Superstars of Tomorrow

"Battle of the Century" had been officially been released for 50 minutes.

In the Yanzhou region, the entire District 79 South’s mutated beast count kept decreasing at an alarming rate. And people on the streets of District 79 South only heard gunshots and mutated beasts that collapsed following these gunshots. Not just the beast getting shot, what was even more intriguing was that no one was able to find the person responsible. Nobody was clear on how many members were in that mysterious party!

Even if someone saw something, it was only a flickering shadow. There was just no time to catch his appearance or any special characteristics, and it was just impossible to guess who this person was.

It was simply an extermination!

However, throughout the whole Yanzhou region, although the situation at District 79 South attracted attention, compared to other happenings, it was but a small ripple.

All the big media firms were fighting to report on the activities of the e-sports clubs of Yanzhou and trying to guess which names from which e-sports clubs would appear on the leaderboards.

The globally acclaimed online gaming community, Rising Dragon, had long started a vote to guess which e-sports athletes would place themselves at the top of the leaderboards after the first hour for this grand occasion that happened once every 10 years. The fans of each and every e-sports club were making a lot of noise over this.

Fiery Bird’s public website had an experience points ranking, and each continent’s warzone had its own charts. There were team leaderboards as well as individual leaderboards, and they were refreshed every hour. These leaderboards were what the e-sports clubs of every continent specifically paid attention too. That ranking was the most accepted way of showing their power and strength. The closer to the top they were, the more attention they would receive. In a business aspect, their value would rise even higher.

Yanzhou’s popular entertainment program "Prairie Fire" had already invited a few retired e-sports stars to their broadcasting studio and were waiting for the leaderboards to display the results before talking about it.

Countless more people were keeping their eyes peeled on Fiery Bird’s public website.

Yanzhou’s Big Five e-sports clubs had dominated the top five spots for leaderboards for years on end. Other e-sports clubs had been gearing themselves up for this, hoping to squeeze into the front.

It was nearing an hour since the start of the game. Many eyes were on the leaderboards that were going to be refreshed for the first time.

Silver Wing gaming department.

Department manager Wayne looked at the five members in the gaming room and stepped outside to pour himself a glass of water. As the department’s person-in-charge, Wayne had not been sleeping well the past few days. He had bags under his eyes and a slight stubble.

This time he had signed five members. Three held dual professions, being actors as well as e-sports athletes. As for the other two, one was a university student who had just signed a contract, and the other had been poached over from another studio at a high price. Besides that, to make it look better, he had collaborated with another private studio and let the five members he’d signed form a team with members of that studio and enter the game together. The team’s name was "Lurkers," and for the time being, they had not publicly announced themselves. Previously, news on them had adopted a mysterious stance.

The harder one bragged before a competition, the harder the face smacking after. Therefore, other than the people in the department, other people did not know what Silver Wing’s team was called this time around, their prowess, or who their members were.

Silver Wing also invested in games, but compared to Fiery Bird, what they did could only be considered small-scale. And most of the time, they chose to collaborate with other game companies rather than develop their own. Silver Wing was very much like other entertainment companies in the New Era that had the same way of thinking. As long as it was connected to entertainment and money could be made, they would dabble in it.

Wayne’s gaming department’s position could not be compared to the film and music departments, but it was more important compared to other small projects. In the past, the virtual projects department had also been below them, but now, as they watched the virtual projects department rise in stature, their gaming department could not help but feel like they were being crowded out. This time around, Wayne intended to use "Battle of the Century" as the wind in their sails and see if he could propel his department up the popularity ladder.

Forget the individual leaderboards—they were amateurs, after all, and had no way of competing with the professional e-sports athletes of business-minded e-sports clubs. When it came to building a star, they would not be able to match up. However, for the team ranking, Wayne believed that, if they could squeeze into the top 50, at least he could be held accountable to his superiors. That would at least give the company some prestige. They might not be a professional e-sports club, but they were still a very reputable entertainment company. Since they had chosen to have a hand in this, the result couldn’t be too unsightly.

Competition in gaming was too intense, even more intense than the competition that film and music had. Silver Wing’s core was still on film and the performing arts; as long as their gaming side could get by, that was good enough. Top 50 was the target set by the superiors. If they could squeeze into the top 30, Wayne could sleep and wake up smiling.

However, in the first hour, Wayne did not have any hopes of obtaining a good result, all professionals in these industries knew that the first hour was the best for sweeping up points when a lot of newbies were still adapting. At the point where everything was still hazy was the best time to rack up points! When all these people got the hang of things and all sorts of tactics emerged and when all the private studios started purchasing equipment, at that time, it would not be so easy to sweep up points.

Therefore, the professional e-sports clubs would spend the first hour accumulating points. They would kill whatever was there to be killed and get as much experience as they possibly could. After all, these were all business-minded clubs, not amateur teams that played for fun. Every step they took was in the direction of receiving the most benefits. So many companies waited just to use this wave to manufacture a star.

Experience points could show the strength of an individual or a team. Currently, one team could only have a maximum of 20 members. To expand, the total experience points of the team had to increase. But even if there was a limit for members, there was still coordination. Many e-sports clubs’ 2nd teams, 3rd teams, and even reserve players would assist the main team and collect even more points to rise up the leaderboards.

