Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Before the 4AM gossip died down, more gossip-worthy news sprung from among the competitive esports circle. Shen Zeyan, of team IG, was rumored to have not extended his contract upon its expiry and had returned to being a freelancer.
That, along with Liu Zilang’s situation, had caused many veteran fans in the FPS circles to smell something fishy going on…
‘Don’t tell me…’
However, what they did not understand was why Se7en’s official Weibo account remained stoic as a mountain when winds of change were blowing wildly in the other major teams. It seemed like there was going to be no change in their team lineup.
Of course, it was not totally peaceful in the club.
No one knew when a group of obviously-paid mercenaries had started commenting on the club’s official Weibo account.
They commented that one of Se7en’s headliners, Li Muqiu, was too much of a newbie. Furthermore, they said that he was a ‘selfie freak’ who negatively affected the club’s image, and he should be substituted.
Li Muqiu happened to see it once in passing. He immediately howled in anger!
Putting aside the claim that he was a newbie in terms of playing skill, he would never admit that he was a ‘selfie freak’.
He only posted selfies on his personal Weibo account about five to eight times a week to share updates on his life with his fans. How did that make him a ‘selfie freak’?
Well, even if that was still too many selfies, how could it negatively affect the club’s image?
He hated the bunch of mercenaries to the bone and lurked in the comments section to find out who was the one behind all of it.
…
Meanwhile, Liu Zilang was clueless about the happenings on Weibo.
He had spent the past two days preparing for Bilibili’s BML convention.
BML’s full name was ‘Bilibili Macro Link’. It was an annual offline convention hosted by the popular Chinese video site, Bilibili.
Liu Zilang had not planned to go when he first received the invite. The convention was to be held at Jianghai’s Mercedes-Benz Arena, and its events included multiple live stage performances such as singing and dancing. There were even invited foreign guests.
As a game streamer, there was not much he could do on stage without his computer.
He changed his mind about going because of Zhang Xiaotong.
Not only was the girl a popular game streamer, but she was also a prolific video uploader on Bilibili. She was well-known for her singing and dancing. However, in Liu Zilang’s eyes, it was more like screeching and hopping.
She had hesitated when she first received the invite. She had always streamed wearing a mask and was inevitably nervous when she had to be in such a big convention alone.
She had tried to raise the topic to Liu Zilang several times, though the words stopped at the tip of her tongue each time. It was obvious to see that she wanted to go.
Liu Zilang had not noticed it at first and even nearly forgot about the convention.
As the weekend neared, his viewers began to ask him multiple times on the bullet screen if he was going to make an appearance at the convention.
Some viewers wanted to agree on a secret phrase for a personal meetup. Some viewers who lived farther away requested that he stream from the location if he went.
If he was roughed up by ‘passionate fans’, they could immediately call the police.
Liu Zilang had ignored those messages on the bullet screen. However, he was reminded of Zhang Xiaotong’s demeanor she was going through during the past few days.
He was going to accompany her there and at the same time bring Misaka Mikoto who had been crying over the past few days to lift her spirits.
Throughout the past few days, his silly disciple had become a dejected crybaby like Lin Daiyu. He was not very used to this change. 1
The sudden change in Misaka Mikoto’s demeanor had been caused by a phone call that came in on the third day after they had come back from California.
The call was from Japan.
More precisely, it was from Japan’s SST club.
Over the call, SST’s club manager had told her that PUBG league rules had become more formalized. They could not afford to follow the path of the ‘energetic girl idol group’.
In other words, they wanted to achieve tangible results in the upcoming PGI.
Hence, with very carefully chosen words, they ended her contract…
If SST’s manager had started the conversation with her termination, she might have been more accepting of the news. However, letting her know the truth behind her termination was too hurtful…
It was so hurtful that Misaka Mikoto did not hum her usual tunes when she took a bath that night.
The next day, she even broke a plate while doing the dishes.
Liu Zilang was about to chide her when he saw her tearful face. He immediately held back his words and then noted the infraction in his little notebook.
“Month X Day Y, the silly girl broke one (1) plate.”
Zhang Xiaotong was Misaka Mikoto’s good friend, and she also tried lifting her low spirits. She told her that she would definitely find a better club that would accept her.
Misaka Mikoto was pessimistic though. With a despondent face, she said that nobody would ever want her.
Misaka Mikoto only stopped being sad after Liu Zilang told her that they would be going out for some fun the next day. She even started humming tunes again in the bath.
This made Liu Zilang think that he had made a very bad decision.
…
The weekend. A sunny day.
No clouds in the clear blue sky.
The three of them had been awake since very early in the morning to prepare for the convention.
Wang Qianqian was not with them.
As the initiator and one of the organizers of the Four Heavenly Chicken Kings campaign, she was tied up with a lot of behind the scenes work.
Of course, when it came to ‘preparations’, it referred to Zhang Xiaotong and Misaka Mikoto.
Zhang Xiaotong had received an invitation to cosplay as one of the more recently popular anime characters.
Misaka Mikoto had also been invited to cosplay as another character from the same anime series.
Liu Zilang did not have much to prepare. Bilibili’s invitation for him was to live-stream from the venue, interact with fans, and bring them around the venue.
After preparing and having breakfast, the three departed together.
After a half-hour cab ride, the magnificent Jianghai Mercedes-Benz Arena appeared within view.
The atmosphere of the venue was sizzling.
The time was only a few minutes past nine in the morning. Throngs of people surrounded the arena as they waited to get in. There were people just about everywhere they looked.
It has to be mentioned that the tickets to the BML were only released on sale about a week prior to the event at eight o’clock at night. Ninety percent of the tickets were sold in ten minutes, and they were totally sold out in two hours.
One could see how popular the event was.
Among the event-goers and fans were streamers like Liu Zilang who streamed the venue while holding a selfie stick.
Liu Zilang and the others blended in with the crowd, not catching anyone’s eye.
After collecting their complimentary tickets from the organizer, they headed to the cosplay section.
The viewers in the live-stream channel were very excited when they found out that Zhang Xiaotong and Misaka Mikoto were going to cosplay. Many of them asked what she was going to cosplay as, while others offered suggestions on the bullet screen.
Someone said, “Sora is the best!”, another said, “No, Umaru-chan is the best!”, someone mentioned a certain, “Izumi Sagiri”, and there was someone else saying, “Iri, heheheh”.
Liu Zilang was puzzled when he saw the bullet screen. He had never heard of any of them.
‘Hm… why does the first name sound so familiar?’ 1