Chapter 38: Game Launch!

Liu Ruohan felt like her lungs were about to burst from rage!

In the very first level of the game, the opening scene featured that purple, muscular protagonist charging into a venue and ruthlessly beating several horses¹!

Specifically, when he was pummeling a horse with a wretched, ugly face and a self-righteous “Holy Mother” persona, the muscular protagonist would instantly erupt with an outpouring of dominance. His attack and movement speeds doubled…

He could even pick up stones from the ground and smash them against the Holy Mother horse’s head, followed by a series of keyboard-input combos!

A Holy Mother horse?

Yes!

It was the exact same horse that had criticized the puppy-like horse!

The insults it hurled at the dog-horse were almost a verbatim copy of the dialogue between Liu Ruohan and Zhang Yang, with only a few words modified…

Thwack! Thwack! Thwack!

The purple muscular protagonist charged forward and delivered a stinging slap. The game’s sense of impact was incredible…

Every punch felt like it hit solid flesh!

And!

What left her speechless was that this entire sequence was automated!

That’s right, the first level was a tutorial. Liu Ruohan barely had to touch her keyboard or mouse before the protagonist inside began beating people up automatically.

Liu Ruohan’s eyes were wide with shock!

She was so angry she nearly smashed her computer, stomping her feet repeatedly in her office!

Zhang Yang…

Zhang Yang!!!

In this moment…

She felt like she could swallow Zhang Yang whole!

Why did I ever rent you my servers!

Why!

……………………….

“A-Wei² Mobile.”

The owner, Wang Wei, opened his computer the moment the download finished.

Then…

He entered the game.

“Huh? This game is connected to Desert Bicycle?”

Upon entering, he saw a scene that left him stunned.

After passing the tutorial level, he controlled the protagonist and moved into the next game scene.

The next stage appeared to be a public bus.

There was no dialogue on the bus.

However, they saw a large, shirtless horse-man reclining across the seats with his socks off…

Faint wisps of toxic fumes rose from his feet. The surrounding passenger-horses all wore expressions of disgust. An old man seemed to be repeatedly trying to reason with him, but the brute remained completely indifferent…

On the other side, a young horse was shouting into a phone. His conversation was filled with various censored profanities like “***,” and spit was flying everywhere, spraying onto the hair of the person in the front seat like rain.

Not far away, another young horse was eating and tossing trash everywhere, with flies swarming all around him…

A few strange-looking young horses were smoking, occasionally blowing smoke rings at the passengers in front of them with smug expressions…

There was also an elderly horse carrying a large megaphone. Blaring noise erupted from the speaker, and while the surrounding passengers clutched their ears in apparent agony, he seemed to be enjoying himself!

Finally, there was an oddly dressed female horse who was cursing at the bus driver while simultaneously trying to grab the steering wheel.

When Wang Wei saw this scene…

His spirit was instantly jolted!

He had ridden buses before.

Although public etiquette had generally improved and people were usually polite, one would still occasionally encounter these kinds of messy, low-class situations.

In reality, when faced with such things, most people preferred to avoid trouble. They would just endure it until it passed.

However, it always left a sense of frustration in the heart—angry but afraid to speak out, and certainly afraid to take action.

But this game…

It gathered all these chaotic behaviors into one place.

Wang Wei controlled the protagonist and charged into these freaks who were causing chaos, delivering punches that felt incredibly solid…

He ruthlessly grabbed the shirtless horse who had taken off his socks and delivered a slap. After the slap came a series of clean, decisive combos that were as satisfying as they could possibly be.

These people rushed forward to attack the protagonist, causing his health bar to drop slightly, but the protagonist suddenly triggered a “Burst³” state. His muscles swelled, radiating even more terrifying power as he grabbed tables, chairs, and stools to smash them into the crowd…

Especially when facing the woman horse who was hitting and cursing the driver, the protagonist simply picked her up and threw her out the window…

Wang Wei felt a wave of satisfaction wash over his entire body!

Moreover, the game was meticulously crafted!

Initially, the entire bus was tilting and unstable, but after the woman was beaten and tossed out the window, the vehicle stabilized.

Then…

The bus drove smoothly to its destination, pulling up alongside a street.

