Monday morning at 9 o'clock, Lu Zhixing returned to his dorm room.
The male dormitory for freshmen majoring in game design at Jinghai University was located in Building No. 7, and Lu Zhixing's dorm room was on the fourth floor, room number 404.
This dorm number wasn't particularly auspicious, especially for someone in the game design major. However, as a firm materialist, Lu Zhixing didn't really mind, and actually found it rather amusing.
When introducing himself to other students, he could proudly say, "I'm from room 404!"
It sounded pretty cool.
There was only one major-specific class this morning, from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m., so the students didn't need to get up too early. They could sleep in and then calmly head to class.
The accommodation environment at Jinghai University was among the top in domestic universities, featuring four-person rooms with bunk beds and desks below. Whether it was the beds, the desks, or the wardrobes, all were quite new, and the rooms were equipped with air conditioning and TVs.
Just this living environment alone attracted many new students each year.
"Hey, Lu, you're up early. I was just afraid you'd forgotten about class and was about to give you a call."
The speaker had an ordinary-looking face and wore round glasses.
His name was Liu Bo, the dorm leader of room 404, who got along well with Lu Zhixing. He was reliable, hardworking, and multifaceted, playing a mean guitar.
Lu Zhixing tossed the three pancakes he was holding over to him: "You guys probably haven't had breakfast yet."
He had bought them on his way back from the internet cafe, passing by the north gate of the school.
Liu Bo immediately beamed with joy: "Lu really understands us, thanks a lot!"
The other two roommates had finished their tasks at hand and each thanked him before taking their pancakes and starting to eat.
Looking at his three roommates, Lu Zhixing couldn't help but muse:
Room 404, truly a gathering of talents.
Apart from Lu Zhixing and Liu Bo, the other two roommates were named Zhao Haoyan and Lv Yixiao.
Zhao Haoyan was a tall guy with excellent athletic ability, it's just a pity that he didn't seem to have the brightest mind.
Lv Yixiao, on the other hand, was a natural comedian, with a very festive face and great eloquence. He had been selected for the debate team and had no difficulty taking on the role as an anchor.
"By the way, Lu, what kept you busy this weekend?" Liu Bo asked while eating his pancake.
Lu Zhixing organized his textbooks on the desk: "I went to help out at my brother's internet cafe. What about you guys?"
Liu Bo glanced at Zhao Haoyan, who was nearly done with his pancake: "Old Zhao spent the weekend either playing basketball or gaming in the dorm."
Lu Zhixing: "Oh? Made it to Silver yet?"
Liu Bo shook his head: "No, he dropped a rank."
Lu Zhixing was shocked: "What? You can drop from Bronze? Isn't that the lowest rank?"
Liu Bo barely held back a smile: "Lu, didn't you watch the news? The ranking system was updated this weekend, they've just added a new Iron rank. The officials say the adjustment to the ranking mechanism is to better differentiate players' levels. It's supposed to make climbing ranks easier for ordinary players, so Old Zhao played intensely for two days, only to... "
Zhao Haoyan was overwhelmed with sorrow: "Stop it! The officials are targeting me!"
He turned his grief into appetite, swallowing the rest of the pancake in one bite, then grabbed his water jug and started gulping down water.
As they talked, Liu Bo suddenly remembered something and looked at his watch: "Hey, it's a packed day for our major class, and Zhao, you should go ahead and save us some seats. We'll follow shortly."
Zhao Haoyan stood up: "Got it! I'll secure the best spot for our dorm!"
With that, he hurriedly left.
Liu Bo then looked at Lv Yixiao: "As for Boss Lv, he was the MC at a wedding over the weekend and made a good few hundred. He should treat us!"
Lu Zhixing couldn't help but respect Lv: "Not bad, Boss Lv, you can already emcee weddings? Didn't the bride and groom burst out laughing at the sight of your face?"
Lv Yixiao seemed a bit upset: "What are you talking about? I'm a professional! When the bride and groom looked at my face, of course they..."
Liu Bo was surprised: "Wait, they didn't really burst out laughing?"
Lv Yixiao cracked up: "Of course they did! But it doesn't matter. Weddings are all about joy, and it even eased the couple's nerves, so for me, it's actually an advantage.
"Wait till tonight, I'll treat you all to dinner!"
Normally, the rates for professional wedding MCs are quite high; depending on the economic conditions of different regions, the most expensive ones could earn a few thousand per event.
But Lv Yixiao was still a university student, so his fee for temporarily acting as an MC was much lower, generally fluctuating between 500 and 800 yuan.
However, for students, this was still a considerable amount of money, enough to improve the food situation for the whole dorm.
Lu Zhixing then turned to Liu Bo: "And you?"
Liu Bo sighed quietly: "I went to the auditions for Campus Talent Show."
Lu Zhixing: "And then? Did you advance to the next round?"
Liu Bo shook his head: "How could I have advanced? Of course, I got cut!"
Lv Yixiao, apparently already aware of this outcome, defended him: "Cut? That was clearly a rigged situation!"
After hearing the back and forth between the two, Lu Zhixing finally pieced together the story.
"Campus Talent Show" is a highly popular internet variety show organized by Changteng TV, which by now had reached its third season, with undiminished popularity.
This variety show remained a talent-show format, but it targeted a special group: only high school and college students.
That's why it was called "Campus Talent Show".
Moreover, the Campus Talent Show was divided into three different tracks: singing, dancing, and acting, each with industry heavyweights serving as mentors.
