Chapter 6 - 6 4 Hawk Roll

6: Chapter 4 Hawk Roll 6: Chapter 4 Hawk Roll Xiao Jie hummed noncommittally, mentioning Liu Qiang brought back that uneasy feeling. Could Liu Qiang really be so kind-hearted? Could it be a trap? However, no matter how wild Xiao Jie’s imagination ran, he couldn’t think of any risks associated with an online game. Fifteen minutes later, the two arrived at a mid-range restaurant near the residential area —— Sea Sky Restaurant. Due to the business contraction of the studio in the past two years and the downturn in business, the food quality had decreased continuously, and they rarely went out to eat anymore. On normal days, they just made some stew or boiled some noodles to get by, and even going out for a beef noodle soup occasionally counted as an improvement in life. As Han Luo would say —— it was so bland he could sprout a bird in his mouth. Feeling happy tonight, Xiao Jie decided to treat Han Luo to a good meal to boost their spirits. Upon entering, he directly ordered four robust dishes: braised pork ribs, sweet and sour pork, squirrel fish, and shrimp stir-fried with green vegetables, along with four bottles of beer. It didn’t take long before all the dishes were served. Recently, Han Luo had been quite taken with the food, his eyes gleaming at the sight of the table filled with food and drink. “Wow boss, the food is pretty good today.” “Not bad, right? In the future, once we’ve made some money, we can have four dishes like this every day. Alright, brother, stop just looking, let’s dig in.” Neither of them was into formalities, and they started shoveling food into their mouths. Xiao Jie ate quickly, finishing his meal in less than ten minutes, and knowing by Han Luo’s enthusiastic eating that it would take a while longer. “Keep eating, I’ll go buy some fruit for us to have later tonight.” Han Luo, without lifting his head, waved his hand still chewing. Walking out of Sea Sky Restaurant, the sky had already darkened. As he looked at the neon lights in the night, Xiao Jie felt quite relaxed. As the boss of Wuji Studio, he desperately needed a phenomenal game to lift his career. He vaguely remembered the glory days of the studio, back when online games were popular worldwide. In those days, the studio was thriving, making money while lying down, and not only making a fortune domestically, but also expanding overseas. However, in the recent years with the rise of mobile games, online games had declined, and the studio could no longer regain its past glory. Of course, the biggest problem was that online games were no longer fun. Over the past few years, every time a new online game was released, he would download it full of anticipation, only to be disappointed every time. Game companies were only thinking about making money, producing games that were uniformly make-do and insipid. And those game studios had shifted from focusing on game content to competing with high-tech auto-play scripts. A single computer running dozens of accounts, earning gold coins 24 hours a day, completely draining the life of the game for profit, leaving no space for traditional studios like Wuji that depended on mastering game mechanics for revenue. In the end, only he and Han Luo were still striving hard. But now, everything was finally about to change. The game “Old Soil” indeed had high difficulty, which might deter some casual players, but its graphics and sense of impact were so astounding, they could definitely spark a new craze. As long as the hype was there, there would be no lack of players. Moreover, the higher the difficulty, the greater the role of gaming skills. With Xiao Jie’s level of gaming, he was very confident in leveraging the experience and skills he had accumulated over the years to benefit from this trend. Xiao Jie was so lost in thought that he completely failed to notice a red sports car speeding towards him, ignoring the red light, until a piercing horn sounded beside him. He only came back to reality at the last moment, turning his head just in time to see the blinding lights, his mind going blank. It’s over! Was he going to die here today? At that moment, Xiao Jie felt despair and reluctance. It wasn’t the reluctance of dying young, although he was not yet thirty. He was someone who generally took life and death lightly. He was mainly reluctant because he had just discovered a game and hadn’t had the chance to enjoy it fully. Missing out on such a top-grade game in this lifetime would really be unbearable. Almost instinctively, he leaped up, but with no expectation in his heart, it was purely a despairing reflex. However, something unexpected happened. As his body leaped, it rose into the air, rotating and performing a side somersault like a stunt from a martial arts movie. The car whizzed past right behind him, Xiao Jie’s body completed a 365-degree turn in the air, performing an acrobatic flip and landing on the ground just in time to narrowly escape the deathly path of the racing car. It took a while for Xiao Jie to recover after landing. The sports car had vanished from sight. He was drenched in cold sweat, his heart, which had been in his throat, finally dropped back down. Damn, I almost died just now—wait a second, how did I do that? Xiao Jie thought with a bewildered face, still in a kneeling position, he stood up and recalled the flipping motion he had just performed. It was just like the reaction of a martial arts master in a fight film, but that’s impossible! He knew his own physical condition all too well, always gaming away in the studio and only occasionally exercising in the park to keep in shape—decent but not nearly enough to pull off such a difficult maneuver. Could it be an adrenaline rush from extreme danger? Or wait, why does that move look so familiar? A lightbulb went off in Xiao Jie’s mind—Hawk Roll! That’s right, the spinning, flipping move was almost identical to the “Hawk Roll” skill he had learned in the game. As a guy who grew up gaming, he had fantasized about using game skills in real life, practicing energy blasts into the air and posing for the Rising Dragon Fist as a kid. But he had stopped fantasizing about it since he entered into society. Who would have thought that in a life and death moment, he would actually use a skill from a game? This gave Xiao Jie an incredibly surreal feeling. Was he dreaming, or had he hallucinated from drinking too much? He rubbed his face. It was just two bottles of beer, not enough to get drunk, and definitely not a dream. He took a deep breath. There was only one way to find out for sure—he forcefully pushed off the ground. Hawk Roll! His body spun and performed another clean, large backflip, landing smoothly on the ground. It was real! It was actually real! Xiao Jie felt a rush of euphoria, his body trembling, a flood of thoughts rushing through his mind. Had he received some Divine Revelation, awakening a hidden talent? Or had some system chosen him to become its host? Or was it because of the “Old Soil” game that he could bring skills back to reality? Jade Emperor? Lord Lao Zi of the Great Monad? Buddha? God?” he shouted into the air. But there was no response. “System?” Still no response. So, was it really because of the game? He still found it hard to believe, unable to comprehend the logic. But it seemed to be the only explanation. What does this mean if he could really bring game skills into reality? Damn, that would be insanely cool. Just by mastering the lowest level skill, he could perform such cool moves. Considering the supernatural elements in the game’s CG, Qinggong, Inner Strength… Immortal Techniques… if spells could also be brought into reality, why would he even keep his day job? He could just become an immortal… No, wait! After a brief indulgence in his fantasy, Xiao Jie suddenly realized something was very wrong. Why would such a fantastic opportunity just fall into his lap in this world? Xiao Jie was a realist, hardened by society for a long time—he never believed in such windfalls. Moreover, if the game was really that magical, why would Liu Qiang give it to them for no reason? He knew Liu Qiang’s character all too well. There must be some hidden catch that he had not yet discovered.