That night, I sat in a small room without a balcony on the seventh floor, staring at the ceiling in a daze. The neon lights outside were like a dream that refused to close its eyes, noisy and noisy, but had nothing to do with me. Downstairs was an all-night convenience store, and people were still queuing up to buy beer at two in the morning.
I turned on my phone, and the moment the screen lit up, it was as quiet as a dream. It was a game called “Mingchao”, and I had been playing it for half a month. Compared with the battles and passion in the game, I care more about her-Xiakong.
Xiakong is a character in the game. She is not talkative, clean and neat, wearing a light blue robe, like the wind walking on the water. I didn’t hesitate when I chose her, just because she doesn’t smile, but she is not cold. She is like me, often quiet, and doesn’t need too much explanation.
How did I start playing this game? I can’t remember it clearly.
At that time, I had just ended a failed relationship and there were problems with my work. The city is too big and I am too small. Every morning when I squeeze into the subway, my heels are often stepped on, and working overtime at night makes me afraid of the dark. Life is like a broken alarm clock, it only rings but never moves.
One night, I was watching a video and saw a person controlling Xia Kong in the game to fly over mountains and rivers, through storms, and finally standing on a high tower and looking back. At that moment, I suddenly wanted to cry. I don’t know why, I just feel that this character is like what I once wanted to be.
I downloaded the game and started a journey that does not belong to reality.
Xia Kong’s growth is not easy. If she wants to become stronger, she must collect a lot of materials. Each material sounds like a mysterious poem:
Burning Phosphorus Bone × 46;
Golden Fleece × 60;
Full-frequency Tidal Eclipse Sail Core × 61;
Containing Impure Crystallized Phlogiston × 25;
Roughly Extracted Crystallized Phlogiston × 28…
Every time I see these, I feel like I am preparing for alchemy. For these materials, I go online after 11pm every night, clear dungeons, fight bosses, check guides, and accumulate little by little. Every time I kill a monster, the resources it drops are like a breath of air I secretly won in this world.
I set a goal for myself: to upgrade Xia Kong to level 90. It’s not for the battle ranking, nor for showing off. I just think that watching a character, from thin to strong, from silent to shining, watching her fly over mountains and seas, is like a forgotten dream in my heart, slowly waking up.
I still go to work during the day, answering calls, writing reports, and dealing with my boss who is never satisfied; but at night, I become different. I have my own mission, and I fly in another world.
Friends say I’m crazy and it’s not worth staying up late for a game. But they don’t know that one day I fought six times before I defeated the “Sighing Ancient Dragon”. My hands were shaking until the last moment. At that moment, I didn’t scream, but just looked at the falling “Phosphorus Bone” quietly, as if fate said to me: “You can do it.”
The wind in the game blew on my face, not cold, but light.
Once it rained, and I forgot to bring an umbrella after get off work. Walking alone on the street, the rain poured down from the top of my head. I suddenly thought of Xia Kong. She never complained about the rain, she flew in the wind and fought in the rain. So I didn’t run, just walked like that, as if I was passing through a copy called “Tide Nest”, and I would walk out alive.
Two months later, I finally gathered all the breakthrough materials.
That night, I didn’t rush to click “breakthrough”. I poured myself a cup of hot tea, took a shower, and opened the window a little. The night wind in July was a little humid, and the lights of the city flashed in the distance like a river.
I sat down and gently pressed the button-“Breakthrough: Lv.90”.
A circle of light bloomed on Xia Kong’s body on the screen, like the feathers of a flying bird spreading in the sky. I wasn’t excited, nor did I shed tears. I just felt that the me who had been curled up in my heart stretched out at this moment.
After that day, I still had to work, live, walk through the noise of the subway station, and face the doubts of customers. But my shoulders were no longer so tight. I would look up at the sky when I walked, and occasionally slow down on the way home from get off work.
Because I knew that I could fly, too.