Quadruple split.

Chapter 2801 Interlude: Past Events

"A little more powerful than the Awakening Dragon?"

Mo Tan looked at the serious-looking Romeo with a suspicious expression and asked curiously, "A foreign professional gamer?"

"Ah."

Boss Luo smiled dismissively and shook his head, saying, "You're overthinking it. Although there are winners and losers on the field, as far as I know, there is no foreign professional player who is better than our Xinglong. Even those Koreans who liked to show off when I was young, none of them can surpass Xiao Li in terms of personal qualities and professionalism."

Mo Tan's expression grew increasingly bewildered. He asked in confusion, "Then I don't understand. Logically speaking, the people you can find, Lao Luo, are basically all within this circle. Xinglong is the highest-level professional player in China. Yet it's neither him nor those foreign professional players I'm not familiar with."

"Xiao Li is very capable, but let me tell you something I should never normally say..."

Romeo crossed his arms and said with a somewhat complicated expression, "In my personal opinion, although he is an amazingly talented young man, in terms of 'gamer' or 'professional player,' putting aside professional ethics and morality, and putting aside cooperation and tacit understanding with the club, if we are just talking about 'strength,' he is indeed not the strongest."

Mo Tan frowned, looking at the owner of [Crimson Constellation], and said in confusion, "Hey Lao Luo, do you know that almost half of [Crimson Constellation]'s current success was built by Xinglong, punch by punch. It's fine if others step on him, but you can't be so disheartening to him."

"Did I break his heart?"

Romeo sneered and glanced at Mo Tan: "Your haunted church won the overall championship in the [Debate on Guilt - Team Battle]. How much was the prize money per person?"

Mo Tan touched his nose, without giving any specific figures, but said with a wandering gaze, "It's quite a lot. I've never received so much money in my life."

"The second half of the sentence is superfluous. You'd better not remind me of this kind of thing again, otherwise I might be tempted to try to bribe you into working for me, which would be pointless."

Romeo said this half-jokingly, then added in a lighthearted tone, "Is the prize money ten million?"

Mo Tan: "...Can we not talk about such realistic topics?"

"Does it exist or not?"

"No."

"Oh, so your bonus isn't even as much as Xiao Li's half-month salary."

"Oh my god..."

Although Mo Tan had seen money before, he had never seen a lot of it, so he still gasped and complained, "Isn't this going too far? This is a bit much, isn't it? Is playing games really that profitable these days?"

"It's alright. After all, Xiao Li is a world-class top professional player. Although the price I paid him wasn't low, a football superstar of the same level would earn much more than him."

Boss Luo snapped his fingers and said with a half-smile, "Do you still think I've hurt Xiao Li's feelings?"

“I admit his salary is quite generous.”

Mo Tan shrugged and laughed, "But your behavior of criticizing your own ace player just now should also be considered a matter of principle, right?"

"Well, it depends on the context. If it's a press conference, a press briefing, a post-match interview, or a live broadcast, then what I just said was certainly inappropriate, unreasonable, and improper."

Romeo smiled, then changed the subject and said, "But it's also true that I'm not badmouthing Leonardo DiCaprio. After all, I admit he's very strong, and he knows he's strong too. I think he's extremely capable, but his presence isn't as intimidating as someone else's, and he knows that too."

"so……"

Mo Tan didn't try to change the subject further, but instead steered the conversation back on track, asking directly, "Who exactly are you talking about?"

"My old friend made great contributions before the Red Constellation even started to develop, when it was still called the Little Red Fire Guild. However, he was forced to retire due to injuries and has been relegated to a second-tier position ever since. He was the club's original 'first-class star'."

Under Izzy's (almost furious) gaze, Romeo pulled a cigarette worth several gold coins from his pocket, lit it casually, and sighed with a touch of melancholy: "Divine Comedy."

Mo Tan's expression also turned serious. He sat up straight and asked in a deep voice, "Who is that?"

"No way! Aren't you being a little too ignorant?"

Romeo, who had just started to build up his emotions, slapped his thigh and said irritably, "Although Shenqu retired relatively early, he was still a fierce man who made all professional players tremble with fear. It's one thing for others not to know, but how could you, an insider, not know?!"

