Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Just as Team Skycrown had made their last preparations, Team Daemons had also finished what they needed to do.
They arrived at the venue earlier as intended but it was a shame that they had miscalculated, and there was already a crowd outside waiting for them.
After being surrounded by fans for nearly an hour, this made their strategic meeting slightly shorter than it should have been. This time, after being surrounded by their fans, it led them to the realization that you should never dive into the bush by yourself as you could never know the number of enemies waiting for you!
“Asmodai, the assistant secretary is looking for you.” One of the members of the organizing committee said as he walked over to Asmodai.
Asmodai looked at Coach Huang Kang who in turn nodded his head. He then followed the organizing committee to the office.
It was Secretary Liang who had called, it had to be a summon from the Association of Chinese E-sports. Now, most of the clubs and players were under the association’s jurisdiction. This association really made the LOL competitive scene more professional. In the worst case, it would not be as bad as in the past where a bad team and a professional team would not have any difference.
Upon entering the office, Asmodai immediately spotted the female secretary who was about thirty years old.
The woman was slightly plump and was one of Team Revelation’s best managers. It was due to her influence in the gaming community that she had been promoted to becoming the ACE’s secretary.
Notably, this spot had once been Xu Pingyang’s, but thanks to that incident with Xiao Bei, Xu Pingyang would temporarily be unable to hold a high position in the managing team.
“Were you looking for me?” Asmodai opened up his mouth to ask the female secretary.
She nodded as she gestured for him to sit down.
Asmodai knew that something was up but he could not quite put his finger on it.
“I looked over your early retirement form.” The female secretary pushed her glasses up the bridge of her nose. She had a document in her hand. “Guan Tan, you’ve been in the competitive gaming industry for over six years, that is considered quite a long time for a player, right?”
Asmodai nodded his head as he maintained his silence, his eyes locked onto the document in the secretary’s hand.
“Why do you suddenly want to retire?” The secretary asked.
“How many reasons would a professional player have to retire?” Asmodai smiled bitterly.
“Is your pay too low?” She asked curiously.
It was proven that all professional players had a low salary, which was a big difference when compared to superstars. This was also one of the main reasons why most professional players retired to take on other jobs which was tied to competitive gaming which consequently had better pay.
Unfortunately, this was also something that he had no power over. Even if you were to get one of the lower jobs in the LOL professional scene, you would still have a higher pay than most of the professional players.
“If I’m quitting because of my low salary, I would not have stuck around for six years.” Asmodai replied.
Six years…
To be honest, those currently in the LPL had not been in it as long as him.
These six years were his golden years, and he had given it all up for the competitive gaming scene.
“Then why? Is it as the rumors say?” the secretary pressed on.
Her words made Asmodai feel very remorseful. However, there was no professional player that would admit that they had gotten “old”
He was indeed over twenty years of age, but because he looked very handsome, it gave the impression that he was slightly older than twenty years. Yet, the golden age for professional gaming would be around sixteen to twenty-two years old, and for a twenty-four-year old, Asmodai could be considered “old”.
In just half a year, Asmodai realized that his reaction time had gone down drastically, he could not focus properly, and his skills had also become sloppy!
This was a professional gamer’s nightmare. It was the same as aging rapidly in life, it could not be prevented!
At the start, Asmodai had thought that he was only under too much pressure, and he tried to let himself relax. But soon after that, this relaxation had made him become gradually confused. How could he be uncertain as an ADC?
In that match against Team Sky, they should not have lost. Blood Eagle really had improved a lot but it was not something that they could not handle. The only reason Team Daemons would lose to Team Sky two to zero was because his own skills were deteriorating.
“Truth to be told, you have been playing in competitions for over six years. The pressure on your mental state is really high, it might be time for you to retire to let yourself calm down. What are you planning to do after your retirement? Are you interested in another job related to competitive gaming? We, as the Association of Chinese E-sports, would still have priority for professional players like you.” The secretary said.
Asmodai had lost sight on what to do once again, his eyes were still trained on the retirement papers in her hands.
