Transfer Period

The live stream chat exploded.

“Holy crap, is this for real? This person is the director of the SSQ training group, responsible for picking team members! Our little lone wolf is being targeted so quickly?”

“This is definitely being targeted! Congratulations to the streamer, about to marry into the SSQ prestigious family!! This is too fast.”

Ming Xu’s little fans, who had just been stirring up trouble in the live stream, were completely enraged.

“What are their training group doing?? Don’t they know this person was hacking and caused Ming Xu to be banned? Why are they looking for him??”

“SSQ, you’re truly ungrateful, is this how you treat your star player?”

Regular viewer: “You’re right! This lone wolf hasn’t even reached two thousand points yet, too noob. This batch of SSQ training group is no good, they’d rather have such a noob lone wolf than bother with a star player!”

Regular viewer: “This is simply outrageous! What are they looking for the lone wolf for? I’m sure everyone is very concerned about this question, and the editor is also very concerned. So why are they looking for the lone wolf? Next, we will lead everyone to explore why they are looking for the lone wolf.”

“What kind of nonsense is upstairs spouting?”

The regular viewers could always get hyped up in various situations; the demonstrations and shouts of the little fans were quickly submerged in the vast ocean of the general populace.

Just as a round finished.
Xue Wei had just glanced at the message when his phone rang in the room.

Zhao Xiaoyi, who shared a room with him, called out: “Naonao, you have a call!”

Ever since Wen Man called him that in the live stream, gradually everyone else started calling him that.

He looked back, then said in the live stream: “Wait a moment, I’ll be away for a bit.”

He turned off the audio system.

He hadn’t left his seat yet.

He asked: “Whose is it?”

“Unknown number, no note.”

Zhao Xiaoyi turned over to look.

Xue Wei’s phone was charging near the bedside table.

It was a very old phone, a model from three years ago.

The screen wasn’t maintained very carefully; it already had a crack, and the corners had scratches.

The screen displayed an unknown number.

Xue Wei walked over, glanced at the number’s origin, and reached out to hang up.

“Hung up?” Zhao Xiaoyi glanced, also seeing the number’s origin, “Nancheng, that’s your hometown number, right? I remember you’re from Nancheng.”

“Mm, that’s why I hung up.” Xue Wei unplugged the charger.

No sooner had he picked up his phone than he saw another number calling.

However, this time it was a different number, with the area code from this city.

He hesitated for a moment, then answered: “Hello?”

–Hello, are you… EGT, Now, right?
–A gentle and amiable female voice came from the other side.
–We obtained your contact information from the league events.
–I’m the team director of SSQ.
–We have something to discuss with you.
–Are you free?

Xue Wei’s voice carried a hint of indifference and wariness: “Discuss what?”

–It’s like this: our SSQ is interested in buying you to our team.
–Can we discuss the salary and transfer fee in detail later?
–The voice on the other side was still soft and gentle.
–You might not have heard of SSQ, but we are currently one of the most popular teams.
–We have three national youth training slots every year, and the club conditions are also excellent.
–We…

Xue Wei paused, then said, “Oh,” not knowing what words from the other side had touched him.

–Then… what do you mean?
–The other side also fell silent for a moment.

“I can consider it,” Xue Wei said.

–Then, do you have time tonight?
–We’re in this city.
–Can we send a car to pick you up from EGT now?
–Some things are easier to discuss in person.

Xue Wei had no objection: “Okay.”

He hung up the phone, then returned to his computer.
The SSQ director left her contact information and sent him the driver’s details online.

Xue Wei returned to the live stream.

Alan was waiting for him to duo queue: “You’re back?”

Xue Wei said: “Sorry, I have something going on. I won’t be playing today.”

He glanced at the message notification in the bottom right corner, first enabled do-not-disturb mode, and the live stream screen went black.

Viewers: “???”

“He’s on, he’s on, he won’t even let us see his desktop, he definitely has hacks.”

Alan persistently sent him a friend invitation.

