The Live PK

The ring light in the live streaming room lit up the whole place, bright and clear, even the air seemed to shimmer with tiny specks of dust. The battle countdown in the top right corner of the screen blazed red, the numbers ticking down one by one—30, 29, 28... With every tick, my heart tightened. I just placed my finger on the mouse, ready to start the scheduled vote, when the live chat suddenly looked like it had been splattered with ink—instantly flooded with nonstop comments. A sea of black wolf-head avatars swirled, making my head spin. That was Cameron Jones's crew's signature—something I knew all too well. They used to flood my live streaming room with gifts under that avatar, but now it felt like a knife stabbing me. The top comment kept getting spammed, glaring in white letters on a black background: "Cameron told us to support Rachel! Nova, stop pretending!" Rachel, who was on the livestream, immediately curved her lips into a smile at the camera, but her eyes flicked over to me. Her voice was sickly sweet: "Nova, I'm definitely winning this battle against you today." She was playing with a silver bracelet in her hand. I immediately recognized it—it was the limited edition one Cameron said he wanted to buy for me a few days ago. I didn't respond. Sliding my fingers off the mouse, I quickly swiped through my phone screen, found Cameron's number, and called him. The call connected after just one ring. From the other end came the noisy buzz of a bar and a woman's laughter. "What do you mean?" I tried to keep my voice steady, but the tension slipped through, and even my breathing was heavier than usual. Cameron's voice was casual, like he was just chatting about what he ate today: "Just helping a friend out. Rachel's live stream numbers have been bad lately, so don't make a big deal out of it." "Friend?" I tightened my grip on the phone, knuckles turning white. "I'm your fiancee, and you're backing another woman in my battle? Didn't you say last week you'd help me top the monthly leaderboard?" "Nova, can you stop being so petty?" Cameron's tone grew a bit impatient, "It's just a battle, right? So what if you lost? Worst case, I just send you gifts to make it up." I was about to say something when suddenly a red pop-up appeared on the screen — 'Battle Failed'. Those two words felt like a heavy stone crushing my chest, suffocating me. In the public chat, Rachel's fans kept spamming "Thanks, Cameron," and staring at those words, my eyes started to sting. Before Cameron could say another word, I just hung up the call and closed the live streaming room too.