The efficiency of Little Shark’s staff (read: overworked employees) was very fast—the revised contract soon arrived at Sui Ning’s side. Zhao Yang had originally wanted to arrange another sit-down to discuss things in detail, but due to scheduling conflicts, it never happened.
Considering that joining different clubs in the future might affect the requirements of his streaming contract, Sui Ning discussed this point with Zhao Yang for quite a while, but no conclusion was reached.
For now, it could only be said that the treatment of the account [Fenglan] on Little Shark had indeed improved, but how deep future cooperation might go remained uncertain.
With viewership and gift income on the rise, Sui Ning didn’t idle either. His roster of heroes grew larger, and with the extra training sessions he gave himself each night, the bottomless “hero ocean” was gradually beginning to show its depth.
Although he hadn’t fulfilled his earlier boast of reaching King rank within two days, he had already reached Master III with a staggering record of 156 games and a 100% win rate.
His record was so dazzling that his hidden MMR skyrocketed. By the time he reached Master V, Sui Ning was already often being matched with Grandmaster and King players.
[So strong and such a grinder, no wonder you’re blowing up! Nearly 160 games in just a few days—when I wake up you’re streaming, when I sleep you’re still streaming!]
[I dub thee the Saintly Grind Emperor]
[I followed when he only had 10 fans, now he’s at 700k. My baby streamer is finally being recognized, sobs]
[Of course, real strength shines anywhere. Even my friends who don’t watch streams but only play games know this ID]
[Fenglan, do you see this? Who in the world doesn’t know your name now? I’m crying]
[Recording crew, roll out!]
Unlike Ji Mengyao’s awkward “romance edits,” most of the highlight clips being made for Sui Ning now were focused on operations and hype gameplay.
On Didi Video, a creator named [C_bot] emerged, uploading weekly highlight compilations of Sui Ning. Fans began calling him the “C-surname Fan Leader.”
Thanks to this, the name of the new pubstar [Fenglan] spread like wildfire in the Didi gaming section, becoming the newest formula for traffic.
Naturally, HDL and CQ Intermediate League teams were already paying close attention to him. Even some HPL teams that were desperate for a mid laner had their eyes on Sui Ning.
For now, though, most teams were still only watching from the sidelines, not yet eager to throw him an olive branch. Analysts from various clubs were busy debating.
——
Little Shark streaming platform, PNG_Mior’s stream.
Between queues, Mior Lin Zhaoxu was also watching Sui Ning’s replays.
“Whoa… whoa!” He sipped yogurt through a straw, yelping from time to time as he admired Sui Ning’s plays, his round eyes widening again and again.
His gaze was fixed on Aeria, hissing as he drew in cold breaths.
A 4v5 situation: his team had already been wiped 0-4.
From what should’ve been a guaranteed surrender, the blue-haired elf girl dove into the enemy jungle with no vision. Using three bushes and two walls near blue buff, she hunted down three enemies.
When the last two tried to collapse on her, she calmly eliminated the CC-heavy support first, then pulled off a gorgeous turn-flash into a starshot to finish the top laner. Left with just a sliver of HP, she locked in the kill and survived. One versus five—Pentakill.
[Red Team Penta Kill!]
[Fenglan has transcended the gods (Legendary)!]
“Incredible, incredible.” Lin Zhaoxu clicked his tongue in awe, replaying Aeria’s iconic moves again and again. “This fierce, huh, brother?”
He checked the match ranks: aside from [Fenglan], who was Master III, his teammates were all Grandmasters. The enemy side had four Grandmasters and one King.
[Xuxu baby is watching Fenglan’s ranked replays? Damn, even your top laner Myerii is watching! Stream it!]
[Wait wait wait, Mye actually not watching anime for once?]
[Considering his pro ID is literally ‘my_erii,’ the number one weeb vanguard of the scene… concentration level off the charts]
[Anyway, Erii is my waifu, Mye stinky little bro get lost]
[Spooky—C-chan hasn’t streamed, but the way he talks about Fenglan, I’m half-convinced he’s secretly crushing. His stream is basically a live Q&A about Fenglan]
[Not gonna lie, with so many of them watching, don’t tell me Yue Huo’s actually got ideas?]
At this, the chat went quiet for a moment. Lin Zhaoxu quickly looked away and pretended he hadn’t seen anything.
He mumbled some nonsense and went back to showering Fenglan’s gameplay with over-the-top praise.
Viewers, unable to resist, searched “PNG_Ghost” in Little Shark. As expected, the screen showed a darkened channel: streamer offline.
Some busybodies immediately spoke up:
[How come everyone else is grinding extra practice, but a certain someone always goes to bed the earliest? I checked the clock—it’s not even 11 yet!]
[Genuine question: 12 appearances, -5k average gold deficit in lane, picks core carries with only 21% team damage share, KDA 3.2 in a team with nearly maxed bloodthirst index. What level of mid laner is this?]
