Superstars of Tomorrow

The person in charge from Silver Wing advised Fang Zhao, helping him analyze past and present circumstances and previous examples. If he just wanted some gilding or a springboard, then he should forget about such an extremely difficult advanced course like Twelve Tones. From what the person in charge saw, Fang Zhao was just like the other celebrities that the company had groomed in the past. They just went out to slightly improve their credentials and did not need to enroll in this difficult advanced course.

Furthermore, Twelve Tones was known for being difficult to get into and out of.

To say the least, even if one was able to pass the exams and enroll, he might not be able to graduate. There were instances of students being unable to graduate and thus asked to leave.

It wasn’t that the person in charge did not think Fang Zhao was up to scratch but that Fang Zhao was too young. He was only in his 20s, whereas others who enrolled in this course were no younger than 40. Looking further back into the past, even if there were younger ones, they had been geniuses among geniuses.

Age signified qualifications, experience, and understanding of the fundamentals. Without sufficient accumulated experience, it was very difficult to compete against others.

From a commercial point of view, the person in charge did not wish for Fang Zhao to take the exam. Fang Zhao’s popularity was flourishing right now. He appeared both on film and in endorsements and was very well known throughout Yanzhou, but if he took the examination and was unable to get in, people would inevitably seize the opportunity and say that Fang Zhao had overestimated his capabilities and bitten off more than he could chew.

The company’s reply wasn’t unexpected for Fang Zhao. After he had made his choice, he had not intended to use his company’s connections. He also knew that this extraordinary advanced course was extremely difficult, but he had to take the exams once to know whether he could get in or not. If he could not get in, where was the disparity and how large was it?

Fang Zhao needed to learn more new knowledge. As for the majority of advanced courses, they were actually meant to make the ordinary seem special. The quality of the curriculum was much worse than Twelve Tones. This was the decision Fang Zhao had come to after comparing the curriculum of different advanced courses.

If he could not get in, then he would take on a postgraduate course in HuangArt or HuangMu.

The person in charge from Silver Wing saw that he had no way of getting Fang Zhao to change his mind. After the call, he immediately reported to his superiors about the direction Fang Zhao would be taking for further studies. Now, it would be best to keep it suppressed and not publicize this news. When the time came and Fang Zhao could not get in, at least he wouldn’t lose face.

After ending the call with the Silver Wing staffer, Fang Zhao memorized all the interview questions, took a look at his schedule, and contacted Wayne, setting a time to give the company’s e-sports team a training session.

After lunch, in the Silver Wing e-sports team’s internal group chat, team captain Jinro summoned all team members and released a piece of news: "Just received a notice. Manager Wayne got Zhao god to give us a training session tomorrow morning at 9 a.m. Coordinates for the training venue will be given later. All team members are to gather at the company on time tomorrow."

Within the team, the new team members and the old team members had different reactions upon seeing the message.

The newcomer’s faces were flushed with excitement. "W-w-w-we can also take part?"

A veteran team member’s lips curled upwards. "Didn’t you hear clearly? Captain said ’All team members’! You guys can’t run away now."

The ignorant newcomers were thinking, Super excited! Can’t wait!

The old team members threw pitying glances at the younger members. Following that, they started to ponder how long they would be able to survive tomorrow.

A newcomer asked, "Captain said that we will be going to a training venue? Which map? Are we familiar with it? Which team will we be facing off against this time? Is it a practice match or some other mode? What’s the difficulty?"

A certain veteran team member replied, "It isn’t a practice match, just internal training. Opponent... just one. Difficulty... S rank."

"S rank? Doesn’t that mean that it is extremely difficult?"

The newcomers were astonished and rubbed their palms with glee. They were itching to head online and announce this on their social platform accounts, letting everyone know that they would be getting the chance to go head to head against the legendary big god Fang Zhao!

Unfortunately, this line of thought was stopped by the captain and vice-captain, the reason being that it was internal training and thus could not be publicly announced. If they were really itching to say it, at best they could tell a few close friends or relatives.

Seeing these newcomers that were riled up, the senior members lamented inwardly, Ignorance is bliss.

The next morning.

Fang Zhao used his apartment’s gaming helmet and headed online. Normally, the helmet console was for Curly Hair to play with. His 10th-generation console was left at Silver Wing for Jinro and the other professional e-sport athletes to use. There was no need to get it back for this training session.

Over at Silver Wing’s gaming department, everyone had arrived early at the company and started making preparations.

Wayne, the gaming department manager, only stepped in unhurriedly with a cup of tea at 8.55 a.m.

"Oh, everyone’s here." Greeting the members of the coaching team, Wayne pulled out a recliner chair and sat down. To develop the team even better, he had applied for lots of funding in the last two years and had signed a few reputable coaches to establish a coaching team.

In front of him was a large screen that would display the scene in-game.

The training venue’s coordinates had been decided earlier in the morning. Team Captain Jinro had chosen a new map that neither side was familiar with.

Wayne lifted the lid of his teacup and took a sip as his face broke into a smile of fond remembrance. No one knew whether it was the rich and mellow aftertaste of the tea or a flashback to the past.

At the appointed time, the game formally started. Wayne wasn’t in a hurry and glanced at the timer before telling those in the coaching team, "Fang Zhao will give them 30 seconds to think of a battle strategy and one extra minute to put their plan into action."

