A boy in my class fell asleep during class today. I woke him up, and he said he had played games until two in the morning last night.

PUBG again?

Not anymore. These days they’re all playing “Delta.” They talk about it during breaks, and even their profile pictures are little mice from the game. Students who don’t play can’t join in the conversation.

What’s so special about this game?

You go in and search for things, and whatever you find, you can bring out. You can keep it or exchange it for in-game currency. Every time you open a case, you don’t know what you’ll get. It’s like opening a mystery box, so you always want to play one more round.

Isn’t that basically like gambling? No wonder it’s so hard to stop. Just have the parents take away their phones.

It’s not that easy. A lot of children use their parents’ phones and accounts. The game assumes an adult is playing, so it doesn’t stop them from spending money. One ten-year-old secretly spent tens of thousands of yuan on in-game purchases. It’s hard to get a refund, too—the platform says there’s no way to prove that the child made the purchases.

Then parents should take action first. Remind everyone in the parents’ group to at least change their payment passwords and make sure the children don’t know them.

Okay, I’ll post a reminder tonight. I’m just worried that some parents still don’t know what their children are playing every day.