In the arcade, a bizarre scene was taking place. Instead of the usual number of patrons visiting the arcade and playing, there was, instead, an increase of twice the norm, which made the manager grin. However, they did not play any games after a while. The only activity they did was surround the dancing game machine and treat that venue as if it were some kind of holy place.
They were more noisy than boisterous, and that didn"t help business. Instead, they drove some customers away, not because they were noisy, but because they barricaded the area around the dancing machine, making one unable to even approach it.
As the manager was about to force them out of his establishment, the crowd which shouted random gibberish suddenly turned silent. After that, they turned into spectators, watching a man as he danced on the machine.
The manager gleefully took advantage of the situation and took a picture to use as promotional material for the arcade.
The large number of people attracted the attention of many, many more, and the already ma.s.sive crowd became even bigger, right until it reached its limit. An arcade can only hold so much people, after all.
After that, just by watching a single second of the youth dancing on the machine, their minds were already captivated, rendering them unable to leave midway. Coupled with the fact that the youth was handsome, it was a killer combination that made the manager consider hiring him or not. Because, he, too, had become a fan of Zhou Lei...
"Si~"
The first word came out of the machine.
Zhou Lei clenched his fists and cracked his knuckles. He flashed a small grin as he stared at the screen.
Said screen which was empty right after the hard part, was now being filled one by one with lines of arrows showing up from the bottom. They seemed to threaten him to completely cover the screen if he didn"t do anything about them.
After the first hard part, the ones who made this game--or the layout for this song, at least--were considerate enough to put a tranquil and empty part after it to let the player catch their breath. However, they weren"t so forgiving in the later stages.
Zhou Lei had sufficiently rested his mind and readied his legs once more for the onslaught of arrows that were about to take place.
If the arrows were, say, beings who were part of the opposition army against him, he would be regarded as the general of his own army, trying to fight them off. However, the army of the arrows was far too big that it seemed impossible to overturn the tides and win the war against them.
"...Nothing is impossible!"
As the first arrow slowly approached his "attack range", Zhou Lei sank into his focused mode; nothing could disturb him anymore.
And then!
His legs moved at a speed so quick, if one didn"t stay observant, they wouldn"t be able to see it move in the first place. In fact, even if they were watching from the get-go, they would only be able to see a tiny glimpse of the movement, taking place within a fraction of a second.
The left arrow beneath his feet lit up as he stepped on it with ultimate precision - after all, a "perfect" evaluation showed up on the screen.
Zhou Lei didn"t put it to his mind as right after stepping on one arrow he moved his other leg to step on another, not noticing the speed in which he was going.
One after another, he stepped on the arrows on the machine, eliminating each and every one that was showing up on the screen swiftly and precisely, giving a "perfect" evaluation every time.
"His palms are sweaty, knees weak, mom"s spaghetti--!"
"Ah, f.u.c.k, the rapping part is here!"
As the lyrics increased in speed, the arrows followed, and the previously many number of arrows now seemed a little lacking compared to the number that was about to approach.
Hearing the rapping part made Zhou Lei feel like a general who just got word of the fact that the enemy army received reinforcements while they themselves were in very dire straits.
The enemy army didn"t need reinforcements, it was like they got some just to crush the spirit of his army. But none should fear!
Zhou Lei stayed vigilant and stepped back into his focused mode after getting a slight shock. He treated this wave of arrows like the others: easy to get rid of and done with.
And as he expected, even though the quant.i.ty of arrows and the speed in which they rose up both increased by a bit, he could still handle them just as easily as the previous ones.
While he was at ease clearing all of the arrows off the screen, about 20 seconds had pa.s.sed. One game would usually go for 2-3 minutes, so he still had plenty to go through.
In the crowd, Lin Guiying was shocked silly.
"This... this is the guy who kept getting errors last Sat.u.r.day? This is my disciple?"
She pinched herself on the cheek, but she didn"t wake up. "This is reality..."
As Zhou Lei gracefully tapped each arrow with his feet, he caught a glance on his right side. It was of another set of arrows, flashing bright colors just like the one he was using right now. The screen in front of him actually stretched to the far-right, used for both sets of the arrows.
"...s.h.i.t. I forgot."
Just as he recalled, a wry smile appeared on his face.
"De. Spa. Ghetti..."
A lone arrow lit up on the other side of the screen, and Zhou Lei instinctively barred it from his mind, paying no heed to such an arrow. It was on the other set, he didn"t need to mind it. However, he went against his instinct and stretched his right leg, hitting the arrow on the other side!
Tapping on the right side indicated that the song was about to use all 16 arrows present, and that meant that he had to maneuver left and right...
General Zhou Lei now had more troubles to attend to, as not only did the enemy army get reinforcements, another army actually engaged in war with his own, inadvertently helping the other one to conquer his land!
Seeing that he had to utilize the second set of arrows as well, Lin Guiying widened her already big eyes once more. "What the h.e.l.l? Is that a flex or something..."
Zhou Lei didn"t need to activate the other set of arrows, all he needed to do was miss that one arrow that came on the other side. Even if would miss a single point, the game was programmed to not make him lose his combo. Because of that, almost everyone in the Dance Dance Revolution circle acknowledged that one arrow as not relevant, and considered that every extra point that one could acquire if they activated the two-set mode was just that - extra.