Chapter 34

When Qiao Yu saw that Lin Linya wasn’t very satisfied with the number he’d drawn, he asked him, “Do you want to swap with me?”

Lin Linya was already disappointed he hadn’t drawn a game he knew how to play, so he took it out on him with a very bad tone, “Is the one you drew any better than mine?”

Qiao Yu scratched his nose after being snapped at. “Alright then, see you at noon.”

Clutching his number plate, Lin Linya searched for ages before finally finding the second PUBG sub-venue. While the staff at the door checked his plate, he curiously peeked inside, only to be so startled by the sea of people that he immediately pulled his head back.

He hadn’t expected so many people to come watch this match. The seats below were already completely packed, and fans who couldn’t find a spot were wandering around the back rows.

A staff member wearing the same type of wolf ears handed his number plate back. “Please take your number plate and proceed to your seat. Just a reminder, every computer is being live-streamed in real-time; you can log directly into the game. For the entire fun match, please use the account we’ve provided for you.”

“Okay.”

Lin Linya was already so nervous he looked like a teary-eyed cat meme, but he still didn’t forget to say, “Thank you, Miss.”

He was exceptionally pleasing to the eye, with a great attitude and very polite manners. Guessing he might be new to streaming on the platform, the staff member kindly lowered her voice to comfort him, “Drawing a major game like this is very helpful for boosting your stream’s popularity. Don’t be nervous.”

Lin Linya, “…Okay.”

He walked into the venue and looked around. As expected, they were all people he didn’t recognize. The match hadn’t started yet, and many were streamers who knew each other in groups of twos and threes, chatting together.

He obediently found his seat and sat down. After playing on his phone for a while, he felt a bit too out of place. Bored, he fiddled with the computer, and suddenly his expression turned to one of wonder, like he’d discovered a new continent.

The official computers were connected to the internet and could even open web pages. They didn’t even require installing a Flash plugin.

[There are a lot of locals in the second sub-venue’s game section, huh. No wonder the buzz is so high both online and offline.]

[My friend who’s at the venue got there late and couldn’t find a seat at all.]

[Fun matches with more locals are still the best to watch. PUBG fans really get annoyed by some outsiders who can’t even walk properly; there are some every year. My stupidity allergy is acting up.]

[In my opinion, this kind of fun match should be split by game section. Some games are harder for novices to pick up; sending them to a fun match just gives them a bad experience…]

Many viewers, both at the venue and watching online, were originally discussing the participants. The rapidly scrolling danmaku suddenly paused.

Finally, someone asked, puzzled, [Who’s playing Fireboy and Watergirl on machine 43?]

Lin Linya, the very subject of their discussion, hadn’t yet realized that tens of thousands of people were watching him play Fireboy and Watergirl live.

He had just wanted to casually play a minigame to relax, but the further he played, the more serious his expression became, his back gradually straightening.

[I really can’t take this. Why are you stuck on this level? First, use the water kid to hold the button down, then use the fire kid to go through this door and hit the switch. Won’t both of them make it across then?]

[Double jump! Don’t you know how to double jump? Press jump twice in a row; can’t you just jump over this puddle?]

[This is too boring. I counted; he’s fallen into this same puddle 13 times already.]

[Thank goodness he’s playing the invincible version, or else having to restart every time he died would really spike my blood pressure.]

[Why did he suddenly stop moving? Did he finally realize we can actually see him?]

On the small screen of computer 43, the mouse cursor suddenly minimized the game window, opened Baidu, and typed in: “Fireboy and Watergirl Invincible Version Level 16 Walkthrough.”

The webpage loaded the walkthrough. He scrolled the cursor down, reading slowly, like an old grandma with reading glasses scrutinizing a product manual.

[…]

[The silence from upstairs is deafening.]

[I’m dying of laughter! How can someone need a walkthrough for Fireboy and Watergirl?]

[Me: So boring, who would like watching someone play this? My brain: Keep watching.]

After looking up the guide, Lin Linya finally managed to smoothly clear all sixteen levels of Fireboy and Watergirl. He was so tense his palms were sweaty. He let out a sigh of relief, and for a bit of coolness, he grabbed his shirt collar and flapped it.

