Reborn to Make Games: My Girlfriend is a Game Streamer

An observer on the day Chapter 96 goes live.

April 28th, 7:50 AM.

Lin Qiming stood at the bus stop at the entrance of the residential area, watching the No. 72 bus slowly pull into the station.

This is the route he's been taking for a year, and his nearest destination is no longer the familiar Art and Creative Town.

The carriage was full of commuters during the morning rush hour. He went to the railing by the back door, held on for support, and glanced at the street scene flashing past the window.

My phone vibrated; it was a message from my wife: "If you can, come home early tonight. Nannan said she wants to have hot pot with her dad."

Lin Qiming stared at the screen for a few seconds, then replied with a "OK".

He hasn't told his family about his unemployment yet.

It has been almost two months since Starry Games disbanded and Changshou Games failed its interview.

Approaching 30 years old, he entered the industry after graduating from university in 08, making him a veteran of the game industry with seven years of experience.

However, apart from two decent products from his early days playing web games, his resume doesn't show any other impressive achievements.

Now that he's getting older, he can't keep up with the overtime work ethic of younger people.

With the mobile game wave surging forward, he felt that he was being left behind by the times little by little.

This time, the job search process was particularly difficult.

However, as he reached middle age, the pressure of family had already weighed on his shoulders.

The original plan to start taking the civil service exam after receiving the bonus from Xingmang Games' game launch was thwarted by the sudden dissolution of Xingmang Games.

Coincidentally, with the recent large-scale rollout of food delivery services, the demand for delivery riders has surged, so he decided to continue delivering food while looking for opportunities.

After taking the bus for a few stops, I got off and walked to the nearest "Ele.me" delivery station where I could rent electric scooters to deliver food.

It's still early, and there's plenty of time before the lunch delivery rush.

Lin Qiming hesitated for a moment, then turned and went into the internet cafe next door whose signboard was a bit faded.

Around 8 a.m., there weren't many people in the internet cafe.

A few young people who had stayed up all night were asleep on the table, while the rest were staring at the screen, mostly playing the currently popular game "Global Watch".

After setting up a computer at the front desk, Lin Qiming found a corner seat and sat down.

He turned on the computer and glanced at the time in the lower left corner: 8:25.

Twenty-five minutes have passed since "Potato Survivor" officially launched at 8 PM.

He opened the Steam client and logged in; the icon for "Potato Survivor" in his wishlist was already lit up with a "Buy Now" prompt.

29 yuan is roughly what he earns from delivering five or six takeout orders today.

Lin Qiming hesitated for only a moment before clicking the buy button.

The game is small and downloads very quickly.

After installation, a simple potato icon appears on the desktop.

Lin Qiming clicked the mouse to open.

There was no fancy opening animation or lengthy exposition; after the game's name and the logo of Changshou Games Studio flashed by, you entered the game's main interface.

Following the concise beginner's guide, he chose the most basic character and learned the basic operations: movement, automatic attack, picking up items, and gaining growth.

The controls are extremely simple; you only need to control the character's movement during a match.

After getting a brief understanding, he started the first game.

Some comically shaped slime monsters wriggled and surrounded them.

Lin Qiming simply moved his character, and the attack was automatically launched. The three slime monsters shattered in response, releasing several gold coins and experience orbs.

Then came the second and third waves of monsters, their numbers increasing one after another.

He maneuvered his character to find gaps in the monster encirclement. As he acquired more weapons and leveled up, the monsters fell like mowing grass, and gold coins and experience orbs exploded on the screen like fireworks.

Before he knew it, his attention was completely absorbed in the game, his eyes glued to the screen.

Movement, monster slaying, item collection, leveling up and purchasing items—

This simple, repetitive logic has a strange magic that makes it hard to stop.

The young man who had just arrived next door was on the queue screen for "Global Watch" and turned his head to look at his screen.

During a break in his game, the young man couldn't help but ask, "Brother, what game is this?"

It looks pretty cool.

Lin Qiming then snapped out of his focused state.

He glanced at the time in the lower right corner; it was 8:50. More than 20 minutes had passed without him realizing it.

"Potato Survivor, a newly released Chinese indie game on Steam," he replied briefly, his gaze still fixed on his character progression panel.

Two of his six weapon slots have already been upgraded to the highest-level red weapons, and a new item that perfectly suits his playstyle has just been refreshed.

"Made in China?" The young man's voice sounded somewhat surprised.

"Hmm." Lin Qiming replied while operating the character's multi-boss skills, "Have you played Getting Over It? This is the new game that producer made."

"Holy crap, Getting Over It!" The young man immediately became interested. "I've seen it streamed, that game is so grueling. This one looks different."

"Hmm." Lin Qiming nodded, maneuvering his character nimbly among the monsters to dodge their skills. Gold coins and experience points were piling up quickly. "This is really fun to play."

The final blow was delivered, the boss died, and the game ended smoothly.

The customs clearance time was less than 30 minutes.

Lin Qiming leaned back in his chair and let out a long sigh of relief.

He hadn't entered this prolonged state of flow while playing games in a long time.

But this time, the simple and satisfying grass-cutting game gave him a moment of relaxation from the tension he had been feeling lately due to unemployment.

The young man next door had already opened the Steam platform and entered the purchase page through the carousel image of "Potato Survivor" featured on the platform's homepage.

Seeing this scene, Lin Qiming suddenly felt a complex mix of emotions.

If I had prepared more thoroughly back then, would I have had the opportunity to become a member of this development team?

However, he immediately shook his head and chuckled.

There are no "what ifs"—if it weren't for that chance encounter, he would be in the same situation now, without even the chance to attend an interview.

He couldn't help but sigh as he recalled Cheng Zhixing's youthful yet sharp demeanor when he first joined the company last year.

If only I could be a few years younger —

He composed himself and looked back at his screen.

The post-game results screen is simple: a new hero is unlocked, and then a new difficulty mode is unlocked through that hero.

He started over and chose this most basic role again.

This time, he no longer pursued the mindless pleasure of mowing the lawn, but began to observe and think seriously.