Chapter 1: The Start of a School Year Volume 1: The Return to Online Games

August 29th, Guangzhou.

It was another year of the school starting season. There was a long welcome banner raised for the freshmen on the bustling train station.

The person in charge of C University’s welcome at the train station today was the Student Union’s Vice-President Jiang Xue, a fourth-year from the history department. The great beauty with long hair and long legs was straightforward and enthusiastic the whole afternoon under the scorching sun at the train station.

At 4:30 p.m, Jiang Xue had just settled down several young literature shimei[1]. She lifted her head and saw, not too far away, a young man with a tall figure. The young man wore a simple pair of jeans and a black t-shirt. Because of his tall figure, he was very eye-catching standing among the crowd of people. He wore a cap with its brims pulled low and a pair of big sunglasses, revealing a clean jawline and a hint of a smile on the corners of his lips.

[1] Shimei refers to a person referring to a female student or apprentice that is younger than them. It is the same as an underclassman but specifying the gender. Since Chinese can often be very specific with titles and names, I will sometimes use the pinyin or the loanword instead to make it less wordy.

The young man walked over there upon seeing the C University Welcome Committee’s banner.

This fellow classmate’s appearance seemed a bit too cool? A bunch of people couldn’t help turning their heads to look at him.

The young man stopped when he reached the Welcome Committee, took off his glasses and politely asked, “Excuse me, what time will the school’s school bus be here?”

Jiang Xue met his gaze and couldn’t help staring.

His was very good looking and with a small smile on his face, it gave people the feeling that he gets along with others very well. This year’s freshmen were very good, among the Welcome Committee that was standing all day, handsome and beautiful young men and women were emerging in an endless stream. However, it seemed as if this young man had a unique kind of temperament…was he really a freshman? Where was the bit of greenness and naiveness that freshmen should have?

Although Jiang Xue had some doubts, she still enthusiastically said, “It’ll come very quickly. Shidi[2], what faculty are you in?”

[2] Shidi is the same as shimei but for males. It is equivalent to a junior male classmate or disciple.

The young man said, “The history department.”

Jiang Xue smiled and said, “That’s such a coincidence ah. I’m also from the history department. Shidi, from now on if you need help, feel free to find me. Oh right, I’m Jiang Xue, the history department’s fourth-year class monitor.”

At this moment, Jiang Xue’s phone rang. It was the fellow classmate who was responsible for pick up and drop off, letting her know that the school bus had already arrived.

Jiang Xue called to gather up the group of freshmen. Under her leadership, the large group of people walked to the parking lot across the street.

Jiang Xue allowed the new freshmen to board the bus one by one first before getting on the bus herself. Sweeping her gaze across the bus, she realized the seat beside the young man from the history department was empty and went over to take a seat.

Tilting her head to have a glimpse, the young man had already put on his earphones with his head low and playing a game on his phone.

He had an extremely beautiful pair of hands with slim fingers and well-proportioned joints. The pair of hands was tapping on the screen at lightning speed like a pianist playing a difficult piece, causing people to be dazzled.

His expression was very focused. The game he was playing in his hands was “Rhythm Master”.

It was a very popular music game in recent years. With the music’s rhythm tap metre, successful combos could increase the score. Coming across fast rhythmed songs could easily cause someone to be flustered. In regards to one’s hand speed, sense of rhythm and reaction ability, the requirements were extremely high.

Liang Xue watched him play for a while, only to see the combo score on the screen slowly rising and to her surprise, not breaking it even once.

Once the song ended, the dazzling golden words “All COMBO” popped up on the screen. Liang Xue couldn’t help praising, “Shidi, you’re really good at Rhythm Master! I can at most only connect about 400 times for this song but you’d actually connected more than 700 times!”

The young man said, “This song’s difficulty was okay. I can play harder ones, even the songs with 1200 music notes, I can still fully connect them.”

Liang Xue: “……”

This person really wasn’t a bit modest! More than a thousand and two hundred combos…wouldn’t his fingers cramp?

Liang Xue couldn’t help taking out her phone and said, “I’ll add you on WeChat. The two of us can play a round together.”

