Chapter 1

"Deal a card!"

In a dimly lit and smoke-filled dormitory, three boys were sitting together, bare-chested and wearing large shorts, playing "Fight the Landlord." One of them was tall and thin, the one next to him was chubby, and the one sitting on the bed had a more standard build, though he also had a small belly.

Without a doubt, these three were modern college students. Of course, most of the time they were in front of their computers, but today the school had a power outage, so they couldn't go online and had to play "Fight the Landlord" instead.

In this round, Zhan Fei, who had a more standard build, was the landlord. He had just played a straight of aces, but was immediately countered by a straight of twos from his downwind teammate, Zhou Tai, who was chubby. Zhan Fei waved away some of the smoke and said, "You guys, I don't know what's so good about smoking, it's choking me to death! Small King!"

The tall and thin one, named Guo Xin, blew out a smoke ring and said, "What do you know? A cigarette after a meal is better than being a living god. Big King!"

Zhan Fei retorted, "A cigarette after a meal? Have you even eaten since you got up? Bomb!"

Indeed, the four guys in this dormitory, except for Liu Yuan who had gone out to study, led quite a decadent life. They rarely ate breakfast, and for lunch, they waited for Liu Yuan to bring it back from his self-study session, then they would quickly finish their meal and continue staring at their computers.

As for classes, they only attended those where attendance was mandatory. They usually had only one class a day, a lifestyle that both hardworking high school students and working adults envied.

Just as Zhan Fei was about to play his bomb to decide the game, the lights suddenly came on. Finally, the power was back!

Immediately, the three of them threw down their cards and ran to their beds at a terrifying speed, turning on their computers. They all muttered to themselves. Guo Xin said, "Damn, I haven't run the big three rings today!"

Zhou Tai said, "My girlfriend has been waiting for me for a long time."

Zhan Fei said, "This breakthrough mission is ruined again, damn it!"

Zhan Fei was playing a game called "Doupo Continent." This game was relatively balanced, and it was the only game he had played for two years where he didn't get completely dominated by players with more money. The challenge in this game was the breakthrough missions. Every twenty levels, there was an extremely difficult breakthrough mission that required help from higher-level players.

These high-level players had very limited time. Zhan Fei had finally managed to arrange for a few players over level 100 to help him break through the next day, but the power outage lasted all morning. By the time Zhan Fei rushed to the internet cafe, it was already packed.

Otherwise, the three of them would have gone to the internet cafe instead of playing "Fight the Landlord" in the dorm. Now that the power was back, Zhan Fei immediately logged in. Several messages popped up, mostly asking about his situation.

The high-level players had waited for Zhan Fei in the Spider Cave for over ten minutes. When he didn't log in, they cursed a few times and then blocked him. Zhan Fei was on the verge of tears. High-level players were hard to find, and he only knew a few in his gaming circle. Now he had offended them all. How was he supposed to break through?

Zhan Fei steeled himself and decided to try again. He wouldn't believe he couldn't complete this mission! He controlled his character and charged into the Spider Cave alone. The boss in this mission was a giant spider demon. Zhan Fei's character was a summoner who could summon pets.

At his current level 89, he could summon five stone pythons and five fire lions. The stone pythons were physical attackers and defenders, while the fire lions were purely magical attackers. They were quite effective for grinding, but they were no match for the spider demon. One sweep of the spider demon's tail killed three of the stone pythons, and the other two were critically injured.

Before Zhan Fei could summon more, the spider demon launched another attack, killing the remaining two stone pythons. The fire lions' flame pillars only reduced the spider demon's health by a few points per second, which was negligible compared to its millions of health points, as it could regenerate over a thousand points per second.

The spider demon then used a group attack, instantly killing Zhan Fei's fire lions. Without his pets to draw aggro, the spider demon charged at Zhan Fei's character and killed him with one move.

Zhan Fei slammed the table in anger, but he didn't notice that the water cup on the table had tipped over, spilling water onto the power outlet and his hand holding the mouse.

Zhan Fei suddenly felt something wet and then lost consciousness. The computer remained on, but Zhan Fei's character, which should have respawned at the Reincarnation Temple, disappeared. After a while, a "Parameter Error" message appeared, and the game automatically exited.

Zhan Fei had fainted, and his two roommates didn't notice. Zhou Tai was wearing headphones, chatting enthusiastically with his online girlfriend, Ni Ni, while Guo Xin was doing the big three rings. Zhan Fei himself had fallen backward onto his bed, looking like he was just sleeping, so no one disturbed his "dream."

It felt like a second or an eternity, but Zhan Fei suddenly opened his eyes. If someone had been there, they would have seen a flash of blue light in his eyes. Zhan Fei scratched his head and recalled that he had just been electrocuted. Luckily, he didn't die!

He looked at his two friends, who were still playing, and said, "Bro, I almost died, and you guys didn't even notice!"

Zhan Fei wiped the water off the computer desk with a dry towel and prepared to continue his game. A minor accident wouldn't stop him from completing his breakthrough mission! However, when he logged back into the game, the system prompted that the character did not exist!