I am a computer game addict, I am a student in a key school as well. You may think the two concepts are contradictory: a boy abandons himself to games must be a poor student, a lad educated at a key school must keep himself from that sort of spiritual opium. Absolutely, I am that kind of contradiction entity: a game addict and a top student at the same time. To be exact, my grades is not that good. As a 17-year-old quasi-adult I have no self-restraint and hence can't keep my mind on study. The chief part of my life is burying myself in the game world and do everything to polish the skill. Although it sounds a bit absurd, it is the fact that game is the air for me. I suffer from hypoxia as along as there is one day away from it. Although I have tried and been through a good deal of games in these years, my favorite genre is fighting game. As The King of Fighters 97 is the most popular one at present, I spent most of my spare time and a large sum of lucky money supposed to be used for school supplies on it. After years of practice, my skill on it, if not could be said the best, at least can help me defeat most of senior players around. As I focused myself on that kind of dead-end thing, the time assigned to study was cut to the bone and as a result of neglect of learning, I could only get bad marks at school. For that reason I become the butt of scorn and ridicule of my classmates. After being warned and frightened repeatedly by the head teacher, my parents are worried sick about me: if I always get poor marks, top universities may evade me; if then, I will get a bleak future, and how can I support myself and my family in that case? Even if I was scolded with harsh words and barred from touching games by the elders, I don't care so much. Just give me chances to play computer games every day and I can be satisfied.

       我是一个游戏迷，我也是一个重点中学的学生，你可能会认为这是一对相互矛盾的概念：一个沉溺于游戏的男孩必定是一个坏学生，一个就读于重点中学的人必定会远离那些精神鸦片。没错，我就是这么个矛盾统一体：一个游戏成瘾者同时也是一个优等生，确切地说，我的成绩并不算好，作为一个17岁的准成年人由于缺乏自制力，我的心思总不放在学习上，我生活的主要部分就是沉浸在游戏的世界里并想方设法磨炼技巧。虽然听上去有点荒唐，可游戏对我来说就像空气一样，只要一天不摸我就会缺氧而死，尽管这些年来我尝试和通关的游戏不计其数，可我最喜欢的是格斗游戏，我大部分的业余时间和本该用来购买学习用具的一大笔压岁钱都花在一款名为拳皇97的时下最流行的格斗类游戏上面，经过年岁的磨炼，我的技巧虽说算不上最好，但至少打败周围绝大部分资深的游戏玩家不成问题。由于我把精力都花在那个没有前途的东西上面，我分配到学习上的时间捉襟见肘，并由于荒废了学业，我在学校的成绩只能算是垫底，我也因此成了同学们嘲弄和鄙薄的对象。在被班主任多次警告和吓唬了以后，父母亲都快为我急出病来了：如果我的成绩总是那么糟糕，名牌大学必定与我无缘，这样我的前途就一片黯淡，到时候我拿什么养活自己和自己的家庭？即便长辈们用很难听的字眼骂我并严令禁止我接触游戏，我也管不了那么多，只要让我每天打游戏我就心满意足了。

         As my home is just a few hundred meters away from the school, and there are 3 arcades around my neighborhood, I can indulge myself at all times. Each of them is a 50-square-metre house with street frontage split into two or three rooms with more than 20 game machines in it, among them are a few slot machines exclusively for those adult gamblers. As all kinds of vicious incidents recently appeared in the press have something to do with game rooms and Internet bars, everything related to games are banned to open to minors in government policies. Even so, there are policies above and countermeasures below, as the bosses have strong backings, they took risks to confront with the government, the moral bottom line and made a fortune out of those unsophisticated boys lost in spiritual opium. Even if the air is stale in the rooms, the smell of sweat permeated the air in summer, filthy words can be heard without end when you are playing in it, and furthermore, young lad are probably to be bullied by those rascals if they are small and thin, those "opium den" are as prosperous as evergreens and always overflowing with students after school. Everyone in the dim room concentrates himself on “taking drugs” and had no time for anything around. Even if anyone of them was provoked to anger, he was sure to regain his composure after "a few drags on his cigarette".

