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nChapter Fifty-Four: It’s All the Game’s Fault

nThe holiday ended. Yan Jin went to work as usual.

nDuring this long holiday, there were quite a few people who had contracted the post-holiday syndrome. However, as far as YL’s employees were concerned, regardless of whether they had adjusted themselves back to normal, they had to perk up.

nAfter all, the Autumn Release Conference was right in front of their eyes. The venue had already been built, but the itinerary had still not been released. However, it should be out within a few days.

nYan Jin immediately became swamped with work when he returned to the office and had not left his computer for the entire day. It was only during lunch time when he finally got to catch a breath.

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nThe chairman had contacted Fish and Hamster – You Can’t Have Both in the morning and was told that the participating draft was almost done, although he mentioned that the conditions had to be changed. If he were to get an exhibition booth, he would exchange it for free and the drawing would cost one million dollars.

nYan Jin did not hesitate to agree. One million dollars in exchange for an exhibition booth was nothing – assuming he successfully got it.

nIn the middle of the afternoon, Yan Jin drank his coffee as he looked at his side account’s social media and accidentally clicked on a post that was shared a few hundred times.

nThe topic of the post was: When the owner is not at home, what do the pets do?

nThe replies were full of fantastic oddities of every description. Some replied ‘sleeping’, some ‘snacking secretly’, some ‘waiting for the owner to come home’, and some even said ‘busy destroying’.

nThe comments that had the highest ‘likes’ were outrageously funny.

nOne person replied that he had once gone on a trip during the holidays and was worried about the precious cat that he honored like his ancestor. It was a day trip, but he was thoroughly worried about everything and could not enjoyed himself at all. On his way back, he had brought a cart full of cat food and toys, planning to give his cat a surprise when he got back. Little did he know that when he got home, before he could pull off the surprise, there was plenty of horror instead.

nIn just one day, the cat who usually acted noble, cool, elegant, and magnificent, completely wrecked the new leather sofa that he had bought.

nWhen the owner arrived home, the neat and tidy room was gone. What greeted him was soft feathers scattered everywhere, covering the room in a snow white color.

nThe flustered and exasperated owner wanted to find the cat to give it a good whacking, but he never expected that regardless of how he searched the house, he could not find his cat ancestor. Then, whatever condemnation he had in mind was thrown far away, leaving only a heart full of anxiety. He asked his neighbors, but they had no idea. So he ran to the nearest police station and they dumbfoundedly replied that they could only help find humans, not cats. Later, with his friend’s suggestion, he pasted lost-and-found posters all over his neighborhood.

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nFinally, the unlucky owner dejectedly returned home. When he sat on the floor covered in soft feathers, wiping his tears, he heard a meow right beside him.

nAs it turned out, the cat who had tired himself out from all the fun was sleeping on the floor without a twinge of guilt. Because of the cat’s fur color, it ended up blending in with the environment, making it hard to spot the cat at a glance.

nIn the end, that incident ended with the owner hugging and kissing the cat ancestor in his embrace.

nWhat? What about the sofa?

nThere was a saying, without discarding the old, there would be no room for the new.

nYan Jin gave that reply a ‘like’ and continued reading the other replies.

nThe majority of the comments were about their cats and dogs. It was not that Yan Jin did not like them, but he felt like something was missing.

nScrolling further down, the chairman did find a comment that mentioned a hamster.

n#233 Anonymous

nInnocent small animal lover here. Recently, I had a hamster and two white rabbits. Most of my attention was spent on the hamster. I’ve kept a few of them before, but none lasted long. But this particular one had strong vitality and was quite obedient most of the time. Thus, I spent about a 120% effort to take care of it. Because his breed was a pudding hamster, this fellow was named Pudding.

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nPicture.jpg

nRecently, I realized that Pudding’s food intake had suddenly decreased whereas the food in his dish had not diminished. He did not reject the extra treats like melon seeds or walnuts, but those treats should not be eaten too often, so I did not give him too many. That would mean there was surely not enough to fill his stomach.

nIt lasted about a week before I felt that something was amiss. I brought him to the clinic, but we could not find any problems. The vet asked me to change the brand of the food, so I did, but there was still no change.

nFor the next few days, I watched Pudding’s condition, but I couldn’t find anything wrong with Pudding. He just wouldn’t eat. So that piqued my curiosity. That night, before I went to sleep, I set up my phone at the side of the cage and switched on the recording mode.

