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

"Old Lin, I've already posted the update."

Song Xiaohang's voice came from the other end of the receiver, with that husky quality that only comes with the early morning. In the background, you could hear the soft clicking of a mouse, clearly indicating that Boss Song, who had once again entered the prime of his working years, was already sitting down at his workstation and getting to work.

"Remember to retweet this on your personal Weibo account, just tag our studio -- Leading Esports only has a few thousand zombie fans right now, it's so pathetic I want to cry. If you don't help out, this post probably won't even make a ripple."

Lin Shu was nestled in his large bed in his personal dormitory on the third floor of the new base. His hair was a mess, like a bird's nest, after staying up all night, and his eyelids were still sticky with the weariness of not having slept enough.

Hearing this, he subconsciously reached for his phone on the bedside table again, which he had previously put on speakerphone. He swiped his thumb to open the screen, refreshed Weibo twice, and then paused, stunned: "Huh... has it already been posted? I've set it to be on my favorites, why haven't I received any notifications?"

Still half asleep?

He frowned, held the phone up to his eyes, and repeatedly pulled down to refresh the page, but the screen remained completely blank, the notification bar empty. The account of Leading Esports, with its blue verified badge, lay quietly in his following list, its latest post still the announcement from last month when the account was created.

Well, they say they have several thousand followers, but actually 90% of them are paid zombie followers.

"Let me take a look..." The sound of typing came from Song Xiaohang's end. After a few seconds of pause, he said, "Wait a minute, my backend shows it was posted, and several people in the studio's small group said they could see it and even liked it. What's going on with you?"

Lin Shu: "Damn it, I forgot to pay my phone bill yesterday, and because of the overdue payment, China Mobile cut off my internet."

Song: "..."

There was a two-second silence on the other end, followed by a long, suffocating sigh.

"Get your act together. Our studio has poured so much effort into this program, hoping to ride the wave of your live stream last night to make a splash. And then you cut off your internet because your phone was out of credit—do you know how many promotional articles Huya released after you went offline last night? Forums, Tieba, and Weibo supertopics were all in an uproar, but you, the main character, didn't make a sound on Weibo. I thought you had other plans."

Lin Shu held his phone between his ear and shoulder, frantically rummaging through his bedside table drawer for a spare phone, while awkwardly explaining:

"Unexpected, truly unexpected. After making those two international calls last night, the base's WiFi was undergoing upgrades and maintenance, so I didn't connect to Wi-Fi—and before I knew it, my phone credit was used up. I don't even know when I swiped away the SMS notification from China Mobile; I didn't see it at all."

"It's alright, it just gives the public time to develop their opinions. We can release it at noon, it won't make a difference."

"Alright, alright, you're the boss, you call the shots," Song Xiaohang sighed on the other end, his voice a mix of exasperation and amusement. "Hurry up and top up, then share this post. This window of opportunity only lasts a few days, don't miss it. I'm hanging up now, I'll wait for you to tag me."

Before the dial tone had even faded, Lin Shu had already deftly opened the payment app on his backup phone and rapidly typed in a few numbers—

The pop-up message "Phone bill recharge successful" appeared within seconds.

Ding ding! Dong dong!

Soon after, the system sent out numerous notifications.

A barrage of beeps swept over him like a machine gun, making his palms go numb from the vibrations.

The number of unread messages on WeChat skyrocketed from single digits to over 99, while the Weibo notification bar was completely overwhelmed with layers of red icons for likes, comments, reposts, and private messages, covering the entire notification center.

Okay, this is getting interesting.

A big boss who overslept because his phone was out of credit is just as destructive as a certain online novel author who forgot to sync their drafts and didn't update.

While inwardly grumbling, Lin Shu briefly browsed through the group chat and various private messages.

As expected, the live stream went viral last night.

For the debut of the current number one LOL player on the new platform, Huya's top management naturally didn't skimp on promotion, with all sorts of advertorials, forum headlines, and paid posts available.

Even if he had nothing to show for himself last night, such as the announcement of a personal peripheral brand, a solo tournament in the Dragon Pit, a 5V5 hero selection tournament for fans, and the bombshell news of an e-sports variety show, even if he hadn't pulled anything out of his stream and had just played ranked matches for several hours, Huya would still have been able to dig up a story about him once again using the Chinese server's top-ranked player as a slowdown, and package it into a trending topic titled "Late Night Record of the Chinese Server's Top-Ranked Player's Lament."

Lin Shu leaned against the headboard, rubbed his face to completely shake off the remaining drowsiness, then opened the post Song Xiaohang had sent, copied the announcement from his assistant, checked it twice, and then clicked the "share" button.

HWG-Emperor @Leading Esports @Tencent Games @League of Legends @LPL:

[Official Announcement] Nationwide Recruitment of Youth Training Players for "Next Stop, Pro" is Now Open!

"Countless high scores in the Rift, but a limited number of professional slots."

"In the past, many amateur players had top-level skills and exceptional talent, but lacked a formal, transparent, and practical career advancement path."

"This time, Leading Esports, in conjunction with the official, is launching the nationwide youth training selection for 'Next Stop, Pro,' bringing the entire professional youth training selection, training, and assessment system of the club to the screen."

"This is not just an entertainment variety show, but also an open selection competition for professional players."

"All selected players will enter a fully enclosed professional training camp, receive one-on-one training from professional coaches, and participate in the program's competitive assessment. The ultimate winner will be directly signed by the Leading Esports Professional Youth Training Team, receiving salary and benefits, professional training, official tournament registration qualifications, and direct access to the LDL secondary league training channel."

"Your first step in your career officially begins here."

[Registration Requirements:]

1. Age requirement: 16-20 years old

(Based on the actual age on the ID card; minors must have their guardians' knowledge and consent before registering, and can cooperate in signing a training informed consent agreement)!

2. Game rank and skill requirements (any condition must be met): Diamond 4 or above in any region of the Chinese server, Korean server, or European server, with ≥50 valid ranked matches!

(All ranks and data are based on the valid ranking records of the past 30 days. We reject rank boosting, account boosting, and inflated rank information.)

"..."

[Registration Method]

1. Follow the official account @LeadingEsports-"Next Stop, Professional Official" (same name on Weibo/video platform account/forum).

2. Click the registration link in the pinned announcement to enter the official registration system;

3. Fill in your basic personal information, upload a screenshot of your rank, and bind your ranked account data;

4. Wait for the program team to review the application. The result will be notified via SMS/internal message within 7 working days.

"..."