Chapter 95 The News Conference

Although Team Excellent Era didn't perform well on April Fool's Day, their competitors were just as bad. As a result, the biggest selling point of the round passed without much fanfare. No one expected that the next day, Excellent Era Club would hold a press conference and drop a bombshell.

At the conference, Excellent Era's club manager, Cui Li, announced in person: Sun Xiang, the newly joined and rising star of Team Excellent Era this season, is likely to miss the rest of the season due to poor physical condition.

When answering reporters' questions, Cui Li said with great sorrow that Sun Xiang's physical condition had actually been a problem for some time, but because Excellent Era had been in a difficult situation, he had insisted on participating in the matches. Now, however, it was time to stop.

After answering many questions about Sun Xiang's specific condition, Cui Li confidently stated that the absence of the team's ace player and character would spur the team to work even harder in the upcoming matches. At the same time, however, Cui Li said that the club had fully prepared for the worst-case scenario, and that even if the worst happened, the club and team would face it with a positive attitude.

Although this last statement was modest and euphemistic, professional media people could easily hear the subtext. It sounded as if Excellent Era was preparing for a possible relegation. In other words, Excellent Era Club had truly begun to waver in its confidence about maintaining its current ranking.

What exactly was going on with Excellent Era? How could a prestigious team lack confidence in securing its position in the Alliance? Based on Excellent Era's theoretical strength, securing their spot shouldn't be difficult, even without ace player Sun Xiang and ace character One Autumn Leaf. But now, Excellent Era seemed to be actively preparing for such a situation.

"Is Excellent Era really preparing to give up on next season, intentionally playing poorly and getting relegated to the Challenger League?" After seeing the news that day, Chen Guo said to Ye Xiu in astonishment. They had already discussed this question briefly the night before.

"Intentionally? Probably not. Judging from this, the team might really be out of control," Ye Xiu said regretfully.

"Is Excellent Era really doomed?" Chen Guo asked in disbelief.

Ye Xiu simply shook his head, saying nothing to confirm or deny it.

"Aiya! Aiya! Aiya!!!"

At this moment, a series of shouts rang out, interrupting their discussion. Bao Rongxing, also known as Steamed Bun Invasion, had been taken directly to the apartment Chen Guo rented for the new team members after everyone had eaten late-night snacks last night. Chen Guo had just received the keys to that apartment on April 1st, and it hadn't been fully tidied up yet, but the spacious living environment had caused Bao Rongxing to shout "Aiya, aiya, aiya" continuously at the time.

After resting for a night, he had spent the day tidying up the room properly. Now, Bao Rongxing had finally arrived at Happy Internet Cafe. It had been dark last night, and they had been busy with the broadcast, so he hadn't paid much attention to the specific situation of the Internet cafe. Now that he was here, he took a tour of the upstairs and downstairs and immediately began to exclaim in surprise, just like he had done last night when he went to his new apartment.

This exclamatory cry clearly gave Chen Guo great satisfaction, and she looked happily at Bao Rongxing as he trotted down from the second floor.

"What a big Internet cafe!!" Bao Rongxing shouted in amazement after he had "aiya'd" enough, and then didn't forget to ask, "How many people do you need to watch the place for such a big Internet cafe?"

"This... we don't need any. The security here is pretty good..." Chen Guo didn't know how to answer such a question. As long as she could remember, she had never seen anyone cause trouble at the Internet cafe that required professional bouncers to deal with. Although there were occasional incidents involving drunk people or petty theft, Chen Guo didn't think it was necessary to hire professional bodyguards.

"Security... some problems can't be solved by good security alone! Why don't you just leave it to me?" Bao Rongxing said confidently.

"I don't mind," Chen Guo said with a smile.

"Okay, okay, let me see! I'll just move a table and sit in this spot, right?" Bao Rongxing gestured at the entrance of the Internet cafe. He seemed to want to place a table across half of the doorway, blocking it.

"That... isn't necessary, right?" Chen Guo said, sweating.

"It's necessary, it's necessary! That way there won't be any loopholes. If someone wants to cause trouble and run away, they'll have to go this way, and the table will block them. If they go that way, I'll take them out with a flurry of punches and kicks to their upper, middle, and lower body!" Bao Rongxing said, gesticulating as he spoke.

Chen Guo was getting anxious, but she didn't know how to communicate with this guy. At this crucial moment, Ye Xiu stepped forward and said, "Bao Rongxing, is that how you used to watch the place at the Internet cafe you worked at before?"

"Not really," Bao Rongxing said. "The boss there said he'd call me if something happened, and then I'd step in."

"It's the same now. If something happens, we'll call you, and then you can step in," Ye Xiu said.

"Is that so? I'm pretty used to that, but I don't know if the boss will think it's not secure enough," Bao Rongxing said, looking at Chen Guo with a puzzled expression.

"Enough, enough, enough! Just focus your energy on practicing Glory! If there's a major event that can't be resolved, we'll definitely ask you to step in," Chen Guo said.

"Alright then!" Bao Rongxing reluctantly agreed.

Afterward, Bao Rongxing also came to the 213 private room on the second floor. Considering that more team members would be coming in the future, Chen Guo had already considered expanding to a super-large private room for training purposes. She had been talking to people about how to change the layout of the second floor these days, but she hadn't come up with a plan yet, so the 213 private room was still the training room for the time being.

