Video Games

"Business is good today, boss."

"Heh, not bad. What brings Young Master Feng here today?" The boss's face was piled with smiles.

"Mm, I ran into a few brothers, so I was just wandering around. Oh?" Leaning over the boss's desk, Cao Dongfeng took the protection money the boss handed him with one hand while peering into the back room. When he saw Jiaming's clumsy, stiff button presses, he immediately broke into a grin. "Boss, come on, give me a few tokens. I want to play too."

Taking several game tokens, he walked inside and slammed himself against the arcade machine Jiaming was using, blocking half the screen. "Hey, what a coincidence. You three, how about we play together?" Yet his gaze passed over Jiaming and fixed tightly on the two girls playing the flying game beside him.

Their relationship with this guy had basically already fallen apart. Shasha immediately put on a sour face. "What rotten luck. If I'd known, we shouldn't have come here to play." Lingjing merely glanced at him before turning back, staring coldly at the game screen. The two girls hammered away at their machines, while half of Jiaming's screen was blocked. His character was soon killed, and he sighed helplessly before lightly pushing the other man. "Please, could you not block it? I can't see."

After being snubbed by the two girls, Cao Dongfeng saw that even this boy he usually looked down on dared to speak up. His face immediately turned icy as he slapped the arcade machine. "Who the hell do you think you are, yapping away here!"

That slap made him straighten up as well. The second round of the game was about to begin, and Jiaming nodded with satisfaction and smiled. "Thanks. Blocking someone while they're playing isn't a good habit."

"You..." Cao Dongfeng pointed at Jiaming. Before he could speak, a little punk beside him had already rushed over.

"How the hell do you talk to Brother Feng, brat!" He was a newcomer who had only recently joined the Sand Bamboo Gang and did not recognize Liu Huaisha standing nearby. He raised his fist, about to hit someone, but several people behind him hurriedly pulled him back. Shasha slammed down her game and grabbed a stool, blocking Jiaming. "What are you doing!? Trying to start a fight?" Lingjing stopped playing as well and stood beside Jiaming. Though she said nothing, her face was full of anger.

"Sorry, sorry, Sister Sha. He's new and doesn't know any better. Please don't take it to heart." This was Sand Bamboo Gang territory, and these punks naturally belonged to the gang. Since Liu Huaisha and Cao Dongfeng were about to clash, they did not dare get involved. One of the more senior members stepped forward to smooth things over. Cao Dongfeng also raised both hands with an innocent-looking expression.

"Heh, it's fine, it's fine. Just a small misunderstanding. Little Sister Huaisha, our families have known each other for generations. Why make things so unpleasant? I was only..." He pointed at Jiaming. "We're playing games. If he can play, then of course I can play too. Only by challenging each other can we improve. Jiaming may be weak at everything, but I think he has talent at games, so I wanted to play a round with him."

"Jiaming, let's ignore him." Lingjing tugged at Jiaming's hand. She knew Jiaming was not good at this. Since the other side was so confident, Jiaming would definitely lose if he played. But so what if someone was good at games? Could he stand up when faced with mortal danger? Shasha snorted. "I'll play you."

Most of the people in the arcade had been drawn over by the commotion and gathered to watch. Seeing two pretty girls standing up for Jiaming, most of them sneered and mocked him. Cao Dongfeng spread his hands. "I know you're very good, Little Sister Huaisha. I can't beat you. But Jiaming and I are about the same level. Only a match like that can help people improve, right, Jiaming?"

"Who's your little sister! Jiaming, ignore him. Let's go." Huaisha looked thoroughly displeased and was about to pull her two friends away when Jiaming said, "Uh, okay. He's right, though. You only improve through competition. I always lose to you, Shasha. Maybe if I practice against him, I'll get a lot better."

"Jiaming..." The two girls spoke at once. Their concern made the onlookers green with envy. Jiaming merely smiled and gave them an OK sign. Cao Dongfeng laughed. "See? Jiaming knows what's what. We improve together, improve together." He placed several game tokens beside Jiaming. "But there's something we need to agree on first. We're both men, so there should be stakes in a match. How about this? Whoever loses has to loudly say three times, 'I'm a coward.'"

"Say what three times?" Lingjing asked with a smile from the side.

Seeing Lingjing's beautiful smile, Cao Dongfeng hurriedly repeated, "I'm a coward." Then he saw the two girls and Jiaming burst out laughing, while the crowd also began laughing. Realizing he had misspoken, his face turned bright red. He looked ready to hit someone, but Jiaming only straightened up after a long while. "Mm, okay, okay... I agree."

"Wait." Cao Dongfeng had been holding in a bellyful of anger. Seeing Jiaming agree, he immediately shouted, "Add one more thing! Not only do you have to say it, you also have to crawl on the ground like a dog for three circles! Do you dare?"

Jiaming looked hesitant. "Uh, isn't that a bit too much?" Cao Dongfeng lowered his voice before the three of them. "If you don't want to crawl like a dog, that's fine. Lingjing can go on a date with me for a day instead. How about it?"

"You shameless bastard." Lingjing grabbed Jiaming's hand, her pretty face flushed red. She was about to drag him away when Jiaming made up his mind with a resolute expression. "Fine. Since you insist, I'll go all the way with you. At worst, I'll crawl three circles and say those three lines you said earlier anyway. Hmph, but it's not like I'll definitely lose."

Hearing this, Cao Dongfeng was overjoyed. His chance to humiliate this brat had finally come. Since the two girls saw that he had made his decision, they could not object anymore. The three of them put their hands together and said, "Go for it!"

