Chapter 2

His teammates exchanged looks.

Zhao Feng settled into a more comfortable position. "Let's get it all out today so you know what's going on and don't accidentally hit a nerve."

"Before he went pro, Shi Luo did well in school. Really well. He never intended to go down this road. He just streamed occasionally, and of course his family didn't approve."

"He still doesn't talk to his family. Nobody knows whether this was what caused the falling-out. Nobody dares ask."

"He was already pretty popular as a streamer back then, and his ranking on the Chinese server was high, so a few clubs noticed him pretty quickly. He was still playing medic at the time, and good medics are always in short supply. Quite a few clubs must have approached him. He turned them all down, mine included. He told me he didn't want to go pro, but then, for whatever reason, he joined Whisper's team."

"He pissed off several clubs over that. One minute he was swearing up and down that there was absolutely no chance he'd go pro and we shouldn't waste our time on him, and the next he was off to join Whisper. Heh..."

"You know what happened after that. Not long afterward, something got into Whisper. He betrayed the region and took his team abroad, completely trashing his reputation..." Manager Zhao Feng glanced upstairs and pursed his lips. "No, I shouldn't put it that way. Let's be charitable."

Zhao Feng spread his hands. "The European region was putting together a superteam, and they needed a top-tier medic. Whisper suddenly decided to move his career to Europe. He took everyone he could bring with him and sold off the rest for a hefty sum. That's how Shi Luo ended up getting sold to NSN."

Everyone in the room fell silent.

After a while, one player said quietly, "...They treated Shi Luo like he was nothing but a way to make money."

Another asked, puzzled, "Yu Sui's team was already the strongest in China. They'd even won a World Championship. Why bother?"

"Who knows? People want different things. The signing bonuses over there really were higher, and their operations were very well established." Zhao Feng continued in his unhurried way. "That exodus of top players two years ago hit our region hard. We haven't made it to Worlds for two years running. Whisper's been doing pretty well for himself, though. His first year in Germany, he came in second at Worlds. By the second year, the superteam had gelled, and they went straight to winning the championship. The guy really is fucking good. He shines wherever he goes."

The team's sniper curled his lip. "Running off to play for a rival region doesn't count as shining."

"Come on, don't be so narrow-minded. This is competition between clubs and regions, not nationalities. There's no point dragging that into it. Still..." Zhao Feng conceded, "Obviously we'd all rather keep a player like that in our own region. You see how many fans Whisper has now? That's only ten or twenty percent of what he used to have. When he suddenly switched regions, he genuinely pissed off pretty much every fan here. Everyone wanted his head. The fact that he's still got so many die-hard fans tells you just how fucking good he was back then."

One player glanced upstairs and lowered his voice. "He'd have to be, for Shi Luo to turn down all those clubs for him. Wait, hang on. Didn't you say Shi Luo offended a bunch of teams? How did he get into another one afterward?"

"Offending them doesn't mean they won't sign him." Zhao Feng chuckled. "Who cares about that when there's money to be made? He was the medic they called 'Little Whisper.' When word got out that Whisper was selling him, who wouldn't have wanted him? NSN's captain, Gu Qian, had always been on good terms with Whisper, so Whisper sold Shi Luo to NSN."

The team's other assaulter murmured, "...Shi Luo must hate Whisper's guts."

"Probably... Who knows? Whisper's reputation was terrible back then, but Shi Luo never said a word against him. He wouldn't let anyone else do it in front of him, either. Mention Whisper and he'd fly off the handle." The manager shrugged. "After that, Shi Luo switched to assaulter. NSN was decent about it. They let him switch instead of forcing him to play a particular role. But what NSN needed—and still needs—was a medic, not another assaulter. They didn't want him wasting his prime warming the bench, so after discussing it, the higher-ups decided to sell him to me."

Zhao Feng gave a shrewd smile. "Of course, I was the one who got a bargain. Who could've guessed Shi Luo would be even more ridiculous as an assaulter? He hit number one on the Chinese server in less than six months. After less than another six months settling in with the team, he was already the best assaulter in our region. Whisper would probably be kicking himself if he knew. He actually sold him for just three million.

Everyone laughed. One teammate sighed. "No wonder Shi-ge reacted so strongly... All I'd heard was that he spent a few months on Whisper's team. I had no idea there was so much more to it."

