I remember that Zhou Shuren once said a famous line like this.
—I couldn’t sleep no matter how I tried, probably because my daily painstaking research couldn’t match the sudden inspirations of idle folks.
Yes, Zhou Shuren never actually said those words.
Ahem! Just because he didn’t say it doesn’t mean there’s no truth to it—like Su Yuqiu’s burning desire to win right now!
To be honest, it wasn’t very becoming of her, but over the five years she’d spent aspiring to become a total shut-in, Little Qiu had dissected and analyzed countless arcade machines, consoles, and even mobile games.
Those days and nights huddled under the covers, tapping away at her phone screen.
Those stormy days clutching her cat-damaged monitor as she trudged to the computer repair shop.
Those restless nights agonizing over whether to splurge on a shiny new PC game.
Every little moment was a mark of Little Qiu’s journey to “level up” on her path of unapologetic mediocrity, charging forward without a care!
Damn it, damn it! Even if I’m a total failure at life, I won’t lose to a kid in gaming!
Wahhh, this was truly this shut-in girl’s last shred of pride. (Sad)
Little Qiu pulled a black hair tie from the pocket of her dress and swiftly gathered her stray cherry-blossom pink hair into a neat ponytail. She took a few deep breaths.
Finally, she placed both small hands gently on the joysticks.
In that moment, she looked like a true warrior.
This fully armed look meant Su Loli was getting serious.
“Little Guang Yu, are you ready? I’m about to start the next stage.”
“We’re ready! Hit it quick, Tower Tower, hit it!”
“You seem pretty confident… Yezi, watch me closely. I’m about to show you why I’m the group leader!”
“……”
Little Qiu, actually, do you know?
Guang Yu’s current persona is my elementary school cousin who’s picking dorms.
The moment you start seriously competing with an elementary schooler, you’ve already lost!
Well… Ye Zhibai had no objections, though.
Go ahead and teach Guang Yu a lesson—wipe the floor with her and knock that Scummy Fox down a peg!
As the countdown for the new arcade stage began, ticking down to one, the battle erupted!
And what came to an end with the start of the game?
Ye Zhibai’s gaming experience, that’s what.
Huh?
Ye Zhibai’s character had only been wandering aimlessly around the map for a bit, searching for new treasure chests, when suddenly a message popped up: Stage 11 cleared, Stage 12 starting soon.
“Yezi, come to this warp point quick! Next stage is about to begin!”
“Puhahaha, Ye Zhibai… sis, hurry over! My blade’s still got enchantments on it!”
“Oh…? Coming.”
It wasn’t just Stage 11.
Stages 12, 13, and all the way to 20 followed the exact same pattern.
Outside the game, in her peripheral vision, Ye Zhibai caught glimpses of two blurry afterimages.
Those were the magical arcs traced in the air by the rapid-fire movements of Guang Yu’s and Little Qiu’s hands on their joysticks.
Heh, with those two going full Musou mode, no need to say who.
Ye Zhibai couldn’t understand why this game required three players to even start.
With their skills, they could probably tie a dog to the controls and outperform her!
Ye Zhibai gradually freed up her hands.
Single-hand operation it was.
After all, the game had nothing to do with her. She just had to wait for the boss to heroically perish amid flashing blades and swords, then step onto the warp point to trigger the next stage.
The dazzling plays and the machine’s constant clearance announcements drew a crowd of arcade-goers from afar, who stopped to watch and murmur among themselves.
From their chatter, Ye Zhibai could tell exactly what she was going through.
“Is that real… Did you see that score? Thirty million?! You’re kidding, right? Machine must be glitched.”
“Hey hey, is that the middle player pulling off the god moves? That stage count’s gotta be a record!”
“What are you thinking? It’s obviously the masked bigshot in the middle. The two kids next to her? Hiss… Every generation has its arcade prodigies. If she’s not cheating, we’re witnessing history!”
So their scores were that insane!
I don’t get half of what you’re saying… but it’s definitely not me playing!
