me a Dog’ to the stream. Hello, Brother Dog. Hello, Brother Dog.”
Dog…
Brother Dog?
Gao Liang almost closed the streaming app on the spot.
But after thinking about it again…
Well… with that ID, it’s not strange that she’d call him that.
He calmed himself down, raised his eyebrows slightly, opened the chat, and typed,
“Are you a VTuber who just started? Is this your first stream?”
“Mm…” Lin Lin’s eyes moved, and she nodded obediently.
Since she was a beginner, she had to try hard to keep every viewer. One by one, little by little, only then could she hope to reach one million followers someday.
Besides, being humble was part of being a streamer.
Lin Lin admitted it honestly and said, “Yes, meow. This is my first test stream. If you like it, could you follow me? I can do lots of things!”
Hmm…
Gao Liang hid under his blanket and smiled.
A new streamer, huh…
He actually liked this kind of thing.
When he thought about how, for several hours, he might be the only viewer in this stream, sending messages and chatting one-on-one for a long time, he felt…
Pretty satisfied.
Yeah, thinking like that, he couldn’t help but look at the virtual streamer’s avatar a few more times.
A cute little vampire girl, with small wings, white hair, and red eyes.
Kind of…
Kind of pretty.
Eh? Wait, why does she also have cat ears?
Is she a vampire, or a cat girl?
Haha. Pretty interesting.
He got more interested and typed a message to the streamer.
“So you’re an all-round streamer? What can you do?”
Ah…
Lin Lin looked at the comment floating across the screen and fell into deep thought.
Oh no…
She… she didn’t actually know how to do that many things.
She was just an otaku who turned into a cute girl.
This is bad. She bragged too much just now to make him stay.
Hmm…
She seemed to only know how to play games.
But she couldn’t just ignore Dog Bro and go play games alone, right?
In the middle of the night, making someone watch her play games, especially when her skills were pretty bad…
He would definitely leave the stream, right? He’d probably get sleepy and leave, right?
Ugh…
Lin Lin felt like she herself wouldn’t even want to watch this kind of stream.
After thinking for a while, she decided to talk more and find a topic. Just chatting and dragging things out until the one hour was over.
Maybe…
Maybe new viewers would come in later?
Lin Lin continued speaking,
“Ahem, actually I’m mainly a chatting streamer. I can do a little bit of other things too. I just started this test stream, so I haven’t decided what to stream yet. Umm… by the way, Dog Bro, it’s so late, how did you find this stream?”
Lin Lin was already thinking about whether she should go advertise in a QQ group or on a forum.
But when she realized she didn’t really have any active QQ groups, and posting ads would probably get her kicked out, while forum posts would likely get deleted, she felt a strong sense of danger.
What should I do, Dog Bro? How did you even click into this stream… I want to see if anyone else might come in too.
Gao Liang blinked and answered honestly.
“I couldn’t sleep, so I just scrolled around at the bottom and found it.”
Ah…
Lin Lin quietly lowered her head and slowly accepted the fact that she was a bottom-tier streamer.
“Sigh~”
Without realizing it, she let out a sigh.
Gao Liang was surprised. He didn’t expect the streamer on the other side of the screen to suddenly sigh like that. After thinking for a moment, he felt a bit responsible, so he typed another message.
“Uh… don’t lose heart. Starting anything is always the hardest. You’ll definitely become popular someday.”
“R-really?”
Hearing his encouragement, Lin Lin immediately felt more energetic, but then she thought again.
Uh…
She needed one million followers before she could relax and take it easy.
Her vision went dark again.
The atmosphere became awkward. After a long silence, Gao Liang suddenly sent another message.
“Can you sing a song? I can’t sleep…”
Uh…
S-so this is when the real work starts?
She knew that many virtual streamers mainly sing. But this request was still a bit too much for Lin Lin.
Thinking back, Lin Lin felt like she was suddenly pulled into the past.
Once, when her mom was on a business trip, her dad dragged her to a KTV. His coworkers were there too, along with their kids.
That day…
The microphone was handed to Lin Lin, who had never sung before…
Waa…
Facing the eyes of her dad’s coworkers and the other kids…
Waa…
Singing completely out of tune along with the music…
Waa…
Lin Lin felt like she could barely breathe. Facing this request now, she suddenly felt her old trauma come back…
After that, Lin Lin worked hard. To avoid another KTV disaster, she often practiced singing alone.
But she never dared to sing for other people again.
And this time…