Sharpening The Knife Doesn’t Delay The Cutting of Vegetables With The Bow[eSports]: Chapter 80

80. Reed Grass

The cheating incident that caused a stir in the gaming community has finally settled down, and Chen Xingran has returned to ZMD, embarking on the dull and lengthy training hours once again.

That’s just how the professional gaming scene works: hype comes and goes, but results remain. Although after this incident, Chen Xingran has firmly established himself as the king of the Chinese server Destiny players, with the intense questioning now dissipated, he is still just a newcomer. He hasn’t yet achieved real success in the professional gaming scene, and there are still many areas where he needs to improve in terms of tactics and teamwork.

Thanks to this incident, the ZMD Gaming Club has experienced a surge in stock prices. Even the top management of ZMD Club didn’t expect that Chen Xingran, whom Yang Yunche insisted on bringing into the team against all odds, would bring such a big surprise in such a short time.

“Several gaming media outlets want to interview you again.”

Fu Zhou looked at the various interview invitations in his hand, rubbed his temples, and said to Chen Xingran, “They’re all well-known gaming media in the country. Are you sure you don’t want to accept?”

Chen Xingran shook his head. “I need to train.”

“Hard work is a good quality,” Yang Yunche said as he fetched a glass of water, passing by Chen Xingran and ruffling his hair. “But hype is just hype. For professional players, results are everything. Ran Bao, you’ve grown up ah.”

“…”

Chen Xingran shook his head to brush off Yang Yunche’s hand, gave him a warning glare, then turned to Fu Zhou. “Just push aside those interviews. I don’t need to get involved in these things right now.”

His self-awareness was crystal clear. These gaming media outlets were obviously attracted by his current popularity. Even if he accepted the interviews, they would likely focus not on gaming-related matters but on probing the source of his skills. Chen Xingran didn’t want to discuss it further and didn’t want to waste time on these meaningless matters to satisfy public curiosity.

“Alright.”

Fu Zhou nodded, then asked, “There’s another thing: there’s a sponsorship invitation specifically requesting you and Yunche to be their spokespersons for their new product, the latest operation cabin under the Yun Tai Group, and they’re offering quite a generous fee.”

He gestured with his hand, and Luo Baibai, who was nearby, gasped in surprise. “Yun Tai Group? The Yun Tai Group? The one listed in the World’s Top 100 Companies?”

A behemoth in the business world, a true commercial giant, with industries spanning multiple sectors. It has stood firm in the physical industry for many years and has recently acquired many well-known gaming equipment companies. There are rumors that the Yun Tai Group is interested in entering the gaming industry and may have intentions to acquire esports teams. With the financial resources of the Yun Tai Group, it’s highly likely that some of the top esports teams in the country will be changing hands soon.

“Finding Xingran and Yunche for endorsements at this crucial moment?”

Xiao Nan paused for a moment, guessing, “Could it be that Yun Tai wants to acquire ZMD?”

Yang Yunche took a sip of water and raised his eyebrows at the remark. “There’s nothing secret about it. Yun Tai indeed has such intentions. They’ve been in talks with the board of directors these past few days. However… it hasn’t been settled yet.”

As a member of ZMD’s board of directors himself, he was more well-informed about internal matters than even Fu Zhou. It wasn’t because Yun Tai’s offer was too low, but because the board of directors believed that ZMD still had room for growth in the future professional gaming scene. They were not willing to sell their shares so early.

“We can’t interfere in such matters. Let’s just continue as usual.”

Fu Zhou sighed and said, “But this endorsement offer seems quite suitable. As your first commercial endorsement, the status is more than enough. You should consider it.”

Chen Xingran didn’t immediately respond but instead looked at Yang Yunche for guidance.

Yang Yunche smiled, feeling a bit itchy to accept, but after considering Chen Xingran’s skill level, he wisely retracted his hand and said seriously, “That’s fine. Since Yun Tai Group is interested, we shouldn’t refuse. We’ll just shoot a promotional video and coordinate with their marketing materials. It won’t take much time.”

For someone like Yang Yunche, this endorsement was optional, but for Chen Xingran’s professional career, it was an incredibly perfect start. In a sense, professional players and celebrities in the entertainment industry had similarities. Being approached by a company like Yun Tai Group for their first commercial endorsement would significantly increase Chen Xingran’s value. With Yun Tai Group’s endorsement as a foundation, any future commercial activities would require a price tag that ordinary newcomers couldn’t match.

