Chapter 51: Mid-Jungle Duo Queue—Better Not Play Graves Anymore

Chen Yan did not expect the team manager to get the news so quickly, nor did he deny it.

"There are quite a few people contacting me privately."

However, Chen Yan cleverly avoided mentioning that he had already turned them down.

ClearLove frowned slightly, thinking that Ah Bu's efficiency as a manager was truly too low.

With so many people coming to poach talent now, if they didn't act soon, Chen Yan was very likely to be snatched away by rivals.

Having finally found a powerful backer, he had no intention of letting go.

"Xiao Yan, the esports circle is a mixed bag. You're young, so don't believe everything people say."

"Tell me what your demands are, and I can relay them to the club."

"Whatever other teams can offer, I guarantee EDG can offer as well."

These words were exceptionally arrogant.

If anyone else had said them, Chen Yan wouldn't have believed them for a second.

But coming from ClearLove's mouth, he had no choice but to believe it.

Rumor had it that EdG's owner was a fan of ClearLove, and the entire EDG organization was essentially founded for ClearLove.

If that was true, then ClearLove's influence probably even surpassed that of Ah Bu.

Even if the rumor was inaccurate, there's no smoke without fire; ClearLove could definitely pull strings with the boss.

"Actually, I don't have any special demands, just a few points—"

"First is money; second, the contract can only buy my brand name, and getting me to play requires an extra fee; third, my streaming and commercial rights cannot be given to you; fourth, you cannot force me to play..."

"Twenty-seven..."

What the hell... Are these just a few points to you?

ClearLove was left completely dumbfounded. He had no idea how Chen Yan's brain was wired to come up with so many conditions.

"Stop, stop, stop! I'll go find Ah Bu later. You can just talk the specifics over with him after you finish streaming."

The topic concluded, and ClearLove originally intended to go practice, but Chen Yan invited him to duo queue.

He did not refuse.

"Then I'll turn my stream's mic on."

Because they had been discussing contract matters just moments before, Chen Yan had kept his microphone muted.

"Wait a second."

"What is it?"

"I want to ask you something, and then you can turn your mic on."

"What's up?"

"Did you tell the people over at WE that I wouldn't let you play with them?"

"Uh..." Chen Yan suddenly felt a guilty conscience. "Actually, I just said it casually..."

He thought ClearLove was here to call him to account.

But the next moment, Chen Yan was stunned as he heard ClearLove say with a hint of excitement: "Well done! There's no future for anyone at WE."

You're way too vicious...

Chen Yan clicked his tongue.

"Alright, whatever."

...

In Chen Yan's streaming room.

At this point, the viewers could only see Chen Yan moving his mouth without hearing any sound, and they were growing extremely anxious.

Suddenly, Chen Yan switched on the microphone.

Instantly, the barrage exploded, filled with curses.

Chen Yan didn't care at all; instead, he laughed and said, "I didn't expect you guys to be so unwelcoming to ClearLove, cursing him out so fiercely."

"ClearLove?"

"777777777!"

"Where is ClearLove?"

"Call that useless factory boss out!"

"4396."

Although there were quite a few EDG die-hards in the stream, "4396" still flooded the screen frantically.

Within these four digits lay both the hatred of shattered expectations and the resentment of unfulfilled potential.

Of course, more importantly, the numbers 4396 had long since been turned into a widespread meme.

Mentioning ClearLove naturally made people want to spam 4396 and 777.

"Say a few words, Old Prison Warden."

"What should I say?" ClearLove thought for a moment and said, "Just... thank you everyone for coming to watch Xiao Yan's stream."

"Boring, can't you drop some spicy banter? Don't tell me you've lost your touch."

"Hah, when I was dropping spicy banter, you probably didn't even know which sketchy internet cafe you were pulling an all-nighter in."

The two of them bantered back and forth. It seemed like they were at odds, but the viewers found it thoroughly entertaining.

In reality, ClearLove himself had a wealth of witty remarks, but his ambitions didn't lie in streaming.

If he had applied even half the dedication to streaming that he gave to his professional career, he easily could have become a top-tier mainstream streamer across the entire internet.

Chen Yan still held a great deal of respect for ClearLove.

Even though everyone mocked ClearLove's dream as being like underwear—others wore it underneath, but he wore it pulled over his head.

So what if he pulled it over his head? At least he put it on; some people didn't even wear underwear at all.

