58: Thank you to all the players in the game for their tolerance in not beating me to death for so long.
Chapter 58
When Ling Meng unwittingly became a popular anchor and was promoted to the Galaxy celebrity list, he never expected that he would receive an invitation to the opening ceremony of the Galaxy Pro League Opening Ceremony. In order to enhance the entertainment level of the league, the organizers planned to hold an exhibition game of professional players vs. game anchors on the opening day. Both Shan Zhu and Ling Meng were invited.
For the first time, Ling Meng was making an appearance at such a large-scale match. It was also the first time that he was facing so many spectators on the spot. The smile that was lit by the frequent flashes of the cameras was a little stiff.
“What should I do about my nervousness?” he whispered to Shan Zhu.
“Think about the hundreds of thousands of spectators in the live broadcast room, where you still talk and laugh. What are the thousands of people on the scene here in comparison?”
Ling Meng, who was comforted by Shan Zhu, was slightly relieved. Suddenly, there was a huge commotion in the venue. All the cameras that had been aimed at them turned in another direction. Illuminated by a spotlight, five young people wearing team uniforms entered the venue with great enthusiasm.
“Look!” Ling Meng excitedly tugged on Shan Zhu’s sleeve, “It’s FRUIT!”
Because they knew that their opponent today was the last season’s champion, FRUIT, Ling Meng had specially studied his opponent’s information online. And so he knew that the cold-looking boy in the front was the legendary underage captain, Xiang Jiao. Even with such a distance, Ling Meng can feel that his body exuded a fierce aura different from ordinary people.
Taking advantage of the camera facing away, Ling Meng and Shan Yu gossiped covertly.
“I recently reviewed a lot of FRUIT match videos. They’re really amazing, especially Captain Banana. The last time when we were able to beat them was pure luck.”
“It may not necessarily have been a fluke,” Shan Zhu reminded him. “Don’t forget we still had the mysterious Guava.”
“Yes, Guava is also a professional player. I don’t know if he’s on the scene today.” Ling Meng looked around, searching for any Guava-like people on the scene.
Ling Meng couldn’t find Guava, but then his line of sight fell on Xiang Jiao. With his hands clasped behind his back, Xiang Jiao at first glance appeared to be a long-tested veteran of the battlefield. The scene of thousands of people was not on his mind at all; his sharp gaze was fixed on Ling Meng.
Ling Meng silently shifted a few centimeters to the left and then a few centimeters to the right, confirming that Xiang Jiao’s gaze being locked on him wasn’t an illusion.
The host began to introduce the players from both sides and Xiang Jiao still stared at him. Being stared at like this had Ling Meng on pins and needles. He didn’t know when he had offended the talented captain. Could it be he unfortunately was on the receiving end of Daddy’s hospice care while growing up?
Thinking about the strength of the other side and then thinking about himself, Ling Meng felt that even if they really met in the Galaxy, he had little chance of winning.
The first person introduced by the host was the FRUIT team captain, Banana, whose expressionless face appearance on the big screen and, when his name was called, he slightly nodded his chin.
However, such an action attracted a cheer that almost overturned the roof on the spot. Ling Meng had long known that Xiang Jiao was very popular, but he didn’t expect the popularity to be so high. Scanning the audience, it was full of light boards with Banana’s name written on them and more than half of the spectators were girls.
The introduction of the other four members of the FRUIT team followed. Although the cheers weren’t small, they were obviously much weaker than the previous one. Ling Meng saw Cherry, Litchi and Pineapple who had played with them before, and Avocado, who didn’t appear last time. It looked like they were otaku similar to Ling Meng, but each of them had won the championship trophy more than once.
After introducing the professional team, the host turned around to introduce the network anchor team on the other side.
“First of all, we would like to welcome the one known by a majority of players in the Galaxy as Mang God, the top anchor —– Mangosteen!”
When Shan Zhu’s handsome-regardless-of-money face was magnified several times by the camera, Ling Meng was almost deafened by screams of the girls at the scene.
The host also made fun of him for this: “Mang God, I heard of ten girls playing in the Galaxy, eleven are your girlfriend powder, and one is not playing the game at all. Is this true?”
Shan Zhu’s answer was very diplomatic: “It would be my honor if some girls who wouldn’t normally touch the game have an interest in the Galaxy because of my live broadcast.”
Ling Meng ridiculed in his heart: Where’s the interest in the game, clearly it’s an interest in you.
“Although you are not a pro, you’re recognized as having the strength of a pro player, would you consider taking the path of a pro player?”
“My age can no longer support ten hours of high-intensity training every day. Every pro player works very hard and I admire them very much. I hope there’s a chance to participate in the professional games in other ways and play my part.”
“For example, you could do career commentary?”
“I may consider trying.”
“Well, I think there would be no trouble with selling tickets at the scene of your matches.” The host joked, Shan Zhu smiled, and again there were screams.
“The next one is also very familiar to us,” the host resisted laughing for the sake of his professionalism. “His long-term perseverance is the reason for the black powder conversion of a majority of players. He is newly promoted anchor in the Galaxy, popular for his special style. What should we call him, Lemon or… Lemon Daddy?”
“Lemon Daddy! Lemon Daddy!” The fans of the audience held up Lemon light boards and chanted loudly in unison at an alarming pace.
Ling Meng was very embarrassed and waved shyly.
“Hello, everyone, I am Lemon.”
“Usually at this time, shouldn’t you be saying ‘Daddy’s here’?” The host didn’t intend to go easy on him.
With the roar of the audience, Ling Meng blushed and said: “Thank you to all the players in the game for their tolerance in not beating me to death for so long. It’s totally unexpected that I can stand here alive today…”
“Hahahaha…..” Laughter rose from the audience.
“To be honest, when you left your hospice care after your first victory, did you ever think there would be such a day?”
