The next day, Lin Anke arrived at the entrance of the DG Esports Club’s training base.
He had turned down Duan Chi’s offer to come pick him up. He was only coming for a tryout and since he didn’t have much luggage with him, there was no need to make Duan Chi go out of his way to make another trip.
Unlike TIG, a small scale team that had risen up from the lower league, DG had the backing of a major corporation and the entire club was exceptionally well funded. Not only had they secured a luxurious villa in one of the best locations to serve as their base but they also had their own youth academy and dedicated training facilities.
There were even rumors that the commercial district surrounding the base belonged to DG’s owner as well.
A lot of people speculated that DG’s owner didn’t actually make any money from running an esports team and was doing it purely out of passion.
“Encore, hello.”
Before Lin Anke arrived, he had already sent Duan Chi a message yet when he reached the entrance of the base, the person who came out to receive him was a round built man wearing a casual suit.
“I’m DG’s manager. Welcome to DG. You can call me Panda.” The man handed Lin Anke a business card bearing his information.
Jiang Guobao, General Manager of DG Esports Club.
“You can just call him Panda.” Duan Chi came out from behind him. He was wearing a neatly pressed team uniform, his hair combed so meticulously that not a strand was out of place. He pushed open the door and said, “Come on in first.”
Panda gave him a baffled look at that flashy hairstyle of his before stepping aside and clearing the doorway.
“Adam went home after yesterday’s match. He’ll play a practice match with you guys online later. Right now, there are only Egg and South in the training room.” Manager Panda explained this to Lin Anke.
They had faced each other on the competitive stage more than once, so Lin Anke had a basic understanding of DG’s current starting lineup.
Top laner Adam, mid laner Egg, jungler South and the marksman… Duan Chi.
Safer.
Panda first gave him a brief introduction to the layout of the first floor before taking Lin Anke to the training room. Before they had even reached the door, the rapid clatter of keyboards could already be heard coming from inside.
“Save me, save me! Jungler daddy, save me! Ahhh, I’m frozen! I’m dead. The enemy is so damn disgusting, they actually camped in the brush! What the hell, even the marksman is dead! We’re done, we’re done, we’re done…”
“Shut up.”
“Ahem, they’re just playing a casual game. They’re not like this during normal training or matches.”
Manager Panda was afraid that the newly arrived support would see his teammates playing this badly and immediately decide not to sign with them. If that happened, their young boss would come back and tear them apart.
Egg heard the commotion and, during the brief period when his screen was black, lifted his head to take a look. His eyes lit up in surprise. “God An, you’re here! Quick, quick, come save me! I can’t play Chrono. I keep getting my teammates killed.”
Chrono was a support hero whose core mechanic revolved around rewinding time. Its abilities were somewhat complicated but they weren’t complicated enough to actually get a teammate killed.
Unless the marksman on the team happened to be Flux.
Chrono and Flux were twins who governed time according to the game’s lore.
In a match, if support Chrono and marksman Flux were on the same team, their combination skill would cause Flux’s position to be reverted to where it had been one second earlier.
It was essentially a forced displacement imposed on the teammate.
When used well, it could create some incredibly impressive combos but when used badly… there was a very high chance that just as the marksman finally managed to escape back beneath the safety of the tower, the support would send him straight back into the enemy’s face.
Just like Egg had done moments ago.
In the in game chat, the random marksman had already started cursing Egg out furiously.
Panda asked in utter confusion, “You were duo queuing with South, so how did you end up playing support?”
Egg looked like he was about to cry. “There were too many people playing mid, so I got assigned to fill another position.”
“Please, God An, my credit score is already almost gone. I can’t afford to get reported again! I’m counting on you!” Egg clasped both hands together as he pleaded, looking at Lin Anke with an expression full of desperation.
Lin Anke had no choice. He could only take the seat in Egg’s place.
“Let’s go!” Seeing that he had agreed, Egg immediately became excited and shouted into his microphone, “Don’t worry, bro, we can win, we can win. I hired a top tier smurf to take over the account for me. We can still, ”
Lin Anke respawned from the fountain. His fingers moved rapidly as he took a quick glance at both teams’ lineups, then opened the equipment panel and replaced all the items he had pre purchased. Only after doing that did he finally look at the scoreboard.
0 5 0.
He was silent for a moment.
Without saying a word, he first focused on helping the marksman farm and develop.
Egg stood beside him and watched for a while. When he saw that the random marksman had stopped sending messages threatening to report him, he finally breathed a sigh of relief.
