If life is a game.
Then the most important thing I've done in the past few years is this — I switched servers.
If you're a gamer, you probably know exactly what I mean.
I moved from China to Japan.
From Weihai to Tokyo.
In game terms, I simply moved from one server to another.
But the more I thought about it, the more I realized this metaphor goes far deeper than just immigration.
Because in real life, every one of us is living inside some kind of "server."
A country is a server.
A city is a server.
An industry is a server.
A company is a server.
A social circle is a server.
Even the people you interact with daily, the information you consume, the environment you live in — all of it determines which server you're running on.
And different servers mean completely different gameplay experiences.
Most People Never Switch Servers
Look closely at the people around you.
You'll notice that most people's lives follow remarkably similar paths.
Born.
School.
Work.
Marriage.
Old age.
Then gone.
Wherever they were born, they stay.
They attend local schools.
They find jobs nearby.
They meet people around them.
Until the game ends.
They rarely stop to ask themselves:
Is the server I'm on right now actually the right one for me?
And that's not their fault.
Some people feel: things are good here, there's no reason to leave.
Some feel the switching cost is just too high.
Leaving parents behind.
Losing old friends.
Abandoning everything familiar.
Learning a new language from scratch.
Building a social life all over again.
Finding work in an unfamiliar place.
Every single step carries an enormous cost.
Others simply don't want the hassle.
Humans are wired to stay in their comfort zones.
What's familiar always feels safest.
And then there are those who believe, on principle:
You should live where you were born.
That's where home is.
That's where you belong.
Leaving is betrayal.
But I've come to believe that your birthplace is just the starter village the game randomly assigned you.
It was never meant to be your final destination.
You Didn't Choose Your Starting Server
If life is a game.
Then being born is like creating a character.
Except this game has one unusual rule.
In other games, you get to pick your server when you create your character.
In life, you don't.
You can't choose which country you're born in.
You can't choose your parents.
You can't choose your family's circumstances.
You can't choose your talents.
You can't choose your appearance.
You can't choose the era you live in.
These are the initial stats the system randomly handed you.
Some people spawn on a high-resource server.
Some start on a beginner server.
Some begin the game on hard mode.
None of it was your choice.
And if none of it was your choice to begin with —
once you actually have the power to choose, why wouldn't you?
Your Environment Quietly Sets Your Ceiling
There's a line I've believed for a long time:
You can rarely earn beyond the limits of your own understanding.
Lately, I'd add a second line:
You can rarely grow beyond the limits your environment sets for you.
Environment shapes how people think, slowly and invisibly.
If everyone around you believes that earning $2,000 a month is already doing well, imagining a life at $20,000 a month becomes almost impossible.
If everyone around you believes education is pointless, the person who keeps studying becomes the odd one out.
If the people in your world spend every day talking about gossip, real estate prices, and small-town drama — entrepreneurship, AI, investing, and global opportunity never even enter the conversation.
Different servers mean different channels.
Different markets.
Different quests.
Different gear.
Different conversations happening in the world chat.
Many people assume they just haven't worked hard enough.
Sometimes, the real issue is simply that they're on the wrong server.
My Life Has Always Been About Switching Servers
Looking back, I can see the pattern clearly.
I was born in a rural village in Shandong.
Later, my parents moved our family to Weihai.
If that move had never happened, my life would look completely different today.
For my parents, moving to Weihai was a life-changing decision.
For me, it was my first server switch.
Then I went to Beijing.
For the first time, I understood what a real metropolis felt like.
The caliber of people there.
The pace of work.
The standards expected of you.
It opened my eyes: so this is how the game can be played.
Then came Qingdao.
I thought it might become home.
But once I actually lived there, I realized it wasn't the server I'd imagined.
So I left.
A lot of people would say: you've already invested so much, you should stick it out.
But I've always believed: if you've chosen the wrong server, staying only wastes more time.
And then — Tokyo.
Friends have asked me constantly:
"Why Japan? Why Tokyo?"
My answer has always been simple.
I wanted to try a different server.
That's it.
Switching Servers Isn't Rejecting the Past
People sometimes misread this.
They think switching servers means you're saying the old place wasn't good enough.
That's not it at all.
I've never looked down on Weihai.
I've never rejected China.
If my parents hadn't left their hometown for Weihai all those years ago, I wouldn't exist as I am today.
If I hadn't gone to work in Beijing, I wouldn't have the perspective I have now.
Every move added something.
New experiences.
New people.
New ways of seeing the world.
Every server had a reason to exist in my story.
It just didn't have to be the last one.
The Real Cost Isn't Switching Servers
A lot of people are afraid of change.
They tell themselves: the cost of switching is too high.
The cost of starting over is too high.
Learning a language is too hard.
Adapting to a new culture is too exhausting.
But here's what I've come to understand.
The truly expensive choice isn't switching servers.
It's knowing the server no longer fits — and staying anyway, for a lifetime.
Because that means every day is a repeat of yesterday.
A repeat of last year.
A repeat of ten years ago.
The map never changes.
The NPCs never change.
The quests never change.
The only thing that changes is your age.
My Goal Was Never Just to Switch Servers
Some people think immigration is the destination.
For me, it never was.
Switching servers is just the beginning.
What actually matters is:
building a life worth living on the new server.
Learning a new language.
Making new friends.
Building something new.
Opening up possibilities that didn't exist before.
Life happens once.
So I'd rather explore different maps under my own power than spend the whole game in the starter village.
Every Game Eventually Ends
Death is like the game ending.
Nobody gets to change that.
But before the game ends —
there's still so much we can choose.
You can choose to stay.
You can choose to go.
You can choose to complain about your server.
You can choose to find one that actually fits.
So if someone asks me:
Why Tokyo?
Why did you move?
My answer is always the same.
Because life only happens once.
And before it ends, I wanted to live on a server I actually chose for myself.
Even if it turns out to be imperfect.
At least I made the choice.
That's enough.