ARML CH41

The next day happened to be a working Monday.

Coach Lin reported his intention to sign Xiao Bai to Mr. Chen, the General Manager of the Tianhuan Club.

Lin Feng and Chi Shuo arrived at the General Manager’s office together and described Xiao Bai’s situation in detail: “Although Xiao Bai is already 21 years old, his 5S results in the talent test show that his current condition is exactly at the peak of an esports player, no worse than 17 or 18-year-old teenagers. Moreover, this person’s game sense is outstanding, he knows how to play all sorts of Mid-laner heroes, and he secured 4 National Rank One titles in just half a month. Chi Shuo duo-queued with him privately, and the two can coordinate seamlessly.”

Manager Chen smiled and said, “Such a talent, of course our Tianhuan cannot miss out on him! For a rookie, how much should the signing fee be? If he’s really as awesome as you say, 1 million should be about right?”

Just as Coach Lin was about to suggest giving 3 million, he heard Chi Shuo say indifferently, “Add a zero at the end.”

Manager Chen: “??”

Coach Lin: “???”

Both thought they had misheard and turned to look at Chi Shuo in surprise.

Chi Shuo’s expression was calm: “If we were to poach Fang Zhengqing to our team, how much signing fee would the manager think is appropriate?”

Manager Chen recovered and said, “An international tier-one player like Fang Zhengqing who has won the World Duo Tournament, and is also the captain of the Jingzhe team—we definitely couldn’t poach him! But… his market value should be at least 25 million and above, right.”

Chi Shuo asked, “What about Zhou Jiawen?”

Manager Chen replied, “Xiao Zhou hasn’t won a world championship, but his popularity is very high, considered the most outstanding among the new generation of players. Huowen has also made it into the World Championship. His transfer fee definitely wouldn’t be lower than 20 million.”

Chi Shuo followed up closely, “If we import a tier-one Mid-laner from an overseas region, the price wouldn’t be lower than ten million either, right?”

Manager Chen nodded, “Of course. When foreign players come to our country to play matches, they are unfamiliar with the place and people, and there’s a language barrier. We definitely have to offer an eight-figure signing fee for them to be willing to come.”

Chi Shuo concluded, “Therefore, I think 10 million is relatively appropriate for Xiao Bai. His market value naturally cannot exceed world-class Mid-laners like Xiao Zhou and Fang Zhengqing. However, an eight-figure signing fee, firstly, demonstrates our club’s high regard for him; secondly, eight figures is also the treatment for a tier-one player, and he is worth this price.”

Manager Chen held a breath in his chest, almost suffocating. He composed himself before lowering his voice and saying, “He’s just a rookie who hasn’t even played a single match. Giving him 3 million is the absolute maximum! Throughout the entire league, 3 million is also the highest signing fee for a rookie. You’re asking for the eight-figure treatment of a tier-one player for him—are you crazy?”

Coach Lin was desperately winking at Chi Shuo. Chi Shuo pretended not to see and said indifferently, “Because the person we are signing is not a rookie, but a Mid-laner capable of completely breaking Tianhuan’s predicament and assisting Tianhuan to step onto the championship podium.”

He paused, raised an eyebrow, and said, “Signing a champion team member back, isn’t that worth 10 million?”

Manager Chen: “…If we were signing a champion team member, 10 million might not even be enough to sign them. But the question is, has Xiao Bai won a championship? Are you certain that after he comes, Tianhuan will be able to win a championship?”

Coach Lin coughed lightly, breaking the somewhat awkward atmosphere in the office: “Regarding the signing fee, how about we talk to Xiao Bai personally. Is 10 million his demand? Can it still be negotiated?”

Chi Shuo said calmly, “We just need to agree on a price on our end and approach him with the utmost sincerity to sign. Haggling with him isn’t like buying vegetables at a wet market.”

Coach Lin: “Cough… That’s also true.”

