Last night, I was drinking with a junior. His phone suddenly lit up, and I caught a glimpse of a notification: “Time Statue dropped 42.7 CHECK tokens.”

Curious, I asked what game it was. He said he’s been playing Magic Chess lately—each piece on the board can cast skills, and you can earn tokens by winning. It sounded pretty mysterious, but he opened the game and showed me a level:

“Dragon’s Breath Three-Move Kill”—use a knight in combination with a fire spell to force the black king into a corner within three moves. It took me five tries to figure it out. The feeling was just like an escape room—frustrating when stuck, but incredibly satisfying when you solve it.

As he demonstrated, he explained that this type of blockchain game is actually very Web3—you don’t have to spend money; you earn by using your brain. Each time you clear a level, the reward goes straight to your wallet, and you don’t lose your principal if you fail.

It suddenly occurred to me that if all GameFi projects were like this, regular people might actually get into it.