The young man said, “You will lose.”

Unconvinced, Liang Xue said, “Not necessarily.”

After scanning the QR code to add his WeChat, Liang Xue chose a song that she was good at 《Croatian Rhapsody》…however, the result was a loss that was too tragic to look at! Many notes were missed and not to mention, in the end, the combo count was actually still less than half of his?!

(The song is pretty nice. I ended up stopping translating this for half an hour to start learning how to play this hehe)

The young man smiled cheerfully. “I said you would lose.”

Liang Xue: “……”

Looking at his smiling face, Liang Xue suddenly had the urge to vomit blood.

Even getting all the combos for such a difficult song? What was his hand speed? It was simply wild!

The gloomy Liang Xue watched him continue to easily tap away on the screen with his earphones on. In the end, she couldn’t bear it and sent a complaint to her circle of friends: “At today’s welcome, I met a shidi who’s a master at playing Rhythm Master, casually getting over a thousand combos. Watching him play a few rounds of Rhythm Master, I almost didn’t recognize the Rhythm Master game! I’m too tired for this1!”

After riding the school bus for an hour, they finally arrived at the school. The freshmen carried their suitcase and walked towards the check-in office in the teachers building downstairs to register. Only, the young man just now had carried his luggage with his head low, minding his own business, and headed towards the direction of the student’s dormitory.

Liang Xue kindly reminded him, “Shidi, you need to go to the check-in office first to register. Only after registering will you then get the key to the dorm.”

The young man said, “No need. I can just go directly to the dorm.”

Surprised, Liang Xue said, “Aren’t you a freshman?”

The young man smiled and said, “I’m a fourth year. Since it was on the way, I just hitched a ride on the school bus, that’s all. Thank you!”

Liang Xue: “……”

Jiang Xue was completely speechless as she watched him quickly walk away and disappear right before her eyes.

Fellow classmate, a fourth-year and still following the freshmen to hitch a ride on the school bus! Such shamelessness and to this extent tool!!

C University’s male dormitory area, Building 1, Room 301.

Walking slowly from the school bus, the young man arrived at the dormitory’s door and found that the door was opened. Inside a guy shouted loudly, “Aim the attacks at the healer! Quick up, quick up! Kill the healer first!”

Another roommate also shouted, “Up, up, up, wipe them out!”

“Taken out in one wave. Beautiful!”

On the screen of the computer, a magnificent “Victory” popped up. The two guys excitedly gave each other a high five. After hearing a sound from the door, the two turned their heads and saw a tall handsome guy carrying a suitcase standing by the entrance. Facing the two, he smiled and said, “Hello.”

The two people in the room were dumbfounded. “You are?”

“The new roommate.” The guy carrying the suitcase entered the room and very gracefully extended his hand and said, “A fourth year in history, Liu Chuan, please take care of me.”

Originally, Liu Chuan thought for sure that college boys’ dormitories would be messy and had an overwhelming stench. What he didn’t expect when he entered 301 was to find this room to actually be cleaned to the extent that it was extremely neat and tidy. The roommates’ bed hung a bed screen, covering all kinds of luggage and junks. As a result, looking from the outside, it was absolutely neat and orderly. The empty bed was also cleaned up very nicely, causing people’s first impression to be extremely good.

If the roommates hadn’t felt like cleaning the bed and left him with a dirty area, he would have to clean it himself.

The roommates were not bad, helping him complexly clear away the bed in advance.

Liu Chuan was in a good mood and had a rather good impression of the several roommates.

The guy who was just yelling with rage to kill the healer got up and shook hands with him. He smiled and said, “Hello, the program advisor had told us about this. Welcome to living here! I’m Li Xiang, Room 301’s dorm supervisor. This is Zhu Xiaoyu and this is Yang Tao. The three of us are physic’s students. This empty bed over there is yours. From now on, if there’s anything you need help with, feel free to talk with me. We all live together, so don’t be polite!”

With one look and you could tell that this guy called Li Xiang was a warm-hearted and straightforward kind of person with a bright smile. With a height of about 1.8 metres, it was almost as tall as Liu Chuan. Although he loved to play games, he didn’t have a face full of acnes like most hermits[3] and instead looked very handsome with strong features.

