On the other side of the screen, Leo watched AmyPlays completely unravel, a satisfied smirk on his face. She was still fuming, gritting her teeth and vowing revenge on the user named 'Leo'.
"I swear, when I find you," she seethed, "I am going to ban you for a year!"
"Easy there, Amy," Leo mused to himself, opening his own BusyWorld platform. The storefront, once empty, now featured a single title: Thief Simulator. "Don't burn yourself out. You went into a total meltdown way too soon. You're about to experience what the System calls an 'Ultimate Rage-Inducer'."
The price was set by the system at a meager $0.99. In this world's stagnant market, dominated by free-to-play games littered with microtransactions, players weren't accustomed to buying games upfront. This low price wasn't just a sale; it was a Trojan horse.
Meanwhile, Amy's chat was a chaotic mess of ten thousand viewers. Finding one specific user was nearly impossible. But Leo had a plan. Using a newly created account, he sent a message.
[ Hey Amy, a new, super casual and relaxing puzzle game just came out. You should try it! ]
Amy, who was scanning the chat for any sign of her tormentor, saw the message and her eyes lit up with vengeful glee. "Aha! Finally caught you, Leo!"
She jabbed a finger at her screen. "You! My number one troll, the most-hated person on my channel, has the nerve to recommend a game?" Her tirade was cut short as a massive notification filled the screen.
LEO has donated $300!
Amy froze. The angry scowl on her face vanished, replaced instantly by a dazzling, angelic smile. Her voice, which had been sharp and angry, became sweet as honey.
"Oh my gosh! Thank you, Leo, my absolute favorite VIP! Three hundred dollars! You are just too generous!" she cooed.
The chat exploded. [ WHOA! The face-change jutsu is strong with this one! ] [ That was a 180-degree turn faster than a pro-gamer's flick shot! ] [ I thought Leo was a hater, turns out he's a whale! ] [ Bad news, guys. The traitor wasn't a simp, he was the final boss! ] [ Hey Amy, can you lend me a hundred bucks so I can donate it back to you? Don't be ungrateful now! ]
Leo winced slightly as he confirmed the transaction. "$300… that's my food budget for the entire month." But it was a necessary investment. "Protection money," he thought. "If I didn't pay up, she would've banned me on the spot."
With her mood completely flipped, Amy leaned into her camera. "So, Leo, my dear~" she purred. "What was that game you were talking about?"
Leo quickly took a screenshot of her fawning expression, saving it for later. His plan was simple and diabolical: wait for the game to completely break her spirit, then post the screenshot of her shamelessly shilling for cash. He would be a one-man demolition squad, ready to make her tilt all over again.
His sock-puppet account posted another message. [ The game is called Thief Simulator! It just launched. Super fun and chill! ]
"Thief Simulator…" Amy searched for it, but it wasn't on any of the major platforms. "It's… on a new platform called 'BusyWorld'?"
Chat was just as confused. [ A new launcher? Ugh. ] [ Haven't seen a new gaming platform in years. The competition is too fierce. ]
Amy's curiosity was piqued. Despite her on-stream persona, she genuinely loved gaming and hoped for the industry to innovate. She finished the download and opened the app. The storefront was clean, but she felt a pang of disappointment when she saw it contained only a single game. "It must be a tiny platform from a new indie dev," she murmured.
Then she saw the price.
"Wait a second," she said, squinting at the screen. "Holy crap, this game is only ninety-nine cents!" She immediately grew suspicious. "Leo, my dear 'boss'," she said, her voice dripping with distrust, "are you sure about this? This isn't gonna install some weird crypto-mining virus on my PC, is it?"
The chat shared her skepticism. [ A $1 game? No way they can make back the development cost. ] [ This has to be some kind of prank or a joke game, right? ] [ For a buck, who cares? I'm buying it just in case the price goes up. ]
Amy shrugged. "Might as well. What's the worst that could happen?"
She started the game. The main menu appeared, and a wave of relief washed over her. The user interface was incredibly simple and clean, a stark contrast to the visually polluted, pay-to-win garbage that flooded the market. It was just four simple options: [New Game], [Load], [Settings], [Exit].
"Okay, I have to say," she commented, speaking as a professional streamer, "this is a very comfortable and well-designed UI. There are no obnoxious, in-your-face buttons begging you to buy gems." She was genuinely impressed. "The fact that it doesn't immediately hit me with a '$99.99 First-Time Purchase' pop-up is a massive win."
Her positive review swayed the chat. [ Damn, this game actually looks legit. ] [ The art style is clean! I'm sold! ]
Leo watched from the sidelines as the download counter on his BusyWorld dashboard began to tick up relentlessly. [ BusyWorld Downloads +1 ] [ BusyWorld Downloads +1 ] ... The numbers were climbing fast.
Amy clicked [New Game]. The screen loaded, and a line of text appeared.
[ You are a… Financial Relocation Engineer. ]
Amy stared at the screen for a second before bursting into laughter. "A Financial Relocation Engineer? Hahaha! That's just a brilliant, smart-ass way of saying 'thief'! Okay, this developer is a genius with words, I love it!"
The in-game graphics weren't hyper-realistic AAA quality, but they had a clean, stylized look that was miles ahead of other new releases. People in the chat started buying the game based on the visuals and UI alone. Amy was completely hooked now, her full attention on the screen.
She was in control of a bald, middle-aged man standing on a suburban street, looking at a quaint house.
[ Prologue ][ Mission: Steal Mrs. Jones's Jewelry ]
"Hehe," Amy chuckled, her confidence soaring. "You're about to witness the master thief of StreamSphere at work!"
She expertly maneuvered her character into the shadows, creeping towards the house. "Okay, first rule of thievery: always case the joint. Gotta make sure nobody's home."
She crept silently to a side window, peeking inside to get the lay of the land. To her surprise, she immediately spotted an old woman, presumably Mrs. Jones, pottering about in the living room.
Amy flinched. "Okay, so the target is home. Plan B…"
But she never got to Plan B.
Before she could even react, Mrs. Jones looked directly at the window, her sweet grandmotherly expression vanishing. She whipped out a fully automatic AK-47 from behind her back.
Rat-a-tat-tat-tat-tat!
The peaceful suburban home erupted in a deafening roar of gunfire. Mrs. Jones, with the practiced ease of a seasoned mercenary, emptied the entire 30-round magazine directly into Amy's character.
The screen went black. Two lines of text faded in.
[ YOU DIED ]
[ As a Financial Relocation Engineer, your most important quality is patience. ]