Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

“So, which team are you going to choose?” Tang Rou asked when the three of them gathered at the dinner table.

“I say, why don’t you go to Blue Rain? Tiny Herb?” Chen Guo suggested.

Ye Xiu sighed. “It’s a bit complicated. Although they all did state that I’m welcomed, the management of the team would not simply welcome me to discuss the terms of the contract.” It had been a few weeks since his twin brother happened to visit at the most wrong-yet-so-right time and learned about Excellent Era’s treatment of him.

Needless to say, President Ye simply cannot tolerate the fact that his bully was bullied and directly asked Ye Xiu to terminate his contract and tossed money to Excellent Era’s face and used Ye Xiu’s Weibo account to announce his contract termination.

Although many of his fellow pro players proposed, none of them struck Ye Xiu as serious enough to have him over at Winter, and he didn’t blame them for that. If the stable teams tried to add something so big like himself into the calculation, their performance might not be as stable for the second half of the season.

Winter transfer would be ending tomorrow and Ye Xiu was not so unrealistic that he would seal a deal with a team this very day so maybe the only other option was to wait till summer.

There were mid-tier teams that offered for him to join, but... They were all too far away from H City, nearly on the other side of the country, he couldn’t bear being too far away from Su Mucheng so he gently rejected them. As for low-tier teams, no one reached out. Ye Xiu wondered if it was because he was too intimidating.

“Well, I have half a year until the next transfer,” Ye Xiu shrugged and Chen Guo bit her lips.

“Are you sure?”

“Boss, let’s not be unrealistic here. It’s impossible for me to have a contract by the end of the day magically,” Ye Xiu said and put a piece of tempura into his mouth.

Ye Xiu really regretted it. If he knew this would happen, he would have sided with the Alliance when they wanted to move the Winter transfer to January. It would still be cold in January, but at least he didn’t have to stress himself with transferring around this time. If he, the three-times champion, said something alongside an agreement in regard of moving the winter transfer to January, it would probably finalize the deal immediately.

“Well, that’s true...” Chen Guo pouted.

“There really hasn’t been any offer?” Tang Rou asked, playing with her salad while eyeing Ye Xiu.

“No... Samsara’s people seemed to be pretty serious, but they were dragging their feet regarding this,” Ye Xiu said. “I guess they’re still calculating the loss and advantage.”

Tang Rou shrugged. “Well, that means I still have over half a year to defeat you.”

Ye Xiu snorted. “Good luck, young lady.”

“Don’t regret it when I do,” Tang Rou said seriously.

“You’re always welcome to try.”

“Chen-dajie.”

Everyone turned their heads to see a girl who usually took the weekend’s morning shift.

“Yes, Little Ling?” Chen Guo responded.

Ye Xiu pushed away his empty plate. “Sorry, for taking too long, Little Ling. I’ll take over now.”

“No, it’s not about that,” Little Ling expressionlessly shook her head. “It’s just, there’s a guest downstairs, asking about you, brother Ye.”

Ye Xiu paused. “A guest?”

“Mm, not one actually. Three,” the girl held up three fingers.

Chen Guo had some suspicions in her heart and she immediately looked at Ye Xiu with eagerness. “Speak of the devil and he will come!”

Ye Xiu patted his chest and immediately went downstairs, followed by the girls behind him.

Ye Xiu honestly didn’t have much expectation in regard to transferring in winter, but when he saw the three people dressed inconspicuously, he still felt a burst of expectation and eagerness, though he didn’t show it outright.

Chen Guo hastily arranged them to meet at an unused side room and left Ye Xiu with them with a slap on the shoulder and a thumb up.

Ye Xiu rubbed the shoulder Chen Guo had slapped and turned to his guests, smiling leisurely.

“I honestly don’t expect guests this late in the transfer window.”

Jiang Botao pulled down his mask and nodded curtly. “It’s a pleasure to meet you here, senior. My apologies for not being more haste.”

“Hello, god Ye, I’m Samsara’s manager, Kang Ming,” the only unfamiliar person to Ye Xiu introduced himself. “I’m here to offer you to join our team. Based on what Botao had said, you didn’t have any qualm in joining us so pardon me for being forward.”

“Forward? Rather, it’s flattering. You can just invite me to S City,” Ye Xiu said.

“Haha, we just so happened to be in H City so we decided to drop by to express our sincerity,” Kang Ming said.

“But why this late, though?” Ye Xiu asked. He usually wasn’t one to fuss over things like this, but Samsara came at a time so late that it sparked questions on what stopped them before this.

Kang Ming chuckled sheepishly. “Truth be told, the players and the management had a very long talk regarding this, we’re a bit intimidated with your presence as much as we’re eager to have you. But captain Zhou and vice-captain Jiang had been quite adamant in their proposals so the discussion was dragged for quite a long time. We finally realized that we shouldn’t be picky regarding a great player like you and now here we are.”

“Intimidated?” Ye Xiu’s lips quirked up. He knew it was just an excuse but decided to not press further. “So you are no longer intimidated, I hope?”

Zhou Zekai lowered his mask, shaking his head. “So glad.”

“The discussion has taken a really long time, Zhou and I were nervous that you will sign with another team, but we’re so glad that you actually haven’t,” Jiang Botao said. “It’s a shame if you don’t sign with any team in this period of time so we made haste to contact you this way.”

“Did Su Mucheng tell you guys that I live here?”

Zhou Zekai nodded. “Yes.”

“After a lot of persuasions...” Jiang Botao added with a sheepish smile. He didn’t know the Alliance’s prettiest girl could have such a strong gate-keeping ability to test out their seriousness in inviting Ye Qiu over.

Ye Xiu smiled. “Alright, I’m not going to play god here. I’m just merely a washed-up old player, I’ll be very grateful for a team like Samsara wanting to sign me.”

“You are very great,” Zhou Zekai said seriously.

“You’re more than a washed-up player, senior,” Jiang Botao denied.

“I know you two admire me deeply, but the reality is as you can see,” Ye Xiu said shamelessly. “Let’s start the discussion, shall we?”

Kang Ming took out several files from his file bag. “Since you don’t have any manager, please do read these first, god Ye.” He pushed the file to Ye Xiu.

Ye Xiu took the file and flipped it open, reading it carefully. He didn’t see any proposal regarding showing off his face, he felt a bit touched if not flattered. The management wouldn’t care about Ye Xiu’s attempt to hide and would probably still list it off in the contract, but the players such as Zhou Zekai and Jiang Botao probably erased that condition, knowing he wouldn’t agree.

This alone already made him feel welcomed despite not having signed any contract yet.

Ye Xiu’s eyes stopped at the salary details and his brows jumped. “Three million a year?” he looked up.

Zhou Zekai and Jiang Botao pursed their lips while Kang Ming smiled sheepishly.

“God Ye, I know it’s not much, but I hope you can understand,” Kang Ming said. “You can always renew the contract in summer if you fit in with the team, Samsara will not treat you shabbily.” In fact, this was already the bottom line Samsara was willing to give.

Zhou Zekai nodded along with the manager’s words.

Jiang Botao smiled. “It is a bit low, but the team will take care of all your daily necessities. We will not treat you badly.”

Ye Xiu was amused at this ‘your daughter will not be treated badly by our family’ talk. He shook his head, hearing their claims, he felt that they were too sincere. “To give me this kind of salary, you guys are really breaching your safe space. This is more than what I need to pay the fine and living. Just give me one million a year.”

The three paused.

“Pardon?” Kang Ming blinked. “How can we do that?” He asked in disbelief. This was Ye Qiu, the Battle God, the reigning three-time champion. Even if Samsara wanted to treat him shabbily, they wouldn’t treat him that bad!

Jiang Botao leaned over, he was familiar with Ye Xiu’s sarcastic leisure talk so he thought that he was mocking them. “Senior, there’s no way we can do that.” his eyes were begging for Ye Xiu to not throw off this discussion.

Zhou Zekai looked at his two companions before looking pleadingly at Ye Xiu.

Ye Xiu was amused seeing this. “I’m not mocking you guys. Do you guys know my previous salary in Excellent Era?”

