"Is Soraka strong in this version?"
Leaving the activity room, on the way back to the dorm, Yu Jin couldn't stop thinking about this question.
Even though he didn't know much about the game,
he still understood at least one basic rule: "nanny" characters are supports.
Support?
What kind of Superman would ever play support!
A real man, you've got to go full-on Motherland People!
If it weren't already late and all the stray cats on campus hadn't hidden away for the night, Yu Jin would've happily gone to the convenience store, bought ten sausages, and handed out a wild feeding spree!
Who knows, maybe he'd unlock even more Superpowers and finally get rid of this "Nanny Superhero" label!
"Old Yu!"
Just as he got to the dorm building, someone called out to Yu Jin head-on.
He looked up—it was none other than Tang Yunxuan.
Except…
At this moment, Tang Yunxuan's face was dark, as if he'd suffered some huge grievance.
"What's up?"
Yu Jin was confused. Earlier, he'd set things up so this lovesick dumbass could go take out the trash with Yin Yao. The guy should be so happy his tail was practically wagging up to the sky!
Tang Yunxuan's face went even darker. He didn't speak, just stretched out his phone in front of Yu Jin.
The screen was WeChat's chat window.
——
[Hello, I'm Yin Yao.]
'You've added "Yin Yao." Above is their greeting message.'
——
These two lines were right at the top.
Yu Jin raised an eyebrow.
"Nice! Good for you!"
"Yin Yao took the initiative to add you!"
Tang Yunxuan said nothing, face only getting darker.
Yu Jin was confused, so he kept reading.
——
[Senior, are you free for dinner tonight?]
This one was from Tang Yunxuan.
He'd even attached a little blushing kitten emoji.
——
[Could you send me Yu Jin's contact info?]
[Thanks.]
This was from Yin Yao.
"…"
Yu Jin finally understood why Old Tang looked like death itself.
Sigh—
Yu Jin sighed, patted Tang Yunxuan's shoulder, and tried to be comforting:
"Maybe she's just a slowburn type…"
At that, Tang Yunxuan looked like he was about to start steaming from the nose.
Only God knew what he'd just gone through!
After taking out the trash with Yin Yao, he sprinted straight back to the dorm at literal 100-meter dash speed.
Then—
With maximum ceremony, he announced to his three other roommates—
Yin Yao had asked him for his contact info!
The whole dorm exploded!
The big news even spread to the nearby dorms!
For a moment, Tang Yunxuan was the king.
But literally one second later—
After being hyped up by a few "strategists," he sent his "dinner together" invite and got back—[Could you send me Yu Jin's contact info?]
"Eh?"
"Why are the jokers missing from my deck of cards?"
That was the historic evaluation from Old Tang's roommates.
...
...
In the summer, the boys' dorm building always had this vague scent of hormones (sweat).
Yu Jin climbed all the way to the sixth floor and pushed open the door to dorm 615.
The room was quiet, the only sound the AC blowing cool air.
"Back already?"
Below bed four, Yu Fei was doing Tang Jiafeng's online course under a desk lamp. He took off one earbud and greeted him.
Yu Fei, a real-deal Lord Jing native, was annoyingly self-disciplined when it came to studying.
School had barely started for junior year, but he'd already started grinding for grad school entrance exams, online courses and practice problems.
"You're a real grinder!"
Yu Jin had probably said that for the millionth time.
Yu Fei just grinned, put the earbud back in, and went back to his lessons.
"Old Yu, how'd recruiting go today?"
On the second bunk, Brother Gang was lying down, legs crossed, scrolling short videos, but he sat up and asked, smirking weirdly.
"Not bad. Got one."
At that—
Brother Gang looked surprised.
"Someone actually agreed to do that trash pickup test!"
"Major respect!"
Brother Gang gave him a thumbs-up.
Yu Jin just smiled, saying nothing.
He turned to look under bed three, where Old Cui was glued to his computer screen, eyes unblinking.
Old Cui was a hardcore gamer. In three years of college, except for class, almost all his time had gone into games.
"Eh? Old Yu, you're back?"
It wasn't until Yu Jin walked up behind him that Old Cui, fully absorbed, finally noticed.
He turned to say hi, but his eyes soon drifted right back to the glowing screen.
"How come you're not playing Valorant today? Watching a different game stream instead?"
Yu Jin asked offhandedly.
Old Cui immediately got hyped.
"Hey!"
He sat up and pointed at the screen.
"Old Yu, do you know what game this is?"
Yu Jin shook his head. "No idea."