Wang Wei was pleasantly surprised to see his “A-Wei Mobile” shop rendered authentically within the game. There was even a horse wearing glasses who looked remarkably like himself selling phones…

And on the street…

………………….

“This is the game plot we designed! Did you see? That bus is our Room 304—it’s an easter egg, haha!”

“And this passenger is named Lin Dong!”

“This one is Wang Cheng!”

“Oh my god, that’s me, that’s me…”

“Not only did I get the bonus, but I’m also in this easter egg…”

“What a surprise! Hurry, take a screenshot and post it online!”

“Already did!”

“…”

Yanjing Vocational College.

Inside Dorm 304.

Several young men were shouting with joy, posting screenshots of their easter eggs to the forums.

For a moment, the forums exploded with activity. The envious replies from others left them feeling like they were walking on air…

They continued playing the game.

On the road next to A-Wei Mobile.

They saw several young horses who appeared to be urinating in public…

Without a word, they controlled the protagonist and charged over, delivering a brutal beating.

“Oh? You’re pissing in public and you dare to fight back?”

“…”

When the antagonists suddenly turned around to resist, the roommates were momentarily stunned. Then, they frantically controlled the protagonist to unleash a flurry of flashy combos…

After finishing off the urinating horses, a car suddenly appeared on the road and slammed into the protagonist, sending him flying. Through the car window, a bearded horse was drinking from a bottle and laughing loudly.

“Burst! Yeah, use the Burst and take him down!”

“There’s a gas tank over there!”

“Right!”

“This guy’s car seems to have stopped!”

“Wait, is he trying to make a run for it?”

“Damn it!”

“…”

Inside the dormitory.

Several young men stared at the gas tank on the screen. They controlled the protagonist to pick it up and hurl it violently at the car!

Boom!

The car exploded!

That bearded man, Ma, charged out of the wreckage clutching a wine bottle and stabbed the protagonist viciously…

“Kill him!”

“Are you kidding me? You’re drunk driving, you hit someone, you tried to flee the scene, and now you’re acting like you’re in the right?”

“You dare fight back?”

“Shit!”

In the dorm!

The young men stared at the computer, teeth gritted in fury as they lunged back into the fray…

……………………….

On the other side.

Shen Yi was also playing the same game.

However…

The plot he was seeing was quite different.

“Su Hang, you matrilocal son-in-law! As of today, get out of the Yun family!”

“Why?”

“You useless trash, you have the nerve to ask why? Our Yun family is about to be elevated to a Great Clan⁴… you’re nothing but an embarrassment to us!”

“Just you wait. Thirty years the river flows east, thirty years it flows west⁵… I’m done pretending!”

“…”

The purple-muscled protagonist burst into a mansion.

Next, he saw everyone mocking him, cursing him…

When Shen Yi saw the purple-muscled protagonist suddenly power up with an explosive aura once again…

His eyes nearly popped out of his head!

This…

What kind of eccentric genius came up with this novel-style plot?

This actually works?

(End of Chapter)

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Translator’s Notes

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1. horses: In Chinese internet slang, the word for “horse” (马, mǎ) is a homophone for “mother” (妈, mā) and is frequently used in coded insults to bypass censorship. Depicting the antagonists as horses is a common visual pun used to imply these insults. ↩
2. A-Wei: The “A-” (阿) prefix is a common Chinese naming convention used to create informal, friendly nicknames from a person’s given name. Here, it is used by the shop owner Wang Wei for his business name. ↩
3. Burst: A gaming term (爆气, bàoqì) for a mechanic where a character enters a temporary powered-up state. It is a common feature in arcade fighting games like The King of Fighters, which have a significant cultural footprint in Chinese gaming history. ↩
4. Great Clan: Translating the term ‘shijia’, this refers to an elite family with a long, prestigious lineage. In Chinese fiction, a ‘Great Clan’ possesses a level of social and political influence that far exceeds simple wealth, often built over multiple generations. ↩
5. Thirty years the river flows east, thirty years it flows west: A Chinese idiom (三十年河东，三十年河西) meaning that fortunes change over time. It is a common line in ‘underdog’ web novels, used by protagonists to vow that they will eventually rise to power and surpass those who once humiliated them. ↩