ᛗᚨᚤ ᚤᛟᚢᚱ ᛒᚢᛋᛁᚾᛖᛋᛋ ᚠᛚᛟᚢᚱᛁᛋᚺ

Chapter 1

    The first category Joel chose to explore was game streaming. He could not really picture what games were like these days. The last game he had played was a board game—chess, to be exact. He had even competed in tournaments! Did that make him a gamer? But the moment his slender finger tapped into one of the trending streams, a giant meteor came hurtling straight at him, sending his small body sprawling backward, flipping out of his chair, feet up in the air.

    BOOM!!!!

    “Waaaahhhhhhh!!!”

    Thanks to streaming technology combined with magic, whenever viewers tuned into a stream without adjusting their sensory settings, they could fully experience the events around the in-game characters—sight, taste, smell, and sound—all rendered with hyperrealism.

    The game Joel had clicked into was an MMORPG where the streamer was on a quest piloting a spaceship through outer space, tasked with destroying a giant meteor hurtling toward a planet inhabited by humanity. Joel scrambled back onto his chair, dazed and wide-eyed. The image of two people sitting tensely over a black-and-white chessboard was utterly obliterated by the sight of that enormous rock crashing in. This was nothing like the game he had imagined!!!

    //YAAAAAAHHHHHHH!!! YAHOOOOO!!! BUURRRPPP… Oops! Sorry, everyone!//

    [Round Red Bird: Go, P’Joynai!!!]

    [MamaBearNumberOne: Wait! Did anyone else hear a frog just now?]

    [PufferAintFishButActuallyABird: What frog? That was P’Joynai burping, I swear. Blessed my ears, LOL.]

    This stream was in first-person perspective, allowing viewers to feel everything the in-game character had encountered and felt. That massive meteor hurtling toward him earlier was just one of the many jump scares the game developers had thrown in to keep things thrilling.

    P’Joynai, as the fans affectionately called him, maneuvered his spaceship thrillingly, dodging various cosmic debris that threatened to collide with him. Even though deep down, he wanted to fly straight at the giant meteor to save time—because the shortest distance was a straight line.

    His deft, looping piloting style, weaving between asteroids while firing at the smaller ones, pushed through all the challenges until he reached the giant meteor and blasted it to smithereens. This feat deeply impressed his fans. At last, the mission to protect the planet from the giant meteor’s collision ended in triumph.

    [LoveTheStreamer: //Donated 650 coins with a message// That was savage!! I always die on this stage!!!]

    [NitwitPlayud: That speed wasn’t even human.]

    [WingLameChickenLayWithSoda: //Donated 1,000 coins with a message// That scene where you fired the cannon to destroy the meteor was epic!]

    Joel’s eyes sparkled as he read the messages and donations the fans sent to encourage the streamer. He had not even been watching this stream for ten minutes, and the guy had already raked in 1,650 coins. Converting that to real money—it was 550 pounds. This app was a goldmine!!

    The pale, slender wizard tucked a stray lock of ginger-red hair behind his ear and tapped into the channel’s inbox. An email popped up—it was from the system, congratulating him and officially approving his right to start streaming. His current streamer level was at Chicken Egg.

    A streamer’s level indicated not only their popularity but also the percentage of revenue they received. At Joel’s current Chicken Egg level, the platform deducted 30% of his earnings. The next level up, Eagle Egg, had a 25% deduction, and the highest tier, Phoenix Egg, saw only a 20% deduction by the platform.

    The path to climbing the egg levels was not easy. It required meeting a minimum number of streaming hours or reaching specific donation targets in order to upgrade. Besides reducing the percentage of fees taken, higher levels also unlocked various special privileges from the platform’s company. This incentive encouraged fans to generously shower their favorite streamers with donations, helping them rise to higher ranks.

    Joel browsed through other streaming categories until he finally concluded that his streaming direction should fall under the daily life stream. That brought no small amount of anxiety. From what he had seen, there was not a single magic user with a channel. These days, magic users were few and far between, and those who remained usually held respectable positions within the Magic Council or pursued other professions they enjoyed, like running shops that sold magical goods. Some even settled into typical salaried jobs.

    Even though he was a magic user too, Joel was different. He had lived for a very, very long time—and he was not registered in the magic users’ population registry. Lacking any birth records or family lineage, some magic users viewed him as a rogue wizard. So, no one ever offered him any official work. Joel might very well be the only magic user in the world without a job—which meant he could also be the first wizard so unemployed that he had turned to streaming.

    Would anyone even want to watch his streams…?

    But for the sake of his own stomach—and Romeo the fat cat—he had to at least give it a try. With slender fingers, he tapped into the settings to create a channel name and upload a profile picture.

