18: Chapter 18 The Chosen Working Class, To My Bunkmate

Wang Wei stared at the production credits on the screen, his eyeballs nearly popping out onto the keyboard.

He scrolled the mouse wheel down.

Each line of text felt like a heavy hammer, smashing fiercely against his professional understanding.

minecraft Production Credits

Producer: Lu Li

Creative Director: Lu Li

Lead Planner / System Planner: Lu Li

Art Director / Pixel Art: Lin Yu, Xia Xingxing, Chen Ye...

This string of "Lu Li" made Wang Wei's scalp tingle.

But that wasn't the most outrageous part.

The most outrageous part was the chosen laborer named Tech Director Dou Bao.

Technical Director: Tech Director Dou Bao.

Core Programming: Tech Director Dou Bao.

Numerical Balance: Tech Director Dou Bao.

3D Scene Modeling / Character Animation: Tech Director Dou Bao.

Wang Wei slammed the mouse onto the desk with a "thud".

Is this something a carbon-based lifeform can actually do?

Although the game's graphics were all pixelated, the underlying generation algorithms, physics engine, and the logic of the infinite map definitely required an astronomical amount of code.

One person?

This Tech Director Dou Bao must either have three heads and six arms, or it has been locked in a basement by that black-hearted capitalist Lu Li, typing code day and night without even a hot meal.

"Too brutal..." Wang Wei muttered to himself.

He even imagined a bald, dark-circled, emaciated programmer furiously outputting code under the crack of a whip.

He remembered when he first saw this game, he had actually advised Lu Li to remake it.

In an instant, his face turned red. It was too embarrassing; he had almost rejected such a masterpiece from a master.

...

Meanwhile, at Gu'an Electronic Engineering University, Men's Dormitory 304.

The sky outside the window was already pitch black.

Zhang Qizhi's eyes were bloodshot, but he felt no sleepiness.

On the screen, a building made of blocks stood quietly on the plain.

It was their dormitory building.

Although it was all pixelated, the grey exterior wall, the chipped railing, and even the green block trash can at the entrance that was always piled with garbage.

A one-to-one recreation.

Twelve whole hours.

With trembling fingers, he took out his Guanghui Technology 5Pro phone and sent a message in the long-silent "404 Father-Son Match" WeChat group.

"Sons, get online."

"Dad has prepared a graduation gift for you."

Five minutes later.

Noisy sounds erupted in the voice channel.

"Old Zhang, damn you, what time is it?" The third brother's voice was thick with fatigue, with the sound of subway station announcements in the background. "I just got off work and am on the subway."

"I'm back home, hesitating about which city to find a job in." The eldest brother's voice was accompanied by the sound of dogs barking outside, sounding exceptionally empty.

"Stop talking nonsense, get into that minecraft, I sent you the IP." Zhang Qizhi's voice was hoarse, but exceptionally persistent.

The three brothers cursed, but one after another, they used their laptops or desktops to download the game and log in.

A few minutes later, three "Steves" with default skins arrived one after another at the spawn point in the game.

When they saw the scene in front of them for the first time, the previously noisy voice channel fell into instant silence.

On the screen.

It was the place where they had lived for four years.

It was also the place they could never return to.

"Holy crap..." The fourth brother's voice changed pitch, as if something was stuck in his throat. "Is... is this our dorm building?"

"Stop talking nonsense, follow Dad upstairs."

Zhang Qizhi didn't explain, controlling his character to skillfully jump onto the steps.

Second floor, corner, third floor, end of the hallway.

Room 304.

The door was made of birch wood.

Zhang Qizhi clicked the mouse to open the door.

Creak—

Although there was no sound effect in the game, everyone automatically filled in the sound of rusty hinges rubbing together in their minds.

Inside the room.

Four beds, beds on top and desks below, the layout was exact.

On the eldest brother's desk sat a black wool block—that was his favorite mechanical keyboard, which he had saved up for two months to buy during his sophomore year.

At the head of the third brother's bed was a pink picture—it was a photo of the goddess he had chased for four years but never caught. Although it was just a few pixels of color blocks, that splash of pink stung the eyes.

The fourth brother controlled his character to walk under his chair; that was his treasure trove for hiding things.

He clicked the chest and opened it.

It was stuffed with rotten flesh.

"Damn it!" The fourth brother laughed and cursed, but his voice trembled slightly. "Old Zhang, damn you, that was the stinky socks I hid, and you replaced them with rotten flesh? You've really outdone yourself!"

No one answered.

The voice channel suddenly became unusually quiet.

Zhang Qizhi controlled his character and walked to a wooden sign in the middle of the dorm.

