Going Viral

"..........."

I sat in front of the computer, staring a hole straight through the monitor.

"What the hell... is this...?"

I rubbed my eyes at a follower count that had no business existing. I even wiped the monitor. The number on the screen did not change.

How does anyone gain nearly a thousand followers in a single night?

And the even more astonishing part: while I went to splash water ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠on my face, convinced I just wasn't fully awake yet, two more had appeared. Which meant that right now, without a stream even running, followers were climbing in real time.

"...A bug?"

I opened the VOD tab. Yesterday's replay was still there.

"6.8 thousand views?"

A replay of a stream that hadn't even lasted an hour had racked up a view count rivaling the headcount of a mid-sized company.

"How?"

Yesterday's stream had been a disaster. A thorough, miserable one. Barely any viewers, and I hadn't even been live for long — there was nothing more to say. It was a flop.

So had I done something to pull aggro?

No!

Then what on earth was this?

I sat there in a daze, staring at the monitor all over again. My goal, first and foremost, was ten average viewers. And if this many followers had gathered in such a short time, for reasons unknown, I'd probably clear ten average viewers without breaking a sweat.

...If this wasn't a bug, that is.

The thought that this really might be a bug suddenly occurred to me. I mean, of course it might. Nothing had happened ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠that would explain a thousand new followers — not one or two, a thousand.

So I put my hands on the keyboard. If it wasn't a bug, there'd at least be some kind of reaction.

...........

.................

I was briefly struck speechless by a reaction far more intense than anything I'd imagined.

I hadn't even posted the notice that long ago, but people from who-knows-where had already started leaving comments. And every last one of those comments was... a little...

It wasn't as if there were no normal comments. But every single one of them carried the same faint, lingering madness.

"So... all of these people are women?"

That was the part that shocked me even more. Internet streaming was mostly used by younger people, and if you considered how few young men there were compared to that...

"I can go live... right?"

"I'm not going to get knifed for a slip of the tongue... am I?"

Still, worrying about stalking and the like felt premature. A thousand followers overnight sounded like a lot, but it also wasn't that many. And in the notice comments, plenty of people were calling me unnie, or treating it as a given that I was a woman.

But then why was there even more sexual harassment?

I set those questions aside and decided to go live. I'd have to start a stream to find anything out, after all.

"........."

I turned on the mic.

"Ahem."

The chat window immediately began scrolling at a deranged speed.

"Uh...... well. Hello."

A hollow laugh escaped me at the sheer volume of chat that poured in with every single word I said.

I flinched.

My first donation. I'd never thought much of it watching other people's streams, but receiving one myself was a whole different feeling.

"An introduction? I didn't really prepare one."

"A name?"

Ah, right. A name. Come to think of it, I hadn't picked one. Using my real name would be insane, which meant I actually had to come up with something.....

"Want to try naming me?"

How is there only one normal suggestion?

"Alright, Miren it is, I guess."

"The name's Miren, and I haven't decided what kind of stream this is going to be."

"It is not."

"I genuinely don't know what you all are seeing. I'm dying of curiosity, honestly."

"I told you, I'm a woman."

Still, nobody actually believed I was a man. That much seemed certain.

But honestly — what were they even looking at that made them act like this?

"Fanart?"

Streamer Gallery? I'd only gone live once. How was there already fanart of me on Streamer Gallery?

"Well, alright. I'll take a look."

I searched up Streamer Gallery, went in, and shared it to the stream.

"I'm in. What do I search?"

"That Rookie?"

I switched over to the hot posts tab. Fortunately, the fanart was easy to find — the title was [Drew fanart of That Rookie], impossible to miss.

The problem was everything else.

"What... is all this?"

The hot posts with "That Rookie" in the title weren't one or two. To only slightly exaggerate, they were lined up like a parade.

I stared at the posts in a daze for a moment, then just clicked into the fanart thread.

Oh, not bad.

A silver bob, and an androgynous face that sat somewhere between a woman's and a man's. I thought it looked pretty good, actually.

"I probably shouldn't just use this without permission, though."

I hit refresh the moment I saw that chat. A new comment had been added to the post.

"Well then... thanks."

I saved the fanart under a different filename.

What is this. Why are they like this again.

I stared at the chat in bewilderment at a reaction I had not seen coming.

"Uh..... why are you all reacting like that?"

At that, the chat window burst into even hotter flames.

I never thought I'd live to hear someone say, of all things, "If a dick ever fell out of the sky one day, all of humanity would vote to give it to you."

And it was only after weathering every flavor of sexual harassment, marriage proposal, worship, and censored message on top of that that I finally managed to end the stream.

"Hah..... I'm exhausted........"

After going offline, I headed over to Streamer Gallery. The place was fully ablaze with my name as the day's main course.

Thankfully — if that's the word — the response seemed positive.

I glanced to the side.

That was more than enough to blow past ten average viewers by a laughable margin.

A moment later, a faint light bloomed, and a new message appeared in the air.

I'd expected something like this. The silver lining was that this time, it wasn't actually difficult. Ten average viewers could have been surprisingly brutal, after all.

I stretched briefly and stood up from my chair.

"Streaming.... might not be so bad?"

It had been a better stream than I'd expected.