"..."

Looking at Boss Luo, who was gradually losing his logic as he reminisced about the glorious past, Mo Tan said helplessly, "Is it possible that although our Haunted Church won the championship of the [Debate on Guilt - Team Battle], there are actually no professional players in our team, and the only one who is in the circle is Yu Ying. Oh, by the way, she is a loyal fan of your Xinglong."

"Damn it, I almost forgot that you guys are all casual gamers."

Romeo took a puff of his cigarette angrily and gritted his teeth, saying, "How infuriating!"

"Cough, don't worry, don't worry, it's alright, it's alright."

Mo Tan waved his hand and reassured her, "We're not worth much. Think about it, the prize money all of us combined doesn't even amount to what Xinglong earns in a month, right? Even though we're the champions, and you were eliminated by the Windbreaker Bird a long time ago, didn't we still defeat the Windbreaker Bird and avenge you?"

"..."

With his face growing increasingly dark, Boss Luo glared fiercely at Mo Tan and roared, "You brat, you definitely did this on purpose, didn't you?"

"Yes."

Mo Tan nodded and said in a serious tone, "This is the common people's silent protest against evil capitalism."

"Are you being silent?"

Romeo immediately became agitated and retorted, "What you're saying is a real stab in the heart!"

Mo Tan remained silent, only smiling.

"Sigh, let's get down to business."

Romeo sighed and said helplessly, "Since you haven't heard of the Divine Comedy, I'll tell you its story."

Despite their extremely broad knowledge base, neither of their personalities showed much interest in the professional world, so Mo Tan, who genuinely knew nothing about Divine Comedy, nodded: "To make a long story short."

"You little rascal, why are you talking like I'm begging you?"

Romeo rolled his eyes, then looked away under Mo Tan's ambiguous gaze and said lightly, "Divine Melody is a young man I met when I first started my business. Tsk tsk, although he's not old now, he was really young back then, younger than you and Xinglong are now. It's true... sigh, time waits for no one."

Mo Tan rolled her eyes: "Please get to the point."

"The key point is that Divine Melody is incredibly strong, ridiculously strong, inexplicably strong, unbelievably strong." Romeo shrugged and continued, "Don't let his current carefree demeanor fool you. Back then, he was even more disciplined than Xinglong. If Xiao Li's daily extra training was driven by passion and enthusiasm, yet he still maintained his own life, Divine Melody truly treated the game as his life. Moreover, his competitiveness surpassed Xiao Li's. If Xiao Li enjoyed challenging himself and honing his skills to become stronger, then what Divine Melody enjoyed... was a strength that prevented others from even having the thought of challenging him."

Mo Tan nodded slightly and succinctly commented, "An internet addict."

"What you say makes sense. After all, when I was young, Shen Qu would probably be a teenager who was heavily criticized by society for being addicted to the internet. If his parents weren't a little open-minded, he would have been sent to be subjected to 100,000 volts."

Romeo did not deny Mo Tan's criticism, but said with great emotion: "But fortunately, he was born into an enlightened family and an enlightened era. In fact, although many people think that I have been kind to the Divine Comedy, the truth is that I was just the gambler who tried my best to invite him to join the company."

"Sincerity?"

Mo Tan blinked and asked curiously, "Three visits to the thatched cottage?"

"Do not."

Romeo shook his head and raised an eyebrow, saying, "It's three times the salary."

"Vulgar."

Mo Tan's words are concise and to the point.

"But it works well."

Romeo smiled proudly and continued, "In short, I, who wasn't exactly wealthy at the time, spent more than ten times the recruitment budget on him, and what he gave back to me was that he made the [Little Red Flame Guild] stand out from the countless competitors in the mainstream games at the time, laying the most solid and powerful foundation for the birth of [Crimson Constellation]. Later, when the club was established, he naturally became the leader of the first batch of main force members and became the club's first 'first-class star'."

"Um……"

After calculating the time, Mo Tan realized that it was precisely when she was at her busiest, most tired, and most eager to absorb all kinds of knowledge due to her unstable mental state that she nodded and asked, "And then?"

