"Am I going to be a grandpa?"

After exiting the training routine, Su Zhe checked his system panel again.

With the system's update, he saw a new interface appear below his attributes.

[Map Understanding: Mirage: 57 Inferno: 49 (Expand)]

(PS: Maximum map understanding value is 100)

Su Zhe: ...

Bro, I knew I still had a long way to go, but this much? Seriously?

Ever since he found out Dust II wasn't in the active map pool, his favorite map had become Mirage—also the one he played most in his ranked matches.

He felt pretty good about himself, thinking he had a solid grasp of the map, but now he couldn't even hit a passing score?

Not to mention maps like Anubis and Nuclear Crisis, which he only played once a day just to complete his training routine.

He thought joining a professional team would be the peak of his life, but he never expected it was just the beginning.

Su Zhe felt like there were countless mountains ahead waiting for him to climb.

Then he pooled the 1500-plus Rise Points he'd earned earlier with the 700-plus left over from before and exchanged them for two points in [Positioning], adding them to his stats.

As for why he only exchanged for attribute points...

A while back, he'd spent 1000 hard-earned Rise Points in the shop for a random professional player's skill insight.

He ended up drawing insights from 259, Qiezi, and Su Di—only to find out inside that they were worse than him. What the hell was he supposed to learn from that?

At the time, he just wanted to shout: RNM, give me a refund!

After that, he stuck to exchanging Rise Points for attribute points only...

Then he looked at the mission panel and saw two new tasks had appeared. Back when he signed the contract with Nip, his ears were full of "ding~ ding~" system notifications, so he hadn't caught much.

[Becoming a professional player is just a new starting point in the host's life. Please continue to work hard and improve yourself.]

[Task One: Raise your overall rating to A-rank. Reward: Random A-rank reward.]

[Task Two: Help the team secure a ticket to Katowice, and maintain a Rating of no less than 1.0 throughout the tournament. Reward: Random A-rank reward.]

[Task Three: Help your team's ranking reach the world's top ten, or join a team already in the world's top ten. Reward: Random S-rank reward.]

[Task Four: Enter HLTV's official Top 20 player ranking. Reward: Random S-rank reward.]

[...]

The next day, Su Zhe boarded a flight back home. After landing, he didn't go straight to school but headed to his own house instead.

There was still one problem: he didn't know if his parents would agree to him going pro. This wasn't something he could keep secret either.

He couldn't just go to school, apply for a leave of absence, then go abroad and cut off contact with his family, only to return three years later like a dragon king with his salary and prize money...

"Ding-dong~ Ding-dong~"

"Coming! Coming!" The voice inside grew closer. "Huh? Xiao Zhe, why are you suddenly back? Is winter break starting this early this year?"

Standing at the door, Su Zhe rubbed his stomach and said to his mom, "I'll tell you later. Is dinner ready? I'm starving!"

"Perfect timing, your dad's cooking right now. Come on in."

"Okay..."

Su Zhe took a deep breath, steeled himself mentally, and stepped inside.

He had no idea if his parents would agree to him going pro this time.

From what he remembered, his parents knew nothing about esports and had a natural aversion to gaming.

Sure, they'd had a computer at home for years, but he was only allowed to play occasionally. If he played too long, his dad would scold him—"Can you make a living playing games? If you don't study hard, how are you going to find a job and support yourself?"

He knew his parents meant well, but now the path ahead was laid out before him, and he had to walk it.

A dozen minutes later, after helping his dad bring the cooked dishes to the table, the family started their dinner.

The atmosphere at the table grew strangely tense, silent except for the sound of chewing and the clatter of utensils.

His mom and dad kept exchanging glances, then went back to eating.

Finally, his dad couldn't hold it in anymore. With a "smack," he slammed his chopsticks on the table.

Su Zhe, who was eating, jumped in fright—like he was focused on clutching out a clutch round and suddenly got one-tapped in the head.

His dad said in a low voice, "Did you get into trouble at school or not?! If you don't say it, I won't be able to eat this meal in peace!"

"..."

Su Zhe knew he had to face this head-on. He'd been silent earlier because he was trying to figure out how to gently break the news to his parents that he wanted to go pro.

But facing that natural authority, he was still nervous, and his words came out stumbling: "Actually... I... this..."

Dad suddenly thought of something, his expression turning serious. "You're not... about to make me a grandfather, are you!?"

Su Zhe: ?

He realized his dad had misunderstood and quickly explained, "It's not that kind of thing! Something else!"

"Oh, that scared me." Dad let out a sigh of relief, but for some reason, a faint trace of disappointment stirred inside him.

"I'll tell you after dinner. It's nothing major." Su Zhe ultimately chose to stall, figuring his dad wouldn't be able to do any vigorous exercise on a full stomach.

And so, under this strange atmosphere, the family of three finished their meal, each lost in their own thoughts.

After dinner, on the living room sofa, Dad watched his son still fidgeting awkwardly and felt a knot of frustration in his chest.

He forced patience into his voice. "Can you tell us now?"

Su Zhe: "Emmm... promise you won't hit me, okay?"

Dad gritted his teeth. "Fine! I promise I won't hit you!"

After a moment's hesitation, Su Zhe blurted out, "Mom, Dad, I don't want to go to school anymore."

He lowered his head, sneaking a glance at his parents from the corner of his eye, ready to bolt at any moment.

But... the expected chaos didn't happen.

Dad sat still, silent for a few seconds, then asked, "If you're not going to school, what do you plan to do?"

Seeing how calm his parents were, Su Zhe laid out the whole story about going pro.

He even showed them his past streaming income and the contract to join the Nip team.

Mom and Dad huddled together, looking it over for a long time. A few minutes later, Dad asked again, "Have you made up your mind?"

Su Zhe said firmly, "Yeah! I've decided."

"Alright, I agree." He handed the phone back to Su Zhe. "What do you need to do to take a leave of absence from school?"

"Huh?" Su Zhe thought he'd misheard. Was this the reaction he was supposed to get?

Was this... right?

Dad glanced at him. "What? Changed your mind about going back to school?"

"No, no!" Su Zhe shook his head frantically, feeling like he was meeting his father for the first time.

"What's he going to do! And you just agreed!?" Mom's bewildered voice came from the bedroom.

Dad looked completely calm. "Didn't our son just say? He's going to play professionally. I looked it up just now—it pays pretty well."

Mom still didn't get it. "What does how much it pays have to do with anything? Weren't you the one who insisted he go to college in the first place?"

Dad sighed. "Back then, he wanted to drop out and work. I was afraid he'd get taken advantage of at such a young age, so I made him go to college. Hanging out there for four years was fine."

"Now that the kid has his own ideas and can support himself, isn't that good too?"

"I looked up that 'professional player' thing too. Just sit in front of a computer all day and play games. Pretty easy."

"It's fine, it's fine."

One more chapter coming up. I'll eat first and update later.

Thanks to S Cheng for the 1500-point tip! Thanks for the support, boss!