The Mystery of the Faceless Streamers

I looked at the photo we had just uploaded as the cover for our stream.

Four beautiful boys and girls were happily huddled together. The background was a gloomy, tombstone-like abandoned building, and the pale light, which gave off the texture of a dead person’s skin, came from a rugged, crater-filled round moon. The photo looked like a poster for an excellent horror movie. A single glance was enough to make the viewer think that these four beautiful youths were probably going to die tragically in the building behind them. And because it was taken with a phone, without any post-processing, it looked extremely, terrifyingly real.

This cover photo alone caused the rate of new followers to skyrocket.

Yukino suddenly thought of something and asked in her snowflake-like voice, “Do you guys remember? There was always one person following our stream back when we were playing DOTA.”

“I remember,” I nodded. “It was always just him, our lone, loyal soldier. Of course I remember.”

“What do you think,” Yukino’s cool eyes glinted with interest, “will be the reaction of this good brother who has been watching us play DOTA all this time when he finds out that the four of us faceless, voiceless ghost streamers actually look like this?”

I couldn’t help but laugh. “He’ll probably be so surprised that Abbacchio-Tea will start flowing out of him.”

…

Qin Qiong was the one and only person who had been following this ghost stream that only showed DOTA gameplay and sound effects.

That’s right, his name was Qin Qiong, the same as the famous general from history. His father had come up with the name while drunk. He was a male student at a polytechnic institute who liked to play DOTA and watch DOTA streams. But often, after a long day of classes, his brain would be buzzing with exhaustion, and listening to the somewhat noisy voices of other streamers gradually made him a little neurotic. Yet, he still wanted to watch a bit of DOTA on his phone before bed. Heaven never seals off all paths; he found this bizarre stream run by a bizarre streamer. The streamer never showed their face or spoke, only showing the game screen and sound effects, which was quite conducive to sleep.

Over the years of watching, Qin Qiong had also figured out that there were probably four streamers in total, playing ranked matches together. He guessed that the four of them were probably male university students like himself. He had thought this ghost stream would continue like this until the streamers graduated, but unexpectedly, something changed today.

His school didn’t turn off the lights or power at night, as long as it wasn’t too noisy. He lay in bed, picked up his phone, thinking he’d watch the ghost stream to help him sleep, and was stunned by the stream’s cover photo.

The DOTA screen, which hadn’t changed in a century, had been replaced by a photo. The Kiriko, Exusiai, Yukino, and Saber in it all looked like real people, yet their beauty was in no way inferior to their animated counterparts. The background was an abandoned building and a round moon that would make one think of misfortune at a single glance.

…This photo is amazing. Is it real or AI-generated? The lighting is incredible.

Then Qin Qiong was even more surprised to find that the number of followers was no longer the eternally unchanging [1], but had become [472], and it was still increasing.

Am I in the wrong stream? Did I click a weird ad?

Qin Qiong checked the stream ID and found that it was still the same familiar string of numbers. So he clicked in to see what was going on. The stream was a black screen, but many comments were flying by.

…What does ‘came from Tw*tter’ mean? The stream starts at midnight?

He looked at the stream’s title, which read [A Pretty Boy’s (or Pretty Girl’s?) Midnight Ghost Hunt! Stream starts at 12 AM~].

…Does this mean the four pretty boys and girls on the cover are going to livestream themselves exploring the abandoned building in the background?

If they looked the same in person as they did in the photo, that would be truly incredible, but… where did the four original DOTA streamers go? Did they sell the account??

…Huh?

Qin Qiong suddenly realized with a start that the original DOTA streamers were four university students who played together every day, and now the stream’s cover also featured four handsome and beautiful people.

…No way? They’re the same four people??

Qin Qiong found it hard to believe. The image of Kiriko, Exusiai, Yukinoshita Yukino, and Saber playing DOTA together was too beautiful for his simple, engineering-focused brain to even imagine.

Suddenly, without any warning, the black screen of the stream flickered and an image appeared.

A delicate, lovely little face belonging to Kiriko appeared on the screen. Her eyes were large and expressive, and Qin Qiong, who hadn’t even processed what was happening, was already struck by a sense of amazement.

…She really looks exactly like the photo? This is insane! This is beyond cosplay!

The stream was a bit grainy, and from the vertical orientation, it was clear they were streaming from a phone.

Comments flew across the screen:

[Wow! She looks exactly the same in person as in the Tw*tter photo?!]

[What kind of god is this! How can someone cosplay as Kiriko so perfectly! This is 2.5D made manifest!]

[Look at that delicate little face, that fair skin… this might sound a little crude… but I…]

[No lewd comments allowed!]

[No anti-lewd comments allowed!]

…Tw*tter? What’s this Tw*tter post they keep talking about?

Qin Qiong was puzzled, but the Kiriko on his phone screen, who looked like she was video chatting with him, was so delicate and stunning that this straight-laced STEM student couldn’t look away. He even felt a rare stirring of romantic feelings, a critical hit to his normally dormant heart. He watched as Kiriko, her long black hair tied into a slender ponytail, puffed out her cheeks and pouted her lips, making various expressions as she seemed to be testing the stream’s signal and delay.

Just then, a pale hand, so delicate it would make a hand-fetishist faint on the spot, entered the frame. Kiriko’s small face, which had previously occupied the entire screen, was pushed aside as Yukinoshita Yukino’s elegant face took up half the screen. The beautiful girl cosplaying as Yukino was standing behind Kiriko, leaning in with her chin resting on Kiriko’s shoulder, her black hair intertwined with Kiriko’s.

Yukino’s thin lips parted, and she spoke in a soft voice that could melt anyone’s heart, “Your stream’s camera settings are wrong, that’s why it’s so grainy. Look, change this to this…”

As she spoke, that hand that would make a hand-fetishist faint tapped the screen a few times. Instantly, the picture became much clearer, and you could see Exusiai and Saber looking over from behind them, as well as the abandoned dormitory further back.

The sight of the two beauties pressed together on the screen instantly sent the comments into a frenzy. Even Qin Qiong himself was a little captivated. Those two delicate faces pressed together, Yukino’s meltingly soft voice, the pearly teeth revealed between Kiriko’s thin lips as she replied “oh, oh”… my god!

Qin Qiong was suddenly startled.

…FML! My pants just moved. I’m not watching this anymore! This is bad for my dao heart!

Despite his words, he quickly found the button to send a private message to the streamer and sent the question that had been nagging him all this time:

[Qin Qiong Doesn’t Want to Fight Guan Gong (Door God profile pic): Streamer, streamer, I’ve been following since this stream was for DOTA. I wanted to ask… where did the four DOTA streamers from before go?]