Chapter 45: The Arcade Game

"Leaf..."

The moment he stepped into the bar, Sang Shi pounced forward, wrapped his arms around Ye Yang, and wept with a wretched misery beyond description.

"As long as you're okay, you jerk! You didn't even bother to call me..."

Ye Yang offered a smiling explanation. In truth, he had been with Yao Jun at the time, deep in conversation about his injured arm, and had completely forgotten.

Yet, Sang Shi's genuine concern deeply touched Ye Yang. He could tell at a glance that it was no act; after facing life and death together, the bond between the two had undoubtedly grown much stronger.

Wang Feng didn't say much. He merely asked about Yao Jun's whereabouts and walked away with a cold expression. Sang Shi hurriedly recounted how upset Wang Feng had been, warning Ye Yang never to provoke him.

"You effortlessly thrashed that fiend?" Ye Yang twitched the corner of his mouth. Sang Shi nodded frantically, giving a rough description of what he had witnessed. Ling Fengyan listened nearby with a bitter smile; the gap between him and Wang Feng was simply too vast.

Ye Yang was left dumbfounded as well. He had been beaten like a dog by that fiend called Modu, and that was without the fiend even transforming. Yet Wang Feng had beaten the transformed Modu like a dog—the difference was astronomical. A sudden wave of self-doubt washed over him: even if he won the gamble and evolved to the absolute end, could he ever defeat Wang Feng? That guy was a total freak!

Yao Jun had once mentioned something similar. Though he detested Wang Feng, he would never be willing to fight him. Not a single member of the former Five Tigers of China was willing to cross swords with Wang Feng; that guy's strength was monstrously, undeniably real.

"Let's share a room tonight. There aren't enough rooms left, and it's awkward for Chen Yun and me to stay together," Ye Yang pleaded with Sang Shi. If he shared a room with Chen Yun for another night, he genuinely thought he would die—two consecutive nights of constant, unstoppable arousal!

"Alright! Ha, awesome! By the way, tell me what happened afterwards. How did you guys get rescued?" Sang Shi grabbed Ye Yang and bolted upstairs with glowing excitement, looking very much like a child—which, in truth, he still was.

Ye Yang quickly regretted his decision to room with Sang Shi. While he had escaped the torture of perpetual arousal and enjoyed chatting with Sang Shi, what followed was sheer misery.

"Hoo... snort... snort..."

For the entire night, Ye Yang hugged his pillow and wept silently. What kind of karmic sin had he committed? Was this guy even human? His snoring was more terrifying than a zombie's.

"Teacher, Leaf is so strong now! He tore a Predator apart with his bare hands!" On the way back, Sang Shi kept singing praises. Ling Fengyan listened in stunned disbelief. While tearing apart a Predator wasn't particularly terrifying—many hunters could manage it—how long had Ye Yang even been a hunter?

Gao Ting was utterly dumbfounded by the account, but Chen Yun nodded frantically. Though she had been unconscious at the time, she firmly believed it was true; otherwise, she would have long since perished.

Still, the young girl harbored another thought: had Ye Yang gone berserk and charged forward because she was injured? Was he... As she pondered this, her face flushed crimson.

"Teacher, should we let Leaf join the team? Aren't we short a member? Even though he doesn't have esper powers, his yao-energy is immense—ha! Even stronger than mine!" Sang Shi's praise was becoming slightly exaggerated. Ye Yang had yet to fully master his yao-energy, and a burst of it might not necessarily surpass Sang Shi's, but he genuinely hoped Ye Yang would join the team, and their friendship was truly deep.

"I don't mind at all. It just depends on what Ye Yang thinks," Ling Fengyan smiled. From the very beginning, he had taken a liking to Ye Yang, especially after learning he was Ye Lingyun's son.

How could Ye Yang possibly refuse? But before he could reply, Wang Feng interrupted.

"No need to rush into team matters. After going back to rest for a few days and letting your injuries heal, you have more important things to do," Wang Feng said coldly.

Ye Yang froze and asked blankly, "What things? Isn't the internship over?"

"Yeah, but you're going to be a lot busier from now on. Not just you, but you guys as well," Wang Feng said, gesturing toward Gao Ting and Sang Shi. Both of them looked bewildered, while Ling Fengyan rubbed his hands together with a look of delighted anticipation, clearly privy to some inside information.

