Chapter 83 Part 2 一 Fat Cat’s Four Big Fans’ Group.
At six in the afternoon, Ruan Yōu drove over to pick him up.
When they arrived at the offline venue of the RG Club, the cars of Qi Zhiyan, Fu Jiazhan, Jiang Huai, and Lu Jin were already parked in the parking lot.
Seeing Gu Fuchen get out of the front passenger seat, Jiang Huai teased, “Hey, Ruan Chenchen’s status has risen. You even have Bodhisattva sister as your driver?”
Gu Fuchen didn’t even spare him a glance and walked straight out of the parking lot.
The first match of the RG Club’s Spring Season offline tournament was held in a venue across the parking lot.
In front of the venue, there was an RG team logo, and fans could be seen taking photos and observing from a distance. As they walked further, they reached the entrance.
Several staff members were checking tickets, and spectators were presenting electronic tickets and IDs. After the ticket check, the audience received a small card the size of a bank card with a cat paw background, which displayed the starting time of the match and the RG team logo.
The match took place at 8:30 in the evening. Ruan Yōu, Gu Fuchen and others, weren’t in a hurry. They had a meal at the buffet restaurant next to the venue. When it was past 8:00 in the evening, there were three long lines at the entrance, all waiting to get inside.
When Lu Xuan heard that they had arrived, she confidently approached them, wearing her staff badge.
“Come on, I’ll take you through the back door!”
Ruan Yōu:…
“It’s not necessary to go through the back door so openly.”
The viewers in the online livestream were all watching.
The team’s fans who came to watch the offline tournament heard that Ruan Yōu and others would come to watch the game today. While waiting in line, they cleverly opened the <The Heirs> livestream, watching Ruan Yōu’s livestream while waiting.
When they saw them arrive, some fans exclaimed, “Around nine o’clock direction, they’ve arrived!”
“Little Princess Xuanxuan, we also want to go through the back door.”
In the crowd, someone shouted loudly with a laugh.
Lu Xuan quickly held Ruan Yōu’s hand and fled the scene before the flash clicked to take pictures.
About seventy to eighty percent of the audience was already seated in the venue.
Ruan Yōu had been assigned a front-row seat by the RG team, sitting with the RG team’s manager, coaches and substitute players.
Generally, after the match started, the camera scanned over, giving shots of the substitutes and coaches. In the middle, there were only a few seats. Ruan Yōu didn’t sit in the front row; instead, she sat in the second row with Gu Fuchen, Fu Jiazhan, Jiang Huai, Lu Jin, and Qi Zhiyan.
The team manager suggested whether the substitutes should sit there since, after all, she was the boss.
Ruan Yōu didn’t even think about it and refused.
In offline matches, the team members were the main focus. Even if they were substitutes, they should sit in the prominent front row.
Just as they sat down in the second row, Lu Xuan came over, looking like a little host, and said, “Shall I take you around? Outside the venue, there are many photo spots and merchandise in the main entrance.”
There’s one quarter left until the match.
The host arranged by RG was organizing some casual games for the fans in the audience.
Feeling bored, Ruan Yōu went out with Gu Fuchen and the others.
The photo spots that Lu Xuan mentioned, Ruan Yōu had already seen when she came with the team manager.
There was only one wide road to enter the venue from the main entrance.
On both sides, there were exhibition boards featuring the starting five-person group, and besides that, there were a few giant posters of Fat Cat.
Three meters long and three meters wide, a chibi version of Fat Cat was sitting on a golden ingot, with its legs crossed and an arrogant posture; this was the “Rich” version of Fat Cat. There were also versions like “Dispelling Bad Luck” and “Don’t Make Me Angry, Go Away,” and the last one was “Lying Down and Being Lazy.”
The adorable appearance attracted many fans to stop for photos.
Qi Zhiyan smiled and said, “You have become the club’s spokesperson.”
Indeed, she had.
The Spring Festival has passed for half a month, and everyone’s good wishes for the new year have not disappeared. Many people gathered around the “Rich” version of Fat Cat.
After Jiang Huai waited for others to leave, he took out his mobile phone and asked Ruan Yōu to take pictures of him.
Ruan Yōu: ?
“I’m right here in person.”
一一Why not just take a photo with her?
Jiang Huai teased her on purpose, “Who wants to take a photo with the real person? Hurry, take a picture. Fat Cat is the group’s pet that can attract wealth.”
Ruan Yōu: ?
Qi Zhiyan stopped in front of the “Don’t Make Me Angry, Go Away” version of Fat Cat.
This version of Fat Cat was the chubbiest. The cat’s face was serious, and its plump right paw stretched forward.
Clearly, it meant “Don’t disturb,” but Ruan Yōu strangely got a feeling of “Erkang reaching out to stop you from leaving1.”
Outrageous.
Qi Zhiyan took a photo with this version of Fat Cat.
One photo expressed her wish for this year一一”Be less angry, don’t get angry, love and peace.”
Under the leadership of Qi Zhiyan and Jiang Huai, Fu Jiazhan and Lu Jin took a photo in front of the “Lying Down and Being Lazy” version of Fat Cat that representing Ruan Yōu’s personality.
Gu Fuchen found it somewhat interesting and was about to join their group photo when Ruan Yōu grabbed him, “I’m right here! Take a photo with me!”
She was a living person and couldn’t compete with her own chibi version (?
