Shortly after the CF public beta began, many seasoned CS players joined the game, gradually making it increasingly popular.\ The newcomer had never played CS before, nor had any experience with similar games. But seeing so many people playing, and since these kinds of shooting games were very appealing, the newcomer wasn't an exception and joined the CF family.\ Being the first time encountering this type of game, the newcomer knew nothing and couldn't do anything. One could say he was a complete beginner. At first, he played the Transport Ship map. With a headset on, all the newcomer could see was bullets flying everywhere and hear deafening explosions. He only knew how to shoot randomly and spray bullets, sometimes unable to distinguish friend from foe, not even knowing the basic skills of reloading or planting bombs, getting drenched in sweat almost every day. At the end of a battle once the Transport Ship map was full, the newcomer's kills-to-deaths ratio usually was a few kills to dozens of deaths. Although the performance was poor, the newcomer felt very happy because he had finally found his favorite game in life.\ After playing for a few days, the newcomer started to feel lonely and isolated because he still had no friends and didn't know anyone in the game. Every time he played, it was just him with a group of strangers, and after each match, those strangers would scatter, and so would the newcomer.\ Until one day, after finishing a battle, the newcomer didn't leave. He didn't want to leave; he wanted to stay in the room longer and make a few friends because playing alone felt too lonely. The newcomer was disappointed to see those strangers leave one by one, with no one talking to him or chatting with him—they all left. The newcomer felt frustrated. Why was it so hard to meet a friend, a friend to play the game with?\ After almost all the strangers had left the room, the newcomer was excited to notice a player named Yiyi still inside. He really wanted to talk to this player, with the simple goal of just making a friend, but didn't know how to start.\ At that moment, the player Yiyi spoke: 'Is the host still online?' The newcomer was extremely happy and repeatedly typed 'Yes' multiple times. Yiyi then asked, 'Host, are you going to start?' Nervous yet excited, the newcomer replied, 'Of course, do you want to play with me?'\ Yiyi said, 'Go ahead, host.'And just like that, the two of them entered the battle again. That round, the newbie was terribly, terribly beaten by Yiyi. But the newbie was very happy because he finally made a friend in the game and also learned that Yiyi's female character was called the Fox Hunter. Yiyi also realized that the boy called Newbie was indeed a real newbie. In the game, Yiyi taught Newbie how to reload, how to switch bombs, how to headshot, and how to minimize damage from other players.
Although Newbie was very inexperienced, he wasn't stupid; he could almost always quickly learn what Yiyi taught him. Yiyi was also surprised at how fast Newbie was improving and sometimes jokingly said that if he practiced a few more weeks, he could surpass her, his newbie master. Newbie and Yiyi played the Transport Ship mode together almost every day, and with Yiyi's help, Newbie's scores slowly started to have fewer losses.
One day, Yiyi said, 'Newbie apprentice, your master will take you to see the outside world! I want you to know that CF isn't just the Transport Ship mode.' Newbie happily followed Yiyi out of the novice channel and entered the Bomb Mode channel. After arriving, Newbie realized that in Bomb Mode, you couldn't respawn continuously; after dying, you had to wait until either the attackers or defenders won before you could respawn. He also learned that besides the Transport Ship map, there was another map called Desert Gray.
Yiyi warned, 'Newbie apprentice, you don't know how to play this map, so don't run around alone. Stay right behind me. Your master will protect you.' Newbie finally felt the warmth of friendship, and he promised Yiyi, 'Master Newbie, I will become an expert one day, and then you can follow me; I'll protect you.' Yiyi smiled and said she was looking forward to that day.
Newbie grew quickly and gradually learned the basics of Bomb Mode: how attackers should plant the C4 and how defenders should defuse it.
After one Bomb Mode game ended, Newbie and Yiyi exchanged QQ numbers and did a video call. Yiyi was a very beautiful girl with delicate features. Newbie was stunned because he had thought girls who liked shooting games usually looked tougher. Seeing Yiyi was completely beyond his expectations.A person often invests far more virtual emotions in the internet than they do in real life, and much deeper ones! Because in the very depths of everyone's heart, that virtual world is always the most beautiful! The newbie foolishly said, 'Newbie disciple, I like you!' Yiyi smiled and said, 'Newbie student, I like you too!' and even made a gesture on video of pinching the newbie's nose. The newbie was captivated, intoxicated; his heart had completely and utterly belong to his newbie master. For the newbie, the happiest time every day was playing games with Yiyi. Yiyi was the only one in his game world. But the good times didn't last long. One day, after the newbie logged in, he didn't see Yiyi. Yiyi hadn't logged in at all that day, and the newbie didn't feel like playing at all, enduring the hardest day he had ever had since playing CF. The next day, still no sign of Yiyi logging in. The newbie grew anxious and, in a frenzy, tried messaging Yiyi, but the system kept showing she was offline, and messages sent on QQ went unanswered, like they had sunk into the sea. The newbie no longer had any heart for gaming, and just ran around aimlessly in the game. Not only did he rack up a lot of losses, but he even caused the deaths of several teammates, sparking outrage. The group collectively kicked him out of the room. After quitting the game, the newbie suddenly saw Yiyi's QQ avatar light up. The newbie was extremely excited and sent Yiyi a message, asking why she hadn't come online in the past few days. Yiyi casually replied that she had logged into another QQ to play a competition. The newbie asked which channel she was in because he wanted to find her. Yiyi seemed reluctant but said it anyway. The newbie logged into the game faster than ever and arrived at the room Yiyi mentioned. The people inside made the newbie dizzy—a room full of VIPs with uniform name tags; they were all part of the same team. Except for the newbie, everyone else was a Second Lieutenant, and there was even a First Lieutenant. (CF had just been publicly released, so Second Lieutenants were still rare, and there was no experience farming yet.) In this environment, the newbie seemed very out of place. The First Lieutenant spoke up, 'Yiyi, is this the newbie disciple you took in?' Yiyi didn't seem to want to talk, didn't greet the newbie, and only responded with a brief 'Hmm.' The First Lieutenant warmly greeted the newbie and even asked him to call him 'Shigong' (Master). Yiyi told him not to say such things. The First Lieutenant wisely shut his mouth, and the others jokingly called Yiyi 'big sister-in-law.'At this moment, the rookie felt as if he had fallen from heaven into hell; his mind went completely blank. He knew that although Yiyi hadn't admitted that the lieutenant was her husband, their relationship was definitely close. The rookie knew that if he didn't confess, he would lose Yiyi forever, losing the only one he had in the game.
