A strange sound could be heard...
Pow!
Pow!
Pow!
"Don Jones, let's talk this through… don't be like this, okay? Ah… ah… take it easy!"
Inside the restroom of the office building, a series of highly discordant groans echoed through the tiled walls. The dull sounds of flesh colliding with muscle followed soon after.
Anyone passing outside might have misunderstood what was happening.
But there was nothing scandalous going on inside.
Someone was simply getting beaten up.
Don Jones' fists, each the size of a sandbag, fell like a relentless rainstorm upon a round, spherical target. Every punch landed solidly, the satisfying impact releasing three months' worth of suppressed frustration.
His direct supervisor could only curl helplessly on the ground, unable to resist.
Five minutes later, the storm finally ended.
Don rolled his shoulders and let out a slow breath. The anger that had been choking him for months finally dissipated.
On the restroom floor, his supervisor lay sprawled like a slaughtered pig, groaning faintly.
Without another glance, Don pulled a folded paper from his pocket and tossed it onto the man's chest.
It was a resignation letter.
Then he turned and walked toward the exit.
The moment he opened the restroom door, he saw that several colleagues from the department had already gathered outside.
The male colleagues immediately stepped forward, placing their hands on his shoulders. Their expressions were filled with helpless resignation.
At this point, they all understood.
There was no way to convince him to stay.
Behind them, several girls from the department were already sobbing openly.
Don paused for a moment.
Then he gently reached out and rubbed the head of the girl crying the hardest.
"Hey, hey… don't cry like that," he said softly.
"All good things must come to an end. Even if we're not colleagues anymore… we can still be friends, right?"
The girl lifted her tear-streaked face, her expression like pear blossoms caught in the rain.
"Brother Don… is a game really that important to you?" she asked through her sobs. "You could still play with us part-time… I even bought the second-generation light-sensing glasses."
Don chuckled faintly.
"Don't you know me by now?" he replied. "Whatever I do, I do it with my whole heart."
A young man with a crew cut stepped forward and pressed Don's shoulder firmly.
"Boss… I hope you'll be just as successful in the game as you were here."
Don gave a bitter smile.
"What counts as success?" he said quietly.
"Success is simply choosing the path you believe is right."
"Doing sales was never my ultimate path."
After saying that, he turned and walked out of the building.
Outside, he paused for a moment and looked up at the office building where he had worked for the past three years.
Then he clenched his teeth and walked away resolutely.
Without looking back.
There was a song that went:
'Actually I don't want to go… actually I want to stay.'
But Don Jones hadn't resigned because the pay was bad.
On the contrary, his conditions here had been quite comfortable.
A base salary of five thousand dollars a month.
Three subordinates under his management.
And even a young girl assisting him.
To most people, it was already a stable and enviable position.
But everything had changed three months ago.
Three months ago, the company replaced its director.
The new director was, quite simply, a complete good-for-nothing.
If he hadn't been a relative of the boss, his pitiful level of intelligence wouldn't have even qualified him to sit in that office.
After he took over, the company's performance plummeted under his "brilliant leadership."
What should have been the peak sales season of summer had instead turned into a freezing winter for the entire sales department.
Don had brought the issue to the boss multiple times.
Every time, he was brushed off casually.
Eventually, his heart turned completely cold.
To be honest, Don Jones hated this kind of life.
Being managed wasn't the problem.
The real problem was who was doing the managing.
If the person in charge had ability, Don would have followed without complaint.
But being ordered around all day by a pig?
Even the highest salary wouldn't be worth it.
At best, it would only serve as money to pay for the medical bills caused by the frustration.
In mid-August, Don received a phone call.
The caller was his old big brother, Star Fall.
Also known in the gaming world as the once-legendary BT Star fall from the virtual online game Ascension Online.
Just like always, his big brother didn't bother with small talk.
He immediately invited Don to join the online gaming studio he had just established.
Star fall was the chairman of the domestic catering giant Love Returns to the World.
His real name was Bruce Jones.
Anyone who had ever played the virtual online game Faith would recognize his famous ID, BT Starfall, one of the core leaders of the powerful guild Beyond the heavens.
And back then…
Don Jones had been one of his subordinates.
Speaking of which…
Done was twenty-three years old.
Male.
1.85 meters tall.
According to his grade school teacher back in the days, he was "pretty handsome."
He had entered the professional gaming world at eighteen and spent years fighting in Ascension Online, serving as a core member of the once-famous Beyond the Heavens guild in the New york Region.
At one point, he had even made a brief cameo in Chili Sprite's novel Online Game: Realm Breaker Online.
But after Ascension Online shut down, Don retired from professional gaming and spent the following three years working as a salesperson in an advertising agency.
The game his colleagues had mentioned earlier was none other than the epoch-making virtual online game,
Realms Online.
The game was jointly brokered by the Ministry of Information Industry of US and developed by the top domestic gaming company Mercury International Group, alongside multiple multinational corporations.
More than 35,000 high-level technicians had contributed to its development.
The studio founded by Ordinary Star had been established specifically for this game.
Don Jones had been waiting for this online game for years.
He had also been dreaming of a new Beyond The Heavens for years.
In his dreams, he returned again and again to that blood-boiling battlefield.
Reuniting with his brothers.
Recreating the myth of Beyond The Heavens.
So when the invitation came, at a time when he felt frustrated and completely unappreciated, he accepted without hesitation.
And thus…
Before leaving the company,
The scene in the restroom that gladdened the hearts of friends and pained the hearts of enemies naturally occurred.