In the livestream room, Brian lit a cigarette and spoke slowly in a seasoned tone.

“You can tell that Brother William has individual skill—champions like Riven and Fiora, those high-mechanics picks, aren’t something every blue-collar top laner can handle.”

“But he gets tilted too easily, and he lacks macro awareness.”

“But awareness isn’t something you just have because someone says so. Every player has to grind it out.”

“These days in the LPL, most top laners just hold the lane and wait for the double carries to take over. There aren’t many aggressive top laners like Brother William left, so it’s really a shame for him to retire.”

“.......”

Is it a shame?

In the corner of the internet café, William Thompson closed Brian’s stream.

He leaned back slightly, hands behind his head, staring blankly at the ceiling above.

After a while, William Thompson shook his head and pulled himself together.

Now wasn’t the time to dwell on this. The breach penalty for retiring at the end of the season wasn’t much, but it had still wiped out his savings, and he was left with some debt.

The most urgent thing was for William Thompson to make some money as soon as possible to send tuition to his little sister, who was raised by their grandma and aunt back home. He also needed to find a foothold in this “magic city” of Jianghai, and move out from his uncle’s place.

William Thompson’s uncle’s home was in the suburbs of Jianghai, a family of three: Uncle Edward Harris, Aunt Grace Miller, and his high school cousin Lily Harris.

His uncle worked in trade and was away on business trips most of the time, so only his cousin Lily Harris and aunt were at home.

Maybe unlike the usual “living under someone else’s roof” situation, his cousin wasn’t spoiled at all. She liked to wear her hair in a neat ponytail, wore wrist guards over her down jacket sleeves in winter, spoke softly, and was a gentle girl who blushed easily.

Aunt Grace Miller, on the other hand, was a bit sharp-tongued, but soft-hearted. She’d had strong opinions a few years back when William Thompson dropped out of college to go pro.

On this planet, e-sports had developed to unprecedented heights, officially included as an Olympic event. Every year, the top leagues attracted countless viewers worldwide, and many top pro players had as much influence as entertainment stars.

But Grace Miller knew what real “glamour” was.

Beneath the surface, there were countless young people who crashed and burned chasing their dreams, and after their golden years in e-sports, found themselves washed up and aimless, having achieved nothing.

So in her view, now that William Thompson had retired, he should hurry back, graduate, and find a proper job.

But William Thompson kept hanging around internet cafés, saying he was streaming. Naturally, Grace Miller would nag him whenever she had the chance, hoping to steer him onto the right path.

William Thompson had thought about finding another way, but there was a kind of indescribable attachment in his heart—maybe even he, stubborn as he was, hadn’t realized it.

His time on the world stage was short, but the impression it left was deep.

Maybe, he wanted to go even deeper...

......

Just as William Thompson was lost in thought, two college-aged guys from the nearby university town walked into the back room and sat down at the row of computers across from him.

“You really got the invite for the International Summit server?” one asked.

“Why would I lie? I pulled all-nighters for days just to hit Diamond I,” the other replied.

“No way, last time I checked you were still stuck at Diamond V! You climbed that fast?”

“Come on, I’ll show you the text notification!”

“Damn! It’s real! I gotta hurry and grind for my own spot.”

“You better! Riot’s set up a prize pool for the first Challenger on the International Summit server this time. We’ve got to go all out and climb the ladder!”

“......”

International Summit server?

Text notification?

William Thompson paused when he heard this, remembering that someone had mentioned it in his stream chat earlier.

Because of his bad temper, he often AFK’d and flamed people, so he’d been stuck between Diamond I and Master for ages, but he’d finally met the requirements to sign up.

He remembered filling out the application form a while back and being told it would be reviewed, so he hadn’t paid much attention since.

Thinking of this, William Thompson couldn’t help but pull out his phone, only to be greeted by a dizzying number of unread messages.

When he retired, some troll had doxxed his phone number on a forum, and ever since, he’d been bombarded day and night with all kinds of spam texts.

William Thompson was notorious for flaming five times a second in-game, so he’d long since developed immunity to being flamed himself. Now, expressionless, he scrolled through his messages until he finally found one that didn’t look like it was from a troll.

“Cousin, is this your number? I’ve saved you as a contact, remember to save me too, Lily.”

William Thompson paused, added the contact, and kept scrolling.

At last, he found a message from three days ago that wasn’t from a troll.

“Dear Summoner, congratulations on qualifying for the International Summit Super Server Official Season—Season 1. Many famous League of Legends streamers and pro players from around the world are waiting for you here. Your e-sports dream starts here.”

Looks like he’d made the cut.

William Thompson stroked his chin, deep in thought.