Nirvana Top Laner, Reborn Tokyo Girl

Chapter 108, Section 105: A Shocking Documentary Hype! (Seeking Monthly Tickets)

The mother's resolute and unquestionable tone left Akari Kujo momentarily stunned, feeling that the development of events was very different from her common sense.

She stood there for a while, processing the information.

Once the situation was understood, an indescribable ecstasy followed.

She never imagined that she would be able to personally watch Yuna Shimamura's first world championship.

She never expected that her mother would actually ask her to do this.

All of this felt like a dream, so unreal.

After catching her breath, Akari Kujo rushed forward and threw herself into her mother's arms, hugging her tightly.

"Thank you! Mom, I love you so much!!!"

Seeing her daughter so excited, the mother felt a sense of relief.

Because of her family upbringing, Akari Kujo is usually quite reserved and introverted when expressing her feelings.

She is very perceptive and considerate of others' feelings, and always behaves appropriately and elegantly in different situations.

That's certainly good.

However, in her mother's eyes, her daughter's elegance and maturity, which far exceeded that of her peers, sometimes made people feel that she was living a very repressed and restrained life.

Even with herself, her mother, she always seemed very distant.

This sense of distance was not intentional, but rather an instinctive reaction formed under the discipline of her family education over the years.

But only when talking about a particular person does her daughter show the innocence and joy that a girl her age should have.

And that person was Shimamura Yuna.

Although she seemed to be saying, "I value You Nai because she's useful to my family," it was just a facade.

She just wanted her daughter to accept these things without feeling guilty, to feel that her logic in doing things was not much different from her past.

Even I sometimes do things simply to make you happy, without always having an ulterior motive.

'I want you to be happier, don't I?'

Thinking this, she embraced her daughter and felt her daughter's joy.

She wanted to savor this brief but joyful moment.

Meanwhile, Riot Games is also preparing for the upcoming Vanguard Tournament.

Although the LPL, a major league, has not yet decided on its participants for the Pioneer Tournament, many other regions, including the LCP and LCK, have already confirmed their spots.

Therefore, it is also necessary to prepare for the filming of some promotional materials related to the pre-match period.

This Vanguard Tournament has actually presented a situation that Riot Games really didn't want to see.

That is, T1 didn't go to Worlds.

T1 didn't make it to Worlds, so what should they do about their viewership?

Who will be the mainstay of this traffic?

As we all know, in the past two years, the popularity of League of Legends matches on foreign online streaming platforms has repeatedly broken records.

But if you look closely, most of the record-breaking matches were by T1.

Without T1, the popularity of League of Legends dropped significantly.

To put it bluntly, if a competition is not competitive outside of China and South Korea, and its entertainment value is generally low, then Europeans and Americans can only rely on celebrities and fan groups to generate viewership when their own teams are not strong.

Otherwise, what's there to watch?

Without the stars present, of course no one will watch the game.

Basically, recent international tournaments have seen very low viewership ratings unless T1 is involved.

But this time is different.

This time, has Riot Games found a new dad or a new mom?

This person is Shimamura Yuna.

Of course, we'll also need to film the usual promotional videos for the expedition.

But this is not enough.

Riot Games wants to make this tournament Shimamura's home turf, and use this tournament to completely boost Shimamura's popularity to its peak, making her a woman who can rival Faker in terms of popularity.

Creating a god requires going all out!
With this in mind, they asked Shimamura Yuna, "We would like to interview your parents. Could you give us your family's contact information?"
When Shimamura Yuna received this news, she was actually a little confused.

No, why are you interviewing my family members just because I'm playing a match?

She could roughly guess that Riot Games probably wanted to create something similar to the "Seaside Boy" incident from S10, or perhaps interview Bin's family members to see his dad play Tryndamere—some kind of off-field hype related to the players' families.

She neither disliked nor liked it; her attitude was neutral.

She understands that for Riot Games, telling a story this way to generate buzz is essential.

From a personal standpoint, she hopes to keep a low profile for now, so that there won't be so much hype before she's even played a few matches.

If she accidentally makes a mistake, the backlash from this current popularity might make her even worse off than Huanfeng.

However, considering that this was an official request from Riot Games, it wouldn't be good for her, someone who works for Riot, to go against them.

So in the end, he didn't directly refuse.

He simply said, "I only have one older sister now, no parents. My sister is probably too busy to be interviewed."

But the staff at Riot Games got even more excited when they heard that.

Oh my god, I don't have parents??
Has something happened at home?
There must be more to this story!
This time, I have no choice but to conduct an interview!

So they became even more eager to get contact information for Shimamura Yuna's family, saying, "We'll contact them ourselves, just give us their contact information and that's it."

Unable to persuade the other side, Shimamura Yuna finally compromised and gave them her sister's contact information, saying, "Whether my sister is willing to be interviewed is her business. You guys do your best."

Originally, she hoped that her sister would use reasons such as "being busy with work" or "not having time" to persuade Quan Quan to quit.

However, she overlooked one point: how famous she is in Japan right now.

Since Shimamura Yuna became popular in Japan, her older sister Shimamura Shiori has also benefited somewhat from the fame.

Lately, she's been bragging to everyone at work every day about how her younger sister is that popular online e-sports beauty, and she's so proud when she does it.

Although my colleagues didn't really understand him, they had all seen him in the news.

They could all see that her younger sister was cute, beautiful, capable, and accomplished.

Especially after hearing that professional players at the League of Legends level could potentially earn tens of millions of RMB a year, everyone's attitude changed completely.

