069. Game
==============================
Every day at noon and night, Lin Nan found himself less bored.
He felt a bit tired of playing League of Legends, a game he’d been at since middle school, but since the sea selection was just around the corner, he had to give it his all for that 1,000 bucks in prize money.
So, they played five matches at noon and two more in the evening. After each game, the four in the dorm plus Dong An, who joined via QQ video, would huddle together to discuss why they lost that match and why the win wasn’t pretty enough.
Giving everything to something like this—Lin Nan hadn’t felt that since high school!
For a while, he forgot about that weird feeling in his body, forgot about Lilith who barged into his brain, and forgot about Li Na, who was just waiting for him to drop dead at school.
“Get him, get him! Chen Yao, stop hiding behind me!”
“d*mn it! Dong An, why are you stealing my kills?”
“Hey, I need to pad my stats too!” Dong An defiantly yelled through the headset.
“Xiong Da, be more aggressive with your jungle! Why aren’t you two, the powerhouse duo, hitting their jungle?”
“TP, Tu Tu!”
Lin Nan begrudgingly took on the role of shot-caller. Fortunately, spending so much time idling around and watching streams had given him a decent grasp on the current competitive strategies.
His temper was usually pretty good, but after playing with these guys for a few days, that wild temper dormant in his mind, belonging to Lilith, started to rear its head.
“Tu Junhui! Where’s your initiation!” After another failed team fight, Lin Nan turned, burning with frustration. He saw Tu Junhui looking back at him in utter confusion, like he was staring at a stranger.
That’s when Lin Nan realized his personality had been subconsciously influenced.
He paused, turned back, and softened his tone, “Next time, you and Xiong Da take the lead. Don’t get caught out, watch your position.”
Honestly, Dong An would have loved to be the shot-caller too, but between basketball practice and everything else, he didn’t have enough time to delve into this game nonsense. And Lin Nan was the most casual support in the group, with a rank that made everyone listen, so he ended up in charge.
Who would’ve thought that being a shot-caller would draw out the inner rage he had buried so deep?
He used to be friendly, a classic “bad stuff go down, I’ll just swallow it” kind of good guy, hardly ever angry. But after a few days under Lilith’s influence, he had started noticing that unusually violent temper bubbling up.
Controlling emotions used to be easy for the former Lin Nan, but now these teammates were driving him up the wall! It was supposed to be a serious practice for the match, but the mid-laner was playing Yasuo, the jungler was off with Ivern, and the top-laner didn’t even bother to TP. Lin Nan felt like he was the only one who cared about the upcoming match.
Another game ended in defeat, and Tu Junhui, nonchalantly munching on a bag of beef jerky he brought from home, looked unfazed. Xiong Da was busy playing mobile games, and Chen Yao was sipping Cola while poking fun at Dong An on the other end of the line.
It seemed like he was the only one who cared about this match…
Lin Nan looked around, pressing his temples in frustration. For these guys, the match was just a way to have fun; if they could make some cash while playing, great! But he was different; he was pure of heart and just in it for the money.
Letting out a long sigh, he called out, “Let’s discuss why we lost just now.”
“What’s there to discuss? I’m off to take a shower,” Dong An was the first to make a break for it.
Lin Nan wanted to cast some magic to reach through the internet and smack him.
Seeing Lin Nan hang up, Tu Junhui wasted no time in saying, “I’m going to shower too.”
A few days back, they might have found it novel, discussing the matches and passing blame, but now it seemed they’d grown tired of it.
After all, it was just a game to them.
Lin Nan sighed dramatically, pulled out his phone, and checked his account balance.
Five hundred.
The month was barely a third of the way through, and he’d already blown through half of his living expenses. A portion of that went to debts, and the rest was from having eaten a little better lately.
Wasn’t this just to make up for the continuous bleeding of his finances with some decent nutrition?
Looking at them, it was clear the road to making money from game competitions was filled with pitfalls. He had to come up with a new way to earn some cash or maybe con someone…
Without hesitation, Lin Nan reached out to his Uncle via his phone.
“Uncle! I’m broke!”
“Get lost!” Wu Guodong shot back quickly.
Lin Nan didn’t hesitate to send back a cheeky emoji.
Not sure if he was imagining the scene or just feeling uncomfortable with Lin Nan’s shamelessness, Wu Guodong begrudgingly sent him a thousand bucks.
Lin Nan happily clicked to accept the money.
If he’d known his uncle was swimming in cash, he wouldn’t have given in to the temptation of unlocking the two spells for faster reflexes and temperature control. Had he not done that, he’d still just be a guy leaning a little feminine on the outside, not have his insides feminized too.
With that thought, the slight embarrassment from asking for money vanished, replaced by fantasies of squeezing his uncle dry.
“If all his money was in my hands, he wouldn’t waste it on those random pillows and games, hmm,” he muttered to himself as Xiong Da leaned in from behind to peek at his phone screen.
Xiong Da, with his usual poker face, nodded and said, “You planning to throw down 388 for ten pulls?”
“That’s my food money! And I don’t play mobile games.”
“What a shame,” Xiong Da mused, sounding all too familiar with mobile games.
Lin Nan couldn’t wrap his head around his spending habits. This guy was willing to drop thousands on mobile games but would complain about a single-player game costing a hundred bucks being a rip-off.
But this was just a rich person’s dilemma. Lin Nan wouldn’t even think of buying a bottle of Cola without second-guessing himself.
Setting his uncle aside, Lin Nan turned his attention back to Xiong Da.
Xiong Da was about to head out to the balcony to “wash his wife” (a.k.a. his gaming console) when he suddenly caught Lin Nan’s gaze and asked, puzzled, “What?”
“I think you guys don’t take this match seriously enough!” Lin Nan stood up dramatically, ready to pitch his newly devised solution. “The 432 Dormitory Gaming Act is hereby enacted! Whoever messes up in-game has to fork over a hundred bucks to me for safekeeping! We can use that money for a celebratory feast after the match!”
Just then, Tu Junhui walked in wearing only his underwear after a shower and rolled his eyes at Lin Nan’s proposal. “You must be kidding.”
He grabbed his pants from the table and hurried back to the bathroom, exclaiming, “Wow! The AC is freezing!”
Lin Nan didn’t bother with this goofball, instead eagerly turned to Xiong Da and Chen Yao, trying to win them over. “Look, the recent losses? Totally Tu Tu’s fault…”
“You’re just tired,” Xiong Da said as he strolled out to the balcony.
Lin Nan redirected his attention to Chen Yao.
“Everyone knows what you’re up to,” Chen Yao scoffed, “This plan to pocket money is way too obvious, you know?”
——————
Due to recent increased updates, there’s been a noticeable drop in quality. Apologies!
