”The third year of junior high is an important turning point in your life! In the future, you will be prosperous and wealthy, or you will be poor, it depends on this year!” The head teacher used a pointer to beat the blackboard and solemnly shouted to the 48 students in the class.
In 1996, I had just entered the third grade of junior high school. I was studying in a junior high school in the community, less than 500 meters away from home, in the third (fourth) class. That is, the third grade of junior high school, the fourth class. The school is divided into classes according to the grades of each student. There are only four classes in total, and in the fourth class, I belong to the group with the worst grades.
Our head teacher also changes every year, and this year’s head teacher is actually a physical education teacher, which puzzles me. In the whole school, there is only one of our class whose head teacher is a physical education teacher. Maybe the school has given up on us.
Despite this, at least half of the 48 students in the class are still studying hard and have not given up the last ray of hope. Because the head teacher said that even if you are in the fourth class, it is possible to be admitted to a key high school and change your future. Don’t give up.
The reason why I think that at least half of the people are still studying hard is because of the midterm exam, and I was ranked 25th in my class. I admit that I am not a person who works hard to learn. I am half-knowledgeable and confused about learning. Maybe I was ignorant at the time and didn’t know the importance of learning. Or those things taught in school, no interest.
As soon as the school was over, I went to the black Internet cafe in the neighborhood not far from the school. The Internet cafe is not big, with more than 20 square meters of small peasant rental housing, four old 386 broken computers and a big bed. The boss plays games all night, sleeps in bed during the day, turns day and night upside down, and is decadent and negative.
The growth of goblins starts from this dark Internet cafe.
Most of the children born after the 1980s will definitely have a strong interest in video games. Starting from the earliest arcades and gradually developing to Nintendo game consoles, the game industry continues to grow rapidly. Md, Fc, Sfc, Sony, Saturn, etc., I will not repeat them.
I have been a game master who loves to play games since I was a child, because I broke my legs and feet when I was a child, and I couldn’t move when I was lying on the bed. Relatives saw that my life was very boring, so they bought a Nintendo game console for me. At that time, it was 1990. At that time, there was a Nintendo game console at home. It was like an emperor. All the children in the community flocked to my house every day to watch me play games.
A four-in-one game, I still remember it fresh, Contra, Shaloman Snake, Red Fortress and Green Corps. I broke my legs and I lay on the bed for two years. I played like this for two years. He has been refined into a master gamer. As the so-called practice makes perfect, skill makes gold, not only practice the game like fire and pure love, but also understand the mechanism of the game clearly. Qiaonengshengjin, the word “gold”, I did not make a mistake.
After that, my legs and feet recovered, and I went out to the arcade room to play games, which was also a game currency, and chartered the flight for half a day. The boss had nothing to say when he saw me, who told me to rely on my ability to eat. The game room in the community is not very big. There are only eight arcade machines in one passage, but there are definitely no less than 40 people surrounded by them.
Not long after, I was well-versed in the arcade room of the community. When everyone saw me coming, they all scrambled to play games with me. I play them with me and they can play for a long time because I understand the mechanics of the game. In particular, there is an arcade called “Famous General”. Four players play together. With three other people, I can play the last level with one game coin. Using a bug in the game, that is, after four consecutive moves, the monster will fall to the ground. In this case, after three consecutive moves, turn around quickly, and then come back and start the fight again, so that the monster will never fall to the ground, and the boss is the same, and I will directly grind it to death. I call this move “blood-sucking”.
Although people around see me using this trick, they will never learn it, because in this mechanism, they don’t know that they can’t press the attack button when they turn around, and they have been stupid all the time. Of course, you can’t use it freely.
But I am not a child of a rich family after all, and I don’t usually have pocket money. My parents are working class and earn a meager salary, so most of the time I just stand in the arcade room watching other people play games, and occasionally save one. Popsicle money, buy a game currency. At that time, one yuan of RMB was exchanged for four game coins.