Still, Scummy Zhibai couldn’t help but place both hands back on the joysticks, pretending like she was the one in control.
Ahem, if you all think I’m a gaming god, it’d be embarrassing to not at least fake it.
The legend of shattering high scores came to an end.
Ye Zhibai kept an eye on their scores until the final stage. After the game’s rounding algorithm, the tallies were:
P1: Guan Yunchang, 61 million points.
P2: Zhang Yide, 61 million points.
A… a tie?!
Not quite—it was a temporary tie. There was still one final showdown stage to decide the winner.
A thin sheen of sweat beaded on Little Qiu’s forehead. She let out a wry chuckle and slowly released the joystick, her sharp gaze flicking toward Guang Yu, who was still gleefully shaking her joystick to snatch up treasure chests.
“Little Guang Yu, I didn’t expect… you to actually have real skills. You’re handling this like a pro… You’re no newbie. Be honest, you’ve played Three Kingdoms Rampage before, haven’t you? Hiding your strength isn’t cool.”
“Huh?” Guang Yu smacked her own forehead with a resounding thunk. “Nope! I never had pocket money for coin-ops like this before. Ugh, you don’t know my sis, she’s such a cheapskate, not a single—”
“Guang Yu, too much talk.”
“Fine.”
For drinks and wasabi, she could play the silent lamb, no problem.
She was fine with it.
But Little Qiu’s mental state was shaken!
She… was really playing this for the first time? And matching her blow for blow?
Su Yuqiu’s gaze sought confirmation in the lavender eyes peeking from under Ye Zhibai’s baseball cap.
Nothing there.
Yezi, how are you still so icy after this heated game? Don’t you have a heart!
Damn, why should I care about your heat? I’m the one just leeching wins here!
Su Yuqiu stopped fretting over whether Guang Yu was truly a newbie.
Only the weak obsess over such things.
The strong charge ahead and crush their foes.
So, for this final stage, she wiped the sweat from her brow and undid her ponytail. As her cherry-blossom hair cascaded freely once more, Su Yuqiu flashed a confident smile.
A confident loli was at her most charming.
“Little Guang Yu… no, I’ll call you Guang Yu out of respect. There’s no age gap between us now. I admit you’re a brave warrior.”
“You bet! The obstacles I faced yanking onions were way tougher than this. This is nothing—I’m a warrior for real!”
“Yanking…? Doesn’t matter. Anyway, Guang Yu, this final stage has no boss. It’s a player-versus-player duel—the designer’s clever gift for the strongest, a clash at the peak of honor. One life only. Empty health bar means defeat. Got it?”
Guang Yu crossed her arms and pondered deeply for a while.
Having never touched an arcade machine before, understanding even these simple rules took her a moment.
Ye Zhibai had barely waited three seconds when Guang Yu nodded vigorously, baring her little tiger teeth in a grin.
“Got it! It’s… just like fighting monsters!”
Not fighting monsters! It’s PvP!
Ye Zhibai was done.
This fox totally didn’t get it!
When it came to shamelessly pretending to understand, Ye Zhibai felt they were evenly matched.
The final stage even had a pretty grounded name—Decisive Battle at the Purple Thorn Peak. Cough, Purple Thorn Summit.
Before the last stage kicked off, Little Qiu adjusted her mindset multiple times, stealing subtle glances at Ye Zhibai’s profile with her sidelong eyes.
Cherry-blossom eyes sparkling with more colors than usual.
Yezi… today’s meetup must have disappointed you.
You’re even more outstanding than I imagined, but this Dwarf Winter Melon definitely hasn’t met your expectations for a friend.
Even so,
I want to prove to you that the friend you’ve chatted with online for years isn’t some pushover!
I want you to go home proud, bragging to the group that our leader is awesome!
For that, I have to win this match.
Staking honor and pride, a hero never falls on the path of the charge…!
“Winner, P2, Zhang Yide!”
“Huh?”
That announcement blared from the arcade speaker, declaring the result.
Little Qiu hadn’t even finished reciting her inner pep talk in her head. She blinked her big eyes at the screen.