Although he nodded in agreement, Ye Yang actually felt quite depressed. He had long looked forward to running missions with Ling Fengyan and Sang Shi to rescue remote villages, only for Wang Feng to block it. As for whatever "important business" the guy had mentioned—damn it! Ye Yang didn't even need to guess to know it wasn't anything good; Wang Feng loved nothing more than digging pits for people to fall into.

"Leaf..." Just as they stepped off the plane, Chen Yun flushed and grabbed Ye Yang's sleeve. After hesitating for a long moment, she said, "Thank you for everything this time!"

Despite surviving the crucible of life and death, the young girl now knew she had successfully completed her internship, and Wang Feng had even promised to assign her some more important tasks in the future.

Amidst her excitement, she also knew she had merely lucked out. Her combat strength was too weak; she had barely contributed. Sang Shi and Ye Yang had essentially driven the entire battle. She couldn't even be counted as a bystander tagging along—she had been a burden who almost got Ye Yang killed.

"It's nothing, haha. Passing is all that matters, and it's good to have missions to do," Ye Yang said, brushing it off completely. He was genuinely happy for the girl, though he still offered a word of caution, telling her not to take on overly dangerous missions in the future since her rank was still low.

"Yeah, I know," Chen Yun nodded, offering a playful grimace before scampering off toward the academic building.

Watching her retreating figure, a pang of reluctance stirred in Ye Yang's heart. Truthfully, if not for the danger, he wouldn't mind spending his time completing internship missions by her side like this. Even if he could not let go of his feelings for Xiaoya, just being able to look at Chen Yun more often would be wonderful.

Every time he returned to the dormitory, Ye Yang's blood boiled with frustration, and this time was no exception. Having been away for a few days, the room was now as messy as a pigsty. A game of Plants vs. Zombies played on the computer screen, while Qi Fang lay sprawled across the bed, snoring loudly with her blanket long since kicked to the floor.

He looked up at the ceiling and sighed deeply. Why was the gap between girls so vast? Qi Fang was actually quite pretty, so why couldn't she learn a thing or two from someone like Chen Yun?

Well... breasts weren't something one could learn to grow, but she could at least try to act like a lady.

"Hey, wake up. Even if you treat this place like your own home, at least clean it up a bit," Ye Yang said with an exasperated expression.

"Huh? You're back?" Qi Fang sat up sluggishly, letting out a massive yawn. "This is my home now anyway. This young lady has moved in, yo."

"What?" Ye Yang jumped in shock. Turning his head, he spotted several small bundles resting by the sofa. A heavy wave of gloom washed over him—this girl just showed up whenever she pleased without even giving him a heads-up?

"Hmph! You said yourself that you'd take care of me! Besides, Uncle Lin's house is so boring, he's never home, and there's no one to play with," Qi Fang grumbled petulantly. "I don't care! Either you move in with me, or I move in here. A bodyguard naturally has to live with their master!"

"Uh..." Ye Yang smiled wryly and helplessly. He realized he could never shake this girl off. Moving in together was out of the question, though. Didn't Lin Tian rent a separate place for him? He might as well just move out. This place was nominally a women's dormitory, after all, and it wasn't appropriate for him to keep staying here.

"Then let's move out tomorrow," Ye Yang gritted his teeth. Seeing Qi Fang squeal and jump with excitement, he quickly added, "But you have to agree to three terms: no dragging me into video games past midnight, no making a fuss to disturb my sleep, and we have to clean the new apartment together! Also! I'm exhausted today, so no harassing me!"

"Fine! But you have to promise to take me to play video games first, you know, at that arcade place!" Qi Fang batted her large eyes pitifully, acting as though she was drawing the short end of a massive stick.

"Alright, fine," Ye Yang wiped the sweat from his brow.

In truth, Ye Yang wasn't even sure if arcades still existed in this era. Fortunately, heaven rewards the diligent; through Lin Tian's private inquiries, they managed to track one down near the Temple of Heaven—currently the only arcade left in Yanjing.

The arcade looked rather ancient, housed in a semi-basement from a bygone era. It wasn't very spacious, consisting of just a few small rooms choked with a hazy cloud of cigarette smoke.

Still, before his cryogenic sleep, Ye Yang had been a chimney himself, and Qi Fang was too consumed by her desire to play games to care about such details. The two of them squeezed through the entrance almost without hesitation.

"Wow... there really are a lot of people! Wow... what is this? It looks so fun." The moment she stepped inside, their little sparrow of a companion chattered non-stop. Ye Yang sighed helplessly, exchanged a few coins with the boss, shoved them into her hands, and left her to her own devices. Let the girl play; he had zero interest.

