Infinite Cashback System

Chapter 226: 227 | Wholesome or a Scam?

The rules meeting stretched past seven o’clock, then eight, then nine. Chloe typed with the intensity of someone drafting a prenuptial agreement while Kumiko added increasingly specific amendments about social media etiquette and acceptable emoji usage. Jordan sat between them on the sectional and ate cold sushi while his girlfriends debated whether a winking face constituted flirtatious behavior when directed at mutual acquaintances.

His phone buzzed at 9:47 PM.

Jordan glanced at the screen and found a Twitch notification. KhaosKitten is now live.

He should ignore it. He was in the middle of a relationship summit with two women who could probably sense dishonesty through walls. Checking another girl’s stream while his girlfriends discussed boundary protocols would be spectacularly stupid.

Jordan typed a quick message to the group chat instead.

"Lila’s streaming," he said out loud. "The girl from the parking garage."

Chloe’s fingers paused over her laptop. Kumiko’s head snapped up from her pink notebook.

"Research purposes," Jordan added. "If we’re thinking about recruitment."

"We haven’t decided we’re thinking about recruitment," Chloe said.

"I’ve decided," Kumiko announced. "I want to meet her. Her chat is really funny and she does this thing where she grows pumpkins in Stardew and names them after her subscribers and then sells them for profit. It’s capitalism but adorable."

Chloe closed her laptop with a soft click. "Fine. Research. But we’re watching together."

Jordan grabbed the remote and connected his phone to Chloe’s television. The screen flickered, then filled with Lila Martinez’s streaming setup.

The visual hit different on a sixty-five inch screen.

Lila sat in a gaming chair that looked like it had survived multiple apocalypses, the leather cracked and the armrests wrapped in duct tape. Her room behind her was deliberately chaotic, covered in anime posters and string lights and what appeared to be a collection of rubber ducks arranged on a shelf in descending size order. The contrast between her carefully curated mess and Chloe’s minimalist setup was striking.

Lila herself wore the same cropped band tee from earlier, though she’d added a black zip-up hoodie that hung open over her shoulders. Her purple streak caught the light from her ring setup. The snakebite piercings glinted when she spoke.

"Chat, I had the worst day," she said into her microphone. Her voice came through Chloe’s speaker system with impressive clarity. "My car died in a parking garage. Like, full-on refused to start. I had to get a ride from some random dude who charged me ten dollars for gas and didn’t even try to hit on me. Do you know how insulting that is?"

The chat exploded with responses. Jordan watched the messages scroll by too fast to read.

"No, seriously. Most guys offer help and then spend the whole time staring at my tits or asking for my number or suggesting we ’hang out sometime’ in that voice that means they want to wear my skin as a suit. This guy just drove me home and asked for Venmo. Like I was a transaction. A human Uber."

Kumiko giggled. "She’s funny."

"She’s roasting me," Jordan said.

"You charged her ten dollars?"

"Gas isn’t free."

On screen, Lila loaded up Stardew Valley and started tending to her virtual farm. Her character wore a custom goth outfit that someone in her community had clearly designed specifically for her. The pumpkins she mentioned earlier filled an entire field, each one tagged with a subscriber’s username.

"Anyway," Lila continued, "the guy was kind of hot. Like, conventionally attractive in that way where you know he’s probably boring in bed. No offense to any boring-in-bed people in chat. I’m sure you try very hard."

Chloe made a sound that might have been a suppressed laugh. Jordan chose not to comment.

"Six-two, dirty blonde, drives a Honda Civic that was way too clean for a college student. You know the type. Probably has a skincare routine and calls his mother on Sundays."

"You do call your mother on Sundays," Kumiko whispered.

"Shh."

Lila harvested three rows of pumpkins while her chat debated whether the mystery parking garage man was a serial killer or a saint. The donation alerts pinged regularly, small amounts from dedicated viewers who wanted their messages read on stream.

A five dollar donation appeared with an attached message: "Did you get his number tho?"

Lila snorted. "No, chat. I did not get his number. Why would I get his number? He charged me ten dollars. That’s not romantic. That’s capitalism. If I wanted to pay someone to drive me around I’d use an actual rideshare app and at least get a water bottle."

"She’s really hung up on the ten dollars," Chloe observed.

"It was fair compensation."

"It was weird."

"I have overhead costs."

On screen, Lila transitioned into discussing her streaming schedule for the week. She mentioned a potential collaboration with another cozy games streamer and a community event where viewers could submit farm designs for her to critique. Her engagement metrics climbed steadily as the stream progressed. Jordan watched the viewer count tick up from eight hundred to nine hundred to a thousand.

Kumiko pulled out her phone and typed something rapidly.

"What are you doing?" Chloe asked.

"Following her on everything. Also subscribing. Tier one."

"We’re supposed to be observing, not participating."

"Observation includes data collection. I’m collecting data."

Jordan kept his focus on the stream while his girlfriends argued about research methodology. Lila’s content style was completely different from what he’d expected. In person, she projected hostility like a porcupine shooting quills at anything that moved too close. On stream, she was still sharp-tongued, still sarcastic, still wrapped in aesthetic choices designed to keep people at a distance. But she also read subscriber names with genuine warmth. She remembered details about her regulars. She celebrated small milestones with her community like they were personal victories.

The contrast was interesting.

A donation popped up from KumiKumoCos with a thirty dollar tip: "Your farm is so cute!! The pumpkin field is genius!! Also I love your duck collection!!"

Lila’s eyebrows rose. "KumiKumoCos just dropped thirty dollars. Holy shit. Thank you." She paused and squinted at the screen. "Wait. KumiKumoCos. Isn’t that the cosplay girl? The one who makes the insane outfits?"

Jordan glanced at Kumiko. She was vibrating with excitement.

"I know you," Lila said. "You did that Hatsune Miku build last year that went viral. The LED pigtails were insane." She leaned closer to her camera, her violet contacts catching the ring light. "Why are you watching me water virtual crops?"

Kumiko grabbed her phone and typed a chat message: "I love cozy games!! Also your aesthetic is amazing and I want to be your friend!!"

"She wants to be my friend," Lila read aloud. "Chat, a verified cosplayer with ten thousand followers wants to be my friend. This is either really wholesome or a scam. Someone tell me which."

The chat voted overwhelmingly for wholesome.

"Okay, KumiKumoCos, I’ll bite. DM me after stream. We’ll talk." Lila returned to harvesting her crops. "Now where was I. Right. Pumpkins."

Kumiko made a squealing noise that Jordan felt in his molars. Chloe pinched the bridge of her nose.

"You just networked on a live stream in front of a thousand people."

"I made a friend!"

"You made a business contact."

"Can’t it be both?"