Xue Wei accepted this time.

Alan revealed a relieved smile in front of the computer.

No sooner had he smiled for two seconds than the team operations manager knocked on his door: “Captain Wen called. Let’s go, time to sign someone. SSQ is trying to snatch them. They moved quite fast; I saw several other clubs also observing these past few days.”

“Who? That little practice squad member?” Alan scratched his head, “No need to be so rushed, is there? The next training quarter’s schedule hasn’t even been planned yet, and besides…”

‘And, it wasn’t even certain if that little practice squad member was hacking or not.’
He didn’t dare to say it.

Alan asked: “Setting aside everything else, just talking about money, even with our increased budget, we can’t compare to SSQ. Is Captain Wen sure?”

He coughed: “We only have dreams and glory.”

This was a very realistic problem.

Their financial budget was limited.

Aside from basic living allowances, the team members’ other sources of income were endorsements and prize money from matches.

Additionally, players who came from clubs would receive salaries from their clubs.

Most of these kids, rather than endure daily hardship in the national team, would easily give up everything to earn money at other clubs, especially since in recent years, the Chinese team’s best performance in the World Championship was only reaching the semifinals.

The World Championship prize pool of seventy million USD was high, but the risk was too great—after all, domestic endorsement fees weren’t low, right?

As long as one could become a star player, it was like sitting on a gold mine.

Wen Man himself had personally contributed a lot of money in the past.

SSQ, on the other hand, was a prestigious team among prestigious teams, having produced several national champions.

Although the main reason for winning national championships was largely due to Wen Man not participating in domestic leagues—their backing capital could not be underestimated.

While joining SSQ and staying in the national team weren’t necessarily conflicting, taking Ming Xu as an example, once a player becomes too heavily commercialized, it inevitably affects individual performance, thereby directly impacting the overall team.

“What did Captain Wen say?” Alan finally didn’t say it, but just asked.

The financial manager said: “Uh… he… made a list, telling us to buy things. Not a single thing can be missing.”

Xue Wei wrapped himself up.

He had an old, thick, dark blue down jacket, faded from washing, bought for fifty yuan from a street stall.

Though bulky, it was warm and impervious to wind and frost.

He put on his mask, hat, gloves, and wind goggles; from afar, he looked like a small bundle, his face completely obscured.

The driver quickly arrived at the club’s entrance to pick him up.

It was a luxury car, glossy black.

Xue Wei recognized it as being worth at least ten million yuan.

The driver took him to the club without a word during the journey.

The SSQ Esports Club was located in A City’s largest esports park, just a street away from the national training base.

Late at night, it was still very lively; countless fans came to check in, sightsee, and buy souvenirs.

Xue Wei got out of the car and walked into the club.

The brightly lit hall was spacious and clean, almost worlds apart from the EGT club.

The interior was crowded with people and a large amount of photography equipment; no one noticed him—under the blazing lights, team players were lined up, taking promotional photos to be made into merchandise.

Everyone wore clean, handsome team uniforms.

After standing on the periphery for a long time, Xue Wei asked: “Excuse me—”

A few assistant-like people turned to look at him.

Xue Wei said: “I’m looking for your director; I called earlier.”

“The director is on the third floor.” Someone pointed towards the elevator.

Xue Wei: “Thank you.”

He went up to the third floor and saw a room labeled ‘HR Director’. He knocked on the door.

The woman’s voice inside was the same as he heard on the phone: “Please come in.”

Xue Wei pushed open the door.
He saw two men also sitting on the sofa.

The woman introduced herself: “My name is Su Wei. This is our assistant coach and our team lawyer.”

“It’s like this, I’ve already told you the general situation over the phone.” Su Wei said with a smile, “You are currently the most popular newcomer, a solo king. We highly value your abilities and plan to sign you from EGT. If you sign with us, you won’t have to be a practice squad member anymore. We can directly recommend you as a youth trainee for the next quarter, directly entering the national team selection competition.”

