Jake spent the entire day doing what he did best: procrastinating through research.
By noon, he had seventeen browser tabs open. By 2 PM, he'd filled three pages of a notebook with bullet points. By 4 PM, he'd reorganized his apartment twice, done laundry, cleaned the bathroom and was seriously considering alphabetizing his spice rack.
Anything to avoid actually pressing that "GO LIVE" button.
His laptop sat on his desk, the SinStream interface glowing softly. The quest timer mocked him from the corner of his vision.
[QUEST TIMER: 5 DAYS, 19 HOURS, 47 MINUTES REMAINING]
"Okay," Jake muttered to himself. "Okay. Research first, knowledge is power and understanding the platform is important."
He was lying to himself and he knew it, but the lie was comfortable.
Jake had started by looking up regular streamers Twitch personalities, YouTubers, anyone who'd built an audience from nothing. He'd taken notes on their camera presence, how they interacted with chat, their energy levels, their consistency.
Then, with significantly more hesitation and an incognito browser window, he'd researched adult content creators.
It was strange, seeing it from this perspective. He'd been a consumer of this content for years... since he was fourteen and discovered that clearing browser history was a thing, but he'd never thought about the creation side. The work that went into it, the performance aspect.
One creator he found had a whole blog about the business side of adult content. Camera equipment. Lighting setups. Marketing strategies. How to build a brand, how to protect your privacy, how to deal with harassment.
The last point made Jake's stomach twist.
He'd seen the comments on videos before, the things people said when they thought they were anonymous. When they saw someone as an object rather than a person.
Was he ready for that?
His phone buzzed. Marcus.
Marcus (Work): I did it
Marcus (Work): i completed the tutorial quest and i killed a slime, jake. it was in the basement of my building...
Marcus (Work): A fucking SLIME, Dude.
Marcus (Work): Like from an RPG
Marcus (Work): I hit it with a baseball bat and it EXPLODED
Jake: Are you okay?
Marcus (Work): NO
Marcus (Work): YES
Marcus (Work): i dont know
Marcus (Work): i got 50 experience points and it dropped some kind of gel that my system says is useful
Marcus (Work): this is so fucking weird
Jake: Yeah.
Marcus (Work): Have you done your tutorial yet?
Jake looked at his laptop, with the seventeen tabs of research.
Jake: Working on it.
Marcus (Work): Good luck man
Marcus (Work): Whatever you got, im sure its not as scary as fighting slimes in a basement..
Jake set his phone down and laughed. It came out a little hysterical.
If only Marcus knew.
He went back to his research, diving deeper into the mechanics of audience building. Consistency was key, streaming at the same time helped. Engaging with comments built loyalty and finding your niche attracted dedicated followers.
What was Jake's niche? Anxiety? Mediocrity? Self-deprecating humor?
He pulled up the SinStream platform properly for the first time, navigating through the interface. It was surprisingly well designed, clean with clear sections for live streams, recorded content, followers, statistics and settings.
The settings menu was extensive. Privacy controls. Content filters. Age verification systems. Geo-blocking options. The System had apparently thought of everything.
There was even a panic button that would immediately end the stream and lock down his channel.
That was... somehow both reassuring and terrifying.
Jake clicked over to the "Browse" section, curious about other DPS holders. The platform showed him a grid of live streams and recorded content from other adult content creators.
His first instinct was to close the tab immediately. This felt like spying, but then he remembered Admin #69's advice: research the competition. Learn from successful creators.
He clicked on one of the top streams. A woman with the username "MidnightRose" was live with 847 viewers. She was beautiful... stunning, even, with dark hair and curves that seemed almost cartoon-ish but what struck Jake more than her appearance was her presence.
She talked to the camera like it was an old friend, laughed at comments. Made jokes, she was performing, yes, but there was an ease to it. A confidence that made it look effortless.
Jake watched for ten minutes, taking notes on how she engaged with viewers, how she paced her content, how she built anticipation without rushing.
Then he felt like a creep and closed the tab.
He tried another stream, this one was a guy, Username "IRONJAW" with 234 viewers. He was more reserved than MidnightRose, less performative but still engaging, his thing seemed to be the strong, silent type with the occasional witty comment that sent the chat into a frenzy.
Different approaches. Different personalities but both successful.
Maybe there was room for an anxious data entry clerk after all.
Jake checked the time, 5:47 PM. He'd been researching for over six hours.
The quest timer hadn't stopped.
[QUEST TIMER: 5 DAYS, 18 HOURS, 13 MINUTES REMAINING]
"Okay," Jake said aloud. "Okay, Tomorrow... I'll stream tomorrow, I just need one more day to prepare."
A pink sparkle appeared next to his laptop, and Admin #69 materialized, sitting cross-legged in midair.
"You're procrastinating," she said without preamble.
"I'm researching," Jake corrected.
"You're procrastinating by researching," #69 said. "I've been monitoring your activity, you've looked up everything except actually doing the thing."
"I need to be prepared..."
"Jake." Her voice was gentle but firm. "You're never going to feel prepared, that's not how this works. You just have to start."
Jake closed his laptop harder than necessary. "Easy for you to say. You're not the one who has to bare his soul and other things... to strangers on the internet."
"No, I'm just the one who has to watch you spiral into anxiety paralysis." Admin #69 floated closer. "I've seen this before, my second user did the same thing. Researched for four days straight and by the time she actually tried to stream, she was so psyched out that she couldn't go through with it."
"What happened to her?"
"She failed the quest and lost her system. Last I heard, she was in a refugee camp in Singapore." #69's expression was sad. "The monsters came to her city a month later, I don't know if she survived."
Jake felt cold. "You're trying to scare me."
"I'm trying to motivate you," #69 said. "Because the timer doesn't care about your anxiety, the monsters don't care about your comfort zone and if you wait until you feel ready, you'll wait until it's too late."
She was right. Jake knew she was right but knowing and doing were different things.
"I don't know what to say," Jake admitted quietly. "When I go live, I don't know how to... be interesting or sexy or whatever I'm supposed to be."
"So don't be those things," Admin #69 said. "Be yourself, be honest. You'd be surprised how rare that is in adult content."
"Myself is boring."
"Yourself is real and real beats perfect every time." She smiled. "Besides, you already have one advantage most creators don't."
"What's that?"
"You genuinely don't want to be doing this," Admin #69 said. "That honesty comes through, leople can sense authenticity. Your reluctance is actually... kind of endearing."
"My crippling fear is endearing."
"Yes!" Admin #69 clapped her hands together. "Exactly! Lean into it! Be the reluctant adult content creator. The guy who got the worst system and is just trying to survive, that's a story people will invest in."
Jake envisioned that, remembering MidnightRose's confidence and IronJaw's stoic presence and his own complete lack of both
Maybe his niche was being the anti-streamer. The guy who had no business being there.
"Okay," Jake said slowly. "Okay. Let's say I do this tonight... right now. What do I even... how do I start?"
#69's entire demeanor brightened. "Really? You'll stream tonight?"
"Before I lose my nerve," Jake said. "Which might be in the next five minutes, so let's move."
"Yes! Okay! Okay!" #69 zoomed around the apartment like an excited puppy. "First, setup. Where are you streaming from?"
Jake looked around his studio apartment. The bed was the obvious choice, but that felt too... on the nose.