Legends Rise - Chapter 26 At The Headquarters

Li Ming sat in his classroom absentmindedly, unperturbed by his arithmetic’s teacher mindlessly droning on about formulas and college or what-not. He wasn’t able to consult with his counselor about his options, which left Li Ming in a state of panic.

Li Ming could not find it in him to focus on the class at hand. Nevermind the class, he couldn’t even think of one thing at a time. He was contemplating so many things at once, an esper would have gotten a headache had the esper tried to read his mind.

On one hand: Li Ming could go pro in a video game, and if he was good enough, he could just ride that wave to make it into a career. Maybe when he retired, he could become a coach, or a game balancer who would work with the Leo Corporation to improve their game. However, if he was just a mediocre player, he wouldn’t amount to much. If he wasn’t able to prove himself worthy, he wouldn’t be able to transition smoothly into a career.

Not only that, he would be stuck with little to no transferable skills. Making matters worse, he would have to drop out of school at this moment just to join the team, meaning he would be considered a high school dropout, which would be very unfavorable to any resume.

On the other hand: he could try to balance both school and being a pro, but that would be nearly impossible with the amount of time he had. Just the workload from both of them would be enough to crush him mentally, if not physically. Both required at least 8 hours of effort per day, but if he only put in minimal effort, he wouldn’t excel in either of them.

On the other imaginative third hand: he could still try to decline the offer from the Osaka Phoenixes, but that would mean he would have to take a back door, which would be a despicable back door from the counselor. This would definitely leave a sour taste in his mouth, and he wouldn’t be able to explore his potential in Legends Rise.

At this rate, it seemed to him that his only option was to become a high school dropout.

***

Li Ming made his way through the crowded train station. Using the navigation app on his phone, he managed to find the Osaka Phoenix’s headquarters. He walked past the massive silver statue of a phoenix in the courtyard to the front door of the building, which was flanked by 2 smaller bronze phoenixes.

As the bi-parting glass doors slid open, he was greeted by a single statue of a gold flame, towering above a receptionist’s desk.

“Hello, how can I help you today?” a young female receptionist asked.

“Oh uh, I’m looking for Conflux…” Li Ming responded, still stunned by the size of the flame statue.

“Huh…” the receptionist hesitated, “Sorry, I don’t know how you know that he’s here, but he is a very busy man. Even if you are a fan, you’ll need to respect his boundaries as a professional player.”

“What? Wait, no, I’m actually here to talk to him about that.” Li Ming was caught off guard by her sudden condescending attitude. “He actually recruited me to the team, my name is Li Ming, I played The Dawn at the tryouts recently!”

The receptionist, still skeptical, raised her index finger at him to indicate to Li Ming to wait as she reached for her desk phone with her other hand.
for visiting.

“Hello? Could you put me through to Conflux?”

…

“Yes, hi Steven, this is Mito from the receptionist desk, there’s a kid here named ‘Li Ming’ or something, claiming that you recruited him? Uhh let’s see, he’s got black hair, looks about the same height as you, maybe a little taller? Yeah, black rim glasses and looks a little depressed. Oh? Is that so? My apologies, I’ll bring him up immediately.”

As she put the phone down, the receptionist Mito looked up at Li Ming apprehensively, as if trying to gauge whether or not this was the real deal. “Right, follow me.”

Li Ming was led up to the escalator with Mito, were she brought them to the fourth floor.

*Ding~*

“Right this way.”

Mito marched stiffly towards an room that looked more like a college campus conference room, with glass walls in place of regular opaque walls. Through the glass, there were plenty of seats circling a long Oakwood table. The large plasma screen TV loomed over the room while the holographic display inlaid within the Oakwood table gave off a blue tint around the room.

Li Ming was guided to a chair at the long table while Mito stood by the door and refused to say another word. The low hum of the computers powering the holographic display coupled with the low temperature of the room in combination with the stern and silent receptionist standing like a statue only served to stress Li Ming more.

Although it only took about a minute for Conflux and the head coach Kimi to show up, it felt like an eternity to Li Ming.

“Hey hey~! Look who finally decided to show up!” Conflux greeted,

“Nice to meet you Li Ming, I’m Kimi, the head coach of the current Osaka Phoenixes.”

“Oh so it really was him,” Mito sighed with relief, “I’ll fetch some tea then.”

‘Haha… She was still doubting me…’ Li Ming sighed in exasperation.

“You’ll have to excuse her,” Conflux explained, “Quite a few people have come by trying to find out more about the team or our players. Some have even resorted to pretending to be newly recruited staff, since we’re still rebuilding.”

“Hahah…” Li Ming could only laugh dryly in return.

“Anyways, let’s get right to business,” Kimi continued on, “You’re here to join the team right? Here’s the contract, let me walk you through it.”

“Wait, wait, I have a few questions first.” Li Ming interjected.

“Oh? Go on then” Kimi responded.

“First, I want to know the state of the teams budget management.”

“Huh, that’s reasonable. I’ll have Conflux here pick that up for you.”

“Second, I want to know how our team will plan on sustaining our position in the League so that we do not become irrelevant or to maintain our financial stability”

“Hmmm… you have some good foresight I see, that s reasonable as well. I’ll have our business development director come by to fully explain it if my explanation doesn’t cut it for you I guess.”

“Finally, I want to extend the duration of my contract to at least 5 years.”

“Eh? That’s rather odd,” Conflux cut in, “Why would you want that, are you not confident in your skill to carry you to refresh your contract?”

“Ah, no, its just that if I wanted to join the team right now to make it before the registration deadline, it would mean that I would have to drop out of high school, you see.” Li Ming explained, “I just thought it would be extremely detrimental to my future if I didn’t develop any transferable skills.”

“Haha, you won’t need to worry about that,” Kimi smiled, “The team doesn’t begin official practice together as a team until about a week before your school year is over. That means you get to graduate with no problems!”

“Huh? We’re not starting for that long? Doesn’t that mean that our team work wouldn’t be too good?”

“Don’t worry about that part so much. That’s why I’m here.” Kimi reassured the shocked Li Ming, “However, we’ll have to ask you to practice as much as possible with your, uh, rather unorthodox character, and we’ll need you to send in videos of all your matches on that character as well.”

“About how much practice would I need to do?”

“Well, enough to simulate a tournament day, so I’d say about 6? We’ll also have a questionaire for you to fill out at the end.”

‘6 matches? That’s not too bad.’

“Well then, now that we understand what you’re looking for, let’s get into the real meat of the business.” Kimi placed some papers in front of Li Ming, “We’ll go through this while Conflux grabs your info.”