“Alright, then I’ll reply.”

Fu Zhou nodded.

There were no training matches today, so Chen Xingran spent time in his room, practicing with Fei Wei, who had just logged in.

As fellow martial artists, Chen Xingran and Fei Wei had been practicing in the training room frequently these days. Their relationship was starting to become more familiar. Besides practicing, they could also chat a bit. Both of them were sensible enough not to discuss sensitive topics like tactics, just exchanging a few words casually and discussing insights into martial arts.

In this regard, Chen Xingran was at a master level. With just a few casual pointers, Fei Wei would gain new insights. Practicing with Chen Xingran was very beneficial.

“By the way,”

After finishing a match, Fei Wei asked Chen Xingran, “Do you know about Snake King?”

“Snake King?” Chen Xingran was puzzled.

Seeing his expression, Fei Wei knew that Chen Xingran probably hadn’t been following the news. She continued, “Although All Stars hasn’t announced it officially, Snake King has been transferred to Team Three. It’s unlikely that he’ll have a chance to play on the first team in the future.”

It wasn’t that All Stars didn’t want to keep Snake King, but the protests from players were too loud. Keeping Snake King on the first team would result in even greater losses in terms of business. Although digging out Snake King cost a lot of money, the current situation forced All Stars to make a tough decision.

“What about the members of All Stars’ first team who are still without a team?” Chen Xingran asked.

“They should still be negotiating, but I guess All Stars will have a tough time this season,” Fei Wei shook her head.

Chen Xingran also felt sorry for Lu Mingyu, but he couldn’t say much about the affairs of other professional teams. He could only hope that Lu Mingyu would find suitable teammates. After all, if a strong opponent like Lu Mingyu were missing from the future professional gaming scene, it would be a regrettable loss for Chen Xingran as well.

After playing for a while longer with Fei Wei, she logged off due to other commitments. Chen Xingran returned to the game lobby and received a private message from Yang Yunche.

ZMD-Yunche: Want to play ranked?

Chen Xingran asked: Quadruple queue?

ZMD-Yunche: No, just us two, a duo queue.

Although they were all in the ZMD base, with the new season about to start, everyone was busy focusing on training. The usual topics of conversation mostly revolved around tactics. Yang Yunche couldn’t find an opportunity to spend some time alone with Chen Xingran to strengthen their bond.

This made Yang Yunche quite frustrated. In the past, he would have been pleased that his new team member was focused solely on training, never causing trouble or requiring attention like some players in other professional teams, who often made team managers worry. Chen Xingran was the dream player that many professional teams sought—dedicated, reliable, and talented.

But now, Yang Yunche felt that Chen Xingran was too immersed in training. He trained in the morning, practiced swordsmanship in the afternoon, and spent his evenings practicing tactics in the game. This made even the team captain seem a bit lazy, and it was difficult for Yang Yunche to have a conversation with Chen Xingran.

Ah, what a headache.

With Luo Bai Bai absent, Yang Yunche seized the opportunity to send a duo queue invitation to Chen Xingran, who had just left the sword training room.

However, Captain Yang’s enthusiasm was doomed to be in vain.

After some thought, Chen Xingran replied, “No, I’ll solo queue for a bit to work on my feel.”

Yang Yunche: “…”

Going solo when you could duo queue with me for some sweet games!

Captain Yang felt disappointed, even a little bit aggrieved. If this had been in the past, before Chen Xingran joined the team, when he asked Chen Xingran to duo queue, he would have eagerly agreed. How come after joining ZMD, Chen Xingran seemed indifferent to him?

Classmate Chen, you have no heart!!

Unfortunately, Yang Yunche’s complaints about Chen Xingran went unheard. After some consideration, he opened the Star River streaming platform and once again entered his own streaming room. He was close to reaching his streaming time goal for the month, and with more training matches coming up, he might not have as much time to stream. Since he had some free time today, he decided to complete his streaming hours.

As soon as his streaming room opened, enthusiastic viewers flooded in.

“Ahhhh, finally caught you again!”

“Lao po, I’m here!!”

