Chapter 5

“Eh? It starts just like that?”

The water in the kettle had yet to boil and Qiao Liang had no time to bother about it as he entered the game.

There was no opening scene or animation nor any options as the player entered the game right away.

In the vast desert, a long, curving road extended indefinitely.

It was a first person point of view from within the car and there was a simple instruction interface while controls could be done with either keyboard or controller – it was completely identical to the mainstream racing genre games in the market.

Qiao Liang looked at the image on the screen and acknowledged that the controls were fitting.

After all, this was a set template where the upper and lower limits were not too extreme.

Picking up his controller from the side, Qiao Liang hooked it up to the computer and began the game.

The car started moving.

Qiao Liang meandered along the road and drove on.

It was morning in the game and the sun had just risen, so the brightness wasn’t too glaring.

Sand danced about wildly in the desert and there were a series of sandstorms in the distance which would affect the visibility limits of the by reducing it.

The road snaked ahead – it wasn’t a straight path and there were turns every now and then.

Click!

The water in the kettle had boiled over.

Qiao Liang was driving as he sank into his thoughts.

What am I doing?

What should I be doing?

What does this game hope for me to do?

He had been driving for three minutes now. Indeed, there were several turns, but…

There was nothing else that interested him besides that!

Driving, turning, looking at sandstorms in the distance. Other than that, the game had nothing else.

In fact, there wasn’t even any other cars on this desert road!

Qiao Liang wanted to go cook his noodles and he pressed for the menu button.

However, there was no reaction.

Qiao Liang: “???”

For any other games, this would have been a pause button. But there was no reaction for this game!

Thinking that it was a bug, Qiao Liang held onto his controller while tapping on the ESC, Space and Return keys on his keyboard…

Still no reaction!

This game can’t be paused!

Qiao Liang was completely stunned.

In his moment of astoundedness, he lost his focus and missed a turn, driving off the road and sinking into the sand.

GAME OVER.

Eight simple alphabets appeared on his screen.

Jaws agape, Qiao Liang fell into disbelief.

This game had truly redefined his knowledge of trashy games!

No. Strictly speaking, this can’t be considered as a trashy game.

Trashy games were often due to a lack of quality, funding or objectivity from the side of the creators that leads to a compromise in certain aspects such that gamers would get a sense that it was poorly made.

But, this game was different.

It seemed as though it was aiming to disgust others!

Why else would it not have a pause function or a save point, displaying a game over at every single failure?

“Hold on, this is interesting…”

“Perhaps, this might be popular as a diss video?”

Qiao Liang cooked his noodles hurriedly and started analyzing the game’s title and summary.

“The Lonely Desert Road. There’s an emphasis on Lonely!”

“A simulated driving journey that makes you contemplate life… Indeed, I’m truly contemplating about life right now. This summary has not lied to me at all…”

“Seems like this game’s truly filled with evil intents!”

“The company that produced this game is called Tengda Network Technology Co., Ltd.. I haven’t heard of them and this seems to be their only game.”

“Pfft…”

After finishing his noodles, Qiao Liang took up his controller once more.

However, he turned on his recording software this time round, ready to record his entire progress.”

…

Three hours later.

Qiao Liang was slightly distracted and he missed a turn, sinking the car into the sand and ending the game.

“AH!”

“F-F-F-F*CK…!!!”

Qiao Liang was so pissed that he nearly threw his controller on the table. That was three hours!

He had spent three hours doing nothing but driving the car in the desert. Yet, he was greeted by a merciless GAME OVER that announced his failure.

Three precious hours of his life had left him just like that. Other than wasting electricity, he had not created any form of value.

Even the recorded video was useless. Of the entire three hours worth of recording, only the few seconds of his final moments could be edited into a failure compilation.

Qiao Liang threw the controller onto the computer desk while getting up to compose himself.

He didn’t smash the controller because he was too poor.

That controller cost at least 200 yuan. If he had accidentally damaged it, he would have been heartbroken.

“Huff…”

“Calm down.”

“It’s all for work.”

“Very well, this game has successfully triggered my wrath. I have to say that it’s a good quality for a trash game to possess.”

Qiao Liang regained his composure before long.

As a professional UP Master of dissing trash games, he had been through tons of hardships and challenges. A small fry like this was something he should be able to hold up against.

However, Qiao Liang has also realized that it wasn’t going to be an easy task clearing this game.

This was a challenge!

Therefore, Qiao Liang made a phone call for a takeaway.

He was lucky that he had lost the game early. If it were any later, there wouldn’t be any takeaway services left.

Seizing the opportunity, Qiao Liang laid down on the bed for a nap to recover some energy.

After he woke up and ate his fill, he placed a large glass of water on the table and prepared himself for the drawn out battle.

He was already getting the hang of the game.

Was there any difficulty to this game? No.

It was no exaggeration to claim that anyone with hands could clear this game.

There were no sharp turns nor meddling police cars that would rush at you. In fact, there wasn’t even any speed requirements for the players.

The only difficulty was time!

If even three hours spent could not complete the journey, there was no telling how much longer there was to go.

Players would instinctively want to increase the speed of the car to end the game faster. However, that would require even more focus or they may miss any turns they come across.

The moment they drive off the road, they would have to begin all over again.

If they wanted to go at a steady pace, they would have to drive slower. However, that would end up extending the game time.

“Messed up! This is really messed up!”

Qiao Liang felt an unprecedented surge in his desire to both challenge and diss this game.

If he could create a dissing video out of this game, just the title alone would be clickbait for tons of views!

Gritting his teeth, Qiao Liang entered the game to fight it once more.

…

More than eight hours later.

Late night.

“Holy f*ck!”

“I’ve cleared it! I’ve really bloody cleared it!”

Qiao Liang was on the brink of tears as he could finally see the finish line!

It was a commonly drawn finish line as though many of the racing car games out there had used the same universal art resource. However, for Qiao Liang in his current state, the black and white striped finish line never felt more intimate than at this moment.

His eyes were brimming with tears!

Holding his controller, he stood up from his computer chair.

His back was aching dearly and his hands were slightly cramping up. Even his eyes could barely stay open because he had been burning the midnight oil for too long.

However, he had persevered through the eight hours!

It was not for naught!

Qiao Liang was so emotional that he could not even understand what sort of feelings he was experiencing at the moment.

At the moment the car crossed the finish line, he felt as though he was possessed by the God of Cars!

At that moment, he was the most handsome lad on the entire racetrack.

Right after, the screen turned black and a line of words appeared.

“Congratulations for wasting eight precious hours of your life!”