Ten thousand dollars. Ten thousand dollars!
That was all Dorothy could think about.
As for what she was streaming—it didn't really matter anymore.
So when Fortnite was about to go live, she was practically counting down the seconds.
At that moment, there were only a dozen or so viewers in her livestream.
"Why isn't Dorothy dancing today?"
"No idea. Looks like she's planning to play a video game."
"A video game? What game? Something interesting?"
"Seems like a new one. It's called Fortnite."
"Which company made it?"
"I checked earlier. The studio is called Nintendo, a newly founded company. The investors are a big deal though—Lorenzo, the former CEO of the Morgan Group."
"Why is Dorothy playing this kind of game?"
"No clue. She's been staring at the game's launch screen since the stream started."
The dozen viewers chatted away in the comments, clearly puzzled by her unusual enthusiasm for this game.
It didn't come from a major studio, and the art style was cartoonish.
For adult viewers like them, that kind of visual style wasn't especially appealing.
Of course, there were exceptions—Gamestar Electronic Entertainment's games always looked childish at first glance, yet somehow hit exactly the right spot.
For these viewers, though, the main reason they were watching was simple: habit.
They were used to Dorothy's stream.
It was about companionship—years of it.
So no matter what Dorothy streamed, they would watch.
"Sorry everyone, today's stream is actually a sponsored deal," Dorothy said. "I have to stream this game for at least four hours a day over the next month. I hope you'll understand."
She'd noticed the discussion in her chat.
These dozen viewers were her most loyal supporters, and she didn't want to lose them because of this game.
"No need to apologize. We'll watch whatever you stream."
They didn't have much going on anyway, and Dorothy quickly promised that after completing her four-hour requirement, she'd return to her usual daily dancing and singing.
Finally, the countdown on Fortnite's launch screen ended.
At the same moment, streamers everywhere received the notification.
They surged into the world of Fortnite all at once.
"Hello everyone. Today I'll be streaming a brand-new video game. I don't know yet whether it's good or not, but I believe it should be pretty fun."
At the same time, in another channel, a well-known gaming streamer introduced Fortnite to his audience with a completely flat expression.
"Come on, your ad read is terrible. If the sponsor knew you were promoting their game like this, they'd probably cancel the contract on the spot."
"Yeah, even if we know the game doesn't look great, you should at least explain it properly."
"Sorry, sorry—that was my bad," the streamer said. "Let me redo that, and then we'll play."
His tone wasn't very sincere.
He didn't actually care about the game at all.
He'd accepted the sponsorship purely because the money was good.
Streaming for a full month meant he'd earn $500,000 in ad fees—far more than his usual monthly income of a little over $100,000.
He'd already planned to use the money to buy a car, so no matter what, he had to stream this game properly.
Still… he just couldn't bring himself to feel interested.
The game didn't look impressive at first glance, and the genre itself wasn't popular.
More importantly, according to the info, it had only been developed for a few months by a newly founded studio.
From every angle, the game seemed to lack any real potential for success.
Honestly, if it weren't for the money, he wouldn't even give it a second glance.
"Alright, we're in the game interface now. I have to say, it's pretty simple. The main menu is just matchmaking and a few cosmetic options. Let's check out the in-game store first."
He clicked into the store.
"Hmm, the skins aren't expensive—mostly between one and five dollars. Oh? This chicken-head costume is kind of funny, and it's only a dollar. I'll buy one. But viewers, if you're interested, don't impulse-buy like I did."
The chat immediately started commenting.
"Graphics aren't great. The total budget for this game probably wasn't very high."
"But I heard they spent a lot on advertising. Feels like they put the cart before the horse."
"Well, the game was only in development for a few months. You can't really spend more even if you want to."
"I'm already not interested at all. If I had something better to do, I wouldn't even be watching."
"Same here. Just killing time."
Most viewers were watching purely out of curiosity.
They didn't believe this game had any chance of succeeding.
To them, it felt like nothing more than an opening stunt by the company.
Many so-called experts had already said it: this game was just a stepping stone, a signal that Lorenzo wanted to enter the game industry.
Maybe, before long, the Morgan Group would follow suit and become a top-tier game developer.
Even though Lorenzo had stepped down as Morgan Group's CEO years ago, people still instinctively tied his actions to the company.
They saw this as some kind of signal for Morgan Group's future.
After reading those analyses, players became even less interested.
If not for the livestreams, they probably wouldn't even look at the game.
The advertisements alone were hardly enough to attract ordinary players.
"Alright, I've bought a skin. Let's enter matchmaking and start the game."
The streamer clicked the matchmaking option.
Just a few seconds later, the match was found.
"Huh? That was fast."
"Oh right—there are a lot of streamers playing right now. Looks like we've probably matched together."