Ma Yang dashed outside and yelled. Before long, the game room was filled.
Pei Qian looked at the screen on the computer – it was a 5v5 Multiplayer Online Battle Arena (MOBA) called Gods Rising. Its gameplay was similar to DOTA and was just packaged differently.
In terms of timeline, League of Legends also started gaining popularity from 2011. Even though it existed in 2009, it was extremely poorly made.
Besides, that was based on Pei Qian’s previous knowledge. Given the current changes of this world, there was no guarantee that League of Legends would be created.
During this period of time, MMORPGs still dominated internet cafes and the hottest game was Fantasy World.
Even though games such as Gods Rising were hot as well, they were more popular within dormitories as they weren’t considered to be pure online games.
While they were played in internet cafes and there were Player vs Player (PvP) games, they could not match up to MMORPGs.
“Brother Qian, why do you seem like you’re so dazed today. You didn’t sleep well?”
Ma Yang was puzzled at Pei Qian’s state. “We’re short of one. Are you coming?”
Pei Qian shook his head. “Nah, go look for someone else.”
“Alright, I’ll get Old Wang from next door then,” Ma Yang did not ask further.
Before long, the two side by side dorms started booming.
“The mid laner’s missing! Be careful!”
“F*ck! How did he kill me?”
“Hahaha! It was a three men gank and they still got killed! Noobs!”
Pei Qian stood behind Ma Yang looking at his cursor fly around the screen while he worked the keyboard with his left hand. The rapid clicking sounds of the keyboard displayed Ma Yang’s expertness.
He then took a look at the scoreboard. It was 10 minutes in and the score was at 10-9. Ma Yang’s Kill Death (KD) was at 0-0.
His roommates were getting flustered while he was missing last hits under the tower.
Pei Qian could not help but lament over how wonderful it was for everyone to be young back in 2009 and to be able to experience the joy of games.
Ever since he had started working, he had bought tons of great games. However, they were all left to collect dust as he forgot all about them.
Working life was extremely tiring and the only thing he wanted to do after ending work was to lie down on the couch to scroll through websites or watch livestreams. In fact, he was too lazy to play mobile games, let alone games that require such mechanical skills.
Thankfully, things were different now.
As long as he were to lose the System Funds completely, he would be earning money effortlessly! He could then lead a happy life as a bum!
Pei Qian laid on his bed and thought merrily about his future.
So, how should he spend this first sum of 50,000 yuan…
Perhaps he should get himself a high-end computer first?
Next up, he’ll rent a house and continue his life as a bum shamelessly!
Fufufufu.
Pei Qian could not help but snicker.
…
…
“So, that concludes this week’s Trash Games Diss! If you daddies enjoyed this week’s episode, please remember to like, share and subscribe!”
In a certain rental home in Beijing, a fat young man with thick eyebrows and huge, dispirited eyes sat before his computer recording videos listlessly.
This was Qiao Liang, a famous UP Master1 on Potato Web’s games section who goes by the nickname Teacher Qiao. His fans also endearingly called him ‘Godfather of the Games Channel’ because each time he ended his videos, he would call out ‘daddy’.
As a professional UP Master, Qiao Liang was a little popular and had quite a number of fans. However, this was 2009 at the end of the day. Given the current ecosystem, his income was still basically unstable.
If he received good sponsored partnerships, he would be revived momentarily and could enjoy a good meal at a restaurant.
If not, he might have to survive with just plain soup and noodles, going on a diet by starving.
Qiao Liang had tried going about different directions, but his Trash Games Diss segment was still the most well-received and had the most views, attracting a bunch of game loving fans.
Qiao Liang had another segment called New Recommended Games of the Month that was meant for sponsored partnerships.
After all, he got popular through a segment called Trash Games Diss. However, there was no way any games merchants who wanted to work with him for sponsored posts would dare publish anything through that segment.
As such, Qiao Liang created New Recommended Games of the Month just for sponsored partnerships. It’s just that compared to Trash Games Diss, there were way too little followers.
After he finished recording the latest episode of Trash Games Diss, Qiao Liang did not publish it for a long time.
He felt that it lacked something.
Yes, that’s right – it lacked soul.
The games mentioned this time round seemed to have nothing special other than being plain trash!
Even after preparing his synopsis, materials, voice over and recording the entire process diligently, Qiao Liang felt that while the episode was watchable, there was no sensationalism to it.
The games were so trashy that they did not have a talking point.
That bothered Qiao Liang terribly – after all, he was banking on this to make a living. If his viewership does not go up, it would be difficult for him to receive better sponsored partnerships.
