Chapter 18: The Humiliation Stream and the Debut Dilemma

Meanwhile, next door to Chajingyuan, in his sister’s room, there was both good news and bad news for him.

The good news was that, as Chahuayuan had previously promised, she was indeed following Makino Shibahime’s commission to watch ‘Gengetsu Shiori’s debut stream, rather than monitoring Chajingyuan’s own broadcast today.

The bad news, however, was that Chahuayuan had pulled her brother’s stream onto her secondary monitor and was blissfully listening to it as ASMR.

“I—I don’t want to give my first try to the very first map… Is there anywhere I can practice a bit first…?”

“Wow, that was such a casual death! Ugh, my master~~~”

“It’s fine, it’s fine, just getting used to the controls… Whoa!!”

“Ugh, the interval between these two deaths was too sh-sh-short… Hehehe, can’t we combine them into one…? No! This isn’t haggling, isn’t it perfectly reasonable? Hey, hey, cut me some slack… Ugh…”

“Fine, my master…”

“Guh~ My master~”

“My master~”

“~~My master~”

“~My master~~!~”

“Wuwuwu… My master~, I don’t want to say it anymore… What kind of cursed game is this…?”

‘Ehehehehe… Big brother’s cries sound so satisfying. This isn’t good, I think I’m getting a little excited…’

As Chahuayuan savored the sounds from the stream, a look of blissful satisfaction spread across her face. That soft, loli-esque voice, filled with humiliation and indignant reluctance, was simply too alluring.

Even as Chajingyuan’s sister, Chahuayuan found it hard to maintain her composure, eventually propping her feet up in pure enjoyment.

***

Makino Shibahime had indeed played a trick when setting up the poll options. However, even Mai herself… hadn’t anticipated that this pitfall wasn’t one the fans pushed Chajingyuan into, but one he had leapt into himself.

The game Celeste, originally titled “Celesta” in the source, tells a story that perfectly aligns with politically correct tastes—that of ‘Madeline,’ a transgender youth suffering from depression, who challenges herself to climb Mount Celeste in search of self-discovery.

This game is widely considered the pinnacle of platformers in recent years, combining exceptional gameplay, difficulty, and narrative. While its later challenges are indeed maddeningly difficult, that wasn’t the issue tonight.

The main story of Celeste’s first playthrough is far more approachable than its later challenges, and not overly difficult.

Compared to a second playthrough of Sekiro with the Demon Bell active, even acknowledging the difficulty of direct comparison between different genres, most people would confidently say Celeste’s main story is at least two tiers easier.

Yet, Mai’s cunning in setting the options lay in the differing conditions for each.

Celeste’s death penalty is incredibly low—extremely, astonishingly low…

Every map is riddled with spikes, pits, and traps; even brushing against an extra pixel can lead to instant death.

Dying four or five times on a single screen is commonplace, a dozen times is routine, and in some exceptionally difficult areas, forty or fifty deaths are not unheard of.

If one’s composure breaks, controls become reckless, and deaths come swiftly, it’s possible to die once every five seconds on average.

Each chapter contains at least twenty such screens. Even worse, resetting a screen still counts towards the total death toll.

“…Ah! I’m going to fall, I’m going to fall! Oh, right, if I pause and restart now, it won’t count as a death, will it?”

“Huh?! How does *that* count as a death, hngh-ahhh!”

“Guh, my master… I was wrong, I got too clever for my own good. Ugh, how did it come to this?!”

Furthermore, as a platformer, Celeste demands high precision in controls and heavily relies on memorizing patterns, which only amplifies the harsh truth that ‘being bad means being bad, and if you can’t pass it, you can’t pass it.’

Mai had originally intended this option to tempt the audience into choosing it.

Who could have foreseen that Chajingyuan himself would step into this trap, which seemed simple, low-requirement, and lighthearted, and even use his alt accounts to vote for it?

