The DG Club was an industry under the Duan Group and this was practically common knowledge within the circle. Otherwise, DG would never have earned the nickname of a “rich family” among everyone.
But as for exactly who the owner of DG was, Lin Anke had honestly never bothered to find out.
Seeing that he genuinely had no idea, Danqing immediately became interested. He leaned closer and explained, “The owner of DG is Duan Zhuo. He’s the general manager of the Duan Group. You know the Duan Group, right? They’re loaded. Safer is General Manager Duan’s own brother. I heard he used to study in Germany and as soon as he came of age, he came back to play esports and he actually worked his way up from the youth academy. Tsk, if I had that kind of factory installed configuration, why would I even go through a youth academy? I’d just parachute straight in! After all, every single one of you would have to work for me!”
The more Danqing talked, the more carried away he became. He had managed to amuse himself so thoroughly that he sat there giggling to himself for quite a while.
Lin Anke, however, was completely stunned.
Duan Chi was DG’s little boss, so that contract from before, the one bearing the official seal and offering a signing fee of twenty million, had been given to him by Duan Chi?
But why?
Lin Anke couldn’t figure it out. Was there really some reason why Duan Chi had to sign him at all costs?
…
The next day, Lin Anke was awakened by the alarm on his phone. It was already eleven in the morning.
He had stayed up late the night before catching up on recordings of DG’s previous matches, so he now had a general understanding of the playstyles of the several members.
The league officials were scheduled to release the regular season schedule for the new season at noon that day. All the subsequent training arrangements would have to be planned around it, which was why he had deliberately set his alarm an hour early.
After washing up, he casually pulled on a short sleeved shirt, threw on DG’s team jacket and pushed open the door. At exactly the same moment, the door to the room next door opened as well.
Lin Anke’s footsteps stopped.
Duan Chi raised an eyebrow as he looked at him, his gaze sweeping over the team uniform he was wearing. “You look pretty good in this. It suits you much better than TIG’s fluorescent school uniform.”
“……”
Lin Anke’s sluggish, just woken up brain went blank for a moment. He rarely encountered such a direct compliment and after struggling internally for a moment, he managed to say, “Thank you.”
“How did you sleep?”
“Pretty well.”
After habitually replying with “pretty well,” Lin Anke couldn’t help feeling annoyed with himself again.
He had originally wanted to ask Duan Chi about the contract but he should at least exchange a few pleasantries first. His upbringing wouldn’t allow him to abruptly confront someone with a question and by the time he saw that Duan Chi had already gone to wake the others, he could only swallow the question for the time being.
Duan Chi first went to knock on Adam’s door. After waiting until someone inside answered, he went over to knock on Jiangnan’s.
Jiangnan said that he was already awake, so Duan Chi turned back to Lin Anke and said, “Let’s go. We’ll head downstairs first.”
Lin Anke was puzzled. “Don’t we need to wake Danqing?”
Duan Chi waved his hand. “It’s fine. Don’t worry about him. Someone will wake him.”
As they went downstairs, Lin Anke couldn’t resist turning his head for another look. Just then, he happened to see Jiangnan standing in front of Danqing’s door.
The radar that had been gathering dust inside his head for who knew how long finally went off. He suddenly understood.
“They’re……”
Before he could finish speaking, Danqing had already opened the door, rubbing his eyes as he talked to Jiangnan.
Duan Chi raised one finger to his lips, signaling for Lin Anke to go downstairs first. Then, lowering his voice, he said, “Jiangnan is. Danqing doesn’t know.”
Lin Anke hesitated, wanting to say something but stopping himself. In his opinion, there was a high probability that Danqing wasn’t exactly straight.
Still, there was no way to be certain about something like this. Lin Anke had always been rather slow when it came to this particular area. Just like back then, before Xu Sheng confessed his feelings to him, he hadn’t noticed even the slightest sign that Xu Sheng might be gay.
After breakfast, it was almost noon. Yuanshan had already arrived at the training room ahead of time. His station was directly opposite Lin Anke’s: a computer connected to a projector, which was normally used for reviewing and analyzing matches.
To Yuanshan’s right were Jiangnan and Danqing’s stations, with Jiangnan seated in the middle.
In Lin Anke’s row, Duan Chi occupied the center position. Adam was seated on his left, while Lin Anke was on his right.
The layout of DG’s training room was quite interesting. The mid and jungle players sat together, while the bot lane and support sat together. The coach and top laner occupied two corners positioned diagonally opposite each other.
Back at TIG, the computers for training matches had all been arranged in one long row, following the positions used onstage, with the top, jungle, mid, ADC and support positions lined up accordingly.
Later, after Xingxing became a substitute, the coach assigned him to the other side of Xu Sheng. The mid laner who had originally been sitting there was moved over to the right side of Lin Anke.
The schedule had not yet been released when Panda walked in carrying several documents.
“Encore, take a look at your streaming contract. From now on, your livestreaming platform will be Youyou. I’ve already had your account set up. I’ll send you the password later.”
Lin Anke nodded. “Okay.”
