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

"Alright, thirty-four million it is."

Lin Shu shook his head, a smile that he couldn't quite define as either helplessness or smugness appearing on his lips.

"But Lao Song, as the executive producer, you should go back and review the terms and conditions in the contracts with all the sponsors—especially the boundaries of product rights and contestant exposure. Don't let the brands add extra requirements halfway through filming and cause any trouble."

Song Xiaohang gave an "OK" sign: "Don't worry, I have experience in this area. Once the sponsor's money arrives and the contract is signed, just follow the rules from now on."

Lin Shu gathered the pile of documents in front of him, stood up, and walked to the window. Outside the glass was the sky of late autumn in Shanghai; the clouds were low, but the sunlight filtering through the gaps still bathed the streets below in a warm golden hue.

With his hands in his pockets, he looked at the slowly moving traffic on the overpass in the distance and suddenly felt a little dazed. More than half a year ago, he was still struggling with his future. Now, the sponsorship amount of a variety show is much higher than the LPL's annual operating budget.

The water in the office had gone cold, but Lin Shu was still standing by the window, motionless. Song Xiaohang had just finished tidying up the documents on his desk and was about to leave when Lin Shu called him back.

"Old Song, don't go yet, there's something I need to think about."

Song Xiaohang turned around and saw Lin Shu's expression—the relaxed air of "more than 30 million is quite reasonable" had mostly disappeared, replaced by a more serious and slow expression, as if he had gone over it in his mind several times before deciding to speak.

"What's wrong?"

"you say--"

Lin Shu walked back behind his desk and sat down. "Should we invite other clubs to participate in this program?"

The sponsorship amount for "Next Stop, Pro!" is now astronomical, and it's naturally a great thing for them to be able to take on all of it as their own leading esports team.

But now that we have all the advantages—favorable timing, favorable location, and favorable human relations—it would seem too stingy to limit ourselves to just one family or household.

Song Xiaohang paused for a moment, then sat back down on the sofa, his brows furrowing slightly: "You mean—besides HWG, you're bringing in the other LPL clubs too?"

"Yes. It doesn't even have to be limited to our League of Legends project."

Lin Shu nodded. "I've been thinking about this for the past two days. From the current situation, it's logically sound that HWG is the sole decision-maker for the show—our own training system is strong enough, and we can keep the signed players in the family. But after thinking about it, I think there might be another way to do this."

Song Xiaohang picked up the cup, refilled it with hot water, and put it down again, leaning forward slightly: "Tell me more about it."

Lin Shu reached into the pile of documents on the table and pulled out a few sheets of paper. They were a draft of the program flow that Gu Xinyue had made for him. He circled the "final selection and signing" section on the last page: "Old Song, look, the process ends up with selecting five to eight people from the thirty players to sign contracts. Given HWG's current roster and substitute needs, even if we take them all on ourselves, what about the rest? Let them go back to their own teams? Wouldn't that be a waste of training them?"

"Also, with such a high level of viewership for the show, wouldn't it seem too small-minded to only have our show?"

He looked up, his gaze shifting from the paper to Song Xiaohang's face: "In the 2013 season, our LPL only had eight teams. Currently, 80% of the clubs' youth training systems are still nonexistent. Although the coaching staff has been influenced by us and many teams have been formed, most of them are just temporary replacements. New players either rely on recommendations from acquaintances or are scouted out by the clubs themselves from ranked matches. The thirty players selected by our program are the best prospects in the country—HWG alone can't use them all, and the rest would be ready to contribute immediately to other clubs. This isn't just a waste, it's a pity."

"Of course, I can't just give it away for free..."

Song Xiaohang listened and slowly nodded in understanding: "You mean—to make this program a platform for nurturing new talent for the entire LPL?"

"Yes, but not entirely."

Lin Shu leaned back, his hands clasped behind his head. "My idea is to invite a few sincere and capable clubs to the second half of the show, participating as 'joint selection partners' in the final round. Specifically—the preliminary selections, initial training, and eliminations will all be handled by the HWG training system, that part will remain unchanged. But in the final selection stage, we'll let the coaching staff from other clubs come in to watch, select players, evaluate them, and even bid for them on camera—that scene itself would be very entertaining, right?"

Song Xiaohang's eyes lit up: "You mean, make the final selection a 'two-way selection' process? Players can choose clubs, and clubs can bid to recruit players?"

"Pretty much." Lin Shu picked up a pen and drew a simple flowchart on the paper. "The final number of spots can be expanded from five to eight to fifteen to twenty. Each participating club will select players in order of their ranking, just like a talent show. We can explore this in the first season. If it works out, the future program can be expanded, players will have more career paths, other clubs will be willing to invest resources to cooperate in promotion, and the entire LPL league ecosystem can be boosted."

Song Xiaohang pondered for a few seconds, tapping his fingers lightly on his knee, then suddenly asked a more practical question: "What about the money? How will the money be divided? If these clubs participate, will they have to contribute money? How much? As the organizers, we've invested in the entire pre-production training system and program framework; how do we calculate this?"

Lin Shu put down his pen, clearly having thought about this question over and over again.

"Three levels." He held up three fingers. "First, participating clubs have to pay a 'joint training guarantee deposit,' ranging from 300,000 to 800,000 yuan per club, depending on their level of involvement in the program. This money isn't free—if a player is ultimately selected by the program and signed by them, this money is directly deducted from the transfer and training fee; if not, it's refunded proportionally. Essentially, this is to transform the clubs' interest in talent into actual investment, preventing them from just coming and going."

He held up his second finger: "Secondly, if the players ultimately selected by the show are signed by other clubs, HWG will take 15% to 20% of the player's first-year contract salary as 'joint training revenue sharing.' After all, these players' initial training, elimination, and selection used HWG's entire youth training system—the training cost of this system is there, and taking this percentage is standard practice in professional sports. NBA draft picks also have matching rights and trade compensation from their original teams."

Upon hearing this, Song Xiaohang's brow relaxed slightly: "And what about third?"