Chapter 1 The Professional Player

Being a professional gamer seems like an enviable job. You can treat games as a career to support yourself, and even gain fame and fortune. Who hasn't dreamed of it?

In 2055, it has indeed become a socially recognized profession. The top talents in the industry have influence comparable to that of well-known athletes.

The age range of professional players is between fourteen and thirty-five. Of course, there are younger masters, but some games have age ratings that prevent them from joining.

Generally speaking, professional players can be simply divided into two categories: star players and ordinary blue-collar players.

Star players generally choose to retire around the age of thirty. They either switch to amateur status or retreat to the second tier, basically preparing to enter the studio's management. Some switch to other related positions in the gaming industry, such as commentators, referees, and organizers. Even more have made a fortune and become their own bosses.

Everyone who enters this industry wants to become such a star player. But many people join this industry after graduating from junior high school, and by the time they reach thirty, they haven't made a name for themselves. In the end, they still have to find a way to make a living in society. These people can be said to have gambled with their youth, and only they themselves know the gains and losses. These non-star players are the blue-collar class in this industry. They are the backbone of the industry. Without their support, the studio cannot operate at all, and those star players also need their solid backing.

And the most frustrating thing in this industry is the cruelty of competition.

Any game that can become popular must have "confrontation." If there is no way for two or two groups of players to determine who is superior in a game, then this game will not attract any studios to enter, and the player base it can attract is extremely limited.

In the case of massively multiplayer online games, it doesn't matter whether they are competitive or not. Even if it's just about leveling up by fighting monsters and equipping gear, there is still PK (player versus player) to determine the outcome.

The simplest and most direct way for professional players to prove their value is one word—win.

Unfortunately, there are only momentary geniuses in this world; no one can always win. No one can keep winning.

Increasing age, fluctuations in competitive state, the decline of a game, and other factors... have caused countless high-level players who were once regarded as "gods" by players to gradually fade from people's sight. Those who can retire completely during their peak period are few and far between.

The more top-tier the game studio, the more brutal the competition. What they need is always young, fresh blood... a group of newcomers who maintain a very high competitive state, and have the desire to fight and the ambition to improve... people who can pull a certain god-level player from their high position at any time.

In simple terms—ambitious geniuses. For example... Tun Tian Gui Xiao (Devouring Sky Ghost Howl).

This time, Order Studio invested four teams of people in Thriller Paradise, ten people in each team. Each team has one or two star players, and the rest are basically experienced, veteran blue-collar players.

And Tun Tian Gui Xiao is the only newcomer under the age of twenty among these four teams.

Order Studio has high hopes for him, so he was included in the first list of players to enter Thriller Paradise. The team leader didn't give him any tasks; he just needed to play according to his interests. Who knew that in a slaughter game mode, he accidentally encountered the three-person team led by Yong Zhe Wu Ju (Fearless). This kid even didn't appreciate the seniors and killed them all... It can be said that he deserved to be "given a vacation" by the team leader for making such willful actions.

Of course, Yong Zhe Wu Ju is not considered to be at the "strongest" level. Among the many star players in Order, he doesn't rank in the top ten in terms of past game achievements or popularity. Although his team successfully won the title of first level-20 player in the closed beta, Order's true strength is far more than that.

Currently, these four teams can only be said to be "pioneering teams." The strongest group of players in the studio have only registered accounts and locked their nicknames, and have not logged in since. That is to say... Order's real experts have not yet been officially dispatched to this project. The studio's senior management had already made a decision to remain in observation, at least until Dream Corporation opens currency exchange and charging services, before deciding whether to invest those top-tier talent resources.

After saying so much, you may be a little confused. How did we get there? What about Feng Bujue? What about the Nuka City script?

Please allow me to pull things back in three short paragraphs.

Speaking of studios, there are also studio members in Feng Bujue's script this time.

However, he doesn't belong to the command of a high-ranking sect like Order; he is the kind of third-rate studio owner,兼 (concurrent) financial officer, 兼 player that I mentioned earlier...

