"Xu Wei, wait! I'll buy you the best coffee for the rest of the semester!"
"No."
"I'll kneel before you as if you were my god…"
"Fuck off, I said I won't do it!"
"I'll tell Xu Ya that instead of studying in high school, you bought your computer to stream video games to complete strangers, with money you made from gaming at an Internet cafe, not a math competition!"
"…"
In the middle of an empty hallway with a wall of glass windows spanning on one side, overlooking the ocean, and the other housing closed doors leading to classrooms, a man with silver hair stopped in his tracks. The man with unnatural, untamed burgundy hair spun on his heels to avoid slamming into the other's back. "Hey -"
The man with silver hair turned to the other with deep honey eyes that seemed like they could freeze someone and cursed while dropping his bag on the ground. "You fucking bastard."
The other man would have raised his arms if he wasn't carrying three textbooks, he could only blink innocently and subtly shift his feet back. "You've left me no choice! It's been over a year since you quit, don't tell me you don't miss -"
"Stop." Xu Wei raised his hand and began cursing. "Legends of Xia this, Legends of Xia that - how many times have I told you that I won't go back, hmm? Shin Bao, do I need to smack it into your brain?"
'Maybe I really do need to slap some sense into him.' Xu Wei looked at the other man thoughtfully.
With the threat of being beaten, Shin Bao backed off with a pitiful expression that would scream 'I'm being bullied' to anyone who saw the scene. Unluckily for him, no one would pass by and he was stuck alone with this great demon in the hallway.
He gained the courage that could allow him to face against the gods and blinked innocently. "Please…"
Thankfully, Xu Wei didn't hold up any longer, picked up his bag, and turned to head to his next class with complicated eyes.
When Xu Wei thought about the game that took six years of his life, he couldn't help but feel pissed off. Moreover, Shin Bao just had to keep digging the knife further, bringing it up every few months.
It's always something along the lines of 'It's been a year already, why are you still avoiding it when you know you love the game?'
This time, that bastard decided to hang his sister over his head!
Just thinking about her reaction if she learned he spent valuable study time between playing an MMORPG and streaming it…
Wouldn't she have his head?
Shin Bao knew better than anyone what his elder sister was like. He'd often call Xu Ya the female demon spawn and 'lovingly' offered the nickname of male demon spawn to Xu Wei on a golden platter in middle school after he picked a fight against the older kids in the neighborhood and won. Obviously, his sister taught him how to fight.
Xu Wei shivered at the thought as he pushed open the door to the classroom.
An hour and a half later, Xu Wei was met by Shin Bao leaning on the wall beside the classroom door.
Shin Bao pushed himself off the wall and without waiting for Xu Wei to greet him, he shoved his phone screen into the other's face, finger hovering over the send button.
[Demon Ya]: How's the kid?
Typed, yet not sent, was the message: Older sister, I feel bad for hiding it and have something to confess… Xu Wei is a video game addict and has been for five years! He even got me into them and I'm afraid that his grades are suffering and he's dragging me along with him. [Crying emoji]
Xu Wei's face paled. "You wouldn't."
Shin Bao hummed and taunted Xu Wei by swinging his phone back and forth. "I might get in a bit of trouble, but that's your sister, not mine."
Xu Wei stared at him for a long while, but Shin Bao's expression never changed. This time, he was serious about dragging him back to the game. With an incredulous laugh, he asked. "What's so important on that game that you need to threaten me?"
Shin Bao shook his head. "Let's talk at your place."
The ride back to Xu Wei's apartment was awkward, to say the least. Shin Bao kept scrolling through his camera roll or scrolling through conversations to find screenshots, and even the Uber driver could feel the anger rolling off Xu Wei's shoulders as she repositioned herself in the front seat. She thought to herself, 'It must be another couple fighting'.
If either man knew what she was thinking, their faces would be painted in disgust.
The two had been somewhat forced together by their parents, having been bathed together since they were in diapers until elementary school due to their mother's wanting to save on the electricity and water bills. They were also the smallest kids in their small apartment complex, so they only had themselves and the older kids to play with.
If it weren't for this… Xu Wei would have definitely beaten him just now!
After getting out of the car, the two men squeezed into the elevator along with two older-looking businessmen who wouldn't stop talking about their daughter's test results, trying to one-up one another.
If Xu Wei wasn't so angry, perhaps he'd have greeted his new neighbours and paid more attention to the conversation, but that wasn't happening anytime soon.
As soon as the door to the apartment closed behind Shin Bao, Xu Wei put a hand on his hip and asked. "So, what's so important?"
Shin Bao slid on a pair of slippers, walked around Xu Wei, grabbed three beers, and sat himself down at the table. Sensing a headache, Xu Wei followed and silently plopped down across from him and opened one of the cans. His hand paused as he stared at the last can on the table.
