Chapter 1 The Fellows

At noon, the roommates returned one after another.

Ma Yang held a plastic bag in his hand, containing the food he had just bought from the cafeteria.

"Qian, you've got real guts, still skipping class? But you got lucky this time, the vice-dean didn't call roll." Ma Yang had a "you lucky dog" expression.

The other roommates opened their laptops.

"No classes this afternoon, come on, let's play a round?"

"Let's go, hurry up. Ma Yang, where are you?"

"Wait a bit, I haven't finished eating yet."

"Hurry up, quit dawdling. Someone go call for people from the other dorms."

The others in the dorm had already set up their small desks on their beds and opened their laptops.

The school's living standards were this rough. There were no desks under the beds, so they could only sit cross-legged on the bed to play games.

Pei Qian always suspected that his back problems stemmed from this period.

So, in order to get the best gaming experience, even though they had their own computers and it was convenient to play games in the dorm, many students still went to internet cafes.

Ma Yang held a stainless steel lunch bowl, with his food covered in a plastic bag. He hastily shoveled a few mouthfuls, lifted the plastic bag, and threw the whole thing into the trash can.

It was good today, since there were classes in the morning, so everyone went to the cafeteria to buy food.

If there were no classes in the morning, then everyone would just lie dead on their beds.

When the first person decided to go to the cafeteria, the others would immediately start "begging to be taken along."

Of course, later on, takeout appeared, but there were no takeout apps at that time, so they all called to order. Poor students from families in difficulty would run errands as a part-time job to earn some living expenses.

Ma Yang shouted outside, and the game room quickly filled up.

Pei Qian looked at the computer screen. It was a 5v5 battle game called *Shen Qi* (Divine Revelation), and the gameplay was very similar to *Dota*, but the packaging was completely different.

In terms of time, *League of Legends* didn't become popular until 2011. Although it existed in 2009, it was crude.

Moreover, that was the situation in Pei Qian's previous memories. Now, with the world changing so much, it was hard to say whether *League of Legends* would even appear.

At this time, the mmorpg was still dominating the internet cafes. The most popular game was called *Fantasy World*.

*Shen Qi* was indeed popular, but it was obviously more popular in the dormitories because it wasn't a pure online game.

You could play it in internet cafes, and there was also a battle platform, but its popularity couldn't compare to mmorpgs.

"Qian, why do I feel like you're dazed today? Didn't wake up?"

Ma Yang was a little puzzled by Pei Qian's state today. "We're one short, you coming?"

Pei Qian shook his head: "No, you guys find someone else first."

"Okay, then I'll pull in Lao Wang from next door." Ma Yang didn't ask any further questions.

Soon, the dorm and the next dorm started shouting.

"Hey, mid-laner's gone, watch out for ganks!"

"Damn, how did he kill me?"

"Hahaha, three against one and still get killed, noob!"

Pei Qian stood behind Ma Yang, watching him rapidly click the screen with his mouse and tap the keyboard with his left hand, making the laptop keyboard crackle, like a pro.

But when he looked at the stats, the team's total kills were 10-9 after 10 minutes, and Ma Yang's score was 0-0.

While his teammates were fighting fiercely, he was missing last hits under the tower.

Pei Qian couldn't help but sigh, everyone was young in '09, and they could still experience the joy of gaming, that was great.

After he started working, he bought a lot of games, all of them good games, but after buying them, they all gathered dust, and he couldn't even remember to open them.

Every day he worked himself to death, and when he got off work, he just wanted to browse the web and watch live streams while lying on the sofa. He was too lazy to even move his fingers to play a mobile game, let alone play this kind of game that required frequent operations.

Fortunately, everything was different now.

As long as he lost all of the system funds, he could lie down and make money, completely free from struggling, and happily be a salted fish!

Pei Qian lay on the bed, happily imagining his future life.

So, how should he spend this first sum of 50,000 yuan...

He should get a high-end computer first, right?

Then go out and rent a house, and live a shameless salted fish life.

Hehehehe, Pei Qian couldn't help but laugh.

...

...

"So, that's all for this episode of *Garbage Game Roast*. If you viewers think this episode is good, please be sure not to forget to like, share, and subscribe!"

In a rented house in the imperial capital, a fat young man with thick eyebrows, dull eyes, and a listless expression was sitting in front of his computer, recording a video.

He was a well-known up-loader in the video game section of Sweet Potato Network, his real name was Qiao Liang, his online name was Qiao Laoshi, and he was also affectionately called the "Godfather of the Game Channel" by his fans, because he always shouted "daddy" at the end of each program.

As a full-time up-loader, Qiao Liang was a little famous and had many fans, but after all, this was 2009. In this environment, he basically still lived a life of uncertainty.

If he received a sponsored video, he could be generous and eat a good meal in a restaurant.

If he didn't receive a sponsored video, he would have to eat clear soup noodles, and rely on starvation to lose weight.

Qiao Liang had tried many directions, but in the end, the *Garbage Game Roast* section was the most popular. It had a high number of views and attracted a group of game-loving fans.

Qiao Liang also had a section called *This Month's New Game Recommendations*, which was specifically used for sponsorships.

After all, the section that made him popular was called *Garbage Game Roast*, and no game company dared to release sponsored videos in this section.

Therefore, Qiao Liang made another section called *This Month's New Game Recommendations* to earn sponsorships, but the attention of this series was far worse than *Garbage Game Roast*.

After recording the new episode of *Garbage Game Roast*, Qiao Liang did not release it for a long time.

Because he always felt that something was missing.

Well, that's right, a little bit of soul was missing.

This game didn't seem to have any special features!

After writing the script, carefully making the materials, and dubbing, Qiao Liang felt that this program was okay, but no matter how he thought about it, it seemed difficult to create a hit.

This game was so bad that it wasn't worth talking about.

This made Qiao Liang feel very headache. After all, he relied on this to make a living. If the number of views of the video did not go up, it would be difficult to receive better sponsored videos.

Therefore, Qiao Liang was not in a hurry to release this episode of the video. Instead, he habitually clicked on the new game recommendation list on the official platform and began to "pan for gold in the shit."

Before that, he felt a little hungry, pulled out a pack of instant noodles, and boiled a pot of water to replenish some energy.

The water was boiling, and Qiao Liang continued to search for new games.

"*Lonely Desert Road*? What the hell is this game?"

Qiao Liang saw the introduction of this game.

"A simulated driving journey to think about life?"

"How do you think about life?"

This introduction aroused some of Qiao Liang's curiosity.

As a full-time video creator in the game area, Qiao Liang would basically play any game that he was slightly interested in.

He clicked to download the game. Soon, the game finished downloading and opened automatically.