Ever since Pei Shiyu officially invited Xu Qing to join the club, Xu Qing had resigned from his part-time job at Boss Cai’s restaurant to focus entirely on working at the club.
He was effectively wearing multiple hats. After the city tournament finals concluded offline, the online outcry against the Dawn team was accompanied by curiosity from pure bystanders.
Players who frequently played Eternity had naturally heard of Pei Shiyu’s in-game ID, “Jingzhe.” After all, in the four times per year that the Heavenly Rankings were reset, Pei Shiyu had managed to sit firmly at the number one spot all four times.
That kind of strength was only rivaled by the “Red Hair” from the V-server before the server merge. However, it had been two months since “Red Hair” last logged in, essentially in a retired state. Although “Red Hair” was number one at the time of the merge, because he had not been active, the current number one on the Heavenly Rankings was “Jingzhe.”
He was a star throughout the entire game, yet he had zero friends in-game, and no one knew the whereabouts of “Red Hair.” This made pure gaming enthusiasts curious about “Jingzhe.”
Many streaming platforms reached out, and Xu Qing was the one handling these inquiries.
“My dear, there are so many perks if you sign with our platform!”
Xu Qing replied, “That sounds good, that sounds good.”
Seeing Xu Qing so easy to talk to, the other party was overjoyed. “So, when can we sign?”
Xu Qing replied, “Let me wait a moment.”
Whenever they asked for a specific date, he would give a polite, non-committal response. He was the master of responding to everything while committing to nothing. At this stage, those coming to them for broadcasting deals were only interested in the traffic brought by the controversial reputation. However, they could not afford to offend these platforms, so it all relied on Xu Qing’s skillful, half-hearted stalling.
The only person on the Dawn team with streaming experience was White Crow, who was a professional game streamer, but she had not started broadcasting since the city tournament ended. Firstly, if she streamed now, many people would intentionally flood her chat to insult her. Making a young girl the target of such hostility was not right, so they discussed delaying the broadcast with her platform.
Ultimately, they would still need to sign with a streaming platform, so Xu Qing asked, “How is the platform you stream on?”
White Crow put down her phone, lifted her brows, and thought for a moment. “They prioritize money above all else, their marketing for face-saving projects is quite good, they have some conscience but not much, and they are barely considered decent people.” After all, during the height of the online smear campaign against White Crow, the platform had stepped in to curb some of the rumors.
Xu Qing: .
In the end, led by White Crow, the other members of the Dawn team signed with her platform. After all, all crows under the sun are black, so they might as well choose a black one they were familiar with.
However, Xu Qing did not set the start date for the Dawn team’s broadcasts anytime soon. With only one month left until the provincial tournament, they did not have much time for distractions; the entire team was focused on training.
While they ran their training matches, Xu Qing would sit on the side holding Xiao Hei, observing. Afterward, he served as the only one with a dedicated spectator perspective, offering his opinions. Every single piece of advice he gave was sharp and hit the nail on the head.
Wan Yi draped an arm around Xu Qing, sighing in admiration, “You are the second most talented person I have ever met.”
Xu Qing raised an eyebrow. “And the first?”
Wan Yi blurted out, “That would be the Captain, obviously!” After all, in all his years of playing Eternity, he had only ever seen Pei Shiyu consistently reign as number one on the Heavenly Rankings. Wan Yi scratched his chin. “Actually, if we are talking about someone on par with the Captain, there is really one.”
Xu Qing naturally knew how much of a die-hard loyalist Wan Yi was when it came to Pei Shiyu. For him to say someone was on par was quite rare. Xu Qing, feeling a bit curious, took a sip of his soda and asked, “Who?”
Wan Yi: “Red Hair.”
“Cough! Cough!”
The moment the soda hit Xu Qing’s throat, he sprayed it out, his face turning bright red from the choking fit.
Wan Yi looked puzzled. “What is wrong with you?”
Xu Qing waved his hand while coughing. “Nothing at all.”
He was just too surprised to hear his own ID mentioned out of the blue.
Wan Yi looked at Xu Qing, finding him somewhat inexplicable, then suddenly narrowed his eyes and leaned in aggressively. Pei Shiyu, passing by, saw Xu Qing with tears in his eyes and frowned slightly. He grabbed Wan Yi by the back of his collar and yanked him away. “Do not bully people.”
Caught off guard and locked in a chokehold, Wan Yi was full of question marks. He pointed at himself, then at Xu Qing, completely confused. “Me? Bullying him?”
Pei Shiyu pursed his lips. “Do not scare away the person I went to such lengths to trick into joining.”
Wan Yi looked at his Captain, then back at Xu Qing, who was still red-eyed from coughing, and asked Wan Li on the side, “Do I look like a bully?”
Wan Li rolled his eyes. “You look like a fool.”
After the evening training session, Xu Qing returned to his room in the club. He had been reminded of Red Hair one too many times lately. With a hesitant finger, he finally downloaded the game Eternity onto his phone. Previously, whenever he helped with testing, he used the data team’s machines; this was the first time he had proactively downloaded it on his own device. It was also the first time he had logged into the Red Hair ID on his own phone.
Perhaps Uncle Li had specifically instructed the data team; since he had stopped testing, they had not used Red Hair to test other data. Whether it was tested or not, or whether it was truly him, had not mattered much to Xu Qing before. But perhaps it was because he had been with the Dawn team members lately, and he saw how much Wan Yi and Wan Li cherished their own accounts.
Entering the login screen and seeing the familiar game icon for Red Hair, Xu Qing felt a strange sense of long-awaited reunion.
Xu Qing: “This is, in all the time I have played this game, the first time I have felt this way.”
The Eternity game community became lively due to the login of Red Hair.
1L: Red Hair is finally online! I thought he had retired.
2L: He was the number one player after the server merge. Because he was gone for two months, the current pinnacle number one is Jingzhe.
3L: Can Red Hair crush Jingzhe? Having someone like Jingzhe at number one on the Heavenly Rankings is a disgrace to the whole game.
4L: If you feel it is a disgrace, then defeat him. Eternity has always been a game of skill.
5L: Talented but lacks character! Waiting for official punishment!
6L: Red Hair is online, and Jingzhe is also online. Can I dream of a reunion between the two powerhouses?!
Casual fans, haters, trolls, CP shippers; the thread exploded in seconds, with one group after another taking the stage. Since it was already this chaotic, they might as well watch it all unfold.
Xu Qing, the subject of the topic himself, felt an itch in his fingers after finishing some daily tasks and started a match. There were fixed times for Heavenly Ranking matches, so Xu Qing just opened a random casual matchmaking lobby.
While waiting for the game to load into the lobby, Xu Qing saw a familiar cat avatar.
When they fully entered the match, Xu Qing opened the player list and saw an incredibly familiar game ID on his own team’s side, Jingzhe.