Zhao Feng sighed along with him. "There's only so much I know, too. But things really were a mess two years ago. All the money pouring into the scene these past few years has turned it upside down. All kinds of shit happened. Most of the grudges players have against each other now go back to then."

The team's medic had been listening for a while. Finally, he ventured, "Manager, now that Whisper's back, he's not going to join our team, is he?"

Zhao Feng had been lost in thought. At that, he clapped the medic on the shoulder and laughed heartily. "What are you worried about? There's almost no chance. Does your Shi-ge look like he could peacefully coexist with Whisper?"

Everyone laughed and moved on to other gossip.

Upstairs, Shi Luo sat back down at his station, clicked "Continue Ranked" in the game client, and waited for matchmaking.

His stream was still running, and the chat was still buzzing.

[He's back, he's back.]

[Did he only just find out Whisper's back in China? Is that why he left?]

[All those people on his team, all those people in the scene, and nobody told him?]

[More like nobody dared...]

[So which team is Whisper joining? Not IAC, right?]

[No way. If he joins IAC, they'll be carrying a body out of the team house the next day. Either Shi Luo or Yu Sui is definitely going to die.]

[LMAO come to IAC. I want to watch the drama.]

[What are you people thinking, wanting Whisper at IAC? Can the new fans please shut up?]

[I'm not rehashing ancient history. Don't go ruining people's day.]

[Dare I ask—any shippers here? That stab to the heart just now has me bleeding nonstop. Sisters, please pull the knife out and comfort me TAT.]

[I don't understand this chat anymore. What happened?]

[He was only gone for five minutes, and now he's back to playing ranked like normal. My baby's grown up. I'm so proud.]

[I don't think he's completely unaffected. Pretty sure I heard a lighter. Reported! Evil's taking advantage of having his camera off to sneak a smoke again!]

Shi Luo said nothing. When he found a match, he took a deep drag, stubbed his cigarette out in the ashtray, and went back to climbing on his alt.

At this rank, Shi Luo barely needed to think. Muscle memory alone was enough. Over two hours, he played five matches, won all five, and took MVP every time. His mom fans were delighted. Their boy was growing up. Maturing. Sure, he still traded insults with people, but he wasn't so easily shaken anymore. Look at that breezy composure! That unhurried confidence! Those plays, cool as a cucumber under pressure!

Naturally, a player as popular as Shi Luo never lacked haters in his stream. People kept spamming the chat like broken records, trying to stir things up by saying he could only stomp noobs in low-ranked games.

The haters repeated themselves every few minutes. Between matches, Shi Luo glanced at the chat and happened to catch one:

[You play on an alt every single stream. Only dare show off against low-ranked players? Get on your main and show us what you've got.]

Shi Luo had long since become immune to this sort of cheap bait. He glanced at it, paid it no mind, and kept waiting. As it happened, matchmaking timed out and automatically canceled his queue. He simply logged out of his alt and into the main Chinese-server account the league issued to each player.

The stream chat erupted in cheers, of course.

His main was already number one on the Chinese server, which made finding a match even slower. Shi Luo joined the queue, leaned back in his gaming chair, and put a cigarette between his lips, quietly waiting for a game.

As he waited, he stared at his character on the screen, his mind wandering for a moment.

The news that Yu Sui was back in China had affected him.

It wasn't anything to be ashamed of. There was no reason he couldn't admit it. After two years, his former captain, the man who had guided him into professional gaming, the player he'd once aspired to become... and the person he'd once hated most, had returned to their home region. Wasn't it perfectly normal to feel something?

Shi Luo had expected Yu Sui to return to China. Just not this soon.

He knew the length of Yu Sui's contract. Unless he was remembering wrong, Yu Sui should still have had three months left with the German club.

Shi Luo tapped lightly on his keyboard, thinking, Three months early.

Still, it made sense. If Yu Sui was coming back, he would certainly keep playing. The new season started in two months. He needed to sign with a new team before then, spend about a month building synergy with his new teammates and readjusting to the pace of the home region, then enter the new season in peak form.

He had everything meticulously arranged.

With his stream still running, using his computer wasn't convenient. Shi Luo picked up his phone and searched a few keywords.

The news of Yu Sui's return had broken three days ago on China's most popular esports forum and spread everywhere. Most of the debate still centered on his past "betrayal" of the region. But with the home region short on medics, players were generally glad to have him back. Beyond that, there was precious little solid information. Every post just repeated the same thing: Whisper had reportedly left the European region and would soon return to register in his home region.