      由于我家距离学校也就几百米远，同时小区周围有三间游戏厅，所以我随时都可以放纵自己，每个游戏厅都是把50平米的门面房切分成两间小屋并在其中摆放着二十来个游戏机，其中不乏专门为成年赌徒摆设的老虎机。由于近来见诸报端的大多数恶性事件都跟游戏厅和网吧有关，因此政府颁布政策规定一切跟游戏有关的东西都禁止对未成年人开放，尽管如此，上有政策下有对策，那些后台硬的游戏厅老板冒着跟政府和道德底线对抗的风险，从这些涉世未深、沉溺于精神鸦片的小孩子身上大发横财。即便室内空气混浊、夏天充斥着汗臭味儿、玩游戏时周围的脏话声不绝于耳，甚至当你个头小、身材瘦削还有被小混混欺负的可能，游戏厅总是如常青树一般生意兴隆、在放学后人满为患。昏暗小房子里的每个人都在专心“吸他的鸦片”而无暇顾及周围发生的一切，即便其中的任何一个人被激怒了，他也会在“几口烟”之后迅速恢复平静。

        As I was an old face to most of them, the bosses and I were very familiar with each other. Being treated as a frequent visitor, I felt it a pretty good bargain when I bought a good many of coins and was given discounts in secret. Besides, I can reel off the names of the nearby master-hands in playing KOF 97: John, Smith, Miller, Brown and I. We challenged each other whenever met together even if they always suffered defeat and humiliation at the hands of me. It could be argued that compares to friendship, success and failure means nothing to us, the game developed intimate relationships between us, if without it, many friends of mine in the game world could merely have been strangers brush against each other in the street. Most admirers and fans of me regard I as a genius who can play excellently without practice, but, to be frank, I was a rookie a few years ago, took pains to improve my skill and eventually become who I am now. People are invariably conscious of one's success, and neglect his struggle period, but can you find me a successful man without working his way up to the top? I like to be challenged, because I am always the ever-victorious general who burst with pride when my rivals fail to vanquish me and finally leave the console in despair. I enjoy the feeling that they seemed to be punctured balloons and stared at me spluttering a series of filthy words, “Fuck! You piece of shit! Why my luck has always been against me?” Occasionally, I run into that kind of rogues who turned the machine off when they were thoroughly discredited in the competition. As I dared not quarrel with or humiliate them, what I can do was to turn them into the butt of my ridicule and disdain inwardly. Over time, I distinguished myself among fighting game players and was nicknamed "the Fighting God". Even when I was exalted to the skies, I had a strong desire to be defeated, because I constantly felt boring playing it when I was always the winner.

       由于我对于他们算是老面孔，所以那些老板跟我都很熟，作为一个常客，每次我买很多牌子的时候他们都会偷偷给我打折，这让我感到很划算。除此以外，我对附近拳皇97的高手也能如数家珍地报出他们的名字：约翰、史密斯、米勒、布朗和我自己，尽管他们总是败在我手下，可只要我们聚在一起就相互挑战，至少值得一提的是，相较于友谊，成功与失败算不上什么，游戏培养了我们亲密的感情，若非如此，我们大家至多不过是走在大街上擦肩而过的陌生人而已。我的那些仰慕者和粉丝总把我看作不加练习就能轻易驾驭的天才，可是坦率地说，N多年前我也是个菜鸟，通过这些年来不断刻苦勤奋地磨练技巧才成为了今天的自己，人们总是注意到一个人的成功，而往往忽视了他奋斗的阶段，可是你能给我找出一个不靠一步一步奋斗就能到达顶端的成功人士吗？我喜欢被挑战，因为那个常胜将军、当自己的对手挑战失败后绝望的离开，心中充满了无限自豪的那个人总是我自己，我享受着他们被打败后像个泄了气的皮球，瞪着我嘴里吐出一连串的脏话：“操！你这个破烂玩意儿！我为什么总是那么倒霉？”偶尔我也会遇到那种在游戏对决中名声扫地后就关机走人的无赖，鉴于自己不敢轻易跟他们理论和羞辱他们，我也只能把他们当作自己暗自鄙薄和嘲笑的对象而已。日子久了，我在格斗游戏玩家中间名声鹊起并被给予了“格斗之神”的绰号。尽管我被捧上了天，我还是渴望被打败，因为自己总是赢就意味着在玩游戏的时候感到很无聊。