“No...?” Kang Ming blinked. Not every player’s contract was known to everyone, sometimes, the team and the player wanted to keep it private between them and no one would ever know. Ye Qiu was one of them.

“Seven hundred thousand,” Ye Xiu said.

A pregnant silence followed.

“Seven million seven hundred thousand?” Kang Ming repeated.

“Seven hundred thousand,” Ye Xiu said.

“God Ye, you’re teasing us...” Kang Ming chuckled humorously and Ye Xiu smiled kindly at them.

“...”

“...Seven hundred thousand??” Kang Ming repeated as beads of sweat formed on his temples.

“It’s a bit above average for the time,” Ye Xiu said honestly.

“Are you serious?” Kang Ming blurted out incredulously.

“I can be said to be well-paid in the early alliance,” Ye Xiu said. That was not a lie, sure, other top-tier players were paid more than him even in an early alliance but that never bothered him. What he wanted was victory and only victory. Money came second.

The three looked at Ye Xiu in horror as if he was not a human.

“No, you must be joking,” Kang Ming said in denial. “You’re Ye Qiu, the Battle God, Excellent Era’s captain that led them to victory three times, you’re their figurehead.”

“Hang on,” Ye Xiu said as he patted around on his jacket. “Ah, I left them in my room, wait.” He left the three in the room as he went off to fetch something that the three weren’t sure what.

“Is he always this playful?” Kang Ming asked Jiang Botao.

Jiang Botao hesitantly shook his head. “He sometimes talked in sarcasm that people hardly picked up until much later, but I don’t think he’ll joke about this.”

“You mean he’s serious? Do you think he’s serious?” Kang Ming pressed.

“I... I find it hard to believe too, manager,” Jiang Botao smiled helplessly.

“Zekai, what do you think?” Kang Ming asked the silent captain.

“Not sure,” Zhou Zekai answered simply.

“Sorry, I’m late,” Ye Xiu returned with a handful of paper in his hands. “It should be here,” Ye Xiu smoothened the papers and put them on the table.

The three watched incredulously as Ye Xiu put the crumpled papers on the table. Zhou Zekai caught sight of one paper and hesitantly picked it up to see.

Zhou Zekai blinked unsurely when he saw the words in the paper.

“Oh, that’s my first season’s certificate,” Ye Xiu said bluntly.

Jiang Botao, who was peering to see, froze in disbelief.

“This is the second and third,” Ye Xiu said carelessly. “This one is the copy of One Autumn Leaf’s transfer right’s paper. This... This is my old contract until the fourth season,” he said as he held it up.

Kang Ming couldn’t believe it. When he saw Ye Xiu brought in the papers, he thought they were wrapping papers instead of important documents!

“One million is already acceptable if you feel signing with me is a burden,” Ye Xiu said sincerely. “I know not all team has a good finance.”

Zhou Zekai squeezed Kang Ming’s sleeve and tugged him desperately. Zhou Zekai did not spend time doing all those modeling to have his team being said as ‘not having good finance’ by the person he liked!

“God Ye, it’s three million. Please don’t reject it,” Kang Ming said seriously.

“Are you sure? It’s fine with the standard salary. Samsara doesn’t have to push themselves.”

“No. Please, I’m begging you. It’s three million or I’ll be guilty for life,” Kang Ming said desperately.

“I don’t have commercial value.”

“Zhou Zekai is the captain!”

Zhou Zekai nodded rapidly. “I earn money,” he claimed.

For some reason, Ye Xiu felt like he was being offered a marriage instead of joining a team.

“But—“

“Just sign the damn thing, Ye Xiu!” Chen Guo burst in from the door and cursed out. “Value yourself, dammit!”

“GuoGuo,” Tang Rou facepalmed. There it goes, their ‘sneaky’ eavesdropping.

“Ye Xiu...?” Kang Ming blinked and looked at Zhou Zekai and Jiang Botao in question.

“Senior...?” Zhou Zekai looked at Ye Xiu.

Ye Xiu scratched his head. “Ah, there’s another situation regarding my name...” he said. “You see, my real name is Ye Xiu. Ye Qiu is... my twin brother’s name...”

“...”

“...”

Kang Ming looked through the crumpled documents and they all referred to the Battle God as ‘Ye Qiu’. He was lost in his musing. “Did you sign with Excellent Era with your brother’s name?”

“Yes,” Ye Xiu confessed. “I didn’t have an ID card at the time.”

The three men from Samsara suddenly had an urge to jump onto a busy highway when they heard the terrifying truth.

Jiang Botao wiped the sweat from his forehead. “Senior, this is really a problem...”

Ye Xiu smiled guiltily. “We can return and you can just pay me seven hundred thousand a year for me to repay you?”

“No,” Zhou Zekai said firmly.

“Well, well, we meet again,” Ye Qiu said leisurely as he stepped through the door to the meeting room of Glory’s HQ, fashionably late for about an hour as Ye Xiu expected. “Here I thought the money for contract termination less than a month ago is not enough, but it seems like a different problem this time?”

“Sit here,” Ye Xiu gestured to a seat beside him when he saw none of the people in the room could react to Ye Qiu’s arrival.

Ye Qiu sat down. “Is this about your identity?” he asked knowingly. “So you’re finally using your real name.”

“This is Ye Qiu,” Ye Xiu introduced to Feng Xianjun, carefully eyeing the chairman to make sure he didn’t just collapse out of a heart attack. “He can be the key witness that I’ve always played for the Alliance, he never involves himself in this until a few weeks ago.”

Zhou Zekai glanced at the twin brother and felt a bit strange. All this time he actually said his name instead of the real person’s name, no matter what it still felt surreal.

“There’s no reason for Senior to just randomly change his name now, so aside for the wrong identity thing... I don’t think he did anything wrong?” Jiang Botao started.

“Ye Xiu, Ye Qiu...” Feng Xianjun sighed heavily.

“You never said a thing about this?” Tao Xuan said with dissatisfaction. He had heard about a twin brother from Cui Li and the others, but he didn't know anything about switching names.

“It never really came up,” Ye Xiu shrugged. “Originally I wanted to just end my career with that name, but things are different now so it’s better to just use my real name.”

“Why...?” Feng Xianjun wanted to cry. “That wasn’t even your name.”

Ye Xiu shrugged. “I’m just thinking about winning, nothing else. Besides, it makes a good gift.”

“What gift?” Feng Xianjun.

“My brother sent me some quaint rings with my name,” Ye Qiu smiled brightly.

...You gave your championship ring to your brother?!

Everyone was speechless.

“We can still fix this.” Feng Xianjun looked up. “As long as it’s only a name, we can just erase every trace of it. Excellent Era will work together with us,” Feng Xianjun eyed Excellent Era. After all, if this matter spilled outside, they would face a backlash and no one could be happy. “We’ll take care of the online registration.”

In the end, due to the nature of Ye Xiu’s transfer, it took longer to fix his identity and they couldn’t announce his formal transfer until after the winter transfer, but Samsara had a better idea instead and prolonged the formal announcement.

“We’ll officially announce your transfer on the All-Stars weekend!” Kang Ming exclaimed in excitement. “It will become a big breaking news to everyone.”

The pros would absolutely lose their minds.

“You’ll pose as a special guest before finally we’re announcing your formal transfer!” Kang Ming envisioned it clearly. “You might not be an All-Stars due to your voting had been scattered in your emergency absence but you’ll still be a star.”

Ye Xiu honestly didn’t want to.

“It will be one of the most memorable moments of All-Stars in the history of Glory!”

This year’s All-Stars weekend was destined to be Ye Xiu’s bad luck too it seemed.

Chapter Text

“Yes, yes, I’m here. Not yet, I haven’t—yes, I didn’t have that many clothes anyway,” Ye Xiu agreed methodically to the worried little sister on the other side of the line who could not stop rambling once their conversation turned into the livelihood in a different city.

The hardest thing for Su Mucheng was the fact that he was living in a different city. Ye Xiu knew that Su Mucheng trusted him wholly on how to take care of himself, but she was stressed by the fact that they were separated. Ye Xiu was willing to let her talk to her heart content if it was to ease her tension of being completely alone in H City from now on.

