Chapter 60

I looked at my streaming profile with a happy smile and saw the number of viewers spike dramatically seconds after starting up the stream.

Currently, on their screen, they saw a timer of one minute and after the timer ended I would appear on the screen.

Butterflies beat up my stomach quickly. The nerves of starting a stream every single time wrack my stomach around a little.

Staring at the timer of 60 seconds slowly go down until reaching 20, I got out of my daze and tidied up my hair and clothes.

The viewer count was currently at 7,000. I haven't even yet shown my face yet there are already so many people.

The timer finally reached zero and my facecam appeared on their screens.

I smiled joyfully and waved.

"Good evening, everybody!"

[Chat:

boxy12: hi charli!

justiniandagreat: yooo first

Airdryadbel: first

doorknobknobdoor: First

Tomtomjam:Firstt o do urmom]

"How's everybody doing?"

The viewer count jumped to 10,000 concurrent viewers.

I smiled triumphantly.

I took out my controller and showed it to the screen.

"I bought a DualShock controller to play some Rocket League. I kind of got addicted to it over the weekend."

Waving it at the camera, the viewers rejoiced.

Since I had streamed Rocket League, Rocket League also expanded in popularity. Not because of me, but because the game is just that good.

Some little exposure was just needed for it to start growing that much.

Maybe if bzoomster or Reed streamed the game the game would get more popular at rates as fast as Among Us even though unlike the latter, the former has a price tag.

I fiddled around with the controller a little.

PlayStation remained as it was and Xbox was now called FACE for Full Action Center.

{FACE was one of the many rejected names for the Xbox.}

More familiar with the design of the PlayStation controllers, I decided to get one. Like on Earth, the price of these controllers are nothing to scoff at.

I conversed with chat a little more until I saw a few messages urging me to start some gameplay.

The stream switched to the Rocket League title screen.

The viewership almost doubled and jumped to 18,372.

I gave myself a thumbs up in my mind.

As any other noob should, I opened up a casual game rather than a ranked game.

Though I've got past game experience it's been quite a while since I've played.

While I entered the queue for casual 3v3s, I once again looked at chat to talk with them more.

"Is Rocket League worth it? I mean, it's football with cars that can fly. Does that answer your question?" I chuckled.

I immediately joined a lobby and my car quickly loaded in.

"Alright, let's get our first win of the day."

The kickoff started which just consisted of the cars of the opposing teams heading for the ball which was centered in the field.

I stayed back and both my teammates and the three opponents lunged themselves at the ball.

With the number advantage, the opponents managed to kick the ball to our half.

Noticing the three opponents were in a bad position and with zero boost, I hit the ball over them into their net with power and the ball cleanly glided into their goal.

I celebrated with chat at the first goal of the day.

"Wooo—"

The sound of an incoming call surprised me and I quickly swiped to Discord while the goal replay was on.

[Redde: "YOOOOOOOOO!"]

I accepted Reed, or Redde's call and his planned earrape destroyed my eardrums. Remembering how last time I played Rocket League with Tiffy and Kawhi my ears almost died I pulled out my earphones quickly.

Why is it that whenever I play Rocket League my eardrums are destroyed?

I put my earphones back on and went back to Rocket League. Of course, this whole time the viewers were just looking at Rocket League.

"Hey, Redde."

[Redde: "Sup Charlie. I heard you're playing Rocket League?"]

"Yup, I just scored my first goal of the day did you see it?"

[Redde: "Yeah, you wanna play some duos? I streamed the game yesterday for the whole day and both I and the chat are addicted."]

Once again at the Kickoff, this time I was closest to the ball and boosted towards it.

I hit the ball straight in the center while the opponent merely hit it in the side.

The ball shot towards their half and I quickly drove to the side to gather boost pads.

[Chat:

Viwwyx: omg my two favorite streamers playing my favorite game

MustardPig: yesssss]

"Alright, dude. You ready to get carried?"

[Redde: "Haha, shut up. You're going to be stuck at 0 points."]

Every time you touched, cleared, scored or made an assist you got points. He was basically saying I wouldn't get the chance to even touch the ball.