Panda then called out to everyone, “Everyone, straighten up your clothes and fix your hair. I’m taking a few photos to post on the official Weibo account.”
Danqing let out a wail. “Again? Can’t you put some beauty filters on that ancient phone of yours, or at least turn on face slimming for me?”
“Want me to add flaming red lips for you too? Hurry up. The schedule is going to be posted in a little while.”
Danqing gave a few resentful swipes at his hair. Then, secretly, he pushed his chair farther back, trying to use the principle that objects look larger up close and smaller from a distance to conceal the fact that he had put on weight again.
Lin Anke was just wondering whether he should fix his own hair as well when Panda had already walked behind Yuanshan. He raised his phone and snapped away at Yuanshan and Duan Chi.
“Who said my phone is old? Look, doesn’t this look pretty good?” Panda was quite satisfied with the result. “All right, I’m going to post these on Weibo. Remember to repost them later.”
Danqing: “……”
There were still a few minutes before noon when Duan Chi turned slightly toward Lin Anke and said in a voice that was neither loud nor particularly quiet, “Anke, do you think Panda is going to post our photo of the two of us separately?”
At the beginning of a new season, the official Weibo accounts of the various teams would usually post photos of their players training as a way of boosting morale. It was practically a ritual for the start of a new season. Usually, however, they would post a group photo of all five players.
But after Panda had finished taking the group shots just now, he had separately taken another photo of Duan Chi and Lin Anke together.
Lin Anke pursed his lips. “There’s nothing strange about posting a separate photo of the bot lane duo.”
Duan Chi nodded, a hint of amusement in his voice. “True. There’s nothing strange about it. It’s just that if someone happens to see it, I’m afraid they’ll be furious all over again.”
Lin Anke looked at him in confusion.
“It’s out!” Yuanshan suddenly spoke up, projecting the schedule onto the large screen. “Our first match is in a week, against Yuanche Club. Good. They’re not a strong team.”
“The league’s schedule is fairly reasonable. The strong and weaker teams are more or less evenly distributed. RE is the only particularly troublesome one in the early stage and then there’s TIG.”
Yuanshan quickly scanned through the entire regular season schedule, already having a rough idea of what they were up against. “There are four spots in the winners’ bracket for the playoffs. Our starting points are higher than those of the other teams, so there’s a very good chance we’ll make it into the winners’ bracket but the winners’ bracket isn’t our goal. The Summer Split determines this year’s World Championship slots and there are only two of them. At the very least, we have to take second place.”
The World Championship.
Every team in their entire region worked themselves to the bone for an entire year, all for the chance to make it to the SEL Global Finals and play a few matches on that stage.
The World Championship trophy had been taken home by a Korean team for five consecutive years. In recent years, the best result achieved by the Chinese region had only been a top four finish and even that had been secured by the old five man DG roster. Ever since Yuanshan retired, the current DG roster had essentially gone through a complete overhaul.
In fact, if they counted carefully, Lin Anke was actually the one who had been active the longest among them, followed by Adam.
Danqing clenched his fist. “Understood. We have to get second place!”
Jiangnan rolled his eyes.
Adam scratched his head. “I don’t think that’s necessary, though. Wouldn’t first place be better?”
Duan Chi turned slightly toward him and asked, “Anke, what do you think?”
Lin Anke said nothing. He had always felt embarrassed when it came to openly expressing ambitions and desires like this.
“I heard you.”
Duan Chi suddenly turned slightly toward him. His voice was lowered so much that only Lin Anke could hear it. There was a hint of amusement in his tone yet his voice was unmistakably serious.
“Anke wants the championship.”
Lin Anke’s long, slender eyelashes trembled.
The desire he had buried deep within his heart was effortlessly drawn out by that single, seemingly casual sentence from Duan Chi.
It was something he had never told anyone. Something he had always kept hidden because the moment he said it aloud, other people would laugh at him and the person closest to him would deny him once again.
He wanted the championship.
He wanted to win it all.
He wanted the golden rain.
Not only did he want the championship of the Chinese region, he wanted the World Championship title as well!
Xu Sheng told everyone that Lin Anke didn’t like playing professionally, that it didn’t matter whether he played or not and that it didn’t matter whether they won or lost.
But was that really true?
Lin Anke had always been introverted. His experiences since childhood had taught him to instinctively hide his thoughts, as though as long as he pretended not to care, he could truly convince himself that he didn’t care.
But how could that possibly be true?
Anyone who had been called a freeloader and the best support player in the country thousands upon thousands of times would never be content with that.
They would all want to… prove themselves.
Duan Chi was still looking at him, his gaze never leaving Lin Anke, as though he were waiting for Lin Anke to admit it himself.
Lin Anke opened his mouth, wanting to argue, wanting to deny it but his throat seemed to have been blocked by something. He couldn’t get the words out.
The atmosphere around them fell silent for two seconds.
Then Duan Chi turned away, as though nothing had happened at all.
Sitting beside him, Lin Anke gripped the hem of his team jacket with his fingers.
He held on for a long, long time before finally loosening his grip.
