Rebirth is fine, but I get eight hundred dollars right from the start?

"Play professionally?"

The girl with the ponytail's eyes lit up, and she leaned forward. "Little brother, what rank are you now? My buddy knows someone at the HWG club. His mom works in logistics there. If you're really talented, I can help you get a referral."

Luo Yu's ears turned red instantly, his lips moved, and his voice was a mix of nervousness and pride: "As for rank... I'm currently Diamond V in the Balance Cult..."

"Diamond 5?"

The boy with glasses paused for a moment, his smile faltering, and his eyebrows involuntarily twitched. "Uh... little brother, you're not talking about Ionia in the first region, are you?"

"No, it's the Balance Cult..."

Luo Yu lowered his voice, vaguely sensing the momentary stillness in the air.

The college students looked at each other, and the atmosphere visibly cooled down for two seconds.

The girl with the ponytail still had a smile on her face, but it wasn't as warm anymore. She coughed lightly, nudged her companion with her elbow, and said in a much gentler tone, "Ah... Diamond V of the Balance Cult. It's really impressive that you've reached this rank at your age... but..."

The guy with the big glasses was much more direct: "Hey little brother, I'm not trying to discourage you, but HWG has pretty strict requirements. I heard from my buddy that their tryout threshold is at least Diamond II in the Ionia region, and for other regions... basically you have to be Challenger to even be considered."

After she finished speaking, another boy next to her chimed in, as if coaxing a child: "Yeah, a Diamond V in the suburbs... Well, how should I put it, he's definitely got the skill, but he's still a long way from the threshold of a professional team. Look at our LPL teams, the lowest is Diamond I or above... But it's okay, you're still young, practice some more, and maybe you can make it up there."

The words were kind, but the sense of disappointment was more intense than a roller coaster ride. The car was quiet for a moment, with only the creaking sound of steel wheels rubbing against the rails as the subway turned a corner.

A blush spread from Luo Yu's ears to the base of his neck, and the ticket he was clutching in his hand was so tightly squeezed that the edges were crumpled.

He opened his mouth as if to say something to smooth things over, but his throat felt like it was stuffed with cotton, and in the end he could only squeeze out a dry "oh".

Just as Luo Yu was trying to console himself by talking about his age and comforting himself that the future was promising.

A voice echoed from behind:

Is it small?

"The problem is that E-God is only nineteen years old this year."

"This player is almost at 2000 points in the Challenger tier on Ionia, and is even ranked number one in the world on the Rift..."

"Hey kid, are you sixteen yet?"

"It's seventeen... ten..."

Luo Yu lowered his head, and the excitement he had just displayed visibly diminished.

The discussion ends here.

The atmosphere in the carriage gradually became lively again, and the college students continued to talk about their predictions for the game, but Luo Yu did not respond.

He stared down at his phone screen, his fingers swiping repeatedly across the All-Star poster on the lock screen, one sentence echoing in his mind: "You're just a Diamond V from the suburbs, you can't even get a tryout."

Although Mr. Luo turned his head away to look elsewhere, his ears were always perked up, and he heard every word of the conversation.

His gaze fell on his son's slightly reddened nape, and he couldn't quite describe the feeling in his heart.

There was a bit of disappointment, but also a bit of inexplicable relief—disappointment that my son was still far from the professional threshold, and disappointment that he was so easily affected by reality, but relief that... it was good that he was still far from it.

Unexpectedly, just a few words exchanged among a group of like-minded people had an effect that instantly dissuaded him from going to the All-Star event, surpassing his week-long "Seven Wolves" education. Suddenly, his expectations for this All-Star trip in Shanghai rose even higher.

Luo's mother, however, wasn't so calculating. She leaned closer and whispered to Luo's father, "What does 'suburbs of the first district' mean? Is that HWG they're talking about the one in the video? Our son is Diamond III, isn't he pretty good? Why is he looking down on him?"

Mr. Luo waved his hand at her and said in a low voice, "That's right, you don't like it!"

……

After exiting the subway station, the family of three walked towards the Shanghai Grand Stage.

The bus stop signs, lampposts, and shopping mall windows along the road were almost entirely covered with All-Star merchandise.

Mr. Luo finally understood that while there was some official involvement involved, it was mostly spontaneous behavior by businesses trying to gain traffic.

Once he reached the perimeter of the venue, he truly understood what "a sea of ​​people" meant.

The plaza in front of the Shanghai Grand Stage was packed with young people.

The line started from the entrance, turned three corners around the square, and then stretched along the sidewalk to the street corner. It was conservatively estimated that there were over a thousand people.

Everyone had a similar expression: upturned lips, bright eyes, and phones in hand. Some were taking selfies, some were taking pictures of the queue, and some were taking pictures of the giant banner on the outer wall of the venue.

A banner resembling the exit of a high-speed rail station hung down from the windows on the second floor of the venue, measuring seven or eight meters wide. However, unlike the banner, the contestant in the center of the poster was deliberately enlarged, with both hands outstretched forward to the left and right.

In the middle are two lines of large text: "The champion never belongs to a lone wolf; glory is shared equally among every hand that grips the mouse."

"LPL ALL-STAR · Shanghai · 2013".

Luo Yu clutched the ticket, his palms sweaty.

He stood on tiptoe to look ahead, and the line was still inching forward. He wished he could shrink himself down and squeeze through the gaps in the crowd.

At this moment, a college student-looking boy who was a few steps ahead of the Luo family turned around, saw Luo's parents standing in the line, paused for a moment, and then grinned.

"Uncle and Auntie, did you bring your child to watch the game specifically?"

The boy was wearing a support T-shirt with a combination of flames and stars printed on the chest, and a matching light jacket draped over his shoulders. "Wow, you two are really open-minded! My parents don't object to me playing games, but getting them to come watch the game is harder than climbing to heaven."

Then he sighed dramatically and pointed to the support shirt on his chest, "When I bought this shirt, my mom said, 'I'm not going to walk with you if you go out wearing something so flashy.'"

As soon as he said that, several young people next to him turned to look at him, their eyes filled with a hint of envy.

A girl with bangs peeked out, and Chongluo's mother gave her a thumbs up: "Auntie, I've never seen a parent like you before, you're so cool!"

Mrs. Luo was a little embarrassed by the praise, and waved her hand with a smile: "What's so cool about it? I just came to see what the things the kids like look like, so I have a better idea."

Looking at the group of people in front of her, she thought for a moment, then asked with a hint of probing, "Actually, we're also curious, don't you college students playing games... interfere with your studies?"

"No way," the girl with bangs answered first. "Just allocate your time reasonably. Games are just entertainment after all, no different from watching TV or playing ball. There are four girls in my dorm, and we sometimes play a five-player game on weekends, but we still go to class and go to the library as usual. It doesn't interfere with anything."