5,000,000 viewers and counting. The chat box scales with every millisecond, giving the moderators no chance to keep up. Not even Jimbo, who prides himself on his screen reflexes, could handle the volume and speed of the messages, at most catching a couple.
Of the three monitors in front of him, the one he pays the least attention to is the one on the left, displaying the tournament broadcast and the chat. For Jimbo, tending to his community is a low-priority objective; his attention is one hundred percent focused on the game. Kardax 10,000 (Kard10k for short), perhaps the most complex management and conquest video game in history, proven by the number in its title, representing the amount of years synthesized in a single match. Kard10k games can last entire days; the longest one went on for a week with no pauses.
The drumming of keys being pressed at top speed is a constant sound in the LED-lit bedroom. Jimbo tilts his head toward the energy drink can resting on the desk, and applying pressure with his chin, manages to take a sip without spilling a single drop. It's the result of years and years of practice, and of stained shirts.
The three V-Tubers hired to host the competition try to track and cast the moves of the remaining three competitors. To represent each player's positions, emblems are placed on a 3D schematic of the solar system. Jimbo's emblem is a J framed within a blue diamond.
Art3misamisa: Earth, Mars, Jupiter. DimensionD: Saturn, Uranus, Neptune. KingJim: Mercury, Venus, Pluto.
To a casual viewer, it might seem like Jim is losing, backed against the sun, holding a dwarf planet (Pluto) known as the Noob-Trap due to its uselessness and false rumors of containing exotic materials. Was it really worth secretly crossing the entire solar system just to claim that fool's trophy?
DimensionD also thinks Jim made a mistake, sensing it as a desperate strategy. Has the famous KingJim lost his touch? DD decides to send small war expeditions to eradicate Jimbo's humble Plutonian settlement.
Jim flashes a half-smile as he watches DD's first horde of space marines land, all very grand and noble, waving battle standards and heavy machine guns... Only to be instantly wiped out by turrets and explosive minefields. When the turrets' ammo and bombs run out, more marines land and fire at the base that Jim's colonists continue fortifying from the inside, using machines to refine regolith and build protective plating.
It looks like Jim is building some valuable weapon on Pluto, some secret unknown to everyone in Kardax 10,000, perhaps an Easter Egg hidden by the game's developers. But the truth is...
There is nothing on Pluto; it's just a useless rock, a regolith storage at most.
With each passing minute, Jimbo watches his enemy grow desperate at failing to breach his defenses. DD decides to send a small army toward the dwarf planet. A highly useless and considerable waste of force and soldiers, especially when you have an open war front against Art3misamisa.
Art3mis places her legions of robot valkyries in the front row and tries to push toward Saturn with 50% of her total forces, keeping 10% on her Jupiter moons, another 10% on Mars, and the rest on Earth, forming a planetary defense belt just in case Jimbo gets the brilliant idea to attack.
"Clever girl," Jim murmurs, displaying a wide, shark-like smile on his broad face. Like a good predator, he knows when to strike.
Art3mis is the biggest threat in the game; Jim desperately needs her to waste resources and weaken herself in the war against DD so he can attack. Meanwhile, he can focus his resources on developing a proto-Dyson sphere around the sun to harness its energy. It would be the first time a proto-Dyson sphere is successfully built in a professional competition, an already complicated achievement in casual play.
Jim considers his victory guaranteed. This game was over before it started.
"Hmm?" Jim notices something weird in the comments.
There are many messages with exclamation marks naming his air purifier, a black rectangle located on one side of his bed. Jim remembers he has to take care of his sponsors.
"Electronic Airs purifiers, the best and most reliable on the market. Seriously, guys. I don't know how I lived so long without getting one. Plus, if you order yours with the link in the description and use the code KingJ, you'll get a 30% discount. You'd be a fool to pass up this offer. Spend! Spend! Spend!"
The chat box goes on and on: The purifier! The purifier!
Jim shows the smile of a job well done. He assumes he will receive a fat check for the successful promotion. Though his smile fades when his satellites warn him of an enemy intrusion.
A small white exploration ship ventures into his sectors. It's one of Art3mis's ships. Jim frowns. The spacecraft sends distress signals and constant communication requests. With a specific keystroke command, Jim gives the order to attack, and his satellites fire laser beams that turn the small ship into stardust.
"No way! You think just because you're a girl you can fool me, the king of management? This isn't the first time someone tried to sneak an antimatter bomb past me with a harmless-looking ship. You still need over a hundred years to beat me!"
Jim exclaims and laughs, trusting that his audience is celebrating and applauding his wise decision. But the happiness vanishes from his face when he catches a strange smell.
Behind his back, the black rectangle continues sparking, bursting into flames.