"Wasteland!"
Old Cui enunciated the words, practically spitting two drops of saliva in his excitement.
"Wasteland?"
Yu Jin didn't usually keep up with games, but…
This was already the second time today he'd heard that game mentioned.
Not long ago, that background-so-powerful-it-hurts Senior Sister Yin had randomly brought it up too.
"Is it any good?"
Maybe because his system bug seemed related to Wasteland, Yu Jin felt compelled to ask a bit more.
"Bro, it's beyond good—it's unbeatable!"
Old Cui got super animated and shot straight up out of his gaming chair.
"They're advertising one hundred percent, ultra-realistic experience!"
"You know about VR, right?"
"This outdoes VR—it's completely immersive. Honestly, it feels like crossing into another world!"
Yu Jin listened, brows furrowing.
This kind of game…
He'd only ever seen it in Qidian's online gaming novels. Tech in real life wasn't anywhere close to this yet.
"You don't believe me?"
Old Cui picked up on Yu Jin's skeptical look.
"Yeah."
"Remember that Ming Dynasty game? All the hype during promotion—and then…"
"You saw what happened."
Yu Jin shook his head.
"Ming Dynasty, my ass!"
"This one's nothing like that!"
"This game's starting its closed beta tonight! Tons of gaming influencers have already gotten to try it. Look, they're still streaming it right now!"
Old Cui pointed at the monitor.
Yu Jin glanced at the screen.
First-person view, everything bathed in a dusky yellow tone—full-on wasteland vibes.
But…
Other than that, nothing obviously special at a glance.
Okay, the graphics were really slick—could destroy a bunch of AAA games on the market.
"Guys!"
"This game feels so damn real!"
"Seriously, I thought I'd actually crossed over or something!"
"This air, this wasteland, it's insane how real it is…"
Ka—
The stream suddenly went dark.
A message popped onto the monitor: [Stream suspected of violations, banned].
"…"
Yu Jin and Old Cui looked at each other and couldn't help laughing out loud.
"You love this game so much—why aren't you playing it yourself, just watching others?"
Yu Jin went back to his desk and tossed out the question casually.
"Old Yu, you think it's that simple?"
"This game isn't globally released until seven days from now—right now it's still a beta test!"
"And even when it's officially out, I might not be able to play it. Just getting the VR helmet for this thing costs at least hundreds of thousands, and that's if you can buy one at all!"
Old Cui sighed, regret soaked in every word.
Yu Jin didn't say anything else.
He opened his laptop, went on his browser, and searched for "environmental actions."
Feeding strays and picking up trash had already let him farm a ton of system points today, so Yu Jin decided to branch out—try more methods and see if he could hurry up and achieve his "Motherland Superman" dream.
Knock—
Knock knock—!
Just then—
The door to 615 shook under a heavy but steady series of knocks.
The sound echoed clearly in the quiet dorm.
Faintly, there were murmurs and chitchat outside, too.
"What's going on?"
"A dorm check for appliances?"
Brother Gang poked his head out from his bed.
"Usually the checks are Friday—today's only Monday."
Yu Fei took his earbuds out and paused the grad school review video on his tablet.
"Maybe it's Xiaoding next door calling me out to spend the night at the net cafe. I'll check."
Old Cui got up from his seat and hurried to the door.
Click—
The door opened.
The figure standing there made all four guys' pupils shrink in shock.
"Hello."
"Is Yu Jin here?"
A buzzcut man in uniform, military badges on his shoulders, bronze skin—a very polite smile on his face.
He was asking,
but the moment the door opened, his eyes had already locked straight onto Yu Jin.
Especially with that military aura—so powerful, even noisy Brother Gang instantly zipped it.
"What's this about?"
Yu Jin frowned slightly.
He'd just become "Nanny Superhero," and the army comes knocking the next second?
Could there really be other "Supermen" besides him out there?
But even as the thought appeared, it vanished.
"Yu Jin,"
"I was sent here by my superiors to deliver this to you."
The soldier said softly but with great formality.
At the same time—
He presented a box, about the size of a basketball, holding it out to Yu Jin.
"What's this?"
Yu Jin took the box and asked.
"A helmet,"
the man replied.
"A helmet?"
Yu Jin was confused.
"A helmet?!"
Behind Yu Jin, Old Cui suddenly let out a shriek.
He rushed over, staring at the box from all angles. As soon as he spotted the special grey-yellow logo on the bottom right of the box, he literally jumped up!
"Holy shit!"
"The Wasteland game's VR helmet!"