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It was Max's first time ever showing his face online, and to be completely honest, he was pretty damn excited about it.
But looking at his monitor, with only five minutes left until 8 PM, Max took a deep breath and adjusted himself into his best possible state—shoulders back, posture straight, camera angle optimized.
There's nothing to be nervous about. It's just a casual chat. Maybe start up a game demo. Hand out some of the stuff I prepared this afternoon to the fans. Easy. Simple. You've got this.
Just as Max was mentally psyching himself up, the door to his room was suddenly kicked open by a certain "violent woman."
"What do you want, Jasmine?"
"I want the PlayStation!" She pointed at his console setup accusingly.
"Absolutely not. I'm about to start streaming."
"So what? You stream, I'll play. I'll be quiet." She gave him the most unconvincing innocent look he'd ever seen.
"No."
In short, facing Jasmine's request—which was basically asking him to let thousands of internet strangers watch while she gamed in the background like some kind of exhibitionist—Max resolutely refused.
Being tempted by the idea was one thing. Actually doing it was a completely different matter.
Still, Jasmine's interruption did have one positive effect: Max's nervous energy dissipated quite a bit, replaced by mild annoyance and the familiar comfort of sibling bickering.
And so, as the clock struck 8:00 PM exactly, tonight's streaming event—a carnival night for Holy Grail War fans across the entire internet—officially began.
Max clicked "Go Live."
The chat exploded instantly.
[OpenTheDoor]: OPEN THE DOOR! LET US IN!
[Troll]: Max, you bastard, you already hit 100k followers! Where's the promised cosplay stream?!
[RuleOfLaw]: That's right! The ancient laws of YouTube cannot be broken!
[Fetish]: Wait, are all your tastes really this degenerate?
[Fan]: Just kidding lol, this is our beloved producer~
[GamerGirl]: MAX, YOU ABSOLUTE BASTARD! Give us a straight answer: can you add female player characters? If not, at least give us a character creator!
[Hype]: Is this where we get the goblin and female knight storyline I've been waiting for?
[LiveNow]: Holy shit, HE'S ON!
[Confetti]: LET'S GOOOO! CELEBRATION EMOTES!
It wasn't that Max had deliberately planned some kind of dramatic dead-air moment for effect.
It was mainly that seeing the screen absolutely flooded with celebration emotes and hype spam—completely unprepared for this level of enthusiasm—Max was genuinely shocked into silence.
His brain just... stopped for a second.
However, Max wasn't the only one who'd been stunned into speechlessness.
Because unlike certain game developers who had to wear masks during streams out of legitimate fear that angry players would track them down for IRL confrontations, Max's appearance could be summed up in one word:
Hot.
Sure, he was just wearing ordinary casual clothes—nothing fancy, just a plain black button-up and jeans.
But his ash-gray hair, which Jasmine had meticulously braided earlier (after much complaining and several threats), had been successfully transformed from its usual "seaweed disaster" into a high, clean ponytail that actually looked intentional.
He'd also put on a pair of black-rimmed glasses—technically blue-light-blocking glasses for eye protection, but they gave him that "sexy librarian" vibe.
And combined with the fact that one button on his shirt had mysteriously come undone—whether intentionally or accidentally, who could say?—revealing a hint of surprisingly well-defined chest and collarbone...
The result was a young man who looked like a delicate, artistic pretty boy at first glance, but who radiated an underlying energy that suggested he could probably bench-press you if properly motivated.
One could only say that Jasmine, watching the stream from the next room over, immediately charged into battle out of pure sisterly respect.
Her first donation appeared on screen within seconds.
And the chat surged with an absolutely massive wave of new comments the moment Max's face appeared on camera.
[Shocked]: Wait, WHO THE FUCK ARE YOU? You're actually hot?!
[Traveler]: Max babe, do you have any interest in visiting Los Angeles? I can be your tour guide. And by tour guide, I mean—
[Foodie]: New addition to LA's 'must-eat' list confirmed.
[LinYumo]: Holy SHIT, why didn't you mention you were this good-looking earlier?! I, Lin Yumo, hereby demand you export your face model into VR and make it a playable character IMMEDIATELY.
[Seconded]: SECONDED! MOTION APPROVED!
[Screenshot]: Sisters, screenshot NOW, I'm saving this for later as a sign of respect!
[CannotHandle]: I can't handle this, I literally cannot, I love this exact type and he's even doing the stunned/confused thing, isn't that TOO FUCKING CUTE?!
[Age]: Max looks so young, are you still in college?
[Jasmine]: Just turned 18~ (This was Jasmine, obviously lying)
[Denial]: I'll admit you're handsome, but compared to ME, you're still lacking a bit.
[Challenge]: Don't laugh challenge: impossible difficulty.
[Illusion]: Is this an illusion? When did the timeline shift?
