The stream went live the moment Kaiden allowed it.
There was no countdown, no warning banner, no carefully timed announcement pushed hours in advance.
Perhaps it was laziness, perhaps it was cockiness - or they just knew there was no need for such a thing any more.
One second, the battlefield was silent to the wider world; the next, it was everywhere, his perspective snapping into place as the Awakened Media Platform latched on with greedy efficiency.
Kaiden exhaled slowly and rolled his shoulders once. The glow of his interface hovered at the edge of his vision, numbers already ticking upward faster than most creators ever saw on their best days.
He smiled.
"Well," he said calmly, voice carrying easily over the chaos of the battlefield behind him, "looks like you found me again."
The chat detonated.
Messages flooded in so fast they blurred into streaks of color and icons, but three names appeared exactly as they always did, right at the top.
