DPPM Side Story – ZhouShen (Part 2)

“Alright, Gege will help you get revenge.” 

The slightly husky chuckle echoed in Shen Jiayan’s earphones, like a sudden surge of electricity coursing through his body, tingling and tickling.

It crept up his nerves, both itchy and electrifying all the same. 

As a gamer, Shen Jiayan was used to calling those big-shot players “Gege,” so he didn’t think much of it. Even when Shang Huai jokingly referred to himself as “Gege,” it didn’t bother him.

But why did Zhou Ziqiu’s smile make him feel a bit uneasy today?

Could this be the dark side of being attracted to someone’s voice and demeanor?

Shen Jiayan pinched his slightly flushed ear, lost in thought, when suddenly he heard a voice announcing, “An enemy has been slain” — the screen displayed that Lu Ban had been killed by Dian Wei.

Then, another low voice came through the earphones, “Hmm, got revenge for you.”

With a voice so deep and full of suave charm, Shen Jiayan’s breath caught in his throat.

Fuck!

This guy’s got something!

Fortunately, he wasn’t a girl, otherwise Shen Jiayan would’ve been mesmerized and would’ve willingly handed over his money?

Thinking of those naive boys and girls who were deceived for money and affection in social news, Shen Jiayan shuddered.

He should buy a voice changer.

Those scammers on the internet deserve to die.

He, being so smart, must always remain vigilant.

Thinking about it, Shen Jiayan instinctively sweetly said, “Gege is amazing!”

No, for a teenager whose hormones and self-esteem are bursting at the seams, a sweet, joyful, sincere compliment could greatly satisfy a man’s vanity and pride. Zhou Ziqiu felt particularly proud of himself tonight.

Except for the game with that idiot Zhao Yun where he couldn’t turn the tide, he carried every game afterward, directly leading “Milk Strawberry” back to the top with a ten-game winning streak.

And he felt like the gaming experience wasn’t as bad as he’d imagined.

Though “Milk Strawberry” was a noob, she had a good temper. She never fought for buffs, never got angry when her minions were stolen. She always politely asked, “Gege, can I have the buff?” before taking it, and she never got upset when she missed last hits¹last hit decided on who got the kill on the minion and got the EXP..

As long as her teammates didn’t flame her, even if they were feeding, “Milk Strawberry” never flamed back. But as soon as an idiot teammate flamed Zhou Ziqiu, “Milk Strawberry” immediately activated protective mode, unleashing her full firepower, and whenever Zhou Ziqiu showed off a bit, his ears were filled with rainbow compliments, which was very comforting.

And she had so many weird jokes and memes, making Zhou Ziqiu wonder where this little girl got them all. Every time her magical train of thought blurted out unexpectedly, accompanied by her babbling, it was always surprisingly cute and amusing.

So, even though she talked a lot, she never got annoying.

So, before Zhou Ziqiu knew it, there were only ten more matches left out of over a hundred.

When Zhou Ziqiu received the invitation for the last ten matches, he was in a shady internet cafe.

He had just had an argument with his family, all because his dad came home drunk again. He said a couple of words, and then his dad started acting crazy.

He didn’t want to argue with a drunkard on his 18th birthday, and he definitely didn’t want to fight with one, so he just grabbed his phone and ID and left.

The internet cafe downstairs offered all-night access for just 10 yuan.

Since the beginning, whenever he didn’t want to go home, he’d come here.

Back then, he’d even skip breakfast for days just to save up money to stay here for a night. It was also around that time that he started getting into gaming.

Perhaps it was because of his fast reflexes and long fingers, he excelled at any game he played without much effort. He hadn’t practiced hard, but he could play at an advanced level in almost any game.

So he started working as an accompanying player and power leveler²leveling-up accounts. In some PvP communities, this is highly frowned upon as it can mess up the gaming experience because those high-leveled lousy players will play with the legit good ones., earning money and saving up to become independent as soon as possible, so he wouldn’t have to serve his dad like a grandson every time he went on a drinking spree.

So unlike Xia Zhiye, who treated making money as a way to experience the life of a wealthy young master, Zhou Ziqiu saw making money as a practical goal. He worked as an accompanying player as long as it didn’t affect his studies, taking up to thirty games a day, even changing accounts twice to escape the anti-addiction measures. 

