He knew that Eric Clark meant well, but there was no way he could shamelessly intern at Eric Clark's company with just a middle school diploma, let alone let him pay for his repeat studies.

"Wait!" Eric Clark hurriedly called out to him.

After a moment, Eric Clark let out a heavy sigh. "Bring it here and let me take a look!"

Once all the procedures were completed, Brian Clark smoothly became a game streamer.

He didn't waste any time. The next day, he filled in all the information for his streaming room, and after successfully creating it, he carefully wrote down his streaming room number on his phone. Finally, he started the stream, launched the game, and did everything in one go.

He was a bit nervous.

But that nervousness lasted less than two minutes.

Not for any particular reason—two minutes passed... and there still wasn't a single viewer in his streaming room.

Which was normal. To be safe, Xingkong TV required a month of stable streaming before granting a recommendation slot. Without a recommendation slot, there was almost no exposure at all; only those who stumbled upon it by chance could see this streaming room.

He sighed, just about to enter the game matchmaking queue, when a line of black text suddenly popped up in the chat bar on the right.

[1 has entered the streaming room]

Brian Clark felt that even when he was soloing in the final circle, he had never been this nervous.

He licked his lips and tried to sound calm: "Welcome, 1, to my streaming room."

On the other end, the man's hand, which was about to click the red XX, paused at the sound.

The streamer's voice was clean and clear, with a bit of a youthful tone. You could tell he was young, and he spoke a little haltingly, seeming a bit nervous.

While Ethan Foster hesitated, the other party had already entered the game and scored a headshot kill on an enemy.

He raised his eyebrows slightly, and looking at this deserted streaming room, for some reason, he didn't end up leaving. He just let the Xingkong TV client stay open on his computer, casually picked up a file from the desk, and started reading.

Chapter 2

For this streamer support event, Xingkong TV only recruited five streamers in total, and Brian Clark was one of them.

Although there were only five people, each was very strong. Basically, all the top players on the Asia server leaderboard—excluding streamers and pro players—had been recruited by Xingkong TV.

After all, Xingkong TV was currently the best-developed platform among all the major streaming apps, with lots of viewers, high traffic, and plenty of top players. The platform was also very generous in this support event; the contract clearly stated that after becoming a full-time streamer, there would be a very high base salary, which was hard to resist.

The only downside to this project was that not all five would get the same recommendation slot.

Recommendation slots on the platform were limited; usually, there weren't even enough for the other popular streamers. So the rule was—these five new streamers would have a one-month observation period. After a month, the streamer with the highest popularity would get the best recommendation slot, and so on down the line—the lower the ranking, the worse the slot.

It sounded harsh, but it was a normal system: survival of the fittest, the strong prevail. Everyone who was willing to participate had no objections.

Brian Clark naturally had no objections either.

After finishing his first game on stream, he solo queued and got second place. He took a deep breath, then quickly opened his streaming room to check.

Looking at his viewer count was like opening a present.

11 viewers.

...It was like opening a snow globe, but the kind that spits out cheap, fake snow when you press the button.

But fortunately, he was always optimistic. He glanced at the time—there were twenty minutes left until the first hour of his stream.

He had already asked around about many of Xingkong TV's rules. When you first start streaming, your room doesn't immediately appear in the "Latest Streams" list; it only shows up briefly after you've been live for an hour.

As for how long it stays there, that's uncertain. If it's during peak streaming hours, you'll get pushed off quickly.

He had to make the most of this short window.

He moved his mouse to the bottom left and switched the mode to squad.

"Let's play a squad game and save the world," he said with a grin.

No one responded in the chat, but he didn't mind. In less than ten seconds, he was matched and entered the staging area, starting the sixty-second countdown.

He cleared his throat and turned on his mic: "Hey guys, you there?"

In PUBG, the duo and squad modes really depend on your teammates. No matter how good you are, it's hard to take on four by yourself in these ranked games. Plus, you can't type in this game—teammate communication is all through voice chat. Some people even quit the game if they find out their teammates can't talk.

Player 2: "Yeah, I'm here."

Player 3 asked, "Where are we dropping? Playing safe or going for kills?"

Player 2: "Of course we're going for kills! Let's drop at the airport, I'm going for the C-shaped building."

"Wait a sec." Brian Clark was player 1, and he quickly interrupted, "Guys, how about we drop in the city and play it safe?"

Player 2 spoke with a bit of an accent: "Play it safe? Are you even a man?"

"I am, man. A real man knows when to bend and when to stand tall, bro," Brian Clark said. "Let's play it safe this round, I promise I'll get you that chicken dinner."

"Haha, I could say that too. What if we don't win?"

"If we don't..." Brian Clark lowered his voice, imitating player 2's accent and pretending to be shy, "Whatever you want, bro."