Therefore, Qiao Liang was in no hurry to publish the latest episode. Instead, he browsed through the new games recommendation list on the official games platform, looking for his special trash to showcase.
Right then, he found himself getting hungry and dug out a packet of instant noodles before boiling water, preparing to replenish his energy.
When the water boiled, Qiao Liang continued his search for the new games.
“The Lonely Desert Road? What kind of a sh*t game is this?”
Qiao Liang looked at the game summary.
“A simulated driving journey that makes you contemplate life?”
“How do you contemplate life?”
That summary stirred at Qiao Liang’s curiosity.
As a professional content creator of the games section, Qiao Liang was basically someone who would play any games that piqued his interest.
He clicked on the game and before long, the download was complete as it turned on automatically.
Chapter 5
Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
“Eh? It starts just like that?”
The water in the kettle had yet to boil and Qiao Liang had no time to bother about it as he entered the game.
There was no opening scene or animation nor any options as the player entered the game right away.
In the vast desert, a long, curving road extended indefinitely.
It was a first person point of view from within the car and there was a simple instruction interface while controls could be done with either keyboard or controller – it was completely identical to the mainstream racing genre games in the market.
Qiao Liang looked at the image on the screen and acknowledged that the controls were fitting.
After all, this was a set template where the upper and lower limits were not too extreme.
Picking up his controller from the side, Qiao Liang hooked it up to the computer and began the game.
The car started moving.
Qiao Liang meandered along the road and drove on.
It was morning in the game and the sun had just risen, so the brightness wasn’t too glaring.
Sand danced about wildly in the desert and there were a series of sandstorms in the distance which would affect the visibility limits of the by reducing it.
The road snaked ahead – it wasn’t a straight path and there were turns every now and then.
Click!
The water in the kettle had boiled over.
Qiao Liang was driving as he sank into his thoughts.
What am I doing?
What should I be doing?
What does this game hope for me to do?
He had been driving for three minutes now. Indeed, there were several turns, but…
There was nothing else that interested him besides that!
Driving, turning, looking at sandstorms in the distance. Other than that, the game had nothing else.
In fact, there wasn’t even any other cars on this desert road!
Qiao Liang wanted to go cook his noodles and he pressed for the menu button.
However, there was no reaction.
Qiao Liang: “???”
For any other games, this would have been a pause button. But there was no reaction for this game!
Thinking that it was a bug, Qiao Liang held onto his controller while tapping on the ESC, Space and Return keys on his keyboard…
Still no reaction!
This game can’t be paused!
Qiao Liang was completely stunned.
In his moment of astoundedness, he lost his focus and missed a turn, driving off the road and sinking into the sand.
GAME OVER.
Eight simple alphabets appeared on his screen.
Jaws agape, Qiao Liang fell into disbelief.
This game had truly redefined his knowledge of trashy games!
No. Strictly speaking, this can’t be considered as a trashy game.
Trashy games were often due to a lack of quality, funding or objectivity from the side of the creators that leads to a compromise in certain aspects such that gamers would get a sense that it was poorly made.
But, this game was different.
It seemed as though it was aiming to disgust others!
Why else would it not have a pause function or a save point, displaying a game over at every single failure?
“Hold on, this is interesting…”
“Perhaps, this might be popular as a diss video?”
Qiao Liang cooked his noodles hurriedly and started analyzing the game’s title and summary.
“The Lonely Desert Road. There’s an emphasis on Lonely!”
“A simulated driving journey that makes you contemplate life… Indeed, I’m truly contemplating about life right now. This summary has not lied to me at all…”
“Seems like this game’s truly filled with evil intents!”
“The company that produced this game is called Tengda Network Technology Co., Ltd.. I haven’t heard of them and this seems to be their only game.”
“Pfft…”
After finishing his noodles, Qiao Liang took up his controller once more.
However, he turned on his recording software this time round, ready to record his entire progress.”
…
Three hours later.
Qiao Liang was slightly distracted and he missed a turn, sinking the car into the sand and ending the game.
“AH!”
“F-F-F-F*CK…!!!”
Qiao Liang was so pissed that he nearly threw his controller on the table. That was three hours!
He had spent three hours doing nothing but driving the car in the desert. Yet, he was greeted by a merciless GAME OVER that announced his failure.
Three precious hours of his life had left him just like that. Other than wasting electricity, he had not created any form of value.
Even the recorded video was useless. Of the entire three hours worth of recording, only the few seconds of his final moments could be edited into a failure compilation.
Qiao Liang threw the controller onto the computer desk while getting up to compose himself.
He didn’t smash the controller because he was too poor.
