No one understands rebirth better than me

Chapter 148 Sleeping Soundly

"Hey? Second Master, are you here yet? We're one short for mahjong."

"What's the rush? No, why are you running so fast?"

"We just came out of an internet cafe, this is our second game."

"..."

What the hell was that second game? Playing a game was like drinking all night…

"I'll be there soon, you guys..."

"Okay, okay, we'll talk about it when we get there. I'm out of phone credit, damn it, I need to top up my data..."

beep-

Zhang Chi hung up the phone decisively.

……

Young people's lives are never idle.

After Qingmei fell asleep in a daze, Guan Ren also wanted to go to bed for a nap.

If playing with someone isn't an option, sleeping with them is fine too.

However, shortly afterward, Guan Ren received a rallying cry from the "Gods of Illusion" in the "Our Struggle" group, telling him to go play arcade games.

……

In a small county like Jiangzhou, arcades were once considered, in theory, even more dangerous than internet cafes.

The presence of fruit machines makes arcades more likely to have "elite bosses" compared to internet cafes.

Especially when Guan Ren and Zhang Chi were younger, around the early 2000s, in arcades with low foot traffic on some streets, the two honest kids, Guan Ren and Zhang Chi, would sometimes hear cursing and swearing coming from the arcades. Although they were interested in the games themselves, they didn't even dare to take a look.

However, Guan Ren and his men still dared to go to the larger computer rooms on the main streets during the day.

As for now, they're all high school students, and arcades have declined in popularity. There aren't many people there anymore. For Guan Ren and his friends, arcades are actually a place they can come and go more freely than internet cafes.

……

What am I singing~

I think everything is great~

[So it turns out you're my theme song~]

When I arrived at Tiyu Road, the clothing stores nearby were playing "The Main Song of Love" very loudly.

There are two misconceptions about Guan Ren regarding this song.

Firstly, when Guan Ren was a child, he didn't understand what "main song" meant and always thought it was about "Brother Pig," so he disliked the song and regarded it as a comedy.

Secondly, for some reason, Guan Ren always thought that the song was sung by Coco Lee.

But regardless, it remained a popular street song from the 00s to the 10s, which is quite remarkable.

Equally enduring is the blue screen hanging in front of the arcade.

In Guan Ren's childhood memories, this kind of curtain was the same as those used in adult product stores or unlicensed hair salons.

This also put some psychological pressure on the kids who wanted to go to the arcade at the time.

I always feel that lifting that "shameful" curtain is like opening Pandora's box.

But Guan Ren certainly doesn't have that kind of psychological pressure now. He just opens it up openly, and the rattling of the crank and the sound of slapping immediately become loud.

Snapped!
Snapped!
Snapped!
Guan Ren raised his hand and aimed it at the buttocks of Zhang Chi, Liu Xiong, and Xu Hui in front of a certain machine, giving each of them a whack.

"Ren-ge, hurry up!"

Three people were playing "Journey to the West: The Legend of the Monkey King". Zhang Chi was the most noisy, slamming the machine and joystick like crazy, completely ignoring the sign posted by the owner that read, "Lightly shake the joystick, damage will be compensated".

"Where's the coin?"

"Buy it yourself, damn it...tsk, I have some in my pocket, hurry up!"

Guan Ren then reached into Zhang Chi's trouser pocket.

At times like these, you'd definitely want to casually pluck your buddy's little bird.

"What the hell?!"

Zhang Chi immediately arched his back like a shrimp and started cursing.

Guan Ren stopped dawdling, inserted a coin, chose the character "Longma," and started playing with his buddies.

……

Time always flies when you're playing.

After playing a few more games like "Dynasty Warriors" and "Captain Commando," they got tired and prepared to end their long-awaited arcade battle. But before leaving, Xu Hui was drawn to another abandoned arcade machine.

"Xu Hui, you still want to fight?"

"Let's go, are you almost done... huh?"

Zhang Chi and Liu Xiong weren't particularly interested until they saw that the machine that had attracted Xu Hui was playing Metal Slug.

This game was a dream that Zhang Chi and others could only dream of when they were young.

Because the Metal Slug series was definitely considered very difficult among arcade games at the time.

The children would painstakingly save up two game tokens, only to have them disappear in a minute or two in this exquisite game. As a result, back then, many people, including Zhang Chi, didn't dare to touch the game at all, and at most just watched the rich people play it.

Even so, I didn't get to see the whole process, let alone the ending.

Standing in front of this machine again now, to be honest, the group still felt, well... a bit too risky.

Although my allowance has increased.

But the price of the coin has also increased.

When I was a kid, two cost 50 cents; now they cost a dollar each.

Nowadays, the cheapest internet cafe only charges one yuan for half an hour. Compared to these two, it would probably be gone in less than a minute. Who can afford to play like that?
"Let's go, let's go. I'll just download an emulator when I get home."

Do you have a computer at home?

"You didn't...go to an internet cafe?"

"You went to an internet cafe just to download an emulator to play this?"

……

Guan Ren watched the three conflicted people silently from the side.

He does have a computer at home, but to be honest, it's more fun playing on the arcade with his best buddies.

A moment later, just as the three were about to leave, Guan Ren placed a small bowl on the machine.

"Let's play for a while and see if we can beat the game."

When the group looked into the small bowl, they were surprised to find it was full of heavy game coins.

"Second Master? You're a tycoon! How many did you buy?"

"Not many, a hundred."

"Brilliant!"

Fifty yuan might not be much for some students in the class, but for Zhang Chi and his friends, it's quite a lot; they could spend several weeks online on weekends.

Seeing that Second Master had personally paid for such a bag of gleaming game coins, the group was immediately moved to tears and filled with excitement, instantly shaking off their fatigue and starting to play again.

……

However, the exhaustion was undeniably real.

After spending an afternoon fiddling with the joystick, it was evening self-study time, and as soon as they arrived at school, they all slumped over their desks and started dozing off.

For Guan Ren, this didn't seem to have anything to do with physical strength.

Because his physical fitness is currently among the best of his peers.

However, the fatigue from playing games also includes eye strain, mental fatigue, and so on.

So after barely getting through the first English class, Guan Ren simply took advantage of Li Min having something to do and went home early during the next few self-study periods, and moved directly from the seat next to the podium to the seat next to Gu Youli.

Gu Youli originally thought he had some questions that she needed to explain, or that he was there to whisper to her or do something inappropriate.

It turned out that after he came over, he slumped onto the table and fell asleep immediately.

"Hey."

Gu Youli frowned slightly and shook his arm.

Guan Ren squinted and looked up at her:
"What's wrong, Sister Gu?"

"What's wrong with you tonight... Did you just come here to sleep?"

"Yeah, I played too many games this afternoon, so I'm really sleepy right now."

Gu Youli was speechless:
"Then why don't you just sleep at your place?"

"No."

Guan Ren shook his head:
"You smell so good, that's why I can sleep so well here."

"..."

(End of this chapter)