His accompanying player service always focused on winning, never on other aspects of the gaming experience. He was cold and silent, earning the nickname “Emotionless Win Machine.”

So for a long time, playing games wasn’t enjoyable for him; it was just mechanical. He didn’t have any expectations; he just wanted to finish quickly and get paid.

And just as he was booting up, the voice of his recent benefactor “Milk Strawberry” came through the phone.

Zhou Ziqiu wedged the phone between his shoulder and ear, typing the password rapidly with both hands, and whispered, “What’s up?”

The voice on the other end was as sweet and lively as ever. “Gege! Gege! I’m just one star away from reaching King! Are you coming today?”

Zhou Ziqiu glanced at his phone’s battery level — 10%. 

He didn’t bring a charger, and using a power bank to play mobile games in an internet cafe seemed stupid.

So he replied, “I’m busy today, not at home.”

The excitement in the voice on the other end instantly deflated. “Oh… okay.”

As the conversation ended, Zhou Ziqiu successfully logged onto the computer, and the internet cafe’s mechanical voice announced, “User A09 has logged on” without any hindrance, reaching Shen Jiayan’s ears on the other end of the phone.

“You’re at the internet cafe, Gege?”

“Milk Strawberry” sounded somewhat surprised.

Zhou Ziqiu could only respond, “Yeah.”

This was the first time he’d logged onto a computer with his own ID instead of a fake one at the internet cafe, but it didn’t feel much different.

Just as Zhou Ziqiu was thinking about this, the internet cafe’s announcement system blared once more, “User at station A09, happy birthday! Blue Wave Internet Cafe presents you with a complimentary drink. Enjoy!”

“…”

Many internet cafes had birthday discounts and promotions, which was normal.

However, Zhou Ziqiu hadn’t expected this rundown internet cafe to offer such services, let alone broadcast it to everyone.

As he felt the gazes of others around him, he experienced a brief moment of embarrassment.

Damn.

What a shitty internet cafe.

Zhou Ziqiu couldn’t help but curse inwardly. Then, “Milk Strawberry’s” somewhat shocked voice came through the voice chat, “Gege, it’s your birthday today?!”

“Yeah.”

“You’re at an internet cafe on your birthday?!”

“Yeah.”

“And you’re using your own ID to log in, so it’s your 18th birthday today?!”

“…”

He hadn’t realized that this seemingly silly “Milk Strawberry” actually had some brains.

Zhou Ziqiu didn’t feel like engaging in too much conversation and responded coldly, “Yeah. Do you need something?”

Probably sensing Zhou Ziqiu’s displeasure, “Milk Strawberry” meekly replied, “Oh, nothing. I was just wondering if you wanted to play LOL or PUBG today? The price is still the same.”

Even on his birthday, he couldn’t get some peace.

However, Zhou Ziqiu couldn’t think of a good reason to refuse, so he responded coldly again, “Yeah. There are only ten matches left anyway. Your call.”

“Ah, only ten matches left? I… really?” The voice on the other end sounded low and muffled, less cheerful than usual, as if the mood had dropped.

Maybe she was just reluctant to part with her ranking booster.

But with the semester finals approaching, Zhou Ziqiu didn’t feel like placating this little girl anymore. He decided to finish the last ten matches and then part ways amicably.

That was his plan, but…

“Milk Strawberry” seemed to quickly adjust their mood and cheerfully said, “Then let’s play PUBG tonight! This way, we can finish the ten matches quickly~”

Her tone remained lively, as if the birthday and the last ten orders didn’t affect her at all.

Just an ordinary and unfeeling benefactor, after all.

Zhou Ziqiu didn’t know what he had been expecting. He just responded coldly, “Alright. Log in.”

For some inexplicable reason, Zhou Ziqiu has been having terrible luck tonight. Every time he landed, he either couldn’t find a gun or ended up in a dead-end zone, and “Milk Strawberry” wasn’t much help either.

After several quick deaths, Zhou Ziqiu started to get annoyed. He pushed his keyboard and mouse aside, stood up, and was about to take off his headset when Shen Jiayan’s tentative voice came through, “Gege… is it because I’m too bad… that you’re angry…?”

Bad? She really was bad.

Zhou Ziqiu has never played with such an unskilled teammate before.

