Chapter 1

At two in the morning, the lights were still blazing at the Shanghai base of IAC Esports Club's FOG division.

Scrims had just ended, and the players had some free time. Some were washing up, others were ordering takeout. Only Shi Luo remained in the training room, playing ranked at his station.

It wasn't that he was particularly hardworking. The month was almost over, and he still owed his contracted streaming platform more than twenty hours.

Shi Luo. Evil. Nineteen years old, young, exceptionally skilled, and—as if that weren't enough—handsome. Only two years into his career, he was already one of China's top esports stars: IAC's public face, cash cow, and main attraction.

The main attraction himself didn't like streaming. His contract, however, required at least thirty hours a month, so, barring unforeseen circumstances, he invariably crammed at least twenty-nine of those hours into the end of the month.

After scrims, the club manager had come by to remind him yet again. Unable to put it off any longer, Shi Luo had finally settled down to make up his overdue hours.

He'd been live for only two or three minutes when his stream's popularity score passed three million. Chat scrolled by in such dense, overlapping layers that the messages were almost impossible to read.

[Right on schedule, lmaooooo...]

[Hahahaha, it's that wonderful time of the month again. God Shi's mandatory fan service starts now.]

[It's the 29th. Player Shi Luo is running out of time.]

[It's the 29th. Player Shi Luo is running out of time. +1]

[The end of every month is when my husband spends his days and nights with me. Unless my math is wrong, you still owe me twenty-five hours, hubby! Are you happy? Are you having fun?]

[Look here, look here, look here! Once next month's preseason tournament is over, it'll be transfer season again. Hubby, are you staying at IAC next season? Are you transferring this year? Are you?]

[Oh, right, it's almost time for the annual transfer window. Word is all the teams are making big moves this year. Waiting for the whole scene to get shaken up.]

[IAC's owner doesn't give a damn about esports. All he cares about is money. He's just holding the players back. The sooner hubby transfers, the sooner we fans can stop worrying. Please transfer!]

[Can the shit-stirrers give it a rest? You lose your minds every transfer season. Could you calm down for once?]

With the transfer window approaching, fans across the scene were getting restless. Somehow, an argument broke out in chat, but Shi Luo remained completely unaffected.

He hadn't even opened the chat window.

Shi Luo launched the FOG client, logged into an alt, and queued for a match. He was in a game before long.

FOG, known in China as "Into the Fog," had been growing in popularity every year since its public beta more than six years ago. It was now firmly established as one of the three most popular games in the world.

FOG was a four-on-four competitive game. Each match placed the players and their teammates at one end of a map blanketed in thick fog, with their four opponents at the other. The four players on a team had different abilities and responsibilities according to their classes. Their ultimate objective was to clear the fog on the enemy's side of the map, bit by bit, until the opposing team had nowhere to hide. The first team to kill all the enemy players and destroy their respawn stone won.

Each team consisted of three classes: two assaulters, one sniper, and one medic. Shi Luo played assaulter—as the name suggested, the class that charged ahead and fought on the front lines.

Shi Luo usually streamed on an alt. He hadn't played much on this particular account this season, so its rank was extremely low, and the teammates he was matched with were naturally nothing special. He didn't mind. In pickup games, he rarely encountered anyone who could keep up with him anyway. He was used to going solo. As long as his teammates didn't feed too badly, he could win.

And if they fed too badly... Well, he could treat it as training with extra weight.

Like this match, for instance.

Their other assaulter gave up a kill right at the start. His movement was erratic, he had no game sense, and on top of that, he kept firing at random and giving away his position. Less than ten minutes in, he'd contributed absolutely nothing and fed the enemy three kills.

In low-rank matches, you could get teammates of every conceivable degree of cluelessness. Shi Luo didn't care. He'd already picked up two kills and upgraded his weapon. He could take all four enemies on his own. His teammates could go AFK for all he cared.

Unfortunately, the teammate feeding all those kills didn't share his easygoing attitude. After dying for the fourth time, he stopped playing and started typing abuse.