Manager Chen frowned in conflict: “But I can’t make the decision for such a high signing fee; it requires the club’s upper management to hold a meeting and discuss it. You make it sound nice—signing him can change Tianhuan’s predicament, can win the championship. These are all your one-sided claims. Whether this player is truly worth the club spending such a high signing fee, we still need to research.”

Chi Shuo nodded, “Alright, notify me when the meeting is held.”

The two turned and left the office.

Coach Lin sighed and looked at Chi Shuo, “Why are you turning your elbow outward, helping someone else raise their market value? A 3 million signing fee is already the highest treatment for a rookie.”

Chi Shuo looked at Coach Lin with a calm gaze, “He isn’t someone else; he will be our best teammate. If you don’t believe it, Coach Lin can wait and see. What if the Beimu team makes a move and offers him a high price, and our Tianhuan offers a lower price than Beimu? Even if we manage to sign Xiao Bai, would you feel right about it?”

Coach Lin fell silent for a moment. Thinking about it carefully, it made sense.

The capital behind the Beimu club was extremely wealthy. Moreover, Beimu’s Mid-laner would very likely retire after finishing this season. They were in desperate need of a Mid-laner; they either had to find someone from their second team to fill in or find a way to poach someone.

Zhao Xin’an was the first professional player to discover Xiao Bai. If he hadn’t happened to see the duel between Brother Yu and Xiao Bai and posted the screen recording in the group, major teams wouldn’t have noticed this rookie streamer Xiao Bai.

Beimu must also be keeping an eye on Xiao Bai. Suppose they discovered Xiao Bai’s talent for playing Mid-laner and offered a price of over 5 million to sign him. If Tianhuan proposed a 3 million rookie signing fee at that time, it would look incredibly shabby.

Although Tianhuan’s results had declined, they were still a domestic powerhouse…

Coach Lin thought for a moment, nodded, and made up his mind, “Alright, I’ll stand with you this time, and we’ll persuade the shareholders together. If you are truly certain Xiao Bai can change Tianhuan, then to be honest, 10 million is worth it! After all, even if we poached Fang Zhengqing over, he wouldn’t be able to coordinate with you.”

A hint of a smile surfaced in Chi Shuo’s eyes, “Yes. It’s actually very hard to find a Mid-laner who can coordinate well with me and has top-tier game sense. Our Tianhuan signs players not based on who is cheaper, but on who is more suitable, don’t you agree?”

Coach Lin smiled and patted Chi Shuo’s shoulder, “That is the principle. However, you should still give your master a heads-up beforehand. As long as he supports you, the other shareholders who don’t understand esports well and are only responsible for paying shouldn’t have much to say.”

Chi Shuo nodded, “I will contact Master as soon as possible and ask him to step in.”

Coach Lin stood in front of the floor-to-ceiling window in the corridor, turning to look downstairs with complex emotions. To sign a rookie, proposing an eight-figure signing fee, and even asking Captain Ming, who had been secluded for a long time, to step in. It seemed Chi Shuo was determined this time, absolutely insisting on signing Xiao Bai.

Chi Shuo was never impulsive; on the contrary, this Alpha was terrifyingly calm. Since he insisted on signing Xiao Bai, it meant there must be something unique about Xiao Bai that other Mid-laner players couldn’t replace.

How great a change would a brand new Mid-laner bring to Tianhuan?

Coach Lin was truly looking forward to it more and more.

After waking up, Ye Shaoyang routinely went to the training camp to practice heroes. This time, he practiced [Flame Goddess] and [Thunder Goddess]; he planned to get the national badges for these two heroes.

Mage heroes are broadly classified into mage assassins, control mages, and artillery mages. The four national badges he currently possessed happened to be 2 mage assassins, 1 control mage, and 1 of the most difficult artillery mages.

This naturally wasn’t a coincidence, but intentional on his part.

He believed the coaches would understand his meaning.