That was a line of text he had typed for a long time, changing and deleting, deleting and changing, before finally deciding on.

The camera zoomed in.

On the sign, the black font was clearly visible:

[To the brothers of 304:]

[May you have a bright future, no matter how far apart we are.]

[Come back whenever you're tired; the dorm lights never go out.]

On the other end of the voice chat, the eldest brother, who was eating instant noodles, had his chopsticks suspended in mid-air, and even when noodle soup splashed onto the back of his hand, he didn't react.

From the third brother's side came the sound of a lighter clicking—click, click—he tried several times but couldn't light it. Finally, there was a sigh of annoyance and the heavy sound of a phone dropping.

The fourth brother sniffled, and with a crying voice, cursed: "Old Zhang, this crappy game of yours... it's harsh on the eyes, it makes my eyes sting a bit."

Zhang Qizhi looked at the screen, grinning, wanting to laugh, but salty liquid flowed into his mouth.

"Stop crying, all of you, laugh for me!"

He looked back behind him.

In reality, Dorm 304 was empty.

Only a packed suitcase remained, standing alone in the middle. On top of the suitcase was a college graduation photo, where the four people in the photo were smiling like idiots.

Tomorrow, he would be leaving too.

...

That afternoon.

A video appeared quietly on the newly launched Douyin app.

The video had no flashy editing.

Only a first-person walk.

From downstairs of the dorm building, step by step to the door of 304.

The background music was "Commemoration," which Zhang Qizhi had chosen after a long time.

The moment the prelude started, the lethality belonging to the graduation season exploded exponentially.

"Three years passed in the blink of an eye, everything in my heart bloomed so brightly..."

"I just want to hold onto the passing years and say goodbye properly..."

"Regrets and gratitude can't go back to yesterday, I just want to remember this moment..."

"The light years we walked together, after June, the light years become a memory..."

In the video, crude items built from blocks were shown in close-up.

That was the youth that could not be returned to.

Those were the brothers scattered to the corners of the earth.

At the end of the video, it froze on that sign.

[May you have a bright future, no matter how far apart we are.]

[Come back whenever you're tired; the dorm lights never go out.]

In just two hours.

Likes exceeded 50,000.

The comment section exploded.

"Damn, I'm crying like a dog on the subway!"

"What game is this? You can actually build houses?"

"Cried watching this. I miss my brother in the upper bunk."

"This isn't just a game, this is our youth!"

"Game name please! I want to build my university!"

"I don't miss prison, but I miss those inmates!"

minecraft was a hit.

Not because of the hardcore survival mode, but because a player used blocks to piece together the softest part of every graduate's heart.

It just so happened to be graduation season, with countless high school seniors who had just taken their graduation photos, and the laborers of the senior year heading their separate ways.

After watching this video, they all wanted to try this game to see what it was all about.

...

At 10:00 PM, Chen Shuyu returned home, looking exhausted.

She kicked off her high heels at the entryway, and without even removing her makeup, she threw herself onto the soft sofa.

Too tired.

These days, she had been running around for the Full-screen display and system technology, practically working as two people.

On one hand, she had to keep an eye on the progress of the Guanghui Technology research laboratory, and on the other, she had to act as a bridge between Lu Li and the laboratory.

Thinking of this, she couldn't help but rub her temples.

Lu Li actually said something about being allergic to the laboratory and refused to come over.

All technical documents and solutions were transmitted via email, or she, the "middleman," had to run errands.

"This guy, what exactly is he hiding?"

Chen Shuyu turned over and picked up her phone.

Although the process was painful, the results were significant.

Just this afternoon, the first version of the Guanghui Technology waterdrop Full-screen display sample finally came off the line.

That visual impact, almost overflowing the screen, made even someone like her, who was used to tech products, feel a tremor.

If it were paired with that deeply customized system...

Chen Shuyu lit up her phone screen, habitually wanting to open Douyin to relax.

Who knew that the WeChat group chat would be ringing non-stop.

She clicked into WeChat and saw it was the [Marketing Department Chat Group] sending messages.

"Is anyone teaming up for minecraft? My room IP is XXXXX."

"Damn, Xiao Wang, you're playing too? Wait for me..."

What game was this? She had noticed many colleagues discussing it during the day.

However, she hadn't paid much attention until her best friend also asked her to play.

"Shuyu, come play this game quickly. I built a sky garden, there's even a water elevator, it's so interesting! Let's go explore the caves together tonight!"

Chen Shuyu looked at the message and couldn't help but open her computer:

Is this minecraft really that fun?

She really didn't believe it. Could it be a horror game, and these guys were sending it to her on purpose?

She had seen screenshots; it seemed there were zombies at night.