Chapter 447: Chapter 432: Signing the Contract (2nd Update)

Yin Zong had set up three chairs and a table inside the stronghold, inviting Feng Yi, Mo Shigui, and himself to sit down face to face.

Both Mo Shigui and Feng Yi were wearing grim expressions. Yin Zong was aware of Mo Shigui’s poker face, but Feng Yi’s taut face might be to mask his feelings of grievance.

“It’s normal for the club not to allow you to play Holy Spirit City for long hours during the competition period, but now it should be your vacation. They still won’t let you play during your break?” Yin Zong inquired and learned about the point of contention between Feng Yi and Junlintianxia.

That is Holy Spirit City.

“Our club has been training more recently, after all, we’re going to the world championship… Junlintianxia doesn’t have the same good results as you guys.”

Feng Yi still spoke in an extremely offensive manner; at nineteen years old, he had a character that was the polar opposite of Juan Canyun’s – while Juan Canyun was introverted and timid, Feng Yi was brash and arrogant, but he had the talent to back up his arrogance.

Junlintianxia managed to maintain its status as a first-tier team in Huaguo mostly thanks to him and Qi Junzi’s support.

Unfortunately, in the World Competitions, some teams rejoiced while others mourned. Dynamic Nuclear had won the championship and received countless honors. Even though the World Competition ended a whole month ago, the entire Huaguo eSports circle was still crazily hyping Dynamic Nuclear.

As runner-ups, Cola Enthusiasts also had a bunch of loyal fans comforting them. After all, despite their loss, their achievement of knocking out the White Sword team was praiseworthy, and even fans of Dynamic Nuclear felt regret for Cola Enthusiasts’ defeat in the final battle with Caramel and Juan Canyun.

And what about Junlintianxia, the third seed? The answer was a complete and utter disgrace!

Junlintianxia had been defeated by Titan Team in the quarter-final battle, managing to secure only a top-eight spot.

This result wouldn’t have been that bad, but given Junlintianxia’s history of winning two consecutive world championship titles and being runner-up twice, many Huaguo fans believed they should have come first.

But this time, their top-eight placement, compared to Cola Enthusiasts and Dynamic Nuclear taking the top two spots, seemed particularly ugly.

eSports is like this: there can only be one champion, and the losers will be nailed to the pillar of shame and mocked for an entire year.

This result also caused Junlintianxia’s boss to become quite agitated, and with Yin Zong’s provocation, he ordered the players to train more upon their return.

This wasn’t a big issue; Feng Yi also was a player with a strong desire to win. But the problem was that Feng Yi had already sensed… Holy Spirit City could improve his skills in the game.

Therefore, he requested to add Holy Spirit City to his training regimen, but the higher-ups at Junlintianxia didn’t agree and even forbid the entire team from playing other games during training.

Feng Yi argued with Junlintianxia over this and went to an internet cafe outside to log into Holy Spirit City, while also entertaining the thought of transferring to another team.

“If I recall correctly, you signed a three-year contract with Junlintianxia. If you want to transfer forcibly… The club that takes you in will have to pay the breach of contract fee first, and that’s gonna be a hefty sum,” Mo Shigui pointed out Feng Yi’s contractual obligations. Junlintianxia was infamously known in Huaguo as a thuggish club, with “thuggish” referring to their extremely strict control over their players. For a Junlintianxia player to transfer to another club, there would be hurdles at every turn.

“This… indeed,” Feng Yi said, clearly lacking confidence upon hearing this.

“Alright, Feng player, don’t worry, I’ve decided to buy you out,” Yin Zong suddenly declared, shocking everyone.

“?” Mo Shigui turned his head to look at Yin Zong. He felt he had made it abundantly clear about Feng Yi’s characteristics as a player!

Feng Yi was like a double-edged sword; integrating such a rebellious player into a team would not be simple.

“If he can’t integrate, we can work on it. You’ve seen Feng player’s technical skills for yourself, Coach Song,” Yin Zong said.

Mo Shigui, with a headache, massaged his temples. He now felt like a family’s husband whose extravagant wife wanted to spend money on some fancy but disruptive stuff for the house.

But the problem was that the money was all Yin Zong’s; he had no say in whom Yin Zong desired to buy for the club. However, out of concern for the club’s finances, he still asked…

“Boss Yin, what about the breach of contract fee?” Mo Shigui inquired.

Among Huaguo clubs, Dynamic Nuclear wasn’t particularly rich. The richest landlord club was Night Rush, whose owner was in real estate, with nothing more to say. Secondly came Bubble, a family involved in all sorts of businesses, overseen by a father who ruled an entire commercial empire.

Third was the Gray Eyes Association, a club financially backed by several large consortia, also very wealthy… just somewhat hesitant in spending. Dynamic Nuclear ranked somewhere between fifth and sixth.

After all, Yin Zong had started from a hot pot restaurant, a small-scale hot pot seller, of course, he couldn’t compete with those real estate moguls.

“Around thirteen million or so, don’t worry, I can manage the finances; the Divine Power Crystal fund made me quite a sum of money,” Yin Zong said with confidence in his voice.

Although Feng Yi’s breach of contract fee wasn’t as astronomically high as Zhao Mingwei’s, being nearly three hundred million, thirteen million was still not a small number for the club.