Finally, someone took the seat next to him. Lin Linya turned his head and found it was a familiar face. Instantly, his eyes welled up. “Bro, how did you draw this place too?”

Little Yang had spotted him the moment he walked in.

Sitting all alone in his seat playing a minigame, looking quite pitiful. Quite a few people nearby seemed to want to strike up a conversation, but his own thick nerves hadn’t noticed, making him seem like he’d been isolated by the whole world.

After making a big round and finally finding someone to swap number plates with, he’d managed to switch onto Lin Linya’s team. Little Yang leaned back in his chair, the corner of his mouth hooked up, slowly fanning himself with a round fan. “Yeah, we’re even on the same team. Isn’t that a coincidence?”

“Ah,” Lin Linya’s mouth dropped open in surprise, looking a bit dumbfounded. “Too much of a coincidence.”

Little Yang was amused by his expression.

Lin Linya looked at him blankly, not understanding why he was laughing. But having finally found someone he could talk to, he said pitifully, “I don’t know how to play this. Bro, you have to teach me later.”

Little Yang was a seasoned otaku himself. Although he mostly streamed Glory, he dabbled in other games too. He helped him open the training camp. “Practice a bit on the shooting range by yourself first. Start with stationary targets. This isn’t that hard.”

Lin Linya consoled himself, “Alright, with my gaming talent, I should pick it up pretty quickly.”

“Right, I was just coming from over there and heard someone say something about a guy playing Fireboy and Watergirl, and he was so bad at it…”

Lin Linya whipped his head around. “?”

Little Yang winked at him. “That wasn’t you, was it?”

Lin Linya shouted, “How could it be me?!”

He looked down, feeling a guilty conscience. Thank goodness no one knew who it was, he thought. He opened the training camp, picked up a gun, and started practicing.

After he’d been playing by himself for a while, a surprised voice suddenly spoke up from beside him, “Why are you shooting a target 50 meters away with an AWM?”

A strange teenager with his hands behind his back, aimlessly wandering around, had stopped behind him. After watching for a moment, he sat down at the neighboring seat, leaning his upper body over to look at Lin Linya’s computer. After a moment, he said, frustrated by his failure to improve, “Change to a close-quarters combat gun.”

Lin Linya was standing next to the armory. The teenager reached out and tapped the screen. “This one. Try this one.”

After another moment, he spoke up again, unsatisfied. “Agh, you’re so dumb. Press the muzzle down. Your bullets are all shooting into the sky. Are you firing a salute? Trying to scare all the enemies to death?”

After a long string of comments, he concluded with a look of disdain, “Tsk, being on a team with you is really the worst luck.”

“You’re so annoying. I don’t even know you, and I’m not on a team with you anyway!” Lin Linya finally spoke up, unable to take it anymore.

The teenager looked young, wearing a white short-sleeved shirt with Conan printed on it. He gave Lin Linya a rare glance. “Hey, I thought you didn’t have a temper, looking all soft like a glutinous rice ball.”

“Sorry, but we actually are on the same team.”

He waved his number plate in front of Lin Linya, then slapped it onto his own chest, flashing him a wicked grin that revealed two asymmetrical little canine teeth.

Little Yang suddenly spoke up from beside them, “Block? You’re on our team?”

He reached out, leaning right past Lin Linya to shake hands with Little Yang. “Long time no see. How’ve you been lately? Find a girlfriend yet?”

Little Yang calmly shook his hand. “Pretty good. No plans in that direction for now.”

Lin Linya’s gaze darted back and forth between the two of them.

Little Yang couldn’t help but laugh. “Let’s just say Wolf Fang Platform is a small world. It’s normal for people to know each other. Let me introduce you: this is Block, a big shot in the PUBG section. We’re counting on him to carry us this game.”

Then, to see an even more surprised expression on Lin Linya’s face, he paused and added, “14 years old this year. Middle schooler.”

Block frowned, displeased, and wrinkled his nose. “15 years old, to be precise. I’ve already had my birthday this year.”

