You've been ruined by games all your life!

Chapter 25 New Games, New Life

After settling everything in, Chen Fang went to bed because she was too tired, while Chen Lai took his new friend Zhang Long out for a meal.

"You're the 'Great Dragon' who evacuated from the Shibuya Incident!?"

Zhang Long had only casually asked Chen Lai about his game ID, but he never expected to hear a name that had recently become very popular on the forum.

"Nice to meet you! You're a real hidden gem! I've seen your livestream replay, you're amazing, bro! Your thinking is so clear, you really understand this dungeon. You deserve to earn this money!"

Zhang Long excitedly shook hands with Chen Lai, and when he noticed the strange looks from the other people in the restaurant, he tried to lower his voice and speak to Chen Lai.

Chen Lai waved his hand: "Luck, luck."

"You're too modest. Come on, let's have a drink... Tsk tsk, I said I'd teach you how to build, but it seems I was just showing off my limited skills before an expert!"

"No, no, no, I don't really understand the ins and outs of this. Getting good stuff and escaping was largely due to luck. I just received my college acceptance letter, so I still need to ask those who know about this..."

"Haha, that's great, buddy. Let's play a game after we finish this meal!"

Zhang Long was clearly a generous gamer. He found Chen Lai agreeable and invited him to join him for a dungeon run.

Regarding the [Great Vortex], Chen Lai actually had some questions, such as: if there are no major events in any of the instances, what should they do now?

"What should we do?" Zhang Long swirled his wine glass slightly. "Go into dungeons that you think have potential, gather information, and then discuss it with your friends at Dumpling Academy. They're quite good at summarizing experience."

"For example, a player once entered the [Giants] dungeon. The extraordinary difficulty of that dungeon was very weak, with only the nine giants being the rarest, but the player couldn't find any items marked 'unique'..."

"He waited a month to get the book out, then discussed it with a teacher from Dumpling Academy, who suggested: Eat!"

"Since the giants eat humans, players probably have to eat them to gain their power. After recouping their losses, that player ate the Jaw Titan and successfully collected the unique golden item, making a successful evacuation."

"All this boils down to one thing: for us deep-sea gold diggers, gaming is life, but it's also work. Everyone in this apartment is figuring out different whirlpools and the forces within them. Whirlpools keep appearing and disappearing, which means we have to race against time!"

As they were talking, Zhang Long's phone alarm suddenly went off. He picked up his phone and saw that it was a message notification from the Deep Sea Forum.

"Look, the Shibuya Incident closed after less than a month of operation, which means our deep-sea collision with that planet has ended."

Chen Lai took the phone, and sure enough, the whirlpool called "Shibuya Incident" disappeared into the seabed, replaced by a new whirlpool called "Bel-Ami".

"Judging from the size of this vortex, it should be one level lower than the Shibuya Incident, so it's not considered a classified document. The entrance fee to this world shouldn't be too high either."

"How about we go in and take a look together?"

Zhang Long glanced casually at the name of the new vortex and made a suggestion to Chen Lai.

Chen Lai hesitated a bit. He actually wanted to make money from the more familiar comics, such as "Ninja Era", "2077", "Uncharted Waters"... these comics whose sources were obvious at a glance.

"How about we go inside [The Great Voyage] and take a look?" Chen Lai tried to find his comfort zone.

"You mean these relatively stable whirlpools? I suggest you don't go in. Veteran players have already thoroughly explored these battlegrounds, and the things that these money-grubbers have done have provoked the natives' resistance. Going in now would be a thankless task."

Zhang Long shook his head, unwilling to add any more details.

"Alright then." Chen Lai nodded. If these familiar "plots" had been changed by the players, then he would really be at a disadvantage if he went in. He might as well try his luck in the new instance. Seeing that Chen Lai agreed, Zhang Long grinned, greeted the restaurant owner, paid the bill, and then pulled Chen Lai out the door.

Chen Lai had originally intended to pay the bill, but then he thought that the students admitted to the Vinegar Academy certainly didn't lack the money, so he let it go.

At worst, we can give him a bigger discount in the dungeon, just to pay back the meal fee.

Men are friends as long as they've exchanged greetings, and sharing a meal is enough for them to put their arms around each other's shoulders. So, Chen Lai and Zhang Long walked back to their dorm arm in arm.

At this moment, several students were discussing something in the dormitory lobby. When they saw Zhang Long, they all greeted him and were very friendly to Chen Lai.

"Hey guys, how much did you manage to salvage from the whirlpool? Did you get anything unique?" Zhang Long asked them with a smile.

A long-haired man who looked a bit like an art student smiled wryly: "Brother Zhang, stop joking. Unique items aren't that easy to come by."

Zhang Long nodded, stood in front of his room, and made a hand gesture to Chen Lai, agreeing to meet at nine o'clock.

Chen Lai indicated that he understood and opened the door. His mother, Chen Fang, was cleaning the new house and didn't react much when she saw him return.

Chen Lai grabbed an apple from the table, quickly slipped into his room, and said, "Mom, I'm playing games, don't worry about me."

Then he locked the door from the inside, took off his shirt, and faced the super deep-sea fish tank that occupied twenty or thirty square meters in the room.

The room was dark, but the deep-sea aquarium's shimmering blue color created a dreamlike atmosphere, much like the cannibalistic lake in Life of Pi.

After stripping off his clothes, Chen Lai jumped in and sank to the bottom of the water, losing consciousness.

Welcome to Deepsea Games

Icebergs, penguin island, a plump seagull flew in from afar and tossed several cod that had been added as friends to Chen Lai's list in front of him, which he ate one by one.

Jue Xiong Hu was originally streaming in a small vortex with a 5000 yuan entry fee. When he saw Chen Lai come online, he immediately abandoned his equipment and flew to Chen Lai.

At this moment, Chen Lai was chatting with Zhang Long, whose ID was [Reincarnated Mud Truck], and whose game character was a Western penguin wearing a cowboy hat, looking very stylish.

"Here's what you're going to do: first buy a box of Kowloon Potion, then get a military-style physical technique, and finally get a general-purpose deep-sea powder and sprinkle it into the deep-sea fish tank."

"This adds up to about 400,000... Do you have enough money?" Zhang Long found a few cheap items in the [Deep Sea Surroundings] and showed them to Chen.

Chen glanced at his bank account. The 140,000 yuan he received from the previous live stream, plus the 300,000 yuan Qingbing could give him, was just enough to buy what Zhang Long had mentioned.

"Enough," Chen Lai said through gritted teeth.

“Okay, this should be enough for your initial physical growth. Now let’s get into the dungeon.” Zhang Long nodded and hurriedly pulled him to the whirlpool of [Pretty Friend].

"Can I switch to peace mode and follow your live stream?" Absolute Ferocious Tiger followed, his eyes fixed on Chen Lai.

"It's your decision, I don't care." Zhang Long glanced at Chen Lai and flapped his wings.

“Alright, it’s just the three of us, [Beautiful Friend], start!” Chen Lai nodded and jumped into the newly formed vortex first.

(End of this chapter)