[The level where you ought to kowtow and call him Daddy C or Daddy M]
[I’ll be blunt since I value my life: when is Ghost going to roll out? With how hard this Spring Split is, whose problem is it even up for debate?]
[That NTT game last week almost gave me a brain hemorrhage. What’s that—ban two of Ghost’s heroes and he instantly throws? Picking a marksman mid and going 0/5/0 at 10 minutes?]
[The guy above—well, to be fair, marksman mids are being studied now. I even saw Amor practicing it the other day… But you know how it is. It really depends on the person. Amor’s Moon Man mid shredded NIS’s head clean off. Ghost’s Moon Man? I suggest renaming it to yue—as in “yue” [vomit] me to death.]
“Moon Man”’s full name is [Shadowmoon Gun · Faye], a marksman hero fairly balanced in the current patch. But after high-ranked Chinese solo queue players developed a mid-lane playstyle for him, he instantly became a hot commodity. Many pro mids are now training him.
Ghost had also tried Faye mid in the regular season—predictably, he got destroyed. Coach Yue Huo was even forced to ban the hero himself in the second game of a BO3. Furious fans said things like: “Even if you put Mior mid on Faye and made him farm both lanes solo, it wouldn’t look this bad.”
But since this was on stream, Lin Zhaoxu didn’t dare comment on such sensitive issues. He hurried to change the subject: “Hey hey hey, which one of you just said if Aeria lands a blind Q they’d eat poop upside down? Speak up, don’t play dead.”
[He panicked he panicked he panicked]
[Xuxu, team in danger, return to base now!]
[LOL, making up chat dares again?]
[Can some rhythm-hounds stop barking already? What, you gonna put a knife to Xuxu’s neck to make him say Ghost has croaked? Then what—PNG plays the Spring Split 4v5?]
[This is why substitutes are important. Every powerhouse team has subs, only PNG insists on running five guys into the ground. Absurd.]
[Don’t strawman. My little PNG isn’t a powerhouse, never claimed to be. Want to see what a powerhouse’s bench looks like? Go left to Team Max or HTG.]
Seeing the barrage devolve from “When is Ghost’s time of death” into “Should we spread his self-invented meditation training method to sabotage other teams,” Lin Zhaoxu clammed up completely, terrified that one wrong word would land him on the front page of Esports Express tomorrow.
Even the yogurt in his hand lost its flavor. He stared at the screen, praying for the queue to pop—at least then he could narrate the match to ease the awkwardness. But why was it so hard to find a game at King rank?!
“Man, I swear…” His teeth ached from the chat drama. Suddenly, out of the corner of his eye, he spotted a figure in a suit. Overjoyed, he whipped around:
“Coach!”
“Coach, you came for me, right?” Half sprawled over the chair, his eyes gleamed with hope like two searchlights.
Passing by, Chen Chen: …?
Chen Chen: “No.”
Nooo—! Lin Zhaoxu’s face instantly morphed into the famous painting The Scream.
Not understanding why their AD was clowning around again, PNG’s head coach Chen Chen (ID: Yue Huo) ignored Lin Zhaoxu’s grasping hands. He walked straight to Ji Yunyu’s seat and tapped his headset.
“Come with me.” Chen Chen tilted his head, pointing toward the analyst room.
——
The moment he stepped inside, Ji Yunyu’s heartbeat thundered in his chest.
He licked his dry lips, impatient to speak: “Brother Chen, is this about the one I recommended before—”
“Fenglan.” Chen Chen picked up a few papers from the desk and handed them over, nodding. “We’ve been observing him these past few days as well. He definitely has potential, and his current rank is nowhere near his ceiling.”
Ji Yunyu had sent Chen Chen several of Fenglan’s videos before, edited by a creator called [C_bot]. Some of the plays were indeed dazzling. But more importantly, the coaching staff had noticed even more interesting qualities hidden in those clips.
Now, the papers in Chen Chen’s hand were none other than the PNG analysts’ scouting report on Sui Ning.
Beside it was a comparison chart against Amor, the mid laner for TL (Tayloo), currently third in the standings.
[Fenglan – pending] — [Amor]
Lane Suppression: 80 — 91
Roaming/Support: 83 — 82
Farming: 75 — 96
Teamfight Output: 71 — 97
Hero Pool: 60 — 85
Since these were pro-level ratings, an average Glory King solo queue player would rate around 60 per category.
From these scores, one could clearly see a mid laner’s baseline abilities and their general playstyle.
Take Amor, for instance. He was clearly a mid laner skilled at magic-carry and farm-carry playstyles. His support scores were on the lower side, but his teamfight presence and ability to farm up resources for late-game were extremely strong.
PNG’s evaluation of Sui Ning had two metrics scoring above 8, which was already considered very high for a newly emerged “King of Solo Queue.” But his appearance in the public eye had been far too brief, so his profile still needed deeper testing. Because of this, the analysts had tagged his report with a “pending” note.