Bao Rongxing sat down and praised the environment vigorously again. Chen Guo liked hearing these words very much and enjoyed them comfortably.

Afterward, they played games together in the private room. However, although the four of them were sitting close together, they were in different worlds in the game. Tang Rou and Bao Rongxing were still in the tenth server, but Tang Rou was still far ahead of Bao Rongxing in terms of level, so they couldn't play together.

Ye Xiu, on the other hand, was in the Heavenly Domain, continuing to level up Lord Grim.

Chen Guo's current game content was no longer like that of a casual player. She rarely logged into her main account, Chasing Haze. When she logged into her small account, Chasing Haze, she would check the guild warehouse and the players' leveling progress. In addition, she often browsed the news and gossip on the forums, trying to obtain news about the professional scene.

"Why hasn't Old Wei come yet?" Chen Guo had spent most of the day tidying up the new rental apartment, but she had told the Internet cafe to let her know if anyone came looking for her. But when she came back, she hadn't heard that anyone had come.

"He said he'd come today," Ye Xiu said.

"It's already dark, and he still hasn't come." Chen Guo was muttering when suddenly her QQ rang. She looked and saw that it was the cashier girl downstairs telling her that someone had come to see her.

"Oh, it might be Old Wei," Chen Guo said.

"Is that so?" Ye Xiu then put down the game temporarily. Tang Rou knew that another new team member had arrived and prepared to get up and greet him. Although Bao Rongxing didn't understand the situation, he immediately felt that something was up when he saw all three of them getting up, and that they couldn't do without him, so he eagerly followed them.

Chen Guo walked in the front. As soon as she reached the bottom of the stairs, she saw a scruffy guy with a beard leaning against the cashier counter, puffing smoke. Two large duffel bags were piled casually at his feet. The smoke came in waves, causing the girl at the cashier counter to frown, but she didn't say anything because she knew this was the guest the boss was waiting for. The guy didn't seem to notice and kept looking around. When his gaze turned to the stairs, he saw Chen Guo coming down and his eyes lit up.

"Old Wei!"

At this moment, Chen Guo heard Ye Xiu call out from behind her. The guy immediately walked over quickly. Chen Guo stepped aside to let Ye Xiu go to the front. But after the guy quickly greeted him, he didn't shake Ye Xiu's hand or anything. Instead, he looked at Chen Guo and asked Ye Xiu, "Who is this beauty?"

"This is our boss," Ye Xiu introduced.

"Oh, nice to meet you, nice to meet you," Wei Chen immediately reached out to shake Chen Guo's hand.

Chen Guo was conflicted at this moment! Her initial impression of Wei Chen wasn't good, and now that she saw in person that he was the kind of person whose eyes lit up when he saw a beautiful woman, her impression continued to decline. She really didn't want to shake his hand, but she thought that since he was a member of the team and she was the boss, she should at least show some respect, right? So, she reluctantly extended her right hand, but she was determined that if this guy tried to take advantage of her by holding her hand and not letting go, she wouldn't give him any more face.

But Wei Chen only shook her hand a few times after he grasped it, said, "Hello, I'm Wei Chen," and then let go. But then Chen Guo noticed that his gaze had fallen on Tang Rou behind her. The light in his eyes was even brighter, and his hand, which had just released Chen Guo's, seemed to be itching to grab Tang Rou's. He was already asking, "And who is this?"

"Tang Rou," Ye Xiu said, using her real name this time. Tang Rou had no interaction with Wei Chen in the game, unlike Bao Rongxing, so saying Soft Mist would have made it easier for him to connect the dots.

"A good name, a good name, hello, hello," Wei Chen said, immediately wanting to shake Tang Rou's hand again. Chen Guo watched to see how Tang Rou would react. Suddenly, two hands quickly reached out from the side and grabbed Wei Chen's right hand, which he was extending towards Tang Rou: "Hello, hello, I'm Bao Rongxing. Close friends call me Steamed Bun."

"Ah... hello..." The sudden interruption startled Wei Chen, and after looking at the guy with long hair trying to act cool, he turned to look at Ye Xiu and said, "These are all the team members you found?"

"Yes, they're all new to Glory, but they're pretty good," Ye Xiu said.

"Oh, right, did you see this!" Wei Chen suddenly seemed to remember something and ran back to his luggage. He took out a stack of newspapers from his bag and handed them to Ye Xiu.

Ye Xiu looked and saw that it was that day's H City Evening News. Although it wasn't an esports special report, because Excellent Era was a club based in H City, the newspaper had briefly reported on Excellent Era's press conference in its sports section.

"Of course I saw it," Ye Xiu said, glancing at it. He knew Wei Chen was definitely talking about this, so he casually stuffed the newspaper back.

"What does Excellent Era mean by this? It looks like they're already preparing for relegation. If they really get relegated and participate in next season's Challenger League, wouldn't that put them on a collision course with us? That wouldn't be good!" Wei Chen said very seriously.

Chen Guo was stunned for a moment. Wei Chen's eyes had been shining earlier, and she had been wondering what kind of shameless things he would do to the two beautiful women, but she didn't expect that in the blink of an eye, he was already discussing team matters with Ye Xiu in all seriousness.

Glory, for these guys, is still the most important thing in their lives!