A chance encounter

The next day, I woke up around 2 P.M. and went to visit Leona.

“Bright and early!” she stated as she opened the door.

“It’s a good thing we’re on a similar sleep schedule. So, what were you thinking of doing today?” I asked.

“A Dare!“ I’m gonna chug down an entire tube of wasabi in under a minute. I fail if I don’t finish in time or hurl it back up,” she declared as she held up a tube of wasabi.

I sighed as I shook my head.

“I’ve got a better idea. Why don’t we stream a game together, however we implement challenges that we must complete. If we fail to complete them, it’s a shot of wasabi.”

Leona blinked in confusion for a few seconds before finally grinning widely.

“Hell yeah! Why didn’t I think of that? Wait! Does that mean YOU’RE gonna stream with me and risk chugging an entire tube of wasabi just for me?”

“Yes, it would be more challenging and exciting with two people. As for the game, how about Maria racing triple turbo? We’ll do a full cup circuit and depending on what place we get, that’s how many globs of wasabi we’ll have to eat. Since this game has online, we can race against others instead of just against each other and the CPUs.”

As Leona set up the game, I logged in to see how the vod of her Squeegee’s Penthouse playthrough was doing on Mewtube. The numbers were still low, but a little higher than average at 50 views. As soon as we were done streaming, I planned to test my editing skills and make a highlight reel. If my skills paid off, she’d have a top tier highlight reel that would help her gain some subscribers.

As I helped her set things up, she suddenly retreated into her prop room to grab something. When she emerged, she was holding a mask with a long nose.

“Since you’re gonna be on camera, why not wear this mask? It looks like a bird, and your username is Crowboy so…”

I smiled as I took the mask from her.

“Thanks for thinking of me, now let’s race.”

After Leona did the introductions and explained the challenge, we began the first race. There were about 10 to 15 viewers when we began. Leona was insanely good at the game. I felt like all that time I spent playing this game was wasted.

“So much for learning the meta,” I grumbled as I finished 5th out of 10th.

Leona had managed to take 2nd place, though would have gotten 1st if not for that damn blue egg item. The next race went better. I was able to manage a 3rd place finish while Leona took 1st. While I was improving, I was most likely going to have to down that tube of wasabi. After the 3rd and 4th races it was official. Leona had managed to win 3 of 4 races, thus securing her immunity. I meanwhile finished 5th overall. That meant four globs of wasabi.

Before I took my poison, I checked the view numbers. We had climbed up to 30 viewers. It wasn’t a lot of views, but still an improvement. I happily downed my wasabi and coughed and hacked like crazy.

“You OK Crow?” Leona asked as she fetched a bucket and some water.

“Yeah, throat’s dry *hack* so spicy.”

After downing the water, I prepared myself for round 2. We had agreed to do the best of 3 rounds. If I came any lower than Leona, I’d be chugging the whole tube. As we waited for the race to begin, I noticed the usernames of our opponents were mostly the same as the first round.

“Maybe Leona’s gaming skills are winning them over,” I thought.

The first race seemed to be going well for me. I maintained 1st, while Leona battled for 2nd with someone. All was going well until the blue egg smashed me, and I was robbed of my first place finish. Despite initially being 3rd, Leona had somehow managed to secure 1st.

“How! You were in 3rd?” I complained.

“Simple, I let him get ahead as soon as I saw someone get the blue egg. Then he got caught in the explosion while I cruised past you guys,” Leona boasted.

I let out a frustrated scream before readying myself for the second race. The 2nd race’s course was really difficult, yet Leona and that one guy were brawling for 1st the whole way through.

“Dang, who is that guy? He’s taking shortcuts and using the turbo drift like a pro!” I thought as I struggled not to fall below 6th.

Then I got the blue egg item. I threw it without even realizing Leona was in first.

“Sorry Leona! I didn’t mean to-huh!”

To my shock, she was still in first despite being caught up in the explosion. I then realized her opponent had been so close to her that he was unable to escape the blast radius. Leona notched up another win. It was starting to become mathematically impossible for me to beat her. After her and her rival took off, I resigned myself to my fate.

“Wasabi here I come,” I groaned as I crossed 7th.

Leona had now won 3 races in a row, meaning I was chugging the wasabi. Though if she messed up, she’d be eating a few globs with me. As the final race started, I decided to take a peek at the view numbers.

“Se- Seventy-five!?” I shouted.

Leona was so focused she didn’t even flinch. Come to think of it, she had been incredibly focused for the entire stream. Nothing wrong with that considering she was getting results, but would her lack of energetic banter hurt her? My thoughts were interrupted by her scream.

“4-0 **********!” She declared as she stood up and basked in the glory.

She had won all 4 races and shut out her opponent, even though he finished 2nd all 4 times. I then grabbed the wasabi tube and chugged.

After a torturous eternity, my punishment was over, though my mouth still tasted like wasabi.

“Thanks to everyone for watching, now let’s raid! Hey Crowboy! Who we raidin today?” Leona asked as I hobbled over.

To my shock, there were 90 viewers watching. Though the number was dropping due to the stream ending, I briefly froze as I couldn’t believe the numbers. What caused that spike? Were they just Maria raceway fanatics or… I immediately scoured the live channels.

“Let’s raid Jaime359!” I declared.

“OK!”

The stream ended and we entered Jaime’s. Jaime359 was a popular American streamer worldwide. While I didn’t understand much English, I knew we had to raid him.

“[Whoa! We got a raid of 90 people from… Leona!? Wait Wait Wait? Is this the same one that we were racing just now?]” Jaime asked his chat.

“What’s he talking about?” Leona asked in confusion.

“He’s the guy you were racing. Look! That’s the same racer you were just going up against!” I stated as I pointed to the screen.

“Ah! What should I say?”

“Something like nice race, I’m down for a challenge whenever.”

Leona began typing.

“Intense race! If you want to try and reclaim your title, I’m down anytime,” she posted.

Jaime read her comment.

“[Hoh hoh hoh! Well, you enjoy that crown, because I WILL take it back. But not tonight. I did promise chat I’d play some Duck detective so no more Maria racing tonight. Though, I’m happy to challenge you again. You won’t beat me next time Leona! Now I’m gonna take a quick BRB, and then Duck detective.]”

“What did he say? I think it sounded good,” Leona asked.

“Sorry, my English is just as bad. Though I’d follow his channel. This guy is huge and the fact that you were able to race against him AND beat him is big. This could help you big time! Let’s make sure to shout him out in the title of the vod,” I replied.

This was what I had hoped for. She had now garnered more exposure by luck. Now we just had to ride the momentum to keep on growing.