Powerful Investment Chapter 4: Comeback

Chapter 4: Comeback

Translated by Addis of Exiled Rebels Scanlations

Editor: Karai

 

A few days after moving, Ji Jin officially joined the MOE team. On his first day, Zhao Ze took Ji Jin and Ji Xingxing to familiarize them with the environment.

Because Ji Xingxing was too young and the kindergarten required a local household registration, Ji Xingxing unfortunately couldn’t attend kindergarten as hoped. So, he stayed with Ji Jin, since recently he could only accompany Ji Jin in the training room.

That day, Ji Xingxing wore his favorite Dumbo harness, with a little Dumbo doll on his chest.

MOE headquarters was located in the office building next to their dormitory. The first floor housed reception and the cafeteria, the second floor had the second team’s training room, meeting room, and offices, and the third floor contained the first team’s training room and lounge.

MOE was considered a bottom-tier team in the entire Legend Reappearance esports league. They rarely made it to the playoffs and usually gave away points to opponents, ranking at the bottom. Consequently, the team had little sponsorship, and live streaming and brand contracts were scarce.

Since it was near summer break, the team didn’t participate in the finals and was only doing daily training. However, the finals had just ended a few days ago, and the players were reviewing matches in the small meeting room on the third floor.

To watch the projection clearly, the meeting room was completely covered by heavy curtains. When Zhao Ze opened the door, he saw five people gathered around a projector, staring at a magnified game screen.

Several waves of Alpha pheromones mixed together and flooded the room, causing even the Beta Zhao Ze to sneeze.

Ji Jin calmly rubbed his nose; he had anticipated this. Most esports players were Alphas, and back when he was in IKW, he took suppressant injections regularly or carried a bracelet.

Because he had been immersed in Alpha pheromones for a long time, he had developed a sort of “tolerance,” and was not very sensitive to most non-hostile pheromones.

“Old Zhao, close the door. We’re waiting to analyze Brick’s triple kill, come look,” a young man facing away from them urged impatiently. “Hurry up and close it, I can’t see clearly.”

Ji Jin, who had been a captain before, found the scene very familiar. But little Xingxing had never seen such a big setup before — a group of young, strong Alphas — and was scared, clutching Ji Jin’s leg and looking at him for help.

At that moment, the players staring at the projection finally heard the door sound and all looked toward the entrance.

Five pairs of shiny eyes looked at them; Ji Xingxing, overwhelmed, froze on the spot, unable to move. Ji Jin worried he might get too scared and picked him up.

“This is God Ji, who officially joined our MOE team today,” Zhao Ze stepped inside a bit to let Ji Jin and Ji Xingxing come in. “This little one is Ji Xingxing, God Ji’s son.”

“Th-this… this is God Ji?” A thin young man nervously stepped forward, stuttering. His slenderness made his head look larger than usual.

“This is He Jia, ID Best, MOE’s shooter,” Zhao Ze introduced.

“God Ji, hello…” He Jia still stuttered.

A slightly chubby young man next to He Jia poked him and said, “Don’t embarrass yourself.” Then he turned to Ji Jin and said, “Hello God Ji, I’m Zhou Zu, support, ID BCXC.”

“Actually, that stands for ‘doesn’t eat cilantro,’ but we usually just call him Cilantro,” Zhao Ze explained with a smile.

“I told you to call me by my name, not Cilantro!” Cilantro protested.

“Well, can we call you ‘doesn’t eat’ instead? Which do you prefer?” a tall, skinny but somewhat dark-skinned young man asked. “God Ji, I’m middle lane Du Xi, ID Monster, everyone calls me Little Monster.”

Ji Jin slightly raised his eyebrow and nodded. These teammates seemed interesting.

His attention then shifted to the boy standing at the far end.

The boy had fair and delicate features, stood upright, and looked about sixteen or seventeen. He seemed lively by nature but was currently pursing his lips silently, as if deliberately holding something back.

Most memorable were his large, expressive eyes that seemed to contain sparkling stars.

For a moment, Ji Jin felt dazed, as if he saw another person in his heart through the boy.

“This is the captain, Cheng Pian,” Zhao Ze introduced, “ID Mars, plays top lane or jungle.”

Cheng Pian… Mars. Ji Jin repeated the name in his mind.

He knew of Mars — a seventeen-year-old prodigy. MOE had only been established a few years and wasn’t even considered mid-tier in the league, but was famous.

That fame was all because of Mars.

Mars was selected from MOE’s youth training camp. He had shown exceptional talent early on, directly entering MOE’s first team, debuting as a starter, and becoming captain within a year.

In e-sports, the captain role was crucial, usually held by older, more experienced players. To become captain at seventeen indicated extraordinary skill.

After all, Legend Reappearance always valued gameplay mechanics.

It was said that Mars had set a hand-speed record during last year’s regular season, surpassing even Lu Yao in his prime. Several teams tried to recruit him but failed.

Ji Jin had only been brought in as vice-captain, showing how much MOE valued Mars.

