Chapter 1 The Thunderous Rage

Afternoon, Shanghai.

Wu Yue, the owner of the FV Club, was in his office, erupting in anger.

"That Ding Gan and his cronies are going too far!"

"Just because their team fell apart, they're coming to dismantle mine?"

"They're even joining forces to put pressure on us. Are smaller clubs with less clout just supposed to let them bully us?"

"And that Zhao Xuming, the dog, is acting all wishy-washy! Disgusting!"

Manager Lu of the FV Club was also indignant. "Mr. Wu, these people are all birds of a feather!"

"Zhao Xuming is clearly in cahoots with Ding Gan and the others."

"They say they're holding qualifying matches to decide who gets to go to the World Championship, but what's the point of even playing? The teams are practically decided already after the selection!"

"Our team was relatively intact, but our reputation is nowhere near as big as those other clubs, so Ding Gan is teaming up with them to pressure us to sell our players. The most infuriating thing is that Zhao Xuming pretends to be mediating but is actually on their side."

"Frankly, they just want to choose the three clubs with the biggest names and the most fans to go, and they're willing to tear down smaller clubs like ours to make it happen."

Owner Wu Yue was even more furious. "The worst part is, these guys poach our players and then tell us we made money off the transfers, that it's a win-win? Win-win my ass!"

Since he was in his own office and Manager Lu was his trusted confidant, Wu Yue didn't bother with appearances and swore freely.

Last week, Longyu Corporation and Finger Company finalized various cooperative matters, and Zhao Xuming began organizing domestic teams to participate in the qualifiers, screening teams to go abroad to participate in the IOI Global Finals.

However, they encountered a very serious problem: the teams of the major old clubs were falling apart!

Take the SUG Club, for example. Their IOI division only had three players left. How could they play in a match like that?

Other established clubs were in similar situations. Promising young talents had been poached by Lin Chang and his GOG clubs, leaving most teams incomplete.

It was like playing mahjong; how could you play with three missing?

While cursing Tenda for its scorched-earth tactics, Zhao Xuming didn't have any good solutions and could only cobble something together.

This was the World Championship, after all. They couldn't just promote rookies and start from scratch, right? They'd definitely get crushed, so they might as well not go.

So, in order to shore up the weaknesses of a few teams and make them capable of competing in the World Championship, they had to dismantle the other teams.

Then the question became, which teams to dismantle and which to reinforce?

Obviously, they could only dismantle the smaller clubs and reinforce the larger ones.

From Zhao Xuming's perspective, even if he didn't consider the financial aspect, he had to consider fame and popularity.

Established clubs like SUG had a large fan base in the country and a certain amount of international recognition. Sending such teams to the World Championship could represent the domestic IOI e-sports scene.

As for small clubs like FV Club, their popularity was too low. They weren't well-known at home or abroad and were far behind in terms of generating hype.

After all, Zhao Xuming was well aware that the primary purpose of the IOI World Finals was to bring traffic to the domestic IOI server. If the traffic couldn't be generated, then everything would be for nothing.

Results were certainly important, but since they were dismantling teams anyway, would it really affect the results to decide which teams to dismantle and which to reinforce? Judging from the current competitive level, none of the teams were likely to win the championship anyway.

In that case, of course, it would be better to let the bigger clubs take the lead and attract more attention.

So, Zhao Xuming and several major clubs joined forces to buy players from smaller clubs like FV.

Player transfers were, of course, voluntary, but the pressure was also objectively present.

The FV Club was a small club, almost a glorified internet cafe team. Owner Wu Yue was funding it out of his own pocket, purely for his own interest. How could he stand up to the combined forces of Longyu Corporation and these major clubs?

Of course, Wu Yue could choose to resolutely refuse to sell players and let the team participate in the qualifiers, but would he get any good results if he offended these major clubs and Longyu Corporation?

Moreover, Wu Yue himself wasn't 100% confident in his team. What if they failed to qualify and the players hadn't been sold? That would be even worse.

So, after thinking it over, Wu Yue didn't have any good solutions and could only reluctantly dismantle his team and sell his players to other established clubs to strengthen them.

The GOG clubs dismantled the old IOI clubs, and the old IOI clubs in turn dismantled the smaller IOI clubs, creating a cycle.

Wu Yue sold his players very unwillingly, which was why he was raging in his office.

But there was nothing he could do; smaller clubs simply didn't have any say.

After venting his anger, Wu Yue gradually calmed down and waved his hand. "Forget it, let it go. You can leave now; I want to be alone for a while."

Manager Lu nodded and turned to leave.

Wu Yue leaned back in his chair, wondering if he should continue running this club.

The FV Club was originally funded entirely by him, purely for the sake of interest. He wouldn't dare dream of getting a GOG slot; he couldn't afford it. He could only play IOI to make ends meet.

But now, the IOI team had also been dismantled.

Of course, he could recruit new people and rebuild the team, but anyone with eyes could see that they had no chance in this qualifier.

Zhao Xuming had given the FV Club a slot in the qualifiers to save face, but the problem was, where could he find good players?

After all, Zhao Xuming also felt a little embarrassed about dismantling these smaller clubs, so he was giving them a qualifying spot as a gesture, knowing that these smaller clubs had no chance of actually qualifying.

Even if they managed to scrape together a team to participate in the qualifiers, they would probably be crushed by teams like SUG.

Once they missed this IOI World Championship, they would likely end up in a situation where there were no matches to play.

Wu Yue's current situation was this: the team he had painstakingly built up was dismantled, leaving only three players, making rebuilding difficult; there were no matches to play in the short term, and purely burning money wouldn't generate any buzz; he made a profit from selling players, so it seemed like a good idea to call it quits while he was ahead.