[Balding]: I refuse to believe this. I absolutely REFUSE to believe that such an incredible game developer isn't a 40-year-old balding middle-aged man. If he's not, then what the hell does MY baldness count for?!
[Overtime]: It counts as you working unpaid overtime lmaooo~
In short, internet users were exactly that shallow and fickle. Before Max showed his face, he was "Max, you piece of shit." After showing his face, he was "Max babe" and "Daddy Max."
The whiplash was real.
In a development Max himself hadn't remotely expected or prepared for, a fan community called "Protecting The World's Purest and Cutest Game Developer" was born within approximately ninety seconds of him turning on his webcam.
There was a good reason for this.
Unlike most games with severely imbalanced male-to-female player ratios—where it's like 95% dudes and 5% women pretending to be dudes—Holy Grail War's gender split had reached an surprisingly even 60-40 male-to-female ratio.
The reason there were so many female players was purely because certain heroes from Greek mythology were simply too hot to ignore (looking at you, Achilles), combined with a solid contingent of European historical figures led by Iskandar the Conqueror.
Although all the player characters were male—meaning theoretically male players should be having the time of their lives—Max had set a threshold during development specifically preventing the more... creative modders from going too far with certain customization options.
So in actual gameplay experience, female players were having an absolute blast. Especially with Achilles.
Achilles had shot straight to #1 on the Hero Popularity Rankings, completely blowing past the game's original poster girl, Artoria, by a whopping eleven spots.
That's right. The Fate franchise's iconic mascot, Artoria Pendragon herself, could only manage to scrape together 12th place.
Life truly was unpredictable. The great circle of fate turns in mysterious ways.
You couldn't really blame the players, though. Achilles was handsome, powerful, had incredible voice acting, and his personality was that perfect combination of cocky and charming. Who wouldn't simp for him?
Therefore, based on all of the above factors, when Max showed his face during the livestream, his personal safety was immediately and severely compromised.
The hunters had caught his scent.
[System]: Rich_Auntie_Susan has donated 10 Super Chats - "Hey cutie, you free tonight?"
[System]: FlowersBloomMayOldFriendsReturn has subscribed with a Tier 3 membership!
Max read the notifications aloud, his face turning slightly red. "Thank you 'Rich_Auntie_Susan' for the... ten Super Chats. Uh, streamer sells games, not himself. Thank you 'FlowersBloomMayOldFriendsReturn' for the Channel Membership. I want to reiterate: although I am poor, I am NOT for sale. Thank you all for your support, but please keep it respectful."
One could only say that the fundamental unfairness of life was on full display here.
Sometimes you could work your absolute hardest to create something genuinely meaningful and artistic, and it would get completely overshadowed by viewers' horny comments and thirst donations.
But regardless, Max needed to get this stream back on track before it devolved into complete chaos.
He was here to host a game developer Q&A, not run an OnlyFans audition.
So after clearing his throat and shooting the camera a "please behave" look, Max bent down and pulled out an Artoria figure from under his desk—a beautifully crafted clay sculpture he'd made himself.
"Ahem. Let me properly introduce myself." Max held up the figure for the camera. "My name is Max, and I'm the creator of Holy Grail War.
The main purpose of tonight's stream is to address the recent controversy surrounding the game, answer some of your questions about development and future updates, and discuss where we're headed next.
But before we get into all that serious stuff, I've prepared some gifts for you guys—my amazing, supportive player community.
They might not be professionally made, so please don't judge them too harshly." He smiled sheepishly. "I used to study a bit of clay sculpting as a hobby, so before the stream started this afternoon, I spent a few hours sculpting twenty figures of the most popular Heroic Spirits, starting with our girl Artoria here.
I'll be randomly selecting winners from the live chat to give away ten of these tonight during the stream. The remaining ten will be given away via a raffle after the stream ends through Twitter.
This is my way of saying thank you—for your support, for your passion, and for loving this game I poured my heart into creating."
Max set the Artoria figure down on his desk where the camera could see it clearly.
The chat went wild.
[Gorgeous]: HOLY SHIT THOSE ARE GORGEOUS
[DIY]: WAIT YOU MADE THOSE YOURSELF?!
[Need]: I NEED THAT ARTORIA RIGHT NOW
[Achilles]: Please tell me there's an Achilles figure PLEASE
[Unfair]: This man is talented AND hot, this is unfair
[Generous]: Bro literally any other developer would charge $200 for these and he's just GIVING THEM AWAY?!
[Simp]: Max I would literally die for you
Max couldn't help but smile at the enthusiastic response.
Yeah. This was why he made games.
Not for the money or the fame or the industry drama.
For this. For people who genuinely cared.
"Alright," Max said, pulling up his chat selection randomizer. "Let's start the giveaway. First winner in three... two... one..."
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