"Isn’t this time a little too short for a new map?" one of the coaches said.

"Later on, you will realize that their time online will be even shorter. Don’t bother following Fang Zhao; you guys won’t be able to catch up. It would be better to watch those members, especially the new ones signed this year, and see where they are lacking."

For the coaches that did not understand Fang Zhao’s style, Wayne’s words seemed really cryptic.

A minute and a half later.

Du.

A disconnection notification sounded.

A new member had a dazed expression as he raised his hand to touch his forehead and muttered, "It was as if... my head exploded."

"There was no as if," one of the coaches blurted out.

Was this kid so shocked that he’d become stupid?

That new member was still full of disbelief. "That shouldn’t be, I hid myself so well."

Du.

Yet another disconnection notification.

A new member at the side stared blankly at nothing in particular, as if he was completely unable to comprehend what just happened.

Three minutes after the preparation time, the members of the coaching time finally understood the meaning of what Wayne had said.

The sounds of disconnection notifications made them panic-stricken. They could see the look of shock in each other’s eyes.

"What frightening decision-making," one of the coaches said as he saw Fang Zhao’s figure flash across on the screen. Even before he had finished his sentence, yet another disconnection notification had rung out.

The highly skilled talent that the company had signed this year had not even had any time to react before being sent offline.

More experienced senior members were more prudent, but they weren’t able to hold out for long either.

Following the sounds of disconnection notifications, the team members that were sent offline had looks of annoyance and defeat. There were also some that just sighed calmly.

"He really doesn’t show mercy," Jinro said helplessly. He had been the last to disconnect.

Taking a look at the time, from start to end, with the one and a half minutes of preparation time and the three minutes following that, this match had not even lasted five minutes.

"This..."

The coaching team was also dumbstruck. Suddenly, they felt that their own team members’ standards had declined.

Actually, the coaches also understood. It wasn’t that the team members’ standard had declined but that the opponent had been too strong.

In the match that had just ended, the team members didn’t seem to have acted incorrectly, but they’d just been beaten offline in succession. Any carelessness or opening had been seized by Fang Zhao.

In the past, what they’d understood about Fang Zhao was only what had been through circulated videos, news, and analyses online. Now they truly recognized the disparity. Back then, Fang Zhao had not been called a point-sweeping machine right at the top of the individual leaderboards without reason.

Wayne no longer had a pleased expression on his face. "I already told all of you, when facing Fang Zhao, you cannot take any chances!"

The members on his team had been beaten like crap, and Wayne wasn’t too pleased. He had expected this match to last at least 10 minutes, so he had told Fang Zhao not to go easy in the morning. How could he have known that it would turn out this way!?

Thirty members completely wiped out in three minutes! This sort of result was simply appalling!

"Do you need a break?" Jinro asked the other members.

"No need."

"We aren’t tired either."

"Let’s continue."

The team members got into position quickly.

The first match had not even lasted for five minutes; how could they need a break?

While making preparations for the second match, captain Jinro set himself a target: to last six minutes for the next round!

However, the second match only lasted 4 minutes and 19 seconds, even quicker than the previous round by 10 seconds.

The third match lasted 4 minutes and 11 seconds.

The fourth match...

The coaching team was as silent as the dead.

Wayne’s calm and collected face from the morning had turned stiff, and he could not even bring himself to sip his tea. In his heart, he decided that the next time he got Fang Zhao to teach these youngsters a lesson, he would definitely need to get Fang Zhao to go easy!

When the team members stepped out from the gaming studio, it was already afternoon. Every one of them looked extremely haggard.

In the morning, they had played a total of 10 matches, all of them 30 to 1. They had lost 10 matches in succession and had been beaten so badly that they’d doubted their own existence.

The time they’d spent online plus the intervals between each round had added up to only an hour!

The rest of the time in the morning had been spent reflecting!

When the team members received the analysis summary from Fang Zhao, they suffered an even bigger blow. It was like someone thinking that they had done decently for an examination but, when the exam scripts were returned, all that person saw was a paper full of red marks.

"How did Zhao god know that it was me?" one newcomer asked as he held a copy of his own evaluation. After speaking, he felt someone awkward and added, "In such a short time, how was he able to identify each member? Even if there was a notification in-game every time he killed someone, with so many people and so many rounds, how was he able to recognize everyone? And remember them all?"

"That is why he is a ’god’ and you are just a nobody!" Wayne had walked over after hearing this and gave a clap. "All right, take your own evaluations and go reflect! Don’t get so satisfied with just some achievements! Don’t rest on your laurels! Take a look at today’s battle situation; you guys still have a long way to go!"

This blow had been too big. The members did not have any appetite for lunch as they kept pondering every scene in the 10 matches and tried to make a frame-by-frame replay in their heads.

"Manager, when will we have our next training session?" someone asked.

"With this sort of horrible standard, you are still dreaming of next time?" Wayne snorted. "Wait till I feel that you guys have improved. Besides, Fang Zhao is very busy. This morning’s session was because I requested it. Otherwise, do you think he would even waste any time with you guys? He still has to prepare for his examinations."

All the team members: "..." Manager, these words are too prickly!

Elsewhere, after Fang Zhao had sent out today’s analysis summary, he started to prepare for war, browsing through practice questions and making preliminary preparations for enrolling in the advanced course. There were three preliminary examinations, and the majority were on theoretical knowledge. He had to read more books and do more questions.