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Chapter 217 - 217: 212: Professional Player

At the Past Times Bar, as soon as Finn Lewis came in, he encountered a familiar figure. Seeing this guy, Lewis cheerfully greeted him, “Hey, Fool, here you are.”

“Damn, screw you, fool. You’re the fool.” Although he denied it verbally, the moment Lewis called him “Fool”, he turned around immediately. Grinning, Lewis gave a pat on his shoulder, “Bro, I guess you gotta stick with this nickname forever.”

The nickname “Fool” was coined for this pal, a senior student from F University. The senior was a handsome guy who had fallen in love with an academic high-achiever. He decided to confess his feelings and got a wager in return. She said she would date him only if he could surpass her academic ranking in the department.

Blessed with brilliance, the senior took up the challenge, studied wholeheartedly, and succeeded in outperforming the girl in the final exams, making it to the top three in the department. Unfortunately, he and another student shared the same score. Determined as always, he found some points wrongly deducted in his paper, therefore declared proudly that his ranking was

2.5.

Having achieved a good grade, he naturally decided to confess his feelings. The guy picked a pretty romantic way to do it. On the big day, he took a horn and stood in front of the entire school building. In front of thousands of teachers and students, he confessed his feelings. Just as he was mentioning his rank, a classmate standing next to him was playing a radio on which the host was talking about the world’s top 500 rankings.

Nervous as he was, he blurted out, “Xiao Yu, my worldwide academic rank is 205.” He mistakenly said 205 instead of 2.5, and made it sound worldwide. As a consequence, he immediately became infamous. The thousands of onlookers almost burst into laughter, thus coining him the nickname of “Fool”.

Of course, that’s not the end of the story. What’s most hilarious is that after his embarrassing confession, the top-performing girl firmly rejected him. He was then so devastated that his scores dropped significantly. In the mid-term, his grade ranked exactly the 205th in the entire department. Since then, his nickname “Fool” has become inseparable from him. Up to this day, hardly anyone calls him by his name. He is just simply “Fool.”

Apparently helpless to change the situation, Fool shrugged his shoulders and asked, “Who are you looking for?”

“Has Howard Lee returned? He should be here.”

“Oh, you’re looking for him. Two beautiful girls are with him in suite 306.” The Fool nodded and replied.

“I’m going to see him myself. Hey, Fool, how’s your master’s thesis coming along?” Lewis asked. Despite working at the bar, Fool was quite talented. He majored in Electrical Engineering and was skilled in it. Rumor had it that his team, along with other teams from F University, had won a national robotics competition. Considering this level of expertise, the nickname “Fool” seemed rather ironic!

Lewis didn’t just ask casually because he might need help from experts like Fool for his upcoming matters. Otherwise, Fool’s talents would be wasted working here.

“Almost done, don’t worry. Btw, Howard doesn’t seem to be in a good mood. He has been drinking a lot. You’d better go check on him.” Fool patted Lewis on the shoulder and said.

After bidding Fool goodbye, Lewis went upstairs. He entered suite 306 and saw two beautiful girls clinging to Howard, who hadn’t changed much since Lewis last saw him six months ago. Well, not quite so. Lewis had also watched him every week on the official LPL live stream.

“Mr. Finn.” Seeing Lewis, Howard’s eyes brightened, and he got up immediately, disregarding the two beauties beside him, and walked over to Lewis.

After a warm hug with Howard, Lewis took a closer look at the two girls by his side. Damn, they were the two infamous female live streamers from the internet! No wonder Prince had said this circle was complicated. It seemed to hold true indeed. The streamers were dressed too… well. But currently, Lewis wasn’t interested in them, although he used to be a fan.

“What’s up?” Once seated, Lewis asked.

Seeing an outsider, the two beauties started to behave more reservedly instead of sticking to Howard like before. However, Lewis understood why these female anchors would cozy up with professional players like him. The reason was simple: pleasant relations would attract more viewers to their streams, therefore, more tips from generous fans, and the sales in Wealthy Babe’s store would surge. Their massive monthly income was exploding, so they naturally wanted to maintain a good relationship with the professional players. “Nothing, having a drink, come on, let me introduce you, this is Sophia, and this is Miss. Zoey, both are official anchors. What do you think? Pretty, huh?” Howard introduced them to Lewis with a smile.

“Call him.” Then Howard told the two beautiful ladies.

“Hi, Mr. Finn.” “Hi, Mr. Finn.” The two ladies greeted Lewis immediately.

“Uh-huh.” As Lewis nodded, he turned to the girls, “Could you tell me what happened to him? Relax, feel free to speak up.”

“Uhm, well, actually, it’s no big deal, it’s just…” Sophia paused, she felt hesitant and didn’t dare to say it casually. Howard, however, interjected her with a bitter smile, “Forget it, let me tell you, actually… I’ve been suspended.”