“Everyone there is nice, right? Fang Minghua is nice, I would know. Jiang Botao and Zhou Zekai too, I suppose.”

“Yes, so far everyone has been nice. Zhou Zekai is here with me, in fact,” Ye Xiu gazed and nodded at the young captain who sat in front of him quietly. “I haven’t met the rest of the team, though,” Ye Xiu said and Zhou Zekai nodded seriously at him as if saying he would meet them soon enough.

“What are you going to do with Lord Grim then?” Su Mucheng asked. She had helped him somewhat in the dungeon’s record he did for Lord Grim, knowing that Lord Grim was his second option if no one offered for him in Winter Transfer.

“I will level him up when in between the busy time, I can’t just leave so many first clears behind for normal players,” Ye Xiu said playfully and Su Mucheng giggled.

“So, the usual time?”

“We’ll talk more about the new schedule later with Little Tang, let’s include Steamed Bun too.”

“Sure thing. So, when are they going to announce it?”

“Well, they just came with a bad news after the meeting in HQ. Apparently, my transfer will be announced in All-Star weekend.”

“No way...”

“I know.”

“Pfft—hahaha, I can’t wait for that to happen. Imagine everyone’s faces!”

“Oh, yes...” Ye Xiu smiled bitterly. He then blinked when he heard a group of people approaching and soon saw the familiar bunch he had yet to meet due to their conflicting schedule right after he arrived in Samsara. They, too, saw Ye Xiu and ceased their talking, Ye Xiu shot a smile at them. “Talk to you later, my new teammates are here.”

“Kay, bye-bye~”

Zhou Zekai stood up first and nodded at them. “Introduction,” he said simply before pausing. Why would they need an introduction to Ye Xiu? “Senior,” Zhou Zekai nodded. “Our new teammate,” he told the team who all nodded in understanding.

Ye Xiu put down the communal phone and stood up to greet the group. “Everyone, it’s good to see you.”

They all smiled welcomingly. “Senior, how do you do?”

“Has the contract been finalized?”

“I thought the transfer failed since it’s already past the Winter Transfer Window.”

“There are hiccups along the way, but I’m already officially recognized to be a part of Samsara. Happy cooperation,” Ye Xiu nodded curtly.

“That’s great,” Fang Minghua smiled. “Have you had a tour around yet?”

“He has,” Zhou Zekai said. Indicating the question to himself, taking over as a captain. “Only for a bit.”

Fang Minghua smiled. “I see. Well, that’s the basic fulfilled.”

“Then, we’ll have a welcoming party for seniors tonight!” Wu Qi exclaimed. “Happy cooperation, senior,” he stepped forward and shook Ye Xiu’s hand enthusiastically.

“Thank you for having me.”

“Don’t be too polite, senior. It makes us feel awkward,” Lu Boyuan said.

Fang Minghua nodded. “Please treat us normally, most of us are younger than you. Though, I’m already married, so please don’t bunch me with these troublemakers too.”

“Marriage does not measure maturity level,” Du Ming piped in and smirked when Fang Minghua shot him a look.

All members of team Samsara welcomed Ye Xiu with a kind heart, although most of them were not really that much familiar with Ye Xiu before, they were willing to get along well with him. Ye Xiu was glad, it would be hard to integrate into a team that didn’t welcome him no matter if he was the mighty Battle God.

They talked amiably for a while, familiarizing themselves with each other. The ones who were not that familiar with Ye Xiu slowly relaxed when they saw that Ye Xiu was not an overbearing senior.

“Is that true? I heard that Excellent Era replaced you with Sun Xiang without discussing it with you first?” Wu Qi asked bluntly after he was sure that Ye Xiu was really a chill person. “And they even told you to retire or be a training partner?”

Zhou Zekai shot him a glance and Fang Minghua stomped on the guy’s foot, earning him a yelp. Fang Minghua beamed at Ye Xiu. “Please don’t mind him, Senior.”

“But Li Xun said—“

Fang Minghua ground his foot harder, earning a whimper.

Ye Xiu smiled in amusement. “It’s merely a disagreement, honestly no one can be blamed. Every team would settle for a better choice.”

“A disagreement got you to terminate the contract in winter transfer with Sun Xiang immediately transferring over?” Wu Qi asked and Fang Minghua regretted that he didn’t educate this one better before meeting Ye Xiu like this.

“Please, don’t listen to him,” Fang Minghua struggled to smile.

“But how could a Berserker suddenly turned to be a Battle Mage, though?” Du Ming asked. “I mean, he was great for the last few matches, which is weird.”

“Du Ming,” Fang Minghua shot him a look.

“Conspiracy said Excellent Era had offered him the position long before the season’s Winter Transfer Window,” Wu Qi said. “Li Xun said—“

“Can’t you stop listening to Void’s rookie, have some common sense,” Fang Minghua cut him off.

“I always thought that Samsara is pretty lowkey, but it seems like I was wrong. You are all quite lively,” Ye Xiu commented. Really lively.

Zhou Zekai sighed inwardly. He knew his team’s youthful personality could be a headache sometimes, although he never complained because they kept him from having to force himself to talk. “Everyone, please.” The two words from the captain caused the team to smile sheepishly.

Zhou Zekai took out his wallet and gave one of his credit cards to Fang Minghua who looked at the card blankly before gazing at the rest of the team.

Although it was usually hard to understand Zhou Zekai’s intention without Jiang Botao around, everyone always understood things involving money faster. Lu Boyuan smiled when he saw the credit card. “Rather than asking questions that are none of our business, how about you guys decide what to order for tonight’s welcoming party? Senior Ye, you too, please do whatever you want.”

Ye Xiu gazed at this group of youths who all excitedly browsed for which restaurant they should order from as the money would come out of their captain’s pocket.

Ye Xiu smiled slightly. The liveliness somewhat reminded him of the old Excellent Era, that was a good memory.

Seeing Ye Xiu smiled, Zhou Zekai’s heart settled. It was good to have a lively and simple team after all.

Ye Xiu became really free on the days following All-Stars Weekend. He was happy to see Su Mucheng again after quite a long time but he liked the way he lived now. H City was quite nearby and Su Mucheng was doing alright, so the suspicion regarding Su Mucheng and his reliance on each other was not that severe, after all.

These days, Ye Xiu familiarized himself with the schedule on the team and also the team’s dynamic. He also learned how to leave the building undetected since Samsara’s fangirls were quite diligent in their ‘passing by’ activity, no doubt hoping to catch a glimpse of the devastatingly gorgeous captain of the team.

Ye Xiu also quite liked the Battle Mage account the team had prepared for him. There was an argument on whether or not to buy a professional account, but since no Battle Mage account was quite as illustrious as One Autumn Leaf and they were running out of time, they decided to pick the best Battle Mage account in the storehouse and worked on it to become better.

Not to mention, with their plan to keep Ye Xiu’s transfer a secret they couldn’t exactly be subtle by buying a Battle Mage account.

Fluttering Fallen Leaves*.

Truly tasteful.

Finally, the important weekend arrived and Ye Xiu left without the team just for the sake of secrecy. He donned a light disguise and met up with Chen Guo and Tang Rou who had come to watch. The two women checked him for a while and noted that he didn’t look that ruffled at least like the first week he was with them. Ye Xiu didn’t know how to answer that.

After chatting with them to feel comfortable in his hiding from the eyes of pro players up until they all sat on their seats, Ye Xiu left and returned to his position as the ‘special guest’ and received the call from Su Mucheng.

They didn’t talk long as Ye Xiu could hear from her voice that she was thrilled to watch his show later and on the verge of giggling endlessly.

From this seat, Ye Xiu could see the pro players’ seat and his eyes immediately zeroed on Excellent Era’s. In the end, he still sat in a special seat but was no longer a part of the same team.

The stadium dimmed down and the stage lighted up. With a burst of dazzle, the first avatar to be introduced manifested and Cloud Piercer raised his gun, shooting towards the sky as more pillars of light manifested around him and flew to many other directions.