nThe next day when I woke up, I finally knew why Pudding wasn’t eating. It turns out that there was a round opening at the side of the cage that lead to the external toilet area, which was about two centimeters in radius. But because the cage was bought a long time ago, that one and a half year old hamster of mine was too big to squeeze into the external toilet. Hence, I made a bigger toilet area within the cage and that opening was now useless, so I used a board to cover it up. Who knew that the opening that seemed perfectly fine was in fact loose.

nI watched helplessly as Pudding habitually shifted the board away and peeked his head out at two in the morning.

nI’ve mentioned previously that I also kept two white rabbits. Yes, the rabbits’ cage was just beside the hamster cage. The grills of the cage were significantly wider. If Pudding wanted to pass through the grills, it would be a little difficult as his stomach would get stuck. But if it was just peeking his head inside, there would be no problem at all.

nI think everyone must have guessed what had happened. That’s right, the spot that Pudding was peeking out from directly faced the rabbits’ food dish. Pudding munched on a big vegetable and a huge chunk of carrot. After he ate and drank his fill, he went back to sleep.

nNo wonder he wouldn’t eat during the day – he had his fill during the night.

nThat reply received quite a number of ‘likes’. After Yan Jin gave his ‘like’, he suddenly felt that this situation was quite similar to what had happened with Fishy.

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nAlthough Chu Ge had said that it was post-holiday syndrome, but there was no conclusion because Xiao Yu’s appetite had indeed decreased.

nYan Jin did not keep two rabbits in his house, not even as candy. If he made his own meals, his ingredients would be freshly purchased, leaving the refrigerator with only tomatoes.

nBefore he left the house, he counted them and none of them were missing.

nThat eliminated the possibility of secret snacking. However, that reply opened a new train of thought for Yan Jin.

nFor that past two days, he had been watching Xiao Yu closely, but he could not find anything abnormal. So, could the problem be…

nAfter he had slept?

nThe more Yan Jin thought, the higher the possibility. A plan quickly formulated itself in his mind.

nXiao Yu, who did not realized that he was running out of luck, was very distressed. He met very idiotic teammates during the two rounds that he had played recently, which caused him to suffer a great loss.

nBreathe, breathe.

nXiao Yu calmed down and was preparing for another round when he heard noise coming from the opposite side of the door.

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nYan Jin was back.

nXiao Yu immediately closed the game and uninstalled it. Right before he closed the iPad, he had a quick look at the time.

nOhmygod, it’s already 9:00 p.m. I played so much that I forgotten about the time.

nNormally, Xiao Yu would close the game at around five in the afternoon. After all, the game, Toxic, could not be paused once you began a match. Only a forfeit would end the game. But Xiao Yu, who hated anyone who forfeited a game, was not willing to do that himself.

nThat night, Yan Jin acted how he usually would. He played with Xiao Yu as usual, gave half a melon seed as usual, and said goodnight as usual.

nNot a single hint that he was planning something big.

nXiao Yu, who did not sense any signs of danger, did not give Yan Jin a single bit of attention. His mind was occupied with his game.

nHe only needed to win one match and then he would be able to level up in rank. Nannan was coming back tomorrow. At that point, it would surely be impossible to play his game without any distractions.

nIt was midnight when Xiao Yu laid inside his little house as he tossed and turned but could not bring himself to sleep.

nHe only needed to win one match…

nTwo in the morning.

nXiao Yu ran out of his little house, leaned against the cage, and observed for a while. He confirmed that Yan Jin was deep asleep.

nYan Jin had left the iPad in the living room to charge, but that did not stop him.

nFirst, Xiao Yu opened the cage. He was used to it. He just had to make sure not to make too much noise. Then, he used the small ladder to descent from the table to the floor.

nYan Jin had not switched on the air-conditioning for the past few days, so he did not close the bedroom door when he slept. With that, Xiao Yu had successfully made it to the living room.

nThe iPad was lying on the coffee table. Climbing onto the coffee table would need some technique.

nXiao Yu climbed along the sofa and got on top of it. Next, he took a few steps back, run forward, and jumped!

nHe spread his limbs out in midair like a parachute to increase his surface are.

nBoop.

nHe successfully landed on the coffee table.

nXiao Yu was full of excitement as he opened the iPad. Next, he guiltily took a look in the direction of the bedroom.

nCompletely no sound of activity.

nIt was now two in the morning. One match would take about half an hour at most. Yan Jin would definitely not realize it at all.

nXiao Yu thoughted as he installed the game and opened it.

nChose a character, start.

nThe match opened smoothly. Xiao Yu chose a crowd control support character as the fifth replacement player. It did not have high damage, but he was able to stick close to his enemies. He could easily clear a wave and then run. He followed the archer and obtained the red buff, then stood under the enemy’s tower and taunted them. The archer was good at first and took down a tower quickly, but it was a pity he missed first blood. He was just a little bit off from scoring a kill.