“I never thought about it.” Ling Meng said honestly, “At the time, it was for fun and there was no malice at all.”
“Have you ever been criticized for this?”
“Too many times, everybody scolded me at first, but I thought, nothing will happen to me if you scold me, you can’t hit me anyway……”
“Hahahaha……”
“If you could start all over right now, would you still stick with being Lemon Daddy?”
“Now? Definitely not now. There are so many people on the scene, in a fraction of a minute they could hit me……”
“Hahahaha……”
“When Mang God was introduced right now, you covered your ears. I ask out of curiosity, what do you think of his girlfriend powder?”
This emotional host was also part of the gossip group. Ling Meng answered while muttering in his heart: “How to feel? Should I look with envy? I think normal boys will envy boys who have more girlfriend powder.”
“Us boys will envy the boys who have more girlfriend powder, that’s good.”
Ling Meng: ……
“Hahahaha……”
“A sneak interview for Mang God, one sentence, does Lemon Daddy get annoyed that you have a lot of girlfriend powder?”
Shan Zhu was very calm: “A lot of girlfriend powder is not a lot of girlfriends, otherwise, is the mother powder across the world all mothers?”
Ling Meng: …..
“Hahahaha…”
Ling Meng’s interview time was up and the host would give up after receiving one last answer.
“Finally, what does Lemon Daddy want to say to the audience?”
“I would like to say that the special style just mentioned by the host is not a positive example. Please don’t follow suit. I hope everyone here can play civilized games. Thank you all.” Ling Meng bowed and won thunderous applause.
After introducing the players on both sides, the players shook hands with each other. When they came to Ling Meng, Ling Meng took the initiative to reach out, but the first one, Xiang Jiao, did not shake back.
Ling Meng’s hand was a little awkward hanging in the air. Now he needed to rethink whether he had ever given the other hospice care.
“Uh……”
Just as Ling Meng was struggling, Xiang Jiao grabbed his hand and shook it, then released it. The whole process took only two seconds. After he left, Ling Meng hid his hands behind his back and rubbed his hand in the place where the camera couldn’t see – just for a handshake, why the use of so much strength?
The players from both sides were seated. The equipment on Ling Meng’s side had been uniformly provided by the organizers. Each member of FRUIT had their own keyboard and mouse, which looked professional.
“Looking with envy.” While waiting on the face-to-face debugging process, Ling Meng expressed his longing for the equipment of the professional players.
“It’s good that we didn’t bring our own equipment,” Shan Zhu said.
“Why?”
“It’s impossible for us to compete against a pro team. From the start, this is an entertainment-focused exhibition match. If special equipment was brought, it would appear like we were using too much effort.”
Ling Meng thought it over carefully, if they were serious and lost terribly, it would be really humiliating and they’d lose face.
“Rest assured, the other side will act appropriately, all we need to do is show off the spectacle of the game.”
The waiting process is quite boring; Ling Meng took out his phone to check the Baidu entry for Xiang Jiao.
“You know what? The captain of FRUIT has been staring at me the whole time and his expression is very gloomy. It’s as if I offended him.”
“It’s hard to tell. After all, you’ve offended too many people in the game.”
Ling Meng didn’t believe it: “Do you think that I could give him hospice care? It doesn’t make sense that I could give him hospice care.”
“Look,” he read over Xiang Jiao’s career record. “Banana entered the e-sports league at the age of fifteen and won the world championship when he was sixteen years old. World champion, eh, what is that? Furthermore, he had played for just one year.”
“Then why didn’t he play the game before?”
“It’s written here because the developers didn’t expand in the domestic market well, leading to the game being relatively unpopular in the country. The team collectively jumped to Legend of the Galaxy and also won the domestic championship within a year, during which Banana’s contribution was indispensable.”
“Galaxy is said to be entering the international market soon, they were right to switch jobs.”
“And, oh, someone added up all the bonuses Banana earned in big and small competitions after he came out and the total amount is……”
Ling Meng counted one by one. At the end of the count, he thought he made a mistake and went back and counted again.
“…unexpectedly, it’s 40 million?!” Ling Meng exclaimed incredulously.
“That’s US dollars,” Shan Zhu reminded him.
Ling Meng’s mouth was open wide enough to stuff in a lemon: “A minor sitting on hundreds of millions of assets?” ($40M is 270M CNY)
“Far more. Seventeen years old is the golden age of e-sports players. Even if he retires at twenty-five, there will still be a bunch of live broadcast platform contracts for tens of millions in annual salary rushing to sign him.”
Ling Meng felt a little sentimental: “How can the gap be so big when the other is only seventeen years old?”
“But it’s very rare to have one with his kind of talent and it’s difficult to find a second one in the entire e-sports circle, just like you.”
“Like me?” Ling Meng pointed at his nose.
“As you just said, since you gained popularity, how many copycats have emerged. After all, there’s nothing technical to claiming to be a father, anyone can imitate it.”
Ling Meng was irritated: “But I was the first one to do it and I’m sticking to it!”
“Yes, because you were the pioneer and they are all copycats, so they always get ridicule and contempt and no one can become popular in the same way. At this point, you are the same as Xiang Jiao, your success cannot be copied.”
Ling Meng had been praised, so he shyly bowed his head to look at his phone. The longer he looked, the more familiar he felt the number was.
“Hey? Don’t you think Xiang Jiao’s birthday is very familiar, isn’t it today?”
“That seems to be true.”
Ling Meng suddenly realized: “He turned eighteen years old today; the captain of FRUIT has become an adult.”
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Footnotes:
1. on pins and needles (芒刺在背): idiom meaning a burr in the back, reflecting restlessness, nervousness, or uneasiness
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I think the author included this part because she was tired of telling people to stop shipping a minor with people ??