Control-type mages, if broken down further, included status control, such as freezing, sleeping, stunning, etc., which caused people to lose mobility; and there was also terrain control, typical examples being Flame Goddess, who laid down fire rings to block enemy positioning and left them with nowhere to step. Therefore, the next ones he wanted to get national badges for were terrain control heroes.

This type of hero is very difficult to Carry the whole game alone and requires teammate coordination even more.

Yao Mu seemed to have realized this as well. During the morning ranked matches, she actually pulled someone over to queue as a trio with Xiao Bai. Ye Shaoyang looked at the account named “Xiao Wei” in the room, stunned for a moment, and then heard Mumu’s gentle voice introduce, “This is A-Wei. A-Wei, this is Xiao Bai, who I told you about.”

A hearty voice came through the earpiece, “Hello, Mumu said you want to get the [Flame Goddess] national badge. I just so happen to want to get the [Cannon Expert] national badge, let’s play ranked together, it’ll be easier to coordinate.”

Yao Mu smiled and said, “Xiao Bai, you don’t mind trio-queueing, right? Because [Flame Goddess] and [Cannon Expert] are the coordination playstyle of the Fire Comp. A-Wei happens to want to get the [Cannon Expert] national badge, and I’ll pick [Radiant Shield] as Support, which will make it much easier to play.”

The fans in the stream chat were going crazy—

[Holy crap, why is Brother Xiao Wei here too? The top male and female streamers carrying Xiao Bai?]

[The prestige of our Xiao Bai!]

[Are my eyes deceiving me this early in the morning? Why are these three people in the same room?]

[Xiao Bai, tell us quickly, do you have backing? Who exactly are you!]

[Mumu played ranked with you for two days, and today Brother Xiao Wei also came. This stream really is Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon!]

Ye Shaoyang was also somewhat surprised by the streamer Xiao Wei’s appearance. Hearing this, he immediately said politely, “Hello Brother Xiao Wei. Trio-queueing naturally makes it easier to coordinate, Sister Mu is very thoughtful.”

Mumu laughed, “You’re welcome, everyone takes what they need. As a Support, it’s also very hard for me to increase my hero power playing solo. Our Mid, Marksman, and Support trio generally won’t crash and burn easily.”

Xiao Wei said, “Then I’ll go log into an alt account, wait for me a sec.”

A moment later, he logged into an alt account named “Xiao Xiao Xiao Wei” and joined the ranked room.

Ye Shaoyang: “…”

Your alt account really is “Xiao Xiao” (tiny)!

The three began queueing for ranked. As expected of a top-tier streamer, as soon as Xiao Wei entered the room, a teammate recognized him: “Holy crap, Brother Xiao Wei!” “A-Wei carry me to an easy win, I’ll let you have Marksman!”

Sister Mu’s alt account “Clumsy Birds Fly First” typed, “Mid, Marksman, and Support trio. Can you two pick Top Laner and Jungler? Pick a hero you know how to play, and just yield some economy to the Marksman.”

The other two immediately agreed, “No problem, no problem!” “I’m ready to be carried this game.”

After the two teammates selected their heroes, they indeed left Mid-lane, Marksman, and Support for the three of them. Xiao Wei instantly locked in [Cannon Expert], Ye Shaoyang picked [Flame Goddess], and Mumu picked [Radiant Shield].

This was the classic Fire Comp system.

The principle was using [Flame Goddess]’s large-scale fire rings to box the opponent into narrow terrain with nowhere to escape; the [Radiant Shield] Support could then jump over and stun a group of people, and then the Marksman would dish out frantic damage…

Although it was the three of them coordinating for the first time, their synergy was surprisingly seamless.

Mainly because Ye Shaoyang’s fire rings were placed far too trickily!

The Mid, Marksman, and Support trio grouped up to invade the enemy’s blue buff. The enemy Jungler quickly found that the jungle was covered in hellfire everywhere, it burned their feet! There was nowhere to step!

