Chapter 1 The Cruelty of Competition

Being a professional gamer sounds like an enviable job. You can make a living off playing games, and even become famous and wealthy. Who hasn’t dreamed of it?

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

Professional gamers range in age from fourteen to thirty-five. Of course, there are younger prodigies, but some games have age restrictions that prevent them from joining.

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

Star-level players usually choose to retire around the age of thirty. They either become amateur players or retreat to the second tier, basically preparing to enter the studio's management. Some transition to other related positions in the gaming industry, such as commentators, referees, or organizers. Still others make a fortune and become bosses themselves.

Everyone who enters this industry wants to become a star-level player. But many people enter the field after graduating junior high school and, after working until they are thirty, still haven’t made a name for themselves. In the end, they have to find a way out in society. These people can be said to have gambled with their youth. As for the gains and losses, only they themselves know for sure. These non-star players are the blue-collar class of the industry. They are the backbone of the industry. Without their support, the studio cannot operate, and those star-level players also need their solid backing.

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

Any game that can become popular must have "conflict." If there is no way for two or more players to compete and determine who is better, then the game simply cannot attract any studios, and the player base it can attract is also extremely limited.

In the case of massively multiplayer online games, it doesn't matter whether it's competitive or not. Even if it's just fighting monsters, leveling up, and wearing equipment, there is still player-versus-player combat to decide the outcome.

The simplest and most direct way for professional gamers to prove their worth is one word: win.

Unfortunately, there are only contemporary rivals, no eternal victors. No one can keep winning forever.

Factors such as increasing age, fluctuations in competitive state, and the decline of a game cause countless top players, once revered as "gods," to gradually fade from people's sight. Those who can retire completely during their peak are few and far between.

The more high-end the gaming studio, the more brutal the competition. What they need is always young, fresh blood... a group of newcomers who maintain a high level of competitive performance, possess a fighting spirit and ambition... people who can pull a high and mighty god-level player down from the altar at any time.

Simply put—ambitious geniuses. Like... Tuntian Guixiao.

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

And Tuntian Guixiao was the only newcomer under the age of twenty in these four teams.

Order Studio had high hopes for him, so he was included in the first batch 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 team led by Yongzhe Wuju, and this kid even had the audacity to kill his seniors... It could be said that he deserved to be "given a vacation" by the team leader for making such willful and reckless actions.

Of course, Yongzhe Wuju was not considered to be in the "strongest" category. Among Order's many star players, he didn't rank in the top ten, either in terms of past game performance or popularity. Although his team successfully won the title of first level-twenty player in the closed beta, Order's true strength was far more than that.

Currently, these four teams can only be described as "pioneering teams." The strongest players in the studio have only registered accounts and locked in their nicknames, but they haven't gone online. That is to say... Order's real experts have not yet been officially dispatched to this project. The studio's top management has already made a decision to remain in observation, at least until Dream Inc. opens up currency exchange and fee-based services, before deciding whether to invest those top 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 on track 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 high-end, powerful faction like Order. He's the kind of third-rate studio owner,兼财务 (jiān cáiwù, also the finance person), and兼玩家 (jiān wánjiā, also a player) that I mentioned earlier...

He is [Atobe Keigo].

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

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

Moreover, Atobe Keigo currently only has three employees in total. One is [Mingzi Zhen Nan Qu], who is in the same script as him at the moment, and the other two are nicknamed [Qu Ming Zhen Shi Nan] and [Zhen Nan Qu Mingzi]. Although Atobe Keigo once solemnly requested his three friends to use nicknames such as Kabaji and Oshitari, he was ruthlessly rejected. When he threatened them with salary, he was Arubad.

Their studio also knows to have two shifts rotating, so they are divided into two game groups. Currently, the other two are on a game break and have gone out for supper.

Atobe Keigo's appearance in the game is that of a fair-skinned man with delicate features and a thin build. The overall difference from his real-life image is not too great... except that the changes to his face are slightly obvious.

