Jiang Siming had bought an 18-yuan beef rice bowl from a late-night food stall and was planning to head home. As he passed an office district, he noticed a huge advertisement posted outside.
It read, in large letters: 4AM PUBG team recruiting, followed by some recruitment details:
At least eighteen years old,
Over 2,000 hours of game time,
KDA above 4.0,
Average damage above 500 per match,
At least 3,000 points on the Asian server and 4,000 on other servers,
No bad habits, willing to follow arrangements, and in good health,
Snipers with exceptional talent would be given priority.
A monthly salary of 50,000+, with food and lodging provided. Tournament prizes and seasonal dividends were calculated separately.
Seeing the recruitment notice, Jiang Siming's heart began to itch.
These conditions were way too good. A monthly salary of 50,000, with food and lodging included.
But then he thought about it and realized he probably had not met their standards yet.
His account had not even reached a hundred hours of game time, and he only had 1,200 points. As for his KDA and average damage, there was even less to say.
The hole he had dug earlier was simply too deep. Even though he had gotten quite a few chicken dinners over the past two days, those figures still had not risen by much.
He was nowhere near meeting the requirements. Besides, after joining a team, he would have to train with the other members every day and would no longer be free to arrange his schedule. It would be equivalent to handing his entire life over to the team's orders.
Jiang Siming had only just escaped the misery of working a regular job, so for the time being, he truly did not want to be controlled by anyone again. After looking twice, he turned and left.
When he got home, Jiang Siming shoveled down the beef rice and, after filling his stomach, took a shower. Just as he was about to play some games, someone knocked on the door.
When he opened it, he saw his landlady, Big Mom.
"Sister Luo, is something wrong?" Jiang Siming asked with a frown.
Sister Luo was his landlady, but Jiang Siming did not like her. She was too snobbish, stingy, miserly, and completely lacking in human feeling.
The moment Sister Luo saw Jiang Siming, her eyes nearly popped out. Her pair of abalone eyes kept sizing him up, and she even wore a coquettish smile.
"Xiao Jiang, I just came over to check on you and tell you about two things."
"Go ahead. I'm listening." Jiang Siming showed no expression. He blocked the doorway with his body and had no intention of letting her in.
Sister Luo did not get angry. She gave Jiang Siming several more lascivious looks before smiling and saying, "First, a tenant is coming tomorrow. You'd better tidy up the things in the living room. It'll give the new tenant a better first impression."
Sister Luo's apartment had two bedrooms and one living room, and she rented the rooms out separately. Jiang Siming rented only one of them. The original tenants of the other room had been a very honest couple, but they had moved out last month, leaving the room vacant ever since.
"Sister Luo, you can bring a tenant over, but as we agreed before, don't bring any strange or dirty people here to live."
Jiang Siming spoke bluntly. He did not want his roommate to be a slob or some disgusting sort of professional, such as a prostitute, a gambler, or a young gangster. If that happened, he would move out immediately.
Jiang Siming had been quite satisfied with the previous couple. They were both clean and decent people, aside from the fact that he sometimes heard sounds unsuitable for children at night.
Sister Luo laughed heartily. "Don't worry, Xiao Jiang. This time it's a girl. She's very clean and very pretty. There's no way I'd feel comfortable letting some random person live in my apartment, right?"
"That's good. What's the other thing?"
"The other thing is that this month's rent is about to come due. When do you think you'll have time to pay it?" Sister Luo grinned with her greedy, oversized mouth.
Jiang Siming was not angry, but he certainly had no favorable impression of her.
He had lived there for over a year. Every month, Sister Luo came to collect the rent right on time, without allowing even a moment's delay. If he was a day late, she charged extra.
Once, he had been extremely short on cash and asked her to give him two more days. He had pleaded with her repeatedly, but she refused. In the end, Jiang Siming had no choice but to apply for a credit card before he could pay her rent.
Jiang Siming was just about to get the money when Sister Luo unexpectedly became "understanding."
"Actually, Xiao Jiang, if you're short on cash, it's fine. I can give you a few extra days."
Before she finished speaking, she continued, "My lower back has been aching these past few days. If you come to my place and give me a massage, I won't charge you extra. How does that sound?"
The legendary rich lady's happy ball? Is she trying to groom me into a kept pretty boy?
Upon hearing this, Jiang Siming turned around without a word, went into his room, took out 2,000 yuan, and slapped it onto the coffee table in the living room. He then returned to his room and slammed the door shut.
"Tch, how ungrateful!"
Sister Luo spat in disappointment, picked up the money, and left while twisting her barrel-shaped waist.
After driving away the annoying and disgusting landlady, Jiang Siming finally sat back down at his computer desk, opened PUBG, and continued his solo-queue journey.
When he entered the lobby, Jiang Siming discovered that many people had invited him.
They were all unfamiliar IDs. Thinking they were sending advertisements, Jiang Siming ignored them. He also set his account so that others could not invite him before clicking to start a solo match.
Meanwhile, in Shark Live's stream room, Dumb Sister had started streaming again. Her daytime dejection was gone, replaced by a "smiling" face as she continued chatting and playing games with her viewers.
However, every time she died and returned to the lobby, she still could not help checking whether Jiang Siming was online.
He probably isn't playing today, Dumb Sister thought.
She forcibly held down her disappointment and was just preparing to start another game when she saw the plus sign behind Jiang Siming's ID light up again.
But not long afterward, it went dark again, and the words "Invitations unavailable" appeared above it.
Her best friend saw it too. Realizing that Dumb Sister was about to misunderstand again, she quickly comforted her in a low voice.
"Dai Dai, his ID is already famous throughout Shark Fish-Man. Didn't you see the posts? Lots of people said they wanted to find him and stand up for you, so plenty of strangers must have tried inviting him. That's why he set his account to block invitations."
Dumb Sister thought that made sense, so she could only compose herself for the time being and continue streaming.
Once he entered the game, Jiang Siming became serious.
Since this game had become the cradle through which he could realize his wishes and dreams, he could no longer treat it like any other game.
Although he had no plans to join a professional team for now, Jiang Siming still hoped to raise his rank. Perhaps fragments had a higher chance of dropping in high-level matches. Who knew?
This time, the map was a small one—the newly released Sanhok Map.
Jiang Siming looked around from the sky, but no fragments had spawned.
He was not discouraged, however, and flew toward Sad City.
Sad City was the most terrifying place on the small map. On average, more than twenty people landed there every match, making it almost as bloody as Airport.
Because many people who jumped there died the moment they landed or were ambushed by Old Sneak, everyone had named it Sad City. Whoever jumped there would end up depressed.
As he opened his parachute, Jiang Siming realized that his parachuting skills were truly terrible. Other people had already landed, while he was still spinning in the sky.
He really wanted to go to the largest building in the center and fight for a gun, but the players who had deployed faster had already gotten weapons there. Going over now would only mean delivering himself to death.
With no other choice, Jiang Siming settled for second best and landed in a deep ditch outside the buildings.
If you parachute slowly, you've already lost half the game.
Jiang Siming sighed. He thought that when he had time, he would have to search Baidu for parachuting techniques. Otherwise, he would have all this martial prowess with nowhere to use it.
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