         I have long heard of an arcade called "Jinyi". It is an underground game room affiliated to a cinema in the downtown area a few miles away from my home. As this flourishing-district-located, well-equipped place appeals to every game master-hand, it was given a name "Mount Wudang of the Game". Considering that I was at leisure this Wednesday, I had enough time to play games, and I was unable to find a satisfactory equal around, so I was moved to take a long journey by bus to "Mount Wudang of the Game" to have fun, or rather, to find someone to "teach me a lesson". As I was slipped 1 thousand yuan by my grandma 2 days ago when I paid a visit to her, I had a fat wallet to afford the expenditure of the whole afternoon. It was half past twelve and few people filled the room when I caused a lot of trouble to get there. Even if the coin is twice as expensive as the one in the arcade around my neighborhood, I run the risk of breaking the bank to buy some two dozens. Then I sat down by a machine and began to play. In spite of the fact that it seemed a bit boring when I enjoyed it by myself for about half an hour at the same time I was by no means noticed by anybody, the situation changed obviously when people came one after another some 30 minutes later when the lunch time was over and everyone was as vigorous as a bull after being stuffed. Despite the game room was sumptuously furnished and twice or thrice as large as the one I patronized before, there were only two KOF 97 game machines there, one was broken, another was occupied by me. Scarcely had I recovered from the confusion why a popular game everybody rushed for was so rare here when those players with coins in hands began to sit by and compete with me.

       我早就听说有一个叫“金艺”的游戏厅，那是一个附属于离我家数公里远的市中心电影院的地下游戏机室。因为这个坐落在繁华地段、游戏设施配备精良的地方吸引了众多高手，因此得名为“游戏武当”。由于这个礼拜三很闲，所以我有足够的时间玩游戏，又鉴于在附近找不到一个满意的对手，我就动心舟车劳顿、长途跋涉地跑到“游戏武当”去与其说是找乐子，倒不如说是找人在游戏上“教训我一顿”。由于两天前拜访奶奶的时候被偷偷塞给了一千块钱，所以现在腰包鼓鼓的我有足够的资金对付整个下午的开销。我费劲周折到达那里刚好十二点半，屋子里人很少，即便那里的牌子比我们小区周围的游戏厅里要贵一倍，我还是咬牙破费买了二十多个，之后就坐在游戏机前自顾自地玩起来。尽管我独自一人倍感无聊、在没人注意的情况下玩了半个小时，三十分钟后随着午餐时间的结束，被填饱了肚子后精力充沛如牛的人们陆陆续续地到来而情况有了明显的改变。虽然游戏厅装饰豪华、数两三倍大于我平时出入的那些场所，拳皇97的游戏机却只有两台，一台坏了、另一台被我占着，还没等我从为什么一个被所有人趋之若鹜的游戏在这里却如此稀少的疑惑中回过神来，那些手持牌子的玩家就开始在我身边坐下并与我对弈起来。

