Chapter 64: I Am a Kind-Hearted Person

EDG, Ling:

Good evening, everyone. I watched the entire match between Snake and IG today. I am very glad that Comrade Zhu Kai managed to produce an excellent draft and lead the team to victory. My personal little assistance wasn't worth mentioning, so no thanks are needed.

However, after the match, quite a few irrational fans rushed into my livestream channel to vent. As the saying goes, the ignorant are not guilty, and I have no intention of crusading against them. Still, I really didn't expect Coach Zhu Kai to have so many fans—they are almost catching up to the fanbase of many LPL teams.

Out of curiosity, I specifically made a slight check and found that almost all of these fans came from the exact same place. It seems they are really fond of upholding justice. Hey, just make sure you use your brains a little bit next time before doing this; it's quite easy to turn yourselves into a joke if you don't understand the full story.

I have always been kind-hearted and cheerful. It's fine if I become the target of cyberbullying myself, but seeing others suffer from cyberbullying because of me... I really can't help sneaking away into the restroom... Well, you know how it is.

……

After posting the Weibo update, Lin Ruo took a few sips of water. Before even two full minutes had passed, the comment count already reached the thousands.

The top-voted comments were either trolls or Clearlove's die-hard fans; there wasn't a single trace of Royal's toxic followers.

Royal's fans had failed in their charge and lacked any valid arguments, so they had no idea which dark corner to hide in and play dead.

Lin Ruo scrolled through and replied to a few top comments.

[User aa6699: Which one? Is it sneaking into the restroom to laugh?]

"No way, who on earth sneaks into the restroom just to laugh? I always go in to take a dump."

[Peach Blossom-Yaoyao: Go baby, our fans will always be your strongest backing.]

"Damn it."

Lin Ruo never expected that a mischief-maker like him would actually have female fans.

Without a second thought, he blocked the account. Who's your baby?

[Naijube: Daring to provoke RNG, you've really stirred up big trouble this time.]

"What does this have to do with RNG? Stop inciting fan wars and starting fights out of nowhere."

"You've got some nerve, pulling a stunt like this." Ai Lolita looked at the newly refreshed Weibo feed, where the tension was escalating frantically, his heart leaping into his throat.

"Are you trying to start the direction of World War II?"

"What World War II? Exaggeration. People came after me, I'm simply going back at them," Lin Ruo said with a giggle, returning to his courtyard to plant Pea Shooters.

Besides, even if he hadn't posted on Weibo, Clearlove's fans would have launched a fierce offensive anyway.

The Battle of the Pigs and Dogs has never lacked disputes; all it ever needs is an excuse to start a war.

***

And here it came.

A single summoning arrow shot into the clouds, and ten thousand troops arrived to answer the call.

Joining EDG has many perks, but the absolute best one is that you never run out of firepower.

Pig fans who occupied the moral high ground were never merciful.

Ah Guang, being sensible, had already logged into his alternative account and blindly followed the trend, rushing straight into the official RNG club's Weibo comments section to watch the drama unfold from up close.

The army of Pig fans besieged the gates, engaging in fierce combat with Royal's fans right inside the camp.

There were simply too many comments; it was impossible to read them all.

The skirmish temporarily concluded only when RNG's operations manager, unable to withstand the harassment, shut down the comment section and hung up the "no war" sign.

"If it hadn't been for that flying kick from Clearlove last year, I'm telling you, Lin Ruo, the combat power of the Pig fans would be at least twice as high," Ah Guang said, still unsatisfied after witnessing such a rare spectacle.

Lin Ruo chuckled, just as his phone buzzed with a WeChat notification.

[Ming: Holy crap, dude, what did you do? Our manager is going completely ballistic.]

Lin Ruo typed back a reply: "Ming, you've grown up. As a mature man, you need to have a heart that enjoys drama independently."

At the RNG Esports Club, Shi Senming sneaked guiltily into the restroom. When he came out, his face wore a look of sudden realization.