Compared to other variety shows with a single track, the content of Campus Talent Show was richer, and contestants could choose the track that best suited their strengths.
Many high schools and colleges hosted preliminary auditions, with Jinghai University setting up a main audition venue, drawing many students to try their luck.
Although Liu Bo had an ordinary face, he was very talented, and his guitar skills were good enough to get him into a music conservatory.
The reason he ultimately chose a major in game design rather than music, in his own words, were: one, he liked game design more, as it was his dream, and two, he could compete where others couldn't and thereby had a better chance of getting a beautiful upperclassman.
After all, in a conservatory, where prodigies were commonplace, being able to play the guitar was nothing special, but in other faculties, it was a surefire skill to impress girls.
In response, the other three roommates said: You make a good point that we can't refute!
Everyone agreed that there was no doubt about Liu Bo's singing and guitar skills. It wasn't about making it to the finals of the Campus Talent Show, but at least getting through the preliminaries should be nearly certain.
However, the selection process for the show was unreliable, and the final spots depended on online voting; campaigning was a free-for-all, and one could even spend money to rig the votes.
Liu Bo had neither the money nor the connections, and his spot was taken by someone else.
Later, a staff member of the show hinted that there were two other ways to directly advance to the second round: one was to sign a contract with a talent agency, and the other was to pay 250,000 yuan for a spot in the finals.
The talent agency's contract was worse than an indenture agreement, not only binding for ten years, but also with a hefty penalty for breach.
So, Liu Bo refused and decided he would never have anything to do with such a rotten show ever again.
...
After hearing all this, Lu Zhixing became reflective, "I'd heard that there's a lot of shady business in domestic variety shows, but who would have thought there would be such deceit even in the audition phase?"
Lv Yixiao was indignant, "Exactly! But then again, it's not surprising. The 'Campus Talent Show' is already in its third season and incredibly popular. They're not short of participants. To maximize profits, the organizers, of course, try to squeeze every last drop out of the contestants.
"The organizers surely have under-the-table dealings with those talent agencies, and those decade-long awful contracts are just like casting a wide net, tricking as many as they can.
"Unfortunately, news of these shady dealings can't get online, and if it does, it's immediately deleted and handled by PR. Even if it spreads in small circles, there's no way to prove what's true or false.
"With so many twists and turns just in the audition phase, there's no telling what the finals will be like."
Liu Bo quickly changed the subject, "Alright, let's leave it. It was just a brief interlude, let's move on. I wasn't really expecting much from it anyway. Rather than participate in this talent show and be a plaything for capital, I'd better prepare for the college's welcome party and try to charm a few upperclassmen there!"
Lu Zhixing and Lv Yixiao nodded vigorously, "Absolutely."
It had to be said that in this regard, Liu Bo was indeed planning far ahead. He had even considered using his guitar skills to his advantage at the welcome party to charm upperclassmen when he chose his major, which made everyone else feel rather inadequate.
Lv Yixiao suddenly remembered something, "Oh, by the way, did any of you play a new game this weekend? It's called 'Zen'."
Liu Bo was puzzled, "Cicadas? The insects?"
Lv Yixiao was somewhat speechless, "Zen! The 'Zen' as in meditation. The game is preposterous, it looks like a bad game and plays like one too..."
Liu Bo was confused, "If it looks like a bad game and plays like one, isn't it just a bad game?"
Lv Yixiao shook his head, "That's the thing! Although players can only role-play as trees, mountains, stones, and the like, the ratings have been skyrocketing since its release, and now it's receiving rave reviews—it's the hottest indie game lately!"
Liu Bo was surprised, "Is that so? Even trash games can get rave reviews?"
Lv Yixiao was quite pensive, "Yeah, at first I also found it unbelievable, but after playing it myself, I realized that, well, there's actually something to it.
"Many people online have analyzed it and said it really includes a lot of philosophy, things like 'Seeing Oneself, Seeing the World, Seeing All Beings', and many have claimed that playing the game has led to life insights.
"Of course, whether these so-called insights are genuine or pretentious is debatable, but whatever the case, to create such a game, the developer must be a genius..."
Liu Bo opened the official gaming platform and indeed found the game.
"Well, it's made it into the top ten indie game sales of the week. How much money is that? At least tens of thousands, right?
"Jealousy's making me lose my composure! You'd think, being game design majors, we'd be able to come up with something like this."
Lv Yixiao reflected, "These things depend on talent. Just like songwriting, many academically trained people can't write a good song in their lifetime, but some amateurs can write heart-touching classics.
"You have to admit, it's pure talent, undeniable!"
Lu Zhixing listened silently on the side, feeling quite satisfied.
Keep talking, I'm enjoying this!
Liu Bo asked curiously, "So who is the creator of this game? Has anyone found him?"
Lv Yixiao shook his head, "No. All that's known is that the guy seems to be in Jinghai, his nickname is 'Stranger', maybe a non-local living in Jinghai?"
Lu Zhixing couldn't help but smile, what need was there to guess? Something so distant was actually so close!
No more pretending, I'll lay my cards on the table—I'm that ordinary little game design genius!
Lu Zhixing cleared his throat, "Actually, about that..."
However, just as Lu Zhixing was about to share his joy with his roommates, Lv Yixiao spoke up at the same time.
"But...
"There's a streamer who seems to have caught a glimpse of the developer in the park."