         The first person appeared to me was a tall, thin man. Although as a human being of few words, his skilled movements and fanatical eyes betrayed him a game fancier. He preferred wrestling roles to most ordinary ones, like Daimon, Clark and Yashiro. The fierce tricks of these characters and his excellent skill narrowly threw me out of the game, yet after a few rounds, I learned his routine and was able to defeat him easily. Perhaps it is because of my solid foundation, perhaps it is for I am already grown up to an experienced player, he challenged me 5 times yet without winning a single round. Without any other means, he left the console resentfully. The second one became my opponent was a stout, sophisticated-like young man. For unknown reasons, I associated him with that kind of punks who loafed in the game room and bullied young boys for coins when I first saw him. Therefore, my blood run cold when he sat by and glared at me every now and then. As if he was able to beat me black and blue at any time as long as he was infuriated. He selected Benimaru, Iori and Robert—three roles most frequently used. Even if his roughness impressed me, his skills was not as bad as I thought. Put aside other two characters, his Iori alone could inflict heavy casualties on me. Instead of conventional conflict, he constantly harassed me with his light kicks, and launched combo attacks on me masterly whenever he got a chance. For a long time he became a headache to me, yet still, I found his weakness when the game was drawing to an end, launched a counterattack and turned the table on me. After trying for a few times in vain, he had no other choice but admit defeat. The third person interrupted my playing was a well-dressed, wavy-haired smoking girl. Judged from her appearance, she was no more than 18 years old, though she was quite skilled in holding cigarette and blowing smoke rings. She must be that kind of pitiable figure who left school at an early age as a result of lacking parental control. I, had a moment's pity for her good looks and naive tone, deliberately lost the first two rounds, yet, because of economic considerations, had no other choice but outplay her at last. After all, there would be no one to pay the bill for my failure and compassion.

       第一个出现在我跟前的是一个瘦高个，尽管沉默寡言，从他熟练的动作和迷乱的眼神中就能看出他可是个游戏发烧友。他偏爱使用擒抱型的角色，如大门五郎、克拉克和七枷社，那些角色的狠招加上他出色的技巧险些将我淘汰出局，但是几回合以后我就摸清了套路并轻而易举地击败了他。或许是由于我底子过硬，或许是因为我已经成长为一个经验丰富的老手，他挑战了我五次却没有赢一回合，迫于无奈之下，他只得恨恨地离开了控制台。第二个成为我对手的是一个粗壮结实、看上去很世故的年轻小伙，也不知是什么原因，第一眼见到他总会使我联想起那种混迹在游戏厅、欺负小孩子问他们要牌子的小混混，所以坐在他身边被他时不时地瞪上两眼让我不寒而栗，似乎一旦被我激怒他随时都有可能将我揍得鼻青脸肿。他选了二阶堂红丸、八神庵和罗伯特三个最最常用的角色，即便此人的粗犷使我印象深刻，他的游戏技术可不如我想象中的那么赖，撇开其他两个角色不谈，光是八神庵一人就令我伤亡惨重，相较于打常规战，他却偏向于用轻腿骚扰我，只要一逮到机会他就熟能生巧地放连招。虽然在很长一段时间这让我感到头疼不已，但在游戏行将结束的前夕我还是找到了他的弱点，我实施了反击并最终反败为胜，在徒劳地尝试了好几次以后他也只能服软。第三个打断我玩游戏的是个穿着入时、梳着卷发、嘴里叼根香烟的女孩，尽管她夹烟的姿势和吐烟圈的动作很老练，但是从外表上看她似乎还没满18岁，她一定是那种由于缺乏父母的管束很早就辍学的可怜人，由于片刻间对她姣好的面容和幼稚的语气产生了怜悯之情，我故意把前两回合败给了她，但是出于经济上的考虑我最终不得不将她淘汰出局，毕竟没有人会为我的失败和怜悯买单。

