Volume 3 - CH 27

Book 3: Glory on the Other Side

Chapter 27

When Ai Qing arrived at Solo’s room, both A and B teams were

either sitting in the living room or smoking on the balcony.  When

they saw her walk in, some of them waved to her and some of

them cleared their throats.

What was going on?  They were all acting awkward. “Where’s Solo?”

Nobody answered.

“He’s talking with K&K’s manager.”  Bug had to explain to her

since nobody wanted to speak.  “They should be done soon?  

We’ve also been waiting for quite a while.”

Su Cheng?  It was quite a surprise to her.

Obviously the two inside the room also heard the voices from

the living room.  Shortly Su Cheng walked out carrying her bag

and left as everyone watched her go.  Solo walked out behind

her.  He glanced at Ai Qing for several seconds, then clapped

his hands.  “Sorry to keep everyone waiting.  Come on, please

come in A team.  Let’s discuss the player assignments.”

The smokers on the balcony pinched their cigarettes and the

people in the living room all stood up.

They all walked into his room.

Solo sorted out his desk.  “I’ve been pretty busy recently and

haven’t paid much attention to Secret Room.  Slide, come, talk

to us about the current rankings.“  Usually this was Ai Qing’s

task.  Slide was surprised to hear Solo call on him, but he

cleared his throat immediately.  “It’s still the same.  For K&K,

aside for Dt who still remains at first place, the other two, though

ranked among the top ten, are not ranked that high-- --”  Solo

threw a pen at him and said,  “Write the rankings down and let’s

look at it.

Slide stood up and wrote down a series of names on the

whiteboard.  He remembered the top forty rankings without

missing a single one.  He pulled out his cell phone and surfed

some web pages after he finished writing.  Then he even wrote

down all their scores.

Solo looked at the list from top to bottom.

Then he looked back at the top ten:

Dt: 7694

Slide: 7480

Taotao: 7356

Buff: 7098

Inin: 7057

Grunt: 7057

All: 6900

Bug: 6877

97: 6831

Following: 6793

……

Looking at the top ten, SP’s A team were all in there.  K&K’s

three players were really strong.  There were only two exceptions.  

One was Solo team’s long time opponent Buff.  The other one…...

he was this year’s black horse.

Looking at the top twenty, all of SP players were on the list.  Buff’s

team were all in there as well.  Even the team led by the black

horse was there.  But K&K still had only three players in there.  

All the others were random internet players.

“K&K should be recruiting now.”  Solo spoke as if he were talking

to himself.  His eyes finally looked at Ai Qing for the first time

today,  “What do you think?”

‘Me?”  Ai QIng pondered.  “Other games all have very strict rules.  

“True.”  Solo repeated.  “It’s very challenging.”

“The most interesting thing is that only two teams belong to clubs

among the top twenty”  Ai Qing looked at the list of the scores and

ranking.  “I have never thought about this situation before I took

over the team.”

Solo either didn’t hear her or was deep in thought.

He was surprisingly quiet.

But apparently Ai Qing’s comment wasn’t that difficult to comprehend.  

She hadn’t even really analyzed the team players, the characteristics

of each player, or assigned players to offensive or defensive roles.

Ai Qing waited for him for over ten seconds, then turned to Slide,

silently asking him for help with her eyes.

Slide understood.  “Ah, right.  The situation is very unusual.  Let

me tell you guys something interesting.  That Taotao posted an ad

on Weibo last night to look for an offline investment.”

“Looking for investors?”  Solo was back to his normal self.  “Why?”

“Because they don’t have money.”  Bug answered.  He also

recognized that there was something wrong with their boss today.  

“They are not a professional team. I heard they are all students.  

Taotao is only nineteen years old.”

Inin said,  “Oh, ONLY?”

All depressed Inin’s head using his palm.  “Don’t interrupt.”

“Oh.”  Inin shut up obediently.  But he still used his eyes to complain

that nineteen years old was already too old compared to him.

“It’s been getting reposted all over the forums and other sites.  It’s

spreading like wildfire.”  Slide continued.

Too many things happened last night.  SP also had a major

personnel change.  She had missed the posting.

“The most important thing is what happens right now.”  Slide

paused deliberately. Solo and Ai Qing both looked at him.  It meant

that you could continue now, we all were already paying full attention

to you.  He finally smiled slowly and waved his cell phone.  “Taotao

just posted a message to Ai Qing publicly on WeiBo.  He asked her

whether she’s interested in investing his team which has a great future.”