Actually, it wasn't that he had no interest whatsoever, but rather that Ye Yang was completely out of touch with modern arcades. Staring at the bizarre, incomprehensible screens flashing before him, Ye Yang sighed in resignation—he truly didn't belong to this era.

"Ugh... this is so hard." Qi Fang grew impatient after playing for only a little while. On one hand, Ye Yang wasn't keeping her company; on the other, she had no idea how to play these chaotic modern games, and there was no one to teach her.

"Bodyguard Number One, come keep me company! Find a game you know how to play and teach me!" Qi Fang batted her large eyes pleadingly. Ye Yang let out a long sigh; the one thing he could never withstand was that pair of watery eyes.

"Boss, do you have any retro games?" Ye Yang turned to ask the owner, completely clueless about these newfangled machines.

"Retro? There's a room for that over there, but those are antique pieces. Would a kid your age even know how to play them?" the boss waved his hand dismissively. Truthfully, those were just games he personally liked, so he had kept a few cabinets around out of sentiment, but kids nowadays had long since stopped playing them, and the capital invested in those machines would never be recovered.

"Antique? Tsk, I know how to play everything from the Street Fighter era," Ye Yang flicked his hair and walked toward the back. To be precise, the statement should have been: he knew how to play everything from the Street Fighter era, but nothing beyond it.

"Oh?" The boss seemed to perk up with interest, following the two of them. "Let's see about that then. Street Fighter isn't in there, but KOF and stuff like that are plenty. Which version do you like?"

"You have KOF? '97, obviously! Is there even any point in playing KOF if it isn't '97?" Ye Yang rubbed his hands together in excitement. Finding this was a pleasant surprise; he couldn't even download games like KOF on the internet nowadays.

The boss gave a thumbs-up and laughed heartily, "You know your stuff! Let's see how well you play. If you're good, free tokens!"

"No problem. Clear the game with a random character team on a single token, how's that for good?" Ye Yang grinned slyly. It seemed he wouldn't even need to spend any money. KOF '97? He could thrash Rugal with his eyes closed!

Several machines stood in the room, all equipped with classic retro joysticks. Ye Yang beamed with delight. Although the cabinets were old, they were meticulously clean, and both the joysticks and buttons felt remarkably responsive.

"Who do you want to see me play? Anyone is fine—single token clear," Ye Yang told the boss, letting him pick the characters without a care in the world. He had worn this game out years ago; every single character in his hands was exceptionally powerful.

"Hmm... You want me to pick? Hehe, kid, you've got some nerve." The boss's interest was fully piqued. He casually tossed Ye Yang a cigarette, sat down to select three characters for him, and stood up with a mischievous grin.

Ye Yang smiled as well. He could already read the boss's skill level from the three characters chosen: Benimaru Nikaido, Clark Still, and Blue Mary.

All three were grappling-type characters. Beginners would find such characters frustrating to use, but experienced veterans like him wouldn't—especially since he had once used Blue Mary to slaughter his way through arcades, completely humiliating numerous self-proclaimed experts playing Orochi Iori.

Still, it had been a few years since he last played. He used the first character, Clark, merely to test the waters, regain his rhythm, and finish smoking his cigarette. Unsurprisingly, Clark went down after winning just a single round.

"Not so impressive after all," the boss said, slightly disappointed.

Ye Yang didn't reply; he just smiled faintly as his second character, Blue Mary, stepped onto the stage. It was time for him to truly show his skill. A flawless sequence of consecutive command grabs accurately and ruthlessly KO'd the enemy, leaving the boss gaping in astonishment.

"Wow, who is this? So cool! Teach me, teach me!" Qi Fang chimed in, her interest piqued. In truth, these older, simpler games suited a beginner like her far better; massive 3D graphics only left her feeling dizzy after a few moments.

"Alright. Next match, you play two characters, and leave the last one for me to salvage," Ye Yang chuckled.

With three characters on the team, Qi Fang—being a beginner—would invariably get KO'd by the enemy, leaving Ye Yang to clean up the rest. Yet, no matter which character she had left behind, Ye Yang could effortlessly clear a three-person sweep without breaking a sweat. When it came to the final boss, Orochi, it was even simpler: Ye Yang's Clark didn't even give Orochi a chance to attack before forcing the boss to raise the white flag of surrender.

"Damn! Kid, you're a real pro!" the boss cried out in shock and dismay. True to his word, he wasn't stingy; he immediately scooped up a full basket of tokens and handed them over, enough to keep Ye Yang playing until this exact time tomorrow.