         Followed them were a dozen of challengers. They all suffered humiliations at the hands of me, in spite of the fact that each of them was first-rate in skills. Although I was still that invincible one who couldn't find a match for myself, I learnt a great deal during the course. Compared with my previous rivals, half a dozen of players' narrow losses here inspired me another possibility of playing games—I could do better if I broke through my mindset and applied their strategies properly. At this moment, I found there were a huge crowd gathered round me when I recalled to myself from the game. It's as if I could hear the whispers among them, "See, there comes a master-hand here", "Wow, he just defeated our big boss". Every best player on the spot was not so courageous to venture to insert the coin and issue a challenge to me. Just then, there came a bulk out of the crowd, with one hand on my shoulder he smiled to me, "Hey, lad, you played pretty well. We also need to play and since you occupied the seat……so, here is your coin and you can go back home!" With these words he took out one and threw it on the console, as if was giving me my marching orders. Considering that I was a bag of bones, he was a bruiser and he must had a gang of them, I would be sure to come to grief if I stuck to my guns and refused to give way. I glanced at my watch and found the hour hand had already been pointing at 6. It means by constant triumph over these challengers, I had already played some 5 hours with only 1 coin! So, although somewhat out of a psychology to avert conflict, I took my coin with satisfaction, left the machine humming a song and went back home in a good mood.

       紧随其后的是十来个挑战者，尽管他们每个人都拥有一流的技术，却一一败在我的手下。尽管我还是那个无敌的常胜将军，却在此过程中学到了很多，相较于之前遇到的对手，这里将近半数的惜败于我的游戏玩家启发了我玩游戏的另外一种可能性——如果我突破自己的思维定式，适当地套用他们的策略一定能玩得更好。这时，当我从游戏中回过神来我发现自己的周围聚集了一大帮围观的吃瓜群众，我似乎能听见他们之间的耳语声：“瞧，我们这里来了一位高手”，“哇，他刚刚击败了我们的老大哥”，所有在场的厉害玩家都不敢轻易冒险投币并向我发出挑战。这时从人群中走来一位身材硕大的壮汉，他一只手搭在我肩膀上笑嘻嘻地对我说：“小伙子，打得不错，可你总占着位置我们怎么玩？这是你的牌子，你可以回家了！”说着说着他就从口袋里掏出一枚硬币扔在控制台上，似乎在对我下逐客令。鉴于我是个瘦骨嶙峋的小矮个，他是个彪形大汉，他背后必定还有一大帮小混混，如果我寸步不让、固执己见必定会吃亏，我瞥了一眼手表发现时针已经指向了六点，这意味着因为接连在挑战中获胜，我仅用了一个牌子就玩了五个多小时！尽管在一定程度上出于回避矛盾的心理，我还是心满意足地拿起了我的牌子，哼着小曲离开了游戏厅并兴高采烈地回家去了。

         Since then, I flitted between different arcades and accepted challenges from innumerable players, yet none of them could be skilled enough to cheer me up. The combats to "trample one ant after another to death" made me feel boring, yet I was quite helpless about that. I had a great thirst for a man to stand at the same level of mine to be my friend and to excite me, but I never found one in the real world. Since I ascended to Senior Three, I was unable to withdraw myself from study and of course had no spare time to play. As a result of rustiness, my skill was not so good as before. Nevertheless, it is still the sweetest memory to me every time when I recollect my experience in Jinyi: master-hands were humiliated one after another in front of me and I was as proud as a peacock. If playing game can earn a living, I am sure not to abandon it, but how can I stick myself to it when it is considered a dose of heroin in modern society?

       从那以后，我辗转于不同的游戏厅并接受无数玩家的挑战，但他们之中没有任何一个能厉害到让我提起劲来，那种“踩死一只只蚂蚁”的战斗让我倍感无聊，然而对此我也无可奈何，我极其渴望一个能跟我站在同一高度上的人成为我的朋友并让我感到兴奋，可我在现实中从来都没有找到过一个。自从升入高三以后，难以从学习中抽出身的我肯定没有时间再玩游戏了，因为疏于练习，我的技巧不如之前好了。尽管如此，在金艺的那次经历依然是我最甜美的回忆：高手一个一个地在我面前受辱，我得意极了。如果游戏能当饭吃，我一定不会放弃它，可是在一个被所有人都当作一剂海洛因的当代社会里，我要如何坚持游戏呢？

      That is the bewilderment of a game master-hand.

      这就是一位游戏高手的困惑。

      (The story is inspired by some real incidents of my friend).

      故事的灵感来源于我一位朋友的真实事件。