Just like Silver Wing’s side, other than the five that had signed contracts, there was still a private studio with the purpose of giving points and helping raise the total points of the team. As long as these five rised up, Wayne would have accomplished his goal of producing stars and could use this to hype them up.

However, at the same time, Wayne would not let the chance of admitting newcomers slip by.

Wayne rubbed his tired eyes and urged his subordinates, "Watch carefully, see if there are any potential talents that do not have contracts. Hurry up and sign them up!"

This was not just limited to Silver Wing’s side. Silver Wing’s old rivals, Neon Culture and Tongshan True Entertainment, had the same thoughts. Many e-sports clubs and professional people in the industry were paying attention. There could never be too much talent. Whether they could be controlled or used, that would only be decided after they were first signed. Even wild mushrooms growing outside one’s home could not be given up to their competitors.

There were also players that had their own dreams of stardom and planned to amaze the world with a single feat and soar into the sky in one leap. Even if they lived in some remote area and were without wealth or a good family background, it did not matter. As long as one’s name appeared on the leaderboards, there was no need to worry about being found—becoming an overnight celebrity was not just a dream, the path to success was right in front of their eyes!

"Battle of the Century" runtime: 55 minutes.

Transcendental, Big Dipper, HWR, BOOM, 2S, and other e-sports clubs were already waiting.

At 2S e-sports club.

"Are the drafts ready?"

"All prepared and ready to go."

Their e-sports club had prepared drafts to post on their websites after the leaderboards were refreshed after the first hour. Written drafts for 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th place had all be prepared so they could react to any position.

As for places after 5th?

Was it possible?!

"I heard the team’s total points have crossed the 10,000 mark. Xie He alone has broken 2,000!"

Hearing this, everyone looked relaxed for a moment but quickly calmed down, nervously anticipating as they counted the minutes and seconds as they passed, their eyes on the blank leaderboard. Whether they could have a good beginning for both leaderboards, they would have to wait and see when it refreshed.

"Battle of the Century" runtime: 59:30.

Many people who had gone offline stopped whatever they were doing. Fans that had previously been quarreling in full swing also had a temporary ceasefire as they stared at their screens, counting down the seconds.

0:59:58

0:59:59

1:00:00!

Fiery Bird’s website automatically refreshed.

Yanzhou region leaderboard, individual experience ranking. The names on it were ranked in sequence, and behind every ID was the amount of experience points followed by the team the player belonged to.

1. AliveAfter500Years—5267.3—Silver Wing50PolarLight

2. Xie He—2683.1—2S

3. Bai Jiang—2592.4—BOOM

4. Yi Yuan—2546.7—Big Dipper

5. Jess—2458.5—HWR

6. Kong Tianhan—2306.2—Transcendental

...

When they saw the leaderboard for the first time, many e-sports club offices fell silent.

Staring at the screens, the muscles on their faces seemed to spasm as their lips twitched, but they were unable to make any sounds. It was as if someone was forcefully choking them.

"This is impossible!" A 2S analyst’s face had become pale, the finger pointing at the screen trembling violently.

As an analyst, he knew the process of how the team members collected experience points, and whether it was Xie He or the other first-rate members he was familiar with, the points had mostly started racking up toward the last half hour. At that time, there had been assistance from the other supporting teams. They had exchanged their credits for equipment to be given to the members of the main team and had people in charge of drawing the beasts over. Especially the last 10 minutes of the first hour, which consisted of wielding the equipment and spraying bullets! That was the real sweeping operation that had cost a lot of capital!

The other e-sports clubs also had similar tactics, so everyone’s points were rather close, at most having a 200–300 point gap. But what the h*ll was with 1st place?!

Five thousand points?!

Who the f*ck was this person?

Had the system made an error?!

Checking the global leaderboard, amongst the top ten, there were only eight that surpassed 3000 points—two from Huangzhou, two from Rongzhou, and one each from Xizhou, Tongzhou and Mazhou. Aside from these seven was the one who occupied the throne of first place, Yanzhou’s AliveAfter500Years. This unfamiliar ID had appeared in the public view for the first time and had left the 2nd-place player from Mazhou in the dust; a world champion and gold medalist in shooting was 1700 points behind!

Taking a look at the team he originated from, SilverWing50PolarLight? Where had it popped up from? It had never been heard of before!

But as they checked out the team rankings, SilverWing50PolarLight could not be found in the top 100 of the global team leaderboard. On Yanzhou’s team leaderboard, it was only placed at 28. The total accumulated points were actually only 5350.4!

That meant to say, this prodigy had accounted for 98% of his team’s points!

Was it possible?

Definitely not!

"Shady activities! One look and you can tell it has a business organization written over over it! Surely they threw money to hire a pro!"

"SilverWing50PolarLight? A Silver Wing team? The f*ck, Silver Wing actually kept silent and made such a bold move!"

"Treacherous! No joke, this is extremely crafty!"

"That’s why, money is shameless!"

"Any experts around? Please explain what methods they used to achieve such high points."

"I’m not listening! In any case, they definitely used some underhanded methods."

At the same time, Silver Wing’s gaming department was equally at a loss.

Wayne stared at the refreshed leaderboard dumbfounded.

A worker beside him carefully approached and asked Wayne with a stutter, "Boss, is this... our company?"

"It... is?"