Mia let out another sigh of annoyance, quickly glancing at the sidebar where the comment section laid. The spawning place of trolls and spammers with nothing better to do than taunting her with every mistake.

"What are my moderators doing?"

They were supposed to block off any offensive comments and kick out any users who violated any regulations she had erected. Text art of giant male genitals, cartoon characters, and proactive female bodies outpaced the rate of actual comments surrounding Mia's gameplay. Sometimes, Mia felt as though her audience were either pubescent kids or adults who had nothing better to do than pretending that they were douches. On other days, there were actual questions regarding her gameplay and advice on improving. She had to admit those were very nice days, if not splendid.

Like many other full-time video game streamers, they don't anticipate a nice audience when most of them lurk around for the next mistake so they could comment how bad of a player they are. They wouldn't be professional streamers if they could not take in a few hurtful comments, no less put their face on camera and out into the virtual world in hopes that people would enjoy their content.

Many of Mia's stream contents were very professional, or at least she tried to make them out to be. They mainly focused on MMORPG, FPS, and MOBA games. These were the most common genre in the game industry and Mia managed to snatch a seat within the top percentiles, internationally. It was quite the feat considering she ranked among many famous Korean, Chinese, British, and Dutch competitive gamers. It was almost frightening how dedicated competitive gamers were and she found herself admiring them for being so exceptional at it, if only she weren't constantly competing against them just to hold onto that seat. Anyone would be eager to snatch it under her sight if she were to doze off for even a second.

She unintentionally let out another curse, as she made a small mistake in her combo, allowing her opponent in that small circle of opportunity to break into her defense and finish her character off with a neverending torrent of combos. She had lost this round, grumbling in frustration at her Korean opponent. They had better character stats and weapon than her own character, but that did not matter if there was no skill and experience backing it up. Unfortunately, they all had all of that, but it didn't strike a nerve in her. Mia was confident in her quick fingers, reflexes, and veteran experiences with the similar class as her opponent.

She took a quick glance at the chat, unable to keep up with the continuous bombardment of "LOL" or other distracting comments that would ultimately deteriorate her mental concentration and pride. They never let go of any little losses and quickly forgot any amazing plays she made from the day before or the game before this one. Mia took a quick sip of her tea, cracked her neck, and then her hands before warming up for the final round.

The last round started, with Mia's fingers quickly tapping and gliding across her gaming keyboard. Her eyes strained in focus and it would be impossible to not get frown lines before she reached thirty years old. Mia did not even or couldn't blink for the fear of losing a split second of her opponent's move and maybe a hole in their defenses.

If she didn't know already, her chat exploded with a series of emotes ranging from an image of a guy's overly amazed expression a signal of the hype that started to garner around the chat. Mia was just glad she invested in a superb gaming computer worth 16-month salary at McDonald's on minimum wage and lived in an area where her wifi managed to rival that of Korea's advanced wifi. It helped prevent the lag that managed to formulate when the game required such a large graphics processor and the constant spamming of her chat bar.

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Combos after combos, Mia could feel her fingers tense and she wondered how she escaped carpal tunnel. Maybe she did have it, who knew now. She did another combo attack with her relatively new character and cursed when her opponent kept countering her attacks.

The timer blinked signaling there were only thirty seconds left making her tsk, albeit clumsily trying to go all offense against her opponent. 

"Seriously this guy is impenetrable," she thought. Mia knew it was probably not the case, because as much as she hated to admit it...

"This guy is pretty good," she chuckled. She felt the corners of her mouth turn up into a smirk, and her eyes narrowing at the new challenge and the sudden rise in exhilaration. Her hands started to become clammy, while her heart rapidly drummed loudly against her ribcage.

This is what viewers sought for excitement, the adrenaline, suspense, hype, and the final climax. The chat at the sidelines cheered wildly for her, as she countered another one of her opponent's combo. The fluid and quick movements of Mia's hand displayed from a separate camera showed the viewers the skill she possessed, like a maestro conducting a large-scale orchestra unable to stop until the final note had been effortlessly played.

10 seconds...

Her fingers became quicker and she could definitely see herself taking a one week break. Maybe one month.

7 seconds...

The rapid clicking of her mouse became unbearably loud, and she was sure her neighbors from downstairs of her flat would later complain.

5 seconds...

It was only then, where her opponent made a small slip, but nonetheless, a clumsy mistake turned into their final ultimatum before Mia mercilessly stunned their character. She then used the tiny gap of opportunity to continuously bombard her stunned opponent, restlessly inflicting critical damage before finishing them with one second to spare.

She sighed in exhausting laying placidly on her gaming chair while the bright glittering "You Won!" sign shone splendidly. Her chat yet again flooded with so many emotes and "GG" before it became outpaced by another in a mere millisecond.

Mia grinned in satisfaction, as she looked at her SSS rank combos, and the 50,000 live viewers spectating on her channel, making her own stream outrank all the other current live streamers.

She spent the last few twenty minutes resting her hands on two small hand massage machine she purchased for herself and had also booked a doctor's appointment in two days time to check on whether she had carpal tunnel from the most recent match. She probably did. Mia casually chatted with her donors and chat having trouble in keeping up with the donor messages. Many times she would have to use a really long silly straw to drink from her cup after being dehydrated from reading the list of long donation messages and answering questions. Her hands could not handle any more stress, and it could really threaten her professional streaming career.

After one hour passed, she ended her stream and slumped onto her bed. She glanced at her hands, watching them tremble from the stress it had endured. A sense of unprecedented dread rose in her and maybe she may have overdone it this time around. There were problems she could not escape, like her worsening eyesight, her hands, and lastly her deteriorating physical health.

Mia sighed, before gritting her teeth in anguish. The previous sense of achievement quickly vanished, leaving with only the numbing feeling of self-loathing, self-pity, the weariness of her eyes, and soreness of her hands. She could change and almost laughed at how many times in this very bed she told herself that same empty promise.

After every stream, Mia would be stripped of that particular title as one of the most talented female gamers, leaving her as famous as that trash can sitting by her desk. Mia laid on her bed surrounded by the feeling of emptiness boring into her and away from the glittering internet fame of a professional gamer and streamer.

That very night, Mia couldn't help but cry herself to sleep, like every other night. She had cried too much and felt too much, she had become acquainted with the lonely moon spilling its lonely light into her dark room.