[SuperFierceSuperStrong]: [What's wrong with our medic? Sleepwalking? No photon shields, no heals. What are you even here for?]

[SuperFierceSuperStrong]: [You just watch me get shot and never come help. What the hell are you doing? If you can't play, quit! Get the fuck out!]

[SuperFierceSuperStrong]: [Are all the dumbasses who can't climb switching to medic now? Just getting carried up the ranks?]

Shi Luo was fighting two opponents at point-blank range. After killing them both, he glanced at team chat.

Shit at the game, and a shitty mouth to match.

Their medic wasn't exactly brilliant, but he was far better than this scrub, SuperFierceSuperStrong. He'd been right on time with a shield for Shi Luo a moment ago. There was nothing wrong with his play.

Maybe the medic was young, or maybe he just had a good temper. Only after taking abuse for a while did he type a reply.

[I'm not getting carried. I was helping the other assaulter.]

That set off a chain reaction. The useless assaulter seemed to take it personally, and team chat started chiming again.

[SuperFierceSuperStrong]: [You can only help one assaulter? You only got one hand? Are you disabled?]

[SuperFierceSuperStrong]: [Do you even know how to play? If you don't, can you stop fucking things up for everyone else?]

[SuperFierceSuperStrong]: [Fucking moron. I couldn't carry your ass up the ranks if I tried!]

He couldn't play for shit, but he certainly typed fast. The medic wasn't any good at trading insults. After a few attempts to explain himself, he stopped typing.

Shi Luo watched team chat, his fingers pausing over the keys. In the end, he said nothing.

This was why he didn't like streaming.

The bandwidth it ate up and the effect on his gameplay were bad enough. What really annoyed him was the league rule prohibiting active professional players from engaging in any negative behavior in-game—including, but not limited to, flaming other players.

With this many people watching his stream and the chat logs there as irrefutable evidence, a penalty would be guaranteed.

Getting penalized over something this petty wasn't worth it.

Shi Luo upgraded his gear and continued advancing on his own.

Seeing that no one was paying him any attention, SuperFierceSuperStrong angrily fired off another message.

[Fuck. Three fucking idiot medics in one night. Three losses in a row. Everyone who plays medic is a fucking idiot. Idiot. Idiot!]

The chat notification chimed.

Shi Luo narrowed his eyes at the chat window. A second later, he pushed his mouse aside and started typing.

The instant Shi Luo sent his first message—"Leave the medic alone. Come on, let's see what you've got"—his stream chat went wild.

[Pfft. Knew he wouldn't be able to hold it in.]

[Did you think his old title as the Chinese server's number-one flamer was a joke? He's behaved himself for a couple of years since going pro, and you actually thought he'd forgotten how to flame?]

[Starting a flame war with Evil? Does this guy have a death wish? Who could possibly out-trash-talk him? Hahahaha...]

[This guy really knows how to step on a land mine. Doesn't he know God Shi originally played medic? You think he's going to sit there and let someone shit on medics?]

[Hahaha, Shi Luo's on an alt. This guy has no idea who he is.]

[It's been so long since we've seen our young master swear. I've missed this. Look at that professional typing speed. That enormous vocabulary. That versatile command of profanity! Ah... So satisfying.]

[Wait, seriously? A pro player flaming someone? Isn't he worried about getting penalized?]

[Oh, he's definitely getting penalized. Just waiting for the club's official Weibo to post the notice. Sigh. Ten thousand yuan, gone just like that.]

[Oh my god, he's still going? What kind of demonic typing speed is this? Lmaooooo...]

Shi Luo's face was expressionless. His fingers flew over the keys.

It wasn't as though they fined him by the word. One insult cost ten thousand yuan. A hundred insults cost ten thousand yuan. The money was already gone, so why not get a few more shots in at this scrub?

SuperFierceSuperStrong clearly couldn't keep up. Within minutes, Shi Luo had flamed him into a stupor. Once he'd had his fill, Shi Luo picked up his mouse and resumed the game.