That controller cost at least 200 yuan. If he had accidentally damaged it, he would have been heartbroken.
“Huff…”
“Calm down.”
“It’s all for work.”
“Very well, this game has successfully triggered my wrath. I have to say that it’s a good quality for a trash game to possess.”
Qiao Liang regained his composure before long.
As a professional UP Master of dissing trash games, he had been through tons of hardships and challenges. A small fry like this was something he should be able to hold up against.
However, Qiao Liang has also realized that it wasn’t going to be an easy task clearing this game.
This was a challenge!
Therefore, Qiao Liang made a phone call for a takeaway.
He was lucky that he had lost the game early. If it were any later, there wouldn’t be any takeaway services left.
Seizing the opportunity, Qiao Liang laid down on the bed for a nap to recover some energy.
After he woke up and ate his fill, he placed a large glass of water on the table and prepared himself for the drawn out battle.
He was already getting the hang of the game.
Was there any difficulty to this game? No.
It was no exaggeration to claim that anyone with hands could clear this game.
There were no sharp turns nor meddling police cars that would rush at you. In fact, there wasn’t even any speed requirements for the players.
The only difficulty was time!
If even three hours spent could not complete the journey, there was no telling how much longer there was to go.
Players would instinctively want to increase the speed of the car to end the game faster. However, that would require even more focus or they may miss any turns they come across.
The moment they drive off the road, they would have to begin all over again.
If they wanted to go at a steady pace, they would have to drive slower. However, that would end up extending the game time.
“Messed up! This is really messed up!”
Qiao Liang felt an unprecedented surge in his desire to both challenge and diss this game.
If he could create a dissing video out of this game, just the title alone would be clickbait for tons of views!
Gritting his teeth, Qiao Liang entered the game to fight it once more.
…
More than eight hours later.
Late night.
“Holy f*ck!”
“I’ve cleared it! I’ve really bloody cleared it!”
Qiao Liang was on the brink of tears as he could finally see the finish line!
It was a commonly drawn finish line as though many of the racing car games out there had used the same universal art resource. However, for Qiao Liang in his current state, the black and white striped finish line never felt more intimate than at this moment.
His eyes were brimming with tears!
Holding his controller, he stood up from his computer chair.
His back was aching dearly and his hands were slightly cramping up. Even his eyes could barely stay open because he had been burning the midnight oil for too long.
However, he had persevered through the eight hours!
It was not for naught!
Qiao Liang was so emotional that he could not even understand what sort of feelings he was experiencing at the moment.
At the moment the car crossed the finish line, he felt as though he was possessed by the God of Cars!
At that moment, he was the most handsome lad on the entire racetrack.
Right after, the screen turned black and a line of words appeared.
“Congratulations for wasting eight precious hours of your life!”
Chapter 6
Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
Qiao Liang was confounded.
That’s it?
He had cleared the game?
That line of words was the only thing he received?
Shouldn’t you at least make a trophy for me? Make a podium!
Even if you don’t have those art resources, make me a sound effect of people cheering!
How much does c
heering sound effects even cost? Must you be that stingy?!
I spent eight hours clearing this and all you gave me was a black screen and a mocking remark?!
Qiao Liang could not take it any longer, be it physically or mentally.
He had truly invested deeply and he was so pissed at this game that he wanted to cry!
However, despite his despair and infuriation, there was a slight consolation in his heart. A slight… relief?
It wasn’t that he was a masochist; he knew that this was precious material for him!
Wouldn’t his audiences click for more likes and shares seeing their UP Master in such misery?
Qiao Liang checked for a moment – his eight hours of journey had been recorded completely.
“Just you wait! I’ll settle you after I wake up!”
Qiao Liang said to the game harshly before saving his recording properly and sinking into bed for a deep sleep.
…
Three days later.
Pei Qian woke up naturally in his dormitory, feeling happiness in his life.
He had adapted himself to university life once more during this period of time.
He could wake up naturally everyday without having to worry about work, the pressure of hitting KPIs or facing the temper of his superiors.
All in all, there was only a single word for it – contentment!
But of course, things would be better if he was richer.
First thing to do upon waking up – summoning the system!
When he saw the 0 in the system, Pei Qian felt a sense of satisfaction.
Amazing!
As for the pathetic figure behind his Personal Wealth status, there was nothing he could do about it.
He was already trying his best but he couldn’t save any money at all!
He only had 1,000 yuan monthly for living expenses. Even if he were to eat in the canteen daily, it still wouldn’t be enough.
After all, he couldn’t use all his money just for food – there had to be other daily expenses, right?
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