Chapter 4  : Searching for a Trashy Game

That noon, his schoolmates returned one after another.

One of them waved a plastic bag in his hands containing food he bought from the canteen.

Pei Qian recognized him to be his former incarnation’s dorm mate, Ma Yang—his huge, long face left a deep impression.

“Brother Qian, you’ve really got guts to skip class! But you really lucked out, the Vice-President didn’t take attendance.” Ma Yang looked at Pei Qian with a ‘What kind of godly luck is that’ expression.

The other roommates started turning on their laptops.

“No classes in the afternoon. Anyone up for games?”

“I’m on. Hurry! Ma Yang, where are you?”

“Hold on, I’m not done eating yet.”

“Hurry up, you slowpoke. Someone go get more people from the other dormitories!”

The other people in the dormitory had already turned on their laptops and propped up small, makeshift tables on their beds.

Those were the dreary conditions of a school dormitory such that there wasn’t even a dedicated table for every bunk bed and they could only play games while sitting cross legged.

Pei Qian had always suspected that his back problems may have stemmed from this period of time.

In order to obtain the best gaming experience, even if they had their own laptops and it was convenient to organize gaming sessions within dormitories, many students would prefer to head to internet cafes.

Ma Yang was holding on to his stainless steel bowl that contained a plastic bag with food inside. Wolfing down a few bites hurriedly, he threw the entire plastic bag into the trash bin.

The reason why everyone bought food from the canteen was because they had class that afternoon.

If they had no class, everyone would be lying in their beds like corpses.

If someone finally decides to head to the canteen, the rest would ask to get ‘carried’.

But of course, takeaways appeared later on. However, they didn’t have any takeaway apps at that time and would order through making phone calls. Some of the poorer students would do it as a part-time job to earn some side income.

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.