Chapter 5: The Debut of Stepan Chisa

Under her sister’s gentle persuasion—or perhaps, more accurately, her subtle threat—Chajingyuan found herself retiring to bed a touch earlier than her usual habit, leading to a somewhat earlier awakening the following day.

With the cooperation of her sister and Makino Shibahime, after a tension-filled and ultimately pointless half-day of debugging and rehearsals, the fated hour of execution finally arrived.

At seven in the evening, on Bilibili, the nation’s sole designated platform for ACGN subculture, the livestream room prepared for Chajingyuan, titled ‘Stepan Chisa Official,’ displayed a pre-drawn GIF of a small polar bear crossing a river, looping continuously.

A large banner proclaiming ‘Streamer Preparing’ dominated the center of the screen, indicating a mere five minutes remained until Chajingyuan’s walk to the execution block.

“Guh-wuh, I, I…”

Chajingyuan, eyes welling with tears, sat hunched before the computer, her legs pressed together, her social anxiety reaching an absolute peak.

“It’s alright, Big Brother, you’ll be fine, truly.”

Chahuayuan gently stroked Chajingyuan’s hair, offering patient reassurance.

“We’re all here to support you, so don’t overthink it. You’re a little genius at foreign languages, and your singing is even better than mine~~.

I’ll be monitoring the bullet comments the entire time, ready to assist you through your earpiece. Maizi will also be helping to manage the chat today.

Even if you only score sixty points—no, forty points—I’ll still be incredibly grateful! You can do it!”

“I…”

“Quick, put on your headphones. I’ll open the bullet comment display for you to keep an eye on a split screen. Go, go, your sister is with you from the other end of cyberspace!”

“W-wu…”

Chajingyuan fell silent for a few seconds, then nodded glumly.

“Just so you know, my stress tolerance is pretty limited… don’t expect me to actually last until the end, okay?”

“It’s fine, Big Brother. The fact that you agreed to stream at all is already amazing. I’ll always support you!”

Chahuayuan gave Chajingyuan’s arm a final pat, then tiptoed out of her bedroom, thoughtfully closing the door behind her.

Within the cramped confines of the room, Chajingyuan was now left to fight her solitary battle.

Of course, Chahuayuan’s voice remained.

After returning to her own room, she also opened the livestream, connected the bullet comment monitoring plugin she and Makino Shibahime had co-written, and began remotely guiding Chajingyuan.

“Alright, Big Brother, deep breaths, deep breaths. It’s starting in just one minute. Remember to turn on your microphone beforehand.”

“Mm, mhm.”

Chajingyuan held her breath, wiping away the tears from the corners of her eyes.

Having been pushed onto the stage like a duck, she knew that no matter how nervous she felt, she had to force herself to be serious.

Otherwise, if the stream completely flopped, she wouldn’t be able to face Chahuayuan afterwards.

“I just checked, Big Brother. The concurrent viewer count before the stream is around 300, which isn’t far off from our earlier estimates. I haven’t seen anyone causing trouble yet, so just stick to the plan.”

“Mhm, alright, I understand.”

Chajingyuan tried to remain as calm as possible, yet still felt uneasy, so she herself darted a glance at the bullet comment display.

Cyber-Official was a modest-sized, fledgling organization with a relatively small fanbase, a fact that genuinely brought Chajingyuan a sense of relief.

The bullet comments, for the most part, seemed normal, though few were seriously discussing the character design or expressing anticipation for the stream.

Instead, most were debating about the organization’s leader, Maizi, wagering on how many SSR streamers she would manage to pull in the first round of gacha.

Among the scattered bullet comments, a red text meme floated by:

[ “I am Tiange, I am Tiange!” ]

‘You shouldn’t just blindly meme because of the polar bear persona,’ Chajingyuan mused. ‘The *real* female fire hydrant is next door.’

“Cough.”

Chajingyuan was nearly ready.

With a series of ‘pat-pat-pat’ sounds, Chajingyuan, utilizing the dexterity honed during nine months of reclusion, swiftly activated her sound card, model, webcam, microphone, and switched screens, completing the entire process in one fluid motion.