At this rank, being one teammate short hardly mattered. Shi Luo and his other two teammates swiftly and decisively destroyed the enemy's respawn stone, and a huge "win" appeared on the screen.

His two teammates thanked him in chat. Shi Luo didn't reply. He was about to leave when SuperFierceSuperStrong, who'd been AFK for almost twenty minutes, took another snide swipe.

[So what if we won? The other team was just trash! Better not get matched with a medic like this again.]

[SuperFierceSuperStrong]: [If you don't know how to play medic, learn. Watch how the pros play—Whisper, for example.]

[SuperFierceSuperStrong]: [See how a real medic plays. Only able to help one teammate? What a joke.]

[SuperFierceSuperStrong]: [Whisper's coming back to China anyway. Watch his streams when he gets here. Heh. Hope I never see you again!]

Having salvaged his pride with that little exercise in self-delusion, SuperFierceSuperStrong left the match. The other two teammates immediately began reassuring each other that he wasn't worth listening to.

Shi Luo stared at the chat log, stunned.

A few minutes later, he canceled his ranked queue, stood up, and went downstairs.

In the first-floor lounge, team manager Zhao Feng was checking WeChat. He sighed when Shi Luo came in.

"People have already brought the complaints to me. You got into another fight with some random player? I've told you, flame whoever you want when you're playing in private, but when you're streaming, try to hold it in. You did it right out in the open. What am I supposed to say when people ask? I couldn't cover for you even if I wanted to. You..."

Zhao Feng had been rambling with his eyes on WeChat. When he finally looked up and saw Shi Luo's face, he stopped short.

"What's wrong? Why do you look so awful? I-I haven't even really said anything..."

His face dark, Shi Luo turned without a word and headed upstairs. Halfway there, he turned around and came back.

Zhao Feng watched him with mounting alarm. "What on earth is wrong with you?"

Shi Luo stopped in front of him.

"Yu Sui's coming back to China?" he asked coldly.

Zhao Feng was at a loss for words.

He nodded cautiously. "Yes. He might already be back by now."

Shi Luo's lips moved. It was a long time before he slowly said, "Nobody told me."

"Who would dare? Everyone knows you two... Look, I was going to tell you! Things have just been busy lately, with the transfer window coming up and so much to deal with. It slipped through the cracks."

Zhao Feng sounded less convincing by the second. He offered an appeasing smile.

"Out of consideration for you, we never even considered signing him. So it doesn't really matter whether we told you, right?"

A few of their teammates entered the lounge. Sensing something off about the atmosphere, they looked between Zhao Feng and Shi Luo in confusion.

Shi Luo, too, realized he'd let too much show. After a moment, one corner of his mouth twitched, not quite forming a smile.

"It's nothing. So he's back. Whatever. I was just asking."

With that, he went upstairs and resumed his stream as though nothing had happened.

Down in the lounge, his teammates were still baffled.

"What was that about? Who's back?"

Zhao Feng pursed his lips. "Whisper. Yu Sui. He's transferred back from the European region."

The team's medic jolted. "Whisper!"

Zhao Feng shot him a look, warning him to keep his voice down. The medic hurriedly covered his mouth, then lowered his voice.

"Whisper's back in our region? Which team is he joining? Holy shit. This transfer season really is going to shake everything up."

Zhao Feng shook his head. "No idea where he's going yet."

Their youngest player, the sniper, had entered the scene too recently to understand what was going on.

"God Yu, right? Former number-one medic on the Chinese server, current number-one medic on the European server. Three World Championships in a row... Who hasn't heard of him? But so what? What's the big deal about him coming back? What does it have to do with Shi-ge?"

Zhao Feng sighed. "Everything."

"Two years ago, Yu Sui was still the best player in our region, and Shi Luo was just some high school kid nobody had heard of."

"Shi Luo never intended to go pro. Yu Sui personally signed him to his own club. Said he was signing him for life. And then, just as personally..."

"He packaged Shi Luo up and sold him to another club for a hefty price."