If he was being honest with himself, he had to control himself very hard to prevent himself from tearing the papers apart.
Even though that thought had flashed through his mind, when it came to actually doing it, he lost his courage.
This was because if he continued what he was doing right now, he would drag his team down. He had become old, but his teammates were still full of energy. They still had not reached their target after the hard work they had put in all these years. Maybe if he was switched out, Hades could carry them to unreachable heights.
However… when he thought about them reaching those heights while he could only stand and support them from the sidelines, Asmodai felt inexplicable sadness. The few dots on the retirement papers were his tears from when he had written it. He had sacrificed a precious six years of his life but he still could not reach his dreams and reach the height of a world-class player. No matter how strong a person was, they would still be unable to swallow this sadness!
Regarding his life after retirement, what would he do? Asmodai had yet to figure it out.
He did not play competitively for the money nor the fame to become a coach or an analyst…
That was why when she asked him what his plans were, Asmodai was unable to answer.
“Your teammates probably don’t know about this right?” The female secretary asked.
“Yes.” Asmodai nodded his head. He knew that if he told Hades that he was retiring, Hades would definitely do everything he could in his power to stop him.
“The agreement has already been signed, here you go. Go and prepare for your match, we will settle your problem properly.” She dismissed him.
Asmodai did not say anything further and left the office.
***
“What did the ACE want from you?” Hades asked as he looked at Asmodai who looked as if he had something on his mind.
“Nothing much, some details were wrong so we were correcting it. The match should start soon, are they here?” Asmodai asked, changing the topic.
“Right there.” Anubis pointed to the side.
Just then, Team Skycrown who were wearing their team jerseys walked over to them.
The one who stood at the front was the Fighting Hawk, Luocheng. Asmodai glanced toward him and as he saw Luocheng’s warm smile, he could not help but to smile back at him.
“Asmodai!” Luocheng tapped his shoulder happily.
“You guys are late.” Asmodai masked his feelings with a smile to make it seem as though nothing was wrong.
“We’re not even ready yet. When we came here, we were blocked. Let’s stop this chit-chat for now and continue in the competition!” Luocheng patted his back and continued to walk ahead, paying his respects and also giving his regards to the other teammates of Team Daemons.
Asmodai maintained his smile.
Continue to talk on the battlefield?
Asmodai had waited for this day for so long!
***
Luocheng greeted his friends and started to get ready for the competition. They were old friends as well as old rivals. When they meet on the battlefield, they would not hold back!
This was because there could only be one champion!
The only thing was, Luocheng had no clue that this would be the last match of someone that had been playing for six years of competitive gaming!
***
The match was about to start and the audience were in their seats, the music hyping up the atmosphere.
The emcees were already onstage to hype the crowd as the players were getting ready.
The five members of Team Daemons were all serious, their opponent this time was worthy for them to go all out!
Anubis was cheering them on excitedly. Just then, he caught sight of Asmodai’s bag and realized that the latter had forgotten to bring his favorite mouse along with him.
For a professional player, their keyboard and mouse were their most important weapons for battle!
Anubis pulled out the mouse wanting to give it to Asmodai, but just as he was about to, he found an agreement on which the front page stated “Retirement Agreement”!
Anubis was shocked by this document and as he fumbled to take out the papers, they scattered on the floor.
Charon who had been beside him saw this, scolding Anubis for being so clumsy as he squatted down to pick it up for him. As he was in the middle of picking them up, Charon became completely stunned.
Asmodai saw this and his expression turned dark. He hurriedly went over to snatch those papers back from their hands.
“Asmodai, you…” Charon looked at Asmodai and could not even muster a single word.
Asmodai had wanted to cover it up because he knew very clearly that his teammates would have a huge reaction after seeing the agreement. After all, they had been together for more than four years and their bond was akin to brothers now.
Alas, everyone has already seen it. Hades was clearly confused, Anubis with his yellow hair was no different, a shocked coach, Huang Kang, and also Charon, who could not believe what he was holding.
Everyone thought of the same thing at the same time…
Asmodai…Asmodai was going to retire!?