"And then? Then, on the night that [Red Constellation] stepped onto the international stage for the first time under the guidance of the divine song and won the championship, I was dancing and singing in my hotel suite when I suddenly had a bad feeling."

Romeo narrowed his eyes and said softly, "Back then, when I was watching that spirited young man on TV, who was at the peak of his career right from the start and had unlimited potential, I suddenly felt... he might destroy the entire ecosystem of the e-sports gaming world."

Following the train of thought, Mo Tan didn't waste any time with small talk, but instead got straight to the point: "Because you're worried about the emergence of a 'monopoly'?"

"That's right. As the owner of [Red Constellation], I was worried that my [Red Constellation] would monopolize the championships of the entire mainstream game industry for the next three, five, or even ten years, and thus completely destroy the industry, when I had just won my first international championship and everything seemed to be just beginning."

Romeo twitched the corners of his mouth and said with a wry smile, "I thought I must have gone crazy because I drank too much, so I went to bed early to rest. Then came the celebration banquet, the bonus distribution, returning home, management, operations, and various competitions."

Mo Tan didn't speak, but listened silently. After all, according to his speculation, the story was about to take a turn.

And that is indeed the case—

"Six months later, after winning two major league championships in China and setting off with my club members to Incheon to participate in a major international event, I felt that unease again."

Romeo turned to look at the dark night outside the window, as if he had returned to that crazy night filled with thunderous cheers and the stands were filled with light boards for "Red Constellation" and "Divine Comedy". He said softly, "I still didn't tell anyone until half an hour before the final... when Divine Comedy had his episode, that's when I talked to him about it."

Having anticipated this, Mo Tan showed no surprise, simply asking calmly, "What illness?"

"High-frequency hypokalemic periodic paralysis."

Romeo sighed and said helplessly, "I shouldn't have told you this, but Divine Comedy didn't hide the reason for his retirement back then, so it's something you can find out with a little research, and that guy wouldn't care even if I told him."

"Hypokalemic periodic paralysis..."

Mo Tan frowned slightly and casually confirmed, "If I remember correctly, although this disease is somewhat troublesome, most cases can be cured with modern medicine, and the frequency of attacks will decrease significantly with age. However, you said it is 'high-frequency,' does that mean it is an extreme case that attacks every day?"

"That's right. In the doctor's words, it's basically caused by strenuous exercise and overwork."

Romeo looked at Mo Tan with some surprise, who seemed to know quite a bit about this subject, and explained, "That kid Shenqu actually knew he had this disease a long time ago, but he kept it from me. If everyone hadn't been there when he had his attack that day, he probably would have continued to hide it."

Mo Tan nodded and asked, "And then? He withdrew from the competition?"

"No, although we all suggested that he withdraw from the competition and be replaced by a substitute, he firmly disagreed, saying that even if he was not in good form, he was still better than all the other main or substitute players."

"So you listened to him?"

“He is the captain of the Red Constellation. Unless the ‘force majeure’ clause in the contract is activated, even I, as the boss, have no right to interfere with his decision on the spot. Of course, his physical condition at the time was actually good enough for me to activate that clause, but I still didn’t do it.”

"Because you two have a good relationship?"

"That's only part of the reason. The main reason is that I think he is indeed stronger than everyone else. Only by letting him play can we, whose other main players are not particularly strong on average, have a better chance of winning."

"As a result, he suffered a crushing defeat due to his poor performance?"

"He did have an off night, but we didn't lose."

"How to say?"

"You can think of it this way: the amazing song that could have wiped out the entire opposing team by himself only managed to take down three opponents in the final 5v5 match before being defeated by the two remaining enemy players who had been crippled by him."

"and then?"

"Then our club's other four players defeated the other two."

"What happens next?"

"The 'Divine Song' announced his retirement without warning at the post-match press conference, and then left immediately."

"Didn't we win?"

"But he was already disheartened at that time. After all, since he only managed to take down three opponents that night, he might only be able to consistently take down two or one opponents in the future, or even become an ordinary super-level professional player who could only go toe-to-toe with his opponents."

"Are top-tier professional players not strong enough?"

"At least for him, he's a bit weak."

Chapter 2792: The End

(End of this chapter)