Section 30: Video Games

"Boss, business is good today."

"Heh, it's been okay today. What brings you here, Young Master Feng?" The boss's face was all smiles.

"Mm, I just ran into some brothers, so I'm just hanging out. Huh." Leaning on the boss's table, Cao Dongfeng took the protection money the boss handed him while glancing towards the back room. Seeing Jiaming's clumsy and stiff button-pressing technique, he burst out laughing, "Boss, come on, give me a few coins, I want to play too."

Taking a few game coins, he walked inside and leaned against the game machine Jiaming was playing, blocking half the screen. "Hey, what a coincidence, you three. Want to play together?" His gaze, however, bypassed Jiaming and fixed intently on the two girls playing a flying game next to him.

Their relationship had basically reached a breaking point, so Shasha immediately put on a sour face. "What bad luck. I knew we shouldn't have come here to play." Lingjing merely glanced at him before turning her head away, her gaze fixed coldly on the game screen. The two girls were pounding the game machine, making it clatter. Jiaming's screen was half blocked, and his character was quickly defeated. He sighed helplessly and gently nudged the person blocking him. "Please, don't block it, okay? I can't see."

Having been put in his place in front of the two girls, and seeing that the boy he usually looked down on dared to speak up, Cao Dongfeng's face immediately turned icy. He reached out and slapped the game machine. "Who the hell do you think you are, daring to yap here!"

With that slap, he also stood up straight. The second round of the game was about to start. Jiaming nodded and smiled with satisfaction. "Thanks. Blocking someone from playing isn't a good habit."

"You..." Cao Dongfeng pointed at Jiaming. Before he could speak, a thug from beside him ran over.

"How dare you talk to Brother Feng like that!" It was a newcomer to the Sand Bamboo Gang. He didn't recognize Liu Huaisha standing next to them and was about to throw a punch when the people behind him quickly pulled him back. Shasha slammed down her game controller and grabbed a stool, blocking in front of Jiaming. "What are you doing!? Do you want to fight?" Lingjing also stopped playing and stood beside Jiaming. Although she didn't speak, 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, so these thugs were naturally members of the gang. Liu Huaisha was clashing with Cao Dongfeng, so they naturally wouldn't get involved. One of the older members came forward and said a few words. Cao Dongfeng also raised his hands innocently.

"Heh, it's nothing, nothing. Just a small misunderstanding. Little sister Huaisha, we're old family friends, why cause such a scene? I was just..." He pointed at Jiaming. "We're all just playing games. If he's playing, I can play too. Only through mutual challenges and practice can we improve. Classmate Jiaming, although he's weak in many aspects, I see he has a lot of talent for games, so I wanted to have a match with him."

"Jiaming, let's ignore him." Lingjing said, tugging at Jiaming's hand. She knew Jiaming wasn't good at this. With the other party so confident, Jiaming would definitely lose. But how much could being good at this matter? Could it make him stand up when facing life-threatening danger? Shasha snorted and said, "I'll go with you."

At this moment, almost everyone in the entire arcade had been drawn to the situation and gathered to watch the spectacle. Seeing two beautiful girls standing up for Jiaming, most of them made sarcastic remarks. Cao Dongfeng spread his hands. "I know little sister Huaisha, you're very skilled, and I can't beat you. But my skill level is about the same as classmate Jiaming's. This kind of competition is what helps people improve, don't you think, classmate Jiaming?"

"Who's your little sister! Jiaming, ignore him, let's go." Huaisha said unhappily, about to pull her two friends away, when she heard Jiaming say, "Uh, okay. What he said is also true. There's improvement through competition. I always lose to you, Shasha. Maybe after practicing with him, I'll improve a lot."

"Jiaming, you..." The two girls spoke at the same time. Their concern made the onlookers envious. Jiaming, however, smiled and gave them an OK gesture. Cao Dongfeng laughed, "See? Classmate Jiaming is more sensible. We all improve together, improve together." He placed a few game coins next to Jiaming. "But there's one thing we need to agree on. We're all men, and competitions should have some stakes. How about this: whoever loses has to loudly say 'I'm a coward' three times."

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

Seeing Lingjing's beautiful smile, Cao Dongfeng quickly repeated, "I'm a coward." Then he saw the two girls and Jiaming burst into laughter. The crowd also laughed. He knew he had said the wrong thing, and his face turned red, looking like he was about to lash out. Jiaming finally stood up straight. "Okay, okay... I agree."

"Wait." Cao Dongfeng, holding back a stomach full of anger, seeing him agree, immediately said loudly, "Add another condition! Not only do you have to say it, but you have to crawl on the ground like a dog three times! Do you dare?"

Jiaming showed a hesitant expression. "Uh, is it necessary to be so ruthless?" Cao Dongfeng whispered in front of the three of them, "If you don't want to crawl like a dog, that's fine too. Lingjing will have to go on a date with me for a day. How about it?"

"You're shameless." Lingjing grabbed Jiaming's hand, her pretty face turning bright red. Just as she was about to drag Jiaming away, she saw Jiaming resolutely make up his mind. "Fine. Since you insist on this, I'll play along. At worst, I'll just crawl three times and say the words you just said. Hmph, but I haven't necessarily lost yet."

Hearing this, Cao Dongfeng was overjoyed. The chance to thoroughly humiliate this kid had finally arrived. Seeing that he had made up his mind, the two girls couldn't object. The three of them put their hands together and said, "Good luck!"