“But conversely, Feng player, your signing price may… not be as valuable as it was with Junlintianxia,” Yin Zong stated.

“It’s fine, I don’t care about that.” Feng Yi was currently in an excited state, only caring about leaving Dominance under Heaven; he didn’t care how much the contract offer from Leaping Nucleus was.

“Even if you don’t care, I’ll still mention it to you. The lowest contract at Leaping Nucleus right now is Coach Song’s, which is four million a year. After winning the world championship, I gave the whole team a raise. Coach Song now gets about five million a year, and the highest is Juan Canyun…that is, the rookie who debuted in the same period as you, with an annual contract of seven million. But now, someone might be willing to pay twenty million for his value,” President Yin said.

“I… I know.”

Feng Yi fell silent; President Yin was willing to pay a sky-high liquidated damage to redeem him, he would be willing to play one year for Leaping Nucleus without pay.

“So, Feng Yi, if I remember correctly, your contract with Dominance under Heaven is six million and five hundred thousand, right? Coming to Leaping Nucleus, you might not be able to deliver the same performance as you did in Dominance under Heaven; you might even be playing as a substitute, you understand what I’m saying?”

“I know.”

“Knowing this, the initial annual signing fee I’m offering you is two million. If you think this price is okay, I will negotiate with Dominance under Heaven,” President Yin said.

Two million… to sign Feng Yi for a year, if this got out on Weibo, it would probably blow up again. No matter how down on his luck Feng Yi was, he was still one of China’s top players. Two million was way too cheap, an absolute bargain basement sale.

“Okay.” Feng Yi didn’t know how to respond anymore.

But as Feng Yi and President Yin came to an agreement… Mo Shigui noticed someone eavesdropping on their conversation.

This conversation was public, with Leaping Nucleus players all watching from over ten meters away, but one NPC, who wasn’t part of Leaping Nucleus, was almost in Mo Shigui’s face.

This NPC was a team member under the command of Rosh, a burly strongman about two meters tall.

“Is there something you need?” Mo Shigui stood up from his seat, slightly shorter than the strongman.

“No, nothing, I’m just very curious, you see… About this two million a year, what is the concept of it? The units of time outside of your Holy Spirit numbers… We know, there might be twenty-eight to thirty-one days in a month, and about three hundred sixty-five to three hundred sixty-six days in a year, which means you are talking about a business that earns about five thousand a day? Right, I remember you also mentioned a redemption fee of thirteen million, which adds up to a business earning forty thousand a day? Is that thirteen million paid directly?”

The team member from the Eternal squad made a series of analyses that furrowed Mo Shigui’s brows… He wanted to tell the NPC that thirteen million referred to real-world currency.

But President Yin, as if inspired, put his hand on Mo Shigui’s shoulder, signaling him to sit down, and stood up to face the squad member.

“What I was discussing with that Holy Spirit called Energy Cycle… is an employment contract, hiring him to participate in a year-long series of competitions equivalent to the Holy Spirit Challenge. Two million is a very low remuneration. If that Holy Spirit performs well, the amount could rise to five million or even higher,” President Yin said.

“Just need to participate in the Holy Spirit Challenge?” The squad member was taken aback.

“What do you think?”

“I thought it’s something like… troublesome tasks of exterminating cataclysmic vermin, bugs, and those damn creatures from the Abyss, or assassination missions,” the squad member scratched his bald head, looking a bit dull.

“It’s just a competition, with no dangerous elements involved. I am quite curious… do you know what currency we are discussing?” President Yin suddenly realized that the places in the Holy Spirit game for spending money… may not just be about pulling equipment for Fureya!

“A commonly used currency by you Holy Spirits, which can be exchanged for Divine Power Crystals, all solid currency, this much we know,” the squad member said, seemingly tempted.

Divine Power Crystals are currently all invested in the construction of Holy Spirit City, and the way to collect these crystals is still to complete various tasks in the City of Gods, at most by clearing the monsters on Black Tide Island.

The members of the Eternal squad recently started living in Holy Spirit City. Initially, they treated the Divine Power Crystals as currency too, but since they didn’t have a large stockpile, they had to participate in various competitions to support themselves with the prize money.

The members of the squad weren’t as upright and straightforward as Rosh. They also knew that the equipment produced by Devouring God could be worth quite a bit on the star chart, so they always had various crooked thoughts.

“Tan Na! Come back!” Rosh called out to the tall squad member, “That’s an order!”

The squad member had no choice but to return to Rosh’s side, but he whispered to Rosh about something he always wanted to do.

“Captain… have you really never thought about making some extra money here with these Holy Spirits?”

“Don’t forget our mission!” Rosh said sternly.

“But Captain, your living situation isn’t that great, right? Haven’t you wanted to upgrade your armor recently? How many missions would you need to execute to earn enough credit points? It might be better to smuggle…”

“Stop talking!” Rosh’s voice grew more severe, and suddenly, President Yin poked his head out from behind the tall squad member.

“For your captain, I am willing to offer an annual signing fee of five million, but I’m not sure if you are interested?” President Yin made a proposal that left many players present scratching their heads with question marks.

President Yin had thought about using Divine Power Crystals to bribe these squad members before, but the problem was… the reserve of Divine Power Crystals was nowhere near enough for him to spend extravagantly like hiring the gods from the City of Gods before.

But these squad members from the Eternal team were interested in cash? That was no problem.