Once the schedule had been released, the coaching staff quickly finalized everyone’s training times. The first thing they needed to work on was their shot calling and coordination.
Yuanshan said, “Let’s start by playing a few five man ranked games. I’ve scheduled a BO5 against RE for eight tonight. Also, Encore, send me your champion pool later.”
The coaching staff first needed to figure out which champions each player was capable of playing. That way, when it came to the BP phase, they could make targeted decisions when selecting and banning the lineup.
Lin Anke had been playing in the SEL for three years, so Yuanshan already knew which champions he commonly used onstage. Even so, he still had to ask, because quite a few professional players would deliberately hide newly practiced champions at first, keeping them concealed until the right moment to bring them out in an official match.
But Lin Anke simply said, “I can play every support champion.”
Yuanshan paused.
Danqing’s mouth fell open and he blurted out, “Seriously?”
When professional players said they “could play” a champion, it meant far more than simply knowing how to use them. If they claimed they could play a particular champion, they had to be at least at the level of a top tier player on the national ranked ladder in solo queue. Otherwise, how would they dare pull that champion out on the professional stage?
Lin Anke nodded. He glanced at Danqing, then added, “I can play mage supports too.”
Mage supports referred to those champions who were originally mages, officially designated as mid lane champions but whom players had discovered could actually be even more effective when used in the support position.
Danqing: “……”
He nearly burst into tears.
Anke, how could you be this kind of Anke?!
Duan Chi’s eyes were filled with amusement. He gave a light cough and said, “Anke is so impressive that I’m starting to feel pressured. What am I supposed to do?”
There was something wrong with this guy.
Every time Duan Chi teased him with that smiling, playful expression, Lin Anke heard it as nothing short of a provocation. He endured it again and again but in the end, he couldn’t hold himself back. Following his old habit, he coldly retorted, “If you’re feeling pressured, then practice more.”
The corners of Duan Chi’s lips curved up slightly. He raised a fist to his mouth and gave another light cough.
Yuanshan pulled all five of them into a ranked lobby, then opened spectator mode for himself and gestured for them to begin.
“Encore will shot call. Choose your own champions.”
Danqing cheered. “Yes! Then I want a mage carry!”
The moment his words fell, Jiangnan, who was first pick, locked in an assassin style jungler who was extremely dependent on gold.
Danqing: “………………Jiangnan, you bastard!”
Lin Anke smiled and locked in a champion that fit the composition.
They only played three five man ranked games. Gradually, even Panda noticed it: Duan Chi and Lin Anke’s coordination was astonishingly good.
A lot of the time, Lin Anke didn’t even need to say anything. Sometimes, just one tiny adjustment in his positioning was enough for Duan Chi to immediately understand what he was planning to do. Duan Chi would then find the most suitable position to deal damage and seamlessly follow up.
Once could still be dismissed as a coincidence.
But when it happened continuously throughout all three games, it was no longer something that could be explained away so easily.
Lin Anke naturally noticed it as well.
Once he realized that Duan Chi’s playstyle and thought process were almost completely in sync with his own, it was impossible for him not to be pleasantly surprised.
It was practically like walking down the street and somehow stumbling upon a treasure out of nowhere.
The bot lane was a lane that placed extremely high demands on the coordination and mutual understanding between the ADC and support. As long as the two players worked well together, one plus one could even be greater than three!
The Korean team Can had relied on the unparalleled synergy between TheOne and Kina to completely tear through every bot lane duo in the SEL and with the current meta being centered around the bot lane, there was even less need to mention it, the two of them had practically dominated the entire SEL stage.
It was said that TheOne and Kina were cousins who had grown up together from childhood, which was why they were able to synchronize their tempo completely and coordinate with such seamless perfection.
But circumstances like that were something that could be encountered only by chance, never deliberately sought out. Countless teams both domestically and overseas had tried to recreate that kind of synergy yet without exception, every attempt had failed, including TIG in the past.
Lin Anke looked at Duan Chi with eyes that practically seemed to glow!
An ADC who was perfectly compatible with him!
He had once thought he would never encounter someone like that again. After all, even Xu Sheng, who had been his partner before, had never been able to get on the same wavelength as him.
Duan Chi did not turn his head but the curve of his lips gave him away, as though he knew that Lin Anke was looking at him.
“Anke,” his voice came through the headset, mixed with a faint layer of static and slightly lower than usual, “there’s no hurry. You can praise me after we finish this game.”
Lin Anke’s fingertips tingled with waves of numbness and his body trembled from the sheer intensity of his excitement. The moment Duan Chi finished speaking, he hurriedly pulled his gaze away as though he had been burned but his breathing remained disordered.
It was like a wandering swordsman who had spent half his life drifting from place to place, finally encountering the blade that belonged to him.
The instant his hand closed around the blade, the sound of his own heartbeat was deafening.
✦ ✧ ✦
Fleurveil
[Translator]
☕ A LITTLE SOMETHING FOR THE TRANSLATOR
One coffee for the translator. One less excuse for them to disappear. 😌
☕ 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