Yu Pingan was dumbfounded.

He never imagined that Mr. Pei would say such things!

“Scholar Express has already fulfilled its mission”?

“It can come to a natural end”?

“Take a good rest”?

Did that mean the project was just going to end like this? No more attempts to save it?

Although Yu Pingan had considered this possibility, hearing these words from Mr. Pei’s mouth still surprised him.

Wasn’t Mr. Pei supposed to be omnipotent?

Yu Pingan, who had hoped to gain useful experience from Mr. Pei to stop Scholar Express APP’s decline, was stunned.

But upon careful consideration, Mr. Pei’s attitude was already very clear, and it had to be said, this seemed like a way of accepting reality.

Since its birth, the Scholar Express project had indeed fulfilled its historical mission well. Mr. Pei’s capital operation had earned at least ten million yuan, and the subsequent advertising revenue was immeasurable.

Coming to a natural end wasn’t unfortunate.

However, as the person in charge of this project, Yu Pingan still found it emotionally difficult to accept.

After a long silence, he finally nodded: “Alright, Mr. Pei, I understand.”

“Then… Mr. Pei, what should I do now? Work on other projects?”

Work on other projects?

No, no, no, that definitely wouldn’t work.

Pei Qian knew well that Yu Pingan was capable, and the Scholar Express project had good APP development capabilities. If they went to work on other projects, what if those became successful too?

Pei Qian coughed lightly: “Continue to stay with Scholar Express, guard its corpse, and provide nutrients for the Tenda Group. Although we don’t expect more, regular iterative updates still need to be done. We can’t abandon our users.”

Yu Pingan nodded: “Alright, Mr. Pei.”

After seeing Yu Pingan off, Pei Qian was satisfied.

Mission accomplished!

……

……

July 6th, Wednesday.

DGE Esports Club officially arrived in Magic City!

So far, many clubs in China have already established GOG divisions, and the vast majority of these clubs are in Magic City.

This was a historical legacy issue.

In the earliest days, a few players would gather to form a team, with no boss or sponsors, just casually playing internet café tournaments with very low prize money.

Later, manufacturers organized events, and bosses invested in teams, gradually forming clubs. However, the early clubs were very immature, with training venues possibly being rented computers in internet cafés or rental apartments in residential buildings.

For electronic sports games based on the internet, theoretically, as long as the network conditions were adequate, it was normal to be based anywhere. But Magic City, as an economic center, had the best financial resources, information resources, network resources, media resources, etc. It was convenient for international competitions, and the network conditions were good, so most clubs gradually gathered in Magic City.

In this process, as more and more esports clubs emerged in Magic City, it became the domestic esports center, which was an inevitable result.

Among them were quite a few veteran teams that had already made a name for themselves domestically.

For instance, the first club they were visiting this time, H4 Esports Club, was a veteran club that had existed since the “StarCraft” era and was a place many gaming-addicted teenagers aspired to join.

Its team name’s accurate meaning was HERO4, or “four heroes,” as there were only four people when it was first established, mainly participating in individual esports events.

Considering everyone’s English level at that time, this name was already quite sophisticated, with many clubs having even more casual names.

DGE Esports Club had a total of 13 people. Considering they would be staying in Magic City for a long time, Zhang Yuan had arranged a minibus in advance to transport team members to and from various clubs.

After a night of rest, the team members’ travel fatigue had been completely swept away, replaced by anticipation for the H4 Esports Club and excitement about facing other teams.

Jiang Huan and Huang Wang were the captains of DGE’s first and second teams, respectively.

The two had opposite personalities. Jiang Huan was the silent, taciturn type who spoke sparingly, only saying a couple of concise things when commanding. In Huang Wang’s words, he was “a dog that bites without barking,” focusing on tactics with technical skill and a dirty mind.

Despite playing top lane, he could pressure his opponent while also paying attention to the situation on the field, commanding the jungle and mid lane duo, and the bottom lane roaming. In Huang Wang’s words, he was “truly abnormal.”

The first team’s members trusted Jiang Huan completely, basically executing his tactical arrangements unconditionally, with highly unified thinking across the team.

Huang Wang, on the other hand, was a very active, talkative person who was always full of banter, whether commanding or not.

When Huang Wang first came to the DGE club, he seemed taciturn, but once he became familiar, his true nature began to show.

However, he was not as good at tactics as Jiang Huan. As a mid laner, he often needed help from Old Zhou, who played the commander position (support), to share the command tasks.

In GOG, the support was called “commander,” purely to elevate the status of support and attract more people to play it. In actual teams, who command depended on who could command.