“Hello, God Ji,” Mars nodded in greeting. Though normally lively, he was pretending to be serious now, which seemed a bit odd.

“What’s wrong with this kid again?” Zhao Ze muttered softly. “Wasn’t he usually Ji Jin’s biggest fan?” But he didn’t say it out loud, only grumbled quietly.

The coach Liusha stood at the back.

By then, Ji Xingxing was less shy but still only dared stand out while holding his dad’s hand. When Ji Jin reminded him, he timidly said, “Hello, uncles.”

The “uncles” in the room were stunned.

Looking at the toddler Ji Xingxing, the MOE players exchanged surprised glances several times, opening their mouths to speak but holding back. They all shared Zhao Ze’s initial reaction when they first learned about Ji Xingxing.

It turned out the rumors about studying abroad, joining a foreign team, or hand injury were all wrong. God Ji had irresponsibly found an Omega girlfriend and had a child.

Moreover, the young teammates hadn’t played with Ji Jin before but had heard of his fame. They never expected to become teammates with God Ji and be overshadowed by his son’s cloud.

Life was indeed tough.

Zhao Ze looked at his teammates with a hint of pride, thinking that these young players still had too weak psychological endurance. Back when he suddenly found out Ji Jin was an Omega, did he ever lose his composure like this?

After introducing the teammates, the group returned to the training room. The training room was much more open than the meeting room. There were six spots inside — five for daily training, and one for the coach.

They assigned Ji Jin the spot furthest inside, closest to the lounge, so he could conveniently take care of Ji Xingxing.

Since he officially joined the team, the first thing to do was to quickly train and integrate into the group. Zhao Ze had already registered Ji Jin’s account, though the professional certification wasn’t completed yet.

Once Ji Jin got the account, the MOE players quickly forgot to be reserved and invited him to play a match. For these players who had just joined a professional team recently, it was like fans meeting their idol.

Talking about the game, Ji Jin couldn’t help but feel itchy to play. So the five of them sat back at their positions and prepared for a ranked match.

Legend Reappearance had seven ranks: Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Cyan, Blue, and Purple. Professional players were basically all Purple Legend rank. But support players had a harder time ranking up, so occasionally some supports were in the Blue War God rank.

Ji Jin’s account was new; the team had bought him all heroes and skins but couldn’t play on his behalf, so his rank was still the lowest — Red Brave. Luckily, five-player queue didn’t limit ranks, otherwise Ji Jin would have had to rank himself up to Purple Legend to play with his teammates.

Ji Jin casually did some hand warm-ups while waiting for the game to load.

As soon as the game interface appeared, Ji Jin’s ID showed first — MOE . KING.

He hadn’t used this ID for a long time and was slightly startled. Back in the day, King was always prefixed with IKW. Even after signing with MOE, he never thought the King ID would carry another team’s title.

It was like he could never return to IKW.

Ji Xingxing sat in his dad’s arms, sensing his father’s mood was different this time while playing. He lifted his head and gave Ji Jin a little kiss, barely touching his chin.

Ji Jin was pulled back by Ji Xingxing’s gesture and smiled faintly, returning a kiss on the boy’s forehead.

Joining a new team meant a new beginning.

Friend requests and team invites from teammates came quickly. Ji Jin clicked a few times and joined the team.

The game started with the B/P phase (Ban or Pick). For their first ranked match as a new team, they picked heroes they were most skilled at.

When Zhao Ze invited him, he mentioned jungle position, so Ji Jin didn’t hesitate to pick jungle Bai Yike.

Legend Reappearance was similar to most MOBA games — the map was diamond-shaped, divided into top, mid, and bottom lanes, with a river in the middle. The river split the map into red and blue sides, each divided by the middle lane into upper and lower wilderness areas filled with jungle monsters.

The wilderness was shrouded in thick fog and required wards or players from the team to scout vision.

As soon as the map loaded, the enemy revealed everything.

[［All］Immersive Heart: Red Brave? How can a Red Brave rank match against us? And there are four pro players?]

[［All］SheAndSwordLost: The ID is King? Who’s so badass to use that ID, not afraid of getting crushed? Or is the enemy really God Ji?]

Ji Jin raised an eyebrow, surprised the enemy was so knowledgeable.

If he was going to make a comeback, he wouldn’t be modest — he openly admitted it.

What Ji Jin didn’t know was that the player on the opposing team was actually a Legend Reappearance streamer with hundreds of thousands of fans, currently live streaming.

Within just twenty minutes, the hashtag #GodJiComebackLegendEnds# topped Weibo’s trending topics.

The top post read—

@GameCommentator: God Ji returned, signed with MOE. The god fell from the altar. A legend ends.

It even included a screenshot of MOE’s five-player queue and highlighted the Red Brave rank icon in front of King’s ID.

 

Author’s note:

Team abbreviations:

MOE — Miracles Occur Every day

IKW — I am the King of World

God Ji — While others study abroad, I make people bow

 

 

 

 

 

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