Shimamura Shiori said, "No, no, my sister has only just become famous and hasn't signed such a high contract yet."

But doesn't that mean "they haven't signed yet, but with this level of interest, they'll sign sooner or later"?

So, it's just a matter of time before her sister earns a salary in the tens of millions of RMB?
In conclusion, her colleagues at the company are looking at Shiori Shimamura differently now. She can clearly sense that many people are intentionally trying to get closer to her lately.

Some men who thought they were very handsome and good at flirting even took the initiative to get close to her.

She, of course, dismissed this with disdain and subtly maintained her distance.

On the contrary, a girl who recently tried to get closer to her actually made her feel a little...
Ahem, never mind, let's not talk about that now.

In short, her sister's fire has greatly affected Shiori Shimamura's life, but all of it has been positive.

Even the company's leaders had heard about it, knowing that one of their employees' sisters was a super celebrity who could earn a lot of money every year.

then
Although it feels like the work I'm doing isn't much different from before.

Although her position remained unchanged.

But Shiori Shimamura felt that her status in the company had changed completely.

Every day felt incredibly refreshing, and my emotional well-being was at its peak.

Having such a capable younger sister, how could anyone not be happy?

In this situation, she received a call from a Riot Games employee during her work hours, asking, "Could we borrow a little of your time to do an interview with Yuna Shimamura?"

When the leader heard this, he immediately approved the leave, giving it the green light.

Oh dear, someone's come to interview a big star's family. How can I refuse permission for this?

And so, Shiori Shimamura left work early and went with the Riot Games staff.

And so, the interview began, quite naturally.

The staff member sent by Riot Games was a host from Riot Games Esports in Japan.

Actually, this person doesn't usually commentate on League of Legends; he's from the Valorant side.

After all, in Japan, League of Legends isn't popular at all, but Valorant is.

Therefore, basically any commentators or staff with some professional skills will flock to Valorant.

Those who stay in the League of Legends scene are basically either purely passionate about it or just bad fry.

This person is considered a top-tier host and commentator in Valorant, Japan.

Riot Games specifically brought this person over from Valorant, which shows how much importance they attach to this interview.

This person is indeed very good at handling things. As soon as he met Shiori Shimamura, he greeted her politely and even presented her with some "gifts from the Japanese boxing."

It's basically some Riot-related merchandise, as well as some practical gifts, food, and household items.

Then he began the interview.

"Um... what I wanted to ask was..."

After that, Shiori Shimamura spent almost the entire day chatting with the host.

At the host's request, she gave a brief account of her sister's experiences.

This includes some parts that Shimamura Yuna had never told the outside world before.

Led by the host, he, the photographer, and Shiori Shimamura drove around Osaka.

We visited the school the two sisters used to attend, and also the family restaurant they used to run.

At each location, Shiori Shimamura would share her memories of that place with the host.

For example, when she goes to a family restaurant, she will recall the time she and her parents used to play and have fun there.

As she wanders around the shopping street where the family restaurant is located, she recalls how Shimamura Yuna was very cheerful when she was a child, loved to visit people everywhere on the street, and was very popular.

When the host heard that "Shimamura Yuna was very cheerful when she was a child," he pretended to be shocked.

"Huh? Really? But she seems completely different now. She seems very quiet now."

The purpose of asking this question, of course, is to lead into the next topic.

How did Yuna Shimamura become the way she is now?

Next, the host and Shiori Shimamura strolled around the shopping street for a long time before returning to the family restaurant that Shimamura's family used to run.

Today, the family restaurant is closed, and the sign remains the same as before, clearly indicating that no new business has come to rent it, and it has simply been abandoned.

It's not just this family restaurant; the entire commercial street is desolate, with only a handful of shops still operating and the vast majority closed.

This desolate situation, however, has inadvertently allowed traces of the past to be preserved.

Returning here after so long made my sister a little sad.

The past opened her up completely.

What kind of person was Shimamura Yuna from when the two sisters were very young?
Then it goes on to tell how their parents had an accident, and how Shimamura Yuna went from being a positive person to gradually becoming depressed.

She then talked about the immense psychological pressure she had put on herself during those two years of depression.

These contents greatly shocked the host.

Although he had already prepared himself for Shimamura Yuna's story to be very explosive, after all, he had learned from the fists that Shimamura Yuna's parents had passed away.

However, to everyone's surprise, the story turned out to be so convoluted and tragic.

He listened intently, nodding occasionally.

Then he asked, "So, how did Shimamura, who was completely depressed and lacked motivation, manage to get back on her feet?"

So, after all these stories had been told, the turning point finally arrived.

Shiori Shimamura smiled gently and said, "Actually, I don't really know either."

“I just felt that she suddenly got much better starting at the end of last year, and around the same time, she started buying a computer and playing games.”

"Later I found out that the game was League of Legends."

"Not long after, she started becoming a live streamer, and then..."

"You'll know the rest."

The interview has now basically come to an end.

This interview actually achieved an effect that Riot Games had never dared to imagine before.

They originally just wanted to casually hype up Shimamura Yuna's family background to increase her popularity and buzz.

It's similar to Faker's grandmother or Bin's father.

These are all common Riot hype tactics.

But the moment the interview ended, the Japanese host immediately realized: something was wrong, things didn't seem so simple.

Yuna Shimamura's family background
Her story
Isn't this a bit too much of a story?
He realized that this would be an unprecedented and sensational publicity stunt!
(End of this chapter)