Chapter 4: Viral Sensation, A Call from Abu

Who is Faker? A three-time World Champion! The only true god-tier player in League of Legends.

And yet, Faker is currently inviting a streamer to go pro?

The viewers in the live chat were absolutely stunned. Inviting other streamers would be one thing, but inviting the "Nightmare of the Canyon" was just too absurd.

"I admit Faker is a beast at playing professionally, but his eyesight might not be that great."
"No kidding, how else would he wear glasses?"
"I support 'Dog Chen' joining SKT. If he joins SKT, this year will truly be the most hopeful year for our LPL."

Chen Yan was speechless as he read the comments. These guys were useless at everything except running their mouths. He thought his mental fortitude was well-tempered, but sometimes reading the chat still broke his defenses; some people’s logic was just too twisted.

However, he was also somewhat surprised by Faker’s invitation.

"As expected, gold will always shine; true strength cannot be hidden," Chen Yan remarked, causing the chat to mock him for being shameless.

His gaze returned to the screen. Faker was still online, clearly waiting for a reply. Accepting was out of the question. Not to mention that he hadn't terminated his contract with EDG yet, even if he were a free agent, he had no desire to drift away to a foreign land to play in the LCK.

Thus, Chen Yan politely declined.

...

"He refused?" On the other end, Bang frowned slightly. Being personally invited by Faker to join SKT was an honor beyond measure—how could the guy on the other side be so ungrateful?

"This guy... he must have no idea what he just missed."

Faker was also a bit taken aback, but he returned to his usual calm in the next second. "Perhaps I was too hasty in my request, and he took me for a scammer. I’ll discuss it with Coach kkOma, and next time..."

"You’re going to invite him again?!" Bang was stunned. He still didn't understand what kind of magic that strange mid-laner possessed to make Faker so attentive. *Seriously, Faker, can you look at your own teammates for once!*

As if he had heard Bang’s inner thoughts, Faker finally shifted his gaze toward him. "Oh? Jun-sik, why are you still here? Don't you need to climb the ranks?"

Bang’s expression froze instantly, his soul leaving his body.

...

"That’s it for today’s stream. Don't miss your Brother Chen too much. See you tomorrow."

With that, Chen Yan ended the stream at lightning speed.

...

"That jerk, he runs away so fast!" Watching the screen go black, the audience flooded the chat. On the surface, they were trashing him, but looking at the stream data, Chen Yan’s channel had high engagement. Especially today, with Faker helping to drive the entertainment value, his popularity reached an all-time high, consistently exceeding one million viewers.

"What a pity, money is still not enough to spend," Chen Yan lamented as he lay on the large bed in his rented villa.

It wasn’t that he had no money; it was that he didn’t have enough. Logically, this was the golden age of streaming, and as a major streamer, he should be living comfortably off the signing bonuses from the platform. However, his streaming contract was still tied to EDG. He had to wait for his contract with them to expire before he could sign a new one with the platform. Without that large signing bonus, his income consisted only of stream donations and his EDG salary.

But ever since Scout took over the starting spot, he hadn't participated in EDG’s training for a long time, and he had even moved out of the team’s gaming house. Therefore, he only received his base salary from EDG. Stream donations weren't much, and his base salary wasn't high either. On the surface, he made tens of thousands a month, surpassing 90% of the population, but in reality, in a place like Shanghai where every inch of land is worth gold, his income was stretched thin.

Not to mention, the rent for this large villa alone was over ten thousand. That was without counting daily living expenses, all of which were quite high. Some might ask, why rent a villa?

Rubbish! He had transmigrated into this world; was he not allowed to enjoy himself? Besides, Chen Yan was optimistic about his future income. Once the platform’s signing bonus hit his account, he would be well-off.

"At least I got that 30,000 RMB reward from the task today. It’ll hold me over for a while until the platform pays out," Chen Yan thought, a smile creeping onto his face as he checked the deposit.

He then uploaded the recording of his stream to the web, washed up, and went to sleep, drifting into a dream.

...

Chen Yan didn't know that his duo-queue video with Faker had been clipped by countless people and was going viral across the internet.

[Faker teams up with streamer 'Strange Mid-laner', bloodbath in Korean server]
[The Might of the Demon King, seven consecutive wins in duo-queue]
[Shocking! Faker personally invites a Chinese streamer to join SKT]

Once this news broke, netizens went into an uproar, all asking who this "Strange Mid-laner" was. Upon discovering that Chen Yan was just an entertainment streamer, everyone was shocked.

Is Faker a fool? Why would he invite an entertainment streamer to go pro? This contrast caused the topic’s popularity to skyrocket, eventually reaching the ears of major professional teams. Of course, the pro teams scoffed at the news. Regardless of whether it was true or not, it didn't matter to them.

Only Aaron, after accidentally seeing the news, noticed something odd.

"Strange mid-laner... is it Chen Yan?"

As the video played, Aaron fell into silence. He once held high hopes for Chen Yan. There were two players in the EDG youth squad he valued highly: one was iBoy, and the other was Chen Yan. One was an AD carry, the other a mid-laner. He had planned for them to eventually replace Deft and Pawn.

iBoy had successfully taken Deft's spot and was performing quite well. But things had gone wrong with Chen Yan; Scout’s performance in scrims and matches was simply better than Chen Yan’s. In the end, Aaron had no choice but to make Scout the starter. Chen Yan continued to grind, waiting for his chance.

At first, Chen Yan had trained hard, but later, for reasons unknown, he suddenly started slacking off and even requested to move out of the EDG base. Aaron had tried to persuade him with kind words and even scolded him out of frustration, but it was useless—Chen Yan moved out anyway.

He never expected that Chen Yan would return to his attention in such a way.

Recovering from his memories, Aaron let out a soft sigh. If Chen Yan had remained stagnant, he would have let him go. But now that Chen Yan seemed to have regained his form, Aaron’s interest was piqued. If possible, he wouldn't mind giving Chen Yan another chance; after all, he had invested a lot of effort into him.

With that thought, Aaron pulled out his phone and made the call.

On the other side, Chen Yan sleepily picked up his phone, answered, and heard someone telling him to come back to play professionally.

"Professional? What profession? My profession is a streamer!"

He hung up immediately and went back to sleep.

Listening to the dial tone on the other end, Aaron stood there, completely stunned.