Ye Xiu’s attention was quickly shifted.

This year’s All-Stars weekend truly gave their money back to the fans. Tang Hao’s amazing victory, Sun Xiang and Han Wenqing, Gao Yingjie and Wang Jiexi, Ye Xiu felt pity for Tiny Herb’s Qiao Yifan, the teen had been under Ye Xiu’s teaching for a week due to happenstance and he seemed to be eager at the prospect in Ghostblade.

Too bad Li Xuan was not playing the gentle senior role today.

Ye Xiu was going to go and try to talk to Qiao Yifan, however, he was called in at a crucial time and could only helplessly followed Samsara’s staff for his dramatic introduction and announcement of transfer.

“Wait, are you serious?” Ye Xiu asked.

“Of course, god Ye,” the staff was a girl around Su Mucheng’s age, she seemed upbeat and had introduced herself as Ye Xiu’s fan- actually, she said she was a fan of every good-looking male players when she saw Ye Xiu was also quite good-looking, she declared herself a fan right away.

“Han Wenqing just beat Sun Xiang,” Ye Xiu said. Not to mention, his long-time rival just name-dropped him after schooling Sun Xiang. “What about the other rookie? As expected it’s a bit shameless for me to take a rookie’s chance to challenge his idol.”

“God Ye, this is a genius scheme to announce your transfer. Two handsome avatars will fight outright in a small map. The Battle Mage is suspiciously talented and the handsome Sharpshooter struggled for quite a bit. Finally, the truth will be revealed, and BAM!”

Ye Xiu recoiled a bit at her voice’s sudden boost in volume.

“It turned out the Battle Mage is not a rookie but the lost Battle God,” the girl, Lu Cai, exclaimed in excitement. She was, without a shadow of a doubt, a part of the PR team, okay...

Masking as a rookie, how embarrassing.

The stadium’s lights suddenly went out and the unified gasps of the audience resounded. That was his cue.

Ye Xiu rubbed his shoulder that had been slapped by the excited PR girl and went to enter his player’s booth. On the way, he nearly bumped into someone.

“Senior?” It was Zhou Zekai.

“Is that you, Little Zhou? Sorry, it’s really dark here,” Ye Xiu said.

“Mm, to the booth?” Zhou Zekai asked simply, of course, the entire Samsara already knew the shameless scheme of transfer announcement.

“Yeah.”

Zhou Zekai grabbed Ye Xiu’s hand and led him, Ye Xiu wholly trusted Zhou Zekai’s familiarity with the layout of his home stadium and soon they reached the player’s booth. Zhou Zekai personally opened the door for him and Ye Xiu stepped inside.

“Thank you, Little Zhou,” Ye Xiu said to the dark silhouette. Now his eyes had become quite accustomed to the dark, he could see Zhou Zekai’s handsome face even for a bit.

“No problem,” Zhou Zekai nodded and closed the door for him.

The ‘power outage’ persisted for another minute and a half before the stadium light up once more. The announcer apologized for the electrical error and resumed the event urgently by just announcing Zhou Zekai’s turn and a rookie from Samsara who were already on their booths.

The mc played it off so well. When the organizers asked him to act urgent to finish the event on time after the ‘power outage he knew it was planned and quickly got into action. Even he himself was pleased with his acting.

The pro players settled back to their seats and looked at the time. They didn’t think too much about the arrangement nor they questioned which Samsara’s rookie that the team sacrificed for Zhou Zekai. Either way, they knew it was arranged so had little opinions about this arrangement from the host team.

Su Mucheng initially didn’t have any suspicion regarding the power outage, but the moment she saw that they didn’t announce the rookie’s name nor they had the introduction happened on stage, she knew she was at the moment she was waiting for.

Her suspicion was confirmed when a Battle Mage appeared on the stage, on the other side of the Great Gunner.

The map chosen for this fight was relatively small and one of the simplest direct maps in Glory. The scale for the avatars didn’t change much from real-life people’s scale.

The crowd cheered for Cloud Piercer’s handsome form as the countdown started.

“What a direct map,” Yu Wenzhou commented as Huang Shaotian leaned back lazily. Blue Rain’s Sword Saint had no interest in watching the host team’s farce to push Zhou Zekai up.

Once the countdown stopped, Fluttering Fallen Leaves immediately struck out with his Battle Spear and Cloud Piercer instantly dodged to the side, shooting.

The awaited methodical and boring match never arrived, the pros all straightened when the fight reached two minutes mark yet no side was at a disadvantage.

Huang Shaotian was browsing his phone at this moment, mindlessly liking his fellow pros’ posts prior All-Stars weekend. Su Mucheng’s selfie, Chu Yunxiu’s food vlog, Fang Rui’s melodramatic picture with a stupid poem accompanying it, Yu Wenzhou’s boring update on the team’s arrival to S City for All-Stars, Tian Sen’s protein shake recipe, Su Mucheng and Chu Yunxiu’s selfie, Zhang Xinjie posted a link about healthy life- who the hell cared? But anyway, he liked them all to show his support and deceived his fans that he was living a healthy life or at least tried to.

Yu Wenzhou was different from his vice-captain. When the match still went on furiously in spite of a few minutes passing, he took out his notes and began to jut down his observation absently while still watching the match.

On the other team’s seats, Zhang Xinjie had long taken his own notes and readjusted his glasses. He finally could resist asking. “Samsara has a rookie this good? Why not let him play more?”

Han Wenqing only hummed. He initially thought it was only for show, but a few minutes in, he knew if someone could make a show this good and consistently, he should be in the main roster. A thought occurred to him and he looked at the stage in suspicion.

The fight dragged on for almost as long as Han Wenqing v Sun Xiang’s match.

When Huang Shaotian noticed that the match had yet to end, he finally looked back to watch and was speechless. Damn! This was what he missed?! Who the hell was upstage against Zhou Zekai?!

Fluttering Fallen Leaves skidded back from Cloud Piercer’s Thunder Snipe which took off a massive chunk of his health and also widening the distance between the two avatars as Cloud Piercer fell from his perch at a higher-point building.

Fluttering Fallen Leaves didn’t hesitate. His Battle Spear turned into a dragon and, with a strong conviction, he thrust it forward.

Everyone watched as the black dragon soared, suddenly having a sense of dejavu from the earlier fight.

Rising Dragon Soars The Sky!

Cloud Piercer twirled in the air and readied his guns, with rapid gunfires that changed his trajectory, the Sharpshooter managed to avoid the dragon. The crowd cheered at Zhou Zekai’s dazzling display of instant decision-making and speed to have that possible. Aerial Fire could only do so much in the face of danger, if it was Aerial Canon- it was possible. But Zhou Zekai made Aerial Fire possible!

The fans’ cheers halted abruptly when the dragon suddenly turned its head and clamped its jaw on Cloud Piercer. The massive loss of a chunk of his health also startled Zhou Zekai who immediately smiled and returned his focus.

The two avatars both lost a chunk of their health and once again at a standstill.

But at this moment, the alarm sounded as the ten minutes limit mark that Samsara had placed had been reached.

Cloud Piercer was pronounced the winner with his slight health advantage.

This all happened in a short five seconds and everyone could only gaze at the holograms in shock, not yet able to react. The fans were the first to react and cheered for their idol’s awesome victory, but the pros didn’t pay attention to Zhou Zekai’s victory at all.

Han Wenqing stood up. “Who’s the rookie at the booth?!”

His stern voice snapped every pro awake from their shock. Huang Shaotian screamed.

“THE FUCK?!?!”

“Dragon Raises Its Head!!!”

“Ye Qiu?!”

Zhou Zekai got into the stage alone and the cheers from the fans were near deafening. He nodded at the host and took the mic. “Thank you,” Zhou Zekai said simply and all the pro players glared at him.

Jiang Botao got up after him as the vice-captain of the host team. He took another mic and waved to the crowd, most of them already started to realize the last move in the match was Dragon Raises Its Head and began to have some doubts. The vice-captain quickly dispelled all the confusions.