Don’t talk to me about academic matters. At that time, I just entered the first grade of junior high school, although the teacher said that after entering junior high school, the first turning point of life began, and every second must be counted. But I was still confused. After completing the basic homework as required every day, I went to the community game room to report.
Those familiar faces in the game room became less and less, and gradually disappeared. This makes me feel the pressure of academics, and I believe that they must be forced by their parents or teachers to study painfully at home. The arcade room was replaced by some junior apprentices, and fresh blood was continuously injected into the game room of this community, making it enduring for a long time.
One day after school, as usual, I went to the arcade room, threw away my schoolbag, and stood on the side watching them play games. Everyone watched and talked, just like old people watching chess, watching and talking. The arcade room is the center of activity for young people.
Suddenly someone tapped me on the shoulder and turned around to see a tall man with curly hair who was ten years older than me. He put two game coins into a “Round Table Samurai” arcade machine and said to me, “Come on, play games with me, I invite you.”
At that time, some social gangsters often came and went in the game machine room. They often bullied us and extorted some money because they were more aggressive than others or had some gangster social connections. If you don’t give it, you will be dragged out and slapped a few times, and you will never want to enter the game room again. I have also been extorted a few times. I was only fourteen or fifteen years old at the time, and I was very scared. I’ve been extorted less often, and they know I don’t have any money.
The curly-haired man waved to me again and invited me to play doubles with him, but I was still hesitant and scared. This person is an unfamiliar person, and I don’t often see it in the game room, and this is the first time someone invited me to play games, and I was a little ecstatic. In the end, I was attracted by the game and played with him for an hour.
The two of them were chatting and playing. He always wanted to clear the game and see what the ending would be. In the end, we spent a total of four game coins to make a copy of the game. When the final boss fell, the onlookers burst into applause, just like watching a goal in a football game. This curly-haired brother and I were like two center forwards, and we scored a goal together. We were very excited. Then he went out to buy a popsicle and invited me to eat a doll ice cream, which I still remember vividly.
In fact, this curly-haired brother’s game skills are not bad, but playing doubles with me is even more powerful, and it is very easy to pass the game. Since then I’ve seen him in the game room from time to time, but he didn’t invite me to play games again, just a few popsicles. On the contrary, some juniors saw me in the game room, and they all took me to play games, and they paid. These fourth- and fifth-grade elementary school students have pocket money of ten yuan in their schoolbags, and they are very rich. This made me feel a bit desolate in my heart. My parents work very hard and are usually very frugal. It is really inappropriate to spend their pocket money in the game room.
But since then, I have stopped spending my own money in the game room, and I have nothing to do over there watching other people play games, waiting for others to invite me to play together. I am still a little proud in my heart, I feel that I play the game well, and I don’t need to spend money to play the game. I feel that I have earned it, even if I earn a game currency, I am very happy.
The first half of the first half of the first year of junior high school ended, and I was abandoned for another half a year. All the familiar faces in the game room were gone. I feel a little self-blame, should I focus on my studies and go home to read books after school? There are some juniors in the game room now. I am the oldest, and I feel a little discordant. Could it be that the game room has disappeared since then, and they all stopped playing?
While I was looking sadly at the street outside the game room, the curly-haired brother passed by with his girlfriend, saw me in a blink of an eye, stopped, and shouted to me, “Is it interesting to always play arcades? Come on, play cc with me.”
CC? My face is full of question marks, there are still games in this world that I don’t know about. I didn’t dare to go with him, but seeing a girl (sister) beside him reduced my vigilance. At the same time, the curly-haired elder brother told me that the place was not far, it was in the community, and finally I followed them. went together.
It’s not far. It’s in the farmer’s rental house behind the community school. If it’s a little further away, I’ll definitely suspect that the two of them have kidnapped and sold it. Step through a muddy gravel alley and push open a dilapidated wooden door. In a dilapidated peasant rental house of less than 20 square meters, there are four dilapidated 386 computers and a dirty bed.