A great humiliation _(:з」∠)_
In the end, including Lu Xuan, the eight of them took a photo together in front of the “Lying Down and Being Lazy” version of Fat Cat. While taking the photo, a fan loudly suggested from the side, “Your poses aren’t good, let’s do a hexagram group photo! Friends of one mind can cut through gold2!”
Ruan Yōu thought of that scene: Grandpa on the subway looks at his phone.JPG
After taking the photos, they could also receive small merchandise like banners, sticky notes, mirrors, fans, glowing bracelets, and the like.
In addition to the merchandise, there were also some encouraging signs.
Not everyone could get these signs; the RG team officially arranged 40 signs, first come, first served. The thirty-five signs released have already been claimed, and the team manager had the operations team save a few for Ruan Yōu and the others, just in case.
Ruan Yōu didn’t want these signs, but Lu Xuan disagreed.
Lu Xuan: “These signs are precious; many people want them. I’ve selected five for you. Brother Jiang Huai, take this one.”
Jiang Huai received the glowing sign from Lu Xuan, looked at it, and was puzzled.
一一Qi Nuo, Mom loves you.
What the hell is this?
“No ‘Qino, Dad loves you’?”
As soon as he finished speaking, Qi Zhiyan coldly glanced to the side.
Jiang Huai swiftly picked up the sign, saying seriously, “This sign is good, goodbye.”
There were still signs like “Little Brother Qi Nuo, Go for it!” and “RG, Charge! Charge! Charge!” remaining.
Ruan Yōu handed “Little Brother Qi Nuo, Go for it!” to Qi Zhiyan and took a banner to cheer for the team but reluctantly went inside.
When they arrived at the arena, there were only two minutes left until the match started.
Both teams’ players were already seated.
Lu Xuan sat next to Ruan Yōu and chattered: “This time, RG is facing GN. They were the champions from last season, a formidable team that our club’s former jungler switched to. They won double championships last year, and their strength was particularly strong.”
Ruan Yōu frowned.
“Did the league do it on purpose?”
The first match of the new season’s opening game was crucial. Typically, the league would choose the previous season’s champions and runners-up as the opening match teams to generate buzz and interest.
Could the runners-up redeem themselves, and could the champions defend their glory?
RG was just a top-eight team last season, and there was a significant gap in strength compared to the two-time champion GN team. They hadn’t won a single game against GN last season.
It seemed likely that the league arranged the match between RG and GN to create more buzz.
After the league announced the schedule a week ago, RG was under a lot of pressure.
In the competitive e-sports circle, Qi Nuo, being a member of the top wealthy family didn’t bring him any advantages. Instead, it placed more pressure on him.
Standing at the forefront of the wind and waves, RG received 70% encouragement and 30% mockery every day.
People mocked Ruan Yōu for being a rich fool and joked that Qi Nuo would only go home to inherit the family business if he lost the game.
That group of people didn’t care whether Ruan Yōu and Qi Nuo cared about winning or losing; they judged their attitudes based on what they assumed.
Weakened the impact of “losing” on Qi Nuo.
But “losing” is the one word that all e-sports players don’t want to face.
They only wanted to win.
The RG team had a lot of popularity, but the e-sports circle looked at the results.
Before the match, when the commentators and coaches estimated the results, most people favored GN, who had won two championships the previous year and had been unbeatable in practice matches.
The double-champion team had great strength. It was expected that professionals, such as commentators and coaches, wouldn’t be optimistic about RG.
The only ones who could overturn the predictions were the five players of the RG team.
They could only rely on their skill to win this match.
To show everyone their rebuilt strength.
The pressure was immense, and there were some unknown people in the barrage of the variety show livestream room cheering for RG.
【Breaking the Ice Operation participant reporting here, come on RG team brothers!】
【Who cares about GN, I get hammered every day by the top players of the Avengers Guild in the game, holding up under pressure was what it was all about. Whoever backed down is a pig.】
【Today I saw a lot of people spamming ‘Breaking the Ice Operation,’ what the heck is that?】
In the first ten minutes before the start of the first game, the audience in the variety show livestream room finally understood what “Breaking the Ice Operation” meant.
【If the ‘Ice Breaking Operation’ was composed of members from Ruan Yōu’s online gaming guild, then our RG Team absolutely could not have lost! The ‘Avengers Guild’ and their enemies were here to cheer us on. Brothers and sisters, don’t care about the haters; we haven’t even started yet, believe in them!】
【Everyday Taking Down Entertainment Company’s fans reporting here, RG brothers, fighting!】
【Staff from the Springfield Flower Elderly Care Company reporting here, during our leisure time, we watched the game. RG, fighting!】
Fans from the RG team, the Avengers Guild, members of ‘The One You Can’t Get’ from the opposing guild, as well as fans of the entertainment company and its artists, along with employees of the elderly care company, came to check in and cheer.
This kind of cheering was unprecedented, and the whole network was jokingly calling it一一
“Fat Cat had four fan groups, with four fan groups united as one, there was nothing that Fat Cat’s fans couldn’t accomplish.”
↩︎- 朋友同心，其利断金! (Péngyǒu tóngxīn, qí lì duàn jīn!) I think it’s a modification of an old saying commonly used by Chinese people: “兄弟同心，其利断金” (Xiōngdì tóngxīn, qí lì duàn jīn). It conveys the idea that strong unity among friends can overcome any obstacle or difficulty. ↩︎