She saw… her Guan Yunchang flat on the ground, defeated.
“……”
“Ye Zhibai… sis? Why didn’t the boss in this final stage move? Glitched? Game started but boss just stands there—I hit it with a Rising Dragon Invincible Body combo and took it out! This boss had such paper-thin health…”
“Guang Yu.”
“Yeah?”
“You’re such a scumbag.”
Burning with rage from Guang Yu’s sneak attack and Little Qiu’s refusal to yield, Ye Zhibai angrily shelled out ten game coins to reset the final stage, forcing a fair rematch.
And now?
Little Qiu stared vacantly, her eyes dull and lifeless, at her Guan Yunchang sprawled defeated once more.
Across from her, Guang Yu’s Zhang Yide health bar had only a sliver left—just one more basic attack would finish it off for a comeback kill.
Unfortunately, Little Qiu’s health bar hit zero first. She didn’t even get a chance to land another auto-attack.
Little Qiu slipped her big headphones back on.
This time, the song blasting through them was “Loser.”
With the match decided, the surrounding spectator players broke into convinced applause before chatting and laughing as they wandered off to play their own games.
After witnessing that legendary showdown between gaming gods, they all felt the illusion that they could pull off something like that too!
Ye Zhibai watched Little Qiu with worry. The girl was utterly dejected, her gaze vacant and unfocused. Then Ye Zhibai turned and leaned in close to Guang Yu’s ear as she cleaned up the battlefield, whispering a quiet reprimand.
“You… Even if you knew you could win, couldn’t you have gone easy on her? Don’t you have any emotional intelligence? Can’t you see how badly that little girl wanted to win?”
“You might not believe this, but I already went easy.”
“Huh?”
“My final water skill, Water Dragon Bullet! That’s me going all out with the ‘water’!”
“Sorry, but for a split second there, I actually thought you weren’t a total scumbag.”
“？！”
Guang Yu, the proud victor, had been scolded again!
The aggrieved little fox earned no head-poke from Ye Zhibai—there was no time for that.
She had to check first if Little Qiu’s extinguished fighting spirit could be reignited.
Ye Zhibai rose to her feet and stepped out from the bench. She moved to Little Qiu’s side and patted her shoulder.
“Little Qiu, wins and losses are just part of the game. Truth is, my cousin here has some real gaming talent. I’m planning to get her into esports professionally someday, so don’t feel too down about it.”
Guang Yu thought: Thanks so much for mapping out my career path. Even the Heavenly Realm isn’t this thoughtful toward me.
Ye Zhibai had figured Little Qiu would stay down for a good while, hard to bounce back.
But after glancing at the screen a few more times, Little Qiu simply pulled off her headphones.
She looked up at Ye Zhibai with a smile, acting as if nothing had happened.
“Pfft, don’t worry about it, Yezi! My mental game’s pretty solid, y’know. If I’d popped Musou a bit earlier, I might’ve even had a shot at a comeback. Totally my bad—I’ll just grind some more practice later! Little Guang Yu’s seriously strong, though. So young and already this skilled? Her future’s gonna be limitless. Impressive!”
“Ehehe… I’m not that amazing, though. Um, Little One, you’re pretty awesome too, for real. I went all out and still almost lost! You nearly slayed a god! For that feat, I can totally call you the strongest!”
“Sla… slayed a god?”
“Don’t mind her, Little Qiu. My cousin’s got a touch of chuunibyou at that age—it’s a phase.”
“Aw…! Totally get it, totally get it… Yeah… Waa… Yezi, lemme lean on your shoulder. I wanna cry…!”
“……”
If you’re this hung up on winning, don’t try to tough it out!
Poor Little Qiu. The saddest part wasn’t that she’d lost in the game and wanted to cry.
It was that when she teared up and tried to lean on Ye Zhibai’s shoulder, she realized—with her height—she couldn’t even reach it.
“Waa… Yezi, sit down. You’re a bit too tall.”
“Alright.”
