Around noon, Pei Qian's roommates returned to the dorm.
Ma Yang walked in carrying a plastic bag with food he'd bought from the cafeteria.
"Brother Qian, you're really something, huh? You actually skipped class again? But today you lucked out—the vice dean didn't take attendance," Ma Yang remarked, shaking his head as if Pei Qian's luck defied reason.
The other roommates began opening their laptops.
"We've got no classes this afternoon. Anyone up for some games?"
"Yeah, let's do it. Ma Yang, do you want to join us?"
"Wait a minute, I'm still eating."
"Hurry up! You're always so slow. Someone go call the boys from the next dorm!"
The others set up their laptops on small folding desks on their beds.
The school's dorm conditions were pretty rough—no proper desks under the bunks—forcing everyone to sit cross-legged on their beds when gaming.
Pei Qian suspected his back pain originated precisely from this unhealthy sitting position during his university days.
Due to this inconvenience, even though dorm gaming was easy enough, students often preferred internet cafés to enjoy a better gaming environment.
Ma Yang was using a stainless steel bowl wrapped in a plastic bag to hold his lunch. After quickly shoveling a few mouthfuls into his mouth, he simply picked up the plastic bag and tossed everything into the trash bin.
Today wasn't bad—everyone had classes in the morning, so they'd bought lunch from the cafeteria.
But on days without morning classes, everyone would just lay around in bed like zombies. Only when someone finally decided to head to the cafeteria would everyone else beg, "Bring something back for me too!"
Food delivery existed but wasn't convenient—no apps yet, just phone orders, typically delivered by poorer students trying to earn some living expenses.
After Ma Yang called out into the hallway, the gaming room filled up quickly.
Pei Qian glanced at his roommate's screen.
They were playing a 5v5 team battle game called Divine Revelation, a game very similar to DOTA, though with entirely different branding.
In terms of timing, Pei Qian remembered League of Legends rising to popularity around 2011.
It existed in 2009 but was rough and unpopular.
Of course, that was his previous world's timeline.
Given the accelerated tech growth here, whether a game like League of Legends would emerge at all was uncertain.
Currently, MMORPGs still dominated internet cafés, with the most popular one being Fantasy World.
Games like Divine Revelation were popular too, especially in dorms, but still hadn't surpassed MMORPGs overall.
"Brother Qian, why do you seem so spaced-out today? Didn't sleep enough?" Ma Yang asked, confused. "We're waiting for one more—want to join?"
Pei Qian shook his head. "Not today, find someone else."
"Alright, I'll grab Old Wang next door," Ma Yang replied casually.
Soon, noise filled the dorm room and hallway.
"Hey, mid lane's missing! Watch out for ganks!"
"Damn! How did he kill me?"
"Haha! You guys got reverse-killed by one guy—noobs!"
Standing behind Ma Yang, Pei Qian watched him furiously clicking his mouse and pounding the laptop keyboard loudly, making him appear like an expert player.
However, when Pei Qian glanced at Ma Yang's score, it was clear he was mistaken.
After ten minutes into the game, the score was 10–9, yet Ma Yang's record was still 0–0.
While his teammates battled intensely, Ma Yang simply missed creeps under the safety of his tower.
Pei Qian couldn't help but sigh—2009 really was the good old days, when everyone was young and could still genuinely enjoy playing games.
After he'd started working, he bought tons of excellent games, each of them highly rated. Yet, after buying them, they just collected digital dust in his game library, never opened.
After a day of exhausting work, he'd come home and collapse onto the sofa, mindlessly browsing web pages or watching livestreams. Even moving his fingers for mobile games was too tiring, let alone playing something requiring rapid, frequent actions.
Fortunately, everything was different now.
As long as he managed to waste all the system's funds, he could just lie down, earn money effortlessly, and live happily as a carefree slacker!
Pei Qian lay on his bed, cheerfully imagining his future life.
So, what should he spend this first sum of fifty thousand yuan on?
A high-end gaming computer first, obviously.
Then, he could move out to rent his own place, living the dream life of a lazy, carefree NEET.
"Hehehe..." Pei Qian giggled quietly, unable to suppress his happiness.
. . . .
Meanwhile, in a rented apartment somewhere in the capital city:
"That's it for today's episode of Trash Game Roast. If you liked this video, dear daddies, don't forget to subscribe, favorite, and share!"
In front of a computer sat a chubby young man with thick eyebrows, tired eyes, and a perpetually weary expression.
He was Qiao Liang, known online as "Teacher Qiao" or "Qiao Lao Shi," a popular gaming content creator on Fanshu.com. His fans affectionately called him "Godfather of the Gaming Channel," partly because he always addressed his viewers as "dads."
As a full-time content creator, Qiao Liang had built a modest following, but this was 2009—earning a stable income from online videos was tough. Most of the time, he lived paycheck-to-paycheck, eating well only when he managed to secure a sponsored video.
Sponsored videos meant lavish meals; no sponsorship meant living off cheap instant noodles.
He'd tried making different types of videos, but his Trash Game Roast series was his most popular, gaining a solid fanbase and decent viewership.
Qiao Liang also had another series called This Month's Recommended Games, specifically designed for sponsorship deals. Since no company dared sponsor their games under the title Trash Game Roast, he had to create a more advertiser-friendly alternative. Unfortunately, this recommendation series attracted far less attention.
After recording his latest episode of Trash Game Roast, Qiao Liang hesitated to release it.
Something felt off.
Yes—it lacked soul.
This particular game was garbage, sure, but it was the bland kind of garbage—no remarkable qualities to mock or ridicule.
He had written his script, carefully gathered materials, and recorded his commentary, but somehow, he just couldn't find that exciting punchline that made episodes go viral.
This game just wasn't bad enough in an interesting way.
This troubled Qiao Liang. After all, his livelihood depended on viewership. If his video didn't perform well, landing lucrative sponsorships would become even harder.
Instead of rushing to publish the video, Qiao Liang decided to check out the official platform's list of newly released games, hoping to discover something uniquely awful.
Feeling a little hungry, he grabbed a packet of instant noodles and put some water to boil before continuing his search.
He scrolled through the new releases until a strange game title caught his eye:
Lonely Desert Road
"What kind of weird name is this?"
He quickly glanced at its description:
"A simulated driving journey that prompts insights about life?"
"How exactly does it prompt insights?"
The description mildly piqued his curiosity.
As a dedicated gaming content creator, Qiao Liang generally downloaded and tried any new game that seemed even slightly interesting.
He clicked to download it. Moments later, the download completed, and the game automatically launched.
- - - - - -
If you want to see more chapter of this fic for free, please go to my Scribblehub Account[1], I cross-poted this fic in there too.
Link: https://www.scribblehub.com/series/1589938/losing-money-to-become-a-tycoon-starting-with-games/[2]
[1] https://www.scribblehub.com/series/1589938/losing-money-to-become-a-tycoon-starting-with-games/
[2] https://www.scribblehub.com/series/1589938/losing-money-to-become-a-tycoon-starting-with-games/