    Hmm… From what he had studied by watching other streamers, their channel names typically related to the content they presented.

    The pale wizard sat quietly for a moment, thinking. The content he intended to present was his daily life, which mainly revolved around potion-making. Most people thought magic users were mysterious and enigmatic—and that might work in his favor. At the very least, it could serve as a selling point to draw ordinary viewers to watch his streams. If that was the case, his channel name should be…

    “Ah… The name… Joel’s… Cauldron…”

    Squinting, he tapped out each letter with his index finger, wearing a concentrated expression. He might have seemed slow, as someone not entirely in sync with technology—but he was giving it his all in pushing each key!

    Roughly a minute later, the channel name Joel’s Cauldron finally appeared on the screen. Romeo jumped onto his lap, rubbing his round head against Joel’s flat belly. The wizard tore his gaze away from the smartphone to look down at the soft, plump body. The fat cat was probably trying to encourage him. The slender wizard spent the next ten minutes squeezing Romeo’s squishy belly and pinching the soft pink paw pads on his round black paws.

    After thoroughly squishing and squeezing the cat to his heart’s content, Joel turned his attention back to the task at hand—writing the channel description, or simply put, his self-introduction and a brief outline of the channel’s activities. The little wizard continued wrestling with technology, painstakingly typing out the description of his channel content. Finally, it read:

    Joel’s Cauldron Channel. The activities on the channel would include demonstrations of various potion-making techniques, introductions to beneficial herbs, presentations of natural energy-enhancing stones, tarot readings, and showcasing the daily life of a magic user.

    The channel introduction, when read back, felt stiff—like a kindergarten child introducing themselves in front of the class. But even so, he loved it. His charming, beautiful face was adorned with a smile of pride. After selecting daily life streaming as the channel’s category, Joel’s Cauldron was now ready to go live!

    This first stream would be his debut as a streamer. So, he had to make it memorable—or at least exciting enough for anyone who stumbled in by chance to want to tell others about it. The muddle-headed wizard sat in thought for a moment before deciding to walk into his potion equipment room.

    Inside, the well-ventilated space was filled with wooden cabinets and shelves stocked with glass jars containing herbs—herbs Joel grew and harvested himself—and other potion ingredients like ground mermaid scales, fawn's tears, or the blood of magical beasts like dragons. His opalescent eyes glanced around, sensing the natural energies radiating from the carefully stored ingredients, a source of pride for him.

    Joel picked up a wooden basket and began browsing the jars of herbs and ingredients, deciding on what to use. He also considered that if other magic users happened to tune into his stream, he would need to impress them as well.

    That was why this time, he had chosen to brew a potion that was a bit more complex, with a few steps involved—not so complicated as to confuse ordinary viewers, but enough to show other magic users that he had skill.

    With pale, slender fingers, Joel deftly selected jars of herbs and placed them into the wooden basket without needing to consult a single book. He laid them out on the island in the middle of the room, along with his favorite wand, which he used regularly, followed by a mortar and pestle, a fire stove, and a hand-sized cauldron.

    He would stream from this room for convenience—easy access to his tools and easier cleanup afterward. He was not worried about viewers seeing every nook and cranny of his equipment room because he was confident it was clean and organized enough to show off.

    Joel added a few more potion-making tools to the setup, arranging dried herbs and flowers as decorative props to make the otherwise plain island look livelier. Then, he searched for the best angle to place his smartphone and connected it to the platform’s system. Once he signaled the stream to start, everyone would be able to see him.

    Normally, virtual reality streaming required a dedicated setup with rather expensive equipment. But for a beginner like Joel, just a smartphone would suffice. The only limitation was that viewers would get only a single visual perspective—they could hear sounds and smell scents, but not yet feel textures or taste flavors. For Joel, this setup seemed perfectly adequate for the potion he planned to make today.

    [Please specify your stream’s topic.]

    The system’s voice rang out amidst the room’s silence. Joel lifted both index fingers and tapped them together thoughtfully. He did not have much talent for persuasive speech, so he decided to just be straightforward about it.

    “Ah… um… the topic is ‘A Simple Demonstration of How to Brew a Transformation Potion.’”

    [Confirm topic: ‘A Simple Demonstration of How to Brew a Transformation Potion’?]

    “Confirm.”

    [The system will count down to begin your stream in…]

[5]

[4]

[3]

[2]

[1]

    Glossary:

    ·       MMORPG = Massive Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game, an RPG where many players participate at the same time, inhabiting the same virtual world, each role-playing as a character to follow the game's narrative.

    ·       Jump Scare = A sudden scene designed to startle the audience.