Mingzi Zhen Nan Qu is of medium build and slightly shorter than Atobe Keigo. This person's game image exudes a disheveled feeling, just like his name. Not only did he not make himself handsome, but he also made himself a bald head, 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 pudao (a type of Chinese sword), which looks very much like the kind of weapon used by the small fry in martial arts TV series. Its quality is ordinary, and it has no attributes or special effects, but at least it is a proper weapon.

Unlike Atobe Keigo's Joe Average title, Mingzi Zhen Nan Qu's title is highly recognizable, four words—[Outer Strength, Inner Weakness]. His bald, capable image forms a sharp contrast with his performance in terms of scare value. This guy doesn't even have a proper weapon. He has two baseball bats and a rusty iron pipe in his inventory. I don't know where he picked them up...

They are lucky. The two landed about a block apart, so they will meet soon.

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

Looking at the state of this city, it is known that the location set by this script is in the land of all evil, 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 sufficient ammunition, are all very valuable.

The two walked along the street, often encountering two or three blood wolf zombies wandering around. However, these guys are indeed very weak. If they are too lazy to fight, they can just go around them. If they can't avoid them, they can just hit them on the head. Although these monsters' movements will suddenly speed up a bit when approaching their bite range, as long as you are careful and cautious and don't get surrounded by three or more monsters at the same time in a short distance, these guys are 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. In fact, even if it was connected, he didn't know who to call. Should he dial 911? The main purpose of his entry was to flip through the phone book. After checking for three or five minutes, Atobe Keigo successfully found the address of the nearest gun store. He and Mingzi Zhen Nan Qu (I decided to call him by his nickname from now on) 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 blood wolf zombie corpses lying on the street. The head of each corpse was smashed to pieces, and the corpses stretched all the way to the entrance of the gun store.

On the street in front of the store, in broad daylight, in the very center of the road, there was actually a large cylindrical ice bucket with a Gatorade trademark. 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 scent from a distance.

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

"What's going on?" Xiaoming asked.

Atobe Keigo didn't understand what was going on either, but before he had time to answer, a blood wolf zombie flew out from a corner behind the blood bucket.

Immediately afterward, a man covered in blood walked out of there. He had a pointed knife in one hand and a pipe wrench in the other. Each shoulder had a string of garlic slung across it, and these two "garlic belts" crossed in front of him in an X-shape, all stained red with blood.

He stepped to the rhythm of the toreador music, dancing a dance similar to that of the Axe Gang in *Kung Fu*, chewing on a white, unidentified object as if it were chewing gum... He approached the blood wolf zombie with light steps, and then chopped wildly at the head of the fallen monster, smashing bones and tendons, and splattering blood everywhere.

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

"Run!" "Hurry up and flash!" After staring at Feng Bujue for two seconds, the two of them shouted at the same time and turned to run.

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, Xiaoming's scare value instantly surged. He said to Atobe Keigo as he ran, "It's over, it's over... We're dead if we're caught by this guy. It's all your fault! Why did we have to look for a gun store? Sure enough, a mini-boss was placed at the entrance 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 have known there would be this situation!" He looked back again. "Speaking of... this guy seems to be running faster than us!"

"I noticed that a long time ago! He's ridiculously fast!" Xiaoming exclaimed.

Feng Bujue, who was about twenty meters away from them, heard their conversation and thought to himself: Bullshit, I have [Jazz Dance] on my feet, how can you two little punks 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 actually have tactics!

Without thinking too much, he turned 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, "Instead of chasing that bald head with such an obvious target, he rushed straight at me. It must be my handsomeness that has harmed me."

Seeing Feng Bujue getting closer and closer, Atobe Keigo's scare value also increased. 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 fight.

Thinking of this, he suddenly stopped, raised his pudao, held it horizontally in front of him, and swung the knife at Feng Bujue, who was rushing toward 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 movements were stopped by the system.

Feng Bujue came in front of him, stopped, gasped for breath, glared at him, and said intermittently, "I... haah... I... I'm... one of... haah... our own! You 【beep——】!"

The word "idiot" was ultimately censored by the system. Logically, Feng Bujue couldn't turn the intention of saying this into reality, but since there was a beep, it meant that he didn't have any insulting intentions when he said it, just a tone of吐槽 (tǔcáo, complaining).

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