“Guwu… I-I’m so miserable…”

“Is this really the last screen of the first chapter? Really? My esteemed masters, ah-ah-ah, ptooey ptooey, you lowly chatters better not be lying to me! Ugh…”

Chajingyuan was now overflowing with humiliation and on the verge of frantic despair, yet he had to desperately maintain his composure and controls!

Otherwise, if his movements faltered, more deaths would only lead to greater humiliation and madness, spiraling into a vicious cycle.

If Chajingyuan had glanced at the time then, he would have noticed that only 30 minutes had passed since he began playing the game. This evening’s stream, it seemed, was destined to be exceptionally long.

***

To shift focus, while Chajingyuan was suffering immensely, reduced to a ‘lowly maid’ for his ‘master’ viewers, Chahuayuan, though thoroughly enjoying her brother’s humiliated cries, had not neglected her main task.

On her main screen, in ‘Gengetsu Shiori’s stream, the second streamer of the first generation project was steadily progressing through her debut performance.

‘Hmm, this child’s voice is quite pleasant too.’

Gengetsu Shiori’s vocal tone conveyed a cheerful, somewhat boisterous, yet well-behaved quality, which paired well with her virtual avatar’s small fangs.

However, it genuinely didn’t suit the ‘overly flamboyant and arrogant’ persona. From this perspective, the swap between Gengetsu and Chajingyuan seemed quite fitting.

If there was any flaw, it was that her somewhat rustic, drab green outfit, combined with her boisterous voice, seemed a bit too unsophisticated—though, when Chahuayuan pondered this, she was clearly oblivious to her own lack of style.

‘Oh, and there seemed to be another problem.’

‘Gengetsu’s personality seemed genuinely a bit too ‘well-behaved baby,’ or rather, a little too ‘eager to please.’’

– “Mhm, yes, that’s right. Coming from electronic warfare, engaging in intense electronic battles with all sorts of digital enemies, so precise gaming operations after retirement are just a small case, you know.

Ah, thank you for the Super Chat, thank you for the likes, thank you, thank you…”

– “Thank you, Captain, thank you to the viewer called, ah, what-what’s-your-name’s Captain, thank you, big brothers in the audience… Mhm, that’s right!

I was already on many world record lists even before my debut, you can find the specifics… Ah-ah-ah, thank you to such-and-such big brother viewer for the prominent message! Thank you for subscribing, thank you…”

– “…Mhm, thank you to XXX viewer for the B-Kola, thank you to X viewer for the…”

[ “No, Gengetsu, when you’ve just debuted, the chat will definitely be all over the place. You don’t have to reply to every single message…” ]

[ “Multitasking isn’t meant to be used like that, little Gengetsu. Your pace is too fragmented; try to get a grip on your streaming rhythm.” ]

Both Chahuayuan and Makino Shibahime quickly interjected in the command channel.

Because she felt compelled to respond to every gift or interaction, Gengetsu’s dialogue became utterly fragmented, and several minutes had passed without her saying anything substantial.

Prompted by their reminders, Gengetsu on the screen immediately froze for a moment.

– “…Ah-ah-ah, right! Speaking of that thing just now, that, that… what was it? Oh, right, world records and leaderboards and such…”

‘Sigh.’

Chahuayuan quietly sighed, stealing a glance at her brother, who was still gloriously losing his mind on the other screen.

‘This little Gengetsu over here, her ability to control the flow and handle pressure is quite average, isn’t it?’

In contrast to Chajingyuan over the past two days, who, despite enduring immense informational and emotional pressure, managed to remain stubbornly defiant—no, rather, consistently articulate, controlling the direction of the conversation, and whose dialogue quality rarely slipped.

That truly was impressive. Look, on the other side, he’d already died over 70 times and spent 34 minutes just to clear Chapter 1, A-side, of Celeste.

Yet, he could still find opportunities, in between acknowledging viewers as ‘masters,’ to ‘insult the lowly chatters.’ The sheer stubbornness was truly awe-inspiring.

Of course… his personality was an entirely different matter. If only her ‘stinky big brother’ had even half of little Gengetsu’s obedient nature, Chahuayuan would be thanking the heavens.