mijobooks Chapter 146 A Day Spent with Li Mengling
Chapter 146 A Day Spent with Li Mengling
Chapter 146 A Day with Li Mengling (Part 1)
"Senior?"
Li Mengling's voice brought Shen Zixin back from her reverie.
Ah—right, I'm shopping with my junior classmate right now. Just a moment ago, I think I spaced out?
Shen Zixin shook her head to clear her mind.
"Are you alright, senior?" Li Mengling stood in front of him and looked him over. "If you're not feeling well, don't push yourself, okay?"
"I'm fine." Shen Zixin straightened her expression, having regained some of her energy. "I was a little absorbed in thinking just now. Let's keep going."
Actually, when Li Mengling approached him this morning asking him to go shopping with her, he initially wanted to refuse. In his view, accompanying a girl shopping was a slightly ambiguous affair—and besides, he probably wasn't in the mood for it right now.
Not to mention—He Yuran would be incredibly jealous, right? Ah, Axin can go, though.
Ok?
After He Yuran said that, Shen Zixin wondered if she had misheard.
"Ah Xin, why are you looking at me like that?! I just made an appointment with Fu Xin to go to her for treatment today. Noah also said she has something to do today—it's not a problem for someone to accompany you and protect you! Don't think of me as so petty, okay?!"
Although He Yuran said that, she still asked somewhat nervously before Shen Zixin left, "You two are just ordinary classmates, right?"
O
Seeing Noah secretly laughing to herself, Shen Zixin immediately realized that she had secretly done homework for He Yuran.
Shen Zixin and Li Mengling walked side by side, their relationship appearing neither too close nor too distant, just like ordinary friends. Although Li Mengling tried to find topics to chat about with him along the way, Shen Zixin simply couldn't muster any interest and only gave perfunctory replies.
This won't do.
Li Mengling thought to herself. Originally, she had accompanied her senior on this trip to cheer him up. However, his mood was even more depressed than she had imagined, and she couldn't seem to lift his spirits at all.
Just as Li Mengling was still pondering, a burst of noisy and rhythmic electronic music, accompanied by cheers from the crowd, came from the front.
Both of them stopped in their tracks.
This is the largest arcade in Yuehua City. The colorful neon lights still flash even during the day. Inside the huge glass doors, people throng, creating a fiery atmosphere that seems out of place with the wintery feel of the street.
Ah—an arcade! Boys would definitely like this, right?
"Senior, do you want to go in and take a look?" Li Mengling turned to look at Shen Zixin, a hint of anticipation on her face.
Faced with such a bustling arcade, Shen Zixin frowned.
This place is too noisy — let's not go.
However, Li Mengling didn't give him a chance to refuse. She stepped forward and gently took his wrist—
"Let's go, let's go in and take a look?"
"Forget about arcades, I don't play arcade games." Seeing how interested her junior was in this place, Shen Zixin could only make up a reason. "If I want to play games, I'm more used to console platforms."
"Aren't they all the same?" Li Mengling scratched her head with her other hand. "They're all games anyway! Let's play together!"
"The difference is huge —————"
Before Shen Zixin could explain, Li Mengling pulled him inside as well.
And so, he was half-heartedly pulled into that torrent of light and sound.
Rows of arcade games lined up, flashing lights and mingling with the chaotic sound effects and music from different machines. Not far away, at a rhythm game arcade, young people were dancing and gesturing wildly, their faces beaming with pure excitement and immersion.
"Hey senior, have you ever played this?"
Li Mengling pointed at a classic fighting game arcade machine, her eyes gleaming. The next second, she couldn't wait to walk over and try it out.
"Senior! How do I start this?! Is this opening for inserting coins?"
Shen Zixin looked at her speechlessly—judging from this reaction—was this her first time at an arcade?
"First, we need to go to the front desk to exchange some game tokens before we can play the game."
There was no other way but to explain the basics of arcades to her.
Then, after the two exchanged some game tokens, Li Mengling couldn't wait to go to the fighting game machine and put the tokens in.