The two inserted coins and selected their characters. As they started playing, almost everyone gathered around to watch. Cao Dongfeng was calm and composed, while Jiaming was flustered. Although the two girls were desperately cheering him on from behind, his gameplay was truly unbearable. In the first round, Jiaming only managed to deplete a small portion of the opponent's health before being defeated.

Jiaming's second character appeared, but his control was still astonishingly poor. Shasha whispered to a worried Lingjing, "Jiaming actually cares about you a lot." Lingjing's face flushed slightly, but her face still only showed worry as she stared intently at the battle on the game screen. After a moment, Shasha leaned over again and said, "Don't worry. If he's about to lose, I won't care about anything else. I'll just throw something and smash the game machine, hmph." Lingjing looked at her gratefully and whispered, "How can you do that? At worst, at worst, I'll just go on a date with him once. It's not like Jiaming... Besides, Jiaming got into this trouble because of me."

In this second round, Jiaming seemed to find a bit of rhythm, and he fumbled his way through until his opponent's "cold blood" status was reached before he was defeated. Shasha had already started looking for a stool to smash the game machine. Cao Dongfeng burst out laughing, "Kid, it looks like you're destined to lose." Jiaming's expression looked quite tense, but he said, "I'm better at playing the third character, Yagami Iori. I haven't lost yet."

"Heh, then let's watch." At this point, Jiaming only had one character left, while Cao Dongfeng still had three. The outcome seemed decided. However, Yagami庵 did seem to be a character Jiaming was more proficient with. After being hit just once, he had already defeated Cao Dongfeng's "cold blood" character. But when Cao Dongfeng's second character came out, everyone basically thought Jiaming had lost.

In the eyes of others, the immense pressure made the boy extremely nervous, his hands even trembling. Lingjing took out a handkerchief and wiped the sweat from his forehead. Soon, the match began.

Bang bang bang bang bang bang—

Almost from the very beginning, Jiaming was in a frenzy. The joystick in his hand spun wildly, and the other hand pounded the buttons as if with a hammer. Amidst the onlookers' suppressed laughter, the Yagami庵 in the screen hopped around like a shaman, with every move being a kick, a kick, a kick... Cao Dongfeng also smiled and attacked calmly. Then, a bizarre situation occurred.

Seeing one of his moves miss and being kicked by the jumping Yagami, his second move went into the air, but Yagami had jumped back in the wrong direction. For the third move, Yagami jumped over again and kicked him strangely. For the fourth move, Cao Dongfeng was somewhat depressed because he stood up and blocked backward, but unexpectedly, Yagami didn't perform a jumping kick this time. Instead, he squatted on the ground and kicked him... And so, in a very depressing, monotonous, strange, and comical atmosphere, Yagami's health bar dropped by more than half, but Cao Dongfeng's character was worn down and killed by those kicks.

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

"This works too..."

"Too weird, is he possessed?"

The onlookers pointed and commented, but most thought it was luck and kept laughing. The two girls, however, were overjoyed, even happier than if they had won themselves. However, despite winning this round, Jiaming's Yagami Iori health bar had dropped to below half, and his opponent still had a full-health character. The third round was not optimistic no matter what. Shasha was still preparing to smash the game machine. Cao Dongfeng let out a cold snort, and then the third round began.

This time, there was no sound of frantically pounding the machine, and Jiaming's hands did not tremble at all. However, not many people noticed.

Yagami Iori still jumped up and delivered a meaningless kick. Cao Dongfeng's character charged forward and was strangely hit again. He still thought it was luck, but after that hit, he could no longer control his character because it was a combo of extreme precision.

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

"Yay!" The surroundings fell silent. The two girls cheered and hugged each other, jumping and jumping with joy. Cao Dongfeng's face turned a deathly gray, like a pig's liver. "You... you were playing me?"

"What? No?" Jiaming laughed excitedly. "It's just a game. I should thank you for letting me pull off such a great combo. I won't lose to Shasha anymore. Oh right, what did we agree on earlier? What does the loser have to do?"

Cao Dongfeng trembled all over. "Gu, leave some room for people to meet again in the future."

"Heh heh." Jiaming smiled, not urging him to crawl like a dog. He tugged at Lingjing and walked out with the two girls. "I don't mind meeting again. Anyway, you said what you said in front of so many people. As long as you do it yourself, it's fine. Of course, if you don't, that's fine too. I can't force you or stretch you. As for what everyone thinks of you, that's your own business."

Huaisha had originally wanted him to crawl on the ground before considering it done. But now, she smiled and turned back. "Who wants to see you again, Cao Dongfeng? You're just a useless coward."

If he didn't crawl on the ground, the matter would definitely spread, and Cao Dongfeng's reputation would be ruined. And if he actually did it, Jiaming and the other two would have already left. Doing it in front of these people would also be a complete loss of face. Cao Dongfeng stood there, his face turning purple and blue, looking like he was about to have an epileptic fit.

And on the street outside the shop, the great hero Jiaming, who had just won, was being tightly gripped by the necks by Lingjing and Shasha, their tongues sticking out.

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

"Choke you to death, we want to choke you to death, you bad guy. You made us worry to death just now, choke you to death..."

The two girls giggled and wantonly "abused" Jiaming. The three of them ran and played on the long street. In the sky, the clouds were a fiery, deep red.

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So, if the old book isn't finished, the new book won't get a contract. What should I do...

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