He is [Atobe Keigo].

Okay, I believe you all guessed it. That's right, his studio is called "Hyotei."

Atobe Keigo is twenty-three years old in reality and just graduated from university last year. His father owns a factory, and his family has some savings, allowing him to squander it... Anyway, the cost of opening a game studio is not high; just rent a place and buy a few game pods. The investment in human resources basically doesn't need to be calculated, as the employees are all his buddies from his student days.

Moreover, Atobe Keigo currently only has three employees in total. One is [Name Really Hard to Choose], who is in the same script as him at the moment, and the other two are nicknamed [Choosing a Name is Really Hard] and [Really Hard to Choose a Name] respectively. Although Atobe Keigo once seriously asked his three buddies to use nicknames such as Kabaji and Shishido, he was ruthlessly rejected. When he threatened them with their wages, he was *arubaed*.

Their studio also knows to take shifts, so they are divided into two game groups. Currently, the other two are in the game break time, going out for supper.

Atobe Keigo's image in the game is that of a handsome and fair-skinned man, with a slender figure. The overall difference from his own image is not too great... only the changes to his face are slightly obvious.

[Name Really Hard to Choose] is of medium build and slightly shorter than Atobe Keigo. This person's game image, like his name, reveals a sense of sloppiness. Not only did he not make himself handsome, but he also made himself bald, saying that he wanted to experience the feeling of being bald in the game.

Atobe Keigo's title seems to be a kind of malicious mockery from the system, called [A Swordsman]. The weapon he uses is a pu dao (a type of Chinese sword), which looks very much like the kind of weapon used by cannon fodder in martial arts dramas. The quality is ordinary, and there are no attributes or special effects, but at least it is a proper weapon.

Unlike Atobe Keigo's unremarkable title, [Name Really Hard to Choose]'s title is very recognizable, four words—[Outwardly Strong, Inwardly Weak]. His bald and capable image forms a stark contrast to his performance in terms of fear. This guy doesn't even have a proper weapon. His inventory is filled with two baseball bats and a rusty iron pipe. I don't know where he picked them up...

Their luck is not bad. The two landed about a block apart, so they will meet soon.

These two seem unreliable, but they also have some strengths. If they really knew nothing about games, why would they open a studio? Therefore, Atobe Keigo made a very correct decision: forget about the mission for now, and find a gun store to arm themselves first.

Looking at the condition of this city, you know that the setting of this script is in the land of the evil empire of America. So there will probably be a gun store in the city. Even if there are no amazing heavy weapons in the gun store, standard pistols, shotguns, rifles, etc., especially a full supply of ammunition, are all very valuable.

The two moved forward. On the street, they could often encounter two or three blood wolf zombies wandering around, but these guys were indeed a small threat. If they were too lazy to fight, they would go around them. If they couldn't avoid them, they would give them a shot in the head. Although the movements of these monsters would suddenly speed up a bit when approaching their biting range, as long as they were careful and cautious, and were not surrounded by three or more monsters at the same time in a short distance, these guys were still very easy to kill.

After passing two blocks, Atobe Keigo entered a phone booth. He picked up the phone, but the line was not connected at all. In fact, even if it was connected, he didn't know who to call. Would he dial 911? The main purpose of his coming in was to flip through the phone book. After checking for three to five minutes, Atobe Keigo successfully found the address of the nearest gun store. He and [Name Really Hard to Choose] (I decided to call him Xiao Ming from now on) then quickened their pace to get there.

After walking for more than ten minutes, they approached their destination, but they discovered a rather unusual scene.

They saw about thirty corpses of blood wolf zombies lying on the street. Each corpse's head was smashed to pieces, and the corpses extended all the way to the door of the gun store.

On the street in front of that store, in broad daylight, in the center of the road, there was actually a large cylindrical ice bucket with a Gatorade logo printed on it. The bucket was filled with red liquid, and many empty plastic blood bags were scattered on the ground next to it. Even a human nose could smell the pure and thick bloody smell from a long distance.