“I can finally see the zero-motion correction in action again, ahhh”

After proving himself offline, the popularity of Chen Xingran’s streaming room had skyrocketed to an astonishing level. With his recent surge in popularity, as soon as he started streaming, the number of viewers in his room skyrocketed rapidly. In just a few minutes, he was pushed to the front page. Even the top streamers couldn’t help but feel envious.

But there was nothing they could do. People are just more popular, and they wished they had the same level of attention as Chen Xingran. Unfortunately, with zero-action correction, even if they wanted to imitate him, no one could do it.

“You don’t need to send so many gifts, everyone.”

Chen Xingran glanced at the screen full of gifts and said, “I’ll just play solo queue today. Training matches are coming up in a few days, so I’ll have less time for streaming then.”

He wasn’t lacking money now. With all the benefits from ZMD, he didn’t have to spend money on food or accommodation. Plus, with the signing fee received, after paying for the medical expenses for his genetic disease, he still had plenty of money left. Moreover, there was the endorsement deal with Yun Tai Group that Fu Zhou arranged. For Chen Xingran now, the gifts from streaming really didn’t mean much.

However, the audience didn’t listen to him. In addition to his original fans, many fans who started following him because of the cheating incident were also there. Among them, there were many fans from overseas, who enthusiastically sent gifts. Chen Xingran couldn’t thank them enough, so he had no choice but to give up.

He opened the ranked queue interface and entered the solo queue for Shura matches.

He had reached the Shura rank in solo queue, and since there were already few solo players, there were even fewer in Shura. The wait time was a bit longer than before, and half a minute later, he finally found a match.

Spawn Island Square. Chen Xingran was searching for the landing spot on the map when suddenly, someone appeared in front of him.

To avoid the dance scene in the middle of the plaza, he had hidden in a corner of Spawn Island, which was difficult to spot. But the person in front of him clearly came straight for him, as if recognizing him.

The other person was using the character Iron Chain Scythe, just like Chen Xingran, and was dressed in the default costume, looking particularly plain. Chen Xingran was somewhat surprised as he looked the player up and down, thinking of someone.

Iron Chain Scythe… It seemed like the first time he encountered Yang Yunche in the game, and Yang Yunche was playing this character.

However, the Iron Chain Scythe in front of him had no costume at all, with an unusually plain appearance that was quite different from Yang Yunche’s style. With Yang Yunche’s somewhat flashy personality, he usually wore the most expensive and coolest costumes. Even when there were no outsiders in the ZMD base, he changed his clothes every day, as if having a fashion show in the base every day, and Chen Xingran wondered who he was trying to impress.

As Chen Xingran thought about it, he couldn’t help but smile.

He didn’t pay attention to the Iron Chain Scythe player in front of him, thinking that maybe it was a viewer who had come over from the stream. But the next moment, the hand of the Iron Chain Scythe player reached out to him, holding a bunch of reeds pulled from the edge of Spawn Island.

Chen Xingran: ?

In the public voice channel, a familiar voice sounded.

“Found you.”

With a highly recognizable magnetic tone, wasn’t it his team captain Yang Yunche, who had just invited him to duo queue?

Chen Xingran chuckled and also opened the public voice channel. “What are you doing here?”

“Just because you’re playing solo queue, does that mean I can’t? ” Yang Yunche waved the reeds in his hand. “I’m here to snipe you. If you don’t duo queue with me, you won’t be able to climb ranks today.”

“HAHAHAHAHA isn’t this the voice of God Yun?”

“God Yun, I know you’re in the streaming room, come out for me!”

“Wow, today’s God Yun is actually peeking at the screen?”

Chen Xingran was suddenly amused by Yang Yunche’s childishness. “You want to steal my loot, huh?”

Yang Yunche neither confirmed nor denied it. “Hmm.”

As the countdown was about to end and Chen Xingran still hadn’t chosen a landing spot, he casually took the reeds from Yang Yunche’s hand and asked, “Okay, where are we landing?”

“Guess.”

Yang Yunche dropped the reeds and disappeared from Chen Xingran’s sight in an instant.

Chen Xingran was momentarily stunned. In the last second, he glanced at the map and chose a landing spot somewhat uncertainly.

The Eternal Spring.

As the countdown ended, all the players on Spawn Island stopped moving, and the next moment, they were teleported into the game world.

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