Xu Junyan withdrew his gaze and turned to look at the team manager.
Uzi, Xiaohu, and the others also looked up at Damon.
"A 3-8 record is an indisputable fact. Xu Junyan, I'm not here to discuss this with you today. Let me make this clear: whether you want to agree or not, you will agree."
A trace of mockery appeared on Damon's face as he said, "I'll give you one final day. If you still don't do as I say before tonight, bear the consequences yourself. Those consequences are more than you can handle."
Xu Junyan smiled, stood up, gave a slight nod, and headed for the door.
Damon was secretly delighted. You really had to be forceful with people like this. Look, the moment I got tough, Xu Junyan folded.
If he had known it would come to this, why had he bothered in the first place?
What a waste of breath.
But just then, as Xu Junyan passed by him on his way out, he flashed him a brilliant smile. There was a hint of sincerity on that handsome face as he said, "Fuck! Your! Mom!"
With that, Xu Junyan left, his steps utterly unhurried.
Damon's expression froze. Then his face turned green, then purple, until it darkened to the color of liver. He roared furiously, "Xu Junyan!!!!"
After leaving the meeting room, Xu Junyan let out a soft sigh. With both hands in his pockets, he calmly headed toward the dorms.
In truth, he was anything but calm.
When he had transmigrated into this world two years ago, he had already been with RNG. He had also been bound to a League of Legends professional system that could be considered a cheat.
Through hard work, he had trained every champion to S-rank, enough to hold his own in the upper-middle tier of professional play.
Calling him strong would be a bit of an overstatement, but calling him useless would not be right either. Upper-middle-tier professional skill was still respectable.
But putting strength aside for now, starting out at RNG—and RNG with a three-year rookie contract at that—was fucking nightmare fuel!
Although RNG had still barely counted as a normal team before winning their first MSI championship in S8, a three-year contract... that carried straight into S9. That was a huge problem. If he really stayed with RNG until S9, they would probably peel off a layer of his skin before letting him leave.
Therefore, Xu Junyan had made a fairly reasonable life plan for himself.
For the first two years, he would just live normally. Of course, because he had doubts about RNG's true nature, he had not made himself too conspicuous during those two years. He had always walked on thin ice and kept an extremely low profile.
In the final year, after reasonably enjoying the benefits of RNG's massive publicity campaign, he would immediately follow Able's example: play dumb, act crazy, and become both weak and washed. Able had managed to escape the den of thieves with that move, so Xu Junyan should be able to do roughly the same.
Besides, by then, less than a year would remain on his contract. RNG would probably not think much of a player with no real skill and would not even bother holding him back.
Once he escaped that den of thieves, he would seize the momentum and become a streamer. Riding the remaining hype RNG had brought him, along with this face of his and the popular streaming memes he remembered by heart, he should have no trouble making a little money even if he did not become hugely famous.
What he had never expected was that, before he even began playing dumb, RNG had made a move against the team veterans before their big S8 publicity campaign. And that blade had landed right on him!
Xu Junyan practically wanted to curse. In fact, he had cursed, but it had achieved little. Judging by the last two internal meetings, RNG's upper management was determined to turn him and Fire Fox into sacrificial pawns.
"I need to figure out a way to deal with what comes next."
Xu Junyan pondered painfully. He knew Damon was right: simply refusing on his own would not make this go away. RNG definitely had other ways to screw him over.
Should he immediately make a Weibo post and expose RNG's wrongdoing to the public?
Who would believe him?
Other than their loss at Worlds this time, RNG still had considerable credibility in the LPL and an excellent public image.
If he posted a clarification on Weibo, it would be like an ant trying to topple a tree. After all, he only had a little over a dozen followers.
Xu Junyan thought of Yu Shuang again.
Because Yu Shuang was a diehard RNG fan, she often interacted with RNG. Over time, she and Xu Junyan had gotten to know each other.
Xu Junyan had a rather favorable impression of her and had already planned to pursue her. Yu Shuang had never said it outright, but her hints had been obvious enough. The meaning was roughly: if you dare to chase me, I'll dare to say yes.
But that pursuit had never truly begun before it ended early. RNG's Worlds loss was one reason, but more importantly, after an internal RNG meeting five days ago, Yu Shuang had actually called to accuse him of disregarding the bigger picture, the team's image, and the LPL's honor. Clearly, Damon had told her about it, and she had chosen to believe Damon instead of him, her not-yet-lover and friend.
Over the past few days, Yu Shuang had sent several more messages, urging him to admit his mistake. If he recognized his mistake and corrected it, everyone would forgive him.
Xu Junyan had nearly laughed from anger. How had I never realized that the female host I planned to pursue was this brainless? The ripples in his heart vanished, and, tired of dealing with her, he simply blocked her.
Clearly, he could not count on her now either. Otherwise, with Yu Shuang's Weibo follower count, borrowing her account to post a clarification might not necessarily work, but it would certainly cause RNG endless trouble.
With that in mind, Xu Junyan returned to the dorms, only to discover in surprise that the cleaning auntie had already packed up his luggage.
The auntie was still cleaning the dorm, scrubbing his former bed spotless. When she saw Xu Junyan enter, she said in surprise, "Little Xu, you came so quickly. I've already packed your luggage for you. I heard from the manager that you're leaving the team. Take good care of yourself from now on."
Xu Junyan gently rubbed his temple. In the end, he did not argue with the housekeeping auntie. He casually nodded, picked up his luggage, and left.
It seemed RNG intended to go all the way.
He left the club alone. No teammates or acquaintances came to see him off. Even Fire Fox Feng-ge, who had also become a scapegoat, did not show himself.
Just a few days ago, they had been as close as brothers. A whole group of them would share a single bottle of cola, and RNG's team leader had filmed several vlogs of them to post on Weibo, promoting RNG's deep brotherhood. Looking back now, it was downright ironic.
Xu Junyan left alone. RNG had not paid him much during his two years as a pro, so he did not have much money on him—less than 20,000 yuan. That would not last long if he rented a place in Shanghai. Besides, the road ahead was unknown and the future uncertain. There was no need to rush into renting an apartment.
After thinking it over, Xu Junyan simply found an internet café with a decent environment and booked a private room for ten days, planning to live there for a while.
Ding-dong!
A text notification suddenly rang out.
Xu Junyan frowned and took out his phone. It was from Fire Fox Feng-ge.
Silence, why bother? What good will it do to keep fighting the club like this? They have ten thousand ways to deal with us. We still have contracts with RNG, and if they casually pull something, we'll be completely finished!
"A mediator, huh?" Xu Junyan replied unhurriedly. He also turned on the computer, preparing to play some games on the Korean server.
Ding-dong!
I'm not a mediator. I just wanted to remind you that you really pissed off the manager. If you apologize to him sooner, there might still be room to salvage things. After all, we're just individuals.
Xu Junyan did not reply this time. He began logging into his personal Korean-server account, only to find that he could not log in.
The prompt said that the account had been banned for thirty years!
Ding-dong!
Another message came in.
Xu Junyan frowned and opened his phone again. It was actually Yu Shuang, whom he had blocked on WeChat.
Xu Junyan, you've disappointed me too much! I always thought you were avoiding this because you felt guilty about losing your temper after that match and disrupting everyone's mindset. I never expected you to be this kind of person. Someone like you is simply insulting esports!
Before you continue