Finally, the rookie confessed to Yiyi, asking her to be his wife. Yiyi said that as a woman, she had been bullied in the game and needed the protection of a strong person. The rookie couldn't meet her requirements and even needed her protection. The rookie was very persistent. He said that the day would come when he could meet her standards, that he loved her! He would reach the day that met her requirements and asked Yiyi for a chance.
Yiyi didn't want to make things too tense with the rookie, because they once had a happy and joyful time together. She said that if the rookie could duel anyone in the room and win, she would agree to him. Yiyi knew that these people in the room were arguably the top-ranked teams in the district, and the rookie couldn't possibly win, even against the worst player among them.
She just wanted him to know the gap and to give up hope. The rookie agreed and requested an immediate duel. The result was unbearable to watch. They sent the least skilled player to fight the rookie in a Death Cross duel for seven rounds. The rookie was defeated 7:0.
Everyone in the room laughed, and the laughter felt so piercing to the rookie. He didn't give up and just told Yiyi, “I'll come to find you again in a few days.”
The rookie was very bold—really bold. He opened a room in the expert area, issuing a Death Cross challenge to all the experts in the district. The rookie believed that only by confronting experts could he learn skills, and only by sparring with experts could he gain experience. Growth is always through struggle…
As soon as the room's name appeared, the expert area erupted. Everyone rushed to announce that a secret killer had come to eliminate all the top players in the district. A group of arrogant experts and onlookers filled the rookie's room. The room was set up for 1v1 duels, with 14 spectators. Every seat was taken, and the room was packed. Everyone wanted to see if this secret killer called the rookie really had extraordinary skills.
A challenger was ready. The rookie began the battle. Unsurprisingly, the rookie was beaten again, 7:0. The crowd, however, sighed in nervous anticipation, thinking that the rookie was just pretending to be weak. He was faking it!The challenger said, 'Come on, man, stop pretending. Show us what you can really do! Let everyone have their eyes opened.' The newcomer didn't respond and just started the game directly, only to get defeated 7 to 0.
Everyone began to mock the newcomer, saying things like, 'This trash is actually arrogant enough to want to wipe out all the experts in our expert zone—he must have water in his brain. Maybe his head got caught in the rolling shutter,' and so on…
The newcomer ignored all the ridicule and kept on challenging recklessly. He just wanted to improve his skills as quickly as possible. After a few days, he made significant progress, going from 0:7 to 1:7 to 2:7. Although he had gained a lot over several days, no one wanted to duel him anymore, as everyone knew he was a genuine newbie—both silly and clumsy. They all nicknamed him 'Silly Bird.'
After waiting for a long time without anyone entering his room, the newcomer suddenly remembered the days of playing demolition with Yiyi. He wanted to relive the old memories and recall the happy times of the past. So, the newcomer returned to the demolition channel in the newbie area, joined a relatively small room, and chose his favorite role, defender, to join the battle.
By now, the newcomer could headshot, listen for footsteps, coordinate with other teammates, reinforce, and handle ambushes. After a few rounds, he had become the ACE of his team, and the other players all followed his commands. The infiltrators were also far ahead of the defenders.
At this time, a player named 'Little Newbie' joined the newcomer's team. Everyone jokingly asked if he was the newcomer's brother or buddy, and if he was as good as the newcomer. But the contrast was huge—Little Newbie was just like the newcomer when he first started playing, knowing nothing. His shooting skills were terrible, and he was a typical cannon fodder character.
Until one round, in the end, everyone died. Surprisingly, Little Newbie survived, but there was still an infiltrator left. A C4 countdown appeared on the screen, indicating that the infiltrator had armed the C4. Everyone felt hopeless. However, the unlucky infiltrator, after arming the C4 on platform A, didn't pay attention to his health and jumped off the platform, dying from the fall.
The defenders laughed heartily, shouting that there was hope and telling Little Newbie to quickly defuse the C4 at point A. Little Newbie ran, sweating like rain, and finally reached the C4. Everyone shouted, 'Defuse it quickly! Quickly!' But Little Newbie didn't move. It turned out he didn't know how to defuse it.Everyone suddenly realized and kept shouting, 'Press E quickly, press E quickly.' It was too late; the C4 countdown was already red. In the end, the C4 exploded, and the infiltrators won! The defenders all yelled at the rookie, saying that you don't fear an opponent like a god, only teammates like pigs. They all threatened to kick the rookie pig out of the room. Finally, the rookie stood up and said that everyone goes through this; no one is born knowing how to play this game. Think about it—were you any different when you first started? Because the rookie's words had an effect, no one mentioned kicking him out anymore, and everyone went to help him. After the game ended, everyone else left. Only the experienced player and the rookie stayed. The rookie was very grateful that the experienced player had spoken up for him just now, otherwise, those people would definitely have kicked him out. He had already been kicked multiple times that day; the experienced player was the first to stand up.
