Chapter 46: The Immortal’s Feast

I watched Dragon Brother approach, an unbidden memory surfacing of the last time she saw Xiao Hua’s photo and snarled at me with bitter jealousy. I stood speechless for a moment, then turned my head.

Xiao Hua was cradling a broom, her head tilted, lost in thought. I sighed softly, lowering my voice to ask, “Little Dragon has quite a temper. Did she do anything to you?”

Xiao Hua looked at me, thoughtfully considering my question, then shook her head. “No!”

Dragon Brother ambled into the bar area, glancing at the machines with a hint of impatience. She turned to Xiao Hua. “Number 76, a large coffee. Number 12, a bottle of cola. Why haven’t you served them yet? What are you just standing around for? Aren’t you supposed to be sweeping?”

I sighed.

Xiao Hua nodded timidly and, gripping the broom, started to walk out from behind the bar. I watched her intently.

She hurried towards the aisle, then suddenly froze, standing still for a moment. After a brief pause, she returned backstage, rummaging through things for a bit before re-emerging with a dustpan.

Dragon Brother settled onto a bar stool, crossing her legs, the white fabric beneath her short skirt subtly glimpsed. She looked at me, asking languidly, “Why are you back again?”

I watched Xiao Hua sweeping in the aisle, then turned to Dragon Brother, saying helplessly, “I came to check on you… Can’t you speak to the young girl more kindly? Don’t be so sharp-tongued.”

Dragon Brother shrugged off my words, propping her head in her hand as she played on the computer. “What’s the big deal? Am I not a young girl myself?”

I chuckled at her retort, shaking my head in amusement.

After a moment, Dragon Brother rose from the computer. She bent down and retrieved a tray from under the bar counter. I watched her walk to the refrigerator, take out a bottle of cola, and place it on the tray.

She then grabbed an empty plastic cup from under the bar, filled it with ice, and began to brew coffee using the machine. Once everything was prepared, she sighed and carried the tray away to deliver the drinks.

Old Shen and I watched from the bar. Dragon Brother was actually quite efficient in her work, delivering things with a certain flair. If only she were a little gentler when serving, perhaps not slamming the cups onto the tables…

Old Shen and I had been standing there for a while. After Dragon Brother returned from her deliveries, we each signed up for a membership and found two connected seats.

My primary reason for coming today was to check on Dragon Brother. Seeing that her work was going smoothly and no issues had arisen on her first day, and since we were already here, we decided to play some games.

Old Shen and I discussed what to play. She said anything was fine, so after some thought, I suggested ‘chicken dinner’.

We both opened our STEAM interfaces, found the game ‘Chicken Dinner’, and began to log in.

****

The game, officially titled ‘Survival in Wonderland’, was a recent battle royale phenomenon. It featured an expansive map where players collected various resources. Within a set time, an electrified zone would appear and continuously shrink, damaging any player who touched it.

The electric zone became progressively more painful and constricted the map, forcing players into conflict until only one team remained. The final victor was declared with the words, ‘Good luck, tonight we eat chicken,’ appearing in the top left corner of the screen.

That’s where the phrase ‘chicken dinner’ originated.

On the surface, the game felt like a twisted experiment, throwing over a hundred players into one area and forcing them into a brutal struggle until only the strongest team survived. In reality, even highly skilled players weren’t guaranteed a ‘chicken dinner’. The game relied less on marksmanship and more heavily on luck.

Throughout the game, countless variables could arise: the distance to the safe zone, failing to find a weapon in a heavily contested urban area, dying in a bombardment zone, or having a poor entry point into the next circle.

However, none of this concerned me. My plan was simply to coast along.

Old Shen was incredibly skilled at this game. I heard she even streamed it nightly. Her total playtime neared 2000 hours, making her an epic-level player. Essentially, I just needed to follow her lead, occasionally provide her with supplies and bullets, and avoid running around aimlessly. If I did that, we’d generally be fine.

Once in the game interface, Old Shen said, “Invite.”

I glanced at Old Shen’s screen, found her ID, “Zhuheqiaobei,” typed it into the search bar, and invited her to the room.

Dragon Brother walked up behind us, placing a cup of coffee on each of our tables. She said softly, “Drink these first. These two are on the house.”

I nodded. “Not bad. My efforts weren’t wasted on you.”

“Get lost, you ass…” Dragon Brother shot me a glare, cursed, and returned to work at the bar.

At that moment, the game entered a black loading screen. Three seconds later, Old Shen and I appeared in a residential area.

Many other players were running and jumping around. I quickly spotted Old Shen; her game character was a white woman in a black overcoat. Bored, I controlled my character to punch her in the face. Old Shen remained motionless, seated and drinking her coffee.

A small line of text appeared at the bottom of the screen: “Game starts in 58 seconds.”

At the very beginning of the game, everyone spawned randomly somewhere on the map, and all players were in a ‘locked health’ state, meaning they couldn’t take damage. Around me, players occasionally ganged up for group brawls, while others used open mics to blast DJ music. Many gathered, swaying with various emotes. It truly lived up to its nickname, ‘Quality Square,’ presenting an extremely harmonious scene.

Someone shouted through the open mic, “Come on, all you Immortals, head to the airport! Let’s have a War of the Gods, spare these mortals!”

From nearby, another open mic blared, “You’re selling your damn cheating software!”

Open mic: “Come on, come on! Those who want to become Immortals, add WeChat! Fifteen hundred a month, WeChat ID is kaiguasiquanjia!!”

‘Immortals’ was the term for cheaters in this game. Due to the game’s mechanics, cheating offered significant advantages. Battle royale games were similar to the ‘dark forest’ theory in novels: whoever made a sound risked annihilation.

For instance, in the later stages of a game, experienced players would never fire indiscriminately. They would use the sound of previous shots to deduce the enemy’s weapon, distance, and numbers, then communicate effectively, ambush, and eliminate their opponents to seize their collected resources.

But ‘Immortals’ were different. If even one cheater was present on the opposing team, they could precisely pinpoint everyone’s location, rush directly to them, and instantly take down any player from a great distance using hacks like no-recoil aimbot.

Even if you hid behind cover, if an ‘Immortal’ possessed high-level tech, they might even have external skills like bullet bending. It was virtually impossible for an ordinary player to contend with a cheater. How could you fight someone whose bullets could bend, like a protagonist from an anti-Japanese war drama?

Moreover, all sorts of bizarre cheats emerged endlessly: extended arms that pulled enemy models directly in front to kill them, magic bullets, wall-hacks, X-ray vision, no-recoil aimbot. There were even cheats that allowed players to float high above the entire continent, arbitrarily control the shrinking toxic zone, or lock their health.

Not long ago, game news even reported a cheat that allowed players to punch planes out of the sky—truly terrifying. Despite the game’s quality, issues with the game company itself meant that cheating remained rampant, like wildfires that could never be fully extinguished.

For this reason, the game had begun to decline. In such an environment, whether one cheated or not often depended on a child’s allowance or the player’s personal ethics.

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