"Senior! You seem to know so much about this game, you must be really good at it too! Teach me!"
"—Let me make this clear first, I only have a general idea of how to operate it." Shen Zixin walked to the machine and began to demonstrate—
"The top three buttons are for light punch, light kick, and dodge; the bottom three buttons are for heavy punch, heavy kick, and burst. Then the joystick controls the direction—it's very simple, right?"
"Oh, what does 'dodge' mean? And what's the use of 'burst power'?"
Seeing Li Mengling's serious expression, Shen Zixin sighed and slowly began to explain the basic gameplay of the game.
About five minutes later, Li Mengling stroked her chin with a smug look on her face. "What? It was that easy! Senior! Let's play a game!"
"—Is this her first time playing an arcade game? And she actually wants to challenge me?" Shen Zixin smiled. He sat down in the second player position and started his first game with Li Mengling. This fighting arcade game involved each side choosing three players for a 3v3 duel. In the first game, unsurprisingly, Li Mengling was wiped out by Shen Zixin's single character—and Shen Zixin's character hadn't even lost half its health.
Li Mengling trembled all over, pointing her index finger at Shen Zixin. "Senior, you...you...you...you—! Didn't you say you only knew the general method of manipulation?! How come you're so strong?! This is too much!!!"
"I haven't played this game much, but fighting games actually share a lot of common strategies. As a newbie, you don't even know the combos, so of course you can't beat me."
In fact, Shen Zixin didn't use his full strength at all, because he could tell that Li Mengling was indeed a complete novice when it came to games.
"Hmph! I'm not convinced, let's try again!"
So the second round of battle began immediately. This time, Li Mengling unleashed her secret weapon—randomly pressing buttons!
Indeed, despite Li Mengling's chaotic button presses, her character occasionally unleashed powerful special moves, even gaining an advantage at times. This put Shen Zixin under pressure—he had only occasionally played the console version of this game, making it a genre he wasn't very familiar with. Li Mengling's "random punches" were indeed making him sweat profusely. This time, Shen Zixin actually fought until the very last person before barely managing to defeat Li Mengling.
"Wow, this game isn't that hard after all!" Li Mengling smiled smugly. "Let's start the next round!"
Damn it, don't underestimate games!
Shen Zixin's gaze began to unconsciously focus on the screen, though she didn't know when it started.
In the third round, Shen Zixin decided to give this "arrogant" junior a shock from the world of fighting games.
He chose a character who could shoot projectiles from a distance and kept firing them. Li Mengling quickly realized that her "randomly pressing buttons" tactic was useless and she had to find a way to jump over them. However, for a novice like Li Mengling, jumping over the opponent's projectiles was still quite difficult.
Once she finally got close to Shen Zixin's character, Shen Zixin immediately used a rising dragon attack to knock the opponent back into the air, and then continued to fire projectiles from a distance.
And so, in the third round, Li Mengling was practically "cheated" to death.
In several rounds, although Li Mengling tried to change various tactics, she could only be defeated one by one in front of the veteran Shen Zixin.
"Hmph—I'm not playing anymore. Senior, you're too good!" Li Mengling slapped the machine with both hands, stood up, and looked at Shen Zixin with considerable dissatisfaction.
"Senior, can't you give way to me a little?"
"Playing games becomes boring if you let others win."
At first, Shen Zixin was actually holding back a bit, but as Li Mengling got better and better, Shen Zixin had to take it seriously.
Then, the two walked to the vending machine next to them, and Li Mengling bought two cans of iced coffee.
"Give."
Shen Zixin took the can of ice-cold coffee, pulled the tab, and took a sip. The bitter, cold liquid slid down his throat, instantly clearing his slightly feverish mind.
They sat down on a nearby bench. The surrounding electronic noise was still deafening, but it no longer sounded so jarring.
"Senior," Li Mengling turned her head and looked at him quietly, "when you were playing the game just now, you looked—only then did you look a bit like the original you."
Shen Zixin's hand, which was holding the coffee can, tightened slightly.
"----Yeah."
"Yes. This is the Shen senior I know!"