Then he turned his head and nearly jumped out of his skin.
Duan Chi was standing right beside him, looking at him as though he wanted to kill him.
Egg gave an awkward, sheepish smile. “Haha, Safer, did you need something from God An?”
In the middle of everything he was doing, South spared him a glance. He had nothing to say to this idiot. He took off his headset and looked toward Duan Chi. “I’m going to the bathroom. Can you play for me for a while?”
“Sure.” Duan Chi nodded and, taking advantage of the opportunity, sat down beside Lin Anke in South’s seat.
Egg stood behind the two of them and watched the game, clicking his tongue in amazement. “God An really is God An. He even managed to save this game. Safer, you’re pretty good at jungling too. It’s just that you shouldn’t only gank the bottom lane. The mid lane is getting pushed under the tower again.”
Thus, on his very first day visiting the DG base, Lin Anke was inexplicably dragged into playing out a losing game that was already halfway to its conclusion.
By the time he finished the match, the new team’s mid laner was already completely convinced of his abilities. He practically worshipped him, grabbing hold of him and asking to add him as a friend so they could duo queue together.
Panda hurriedly waved his hands. “Go, go, go. What’s the point of the two of you duo queuing when one of you is a mid laner and the other is a support? Encore, don’t mind him. I’ll take you upstairs to have a look at the dormitory.”
Lin Anke followed him out of the training room. This time, Duan Chi did not come along.
As they went upstairs, Panda said, “The dormitories are all single rooms. Everything you’ll need for daily use has already been prepared and everything is brand new. It’s the off season right now. The transfer window will begin in a few days. We’re planning to wait until your contract with TIG expires before officially announcing your signing. For these next few days, you can move in ahead of time, or you can wait until after the announcement before coming over. It’s entirely up to you.”
The dormitory rooms at DG’s base were spacious and brightly lit, with even floor to ceiling windows and balconies.
Lin Anke did not have particularly high requirements when it came to his living arrangements. There was only one thing that bothered him.
He raised his head and looked at Panda in confusion. “I haven’t even signed the contract yet.”
Panda faltered for a moment before giving two awkward laughs. “We can talk about the contract. It’s nothing major. As long as you’re satisfied with our team, everything else can be discussed. We can even increase the signing fee if necessary. Our boss has money.”
“……” Lin Anke stared at him in silence. “It’s not that I think the signing fee is too low. It’s that you offered me too much. I had the contract reviewed by a lawyer and there’s no-”
“No hidden traps, that’s right! How could we possibly set a trap for you?” Panda immediately interrupted. “Our team treats its players very well. Just look at Egg. When he first joined us, he was thin and tiny. Now his weight is almost catching up to mine.”
If Egg had been there, he definitely would have accused Panda of slander. When had he ever gotten that heavy?!
Although Lin Anke felt that there was something strange about everyone at DG, from top to bottom, there really was no more suitable choice for him at the moment.
Their support, Yuanshan, had only just retired and transitioned into a behind the scenes role. DG was the Spring Split championship team, which meant they would begin the next season with a higher number of points than the other teams and were virtually guaranteed a place in the upper bracket of the playoffs.
Not to mention that, as the opponent they had faced in the Spring Split finals, Lin Anke knew DG’s strength all too well.
Panda said, “I’m not bragging when I say this but there really isn’t another team in our region with a better chance of winning the Summer Split championship than our DG. God An, I know you really want to make it to the World Championship. That’s exactly what we’re aiming for too. As long as you come over, our ticket to this year’s Worlds will definitely be secure and your AD is our little, Safer! He’s this season’s FMVP. You know how strong he is.”
Panda was practically selling his own young boss like he was peddling a head of Chinese cabbage.
“The official statistics were released just now. Safer’s average damage share this season is thirty two percent, breaking the league record for the AD position. He’s only nineteen this year and he hasn’t even reached his peak yet. I play support too, although, of course, I’m only an amateur but what support player doesn’t want an ADC who has the mechanics to back himself up and the guts to make plays? Am I right?”
Seeing that Lin Anke was still hesitating, Panda finally brought out his trump card.
“Yuanshan used to be the shot caller for the team. You’ll be taking over from him, so naturally, you’ll be the one calling the shots from now on. Safer may be prone to acting on impulse but I can guarantee you this: as long as you tell him to go east, he absolutely won’t go west. If you tell him to kill someone, he definitely won’t stop to farm minions!”
Lin Anke had to admit that this condition was genuinely tempting.