The result was that the [Flame Goddess]’s “Burn” debuff caused the Jungler’s health and mana to rapidly deplete, and the [Cannon Expert]’s long-range cannon throws swiftly claimed the Jungler’s kill.

The match was won very easily.

In the second game, they didn’t invade the blue buff, but instead focused their attacks on the enemy Mid-lane.

Ye Shaoyang exploded his hand speed and laid down several fire rings in a row, trapping the enemy Mid-laner right in the center of the flames. Their mana plummeted to the bottom. The enemy Mid-laner fled crying while typing in all-chat: “This is too much, no mana, I can’t even cast a single skill!”

The essence of Flame Goddess was actually blocking positioning + draining mana.

Her skill damage wasn’t high, and she didn’t deal much health damage, but as long as you touched the fire ring, your mana would rapidly bottom out. The Mid-laner laning against her would often have their mana completely burned away, rendering them unable to cast skills.

It was even more terrifying during team fights. The entire enemy team would have no mana, staring blankly as a group, only able to watch the Marksman quickly harvest them.

This kind of Fire Comp system was one of the signature playstyles developed by the Huowen team.

In the professional league, there were ways to crack it. Just pick some Mid-laners and Junglers without mana bars and go kill the core [Flame Goddess]. But in online games, very few people could coordinate seamlessly to crack the Fire Comp. Moreover, it was often the case that after the opponent selected their Mid-laner and Jungler, Ye Shaoyang would pick [Flame Goddess] last, leaving the opponent completely defenseless.

After a morning of ranked matches, the three of them formed a team and secured a 9-game win streak.

During lunchtime, Xiao Wei turned off his stream and privately messaged Mumu: “This Xiao Bai, his game sense is pretty good, he doesn’t seem as scheming as they say in the group?”

Mumu sent back a smiley face: “After all, Xiao Bai snatched their national server badges.”

Xiao Wei suddenly understood: “Oh, I was wondering why they were cursing Xiao Bai every day in the group, saying things like using a cat for hype, stepping on others to climb… So it’s fucking because they lost their own national badges and can’t get them back, that’s why they’re sour!”

The streamer Xiao Wei consistently played the Marksman role. Ye Shaoyang took all Mid-laner national badges, offending a batch of game streamers who played Mid-laner. Recently, the streamer group was cursing Xiao Bai every day. He was also curious, which was why he went to play ranked with Mumu.

Only after interacting with him did he realize that Xiao Bai’s skills were indeed very strong.

[Flame Goddess]’s movement blocking was too insane, the speed of laying down fire rings was clean and decisive, often leaving the opponent with no way out, directly enveloped and wiped out in a team fight wave.

Xiao Wei secured several MVPs in a row and even got a pentakill with Flame Goddess’s assistance! For that pentakill, Xiao Bai clearly yielded the kills to him.

Xiao Wei said, “Invite me to play ranked when you have time in the future, hahaha. Getting a pentakill today was so satisfying!”

Yao Mu sent a rolling-eyes emoji: “Kill stealer.”

Xiao Wei: “[Dog Head.jpg]”

Right at this moment, Xiao Wei and Mumu’s phones simultaneously received a message.

From Mr. Liu, the General Manager of the Streamer Department at Whale Live—

“Mumu, how did you get mixed up with that Xiao Bai? Do you know him personally?” “Xiao Wei, why are you playing ranked with that Xiao Bai? What’s your relationship?”

Both of their faces were full of question marks: “???”

Mumu explained, “Happened to meet in the Peak Tournament, thought he played well, so added him as a friend to climb ranks together. What’s wrong? We’re all streamers on the Whale Platform, playing ranked together is quite normal, right.”

Xiao Wei: “Mumu invited me. What’s the situation? Streamers on the same platform playing ranked together, isn’t that a common occurrence? Mr. Liu even sent a separate message to ask, gave me a fright.”

Mr. Liu: “…………”

He hasn’t even signed a contract yet!

And you guys are rushing one by one to advertise for him and boost his popularity?!