"Yeah, yeah whatever."

I kicked the ball away from the opponent's possession and drove the ball up the wall.

"Are you watching my stream right now?"

Following the ball and driving up the wall, I jumped and shot the ball to their net.

[Redde: "Yup."]

"Watch this."

Obviously, against these noobs, they were unable to save the ball and netted me another 100 points.

Although my method of scoring would never work on any decent player, my goals still were pretty clean.

The replay of my goal played again.

[Redde: "Dangggg. Alright then you might be able to carry me a little."]

I chuckled.

The game ended quickly and unsurprisingly, I was the MVP of the game.

[Redde: "Alright, you already have me added right?"]

"I do?"

[Redde: "Yeah, because we've played other games by the same game platform."]

I checked my friends list and Reed's username was there.

"Oh."

…

Now, should I spook him by hitting an insane shot?

I'll just play well but not do anything too crazy. When we get up the higher ranks I'll hit some insane shot.

[Redde: "Okay, let's do this. By the way, I'm Gold I already so be careful because we will be against Gold I players too."]

I almost chuckled but I merely showed a smile to the camera.

"You're gold? Nice."

[Redde: "Yup, yup."] his voice puffed in pride.

Since I hadn't played any ranked duos games, I was still unranked.

We loaded in a game and we started at both corners of our side.

[Redde: "Okay, so since we're the same distance from the ball, the guy usually at the left side goes. But, I'll go first."]

I nodded, "Okay."

The opponent completely missed the kickoff and Reed kicked it towards their half.

[Redde: "You can go for the ball, I don't have boost anymore."]

I approached the opponent and smiled while reminiscing Gold-ranked player memes.

When playing against a Gold player, you just have to let them pass the ball to you.

I waited in front of the opponent and stared at him. He jumped into the ball and it directly went to my car.

The ball hit my car and went up into the air.

"Can you get that?"

[Redde: "Yup, I don't know if I'll hit it though. I'm not too good at aerials yet."]

His car jumped off the ground and began boosting towards the ball.

Like any gold player, he missed the ball completely and his car was flung towards the opponent's net.

"Close."

I stifled a chuckle and hit the ball to the side after it fell to the ground.

[Redde: "Dang, if I had hit that it would've one hundred percent been a goal."]

"Yeah."

I drove the ball up the wall.

The gold opponents double-committed and both went up the wall just to miss the ball completely.

Gold players, man.

The opponents flung themselves off and landed all the way at our side.

All I had to do now was to drive the ball to their net.

[Gaming has gained 5 points.]

About to score, Reed, consumed his entire capacity of boost and rushed into the ball just to save the ball out of the net.

[Redde: "NOOOOOO. I'm so sorry Charlie."]

The ball hit the side and traveled directly to our half.

I began laughing.

[Redde: "Oh my god Charlie, I am so sorry."]

I laughed even harder and wiped my eyes.

"It's alright."

I had completely stopped my car while laughing and while Reed too was stuck in their net, the opponents scored the ball.

I started laughing even harder while Reed despaired.

[Redde: "Charlie, I am so sorry. I saved your shot and let them score on us."]

"It's alright, it's alright. Let's score some goals."

The opponents began spamming using quick chats.

'What a save!'

'What a save!'

'Great pass!'

'Great pass!'

'Nice one!'

'Nice one!'

I burst into laughter once again while Reed grumbled, annoyed about toxic players.

I'll style on them a little bit.

Reed went for the kickoff once again and the ball shot to the opponent's side once again.

The one that had stayed for the kickoff hit the ball towards me.

The ball rolled to me and I popped the ball up.

My car lifted off of the ground with a jump and I boosted towards the ball.

About to approach the ball, I used my second jump to flip into the ball mid-air and hit it straight to their top-right corner.

[Redde: "God damn! Charlie!"]

"Woooo!"

I celebrated with chat and Reed while the replay played.

Like the magnanimous players we were, we weren't toxic back towards them and ignored their rudeness.

Score 1-1 with 4 minutes left out of the 5 we start at.