When he would return, which team he would join afterward... Not one useful piece of news.

Shi Luo tossed his phone aside. Team names ran through his mind one after another.

Saint, whose playstyle was also built around its medic, was unlikely. Any of the other top teams was a possibility.

Including his own team, IAC.

Zhao Feng's claim that he wouldn't sign Yu Sui out of consideration for Shi Luo sounded nice. It also made Shi Luo want to laugh.

Whether it was to boost the club's overall commercial value, improve the team's results, or simply generate buzz, as long as it brought IAC something they could turn into money, neither Zhao Feng nor the other executives would give a damn about his feelings.

In a purely commercial club, he was just a player who made them a little more money than most. Shi Luo had seen through all this shit two years ago. Trotting out those embarrassingly pretty words now was laughable.

With a cash cow like Yu Sui returning, Zhao Feng had undoubtedly contacted him already. The only question was whether they could reach a deal.

And if they did...

Shi Luo's lips moved. Without thinking, he looked at his computer screen. He still hadn't found a match.

His gaze drifted to the chat, where viewers were also discussing which team Whisper would join. Their analysis sounded quite convincing.

[Don't even bother bringing up the bottom-tier teams. They can't afford him.]

[No need to discuss Saint either. They're the last team that needs a medic. Actually, they're the only team that doesn't need a top-tier medic.]

[We can rule out IAC too, right? Their medic's nothing special, but if Whisper joins IAC, this year's transfer window won't be an earthquake. It'll be the apocalypse.]

[Please no. If he actually joins IAC, I'm genuinely worried Shi Luo will sneak into Yu Sui's room in the middle of the night and stab him = =]

[NSN's a possibility. Yu Sui's friends with their captain. The question is whether NSN's willing to spend the money.]

[All things considered, isn't Bison the most likely? Their owner's rich. They can easily afford Yu Sui. Making him support Bison's two trash assaulters would be a waste, though.]

[LMAO well, Bison's owner isn't short on money. He could buy Shi Luo too.]

[Exactly hahaha buy them both. As long as they don't beat each other to death, our region's got next year's World Championship in the bag.]

[I really want Shi Luo to transfer to Bison, but can we stop bringing him and Whisper up together all the time? Aren't you tired of stirring shit?]

[Please stop jinxing it. If those two end up on the same team, the fans really will lose their minds.]

Expressionless, Shi Luo read the chat and followed his fans' reasoning, calculating the chances of being on the same team as Yu Sui next season.

Yu Sui could come to IAC.

Or Bison could buy them both.

Which meant the probability was...

Before Shi Luo could work out a formula, he finally found a match.

At the top of the rankings, you were always running into people you knew. The other assaulter on Shi Luo's team this game was NSN's captain, Gu Qian.

Shi Luo had spent a brief two months at NSN, and Gu Qian had looked after him well. Unfortunately, NSN produced so many assaulters that the team was overflowing with them. After switching roles, Shi Luo couldn't stay. Gu Qian had also helped put him in touch with his current club, doing his best to secure him a suitable transfer deal.

Because of that kindness, Shi Luo had always treated Gu Qian with respect.

As soon as he loaded into the map and saw Gu Qian's ID, he greeted him.

[IAC-Evil]: ["Captain Gu."]

Whether Gu Qian hadn't seen it or something else was going on, he didn't reply. Shi Luo thought nothing of it. He marked the map and started edging forward. Half a minute passed, and Gu Qian still hadn't followed. Instead, a team-chat notification chimed. Shi Luo glanced over.

[NSN-GU]: ["Yu Sui's back in our region. Did you know?"]

Shi Luo stared at the screen, then typed: ["Just found out."]

He glanced at his stream chat and was about to remind Gu Qian that he was live when another team-chat notification chimed.

[NSN-GU]: ["He's come to my team."]

NSN. The team with the least need for assaulters in the entire league.

Shi Luo stared silently at Gu Qian's message for a long time.

Thinking of all those convincing arguments in the chat just now, he suddenly let out a laugh. Then, bracing a hand on his keyboard, he couldn't stop laughing.

Yu Sui had gone to NSN. There was no chance whatsoever of them being on the same team now.

The fans could rest easy.