“Thank you for coming to the first day of All-Stars Weekend, everyone. After several hiccups along the way of documenting. We, from Samsara, are pleased to announce Ye Qiu’s transfer to Samsara!” Jiang Botao announced.

All the pro players stood up in disbelief.

The audience was in a state of absolute shock, they couldn’t speak at all.

Wait, transfer? The last news from Samsara regarding Ye Qiu was their intention to make him a special guest in All-Stars! He wasn’t a guest? He was a player!?

“YE QIUUU!!!??”

“@*&^#!$AS^*&%!!!! TRANSFER?!”

“Bravo! Bravo! Spectacular performance!” Su Mucheng clapped her hands with gusto.

“Alright, that’s about it. Thank you for coming everyone! See you tomorrow!” Jiang Botao quickly ended his ending speech as a vice-captain.

“Thank you,” Zhou Zekai said and easily handed over his mic and escaped backstage.

The team announced the ground-breaking announcement to everyone and then quickly left before everyone could digest the news properly. The stadium was filled with screams and yells of incredulity even as the main light went out to signify the ending of the even for the night.

They hadn’t even digested the match between Zhou Zekai and Ye Qiu and the implication towards the previous match with Han Wenqing against Sun Xiang, how could they digest the news of the transfer too?!

The fans were made sleepless that night. Samsara’s abrupt announcement, Ye Qiu really transferring to another team, Dragon Raises Its Head, Han Wenqing’s speech, the contrast between two last matches, Ye Qiu really officially not Excellent Era’s, what would Samsara plan now, how could Ye Qiu really quit Excellent Era???

Excellent Era’s fanbase was devastated. Not only because the new captain failed in his performance, but the old captain had changed camp and even spectacularly showed how he still retained his peak skill.

What? What did Samsara have that Excellent Era didn’t? Obviously, Excellent Era was a better choice, it was a powerhouse team with three championships under its name, the very same championships that Ye Qiu helped to attain. How? Why?

They still held some kind of hope previously. Even though the post, the very first post Ye Qiu ever made on his Weibo, was there. They still held into a bit of hope that Ye Qiu would just retire because that would hurt less.

The absence of news from Ye Qiu for the whole Winter Transfer Window gave them hope and reassurance, but now it felt like a slap in the face.

What kind of disagreement Ye Qiu and Excellent Era had to part like this? For Ye Qiu to even go to another team that didn’t even have a single championship under their name?

Not to mention as merely a team member too! No matter what, with Ye Qiu’s greatness, shouldn’t he be the captain?! How could he be okay with it?!

The fans furiously sent e-mails to Excellent Era, asking the team to tell them the details of Ye Qiu and Excellent Era’s disagreement. Even by sacrificing their sleep, as long as they could get an answer, they would do it! A veteran fan account even gathered up many Excellent Era’s fans and make a petition to know the reason behind Ye Qiu’s contract termination on Weibo.

It was obvious that Excellent Era began to flail in their management once the news came out. No matter how much they prepared, they never thought Samsara’s announcement would be this grand. They already knew Samsara would most probably announce in All-Stars weekend, but the more important aspect was how he was introduced.

To think Ye Qiu and Zhou Zekai would reenact the near-identical battle between Sun Xiang and Han Wenqing... Not to mention Ye Qiu essentially gave a nod to Han Wenqing’s claim about him being better than Sun Xiang by making that Rising Dragon Soars The Sky hit Cloud Piercer.

Excellent Era’s PR team tried to control the wind of opinions. In another reality with a different situation, they could easily do this and turn everything against their former captain as the thankless greedy person who just left his team without much thought.

But Ye Xiu had Samsara’s PR team behind him now. And fortunately, Samsara’s PR team was just better at handling this compared to Excellent Era’s, in fact, if it got to be said, Samsara’s PR team should be amongst the top best three amongst all the teams’ PR team.

Zhou Zekai couldn’t just be a quite famous part-time model while being a professional gamer at ease without a good PR, after all. Although they couldn’t compare to Blue Rain’s PR team who had to handle Huang Shaotian’s blunders frequently, they were still good at herding opinions.

In any case, the PR war was not the pros’ business. Their business was how the hell Ye Qiu got stranded in Samsara- well, granted, it was one of the closest cities to his original living place, but still!

Zhou Zekai idly browsed through Weibo in his second account the next morning. He was quite satisfied with the result of the night before while also reporting every offensively negative comment about it.

His heart was delicate, he couldn’t bear to see Ye Xiu get scolded by irrational fans... or was it anti-fans now?

“You’re just going to get tired reporting all of those.”

Zhou Zekai looked up from the sofa and saw Ye Xiu leaning over him from behind, obviously also peering on his screen.

“It’s hateful,” Zhou Zekai defended and reported another comment.

“You’re going extra mile for people who don’t have anything to do,” Ye Xiu said and shook his head.

“Not for them,” Zhou Zekai said simply. “For you.”

Ye Xiu blinked and chuckled when he heard that. “Thanks. But you don’t have to do that. People will always have opinions, we can just choose to ignore it. We’re here to win a tournament, not gathering fans.”

Zhou Zekai paused when he heard that and put down his phone. “Right.” He nodded. He’d just hand it later to the PR team, they’d have a way to delete them all without reporting them. “Am I meddling?” he asked.

“Not really,” Ye Xiu said. “You’re being a good captain, but there are some moments where you just have to step back. As long as it doesn’t affect the team and performance, you don’t have to concern yourself with it, Little Zhou.”

Zhou Zekai nodded. “Okay.”

They sat in silence for a while with Zhou Zekai messaging Jiang Botao, hoping he was already awake, so he could translate what Zhou Zekai wanted to say in a more eloquent way. Suddenly, Ye Xiu laughed, catching Zhou Zekai’s attention.

“Sorry,” Ye Xiu stifled a chuckle. “I still can’t get used to it. Having a captain, I mean.”

Zhou Zekai pursed his lips and smiled gently. There were a lot of things Zhou Zekai wanted to say, ultimately, he couldn’t choose which one he wanted to say. Zhou Zekai despaired over his stupidity so he could only pick up his coffee cup and took a sip of his morning coffee.

Seeing Zhou Zekai obviously flustered, Ye Xiu smiled. “I used to have one, but he couldn’t be captain in the end,” he said to ease Zhou Zekai’s nerves.

Zhou Zekai looked up in surprise. “Someone else...?” was to be a captain? Over you?

“It’s a long time ago,” Ye Xiu nodded. “He used to play Sharpshooter, just like you.”

Zhou Zekai’s heart raced. He opened his mouth to ask, but the question halted in his throat. This time, it wasn’t because of his nervousness in the face of his crush. It just felt his instinct decided to stop him from asking.

“Unfortunately, it wasn’t meant to be,” Ye Xiu picked up a brochure of All-Stars weekend and smiled lightly when he saw Sun Xiang behind One Autumn Leaf. “It’s a bit late, Little Zhou. But thank you for trusting me so much to want me in this team.” He put down the brochure and gazed straight at Zhou Zekai.

“I’ve said this to Little Jiang before, but I haven’t yet said this to you yet.”

Zhou Zekai put down his cup and looked back into Ye Xiu’s eyes. There was a bit of exhaustion in those eyes, like a scar, Zhou Zekai didn’t have to wonder who inflicted those as he had noticed it from just over a year ago and it had been more prominent when Zhou Zekai met him in that Internet Cafe in H City.

However, today, the same pair of eyes gazed at him. Brighter, as if he finally found a light at the end of the tunnel. And those eyes were directed at him.

“Captain, I’ll do my best to contribute to this team. You will not regret my presence,” Ye Xiu stated proudly.

Zhou Zekai’s lips quirked up. “I won’t.”

That’s the Battle God Zhou Zekai longed to see.

Chapter Text

#Ye Qiu’s Transfer To Samsara#

#Ye Qiu’s Dragon Raises Its Head#

#Excellent Era’s Blunder?#

#Ye Qiu v Zhou Zekai#

#Sun Xiang v Han Wenqing#

#Best Battle Mage#

Sun Xiang was in a bad mood ever since the first night of All-Stars ended, he was inconsolable. No one dared to talk to him at all. It was enough for Ye Qiu’s Dragon Raises Its Head mocking him, but the fact it happened right after his disastrous loss against Han Wenqing in the second-to-last match was... really humbling.