"Holy shit! It's actually ClearLove!"

"Is that strange? Do you understand the value of EDG's mid-jungle duo?"

"What value does EDG's mid-jungle have? Isn't it just Brother Yan single-handedly carrying the team? What does it have to do with that washed-up factory boss?"

"The barrage is going too far!"

Chen Yan's gaze swept across the chat, and his voice suddenly dropped low.

Everyone present was startled.

ClearLove was just about to say it didn't matter and not to let it affect the stream.

To ClearLove's surprise, however, Chen Yan said directly: "Stream moderators, give anyone spamming 4396 a 'Boss' badge so their comments stand out more, otherwise ClearLove won't be able to see them clearly."

"You damn—!"

Even as composed as ClearLove was, he lost his grip and cursed out loud on the spot.

The chat went wild with rows of hahas.

"A 'Boss' badge? Seriously?"

"The streamer really knows how to play with contrast."

"Aside from Wuwuwan, Dog Yan is the most entertaining streamer I've ever seen."

"No summoning the dead in the chat."

"Wuwuwan swears too much, I can't stand watching him at all."

However, after Chen Yan said that, the number of 4396 messages actually decreased.

That's just how the chat worked.

The more you tried to stop them from doing something, the more they wanted to do it; introduce a bit of comedic effect, and the meme would just fizzle out.

ClearLove also gave a knowing smile and sighed, "You really were born with a streamer's calling."

...

After ClearLove joined, the popularity of Chen Yan's stream was noticeably higher than usual.

Chen Yan and ClearLove formed a duo queue team.

After playing a few games, they won with ease.

However, as they entered a new match, a system notification suddenly rang out in Chen Yan's mind.

[Ding! System match task triggered]

[System task issued: Play Galio in this match and use Galio to help the jungler invade the enemy jungle three times]

[Current task progress: 0/3]

[Task reward: 3,000 RMB]

A task?

Chen Yan was momentarily stunned, and upon seeing the task reward, he lost most of his interest.

3,000 RMB was like tasteless food to him now—uninspiring to eat, yet a waste to throw away.

Thinking that it was just a regular ranked match, earning 3,000 RMB from a single ranked game seemed luxurious enough, after all.

"I'll play this one, you pick something that can carry."

Chen Yan locked in Galio.

ClearLove pondered for a long time before finally locking in Graves.

In this match, Chen Yan was laning against Syndra.

The enemy Syndra completely failed to suppress Chen Yan's Galio.

Galio roamed frantically, helping ClearLove invade the enemy jungle.

The task of invading three times was completed very quickly.

What left Chen Yan speechless, however, was that even though he kept helping ClearLove invade, ClearLove's Graves still fell behind in farm and levels.

Although they won the match in the end, it was the bottom-lane AD carry who won the MVP.

"To put it bluntly, if you gave this Graves to Dirty Jiawen, Dirty Jiawen would have hard-carried."

ClearLove: "..."

"I'm done playing."

"Did your ego get shattered?"

"Scrims are about to start. Do you think everyone is like you? You don't even have to play scrims."

Chen Yan gave an awkward chuckle. "Aren't I trying to make money?"

"Hah," ClearLove sneered disdainfully. "Didn't you and iCOn rake in a fortune a few days ago? iCOn even posted on Moments, saying his daily revenue was hundreds of thousands."

"Don't mention that ungrateful wolf Lengcai. I brought him along to stream and make money, and now the guy has completely vanished."

"You didn't know?"

ClearLove paused for a moment, then said with a smile on his face, "OMG's coach explicitly forbade iCOn from playing with you, and iCOn got into a big argument with the coach."

"In the end, the higher-ups of the team intervened, and the outcome is that iCOn isn't allowed to stream until the playoffs end."

"This..." Chen Yan was speechless for a moment. No wonder that jerk iCOn stopped even making money; turns out he wasn't allowed to stream.

"I wronged Lengcai."

After chatting for a bit longer, ClearLove checked the time and said, "I have to log off, play your own games."

"Wait, I have one last thing to say."

"Go ahead."

"Well~ I just wanted to say... you really shouldn't play Graves anymore in the future."

With that, Chen Yan didn't even give ClearLove a chance to respond and decisively hung up the voice chat.

At the same time, he silently made a mental note for ClearLove—

Graves: Unplayable.