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

Old Song left with a new mission.

The office door closed gently behind him, and the footsteps in the corridor faded away. Lin Shu stood alone in front of the whiteboard, staring at the line "long-term structural value" for a long time.

He wasn't actually too worried about bringing other clubs on board. An opportunity to get a slice of the fresh blood of the domestic esports scene for the next year or even two, plus a cut of the pie, especially since the original biggest slice was being given up voluntarily—those shrewd old foxes wouldn't refuse.

Money or resources?

In Lin Shu's view, this was never a choice.

If the other party chooses to exchange resources for admission tickets, it means that they are not only investing in the program, but also binding themselves to this ship.

By leveraging his personal connections, relationships, and channels, he was essentially endorsing the project with his own credibility—a commitment far more substantial than 800,000 yuan in cash.

The esports market is huge, and there are enough people to share the pie.

But the prerequisite is that there must be enough people willing to do it, and no one can monopolize the task and refuse to let go.

Looking at the few lines he had written on the whiteboard, Lin Shu knew very well that with his current championship pedigree at HWG, the appeal of his personal brand, and the proven business model of the show, he was fully capable of becoming the one who "dominated the market and wouldn't let go."

Even compared to the model of SKT and Faker in his previous life, which relied on regional monopolies to maintain their dominance, he was confident that he could do something even more ruthless—using his and HWG's influence in the LOL esports ecosystem to force Riot Games and Tencent Games to tie them all to their chariot, devour their professional honors, clean up their sponsorship market, swallow up all their derivative products, and then when others are about to collapse, occasionally throw out a couple of bones, which he would consider an "accident" in competitive sports.

But he disdained to do that.

The initial intention behind creating this program was simple—to maximize the competition and vitality of the entire region while maintaining a certain leading advantage for themselves and HWG, returning the unknown to the market and the suspense to the audience. Only in this way will large capital firms eager for young people's attention and traffic be willing to pour money into this field wave after wave.

Instead of like in the previous life, when everyone was too tired to play anymore, we realized the plate was empty and we had no resources left to bring in new people and make changes.

As he was thinking, there was a knock on the office door.

Thump, thump, thump-thump-thump!

The knocking had a strange rhythm, with a familiar, unrestrained force.

"Enter--"

The door was pushed open a crack, and Gu Xinyue's face peeked in from behind the door panel. She had shoulder-length short hair and wore a pair of thin-rimmed blue light blocking glasses on her nose—she had started wearing them recently, saying that her eyes hurt from staring at documents.

She blinked her beautiful eyes, her gaze lingering on Lin Shu for a moment, her tone carrying a hint of inquiry: "Did I disturb you?"

"Why are we even talking about disturbing each other?"

Lin Shu smiled and turned around from in front of the whiteboard, a smile unconsciously curving his lips.

He himself didn't realize that, starting from some point, every time he saw Gu Xinyue push the door open and come in, his tone of voice would unconsciously become half a point softer than when he spoke to others.

For some reason, his relationship with Miss Gu didn't resemble that of a boss and assistant at all.

At first, they acted somewhat like boss and subordinate, but once they became more familiar, they completely let loose in private. Now, she rarely knocks more than twice before entering his office, and he never asks if he wants tea leaves in his water.

Sometimes they would discuss plans until late at night, leaning against the office sofa, each looking at their own documents, occasionally glancing up to exchange a few words of opinion, as quiet as if they had been working together for ten years.

Lin Shu was happy to have this young lady who brought her own resources into the group, had excellent abilities, and shared a common understanding with him most of the time.

"Is it about the program?" Lin Shu put the marker back in the whiteboard tray, turned around and walked behind the desk to sit down, gesturing for her to sit as well.

"Yes, recruitment is almost complete."

Gu Xinyue sat down on the edge of the sofa, took out a neatly organized form from the file folder, and got up to place it on his desk. As she bent down to put the file down, she got closer, and Lin Shu could smell the faint scent of shampoo in her hair, like some kind of fruity or woody fragrance.

His gaze didn't linger for long before landing on the form.

"Regarding the training and competition team, as per your request, Manager Tang will temporarily serve as the director of training and competition. We have already shortlisted candidates for one head coach, one assistant coach, one data analyst, and one psychological counselor. I have their resumes on the second page."

Lin Shu flipped through it and nodded.

"Regarding the logistics management team, based on Manager Tang's logistics working group, we have added two additional life teachers, two security personnel, and one medical staff member. The contracts have all been drafted and are just waiting for your signature to proceed with the process. As for the official liaison, Xiaoxiao will temporarily take on the role. Her communication skills and responsiveness are quite good, so I think we can use her for now."

"Besides you, the boss, the professional mentors the show plans to invite—"

Gu Xinyue paused for a moment, glanced at him, and said, "Human Emperor Sky has agreed to join the team and be listed as a member. He's very accommodating, saying it's because you helped WE in the last All-Star game."

Lin Shu smiled and said, "He was just being polite. Besides, WE itself is interested in the show... never mind, let's not talk about this."

Gu Xinyue's lips curved slightly, but she quickly suppressed the smile and continued flipping through her notebook: "Coach Abu from WE seems to be negotiating a contract with the club recently, but it's not finalized yet. He said he'll give you a definite answer once he's finished dealing with his own matters."

"As for other professional guest stars—that's up to you, boss. Most of the people in the industry who can be invited, who have the potential to make a good show, and who are willing to come are on the shortlist. I've made a priority ranking; you can take a look."

Lin Shu flipped through the form from beginning to end, rubbed his temples, leaned back in his chair, and let out a long sigh: "We're still short-staffed!"

"Yes." Gu Xinyue closed her notebook, placed her hands on her knees, and said, "In the current domestic e-sports market, there are indeed very few truly skilled people. You could even say that we know more than half of the usable ones."

"If we really can't recruit them, then we'll train them ourselves."

"Get ready, we're going to visit universities in Shanghai and Suzhou soon to recruit some talent."