nAfter destroying the tower, the Archer returned to the wild area for a red buff. Xiao Yu’s blood bar was low, so he returned to the city in advance. He hid in the bushes as he looked at the mini map, planning to provide aid against the oncoming wave.

nLittle did Xiao Yu know that at that moment, the red buffed Archer was caught by the opposing jungler. Even with three skills and an evade, he still could not get away.

nXiao Yu immediately cancelled his return trip, but it was too late when he got there. The jungler still had a lot of blood, yet the Archer still headed there to pick on the opponent despite his almost empty blood bar. Xiao Yu released an ultimate skill, sent a mass signal, and quickly ran away.

nFirst blood.

nThe jungler and those from the mid lane who rushed over at this point were not able to successfully hold off the opponent’s jungler and even got killed by them.

nXiao Yu silently waited for his blood bar to recharge at the fountain, and that was when he saw a message appearing in the public chat.

nArcher: Sup, wat da heck u mean by dat? releasing an ult after I died?

nXiao Yu almost puked blood on the screen.

nXiao Yu’s ultimate skill was crowd control. The Archer was obviously being beaten to death, not by the mobs. He couldn’t get the hint to run away, and now he’s blaming others?

nWho knew that before Xiao Yu could even react to that, the Archer had sent another message.

nArcher: wot kinda teammate r u? u can’t even provide support. Let’s vote.

nIt just happened to be the six minutes in and a voting column for early surrender appeared on the screen.

nXiao Yu held his stuffy chest as he hit the reject button.

nOther than the one vote from the Archer, the other four players chose to reject.

nMage: sorry I got there late.

nMage: hang on, we’ll win it.

nIt was rare to meet someone who would take a step back in these games. Xiao Yu’s mood was slightly better, so he continued to game. The tower in the bottom lane had been destroyed. The opponent was planning to open a team fight after killing off their Archer but failed.

nXiao Yu noticed that the opponent was at the jungle and quickly rushed over to provide support. The mid lane mage also ran towards the top lane, but just as they were rushing to the top lane for a team fight, the Archer ran alone to the mid lane to destroy the tower. He ended up getting ambushed by the opponent’s mage with a set of skills.

nThe team fight at the top lane ended with one kill each. The opponent’s mage did not come over and their Archer did not make it either. The fight was still evenly matched.

nHowever, after the Archer that was killed off in the mid lane, the opponent’s mage used the opportunity to destroy one of the towers in the mid lane.

nThen, another message appeared in the public chat.

n(Public) Archer: the enemy is pushing hard, gank mid.

nXiao Yu’s anger rose in that instant.

nSupport: u crazy? If u can’t play, leave. We can win this and report 2 u once we’re out.

nArcher: lol. U’re so powerful.

nTwenty minutes into the game, both parties were in a mess. Xiao Yu pulled up the battle score. The current head counts were 28 to 33, and their archer’s score was 1-7-3.

nXiao Yu clenched his teeth, but chose not to say a thing.

nIt was another team battle and the opponent was planning to kill off their archer. Xiao Yu helped heal one of them back and even scored a kill against the opponent.

nArcher: zzz u sure can kill steal, support.

nSupport: what do u mean by kill steal? U can’t see ur own battle score?

nArcher: lol. Didn’t u steal all 6 kills from me?

nXiao Yu was extremely mad. His scores were 6-3-21 and the archer’s score were 1-8-4, yet that archer dared to say he had stolen his kills?

nEngulfed by anger, Xiao Yu used the remaining countdown during their death and quarreled with the archer on the public chat.

nXiao Yu, who was completely absorbed in the game, did not hear that footstep coming from behind.

nThe glowing screen from the iPad was like an obvious on a dark night like this where all the stars had hidden themselves.

nArcher: **u**, u think u’re so great? Come out and fist fight w me. I’ll teach u some manners.

nSupport: u teaching me with such standards? LOL.

nArcher: *****

nXiao Yu grew more courageous as the quarrel progressed. Just when he was thinking of how he would not let off that archer even if he lost the match, suddenly, everything turned bright before his eyes.

nHowever, the revive countdown was still counting.

nThe thing that light up was not the screen that had dimmed from dying in the game. Instead, it was the light, the light in the living room.

nSomeone had switched on the light.

nTranslator’s notes:

nThere’s a whole bunch of game terms mentioned, please note that I have no idea what it means, and I’ve tried my best with the help of Helli and Etvo (biggest credit goes to them!)

nGank mid – surprise attack from the middle

nADC – attack damage carry

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