But since there’s only one game left, and after that it’s over — he wouldn’t continue playing with “Milk Strawberry” even if she wanted to — he held back and simply says, “No, I’m just going to get a bottle of water.”

“Oh… then could you go to the front desk while you’re at it?”

“?”

“It should be arriving soon…”

“??”

Before Zhou Ziqiu could figure out what Shen Jiayan is talking about, a delivery person dressed in uniform walks in, carrying a pink cake box, a bouquet of flowers, and a cup of milk tea. “User A09! Where’s User A09!”

Zhou Ziqiu was stunned for a moment before raising his hand, “Here.”

“Oh, here’s your cake, flowers, and milk tea. Take them.” The delivery person handed everything to Zhou Ziqiu and quickly left.

Zhou Ziqiu stood still, holding a strawberry cake, a bouquet of lily of the valley, milk tea, and a card that read “Happy 18th Birthday to Ziqiu-gege. May you always be happy and blessed — From ‘Milk Strawberry'”. 

For a moment, he felt at a loss.

Then “Milk Strawberry’s” voice came through the headset again, “Gege! Gege! Did you get the cake and flowers? Do you like them? I’m sorry it was so last minute, I couldn’t order a custom one, so I had to get what was available. But that brand’s strawberry cake is my favorite! It’s super delicious! And the lily of the valley symbolizes happiness returning. Even though I don’t know why you’re spending your 18th birthday in an internet cafe, I hope that after your 18th birthday, all the happiness returns to you!”

Her voice was sweet, sincere, and pure. 

Zhou Ziqiu, who was used to his birthdays being hastily wrapped up each year and was prepared for the same this year, looked at the strawberries on the cake. He suddenly felt that this fruit, which he didn’t usually eat, might actually taste pretty good.

He pressed his lips together slightly and said, “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome! You’ve played games with me for so long, it’s the least I could do~ Check your WeChat!”

It seemed “Milk Strawberry” has some other surprise in mind.

Zhou Ziqiu opened WeChat as instructed.

[The Sweetest Little Milk Strawberry in The World] sent a link.

He clicked on the link, and a picture of a candle appeared.

“Gege, if you blow at the microphone, the candle will go out! So open the cake, light the candle, close your eyes, and make a wish! Then blow it out, so you have a birthday candle!”

If it were usually Shang Huai asking him to do something so silly, Zhou Ziqiu would have forced him to blow the candle out eight hundred times already. But for some reason, when Zhou Ziqiu looked at the flickering electronic candle today, he actually blew at it. After blowing, he felt a strange mix of emotions.

No matter what, “Milk Strawberry” was really good to him.

So good that it didn’t seem like a typical client-player relationship.

At that moment, Zhou Ziqiu suddenly thought that if “Milk Strawberry” really wanted to continue booking him, he might reluctantly accept.

So, looking at the little strawberry on the table, he casually said, “Do you want to play a few more games tonight? My phone is charged now, and I can help you reach the King tier.”

He thought the girl might be too shy to ask to book more time, so after so long, it wouldn’t hurt to take the initiative this once.

Sure enough, the voice on the other end seemed a bit surprised, “Huh? Wasn’t there only one game left?”

Yes, there was only one game left.

“But…”

“Oh! I got it!” “Milk Strawberry” interrupted Zhou Ziqiu, “You’re worried that I’m too bad and can’t win, right? Don’t worry, I already found a new teammate ten minutes ago, and I’ve already paid the deposit, so you don’t have to worry!”

“……”

“And apparently, he’s a really handsome guy, super skilled, and has a great temper!”

“……”

“And his voice sounds nice too!”

“……”

“Oh my god! I just got his photo! This guy is really handsome! Do you want to see it, Gege?”

On the other end of the voice chat, Shen Jiayan, who wasn’t shy on appreciating other boys’ beauty, was scrolling through his phone with one hand and holding his milk tea with the other, his eyes gleaming.

On this end of the voice chat, Zhou Ziqiu was gripping the cake fork so tightly that his knuckles were turning white and blue.

How many “good brothers” does she actually have?

• 1
  last hit decided on who got the kill on the minion and got the EXP.
• 2
  leveling-up accounts. In some PvP communities, this is highly frowned upon as it can mess up the gaming experience because those high-leveled lousy players will play with the legit good ones.