What struck me was that the room was so full of people that there was nowhere to go, and most of them were familiar faces in the arcade room. I cursed in my heart: “Fuck, you are all here, what are you doing?” I thought you were all studying hard, but you changed places.
I saw this group of people staring intently at the four computers, with a very serious and nervous expression, which was much more focused than when watching the arcade. I was also thinking about my toes, and when I looked in between the people, I saw four people nervously typing on the keyboard and mouse, staring at the monitor. This thing is called a computer, I still know it, and I have seen it in advertisements. There was one in the dormitory of the teacher we lived in before, but it was the first time I knew that I could play games on it, but I didn’t quite understand the game.
The four people kept discussing tactics and clicked on the little soldiers on the map with the mouse. Are they commanding a war? Maybe I was born with a talent for playing games, and after a few minutes it dawned on me that they were in pairs, playing against each other. It’s just that this game is very special. Later, I learned that it is called a real-time strategy game. The game they play is called cc, which is command and conquer.
This new game mode deeply attracted me and made me feel at a loss. It is really ingenious that the game still has such a gameplay. After that, I went straight to this dark Internet cafe every day after school to watch them play.
Just like that, the familiar faces in the arcade room were reunited in this dark Internet cafe. They didn’t study as seriously as I thought, but developed a new world. They didn’t even tell me, it was too much. Later I found out that it was because this black Internet cafe was too small to accommodate more people. If I hadn’t come early every day, there would be no place to stand.
The first half of the first semester started, and it seemed to have nothing to do with me. I was in school every day, and the game cc was in my mind. As soon as school was over, I rushed directly to the black Internet cafe. After a long time, I became familiar with the people in the Internet cafe. It turned out that the big curly-haired brother was the shareholder of the four computers in the Internet cafe. It’s an old computer, but it’s also very expensive. The owner of the black Internet cafe, surnamed Wang, is a classmate of Big Brother Curly Hair. From their conversations, we learned that they are all computer students. The four of us played all night together. During the day, they were busy with their work, and Boss Wang took care of this black Internet cafe, and usually made some extra money. This is actually a club, not a commercial black Internet cafe.
After watching them play in this black club for a few months, I also learned about the mechanics of this game and the use of computers. I felt itchy and wanted to try it myself. But the fee is really expensive, four yuan an hour, not like a game currency like playing an arcade, you can play for half a day.
One day after school, as usual, I went straight to this black Internet cafe club, but it was very strange to see several familiar faces chatting outside. Just as I was about to push the door in, I saw a notice posted on the door, “Only ten people can watch, it’s full.”
Damn, what the hell is going on here? I was so angry at the time that I couldn’t even watch it? In the end, I had no choice but to stand outside the door, chatting with them and waiting, one came out and one went in. Some people say that it is because the summer is too hot, there are too many people in the room, and the air is not ventilated. Some people say that the boss is brokenhearted, and he is annoyed when he sees people, so he drives them out.
I can’t see playing computer games. It’s better to stand outside and chat with these scumbags. The reason why they are regarded as scumbags is because I think they are like me, they are people who don’t like to study and only know how to play all day. . These people are collectively called scum, which is also defined by the teacher.
After waiting for more than two hours, no one came out. I put my toes on my toes and looked in from the window. It was true that four people were playing on the computer, ten people were watching, one more and one less, Boss Wang was lying on the bed and sleeping soundly. A peaceful scene.
In desperation, I had to go home first and come back after dinner, it was 7 o’clock in the evening. The few familiar faces were still standing at the door, chatting and lining up. I waited until 10 o’clock in the evening, and no one came out of this dark Internet cafe, so I had no choice but to go home, cursing in my heart: These lunatics! If you go in, you won’t come out. I have to think of a way.
For several days in a row, I didn’t go in at the entrance of the black Internet cafe. I was like a drug addict, as in a TV drama. My whole body was uncomfortable and I was restless. Finally I started skipping classes, and there was a shitty music class that afternoon. I suddenly had an idea, the music class was going to the music classroom. If I slipped away, the teacher wouldn’t know. In order to make the trick more realistic, I didn’t take my schoolbag, and I sneaked out and went to the black Internet cafe.