Su Mucheng ignored the guy’s sulking and went out normally like always, laughing on phone with Chu Yunxiu, texting Fang Minghua about Ye Xiu, rewatching the recording of the last match of All-Star weekend loudly. The level of pettiness was off the roof and Sun Xiang was annoyed at her because of it.

Sun Xiang clenched his hands harder when the sound coming from Su Mucheng’s hand became lively as the sound effect for Dragon Raises Its Head could be heard subtly in the bus.

After All-Star Weekend, he’d master that micro-detail, he’d do it grander than Ye Qiu.

This was his test. The new Battle God against the previous one. Sun Xiang would not lose.

“Aww, look at you~” Su Mucheng exclaimed when she finally saw her most awaited person appear on the reserved entrance for Samsara’s players. The new colour scheme looked great on him, too great, Su Mucheng had to remind Ye Xiu later to do something about those panda eyes of his. Samsara’s colour scheme was already suited as penguins, he didn’t have to change it to panda.

“Mucheng,” Ye Xiu smiled helplessly at her and caught her in his arms when she jumped towards him.

“New jacket and it already smells like nicotine,” Su Mucheng commented but the smile on her face didn’t dim down. She beamed at the rest of Samsara and nodded cheerfully, “Thank you for taking care of him.”

“You’re acting like his mother,” Fang Minghua commented with a smile.

“I’m just a worried sister,” Su Mucheng joked back. “Sorry but be ready for me to spam DM-ing you if he’s not in front of the computer.”

“Huuuh? If my wife knows a woman frequently messages me she might misunderstand,” Fang Minghua joked back.

“No need, I already bought my own phone,” Ye Xiu said as he took out an old model of smartphone.

Su Mucheng squealed. “Finally! Why didn’t you tell me?” she pouted.

“I just have it yesterday and the number today,” Ye Xiu replied.

“Old Ye~” There was another person with Su Mucheng and she finally spoke up at the moment.

“Chu Yunxiu, good to see you here,” Ye Xiu was already used to Su Mucheng being inseparable from Chu Yunxiu when All-Stars weekend started, being the only two female All-Stars forged a great bond between them.

Chu Yunxiu pouted. “Old Ye! I’m so sorry, even though I offered to have my team house you, I can’t convince the board directors,” she whined. “Even though my plan is perfect. Misty Rain could house you and then after you, Su Mucheng will surely follow, but alas...” she sighed.

“Well, yeah, that’s your loss,” Ye Xiu smirked and Chu Yunxiu pouted harder.

“No need to rub it in. And Zhou Zekai, I hope you’re proud,” Chu Yunxiu gazed at the man beside Ye Xiu.

“Mm, proud,” Zhou Zekai nodded.

The two girls burst out laughing at that.

“Calm down, calm down, we can talk calmly,” Ye Xiu asserted solemnly to the All-Stars.

“Of all teams! Why?!” Huang Shaotian facepalmed so hard that he almost bend back.

“Samsara is the only one who offered that didn’t have their base on the other side of the country,” Ye Xiu said calmly. If he wanted to go to H City, he could just take a train and it would merely take an hour at least to get there to visit Su Mucheng. The cost was cheap and wouldn’t take much time. The same could happen to Su Mucheng if she wanted to visit Ye Xiu.

“Why is your name not listed in the official site?” Zhang Xinjie asked as he blandly showed his phone screen.

“My name is there, it’s been uploaded a few days ago,” Ye Xiu said calmly.

“No, it’s not,” Han Wenqing asserted.

Ye Xiu beamed softly at them all. “It is.”

“There’s only Ye Xiu here,” Xiao Shiqin pointed out as he looked at the site with his own phone.

Zhou Zekai smiled, feeling slightly proud for being among the first one to know and opened his mouth to boast a bit.

“Senior Ye’s name is actually Ye Xiu, haha, you don’t know that, don’t you?” Wu Qi laughed before Zhou Zekai could say anything.

“...” Zhou Zekai closed his mouth.

Jiang Botao noticed Zhou Zekai’s depression and shook his head. “It is listed, right?” Jiang Botao said.

“Don’t be ridiculous, who’s Ye Xiu, who’s Ye Qiu? How could you just change name when it suits you? Why did you change your name? Because your trademark One Autumn Leaf is no longer with you? Why not become Ye Luo* then? That would make sense,” Huang Shaotian accused

“Don’t be ridiculous, my birth name is Ye Xiu, it’s a bit hard to switch identity to Ye Luo, I don’t have another twin brother I could borrow an identity from,” Ye Xiu said bluntly.

“The fuck?” Fang Rui tilted his head.

“Ye Qiu is my twin’s name,” Ye Xiu said sincerely.

“You’re kidding,” Lin Jingyan chuckled.

“...”

“You’re not?” Lin Jingyan sweated a little bit.

As they all gazed at him in astonishment, Ye Xiu smiled.

“Anyway, most of you can’t complain about my choice of team. After all, Samsara is the only high-tier team that offered,” Ye Xiu pointed out.

“Wait, you really mean to say you’ve heard nothing from Thunderclap?” Xiao Shiqin blinked. He then recalled the management and HR team being all quiet about it and facepalmed. “I knew I shouldn’t say ‘try’ but ‘do it’.”

“It doesn’t matter, as long as you still play,” Han Wenqing said. His own team never made an offer mainly due to the belief it would be a freezing day in hell before Ye Qiu transferred over to Tyranny.

“When will you start playing?” Yu Wenzhou smiled as he looked critically at Ye Xiu and then Zhou Zekai. Two of them god-tier players on their own right, not to mention Zhou Zekai was still at his peak and Ye Xiu still proved himself to be at peak with the previous night’s Dragon Raises Its Head.

This pair would be a nightmare to deal with, but there was still a chance that the two of them couldn’t cooperate well enough as Ye Xiu just got transferred in. Moreover, Zhou Zekai didn’t have the experience to work with a Battle Mage...

“As soon as the All-Star Weekend ends,” Ye Xiu answered easily. “After all, the introduction has been done, there’s no reason to stall.”

Everyone kept that piece of information in their minds.

Zhou Zekai was unhappy. Why?

He already had what he wanted, a spot for Ye Xiu in his team. Ye Xiu already transferred into Samsara and currently sitting backstage to not reveal himself unless he needed to go upstage.

But he was still unhappy. Why?

Maybe it was because of the fact that when Zhou Zekai observed deeper, everyone talked to Ye Xiu more in that half an hour before the event started than when he talked with Ye Xiu in the last few days.

They still talked... or Ye Xiu talked. Mainly when they trained together. But Zhou Zekai barely said anything.

Here he was, feeling over the moon from their talk that morning. He was already the same team and he was even Ye Xiu’s captain now, yet he was still clueless on how to advance.

There was barely any difference, at this rate, Zhou Zekai would still be outshone by the people who were not even in the same team as Ye Xiu. Worse, his own teammates might outshine him in their friendship with Ye Xiu.

“What are you thinking about, Zhou?” Jiang Botao asked from his side.

“Talking more,” Zhou Zekai answered.

“Don’t push yourself too much,” Jiang Botao smiled wryly. “From what I see, Senior Ye doesn’t seem to mind your curtness.”

‘It’s not curtness though?’ Everyone from Samsara thought seriously. Being curt meant straight to the point while still making sense, short but concise, an example of a curt person is Han Wenqing. Their captain didn’t even reach that level yet, he was still in ‘disconcertingly quiet’ level.

“Really?” Zhou Zekai asked hopefully.

“Of course, captain!” Everyone exclaimed encouragingly in a heartbeat.

“I’m a firm believer passionate heart speaks louder than words!”

“Yes, yes, action speaks louder than words. I’m sure Senior Ye could feel your kindness.”

Zhou Zekai smiled bashfully and they all exhaled inwardly.

Jiang Botao smiled wryly. “Yes, showing him your intention is better than just talking. Have some confidence in yourself, he won’t be going anywhere.”