Two speakers were placed next to the "blood bucket," loudly playing "The Toreador Song." Looking at the drag marks on the ground, it seemed that they were dragged out of a sound store across the street. An electrical box on the side of the road was opened, and the situation inside was not clear, but the power cords of the speakers extended all the way there...

"What's the situation?" Xiao Ming asked.

Atobe Keigo didn't understand what was going on either, but he didn't have time to answer. He saw a blood wolf zombie flying out of a corner behind the blood bucket.

Immediately afterwards, a man covered in blood walked out from there. He held a sharp knife in one hand and a pipe wrench in the other. Each shoulder was diagonally carrying a string of garlic. These two strings of "garlic belts" were crossed in front of him, forming an x-shape, and were already stained red with blood.

He stepped to the rhythm of the toreador music, dancing a dance similar to the Axe Gang in *Kung Fu Hustle*, and chewing on a white, unknown object like chewing gum... He approached the blood wolf zombie with light steps, and then frantically chopped at the head of the fallen monster, smashing its bones and tendons and causing blood and brains to fly everywhere.

After killing this monster, he seemed to realize something, suddenly straightened up, turned his head, and happened to see the stunned figures of Atobe Keigo and Xiao Ming.

"Run!" "Hurry up and get out of here!" The two of them shouted at the same time after looking at Feng Bujue for two seconds, and turned around and ran.

Feng Bujue didn't say much, and ran after them. He really wanted to shout, "Why are you running? I'm a player!" But because his mouth was full of garlic, he couldn't shout loudly.

On the other side, seeing that the evil star was running after them with a lithe figure, Xiao Ming's fear value instantly increased. He ran and said to Atobe Keigo, "It's over, it's over... We're dead if this guy catches up to us. It's all your fault! Why did you have to look for a gun store? I knew a mini-boss would be planted in front of the gun store!"

Atobe Keigo looked back from time to time at Feng Bujue, who was gradually approaching. "What does it have to do with me! How could I know there would be this kind of situation!" He looked back again. "Speaking of... this guy seems to be running faster than us!"

"I noticed it a long time ago! He's ridiculously fast!" Xiao Ming shouted.

Feng Bujue, who was about twenty meters away from them, heard their conversation and thought: Nonsense, I have the [Jazz Dance] on my feet. How can you two little rascals compare to me in running?

Who knew that at this moment, the two people in front suddenly said in unison with great tacit understanding, "Split up!"

At the next intersection, they went left and right, each heading in a different direction.

Feng Bujue exclaimed in his heart: These two bastards are quite tactical!

He didn't think much, turned to the left, and chased after one of them at random.

That one happened to be Atobe Keigo...

"Damn... he didn't hesitate at all!" Atobe Keigo muttered to himself. "He didn't chase after that bald head with such an obvious target, and directly rushed towards me. My handsomeness must be the reason."

Seeing that Feng Bujue was getting closer and closer, Atobe Keigo's fear value was also getting higher and higher. He knew that he was probably going to be caught. Instead of being killed by this mini-boss from behind, he might as well turn around and give it a shot.

Thinking of this, he suddenly stopped, raised his pu dao, held it horizontally in front of him, and swung the knife at Feng Bujue, who was rushing towards him at high speed.

"Eh?" When Feng Bujue rushed in front of him, Atobe Keigo found that he couldn't swing the knife at all. His movement was stopped by the system.

Feng Bujue came in front of him, stopped, gasped for breath, stared at him, and said intermittently, "I... hah... I... I'm... on... hah... our... own... side! You [beep]!"

The word "idiot" was ultimately blocked by the system. Logically speaking, Feng Bujue couldn't make the intention of saying this a reality, but since there was a beep, it meant that he didn't have any insulting meaning when he said it, only a tone of complaint.

"Huh?" Atobe Keigo slumped to the ground, his face pale, and the corners of his mouth twitched. "Heh... haha... I'm... sorry." He actually apologized.