Dream in "two worlds"

"Into the Soul Gun" is Shi Yifeng's novel, and I feel a lot of spoilers after reading this article. Only in this way can I convey my feelings and present the situation of the characters in the novel and the logic of their behavior.

At the beginning of the novel, "I" accepted the commission of his ex-girlfriend Jiang Mi to take care of her son Xiaoben for her, idle and bored, "I" took Xiaoben to an Internet café to play games, and met a teenager named "Vasily" game master.

In the dusty memory of "I", there was a similar Vasily, is there some connection between the two Vasily?

"I" recalls the past more than 20 years ago. At that time, "I" was addicted to online games, with the screen name "Donkey by the Lake", and formed a small team with the "Fish by the Lake" and "Bear by the Lake" of the same school. The fish's brain has a shrewd string, and he feels that video games contain huge business opportunities; Xiong is a genius teenager with an extremely high IQ but unable to handle daily life; "I" is a "small-town problem solver", after being admitted to university, I feel that life is meaningless, and I rely on playing games to pass the time.

At that time, there was a mysterious legend in the Beijing circle about the game master of "Vasily". Vasily has a stunt, he can always grab the fighter at the crucial moment, shoot into the soul, and take out the opponent. Who the hell is this Vasily?

One late night, in the underground Internet café, a delivery coolie was bullied, "I" helped him, and when "I" and the game team of fish and bear were in trouble, this coolie actually used "One Shot into the Soul" to help me turn over and win. Thus began the friendship between "I" and Vasily. "I" soon discovered that Vasily was different from ordinary people, rigid in his work, clumsy in his words, never resisted after being bullied, and had no ability to protect himself, it turned out that Vasily was an autistic child, unable to deal with daily affairs in real life, and he only followed some established self-rules in his head to repeat his life every day.

It was the grandmother who raised Vasily and grew up, and it was the grandmother who worked hard to teach Vasily the only way to earn a living - coolies. Vasily's parents left Beijing to do business in Russia and never returned, and for more than a decade, Vasily received only a letter from his father, describing the deeds of sharpshooter Vasily Zaitsev in the Great Patriotic War of the Soviet Union, who encouraged his son to learn "Vasily", overcome difficulties and dangers, and not succumb to fate, "one day, you can also shoot your own shot." ”

This phrase of the father became the belief of the son, but the parents never returned, and Vasily depended on his grandmother. The fierce old lady of the city tried to protect her grandson, even threatening to set himself on fire to stop the demolition, fearing that her grandson would not find his way home. "Into the Soul Gun" has two family lines, one is Vasily and his grandmother, and the other is "me" and his mother. "My" parents were not in good spirits, and the mother relented until her son was admitted to university, which divorced. My son was admitted to a prestigious school, and my mother restarted my life, but "I" soon found that the highlight of "small-town questioner" was only the moment when I got the admission notice. The uncertain future worries make "me" trapped in the game and unable to extricate myself. How does "I" face my mother and my girlfriend Jiang Mi? Between day and night, "I" reverses the way of life, unable to distinguish between priority and priority.

It was the turn of the century, and the gaming industry was just nascent and had not yet taken on a huge scale. Yu had an idea to let me join the team, ready to win the top spot in the Beijing circle game industry, create a game star, and attract investment to develop the game industry. However, the final ended with Vasily's erratic play, and in the last few shots, by a fraction, Vasily lost to Kandem. Vasily was on the verge of a nervous breakdown, and "one shot into the soul" turned out to be the only fulcrum of his spiritual world that he was good at! At this time, the Internet café was set on fire, 16 people died, "I" thought Vasily did it, and left Beijing after reporting Vasily.

20 years, separated "I" from Vasily. "I" reunited with Vasily, at this time, Vasily lived in a small deli workshop in Yanjiao, became a helper there, got along with the people around him smoothly, and skillfully regarded "me" as an old friend. Why did such a change happen to Vasily? When Vasily was taken into custody for interrogation, his grandmother ran around asking for help until he fell and injured, and after the real arsonist was caught, his grandson, who used to be cared for by his grandmother, now needs to take care of his grandmother in turn, even though he is an autistic person who knows almost nothing. 20 years later, Vasily is an ordinary person named Zhang Jingwei, who has lost the ability to become king in the game world, and even has no possibility of gaining a foothold. However, beside him, there was a teenager who was also autistic, and a new "Vasily" was born.

Shi Yifeng can tell stories, the narrative is smooth, the overall rhythm grasp and plot advancement of "Into the Soul Gun" are very good, and the character shaping is also good. "Into the Soul Gun" is a private record of China's e-sports industry in the past 20 years, from which we can see the ups and downs of the entire industry and the fate of people. In addition, what attracted me to "Into the Soul Gun" was Shi Yifeng's thinking about "two worlds". This thinking is hidden in the process of character experience and storyline, and is an important dark line.

Vasily said that when he entered the game world, the strange sounds in his head stopped, and when he hit "one shot into the soul", he felt that time was frozen and there was silence around him. Vasily's defeat is not defeated by people, but by technology, defeat by cheaters. The end of the novel "Into the Soul Gun" is a replica of the final of that year. Shi Yifeng used story-based drama to make the pure spirit of competition resist the operating logic of commercial capital, and let "Vasily" become a legend again. Here, the "real world" and the "game world" have been displaced, not crazy and not alive, reality is absurd, and in the game, the innocence of human nature is preserved.

"Vasily" prompts "me" to think that those "weirdos" often breed special abilities that ordinary people cannot match, such as Beethoven, John Nash, Turing, these geniuses are eccentrics in daily life, but "If what a person is good at is useless, then his image of existence in the world is destined to be a completely worthless freak?" This question greatly deepens the thrust of the whole work, because it points to the living conditions and spiritual needs of individual human beings. From the perspective of "Vasily" autism, the game gives them the opportunity to reinvent themselves; From the perspective of "me", fish and bear, the friendship made because of the game runs through the 20 years of life and death, which cannot be denied. How to define "useful" and "useless" is, in the final analysis, our thinking about the "two worlds" and their transformation. Have you ever had a heroic dream in your heart? Modern people have lost the spiritual realm of the classical era, people are mediocre in order to be "useful", rushing, only the game is temporarily relaxed, and has a moment of dream.

The ending of "Into the Soul Gun", I am not satisfied. It's a perfect happy end. Faced with the legendary story, readers are thrilled with adrenaline, and they are addicted, as if the game has been completed. However, I prefer other possibilities: "I" still struggle to feed myself, "Vasily" is still a marginalized person in society, and these people in the story are still the livelihoods buried in this red dust world. As soon as it enters the soul, it tears open the sky, however, it is only a momentary pleasure after all, where is the follow-up power that can support it? Our feet are still on the ground.

Source: Qianlong.com