Chapter 1

2 a.m., and the FOG division base of the IAC Esports Club in Shanghai was brightly lit.

The scrimmage had just ended, and now it was free time. Some team members were washing up, others were ordering takeout. Only Henry Clark remained in the training room, still playing ranked matches at his station.

It wasn’t that Henry Clark was especially diligent—just that it was the end of the month, and he still owed over twenty hours of streaming time to his contracted streaming platform.

Henry Clark, Evil, nineteen years old—young, highly skilled, and, as luck would have it, handsome too. In just two years since his debut, he had become one of the top esports stars in China, the current face of the IAC team, their cash cow, their pillar.

The pillar himself didn’t actually like streaming, but according to his contract, he had to stream at least thirty hours a month. So, as expected, at least twenty-nine of those hours were always crammed into the end of the month.

After the scrim ended, the club manager had come by to remind him again. Henry Clark couldn’t put it off any longer and finally started making up his hours.

Barely two or three minutes after starting the stream, Henry Clark’s channel had already surpassed three million viewers. The chat was a dense, overlapping wall of comments, piled so thick it was almost impossible to read.

【As expected, he’s live, hhhhhhhhhh...】

【Hahahahaha, it’s that wonderful time at the end of the month again—God Shi is being forced to work.】

【It’s the 29th, there’s not much time left for player Henry Clark.】

【It’s the 29th, there’s not much time left for player Henry Clark. +1】

【The end of every month is when my hubby keeps me company day and night. If I’m not mistaken, hubby, you still owe me 25 hours! Are you happy? Are you having fun?】

【Look at me, look at me, look at me! After next month’s preseason, it’ll be transfer season again. Hubby, will you still be with IAC next season? Are you transferring this year or not?】

【Right, it’s almost time for the annual transfer season. I heard every team is planning big moves this year—waiting for an industry earthquake.】

【The IAC boss doesn’t care about esports at all, just wants to make money, only holds the players back. Hubby, transfer early so we fans can relax. Please, just transfer!】

【Stop stirring things up. Every year when transfer season comes, everyone goes crazy. Can’t you calm down for a bit?】

With transfer season approaching, fans in the scene were restless, and the chat had inexplicably devolved into bickering. But Henry Clark wasn’t affected in the slightest—he hadn’t even opened the chat window.

Henry Clark launched the FOG game client, logged into his alt account, and queued up for a match. Before long, he was in-game.

FOG, known in China as “In the Mist,” had been out for over six years since its open beta, growing more popular every year. It now firmly ranked among the world’s top three hottest games.

FOG is a 4v4 competitive game. In each match, players and their teammates are dropped at one end of a fog-filled map, with their four opponents at the other end. The four players on each team have different roles and abilities, each with their own tasks. The ultimate goal is to gradually clear the fog from the enemy’s side of the map, leaving them nowhere to hide, and then be the first to eliminate all enemy players and destroy their resurrection stone to win.

Each team is made up of three roles: two assault players, one sniper, and one medic. Henry Clark played the assault role—as the name suggests, the one who charges in front and fights head-on.

When streaming, Henry Clark preferred to use an alt account. He hadn’t played much on this particular alt this season, so its rank was quite low. Naturally, the teammates he matched with weren’t great either. Henry Clark didn’t mind—rarely did anyone in solo queue keep up with his pace. He was used to playing solo; as long as his teammates didn’t feed too hard, he could still win. If they did feed too much... well, he’d just treat it as weighted training.

Like in this match right now.