“Suspended? Why?” Lewis looked puzzled. What’s going on? Did Howard do something wrong to get suspended?

“It doesn’t matter, just… I’m suspended.” Howard forced a smile.

“How long is the suspension?” Lewis asked curiously. He could see that Howard was quite upset. It seemed related to his suspension.

“One year.” Howard Lee’s voice was dry and chalky as he spoke.

“What the fuck!” Finn Lewis couldn’t help but blurt out, “One year? Are you out of your mind? How long is an eSports player’s career supposed to be?”

“Actually, Mr. Finn, a big reason for Howard’s ban is probably because of his game skills,” the one named Sophia couldn’t stand it anymore and finally chimed in.

“His skills? What do you mean?” Finn was puzzled for a moment, then arched his eyebrows and said, “If I remember correctly, my buddy’s skills should be pretty decent, right? Granted, his team members aren’t the best, but their points should at least rank them among the top four in the LPL, right?”

“It’s precisely because of his extraordinary skills that he’s been banned for so long. He mainly plays mid lane, and as long as he is well-equipped and well-developed, he can carry the entire team and lead them to victory. You should understand this. It’s just like SKTI from Southland Country back in the day. However, this invariably disrupts established teams’ dominance. There are several traditional teams that can’t even make it to the top four now, but their managers are all members of the AC Alliance.” Sophia explained the situation in just a few sentences.

“What’s the excuse? There must be an excuse for the ban, right?” Finn Lewis argued, raising an eyebrow.

“There is a rule within the AC Alliance that professional players cannot be involved in advertising for online stores like Wealthy babe. However, Howard didn’t directly participate, he merely provided gameplay footage of his training matches to a live stream host, who then handles all the commentary. The revenues from Wealthy babe are split 50-50.” Sophia explained.

“Is it because of this?” Finn widened his eyes at Howard Lee.

“Because of this,” Howard Lee answered with a bitter smile.

“Where is your team’s manager? Didn’t your team try to resolve this issue?” Finn asked indignantly. Shouldn’t the team be stepping in to handle this kind of situation?

“Their team is a newcomer, it’s impossible for them to step in the AC Alliance affairs. Plus, I don’t think it’s solely because of this. Previously, Howard must have rejected an offer from one of the traditional teams.” Sophia quickly shook her head and explained.

“Is the AC Alliance that powerful?” Finn questioned skeptically. Were they trying to bully new teams just because they were impacting their dominance in the LPL? Finn Lewis had previously played LOL and he understood the politics. You can’t be so aggressive when it comes to bullying. How short is an eSports player’s career? You could say one hits the retirement age at 24. How could they ban someone for a full year?

After a year-long ban with no participation in large-scale competitions, what kind of performance level can be maintained? In a sense, this was equivalent to a death sentence for a professional player’s career.

“Well, they pretty much control the entire LPL and some professional leagues in the country. For instance, the son of the Wanda Group is a member, although it’s more of a titular role. He likely isn’t aware of the specifics.” Sophia shook her head slightly in explanation.

Finn Lewis was aware of the well-known Principal King. It used to baffle him, but now he understood. The guy just liked gaming and eSports and that’s why he got involved. However, it doesn’t mean he would be fully immersed in it.

“Isn’t the game alliance supposed to be from T company? What’s it got to do with the AC Alliance?” Finn Lewis seemed a bit confused.

“T company gives them several millions annually, and handed over the management of all domestic competitions to them.” Sophia quickly explained.

Finn Lewis nodded as he looked at Sophia, who apparently knew quite a bit about the situation. She was probably not here just to help Howard increase his income.

“Is the AC Alliance based in Celeston City?” Finn Lewis asked after giving it some thought.

“Yes.”

“Tomorrow, I’ll go with you. This is a fight we must fight.” Finn Lewis said soberly.

“Mr. Finn, there’s no need, this… we wouldn’t be able to reason with them. Moreover, if talking to them was sufficient, I wouldn’t be banned now.” Howard Lee bemoaned with a bitter smile.

“Rest assured, if I say it works, it works.” Finn Lewis smiled slightly, then patted his shoulder. Howard Lee hesitated, but didn’t object. After all, Prince and his friends had told him about Finn’s recent fortune.

“Thanks, Mr. Finn. Without gaming, I honestly don’t know what I could do.” Howard Lee said with a dry laugh.

“Nonsense, there are plenty of things you can do without gaming. Let’s go to your club tomorrow and talk to your manager first.” Finn decided.

I owe you all 2 more chapters. I’ll try to make up for them tonight. I’m leaving for a trip at 3 p.m., need to hit the road..