Lin Linya’s entire mental state went hazy. “Huh? You’re a middle schooler?”

How did middle schoolers these days look so mature? He seemed almost as tall as him, with handsome, youthful features, deeply tanned skin, and a pair of exceptionally bright eyes, like a puppy.

Then, his mood became complicated. He’d just been called a glutinous rice ball by a middle schooler.

The fun match began. Block went back to his own seat, turned on his computer, picked up his headset, and after putting it on, joined the team voice chat.

“Don’t hold the team back. Dying right after landing is super embarrassing, uncles.”

Little Yang, the oldest in the entire team, sighed, forcing a smile through gritted teeth. “You brat… sometimes I really feel like punching you.”

Lin Linya didn’t say anything. He inexplicably felt that Block’s infuriatingly cocky tone sounded a lot like someone else, but he wasn’t quite sure.

He had to ask, “Where are we dropping?”

Block didn’t hesitate. “Bootcamp. What are you scared of? Killing them will be as easy as chopping vegetables.”

Lin Linya didn’t know what or where Bootcamp was. He opened the map but couldn’t find any place called that, so he could only shut his mouth. Little Yang, however, disagreed.

“I want to get a ranking to exchange for prizes, little brother.”

“Being on the same team as me, you’re already halfway to success,” Block invited them to follow his parachute. The squad flew straight to the Military Base. “For the other half, just listen to me.”

Block was a famously aggressive player in the PUBG section, and young to boot. The moment he opened the all-channel mic on the plane, teasing laughter erupted, “Block, come to Bootcamp. Big bro will teach you not to be so cocky.”

Block didn’t back down an inch. “If you’ve got the guts, come to Bootcamp and fight your grandpa here.”

“There’s an elementary school kid. I can’t take it. If you lose, I’m gonna hit you with the wiggle. Make you beg me on your knees not to finish you.”

Lin Linya, “…”

The casters for this match were Lin Lin, a retired professional player from the PUBG China region, and Little Sweet Joy, a popular streamer from the Beauty Section.

At the start of the game, as all players parachuted down, Little Sweet Joy asked, “Brother Lin, which team do you have your eye on for this match?”

Lin Lin played it safe, giving her a diplomatic answer, “I think there are many excellent players in this match. The overall distribution of teams is quite balanced. I’m also very curious to see what kind of sparks will fly between streamers from this section and those from other sections.”

At that moment, the director very cleverly switched the camera to Block’s squad.

Their squad was fairly balanced, two streamers from other sections and two PUBG section streamers. Now, the audience outside finally got a clear look at the player on machine 43.

A fair, small face, round eyes focused intently on the screen. A stray lock of hair, pressed down by the headset, stubbornly poked up. Even the director seemed to favor him, holding the shot for a full five seconds.

[…I guess it’s within expectations.]

[Just looking at how he plays, it’s totally Baby’s style. No surprises there.]

[Passerby doesn’t understand. Why are you fans so completely unsurprised?]

[Used to it (exhausted smile). The technical fans get crushed every time.]

[? I’m really dying of laughter. How does Yaya Baby even have technical fans? That’s even more mind-blowing than his male fans.]

[I’m so mad! Baby’s dressed so well today, but his gaming is so terrible!]

As Lin Linya parachuted down, he rotated his camera view and was instantly horrified. “Why are there so many people here?!”

Block said calmly, “Why else would it be called Bootcamp? Don’t stray too far after landing, okay? I’m afraid I won’t be able to reach you in time if you get knocked. Split up and search. Once you get a gun, mark the point, and then just fight.”

Before Lin Linya even landed, he could already hear the continuous sound of gunfire. Panicked, he rolled on the ground. Just as Block had opened a door and entered a building, Lin Linya scurried in right behind him.

Block, “…Why are you coming into the same building as me? I already picked everything up.”

Hugging the only item he had, a machete, Lin Linya shrank into a small room and lay flat on the floor, weakly saying, “I suddenly got a bit of social anxiety. Maybe I just won’t go out.”