Short, Light, Free - Chapter 151

Chapter 151: Smart Friend I

I’m Chalk, a veteran otaku.

My job? Reselling all sorts of gaming equipment.

I must say that I’m gifted at games.

That wasn’t just a brag; there’s a reason why I’ve been blacklisted by all mainstream games.

Before this, I was a world-class athlete.

Event? eSports.

Be it first-person shooting games or multiplayer online battle arena video games… heck, even card games, I’m always at the top.

As such, I’ve been banned from competing for 30 years.

I only have myself to blame, of course.

To tell the story, I’ll have to go back to the year 2046 when electronic games officially became the world’s ninth art.

The Olympics added a video game segment that year as well. There would be one additional competition day before the closing ceremony, where athletes would engage in the top three hottest games that year.

The games were split into two categories, one suitable for Olympics and the other not.

Ever since games became an art, the panel of audits became stricter.

Games where players have to spend real money on earned more but were becoming less popular.

All games had to be vetted and rated by the Olympics. A game’s rating would determine its future, and to get a good rating, the game would have to focus on skills and teamwork. The game would also have to emphasize friendship, unity, and fair competition.

Because these virtues represented the spirit of the Olympics, paid games did not make the list no matter how fun they were.

Only the top three games selected by the judges could be used for competition.

The competitors would then represent and claim glory for their countries.

The traditional system had compromised a little for electronic games to take a big step onto the world stage.

This was also the period where games were no longer separated into PC, mobile, or tablet versions.

It was a basic requirement for all games to be made suitable across all devices, and because of that, the complementary businesses started to peak, too.

In 2046, I was 16 and a pro-gamer of six mainstream games.

My talent made it easy for me to master a game and its shortcuts.

Ever since monetized games stopped appearing, many math geniuses started joining and attacking based on careful calculations and analyses.

I was gifted in another way, however, since I made no computations whatsoever.

I could easily judge and identify the key within stages.

There were only three placings for each game in the Olympics, and all top three games, as chosen by the judges, involved teamwork.

The games had solo mode as well, but the mode was excluded in order to accommodate more participants.

This made it awkward for me since my standard was as good as any pro-gamer, but not when it came to cooperation based games.

I joined team battles but failed even after three torturous months of training.

Even the pro-gamers couldn’t understand my battle techniques and couldn’t keep up with my strategies.

Whenever they felt that my strategy wasn’t viable, I would mention going solo.

That’s right. I’ve yet to lose even once.

Because of that, the barrier between us grew bigger and accommodating them became unbearable for me.

I played according to my own tactics, which should work, but we lost more than we won.

We won mostly when I had to face an enemy alone and we lost mostly when I was outnumbered.

I got isolated by the other players a few times.

I understood that mediocrity isolated excellence. It was something that appeared constantly within games.

After half a year of becoming a pro-gamer, I had clinched gold for my club in all solo-mode competitions.

However, in the actual competitions, games were all team-work based.

Three years later, when I turned 19, I retired completely.

I had found a new path – selling game accounts.

I would push an account up to the top five in only three days’ time before selling it to interested buyers.

I started my own live streaming channel, which earned me many fans and a lot of money.

Despite that success, I still had no friends and was isolated by almost everyone because selling game accounts was against the rules and it threatened sportsmanship.

I was banned from competing for 30 years, no overruling.

Many people saw this as an end to my career, but they don’t know that I’m still gaming.

I’m very happy as well because I get to earn much more than the athletes.

While I have a bad reputation, I’m still coined the number one gamer.

Whatever new games that we put our hands on, I’ll always get into it quicker than most.

A few days was all I need to enter the charts. If I choose to play a little more seriously, getting to the first position was not an issue at all.

But because I was banned, the number of people mocking me increased.

Having earned enough money, I decided to buy a small condo in the city center.

That day, I switched on the television and saw Lei Jun, the founder of Xiaomi.

Famous for his ‘are you okay’ song, the 70-year-old Lei Jun stood smiling on stage at Xiaomi’s news conference.

I did not change the channel. Instead, I thought about how Xiaomi was no longer just a mobile company.

I seemed to have played quite a few Xiaomi games.

“This year, our company has invented the 63rd generation smart housekeeper,” Lei Jun announced with a smile and a wave.

“Our 3D holographic projection can interact with any smart house electronic appliances. Voice detection, instantaneous heart rate monitor, emergency police service, automated grocery shopping… As compared to other smart housekeepers, don’t ours produce a lot of value for money? We have our very own designer to revolutionize your home! Buy now and get a Xiaomi 6 silver edition for free. It’s double the price of the normal edition. Want a friend? Xiaomi smart housekeeper! It will be your best friend and it will always stay by your side,” Lei Jun finished his speech before walking down the stage with his walking stick.

I stayed tuned for the whole conference.

To be honest, I did not really understand it, but his last line left a deep impression.

“Want a friend? Xiaomi smart housekeeper!”

I went to the Xiaomei website. The smart housekeeper was up for advanced sale.

Could money buy a friend? I had no lack of the former.

One model cost a few hundred thousand dollars and all home installations could be replaced.

I made a reservation and waited patiently.