Zhou Zekai nodded and took out his phone. He determinedly tapped the number he had put as the number one in his quick contact.

Ye Xiu was discussing which mobile game was the best to fill in his boring time with the staffs backstage. They all had a varied suggestions for mobile games and Ye Xiu listened to them out of boredom.

“No, mobile gal games suck hard,” the assistant stage planner, Fu Yan, criticized.

“Well, screw off, this one is good. You can learn how to manage your celebrity harem as their manager, this is a must-have game for managers and PR staff alike!” The PR’s youngest member, Lu Cai, argued.

“You can always download the stage planning game, god Ye,” Fu Yan turned to Ye Xiu. “It’s a relatively accurate game depicting stage-planning in real life.”

“Or you can stare at the stock market for hours while predicting which stock will rise and fall,” the vice-manager of the financial department, Yu Leng, suggested. “It’s pretty engaging.”

“How about a cooking game?” The miserable intern, Jiang Zhao, meekly suggested.

“They’re all interesting,” Ye Xiu smiled at them all although he didn’t feel interested in any of their suggestion. They all really suggested the games that stuck to their profession the most, Ye Xiu didn’t even know most of those things.

Piiip... piiip...

Ye Xiu gazed down at his new phone and picked it up to see a new message from Zhou Zekai.

Zhou Zekai: Be at ease.

Ye Xiu paused and mused for a while.

“Brother Ye, what’s wrong?” Yu Leng asked.

“Zhou Zekai messaged me,” Ye Xiu said and showed it to them. “What do you think? It has no context.”

“Aww, so sweet! Zhou Zekai is telling you to not stress out too much!” Lu Cai, as the only girl and a big fan of Zhou Zekai, squealed.

“You think so too?” Ye Xiu smiled.

“It sounds ominous,” Jiang Zhao, the pessimistic intern, voiced out his doubt.

Ye Xiu’s smile twitched. “You think so too?”

Sweet or ominous?

As expected, Ye Xiu couldn’t understand Zhou Zekai unless it was a face-to-face talk.

On the break, Ye Xiu leisurely went to his female friends’ seats. Chen Guo was delighted to see Ye Xiu especially when Ye Xiu bought them some drinks and snacks so they didn’t have to go to buy them.

“You don’t have to!” Chen Guo gasped.

“I wanted to,” Ye Xiu said.

“You turned into quite a gentleman,” Tang Rou smirked and teased.

“It was just on my way,” Ye Xiu said helplessly. “Are you guys enjoying the show?”

Chen Guo nodded cheerfully. “Oh, yeah. Yesterday was...” she grinned and gave Ye Xiu a thumb up. “Really great! Wonderful!” she said meaningfully.

“Amazing,” Tang Rou nodded. “Were you holding back or...?”

“Oh, trust me. If I was holding back, I’ll be eradicated in the first five minutes,” Ye Xiu answered lowly. “My new captain is no joke.”

“I’d love to fight him,” Tang Rou said seriously.

“Improve first,” Ye Xiu said. “The current you can’t even touch a high-tier player let alone the god-tier one.”

“Then, can she win against mid-tier or low-tier?” Chen Guo lowered her voice.

Ye Xiu chuckled. “Optimistically,” he said idly.

After talking a while and exchanging phone numbers, Chen Guo mustered up the courage to lean in towards Ye Xiu.

“Ye Xiu...” Chen Guo blushed. “I have something to ask you if you don’t mind.”

“Su Mucheng?” Ye Xiu struck the bullseye.

Chen Guo nodded rapidly with hopeful eyes.

“No worries, you can come backstage tomorrow night when the schedule became looser, I’ll tell the staff to let you in,” Ye Xiu said leisurely. As a member of the host team, Ye Xiu could do this much.

Chen Guo happily patted Ye Xiu’s shoulder and they talked some more. Not too long afterward, Chen Guo regretfully stood up to go to the bathroom and left Tang Rou and Ye Xiu by themselves.

“You’re going to be busy after this, right?” Tang Rou asked.

“I can set aside one or two nights to train you guys,” Ye Xiu claimed.

“Oh,” Tang Rou nodded. “Bun will be missing you,” she said thoughtfully before adding, “One-Inch Ash too.”

Ye Xiu paused when he heard that. “Ah, yes. One-Inch Ash, I didn’t get to him yesterday.”

“Yesterday? He’s here?” Tang Rou asked.

“Yes, a rookie from Tiny Herb named Qiao Yifan,” Ye Xiu tapped his knee twice.

Tang Rou went quiet for a while to recall a phantom demon fight yesterday and her eyes widened. “You mean, the one that was...”

“Completely annihilated,” Ye Xiu said at the same time as her. “Yes, that one.”

“Oh... A high-tier player is hard, huh?”

Ye Xiu shook his head. “No, Li Xuan- the guy One-Inch Ash challenged, was being unnecessarily aggressive and defensive yesterday, he didn’t even play with his usual style and opted for the more solo-offensive style to win. He was probably feeling threatened after the previous two fights with rookies ended with the rookies’ victory.”

“Make sense,” Tang Rou nodded. “He should have been offensive since the start,” she commented in regard of Qiao Yifan.

“He’s a rookie, he can’t be expecting that his senior would give him that much of a hard time,” Ye Xiu shrugged. “His chance to beat Li Xuan is near zero, just like your chance to beat me. The difference is Li Xuan didn’t even give him a chance to shine.”

“I see,” Tang Rou sighed.

“Well, I’m going back now. Tell lady boss that,” Ye Xiu bade her a goodbye.

“What’s your advise if I face a pro player like Qiao Yifan did?” Tang Rou asked.

Ye Xiu paused. “Well, just do as you usually do. Being stubborn is your best trait.”

Ye Xiu felt like that advice was solid. He was never one to erase someone’s individualism while teaching them, especially if it was to their advantage and necessary.

Ye Xiu nodded as Tang Rou thanked him.

Later on, he’d regret this advice immensely.

Samsara’s people watched blankly as Du Ming lost again to the pretty guest player. They groaned and winced, but no one can say anything except for murmuring of ‘why’s amongst the players.

“Du Ming...” Lu Boyuan shook his head in pity. “Tsk, went up against a pretty lady, instead of impressing her, he lost a few times instead.”

“Losing face, he’s losing face,” Wu Qi shook his head. “Not just his face but also our faces.”

“That little sister is very courageous too,” Fang Minghua stressed. “What is he doing?”

“Ah damn, I can see Huang Shaotian cracking his fingers and taking out his phone. I don’t want to be active in the chatroom for tonight,” Wu Qi stressed as he took a peek at Blue Rain’s seat area where Huang Shaotian watched the match while typing simultaneously on his phone for what he suspected to be a live commentary on their chatroom.

Fang Minghua took out his phone and blocked notifications from Huang Shaotian directly, he always had to suffer more as someone from the Golden Generation. Truthfully, he’d rather not hear from Huang Shaotian, especially his nonsenses.

“That girl seems familiar,” Jiang Botao murmured to himself.

“Internet cafe,” Zhou Zekai said with a nod.

“Aah,” Jiang Botao blinked and nodded in understanding. “I see, no wonder.” His eyes flashed.

“When we already did great to gain face in the first day with the amazing last performance, Du Ming lost face so easily,” Lu Boyuan mocked with a click of his tongue. “This peak and then down performance will make the higher-ups noisy...”

“We should get that girl’s contact information.”

“She plays Battle Mage, tho. We already have Senior Ye. What should we do for her? Bench player? With that kind of face, the directors and sponsors will protest and force her into the main line-up,” Fang Minghua said critically and glanced at the one who suggested that sharply.

Jiang Botao smiled at Fang Minghua’s astute observation. “Brother Fang is right,” he agreed.

“Yeahhh,” the others also agreed. Everyone roughly knew the outline of problems between Ye Xiu and Excellent Era. Excellent Era got Sun Xiang who was younger, handsome, and willing to show his face to replace Ye Xiu, if they did the same with the girl on the stage, wouldn’t that be they would betray Ye Xiu too and be no different than Excellent Era?