[3] Hermit isn’t the best translation as it can be very broad but the Chinese word means a guy who stays at home, usually spending a lot of time playing games. ATM, my brain isn’t working so I can’t think of another word that best describes such a person.

——Dream[4]? The name was a bit funny.

[4] Dream (lǐ xiǎng) and Li Xiang (Lǐ Xiǎng) is pronounced the same as you can see from the pinyin

Nodding, Liu Chuan smiled and said, “Okay. Li Xiang, you guys go continue playing, I will organize my luggage first.”

Li Xiang said, “Do what you need to do! We’ll continue playing the game.”

Liu Chuan laid the suitcase down once he dragged it over to the empty bed and quickly organized the luggage. Li Xiang returned to his seat and continued to play the online game together with the roommates.

Ten minutes later, Li Xiang suddenly slapped the table hard. “Dang, why did the healer disconnect?”

Zhu Xiaoyu simultaneously slapped the chair. “The healer disconnected, we are going to lose this round for sure!”

Depressed, Li Xiang said, “It’s very difficult to win with two. Strangers really aren’t reliable!”

Yang Tao said, “Exactly, exactly. Disconnecting at the very last round, this was too unlucky!”

Listening to the indignation of the three roommates, Liu Chuan couldn’t help turning his head to take a look at their computers——after looking, Liu Chuan couldn’t help feeling happy!

Wulin…

Unexpectedly, these new roommates also played this online game.

In the middle of the computer screen was, in fact, a map of a Wulin Ranked Arena. Due to a team member disconnecting, Li Xiang and the guys were defeated by the opponents in one go at the resurrection point.

Unparalleled familiarity with the game interface, unparalleled familiarity with team battle mode…

Liu Chuan had battled in this game for so many years. At this moment taking it all in, it was truly nostalgic.

Pretending to be an amateur, Liu Chuan asked, “You guys play online games? Is this Wulin?”

Li Xiang said, “Yeah, you also play this game?”

Liu Chuan said, “Mm, played for a bit.”

Li Xiang curiously turned and asked, “What class2 do you play?”

“Tangmen” The corners of Liu Chuan’s lips raised and added, “However, I just started play, my skill level is rather amateurish.”

Hearing that the new roommate also played Tangmen, Li Xiang immediately got up excitedly. “You also play? That’s great!”

Truly, you can wear out iron shoes searching for something with no success, only to find it by accident through no effort of your own!

When Li Xiang and the guys played team battles, they always didn’t have enough players, five plus one, and needed to include a stranger every time. Often disconnecting at critical moments, it caused repeated defeats during team battles. Today, it was because of the passerby healer’s bad internet.

Before, he had wanted to drag the xueba Wu Zemen to play this game but failed. This was good, unexpectedly, the new roommate also plays!

As a matter of fact, wouldn’t this mean the “unreliable five plus one team” would change to an “awesome fixed six-player team”?

However, he said his level was very amateurish…

No problem, amateurish skill level could still be cultivated slowly!

Li Xiang immediately walked in front of Liu Chuan and enthusiastically said, “Amateur level is no problem, just play for a few more days. I played Tangmen for more than a year so I’m quite familiar with this class. How about you come and find me in the game and I’ll bring you with me to play in an arena!”

Smiling, Liu Chuan waved his hands and said, “No need. It’s said that ‘don’t be scared of god-like opponents, it’s having pig-like teammates that’s the scariest’, I’m worried you guys will be tired of this pig-like player.”

Li Xiang comfortably patted his shoulder. “Why so polite! You’re welcome to come to the game and hide behind me, I’ll cover for you!”

“……” Liu Chuan smiled but said nothing.

A few years later, in Li Xiang’s《Memories of Li Xiang》, there will be this scene recorded of when he first met Liu Chuan——

In the summer of that year, in 301 of Building 1 in the dormitory of C University, there was once a god-like expert standing in front of me and I, however, didn’t know how to treasure it and said to him: I will cover for you.