Desolate World

As Emily ended her singing, she got tremendous applause from the townsmen. Her three new friends also clapped their hands enthusiastically. It made her feel recognized.

"Thank you… Thank you… Thank you…," She then bowed her head several times to her audience.

Then she saw a beautiful woman come to her. At first, she felt puzzled. But as she saw her name, she realized who she was. She was Sofia Nightglow. The second rank in the Laketown guardian ranking. 

What made her more surprised was her job as a scribe. Although she had never heard the name of the job, it sounded more like a production job than a combat job. To be able to reach level 34 with a production job at the moment, was definitely an achievement to be proud of.

"Hello, My name is Sofia. I don't want to spoil the fun. But, if you don't mind, why don't you perform on the stage? The bards of my guild have been pretty spent, right now. 

I hope you can do me a favor by singing some songs up there," Sofia said.

Emily found it was unexpected. She then asked," Can I?"

She asked that not because she was being low-key. But because she doubted that Sofia held that much power. After all, it was the town plaza. Something that should not be in the scope of a guild's influence.

"Of course, it's okay. After all, my guild was commissioned to entertain the townsfolk today. I will even give you a share of the rewards according to how long you can perform," Sofia said.

"So, it's like that. But I'm sorry, I'm lacking mana. So…," Emily said shyly. 

Sofia showed a surprise and then gave an understanding nod. She then took 10 bottles of mana potions. After then giving them to Emily.

After gulping the potions, she then went to the stage. Some NPC bards and other townsmen cheered her up. It made her honored.

While walking, she looked at her streaming statistics. The numbers on it shocked her to the core. It made her stop her step and almost dropped her guitar.

"One… One million? That's surely a mistake here," Emily said a little loud.

What made her surprised was the number of her viewers had reached 1,3 million. And the donation that she got was 73 thousand credits. It was so unbelievable, that she opened her eyes wide. 

Kaiju: Lol. Look at her expression. It's so funny.

Zzz01: Look! What I said. She definitely didn't know the mayhem in her streaming room. She was not the type who would be calm when knowing that her viewers have reached a million.

Papazila: @Zzz01, Lol. That is our Emily

…

"What is it, Emily?" She then heard Sofia's voice from behind. It woke her up from her shock. 

Emily then forced a smile. She said, "No! It's nothing.

She then went up to the stage and saw the expectant townsmen. She was still overwhelmed by the number of viewers that were watching her. But she forced herself to be calm.

'Isn't it what you want?' She then asked herself.

What was her dream? Her dream from childhood was to be a star. Because of that, she trained so hard. 

She has attended an online singing class since 8 years old. After that, she had left her family and sanctuary in her 12th to enter a music school on Mars. Only to find there were many people like her in the school. Chasing their dreams to be stars. 

For ten years, she studied many kinds of instruments and singing. But, it was not only her that made progress. Everyone else also made progress. When one by one of her friends got their chances or made their own chances, she only followed the flow, and became mediocre. Not too bad, but also not so good. 

Several times she was asked to help some musicians to work on their projects, but only just that. She only became a helper, or in another word, an extra. 

That was not what she wanted. Although small, although insignificant, she wanted to be a star. A star that shined with her own light, not to be overshadowed by the bigger star's light. 

However, until she graduated, she hadn't gotten a chance to prove her ability. So, she could only become an online music teacher. 

For two years she found many talented girls and boys. And they really loved music like her. When she asked them what they want in their future, most of them said that they wanted to be stars.

So, they were like her. Innocent hearts that dreamed of being recognized. So she helped them the best she could. She thought that when someday she knew one of them would become a star, she could be proud. Because she also had contributed to craft them to be who they were. 

In those two years, she held that conviction, that it was her role. Finding and crafting 'the rough diamonds' to the brightest star in the future. 

Until Desolate World was launched a few months ago. Seeing the popularity of the game, she wanted to try it. Like others, she wanted to role-play. Becoming someone else significant. So she bought a capsule.

To her surprise, there was a bard job in the game. Without hesitation, she chose it. She also chose a guitar as her 'weapon' from four options; guitar, flute, violin, or drum.

She then found that she could play them by herself at another word manual, or with the system help. Of course, she would play manually. 

As a suggestion of an old friend, she paid extra to buy a recording item and play the game as a streamer. Who thought that she got a good reputation in video streaming. As the first batch of streamers who played Desolate World, she started pretty well. She got around 5,000 viewers in the opening of the desolate world.

However, she was unlucky enough to be summoned to a pretty chaotic settlement, where the guilds competed fiercely in the wild. As a result, her small guild was eradicated. Leaving a big guild to be the overlord in the town. Who then bullied the solo players like her. 

In an oppressive situation like that, she couldn't enjoy playing the game at all. And so her viewers. 

Initiated by a viewer, around 10 thousand of her viewers petitioned her to start over. They even funded her 25,000 credits to buy starting equipment in the system shop. 

Then here she was. She had never imagined, her dream as a star had been realized like this.

***