To lighten up the mood, Lu Boyuan chuckled and said, “People might think Samsara is a team of models then...”

“The standard will be raised out of my reach...” Wu Qi said sadly with a nod.

Everyone laughed at that, when they finally stopped laughing, Lu Boyuan frowned. “Joking aside, who’s gonna stop those two people at the stage? They already went past the maximum provided time by...” he looked at his watch, “Fifteen minutes.”

“...” Everyone went silent.

“It feels longer than that,” Wu Qi murmured.

Jiang Botao looked at Zhou Zekai. “Maybe we should call Senior Ye about it?” he hinted.

Zhou Zekai’s eyes brightened. “Mm,” he nodded and took out his phone.

Everyone looked at them in shock.

“Vice-captain, we’re sending Senior Ye to teach that girl a lesson?! Isn’t that an overkill?!” Wu Qi blurted out in disbelief. He couldn’t believe his usually gentle vice-captain to be that ruthless!

Jiang Botao was speechless at the accusation, before he could explain himself, even Fang Minghua pitched in.

“We shouldn’t make Senior Ye do a labor job like that. We still have to respect him!” The Cleric player said seriously. “He’s a giant in the scene. It will only make us lose face if we send him to win back the point Du Ming lost.”

“It’s not- It’s not like that,” Jiang Botao tried to explain, a bit flustered that his usually calm senior was nagging him.

Meanwhile, Zhou Zekai already contacted Ye Xiu and he picked up. “Senior...” He greeted.

“Is it because of the girl on stage?”

Zhou Zekai nodded, “Yes.”

“I know. I’ll try to get her friend to get her back. Sorry, Little Zhou.”

“Mm, no. Not your fault,” Zhou Zekai expressed. He was right, though. It was all Du Ming’s fault, who told him to lose and who told him to always agree on a rematch?

“Oh, no,” A chuckle from the other line sent a flutter to Zhou Zekai’s stomach. “I didn’t mean to apologize, I know it’s not my fault. I’m just sorry for you to have to deal with this.”

Zhou Zekai smiled bashfully. “It’s okay.”

“Okay, I’ll have to hang up to call my friend first, okay?”

“Mm, thank you” Zhou Zekai agreed softly and hastily added a thank you.

“Anytime, captain.”

Zhou Zekai blushed. “Mm,” His lips curled to a bashful smile as he struggled to not make a fool of himself. The connection ended afterwards and he exhaled heavily as if he just went through a particularly difficult match, he leaned back on his seat while putting the phone flat on his chest. He looked up and saw his friends all stared at him with lukewarm gazes and encouraging look as though saying ‘You did great!’ and he smiled back at them.

“So, what did he say?” Jiang Botao asked.

Zhou Zekai nodded slightly. “Taken care of.”

“That’s great. We can leave it to Senior, then.”

“You did great, Zhou.”

“Senior Ye can understand Captain just fine, it seems.”

“That’s great, isn’t it?”

Team Samsara happily celebrated their captain’s small victory for a phonecall while thoroughly forgetting their suffering teammate on stage. In the end, the only one who cared enough for Du Ming was Ye Xiu who called Chen Guo and asked her to take Tang Rou back for him and his new team’s sake.

“Old Ye!” The cheerful tone of Fang Rui’s voice didn’t escape Ye Xiu’s notice, the banished Battle God nearly escaped but the Golden Right Hand was even quicker in clinging himself to the newly transferred pro.

“How could you be here?” Ye Xiu asked. “The event hasn’t even ended.”

A bell rang and the host thanked everyone for attending the second day of All-Star weekend, Fang Rui grinned.

“It has now,” Fang Rui sniggered. “I asked for a bathroom break to leave earlier, who knows I’ll see you on my walk?”

“What do you want?” Ye Xiu stared blankly at the shameless guy. Fang Rui was not one to just come and greet, at least not when he held Ye Xiu against his will by clinging to his arm like an oversized leech.

Fang Rui blinked innocently. “What could I possibly want except a heart-to-heart talk with you, of course!” as if he had yet to disgust Ye Xiu enough, he leaned his head on Ye Xiu’s shoulder spoiledly.

“...I’ll treat you ramen, do you want ramen?” Ye Xiu offered.

“Do you think I’m Huang Shaotian?” Fang Rui looked up and snorted. “No, I’m just here for the juicy details of... heh, you know... your transfer, cough! I couldn’t ask it earlier since everyone was flocking around you,” he grinned.

Ye Xiu stared blankly. “You’re a nosy guy,” he disdained.

“I’m not asking you to tell me everything. I’m just really curious how it becomes the way it is,” Fang Rui said. “You know, since Sun Xiang transferred in right when you canceled your contract,” he smirked.

“So?” Ye Xiu asked.

He didn’t bother to cover up anything for Excellent Era. Since the situation was already clear to those who were familiar with the way the Alliance worked. The fans might be clueless or in state of denial, but the pro players could see things clearly.

Fang Rui smiled. “So it’s true?”

“I can’t confirm anything without context like that,” Ye Xiu said with a smirk.

Tacit understanding passed between them and Fang Rui nodded.

“I see, I see, breaking off contract must be expensive, how much did Samsara offer you?” Fang Rui asked.

Ye Xiu frowned, it wasn’t like Fang Rui to be this nosy, pro players generally leave each other alone especially when it came about their respective team’s personal relationship or things like contract and salary.

Fang Rui finally pulled away and raised his hands in a surrendering motion. “You see... We’re having a bet.”

“Bet?” Ye Xiu paused.

“Yup, to guess how much Samsara offered you to transfer over,” Fang Rui grinned. “Season 5’s rookies are all pretty interested with the number, since, you know... you’re the only figurehead, captain, and god-tier player that ever got transferred out.”

Ye Xiu nodded. To be all of those and cancelled his contract, it was not a common thing. All teams usually made a promise to their figurehead that they wouldn’t be treated unfairly or even got transferred out against their will, that was the way for the team to truly secure their source of income from their big players.

For Ye Xiu to have a ‘disagreement’ and even cancel his contract, it was clear that the problem was bigger than anyone had previously presumed. Could it be the salary? Could it be the management? Either way, most of those were tied with a money-making scheme, so people would naturally be curious what Excellent Era failed to provide but Samsara could.

“We already placed the bet, but the owner of the chatroom himself didn’t even want to confirm anything.”

By the owner of the chatroom, Fang Rui naturally meant Zhou Zekai who was also a rookie from Season 5 and the Best Rookie of that season.

“Since you and me-” Fang Rui pulled Ye Xiu’s arm again, “-are pretty close. I thought, why not ask you directly?”

“—Senior.”

Fang Rui pulled away slightly so they could turn around to see Zhou Zekai and the rest of Samsara walking their ways.

Jiang Botao eyed Fang Rui and smiled kindly. “I didn’t expect vice-captain Fang to be here already?”

“Yeah, last-minute toilet breaks,” Fang Rui shrugged. “And I accidentally saw Old Ye so I greeted him first. You guys? Is it okay for the host team to come backstage this early?”

“It’s fine,” Zhou Zekai replied.

“You guys are not leaving so fast, right?” Fang Rui finally stepped away from Ye Xiu.

Zhou Zekai opened his mouth and wanted to say something to that. Jiang Botao saw it and tried to answer instead.

“No, we’ll be having a briefing for a while. But we won’t stay for long,” Jiang Botao said.

Ye Xiu smiled. “I’ll be talking with Su Mucheng for a bit, it’s okay, right?”

Zhou Zekai nodded. “Okay.”

Fang Rui crossed his arms when Zhou Zekai finally looked at him. “Don’t look at me like that, if you’re in my position you’ll be curious too. At least tell me which one of us is the closest to win the bet?”

Zhou Zekai was not impressed and only gazed at Fang Rui. “It’s trade secret.”

Fang Rui blinked rapidly. “Holy shit, Zhou Zekai. You’re quite talkative today. Confident, aren’t you?” he then smiled meaningfully with a glint in his eyes. “Guess a bigger chance to win could indeed change a person.”