I'm the Boss in the Game

Gong Xiangye, nicknamed “Old Fourth” by everyone, is both the fourth child in his family and a reference to how pathetically easy he is to push around. His rented room looks like a dog kennel, instant noodles are his staple food, and calls demanding rent come more reliably than his alarm clock. At work, “Zhou the Exploiter” berates him like a spittoon; getting blamed for others’ mistakes and having his pay docked are routine. He can barely scrape together enough money to support his parents and younger sister back home. Reality grinds him into the dirt again and again, until he spends his last fifty yuan to retrieve a battered Phantom Realm gaming helmet from beside an internet cafe’s trash bin.

He only wanted some peace and quiet in the game, never imagining it would become the turning point in his fate.