Chapter 126: The Million-Dollar Agreement

The high-level meeting scheduled for that afternoon had to be moved from the club’s official offices to Li Xin’s dormitory, owing to the sorry state of his battered body.

The single room was not small, but with more than ten people pouring in, it still felt rather cramped.

Li Xin lay motionless on the bed, face down, like a great slab of meat waiting to be carved up. People stood on the stool beside the bed, on the sofa, and even along one side of the balcony and at the doorway. Zhao Cheng, Jiang Chuxue, Zhou Kang, and the others were all there. Even Duan Rulong, the young master of the Duan family, had come.

Everyone knew what Duan Rulong’s presence signified.

The purpose of their wealthy circle’s investment in the club was Li Xin himself. If Pepsi could not offer him terms satisfactory enough, they might well withdraw their funding.

Zhao Xue had originally been in no position to attend such a meeting. Though she was a female star, this concerned the club’s core operations, so it was only natural that she be excluded. However, when the executives arrived, they found her applying medicine to Li Xin and asked her to stay.

As fellow esports stars, they were broadly on the same side, and Zhao Xue could offer useful insights.

As it turned out, the meeting went remarkably smoothly. Li Xin and the Pepsi Club signed an agreement.

Cooperation Agreement

1. Li Xin shall become an external player for the Pepsi Club’s CrossFire division and shall participate in matches as needed, according to the division’s actual competition schedule.

2. For every match in which he competes, the Pepsi Club shall pay Li Xin a fee of one million yuan.

3. Aside from official matches, the Pepsi Club shall pay Li Xin a monthly external-player salary of five hundred thousand yuan.

4. Li Xin shall comply with the Pepsi Club’s arrangements and attend matches punctually. Exceptions shall be made for special circumstances, including but not limited to weather conditions and Li Xin’s physical condition.

5. This agreement shall remain valid for an initial term of three years. Upon its expiration, the fee shall be renegotiated according to the circumstances at that time.

6. This agreement includes supplementary provisions. During the three-year term, both parties may add two additional clauses each year.

Duan Rulong embraced Li Xin warmly, laughed heartily, and departed. Evidently, he was quite satisfied with the agreement. Among the executives, only a few, including Zhou Kang and Supervisor Zhang, wore complicated expressions. Just a few days ago, they had joined forces to suppress the young man. Who could have imagined that after a single match, he would transform into the savior and lucky star of the Pepsi Club?

Of everyone present, Zhao Xue was the most astonished.

Being paid on a match-by-match basis was exceedingly rare throughout the esports world. As far as Zhao Xue knew, there were no more than three such players in the Hearthstone community, two in League of Legends, and now only three in CrossFire. The new gun king, Yang Yu, was one of them.

Even so, the highest single-match fee Zhao Xue had ever heard of belonged to Fang Youzi, the number-one-ranked League of Legends player in the world. He was paid five hundred and fifty thousand yuan per match. Second place belonged to Yang Yu, the new gun king of Dongjia, who received four hundred and eighty thousand.

And Li Xin? To outsiders, he was an unknown newcomer, yet he had gone straight to a fee of one million yuan—nearly twice Fang Youzi’s rate. What was even more astonishing was that Zhao Cheng and Jiang Chuxue showed no sign of regret. If anything, they seemed delighted, as though they had made an extraordinarily profitable deal.

Zhao Xue knew full well that once this became public, people would find it unbelievable and be utterly stunned.

In the entertainment industry, any actor receiving more than a million yuan per television episode was unquestionably a first-tier star. Esports celebrities had developed rapidly in recent years, with their fan bases growing year by year, but their incomes still lagged far behind those of entertainment stars. Now, without question, Li Xin had become the highest-paid person in esports.

Of course, Zhao Xue knew that this was because of his former identity and achievements.

The club had not said so openly, but they could hardly have failed to reach the same conclusion she had. As for Duan Rulong and Jinhua, there was even less doubt. Almost nothing escaped their intelligence network.

Once everyone had left, Zhao Xue finally came back to herself. Recalling the look in her close friend Jiang Chuxue’s eyes as she departed, Zhao Xue immediately understood.

“Li Xin, the finals are next Monday. Do you want to train and work on coordination with the team, or would you rather go out for a stroll and see the sights?”

“Uh... well...” Li Xin gave an awkward smile. “I’d like to go out, but look at the state I’m in.”

“What’s there to worry about?” Zhao Xue said dismissively. “With my medicinal powder, you can relax. You’ll be completely recovered by this evening at the latest.”

“That miraculous?” Li Xin was genuinely surprised. His eyes opened wide. “That’s some kind of elixir, isn’t it?”

“Perhaps it is~~~” Zhao Xue replied with a playful smile before leaving.

Lunch was delivered personally by Jiang Ke’er. After hearing about Li Xin’s miserable ordeal, the girl had felt deeply sympathetic. Since she was the one who had brought him here, she even felt somewhat guilty and had volunteered to come.

After chatting for a while and finishing lunch, Li Xin tactfully asked her to leave. It was not that he disliked Jiang Ke’er; she was simply far too talkative, constantly asking this and that until he began to feel irritated.

Thinking back over all these years, the voices he had heard most often were not Lin Guo’s, but Jiang Ke’er’s and Wang Xiaoqian’s.

After resting for a while, he put on his helmet and entered the game.

Six hours passed in the real world, while twelve hours passed in the game. It was precisely the hour when night descended.

When he stepped out of the guest room in the rear courtyard, the waiter Li Si happened to be passing through the yard. The moment he saw Li Xin, he came over with a smile.

“Big Brother Yiran, did you rest well?”

“Ha-ha, not bad. The bed was very comfortable.”

“Of course it was. Our teahouse is the finest and oldest establishment in Xiangzhou. If only the proprietor weren’t so opposed to it, we would have received a five-star rating long ago.” Pride and excitement shone across Li Si’s face. It was the glory of working at a century-old establishment with a venerable tradition.

“Five-star? Is it really that impressive?” Li Xin asked, somewhat surprised.

What did five-star even mean? In the modern hotel industry, it was the second-highest rating available. The teahouse was quite spacious, but it was undeniably old-fashioned. Calling it five-star seemed a little far-fetched.

“Heh-heh...” Li Si chuckled mysteriously. He had seen quite a lot of the world, and he knew that visitors from other places were always skeptical of the teahouse. Little did they know that throughout Xiangzhou, it ranked among the very best.

There was only one reason for that: the proprietor.

“Big Brother Yiran, there are some things you may not believe, but our proprietor used to be an adventurer himself—and a renowned S-rank adventurer, at that. He’s grown old over the years and no longer takes on adventuring missions. Otherwise, he might very well have advanced to SSS rank by now.”

“Uh...” Li Xin was genuinely stunned.

Who would have thought that this little teahouse concealed so many formidable figures? An S-rank adventurer was practically a legendary powerhouse.

“Brother Li Si, are you free? I’d like to hear more about this senior proprietor.”

“Big Brother Yiran, I’m a little busy right now. How about tonight? Once I’m free, I’ll come find you.” Li Si wore a helpless expression and gave a few wry laughs.

“All right. Then I’ll see you tonight. We’ll drink until one of us falls.”

“Agreed. Don’t be late.”

Li Si took his leave, while Li Xin set off toward the Adventurers’ Guild. Master Xindra’s mission appeared to be quite difficult, and he needed to gather more information in advance to guard against any unforeseen trouble.