I’m such a genius, I pushed open the door of the black Internet cafe proudly, but I didn’t expect it was already full of seats, and I was the tenth person. Then Boss Wang got up and put up a notice and locked the door… (Only Limited to ten people, it is full.)
It turned out that I wasn’t the only one who skipped class, all those familiar faces skipped class, my God! And I heard from them that they came at noon, did not go to school for half a day in the afternoon, and asked for sick leave directly.
There are few people and it is really clean. In the past, there was no way to communicate and learn well. Now sitting next to the computer, you can not only see the detailed operations and shortcut keys, but also learn some simple computer commands. For example, under ms-dos, dir play setup, etc., I keep those commands in my mind, and I also know what situations those commands are used for in detail, and what operation instructions need to be done.
Not long after, I heard some chatter outside the door. I looked up again, and it was time for school. Sure enough, the group of people was a step late and had to wait outside. I secretly laughed: no one will come out, and none of you will come in.
People always have to eat. When dinner time is up, my stomach starts to growl. Just when I was wondering, they took out the instant noodles they carried with me. All so prepared! There was another buddy, like me, who didn’t bring anything. We looked at each other. In the end, he couldn’t hold back his hunger. He opened the door and went home to eat. A person came in immediately. Then I never saw him again, only to hear him come back after dinner and chat with other people at the door.
Maybe it’s because I’m more able to starve and have the talent to resist hunger. Maybe it’s because my love for computer games extends far beyond my life. I completely forgot about hunger because I was so absorbed in the atmosphere of watching the game. Time passed quickly, and it was already 10 o’clock in the evening. It seems that we must go home, otherwise the parents will definitely be anxious.
Reluctant to part, I had to get up and open the door to go out. The people waiting outside rushed in, and this time two people rushed in. The two of them asked Boss Wang for comment, and they both said that they were the first to come. It was so funny, but in desperation, Boss Wang allowed the two of them to come in together and closed the door again. It was quite strange to say that Boss Wang did not lock the door, but everyone waited obediently outside and did not break in. Maybe it was because they were afraid that Boss Wang would turn their back on the computer and let them not play with the computer. Just like when I had a Nintendo game console, many children in my room didn’t dare to make a sound while watching me play games, for fear that I would find them annoying and let them They get out.
On the way home, my stomach hurts a little bit. It seems that tomorrow I will bring some dry food like they did. I should also bring a bottle of water.
When I got home, I was scolded by my parents. They searched the whole community and went to the school to find me, thinking I had been kidnapped. But I found that my schoolbag was in the school, but people were gone, and they were puzzled. They wanted to find the teacher, but luckily the teacher had already left work. In the previous situation, as long as they went to the game machine room in the community, they could find me immediately, but this time they ran all over the game machine room inside and outside the community, and they didn’t see me. Seeing that I came back intact, they were relieved. Watching me devoured my dinner, I was very curious, where did I go?
I have been an honest person since I was a child, I never lied, and even if I did bad things, I would honestly confess. My parents knew that I was in a peasant rental house in the community and watched them play on the computer, so they forgot to eat and sleep, so they forgave me. But make a three-chapter agreement with me, first of all, you must complete your homework, and then you must eat your stomach and not go hungry.
Of course, they didn’t know that I skipped class, they only knew that I left my schoolbag at school. If they asked me, I would still confess, but if they didn’t ask me, they wouldn’t take the initiative to explain it. Since then, when I go to the dark Internet cafe, I have become open and aboveboard. After school, squat at the entrance of the black Internet cafe and do homework first. If you don’t have a chance to go in, go home for dinner at the appointed time, and come back after dinner. Luckily, I can go in for an hour and be home before 9 o’clock. But I never skipped class again, and felt that it was unnecessary. If my parents found out, maybe I would never be exposed to computer games again.