Chapter 8: The Live Farewell: The Yan Family Army Will Rise to Greatness Once More on the Professional Stage!

That day, Chen Yan held a farewell event in his live stream room.
Title: Taking a few days off streaming to go pro.

At the sight of this title, viewers flooded into the stream crazily.

"The streamer’s daydreaming again?"
"I don’t think it’s April Fool’s Day today."
"Waaah, streamer, don’t leave! Who else am I going to watch while eating?"

The chat was filled with skepticism.

Chen Yan’s face darkened. "You don’t really think I’m that bad, do you?"
"Not bad?"
"Can you even compare to SCOUt with one finger?"

Chen Yan’s lip twitched slightly. He hadn’t expected that the netizens held such an opinion of him.

"Alright, alright. If others don’t understand me, fine. But I never thought even my brothers in the Yan family army wouldn’t get me."
"But as the saying goes, ‘Thirty years east of the river, thirty years west of the river...’"

Before he could finish, the chat was already flooding with phrases like "Don’t underestimate the poor middle-aged," "Don’t underestimate the poor elderly," and "The deceased are the greatest."

"Byd, with fans like you, I’m truly blessed."

Chen Yan rolled his eyes. "No need for extra words. I can’t stream for a few days, seriously hurting GDP. Hurry up and send some meal money to your brother."

"???"

The chat exploded with question marks. "Byd, you live in a big house, eat delivery worth two hundred yuan, and you’re begging us for some instant noodles money? Are you even human?"
"Now I get it."

Chen Yan confidently replied, "No, as a streamer, raking in money is my job. How much I make is up to me. Besides, this is all for the honor of the Yan family army."
"If I perform well on the professional stage, wouldn’t that bring face to the Yan family army? Then, no other streamer would dare call you wild dogs."
"Also, haven’t you heard the saying, 'Before the troops move, the supplies must go first'..."

In truth, Chen Yan wasn’t really after gifts—he just wanted to interact with fans and create some atmosphere.

What surprised him was that gifts soon flooded the chat.

Although the barrage of insults never stopped, the amount of gifts kept increasing in the backend.

Some just a few cents, others hundreds or even thousands...

Seeing this, Chen Yan was touched deep inside.

Strangers, unknown to him except through a screen, were supporting him so much.

"Enough, enough. Save some for when I come back. And remember what your Yan brother said: never look at female streamers."
"Giving gifts to female streamers is like throwing money into the water—it only makes a splash."
"The little instant noodle money you send won’t even get close to the scent of a female streamer’s charm. That’s all for their future wedding expenses."

Chat replied: "If the condoms are bought with my money, doesn’t that mean I have a part in it too?"

Chen Yan: "You’re invincible, kid."

Chen Yan admired no one more than the chat, always coming up with the most cunning angles.

After chatting with the chat for another half hour, Chen Yan took a deep breath. "Alright, brothers, I’m heading off to battle."

At the same time, the background music "Yearning for Glory" began to play.

My world
Is full of unknown and ever-changing journeys
I am not afraid of wind and rain, but look forward to laughter and pain
...

As the music reached its climax, Chen Yan suddenly stood up from his seat and shouted: "Yan family army! The general will be great once again on the professional stage!"

Then the screen went black immediately.

"Instant death..."
"Byd, when it comes to showmanship, I only respect Yan Dog."
"Don’t say it—when Yan Dog stops streaming, I really wouldn’t know who to watch."
"Don’t worry, he’ll be back soon. Yan Dog usually just messes around; he thinks the pro scene is his fishing pond."

Chen Yan ended the stream, but the chat remained abuzz with discussion.

...

The next day, Chen Yan returned to the EDG base.

Looking at the EDG gate, he felt an inexplicable sense of having been in another world.

Once, he had left this gate with his head bowed.

Now, he returned with head held high.

"Manager, I’m at the gate. When are you coming to pick me up?"

"Pick you up? Get yourself up here."

"..."

Chen Yan: "If I’m going up myself, I’m only doing it for your sake, manager..."

On the other side, Abu hung up the phone and helplessly rubbed his forehead.

The team director asked, "Has Xiao Yan arrived?"

Abu nodded, then sighed: "I don’t know what’s going on with him now. He used to be a shy kid, now he seems like a lunatic."

"Streamer life will do that," the director laughed. "If he didn’t act like that, Xiao Yan wouldn’t have made it as a streamer."

"That’s true, but I wonder if he can adapt to professional life after being so lax for so long."

"Let’s wait and see. No matter what, we need to put some pressure on SCOUt."

The club has its limits.

SCOUt is strong, but the club won’t let him lead them by the nose.

If SCOUt dared to act like that in the Spring Split, what about at Worlds? If SCOUt makes excessive demands then, how will the club handle it?

So Abu decided to have Chen Yan return to counterbalance SCOUt.

If SCOUt continues playing this way, EDG would rather sacrifice results than not show their stance.

The only question now is how much pressure Chen Yan can put on SCOUt.

...

As for whether Chen Yan would perform better than SCOUt, neither Abu nor the director cared to think about that...

After all, SCOUt’s skill is definitely among the top mid laners.

While they talked, Chen Yan arrived.

"Xiao Yan looks much more spirited than before."

Seeing Chen Yan, both the director and Abu felt a sudden brightness.

It was the same person, but his spirit and energy were completely different.

Now, Chen Yan gave off the vibe of a fresh, sunny young man.

At 1.85 meters tall, with sharp eyebrows and bright eyes, standing upright.

Just standing there, even without his handsome face, he drew attention.

But when Chen Yan spoke, Abu’s expression darkened.

"Hey manager, don’t forget, I’m a one-shot deal. If you want a guaranteed win, you have to pay extra."

"?" The director’s eyes narrowed in puzzlement. That sounded like taking orders. Did he just take a contract with the LPL?

Abu cleared his throat without explanation and immediately pulled Chen Yan aside. "That’s a small matter. First, look at the scrim records to understand the team’s current situation."

Chen Yan didn’t say much and began to watch intently.

EDG’s biggest problem right now was too many slackers.

mOUSe, Ai Luoli, and Zet—none of the three could carry games. MeikO was support, so whether EDG won depended entirely on SCOUt’s performance.

But the problem was, SCOUt was a double-edged sword mid laner. His gameplay was too aggressive, which made EDG prone to throwing leads when ahead and collapsing when behind.

Chen Yan immediately noticed that SCOUt hadn’t been taking scrims seriously.

He looked away from the footage and said suddenly, "This is scrims, but it feels like SCOUt’s playing ranked games."

Abu and the director’s pupils contracted sharply.

They hadn’t expected Chen Yan to catch the core problem so quickly.

"To be honest, SCOUt is rather unhappy about your return..."

Chen Yan understood instantly. "So you want me to put some pressure on SCOUt. Once he behaves, I step down, right?"

Abu was a bit embarrassed but that was indeed his plan.

Chen Yan didn’t mind. He didn’t want to stay permanently in the pro scene anyway. Constant training every day wasn’t for him. He preferred to treat the pro stage as a place to take contracts—one match, one deal, fair and square.

Seeing Chen Yan had no objections, Abu breathed a sigh of relief and continued, "Good that you understand. But there’s another problem— the players all respect SCOUt, so I’m afraid they might not cooperate with you."

"Simple, I can handle that."

"How?" Abu asked instinctively.

Then he saw Chen Yan pull two walnuts from his pocket.

"???" The director was baffled. "Two walnuts? Even six walnuts wouldn’t work."

Chen Yan smiled mysteriously. "Don’t worry. You’ll see when the time comes."