An ADC who would go wherever he was pointed and fight exactly where he was told.
“The signing fee should still be lowered a little. You don’t get something for nothing and I really am not worth twenty million.”
Panda gave him an okay sign with his fingers. “All right, then. I’ll change the contract. How about ten million? The others on the team are more or less on the same scale.”
“Eight million.” Lin Anke was not some inexperienced newcomer who knew nothing about the industry. It was common knowledge that the signing fee for a support in the SEL was lower than that of the core positions. He did not want to take advantage of the club.
This was really difficult.
Panda muttered inwardly, then said, “How about this? We’ll set it at eight million for this season. If we win the Summer Split championship later, we’ll give you the remaining twelve million as an additional bonus. How does that sound?”
For the first time in his life, Lin Anke had encountered a club that was practically throwing money at its players.
He was beginning to seriously suspect that DG’s owner really wasn’t running an esports club for business at all.
Was he secretly doing charity?
“Wait until we win the World Championship before you give it to me,” Lin Anke said.
Panda was practically on the verge of tears. Lin Anke had already put things this way, there was no way Panda could lower his own team’s morale by saying something like, “But what if we don’t win the World Championship?”
He could only compromise. “All right. I’ll go revise the contract.”
Lin Anke was once again puzzled by DG’s process. “Shouldn’t I go through the tryout first?”
Panda suddenly realized his mistake. “Right, right, right! The tryout comes first. I’ll go get Yuanshan right now. You go wait in the training room.”
Lin Anke returned to the training room on the first floor. Egg and South had already finished their duo queue and were now huddled together, chatting.
Duan Chi sat off to the side, his head lowered as he played with his phone.
Egg complained, “How can this streamer play Cupid in the mid lane?! These days, it seems like literally any hero can be played mid. Even Cupid, an ADC, is playing in the mid lane, while the actual mid laner is being forced to play support!”
Duan Chi casually replied, “Cupid deals magic damage, so of course he can be played mid.”
Egg angrily said, “That streamer is practically bullying us mid laners because there’s no one around to stop him!”
South asked, “Then why are you still following him?”
Egg hesitated. “I… Don’t you know that having more skills never hurts?”
Lin Anke walked in. Duan Chi raised his head and glanced at him before casually shutting off his phone and slipping it into his pocket.
As though asking without giving it much thought, he said, “Finished talking with Panda?”
Lin Anke paused for a moment. Remembering what Panda had just said about Safer going wherever he was told to go, he nodded. “We’re done talking. Let’s do the tryout first.”
Egg let out a cheer. “Yay! Who are we playing against today?”
Coach Yuanshan walked in and pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose. “The kids from the second team. Encore will be the shot caller. Is that okay?”
Lin Anke nodded. “We can give it a try.”
His station was to the right of Duan Chi’s. All the equipment was brand new and the Starfall Echoes client had already been downloaded. He only needed to enter his username and password and he could log in directly.
Yuanshan created a practice room and told everyone to enter using the room number. Then he said, “Adam isn’t online. Panda, give him a call.”
“Sure.”
While they waited for Adam to come online, Egg sprawled across his desk and called out to Lin Anke, “God An, God An! I added you. Accept it!”
Lin Anke nodded. The friend request icon was displaying 99+, so he opened it for a quick look. Since Egg had only just sent his request, his application was sitting right at the top.
Lin Anke moved the mouse over it and was just about to click accept when a new friend request suddenly popped up, pushing Egg’s ID down the list.
【DG Safer has requested to add you as a friend】
✦ ✧ ✦
Fleurveil
[Translator]
☕ A LITTLE SOMETHING FOR THE TRANSLATOR
Coffee first. Existential crisis later.
☕ BUY THEM A COFFEE →
✧ (づ｡•ㅅ•｡)づ ☕ ✧
✦ thank you for reading ✦
← PreviousNext →
ChaptersChapter 1 · He was substituted off the fieldChapter 2 · I’ll avenge youChapter 3 · Leaving TIGChapter 4 · Point and shootChapter 5 · Join DGChapter 6 · Live stream collisionChapter 7 · MysteriousChapter 8 · Transfer NoticeChapter 9 · Want the championshipChapter 10 · Galaxy BattleshipChapter 11 · Be my DogChapter 12 · Post match ConflictChapter 13 · ReportedChapter 14 · Weibo CodeChapter 15 · Live Streaming to attract FansChapter 16 · Duan Chi’s horse was exposedChapter 17 · Emotional articlesChapter 18 · Match voice recording