Sensing the question, Shin Bao waved his hand. "One second."
It was three seconds, Xu Wei counted, before the door to the apartment swung open and a weeping grown-ass twenty-five-year-old man with similar facial features to Shin Bao walked in. Xu Wei stared in shock as he slid off his shoes and walked over to the table, all while sobbing.
Firstly, did he drive here while balling his eyes out?
Secondly, Xu Wei muttered. "What the fuck?"
"You remember how you introduced me to the game to have someone to play with? I made the mistake of asking Shin Han and well…" Shin Bao grimaced as he handed some Kleenex over to the man. "That, as you can see, was a mistake."
Shin Han's cries grew louder as Xu Wei contemplated Shin Bao's words in stunned silence.
The Shin family situation was even messier than Xu's, but, this grown adult was Shin Bao's recently discovered half-brother whom his father had also skipped out on. They found each other from an online DNA test two years ago, and though they'd been on good terms, Xu Wei didn't think they were close enough to game with one another.
Shin Bao reached over to rub his brother's back and explained. "His guild turned against him because of a 'girl'."
Xu Wei leaned back and tried his best not to stare at Shin Han. "Just a guild? He can join another. A girl? There's more fish in the sea. Why are you asking me to go back?"
"Well… Then, the entire game kind of -"
"They won't stop killing me! I can't leave the capital city without dying! As soon as I log on, they shout that they'll give 100,000 gold to anyone who kills me."
Xu Wei. "… You can make another character."
Shin Bao sighed. "It's not the whole situation, is it?"
Shin Han's cries grew louder as he explained. "The girl wasn't a girl, she was a man! I dated a man for a year, I funded her, I carried her, I slept in call with her… We were supposed to meet up next week. Not only that, he was engaged to a top player's sister in real life."
Xu Wei repeated himself. "You can just make another character."
Shin Bao frowned and held out his phone. "They doxxed him."
Xu Wei's hand holding the beer an inch away from his mouth paused and his gaze sharpened. Within a second, the beer was on the table and the phone replaced its spot.
The screenshot showed well over a hundred missed calls and a full mailbox. He took a chance, based on Shin Bao's behaviour from earlier, and continued swiping through the photos.
[Forum - Wife stealer, WindGod is a twenty-five-year-old, unemployed man!]
[Forum - Grey shares his encounter with WindGod: "I was too scared to say no."]
[Forum - Lillly expresses fear for Grey and forgives him.]
[Forum - Wind God [Next to this was Shin Bao's name and phone number.]
Scrolling through the photos, Xu Wei could see some comments condemning him from those forum posts but the most concerning thing was his face, name, and phone number being shared.
Shin Han choked. "I thought he was a she, he used a voice changer this entire time or was texting. I didn't know that he was a player on an alt character, or that he was engaged. I'm straight!"
Xu Wei was stunned. "So they made you out to be a predator, he's the victim, his girlfriend is a saint, and they dared to even dox you?"
Shin Bao sighed and patted Shin Hao's back. "I tried to save him a few times and got killed too. His phone number has been changed, but it still doesn't stop the fact that he got doxxed, had his heart broken, and had even spent a few hundred thousand yuan on him."
"Police?"
Shin Bao shook his head. "They don't care about this."
Xu Wei had only seen incidents like this when a player was a pedo praying on young girls. Otherwise, people were too afraid of the reparations of exposing another player's identity online.
The screenshot Xu Wei had stopped on showed how the fiancee had found out about him.
[WindGod]: Good morning babe! <3 <3 <3 (.ˇε ˇ.）
[SunGod]: Good morning ヾ(^▽^*)))
Not even ten minutes later, SunGod sent another message.
[SunGod]: Who's this?
[SunGod]: What the fuck am I reading????
[WindGod]: Babe did you respond to the wrong person? (T＿T)
[SunGod]: What babe, who the hell is your babe?
At this point, Shin Han had caught on.
[WindGod]: Who's this?
[SunGod]: His fiancee.
[WindGod]: Fiancee? Is this a joke? We've been dating for a year.
[SunGod]: Wait, you're a man? That's so gross, why are you looking at a taken man?
[WindGod]: Huh?
"Do you see why I threatened you? Even if he goes back to the game, they're still running around being all high and mighty. I want to destroy their guild, expose them, and rub their face in the mud."
Amongst the weeping cries, Xu Wei's finger tapped against the table.
If anyone knew what Shin Han was going through, it'd be him. Hence, no matter how much he hated the game, how could he bear to say no to this pitiful noob?
He sighed. "Fine, but you'll be buying me coffee for the entire semester, as well as funding my account with funds and carrying if needed."
Shin Bao's eyes lit up and Shin Han's hiccups paused. "Deal!"