Chapter 4 Happy Games

Backstage at the player rest area.

His original name was Zhao Mingwei. He had been the captain of the Junlin Team for seven whole years. Many old members of the Junlin Team had come and gone, but this ID "Xixiao" remained, battling for the team for seven years.

Now, most of Zhao Mingwei's old teammates had retired. For the past year, he had been leading this new group of players on the professional stage.

Zhao Mingwei was the last to return to the player rest area. Before he could push open the door, he heard hysterical shouting from inside.

"Why did you substitute me in the third game? Putting that old guy in meant we'd be crushed directly!"

"Feng Yi! This year, White Sword Team's vanguard is too strong. Your aggressive playstyle would just give them openings!"

"So let Grandpa Xia go and play a retirement match? He's already won two world championships! He definitely doesn't want to take another…"

The voice stopped abruptly when Zhao Mingwei pushed open the door and entered the rest area. Everyone's eyes were on Zhao Mingwei.

Zhao Mingwei adjusted his black-framed glasses and looked at Junlin Team's starting attacker, Feng Yi. He was a young player with great potential, just a bit too aggressive.

When Zhao Mingwei looked at him, his eyes were already red, clearly very dissatisfied with the loss in this match.

"Xiao Feng, winning and losing are common; you'll have plenty of opportunities in the future." Zhao Mingwei walked up and patted him on the shoulder, but was immediately pushed away.

"Of course you don't care; you've already won two championships! It's my first time on the world stage! Do you know…"

"Feng Yi!"

The coach interrupted Feng Yi again. He lost control of his emotions, sat back in his chair, and covered his face, crying.

The loss created a heavy atmosphere within Junlin Team. In the end, the coach organized everyone to board the bus back to the hotel.

Zhao Mingwei sat in the last row of the bus, next to his old friend and the only remaining old teammate, Lin Xi.

"Grandpa Xia, feeling tired?" Lin Xi asked quietly, seeing Zhao Mingwei's solemn expression. "Making the top four is pretty good."

"It's not about the results." Zhao Mingwei turned his head and stared into his old teammate's eyes. "Lin Xi, I want to ask you something."

"Grandpa Xia! I didn't make a single mistake in these four games! Well, maybe one!" Lin Xi immediately raised his hand in surrender, even though they were close; Zhao Mingwei was still the captain.

"You made at least seven mistakes, but that's not what I want to ask…" Zhao Mingwei paused and then slowly said...

"How long has it been since you laughed while playing this game?"

"..."

Lin Xi was stunned for a moment, then forced a smile on his face.

"Grandpa Xia, we are professional players. This game is our job, and we play it to win."

"It wasn't like this before." Zhao Mingwei lay back tiredly in his chair and closed his eyes.

Lin Xi didn't dare to continue the conversation, fearing it would lead to discussing 'retirement'.

Although Zhao Mingwei's skills had declined, his popularity was still at the peak among all professional players. As long as he stayed in the Junlin Team, even as a mascot, the team's commercial value would skyrocket.

......

Zhao Mingwei returned to his hotel room and lay on the bed, staring at the ceiling.

Years of professional training had left him feeling utterly exhausted. For four years, he'd had enough motivation from chasing championships, but this year he really, really didn't want to play "Conflict" anymore.

But Zhao Mingwei had a binding contract with Junlin Team, akin to a lifetime binding contract, and he had to serve two more years before he could retire.

Zhao Mingwei took out his phone and saw a message from an old teammate in a WeChat group.

"Is there a game more fun than 'Conflict'?"

Zhao Mingwei forced a smile at this message, knowing it was meant as a joke, not a question.

He wasn't in the mood to read the WeChat messages and aimlessly scrolled through his phone until he noticed a strange icon. The icon was an inverted triangle with two simple words below it.

"Sacred Zero."

He didn't remember downloading this strange mobile game.

Zhao Mingwei dragged the app icon to the trash can, trying to delete it. But no matter how many times he tried, the icon stayed fixed on his phone's home screen.

Was there something wrong with his phone? After confirming that his phone was fine and it was the app that had an issue, Zhao Mingwei ran his antivirus software.

But after a thorough scan, the antivirus software didn't find anything.

Could there still be such powerful viruses out there?

Out of curiosity, Zhao Mingwei decided to open the app. The content inside was simple, just some instructions and a button labeled "Login."

He briefly read the instructions, which explained that this was an app for logging into a virtual game world; you could enter the game world the moment you clicked "Login."

A normal person would think this was a scam—directly logging into a VR game through a phone? Modern technology hadn't reached that point.

With a try-it-and-see attitude, Zhao Mingwei clicked in. The next second, the scene in front of him changed instantly. When Zhao Mingwei came to his senses, he found himself in a pure white world.

Translucent data frames floated in front of Zhao Mingwei.

As a veteran player, everything looked very familiar: character appearance customization, class selection, character name, etc. It just had fewer options than "Conflict," such as excluding races.

This game currently only allowed playing as humans. Zhao Mingwei spent about an hour creating a decent-looking face for his character. Without a second thought, he chose the Fighter class and entered the ID "Xixiao." After hesitating for a long time, he deleted "Xixiao" and typed in "Happy Game" instead.

"Character creation complete."

A voice without any emotion sounded in Zhao Mingwei's ear. The light in front of him quickly faded. When Zhao Mingwei opened his eyes again, he was standing on a street in a majestic main city.

He looked at his hands and saw that he was wearing a pair of half-finger white gloves. His attire had also changed from modern clothes to a Fighter's training outfit.

"A newcomer?!"

Before Zhao Mingwei could get used to the system, he heard a warm greeting by his side. He looked up to see a player dressed as a Mage approaching him.

The player's ID was "Today No Update."

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PS: Hello everyone; I'm Sister Bride. I couldn't resist starting a new book. The theme of this book is enjoying the game, as always relaxed and lighthearted. Humbly asking for your support and recommendations.