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

She glanced at her bespectacled husband beside her, a moment of confusion in her eyes. She sighed softly, her tone softening: "When our Xiaohai first said he wanted to play professionally, Lao Zhang and I were firmly against it."

"He came to our attention in the second semester of his junior year of high school, saying that he didn't want to study anymore and wanted to play e-sports."

"I was so angry that I didn't even cook dinner. Old Zhang unplugged all the computer cables in his room, and the father and son were arguing so loudly that the neighbors came knocking on the door."

She chuckled, but there was a bitter taste in her voice. "Back then, we were like most parents. We thought playing video games was a waste of time, a disservice to one's studies. Why waste time playing games with strangers online? What kind of future could that lead?"

"I even considered taking him to the detention center for a while..."

"Cough cough~"

Zhang Hai's father interrupted, "Our family situation is rather unique. Both of us are often away from home. In the end, our son ran away on his own, took a bus to Taicang to participate in HWG's trial, and promised us that he would make a name for himself within six months..."

"This child has always been a good student, and his personality is just like ours. He has his own opinions, and I knew that forcing him would definitely cause trouble, so I agreed to it."

The woman chimed in, "That kid has been playing professionally for over half a year. We didn't really understand it before and thought it was a waste of time. But then his dad went to his workplace and asked a few young colleagues for a long time. After watching a few videos, he gradually realized that it's similar to traditional sports, and it's all legitimate competition."

"The All-Star event is in Shanghai this year. He said he was selected for the LPL representative team, and some scenes in the official promotional video were set in our house. So we decided to come to the event to see for ourselves what he was doing."

The bespectacled husband added, "We also want to see if it's worth it for him to practice for over ten hours a day without moving."

He spoke casually, but when his eyes fell on the main stage, Mr. Luo clearly saw what was hidden there.

It was the look in a father's eyes when he finally decided to stand by the roadside and take a look at the path his child had chosen.

Mr. Luo turned his head and glanced at his son, who was excitedly explaining the story of the top laner "tele" to his mother, and then at the middle-aged couple next to him who had also brought their child to "see what was going on".

He suddenly realized that the trip had been worthwhile.

Just then, the ring of LED lights around the dome suddenly went dark.

The entire Shanghai Grand Stage suddenly fell silent from the cacophony of voices, as if someone had pressed the mute button.

The audience members all looked up at the huge main screen in the center of the venue—the screen displayed a countdown.

"ten!"

"Nine!"

"eight!"

"..."

"three!"

"two!"

"one!"

Then, the entire room fell silent for about a second.

The next second—

With a deafening roar, cheers surged up from all directions like a burst dam. People on all four sides of the stands stood up, and applause, whistles, screams, waving glow sticks and support flags merged into a visible wave of sound that rushed straight up to the dome above, making the metal structure overhead vibrate and hum.

On the main screen, the countdown reached zero, and the image suddenly exploded into a field of burning red, blue, and white flames. Several large, silver-white characters slowly emerged from the center of the flames—

"2013 League of Legends All-Star!"

……

Just then, a loud and magnetic male voice came from the speakers:

"ladies and gentlemen--"

The sound was drawn out, and the noise in the venue seemed to be cut off by a knife, all of it suddenly subsided.

"Welcome to the 2013 League of Legends All-Star Event!"

"This is Shanghai, the Magic City!"

The stands erupted in cheers once again, the roar rising an octave higher than before.

From the side of the stage, a man in a dark blue suit strode out, holding a microphone in his hand, with the bright smile typical of a professional host on his face.

He walked to the center of the stage, bowed to each of the four sides of the stands, and said, "Hello everyone, Summoners here, and viewers watching on TV and online! I am your host today—Zhu Zhen."

As soon as the name was announced, cheers and whistles erupted from the stands.

Slightly different from the All-Star opening ceremony in the previous life, thanks to the popularity of the event in the early preparation and promotion stage, the organizers obtained the right to arrange the host from Penguin Sports and decisively finalized the selection.

Zhu Zhen is a native of Shanghai and is also quite well-known in the hosting circle. He is active on various variety shows and galas for many years. He has a steady stage presence and a quick tongue. He can handle serious occasions as well as funny situations. It is perfect for him to host the opening ceremony of the League of Legends All-Star event.

"Today, we gather on the grand stage in Shanghai, with over eight thousand esports enthusiasts from all over the country seated here, and millions of League of Legends players watching the live stream on their screens—this is the first time in the history of Chinese esports that such a large-scale international event has been held! Every one of us is witnessing history!"

After he finished speaking, he paused for a moment, and after the applause subsided slightly, he added:

"Of course, I know what you really want to see isn't me standing on stage rambling on—you want to see the main characters of today's show!"

He waved his hand, pointing to the huge main screen at the back of the stage: "Come on! Let's give a warm round of applause to the all-star teams from the world's five top regions—one by one—as they take the stage!"

The screen switched to a series of rapidly edited promotional video clips for the event, accompanied by rousing background music. The first flag appeared in the center of the screen, black and white, with a simplified design of the three letters "TSM".

The camera then cut to a player who had given a pre-match interview.

He was a young man of Chinese descent, wearing a gray-white team uniform, with neatly styled hair, a half-smile on his lips, and his eyes fixed on the camera without flinching.

"This is my first time playing in the All-Star event in Shanghai, and to be honest, I'm really looking forward to it... I'm looking forward to meeting the LPL representative team, and to laning against WeiXiao and other top bot laners... Before this, everyone said that WeiXiao was the world's best AD carry."

"Okay, I think after this All-Star game, everyone will know—who is the real number one in the world."

"As for the others?"

"I'm not targeting anyone in particular, they're all newbies...except for Emperor, of course..."

Because it was a nationwide live broadcast, the official live stream made some minor polishing to the English translation.

The offensive term, originally meaning "trash," was replaced with something similar to the rookie taunts often used against newcomers in the NBA.

However, this did not stop the English-speaking spectators inside and outside the stadium from exclaiming "Holy crap!" and covering their mouths to laugh out loud.