[Redde: "God dang, how'd you do that? What rank are you dude?"]

"I just popped the ball up and boosted a little and flipped into it. I'm unranked." I smiled innocently.

[Redde: "Unranked?! I thought you would be platinum or at least Gold III."]

"Haha, yeah. I did spend a lot of time on Free play though. Maybe that's why."

Wait till I show him an air-dribble.

[Redde: "With what button do you boost by the way?"]

"My controls are all the same except I have air-roll and powerslide bound to the same button."

[Redde: "Oh. Why? What does air-roll do?"]

"Air-roll just lets you roll the car while you're in the air instead of turning the car. I have it on the same button because you can only air-roll in the air and powerslide on the floor."

[Redde: "Woah, that's really smart. Okay. I'll change my settings too then. And your Camera settings?"]

While I explained to Reed my settings, the game had already started once again.

"Height at maximum and angle at 3 or something."

[Redde: "Okay."]

The opponents once again kicked the ball to me and I hit it up towards their backboard.

The ball went over their heads and bounced against the wall.

[Redde: "And your stiffness?"]

I jumped up twice and used my boost to speed towards the aerial ball.

[Gaming has gained 5 points.]

The Gold players didn't know what to do, and like an open net, I scored freely.

"Oh, I have no clue."

[Redde: "What do you have air-roll and powerslide bound to?"]

"Uh, the left bumper. You're on PlayStation controller right?"

[Redde: "Yup."]

"Do you use claw grip? If you don't put the boost in your right bumper. That way you can jump and boost at the same time."

The kickoff once again started and I speeded towards the ball.

Hitting the ball straight in the center, the opponent completely missed like a Gold player, and the ball shot to their corner.

The ball bounced up hitting the curve of the corner straight into their center.

[Redde: "Oh, I use claw grip. Should I just keep it like that then?"]

"Yeah, just keep it normal then."

I collected two boost pads which gave me 24 boost out of the max 100 and my car once again lifted up to hit the ball towards their net.

[Redde: "Oh crap! My bad Charlie I forgot we were playing ranked."]

"No worries."

The corner of my car hit the ball and traveled towards the opponent's top corner.

[Redde: "Holy crap! Charlie? You scored two goals while I was AFK? Oh my god!"]

[Gaming has gained 5 points.]

I chuckled and smiled at the camera.

[Modeling has gained 44 points. (8.8 * 5)]

I swiped to the side to check my viewer count to see a mind-boggling number.

Hello? What the hell?

I rubbed my eyes a little. Maybe after using the computer a long while my eyes have broken?

The rubbing did nothing, as the number '40,000' did not disappear and instead rose.

"Holy crap!"

[Redde: "Charlie? What happened?"]

"I'm at 40,000 viewers!"

I yelled at him in shock.

[Redde: "Congratulations dude!"]

The happiness in his voice was genuine.

Though it was far away from Reed's now average 60,000 viewers and peak 150,000 from Among Us, 40,000 is still a huge number.

"Thank you! Wow, thank you, everyone."

I looked at the chat and it was being spammed with '40's.

Feeling as if I was forgetting something, I looked at my streaming profile.

Oh crap! I forgot to turn on the sound for subscriptions and donations.

"Sorry everyone! I forgot to turn on the subscriptions and donations notificator."

In the donations tab, there were countless donations and lists of monthly subscriptions.

One by one, the notifications began ringing in and I thanked each donator.

Reed and I played and for the first time streamed together just the two of us.

Both our viewership numbers increased dramatically and even Reed was shocked that he was getting such a high number even though he wasn't streaming Among Us.

[Redde: "Oh damn. Welcome everyone to the stream! We're playing some ranked duo Rocket League games."]

I checked his number of viewers and he was at a shocking 110,000.

Though still far from his peak viewers, the number was mind-boggling nevertheless.

My gaming skill was continuously gaining points and as my gaming skill leveled up, so did my Rocket League skills.

Of course, since I wasn't trying to do anything too crazy I was just making way better decisions in shorter times like a pro would.

Winning every single ranked game, our morale was high and the viewers became more and more.