He had finally figured out the whole background story.

It turned out that because Lin Ruo exposed Zhu Kai for posing as a coach, their own fans had seized the opportunity to charge in the name of justice.

Only to find out that Zhu Kai was an inside agent, leaving everyone looking like fools on both sides.

The wheel of fortune turns, and the opposing side had counterattacked.

Sitting down in his chair, Shi Senming cast a wary glance around him and hurriedly hid his chat history with Lin Ruo.

If their connection was discovered, that would be the end of him.

Back in the RNG office, Manager Quan Zhonghe was throwing a fit of impotent rage: "What on earth is he trying to do? Does he want to ruin RNG? Does he want to destroy Chinese esports?"

Coach FireFox remained unfazed. Mutual flaming and cross-raids between the two fanbases were common occurrences; the only slight exception today was that a player had personally entered the arena to start a fight.

Lin Ruo, do you really hate RNG that much?

Recalling the past, FireFox sighed. "I said from the start we shouldn't have terminated his contract. This kid has always been good material."

***

"Good material my ass! What use is someone whose professional attitude isn't even proper?" Quan Zhonghe said with disdain. "Is he even worth a fraction of Uzi, whom we spent a fortune to buy?"

"Calling his professional attitude improper is going a bit too far."

FireFox maintained his objectivity. "He completed his Solo Queue quota on time. It's mainly because we promoted him to the main roster as a substitute without giving him any scrim time, which left him with way too much free time."

"That was also my failure in arrangement, but over the past half-year on the main roster, he has indeed improved tremendously."

"Fox, with the way you're talking, are you saying I was wrong to terminate his contract?" Quan Zhonghe calmed down, feeling somewhat displeased that his own coach was speaking up for an outsider.

"The manager wasn't wrong to terminate him."

FireFox sighed with regret. He still quite appreciated Lin Ruo. After all, when Lin Ruo first joined the main roster, his strength was inferior to Wuxin's, let alone Uzi, who arrived in the Summer Split. Yet, over the past six months, he had improved dramatically, displaying boundless potential.

A seventeen-year-old AD like that shouldn't have been let go no matter what.

Ultimately, the impact of the Chinese chess incident was simply too severe. While the main team was playing a match on stage, the substitute was sneaking a game of Chinese chess on his phone underneath. Even though he had no chance of playing, it was indeed inexcusable.

To make matters worse, that match ended in a defeat, which threw Quan Zhonghe—who already harbored grievances against Lin Ruo—into a fury, leading to the snap decision to terminate his contract.

FireFox adjusted his glasses. "Though, to be honest, deducting three months of salary was going a bit too far."

He also couldn't understand why Lin Ruo didn't try to argue for it, choosing to pack his bags and leave without saying a single word, making it seem as if RNG was a bottomless abyss and he wouldn't be able to leave if he stayed another day.

To this day, FireFox still remembered it vividly. That day, he chased after Lin Ruo and urged him to stay a bit longer; even if they couldn't save the outcome, he could have begged the manager to help retrieve the three months' salary.

Yet Lin Ruo was as stubborn as a mule, insisting that it had been so hard to get out and he could never go back.

Three months' salary was a small matter, but future happiness was a big one.

He even rattled off a whole bunch of things to him: Coach FireFox, you're a good person, go back and check the contract, be careful not to get screwed over by contractual traps in the future.

As if a joke. Could there possibly be a contract capable of trapping him so he couldn't work as a coach in the future?

Young and reckless back then, FireFox hadn't paid it much mind and even forked out fifty yuan out of his own pocket for Lin Ruo's cab ride.

"The person is already gone, what's done is done. Remember this, Fox: the match against EDG this weekend cannot be lost. We must win back our dignity."

Quan Zhonghe said coldly, "In esports, winners take all, and all disputes must be settled on the battlefield."

"With any luck, OMG will wipe out EDG ahead of time tomorrow, and then we'll see how arrogant he still dares to be."