The two inserted their tokens and chose their characters. Seeing the match begin, nearly everyone gathered around. Cao Dongfeng looked calm and composed, while Jiaming looked utterly flustered. Though the two girls behind him desperately cheered him on, his playing was truly unbearable to watch. With his first character, Jiaming only chipped away a tiny bit of his opponent's health before losing.

Jiaming's second character came out, but his controls were still shockingly poor. Shasha leaned close to Lingjing, who was watching anxiously, and said, "Jiaming really cares about you." Lingjing's face reddened slightly, but she still looked worried as she stared without blinking at the battle on the screen. After a while, Shasha leaned over again. "Don't worry. If he's about to lose later, I don't care about anything else—I'll just throw something at the machine and smash it. Hmph." Lingjing gave her a grateful look and said softly, "How can we do that? At worst, at worst I'll go on a date with him once. I can't let Jiaming... Besides, Jiaming got dragged into this trouble because of me."

With this second character, Jiaming seemed to have found a little rhythm. He muddleheadedly wore the opponent down to low health before dying. Shasha had already started looking for a stool to smash the machine with, while Cao Dongfeng laughed loudly. "Kid, looks like you're definitely losing." Jiaming looked extremely nervous, but said, "I'm better with my third character, Yagami. I haven't lost yet."

"Hehe, then let's see." Jiaming only had one character left, while Cao Dongfeng still had three. The outcome seemed decided. However, this Yagami really did seem to be a character Jiaming was more familiar with. After taking only one hit, he had already defeated Cao Dongfeng's low-health character. But when Cao Dongfeng's second character came out, everyone basically believed Jiaming was finished.

In the eyes of the others, the enormous pressure had made the boy terribly nervous. His hands were even trembling. Lingjing took out a handkerchief and wiped the sweat from his forehead. Before long, the match began.

Bam bam bam bam bam bam—

Almost from the very start, Jiaming seemed to go mad. He spun the joystick frantically, while his other hand pounded the buttons as if striking them with a hammer. Amid the amused looks of the crowd, Yagami bounced around on the screen like a shaman performing a ritual. Every move, without exception, was a kick, kick, kick... Cao Dongfeng laughed too and attacked calmly. Then something bizarre happened.

His first attack missed, and the jumping Yagami kicked him once. His second attack went into the air, but Yagami had kicked in the wrong direction and already jumped back. On the third attack, Yagami jumped over again and bizarrely kicked him once more. On the fourth attack, Cao Dongfeng was getting annoyed, because he stood and blocked backward. Who would have thought that this time Yagami did not kick in midair, but crouched and kicked once... And so, amid an atmosphere that was frustrating, monotonous, bizarre, and hilarious, Yagami lost more than half his health, yet Cao Dongfeng's character was slowly kicked to death one kick at a time.

"Haha, this kid's luck is way too good."

"That actually worked..."

"That's too bizarre. Is he possessed?"

The crowd pointed and commented, but most assumed it was luck and laughed nonstop. The two girls were thrilled, even happier than if they had won themselves. Yet despite winning that round, Jiaming's Yagami had already dropped below half health, while the opponent still had a full-health character left. The third round did not look promising no matter what, and Shasha was still preparing to smash the arcade machine. Cao Dongfeng snorted coldly. Then the third round began.

This time, there was no frantic pounding on the machine, and Jiaming's hands did not tremble in the slightest.

Yagami still jumped up and threw a meaningless kick. Cao Dongfeng's character charged forward and was again bizarrely struck once. He thought it was just luck again, but after that hit, he could no longer control his character, because it was an unbelievably precise combo.

Kuzukaze, Yumebotan, Aoi Hana, Yashinome... From the moment that character's health dropped to half, people began to gasp sharply. Cao Dongfeng looked toward Jiaming beside him and saw only a sincere, innocent-looking smile at the corner of his mouth, his fingers nimbly tapping away at the buttons. The result was a one-hit kill, a complete victory.

"Yeah!" Silence filled the arcade. The two girls cheered, hugged each other, and jumped up and down, so happy, so happy. Cao Dongfeng's face turned the dead gray of pig liver. "You... you were playing me?"

"What? No?" Jiaming grinned excitedly. "We were just playing a game. I should thank you, actually. You let me pull off such an awesome combo. I won't lose to Shasha anymore. Oh, right, what did we say the loser had to do?"

Cao Dongfeng's whole body trembled. "Gu, leave yourself some room in life so we can meet again someday."

"Hehe." Jiaming smiled but did not urge him to crawl like a dog. He tugged Lingjing along and walked straight outside with the two girls. "I don't mind meeting again or whatever. Anyway, just do what you said in front of all these people. Of course, you don't have to do it either. I can't make you taller or shorter. As for what everyone thinks of you, that's your own business."

Huaisha had originally wanted to make him crawl on the ground before letting it go. Now she smiled and looked back. "Who the hell wants to see you again? Cao Dongfeng, you're nothing but a useless coward."

If he did not crawl on the ground like a dog, word of this would definitely spread and Cao Dongfeng's reputation would be ruined. But if he really did it, Jiaming and the other two had already left. Doing it for these people would still cost him all his dignity. Cao Dongfeng stood there, his face turning green and purple, looking terrifyingly like he was about to have an epileptic seizure.

Outside on the street, the great hero Jiaming, who had just won, was now being viciously strangled by Lingjing and Shasha, his tongue sticking far out.

"Urgh... mercy... two heroines... I'm dying..."

"Strangle you! I'm going to strangle you, you bad guy! You scared us to death just now! Strangle you..."

The two girls giggled as they mercilessly tormented Jiaming. The three of them ran down the long street, laughing and fighting. In the sky, the clouds were a bleak crimson like burning fire.

Apparently, if the old book wasn't finished, the new book wouldn't get a contract. What should I do?