So, Wu Yue was feeling a little disheartened and didn't want to play anymore.

As he was hesitating, there was a knock on the door.

"Knock, knock, knock."

Wu Yue looked up and saw Manager Lu returning.

"Mr. Wu, something very important has come up." Manager Lu's expression was slightly incredulous. "President Pei of Tenda Group wants to come to Shanghai in person and meet with you."

Wu Yue was stunned. "Who?"

Manager Lu repeated, "President Pei of Tenda Group."

Wu Yue was completely dumbfounded.

President Pei?

Wasn't that the designer of GOG, the big boss who created the GPL League?

He wants to meet me?

Wu Yue even suspected that this was fake news because the gap between them was too big. What could be important enough for President Pei to make a trip in person?

Slots in the GPL League had already been炒 (chao – speculated) to sky-high prices, and many traditional giant companies had moved in. It could be said that GOG was currently the hottest e-sports scene in China and even the world.

And Tenda Group was the organizer of all GOG matches. The standardized contract incident some time ago conveyed a message to the outside world: Tenda had the final say in the GOG e-sports scene.

On the other hand, the FV Club was just a small private club, purely for fun, with no reputation or strength.

The IOI division's strength was barely passable, but now that two of the best players had been poached, it was instantly reduced to an empty shell.

Why would President Pei visit in person?

Wu Yue couldn't figure it out for a moment.

But of course, he didn't dare to be negligent and quickly asked, "When will President Pei arrive?"

Manager Lu replied, "He said he'll be at the Shanghai high-speed rail station in an hour."

Wu Yue quickly stood up. "Bring my seven-seater business van over! We'll leave immediately to pick him up from the high-speed rail station!"

...

Two hours later, a high-end restaurant near the FV Club.

Wu Yue, Manager Lu, Pei Qian, Zhang Yuan, and others took their seats.

They had exchanged pleasantries and greetings along the way. Now that they were sitting down, sipping tea, and waiting for the dishes to be served, it was about time to get down to business.

Wu Yue and Manager Lu were seeing Pei Qian and Zhang Yuan for the first time and found it hard to believe that these two were top figures in the GOG e-sports scene.

President Pei was unbelievably young, and his real face was actually the actor from the short drama, which surprised Wu Yue and Manager Lu. And Zhang Yuan looked ordinary, even unremarkable. It was hard to imagine that he was Tenda's top person in charge of the e-sports scene.

Wu Yue personally poured a cup of tea for President Pei and Zhang Yuan, smiling. "President Pei, President Zhang, it's a great honor to have you visit the FV Club. It was all so sudden, and we didn't have time to prepare a proper reception. We can only make do with this restaurant. Please don't take offense."

"I'll arrange another meal tomorrow, invite some friends to accompany you. President Pei, please do me the honor."

Pei Qian quickly waved his hand. "There's no need for that. Mr. Wu, please don't be so polite. I'm here to discuss business today and will be leaving tomorrow morning."

Wu Yue nodded. "Alright, President Pei, just tell me what you need. I'll do my best to fulfill your requests!"

Pei Qian didn't bother to beat around the bush and said directly, "Actually, it's nothing big. I want to invest in the FV Club."

Wu Yue was stunned, almost thinking he had misheard. "Huh?"

Invest in the FV Club?

Did President Pei know what kind of club this was?

Wu Yue looked at President Pei. "President Pei, are you serious?"

Pei Qian nodded. "Of course!"

Wu Yue thought for a moment and then said, "President Pei, if you've taken a fancy to the FV Club, I'll just sell it to you directly. A flat price of 1.5 million, what do you think?"

Wu Yue didn't dare to ask for too much because he knew very well what the FV Club was like.

It was definitely a liability, with no profitability. The players' salaries and venue rent were purely burning money. Moreover, the FV Club had no achievements, not even matches to play. There was no traffic, let alone monetization. It was simply impossible.

The only useful thing right now might be that the FV Club could participate in the IOI qualifiers, but there were quite a few teams that had this qualification. Moreover, President Pei himself had the GPL League and wouldn't be interested in this.

The remaining three players had some value, but they wouldn't earn a transfer fee if they weren't sold. Moreover, the three players themselves weren't very good, otherwise the others wouldn't have been poached, leaving only them behind.

Wu Yue didn't know why President Pei was interested in the FV Club. If he wanted it, he should just take it all. He would be happy to hand it over and take the opportunity to leave the e-sports scene.

Pei Qian shook his head. "I'm not buying the club, just investing."

Wu Yue was a little puzzled. What did that mean? Wouldn't it be better to buy it if he was really interested?

Could it be that President Pei was willing to offer much less than 1.5 million?

Wu Yue asked, "Then how much are you planning to invest?"

Pei Qian: "Three million."

Wu Yue: "..."

Three million, my ass!

The entire club was only priced at 1.5 million, but President Pei was directly investing 3 million? Wasn't that redundant?

Wu Yue felt puzzled and asked, "Are you planning to change the team name? Replace the management team? Or add advertising space on the team uniforms? Do you have any other additional requirements?"

Wu Yue was a little flustered. This amount of money was a bit too much for the FV Club. Could President Pei have arranged a scheme similar to a gambling agreement?

Pei Qian shook his head. "I don't want any of that. I'm just investing, taking a small stake, and there are no other requirements."

Wu Yue blinked, completely confused.

He could clearly buy the entire club for 1.5 million, but President Pei wouldn't buy it and insisted on investing?