“As a top-tier team in China, our SSQ, I’m sure you’re aware, won both the Summer and Winter Championships this year. Here’s a promotional video; you can take a look.”

Su Wei handed over a tablet.
It played a highlight reel of operations from the recently concluded Winter Championship.

Xue Wei watched it.

On screen, a team member completed a spectacular flank.

Su Wei’s eyes curved into a smile: “Not bad, right?”

“Very bad,” Xue Wei suddenly said.

His eyelashes were dark, slightly lowered, showing no discernible emotion.

“Um… what did you say?” Su Wei’s expression froze for a moment.

Xue Wei said: “Both this push, and the person being pushed, are very bad.”

“Little one, you might not yet understand the playstyles in professional matches; they’re different from low-ranked streaming. But you’re right, we all still need to improve.” Su Wei’s expression gradually became a little strained.

She wanted to laugh but composed herself.

She then resumed her smile, “Here’s the contract. You can have Lawyer Wang show you.”

The man on the sofa handed over a stack of contracts, his smile, like hers, indicating confidence in victory.

He demonstratively pointed to the commission calculation on the second page: “This calculation, let me do it for you. Base salary plus various competition commissions, plus live streaming profits, the most conservative figure is this.”

He made a gesture, “Three million. You can earn at least three million a year. EGT originally gave you a price that shouldn’t have been higher than this, right?”

Xue Wei was silent.

Lawyer Wang and Su Wei exchanged glances.

They generally knew EGT’s price, and it was a price from several years ago.

Also, as a youth trainee, the offer wouldn’t exceed two hundred thousand.

In fact, even for national youth trainees, before they could become starters, their transfer fees rarely exceeded one million.

Compared to star players whose transfer values often reached tens of millions, this was actually the norm for most ordinary esports players.

Most of these kids hadn’t finished high school; they were young and severely lacked experience outside of gaming.
A little bit of ‘candy’ was enough to appease them.

Xue Wei’s gaze swept over the later pages of the contract.
Although he was thoroughly bundled up, the only exposed part—his eyes—showed he was reading carefully.

A few minutes later, Xue Wei said: “Don’t you need a tryout?”

“No problem, no need, we believe in your abilities.”

“But I need to understand your abilities,” Xue Wei said.

Su Wei: “…”

Lawyer Wang: “…”

His gaze stopped on a particular line: “Also, I want to keep my account in my own hands.”

His voice was understated, yet that wild instinct subtly sent a chill down their spines.
It read: “Player account ownership belongs to the club.”

The atmosphere froze for a moment.

Lawyer Wang and Su Wei exchanged glances, both taking a deep breath, then began to smile somewhat ironically: “Alright then, you think here. We’ll head out first.”

They seemed to have other matters.

Su Wei and the assistant coach got up together.

The assistant coach said: “There are drinks in the refrigerator in the pantry, you can help yourself.”

They pushed the door and left.

In the hallway, their voices grew louder: “We need to renegotiate the endorsements for next season. Besides Ming Xu, we need to convince them to sign…”

The office was empty, with only the warm air blowing, feeling a bit dry, hot, and stuffy.

Xue Wei sat on the sofa, watched an entire SSQ team match, then took out the paper and pen he carried with him.

He seriously wrote on it: “If you can let me keep my account, I will come to your team, and I will also tell you the solutions to your team’s problems. Contact number: XXXX”

He placed the note on the table, then stood up, walked out from the third floor, his back figure cold and silent.

“You want us to buy… strawberry milk, chocolate bars, mango pudding, and… what kind of random snacks are these?”

The team manager scratched his head, turning to Alan: “So I’ll buy the stuff? You go pick him up?”

Alan glanced at the message: “SSQ said they already sent a driver to pick him up… that was half an hour ago! Damn it, if I don’t snatch that wolf cub back, Captain Wen will kill me! I’m going!!”

He grabbed his phone and rushed out, not even having changed out of his pajamas.