Although the commander position was indeed most suitable for commanding, because support heroes required less mechanical operation and needed to frequently provide support, roam, and observe the field, not every support player had commanding ability.

If some players had poor ability to read game information or couldn’t grasp timing well, dividing their attention to command would affect their performance. Forcing them to command would be a disaster for the entire team.

The final selection of captains and commanders for these two teams came from natural coordination through training matches.

However, the combined commanding ability of Huang Wang and Old Zhou was still struggling compared to Jiang Huan’s, so the second team practiced noticeably more than the first. The difference wasn’t apparent in the short term, but over time, the difference in muscle mass became obvious.

Now it was visibly apparent that the first team members still maintained slim figures that looked thin in clothes but had muscle when undressed, while several members of the second team already had muscles that stretched their clothes.

It was summer now, and everyone was wearing T-shirts. Huang Wang felt more like a fitness coach.

After all, as the captain, he practiced the most.

Jiang Huan was resting with his eyes closed, while Huang Wang was quietly discussing their expectations for the H4 Esports Club with Old Zhou in the back row.

“I had heard of the H4 Esports Club when I used to skip class to play games. Back then, when I saw H4 players winning honors in world competitions, I was particularly excited, thinking it would be great if I could join this club and become a professional player someday.”

“Being able to visit the H4 club this time is like fulfilling a dream.” Huang Wang’s expression was full of anticipation.

Old Zhou nodded: “Indeed, H4 Club is a veteran domestic club that holds its own against foreign clubs. So many people want to join.”

Huang Wang said expectantly: “I wonder what their training base is like. People online say it’s quite high-end, more standardized than most domestic clubs.”

Old Zhou: “We’ll see when we get there. But speaking of which, I think our team leader and coach probably want to use this opportunity to observe and learn from H4 and other veteran clubs’ management philosophy and advanced experience. Otherwise, we could just play training matches online. Why make the trip in person, wasting manpower and resources?”

Huang Wang nodded: “Yes, they definitely have that consideration, after all, we’re still a newly established club.”

After chatting for a while, they arrived at the H4 Esports Club.

The H4 Esports Club was located in a residential apartment in the suburbs of Magic City, specifically a rented townhouse. The entire community was quiet with complete facilities, and H4 Esports Club often organized team members to play basketball in the community for physical fitness.

After checking with the community security, the minibus drove directly into the community and arrived at the H4 Esports Club building.

At this stage, esports clubs were basically rented in apartments or villas. As for building their own buildings or training bases, that happened much later when major capital entered the field.

Being able to live in a villa was already considered extremely high treatment for a club.

Zhang Yuan and Coach Ya Ling got off the bus first, with Ma Yang following closely behind.

Team Leader Xiao Su of the H4 Esports Club was already waiting downstairs to welcome them.

Zhang Yuan immediately went forward to greet him.

“Team Leader Su! Hello, hello. Let me introduce, this is our esports club’s coach, surnamed Li, and this is…”

When introducing Ma Yang, Zhang Yuan hesitated slightly because he didn’t know what position would be appropriate for Ma Yang.

Strictly speaking, Ma Yang was just tagging along without any position.

But after all, he was an old leader, and saying he was just tagging along would be too disrespectful, wouldn’t it?

Zhang Yuan had a sudden inspiration: “This is our special tactical instructor, Instructor Ma.”

Team Leader Su was filled with respect.

This DGE Esports Club, though a newly emerging club, had quite comprehensive logistics!

A team leader, a coach, and a special tactical instructor?

In contrast, the H4 club’s GOG division had just been established not long ago, with only one team leader and five team members. As for a coach… sorry, that wasn’t popular in domestic clubs yet.

And the team leader was responsible for ordering takeout. Even when arranging training matches, it was the team captain who commanded, reviewed, and summarized.

Given the current environment, a team leader who only ordered takeout and didn’t do anything else had already outperformed at least 70% of his peers.

Because there were many team leaders who not only didn’t do their proper jobs but also frequently took team members out for debauchery. Even worse, some took team members to play cards, having not only no positive effect but a negative one.

So a team leader like Xiao Su, who diligently ordered takeout without causing trouble, was already considered conscientious in the industry.

Both sides shook hands warmly.

However, after shaking hands, Team Leader Su felt something was off. How could this sweet-looking female coach wearing a light long-sleeved jacket have such a strong grip?

For some reason, he could always feel a suffocating pressure from Coach Li. And as a girl, being able to become a team’s coach, she must have unique insights into the game! Otherwise, how could she command respect?

And this Instructor Ma, who looked somewhat dimwitted, could he guide tactics? Or was he someone who hid his true abilities behind a smile?

This was truly… visitors with ulterior motives!