POV Hylia:

In a room lit by purple neon lights, filled with cute stuffed animals, Hylia read an email she had just received.

"It looks well done..." she murmured. Initially, she hadn't been too excited about playing a game focused on horror and FPS, but when Mr. Lewis had told her that the emphasis was on story, lore, and cinematic scenes, her excitement gradually grew. He claimed that this game would revolutionize an industry that had become a bit stale in terms of inspiration.

The developer even wanted to pay her, although if what he said was true, this single game could change her life forever. Although she had been skeptical at first, after he showed her some real gameplay sessions, her skepticism turned to hype—and a little bit of fear...

Re-reading the email to make sure she didn’t forget anything, she was surprised by the condition to receive the game one day in advance. This could cause her channel to explode if it was the long-awaited game.

He wrote that she had to get as many people as possible excited about the game, and once he decided it was enough, he would send her the key.

Several questions arose from this condition: "How many people do I need to hype? And how can he track the level of hype? Of course, there’s the wish list that could help, so why didn’t he mention that?" she muttered to herself.

Putting those thoughts aside, she got ready to talk to her stream, which was still in the "starting soon" stage. Today, she would announce the game and show the demo version, trying not to reveal too much to avoid being too suspicious. She would say it was a bit of a commercial stream, but in reality, she truly believed it was revolutionary.

Having organized her thoughts, she started her stream.

"Hello everyone! I hope you’ve had a great day!" she said playfully as she looked at her chat, where her audience was already greeting her back.

"Hi Gyde, hi Eddine, hi Cele, Asto, yeeta, and all those I missed while scrolling through the chat. Today, attention, I have some great news to share!" she said, building anticipation, which was quite rare, causing the chat to explode with excitement.

[Did you find a boyfriend?!?!]

[Did you stop streaming?????]

[Did you rank up?]

[Are you doing a 24-hour stream?!]

"No, nothing like that, guys. Today, I’m going to introduce you to a game that could revolutionize the video game industry! Developed over 10 years by an independent studio!" she said, surprising her audience.

[What do you mean?]

[Which studio?]

[Revolutionize? What do you mean by that?]

Seeing that last comment scroll by, she responded, "From what the developer told me, this game is going to be incredibly realistic, with deep lore, cinematic scenes, engaging characters, and an apocalyptic theme!"

The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

[The developer?]

[It's true, there isn’t much story in games nowadays…]

[Apocalypse? Is it inspired by the Great Catastrophe?]

"Apparently not. He told me it has nothing to do with the Great Catastrophe and that it’s entirely original, with breathtaking gameplay," she replied as she saw the comments roll in.

[If it was made by one person, it sounds like BS to me...]

[Yeah, one person seems unlikely…]

[Do you have any proof, Hylia? To silence the skeptics? :)]

"I get that some of you might think it’s BS, but he sent me a gameplay video, and honestly, I couldn’t tell if it was a game or real life from the outside... I understand your skepticism; I was surprised too when he showed it to me and told me he made it all by himself." she said to calm the conversation.

[Don’t you want to show it to us?]

Seeing this message, she told her stream she would message the developer to ask if she could show it. Picking up her phone, she sent him a quick text.

About three seconds later, she received his reply:

"Hi, I’m watching your stream right now, and yes, you can show it. Don’t worry, it’ll only make them more interested," she said aloud to the stream. "Okay, it’s approved. Just give me a moment to prepare the scene," she finished.

Meanwhile, the viewers were going wild at the possibility of such a promising developer being on the stream.

[Hey Developer, is it true what she’s saying?]

[Mr. Developer, are you BSing? :D]

[Where are you? ;)]

[Are you shy, Developer? :)]

[What’s your name?~]

POV Arthur:

As I watched Hylia’s stream on my screen to make sure everything was going well, I saw the chat filled with comments directed at me. Searching for something to say, I came across the Kappa emote, which I had used so often in my old world, and I wondered how it could exist here.

Putting that thought aside for later, I decided to simply send [You’ll see :kappa:] to her stream.

POV Hylia:

Getting ready to start the video and keeping an eye on the chat to see if Lewis would respond, I was surprised and laughed when I saw his response.

Between laughs, I said to them, "FYI, that was actually Naughty Dog who just replied to you, saying 'You’ll see' with the Kappa icon," which made me laugh even more as I said it out loud.

[@Naughty_Dog BS or not?]

[Are there cats that shoot lasers? :kappa:]

[How many liters of coffee did you drink during development? ;)]

[I’m waiting to see the proof myself…]

Seeing that last comment and with Naughty Dog not responding, I said, "Okay, I’ll start the video, but just so you know, it wasn’t meant to be seen by you at all; it was only intended to be streamed to convince us to play his game," I explained.

Soon after, the stream screen showed a man walking through the snow with a rifle slung over his shoulder, bending down to pick up some snow and letting it flow through his fingers.

[Wow, that’s pretty realistic!]

[Did you see the tracks in the snow behind him?]

[That’s gotta be 3D rendering, not gameplay, guys.]

[Check out the breath cloud!]

[Stop falling for it, guys!]

This scene was clearly intended to showcase the high quality of the graphics and was followed by an FPS view of a gun in hand inside a building, with a view of two buildings collapsing onto each other and balancing precariously.

Amidst the sound of clicking and the breathing of a man waiting behind a door, a figure with a limp and disturbingly twitching limbs walked through the doorway. The man, hiding behind the door, quickly raised his pistol, aimed at the figure's head, and a close-up of the humanoid's face filled the screen as it snarled.

After the man fired a shot, sending chunks of bloody flesh flying from its head, the humanoid didn’t fall but stumbled, eventually recovering just in time to take a second bullet, which sent it crashing to the ground as the video ended.

"Not bad, right?" Hylia said, watching her chat's reaction.

[It’s bloody intense!]

[The graphics are on another level…]

[How could an indie developer do this?]

[It must be 3D animation, not gameplay.]

[Hey, anyone claiming it’s 3D animation should remember that Hylia said it’s gameplay.]

[She hasn’t played the game yet, how can you say that?]

Seeing the chat divided, she decided to diffuse the tension by saying, "No need to get worked up, guys, and you know why?"

[??]

[Can you play it?]

[Tell us!]

[Stop stalling!]

Looking at her chat, she said victoriously, "Because I’ve had the demo since the stream started!"