After exiting his daily training routine, Su Zhe checked his system panel again.
With the system's update, he saw a new interface appear beneath his attributes.
[Map Understanding: Mirage: 57 Inferno: 49 (Expand)] (PS: The maximum Map Understanding value is 100)
Su Zhe: ...
Come on, man. I knew I still had a lot to learn in this area, but did I really have to be this far behind?
Ever since he found out Dust II wasn't in the active map pool, Mirage had become his favorite map. It was also the one he played the most in Ladder matches.
He'd felt pretty good about himself, thinking he already understood the map quite well. But now he didn't even have a Passing Score?
And that was nothing compared to Anubis and Nuclear Crisis, maps he only played once a day to complete his daily training.
He'd thought joining a professional team was the peak of his life. He hadn't expected it to be just the beginning.
Su Zhe could practically feel countless mountains waiting for him to climb in the future.
Then he took the 1,500-odd Rise Points he'd earned earlier and added them to the 700-odd he had left, exchanging them for two [Positioning] Attribute Points.
As for why he only exchanged them for Attribute Points...
A while ago, he'd spent 1,000 Rise Points he'd painstakingly saved up to buy a random pro player's insights into their techniques from the shop.
The random draw had given him insights from 259, Qiezi, and Su Di. Once he went in, he found—damn, they were even worse than me. What the hell am I supposed to learn from them?!
At the time, all he'd wanted to shout was: "Give me my damn money back!"
After that, he'd obediently stuck to exchanging Rise Points for Attribute Points...
Then he looked at the quest panel and found two new quests. Earlier, after signing his contract with the Nip team, he'd heard nothing but "Ding! Ding!" system notifications. He hadn't been able to make out most of them.
[Becoming a professional player is merely a new starting point in the Host's life. Please continue working hard to improve yourself.]
[Quest One: Raise your overall rating to A-rank. Reward: One random A-rank reward]
[Quest Two: Help your team qualify for Katowice, with an event Rating of at least 1.0. Reward: One random A-rank reward]
[Quest Three: Help your team rise into the world's top ten, or rejoin a team ranked in the world's top ten. Reward: One random S-rank reward]
[Quest Four: Become one of HLTV's officially selected Top 20 players. Reward: One random S-rank reward]
[...]
The next day, Su Zhe boarded a flight back home. After landing, he didn't go straight to school; he returned directly to his family's home.
There was still one problem: he didn't know whether his parents would agree to him becoming a pro. He couldn't exactly keep something like that secret.
He couldn't just go to school, file for leave, cut off contact with his family, and then return three years later with his salary and prize money like some conquering hero...
"Ding-dong! Ding-dong!"
"Coming! Coming!" A voice came from inside, drawing closer. "Huh? Xiao Zhe, why are you back all of a sudden? Did winter break start early this year?"
Standing at the door, Su Zhe rubbed his stomach and looked at his mom. "I'll tell you in a bit. Is dinner ready? I'm starving!"
"Perfect timing. Your dad's cooking. Come on in."
"Okay..."
Su Zhe took a deep breath, braced himself, and stepped inside.
He still didn't know whether his parents would agree to let him become a pro.
As far as he could remember, his parents knew next to nothing about esports and had an instinctive aversion to games.
Even though they'd had a computer at home for years, he'd only been allowed to play now and then. If he played for too long, his dad would scold him: "Can playing games put food on the table? If you don't study hard, how are you going to find a job and support yourself?"
He knew his parents only wanted what was best for him. But now that the path ahead was laid out before him, he had to keep going.
A little over ten minutes later, he helped his dad carry the cooked dishes to the table, and the family sat down to dinner.
The atmosphere at the table somehow turned strange. The only sounds were chewing and the clink of utensils.
His mom and dad exchanged glances now and then, then turned back to their food.
His dad finally couldn't take it anymore. With a sharp smack, he slapped his chopsticks down on the table.
Su Zhe, who'd been eating, jumped. It felt like he'd been focused on a clutch round when his opponent suddenly landed a Headshot on him.
His dad spoke gravely. "Did you get into trouble at school? If you don't tell me what's going on, I won't be able to enjoy this meal!"
"..."
Su Zhe knew he'd have to face this head-on. He'd been quiet because he was trying to figure out how to break the news to his parents gently.
But under his dad's natural authority, he was still a little nervous, and his words came out haltingly. "Actually... I... well..."
His dad suddenly seemed to realize something. His expression turned serious. "I-I'm not about to become a grandpa, am I?!"
Su Zhe: ?
Realizing his dad had misunderstood, he hurried to explain. "It's not that! It's something else!"
"Oh. You scared me." His dad let out a sigh of relief, though for some reason, he felt the faintest trace of disappointment.
"I'll tell you after dinner. It's nothing major." In the end, Su Zhe chose to put it off, figuring that once his dad had eaten his fill, he wouldn't be up for anything too strenuous.
And so, in that strange atmosphere, the family of three finished their dinner, each lost in their own thoughts.
After the meal, in the living room, his dad watched his son fidget awkwardly and felt increasingly stifled.
He patiently asked, "Can you tell us now?"
Su Zhe: "Um... just so we're clear, you're not allowed to hit me, okay?"
His dad gritted his teeth. "Fine! I promise I won't hit you!"
After hesitating for a moment, Su Zhe blurted it out. "Mom, Dad, I don't want to keep going to school."
He lowered his head and glanced at his parents out of the corner of his eye, ready to make a run for it at any moment.
But... the chaos he'd expected never came.
His dad didn't react at all. After thinking for a few seconds, he asked, "If you don't want to go to school, what are you planning to do?"
Seeing how calm his parents were, Su Zhe explained everything about becoming a pro, from beginning to end.
He even showed them his past livestream earnings and the contract he'd signed with the Nip team.
His parents leaned together and looked everything over for quite a while. A few minutes later, his dad asked again, "Have you made up your mind?"
Su Zhe answered firmly. "Yeah! I have!"
"Fine. I agree." As he spoke, he handed the phone back to Su Zhe. "What paperwork do you need to take leave from school?"
"Huh?" Su Zhe thought he'd misheard. Was this really how his dad was supposed to react?
Was this... right?
His dad glanced at him. "What? Changed your mind and decided to go back to school?"
"No, no!" Su Zhe hurriedly shook his head. He felt as if he were meeting his father for the first time.
"What's he going to do? And you just agreed!?" His mom's baffled voice came from the bedroom.
His dad looked completely unruffled. "Our son told us, didn't he? He's going to become some kind of pro player. I looked it up just now. They make quite a bit of money."
His mom still didn't understand. "What does that have to do with how much money he makes? Weren't you the one who insisted he go to college?"
His dad sighed. "Back then, he wanted to drop out and get a job. I was worried he was too young and would get taken advantage of, so I told him to go to college. Spending four years at school seemed fine."
"But now that he has an idea of what he wants to do, and can support himself, isn't that a good thing?"
"I looked up pro players too. They just sit in front of a computer and play games every day. Sounds pretty easy."
"Sounds good. Sounds good."
There'll be another chapter later. I'll grab a bite and then update.
Thanks to S Cheng for the 1,500-point tip! Thanks for the support, boss!