“Cough—cough cough!”

She gathered her breath deep within her dantian, composing herself with serene focus.

Though unsure what precisely constituted a ‘professional’ streaming voice, she opted to make it slightly higher-pitched and as soft and cute as possible.

As she spoke, she casually dragged her virtual model into the recording frame.

“Harasho~ Hello everyone! My dear viewers, venerable patrons, and lovely sisters, can you hear me? It’s a pleasure to meet you all for the first time… My name is Stepan Chisa. Yes, Stepan Chisa! Everyone, everyone, good evening~~

“…”

There was no response in the room, which was, of course, to be expected.

A virtual streamer’s true response never came from human voices, but from bullet comments; and as Chisa’s avatar materialized in the livestream room, the comments began to surge.

[ “This avatar is T0-tier!” ]

[ “Tch, so she’s flat-chested (disgusted)” ]

[ “Too bad this armor isn’t thick enough” ]

[ “Reject loli aesthetic, start with them” ]

The viewer count began to climb, 400, 500… Chajingyuan felt a pang of apprehension, but thankfully, Chahuayuan’s timely reminder came through her earpiece.

“Alright, Big Brother, don’t just stand there stunned. Quickly, act cute! It’s time to introduce your character persona.”

“Mhm, mhm!”

Chajingyuan dared not falter, quickly pulling herself together to continue her role-play.

“Today, I’ve finally… ahem, officially met everyone! I am… Stepan Chisa, a first-generation talent from Cyber-Official, a digital beacon living on the cutting edge of the cyber world, battling chaotic evil information!

We are all extremely powe— cough, well, at least we possess unique skills, quite the talents, actually! Today marks our official debut. Thank you all, and, uh, hello everyone, hello!”

“…”

“I hail from Russia, a computational engineer proficient in all mathematical techniques. I can handle all sorts of tricky data, you know!

While my classmates are battling on the front lines, I’m the one quietly calculating behind the scenes, finding the crucial solutions, huff, hehe, that’s me! I’m the type who strategizes from behind the scenes… mhm mhm mhm, a commissar!”

“Mm, uhm…”

In the master bedroom on the other side, Chahuayuan watched her Big Brother’s livestream, nodding with a noticeable sense of relief.

At least the self-introduction had been delivered smoothly.

It was clear that Big Brother was suffering from stage fright; the ‘extremely powerful’ line in the pre-prepared script had been momentarily replaced by ‘at least possess unique skills’ due to hesitation.

Her entire aura had instantly weakened… but it was acceptable, serving as a character trait nonetheless.

As the official broadcast commenced, especially with the unveiling of the virtual avatar, the concurrent viewer count in the livestream room gradually climbed, doubling to stabilize at around 1,000.

Provided that Big Brother could maintain her composure and avoid any blunders once the casual chat concluded and the performance began, the concurrent viewer count was expected to climb even further.

Barring any unforeseen issues, the peak should reach between 1,500 and 1,800.

This figure was certainly not high, but for Cyber-Official’s gradual accumulation of popularity, haste was not an option.

After the somewhat chuunibyou and slightly awkward opening introduction, Chajingyuan’s tone gradually became more peaceful, suggesting her nerves had also largely settled.

Chajingyuan began to engage in various casual chats, role-playing, and playful banter, all centered around the bullet comments.

Naturally, in a sense, this also served as an extension of her self-introduction.

The discussion surrounding Stepan Chisa’s persona was far from over; at the request of the bullet comments, Chajingyuan demonstrated various strange expressions, took off her hoodie, and removed her jacket, showcasing different outfit variations.

Furthermore, she dragged and scaled the entire model, presenting a full-body view.

As little Chisa’s soft, flat stomach, her delicate navel still visible through the fabric, and the skirt fabric subtly dipping along her hips, outlining her lower body, were successively displayed before the audience’s eyes, the livestream’s bullet comments surged into a small climax.