Ji Yunyu, whenever he had spare time, would stalk Sui Ning’s streams and recordings. He was also the one who recommended Sui Ning to Chen Chen.
“However,” Chen Chen rubbed his brow with some frustration, “you know the league rules. Right now what we really need is someone who can quickly fill in… a substitute. As for Fenglan, let’s wait until he comes for the trial before deciding.”
Ji Yunyu nodded with a show of composure, but in his heart the little man inside was leaping three feet high, spinning wildly in circles out of sheer excitement.
In truth, all the league-level mid laners capable of strengthening PNG’s roster were locked in long-term contracts. After their poor results last year, and only four wins since the start of this spring split, it was nearly impossible for them to convince any first-tier mid laner to even consider joining.
That was PNG’s embarrassing reality: not that the big boss lacked money, but that even with money, they couldn’t buy a suitable player.
On the other hand, if they went digging in their youth academy or second team, the level simply wouldn’t be able to keep up with HPL competition intensity. This “gap between old and new” had Yue Huo extremely worried—so worried he often couldn’t sleep through the night.
Maybe it was precisely this gap that Ghost was relying on to act so unrestrained, Chen Chen thought to himself.
As head coach, he couldn’t say everything outright, but PNG’s dissatisfaction with Ghost’s lax attitude was no secret.
With that thought, Chen Chen sighed and asked his assistant to handle arrangements for the tryouts.
——
Aside from PNG (Phoenix Nirvana Gaming), two other HPL teams had extended a friendly hand to Sui Ning.
One was KEG (Kex Electronics.G), fellow bottom-tier strugglers. They had only just climbed from HDL to HPL this spring, only to be thrashed by every team they faced, quickly becoming the league’s “experience pack.” Their main goal this year was to rotate rosters and train, so they welcomed new blood like Sui Ning with high enthusiasm.
The other was the esports powerhouse Navic (Natus Vincere), reigning spring split champions last year and currently ranked second on the standings—a true juggernaut of the league. Their starting mid laner was none other than Cpyhc Meng Xiyue, one of the legendary “Four Alphabet Gods.”
When the Navic trial invitation arrived, Xu Hexuan, who came over out of curiosity, almost choked on his tea egg: “…W-wait, holy shit?? Navic??”
“The Navic I think it is——???”
His expression was like that of an ancient subject suddenly seeing the emperor for the first time, or a Christian laying eyes on God. Xu Hexuan was so shocked his tongue tripped over itself: “Is C-God retiring?? Why is Navic recruiting a mid laner? There’s no news about this online at all, w-what the hell??!”
How important was Cpyhc to Navic? In the words of fans, the “c” in Navic didn’t stand for vincere, it stood for Cpyhc. If he ever left, it would be a cataclysmic piece of news.
When Xu Hexuan finally finished screaming, Sui Ning gave him a sidelong glance, calmly sipped his soy milk, and pointed at a line in the middle of the invitation.
[…We sincerely invite you to trial for Navic’s second team.]
“Oh…” Xu Hexuan exhaled in relief. “So it’s the second team. Still, that’s not bad at all—it’s Navic, for god’s sake! Damn, I grew up watching Navic’s matches. Navic!! There’s nothing to even think about, right? If you ever get promoted to the first team, wouldn’t that be the ultimate rocket to the top?”
Sui Ning shook his head. “No. Even if I got promoted, I’d rot forever on the substitute bench.”
After all, Cpyhc was Navic’s meritorious mid laner. Unless suspended or injured, he was immovable from the starting position.
Sui Ning had already done his homework—he had memorized the information of all 48 league teams, and none of them had a “Navic2.”
That second team was still struggling in HDL’s promotion/relegation battles. If Sui Ning joined them, he’d probably end up a young orphanage warden developing early-onset hypertension.
Besides, according to regulations, each club could only have one team in the top league.
Even if Navic2 somehow stormed their way up to HPL under his leadership, that slot would have to be sold off to another club unless the organization disbanded their existing first team.
…Clearly impossible, no matter how you thought about it.
His gaze shifted back to the other two trial invitations. Sui Ning frowned slightly, thinking aloud: “KEG’s core need right now is really for an experienced jungler. I doubt they have much real interest in me. This contact is probably just part of a wide-net scouting attempt.”
He had watched KEG’s games—the mid lane was serviceable, but the jungle was truly criminal.
“Looking at it this way, PNG is the most suitable.” His lashes lowered slightly as his fingers pinched that invitation.
PNG was already an HPL team, with no relegation worries. And their current mid laner’s performances could only be described as outrageous, with many rumors online about internal discord.
Their need for a new mid was the most genuine—and their approach the most sincere.
The invitation included the head coach Chen Chen’s contact details. When Sui Ning added him, he was accepted instantly.
The two arranged to meet at PNG’s Shanghai base on March 2nd.
As for the other two invitations, he hadn’t directly refused them either.
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