"Who knows, everyone has their own ambitions. They do offer a higher signing bonus over there, and their operations are very well managed." David Wright continued leisurely, "Because of that mass exodus of top players two years ago, our division took a huge hit. We missed out on the world championship for two years in a row. Whisper actually did pretty well—his first year in Germany, he took second place at Worlds, and the next year, once the 'Galactic Battleship' team had gelled, they went straight to the championship. The guy is seriously impressive—he shines wherever he goes."

The team's sniper curled his lip. "Running off to a rival division to compete—what's so impressive about that?"

"Hey, don't be so narrow-minded. We're talking about club divisions competing, not nationalities. There's no point in making it about that. But..." David Wright said understandingly, "That said, of course everyone still hopes players like that can stay in our home division. You see how many fans Whisper has now? That's just a fraction of what he had left. When he suddenly switched divisions back then, he really pissed off all the fans in our division—people were furious. The fact that he still has so many die-hard fans now just shows how amazing he was back then."

A teammate glanced upstairs and whispered, "Even if he wasn't that amazing, Henry Clark wouldn't have turned down so many clubs for him. Wait, wasn't it said that Henry Clark offended a lot of teams? So how did Henry Clark end up joining another team?"

"You can still get signed even if you've made enemies." David Wright chuckled. "When there's profit involved, who cares? Back then, he was known as the 'Little Whisper' medic. When word got out that Whisper wanted to sell him, which team wouldn't want him? NSN's captain, Edward Grant, has always had a good relationship with Whisper, so Whisper sold Henry Clark to NSN."

Another assault player on the team muttered, "...Henry Clark must hate Whisper to death."

"Probably... who knows. At that time, Whisper's reputation was really bad, but Henry Clark never said anything about him, and no one else dared to say anything in front of him either. If you mentioned Whisper, he'd get mad right away." The manager shrugged. "Then Henry Clark switched roles to assault. NSN was pretty decent about it—they let him switch without forcing him to play a specific role. But NSN has always been short on medics, not assault players. They didn't want Henry Clark to just sit around wasting his talent, so after some discussion, the higher-ups decided to sell him to me."

David Wright grinned shrewdly. "Of course, I got the better end of the deal. Who would've thought Henry Clark would be even more of a monster as an assault player? In less than half a year, he reached the top of the national server, and after another half year of team practice, he was already the top assault player in our division. If Whisper knew, he'd probably regret it to death—he actually sold him for just three million."

Everyone burst out laughing. A teammate sighed, "No wonder Mr. Clark reacted so strongly... I only ever heard that Mr. Clark spent a few months on Whisper's team, but I never knew there was so much more to it."

David Wright sighed as well. "I only know so much myself. But back then, things were really chaotic. Our scene has been turned upside down by capital these past few years, and a lot of stuff went down. Most of the grudges between these players started back then."

The team's medic had been listening for a while and tentatively asked, "Manager, now that Whisper is back, he won't be joining our team, right?"

David Wright looked thoughtful, then patted the medic on the shoulder with a hearty laugh. "What are you afraid of! It's almost impossible. Look at your Mr. Clark—does he look like someone who could get along peacefully with Whisper?"

Everyone laughed and started gossiping about something else.

Upstairs, on the second floor, Henry Clark sat back at his station. He clicked the "Continue Ranked" button on the game client and waited for the matchmaking queue.

The stream was still live, and the chat was still buzzing with excitement.

[He's back, he's back.]

[Did he just find out that Whisper returned to the country? Is that why he left just now?]

[There are so many people on the team, so many people in the scene—didn't anyone tell him?]

[Probably no one dared to say anything...]

[By the way, which team will Whisper join? He won't come to IAC, right?]

[No way. If he really did, there'd be a corpse carried out of the IAC base the next day. Henry Clark and William Harris—one of them would definitely die.]

[Hahahaha, let him come to IAC, I want to see the drama.]

[What are you thinking, wanting Whisper to join IAC? Can the new fans just shut up?]

[Old grudges, can't be bothered to keep score. Don't stir up trouble.]

[Just asking, are there any CP shippers? That knife just now made me bleed out, I desperately need some sisters to pull it out and comfort me TAT.]

[I can't follow the chat anymore, what on earth happened?]

[He was only gone for five minutes, and now he's back to playing ranked like nothing happened. My boy has matured, I'm so proud.]

[It's not like he's completely unaffected. I think I heard a lighter—I'm reporting him. Evil is sneaking a smoke again just because the camera's off!]

Henry Clark stayed silent. The game queue popped. He took a deep drag of his cigarette, stubbed it out in the ashtray, and continued ranking up his alt account.

At this rank, Henry Clark didn't even need to think—he could climb just on muscle memory. He played for two hours, five games in a row, five straight wins, MVP every match. Henry Clark's die-hard fans were all relieved and proud—their boy had matured, become steady. He still trash-talked with others, but he was no longer so easily affected. Look at that calm demeanor, that unflappable composure, those steady hands in the heat of the moment!