Pei Qian casually picked up the program sheets for the two teams to review.

They listed various fancy victory conditions, seemingly arranged from front to back in increasing difficulty.

So far, both teams’ program sheets had three checkmarks.

Pei Qian knew very well that each checkmark represented 50,000 yuan earned for the club!

A quick count revealed that these two teams had already earned the club exactly 300,000 yuan!

This was outrageous.

I hired you to help me burn money, but you’re helping me make money instead?

Ungrateful wolves!

I’ve raised you for nothing!

Of course, 300,000 was pocket change, not enough to seriously anger Mr. Pei, but the key was that this was a very bad omen.

If both DGE Club teams kept entertaining from beginning to end, and won all their matches…

How much traffic would that bring to the DGE Club?

Discussion heat would break through the ceiling on all forums, and wouldn’t sponsors be fighting to sponsor them?

Moreover, the DGE Club could only accept two sponsorships, and Zhang Yuan would certainly take the opportunity to raise prices. Many major sponsors would frantically raise their bids to sponsor the DGE Club…

The picture was too beautiful to look at.

So, Pei Qian felt that he must break these two teams’ winning streak at least once. They absolutely couldn’t win perfectly.

If that happened, the streaming platform would promote them like crazy, putting Mr. Pei in a very passive position!

Pei Qian silently looked at the end of the program sheet.

“Win with Instructor Ma?”

“This program sheet seems to be arranged from easy to difficult.”

“In other words, the team members also feel that winning a match with Old Ma is the most difficult?”

“Very good, I’ll summon Old Ma right now!”

If Pei Qian wanted to play himself, he certainly could.

But his purpose for playing would be to act as a performer, and if he ended up with stats like 0-27, it might damage Mr. Pei’s reputation.

If the meme “Mr. Pei doesn’t know how to play GOG” spreads, that would be unacceptable to Pei Qian, even more uncomfortable than “Mr. Pei can’t lose money”!

Pei Qian felt that while he couldn’t claim to be very strong, he wasn’t a burden. The accusation that “Mr. Pei is a noob who can’t play GOG” was a black pot he absolutely couldn’t bear!

So, this pot could only be carried by his brother, Old Ma.

Besides, there was no risk of reputation damage for Old Ma playing. After all, he was genuinely bad.

However many times he died, it would be through his ability.

Pei Qian called Ma Yang and told him to come immediately.

Several team members were already warming up when they suddenly heard Mr. Pei calling Instructor Ma to come over. They all shuddered.

Mr. Pei… is he planning to see what level we can achieve when giving our all?

Otherwise, why would he start with the hell difficulty right away?

Huang Wang and Jiang Huan exchanged glances, both seeing the gravity in each other’s expressions.

“Stay calm, it’s not like we haven’t played training matches with Instructor Ma before.”

“We’ve already been tested and have a complete set of tactics. As long as we strictly follow this set of tactics, even if it’s very difficult, we should still be able to win in the end…”

Huang Wang and the others kept comforting themselves internally, calming their emotions.

…

Before the match began, Ma Yang successfully arrived.

“Qian bro! Your outstanding employee is here!”

Ma Yang’s face was full of excitement: “Qian bro, don’t worry, with Instructor Ma taking the field, the opponents will surrender!”

Pei Qian smiled, observing the team members’ expressions from the corner of his eye, with only one feeling in his heart.

We’ve got this!

Pei Qian chuckled and casually asked: “Old Ma, didn’t you play games with them before?”

Old Ma shook his head: “No.”

Pei Qian: “?”

What does that mean? Why is Old Ma lying with a straight face?

When you came back last time, didn’t you say you played?

Ma Yang explained very seriously: “Qian bro, what I did with them wasn’t playing games, those were training matches. My identity wasn’t as an ordinary player, but as a special tactical instructor.”

“So, Qian bro, please respect my professionalism and don’t say I was playing games with the team members.”

Pei Qian: “…”

He remained silent for a moment, then patted Ma Yang’s shoulder: “Fine, Old Ma, I appreciate this meticulous attitude of yours. It’s an invaluable quality.”

“So, as a special tactical instructor, how were the results of your training with the team members?”

Ma Yang proudly declared: “All victories!”

Pei Qian: “?”

All victories???

What happened to the hell difficulty?

Pei Qian had thought that with Old Ma playing, the team members would essentially be playing four versus six, with a win rate of at most 40-60.

But the result was all victories?

Then all my elaborate arrangements have been wasted?

Even with Old Ma playing, the team members could still win!

No, stay calm.

Today, the winning streak must be broken!

There must be other ways!

Pei Qian thought for a moment and asked: “What position did you play then? Commander?”

Ma Yang shook his head: “No, Qian bro, I played bottom lane, a solid Carry position!”

“Hmm…” Pei Qian fell into contemplation.

He seemed to understand why the team members could still win with Old Ma.

If considered as four carrying one, the two bottom lane positions were the easiest to get by.

Because the bottom lane had two people, one could just huddle under the tower and farm minions. If the other partner had a high skill level, they could look after them somewhat, preventing the lane from collapsing.

The top-mid-jungle iron triangle would wreck the opponent’s jungle, and the bottom lane could just get by somehow and ride to victory.

Moreover, with Old Ma playing bottom lane, though it was called a Carry position, in reality, he had a support protecting him, making it not so easy to die.

So, the team members could still drag him to victory.

Pei Qian thought for a moment and suddenly had a flash of inspiration.

Got it!

Why not have Old Ma change positions?

Top lane, mid lane, jungle—if Old Ma played any of these positions, wouldn’t he get destroyed by the opponents?

If any of these three positions collapsed even slightly, it would lead to a complete collapse. Experienced professional players might be able to recover by farming up, but if it were Old Ma, he would give up.

So, which position to choose?

Pei Qian thought about it and decided on the jungle!

Because both DGE Club teams had strong junglers. If Old Ma went to play top or mid lane, he might just huddle under the tower farming minions. The opponent would push the lane to the tower, and then if his team’s jungler and support came to gank, Old Ma might surprisingly serve as effective bait.

So, the jungle was still the most reliable choice.

With Old Ma’s jungling-only nature, the pressure the enemy jungler would put on his team’s three lanes would be immense. Not to mention, if the opponent knew how to play even a little, they could counter-jungle and make Old Ma worse than a super minion.

Yes, this makes sense!

With this in mind, Pei Qian cleared his throat: “Old Ma, today I want to test your strength in other positions, as well as your champion pool. Are you up for it?”

Ma Yang thumped his chest: “Qian bro, feel free to bring it on!”

Pei Qian nodded, Good, I like this fearless attitude of yours.

“Alright, then play jungle with Happy Ruanman, play the roaming position.”

Ma Yang’s eyes lit up: “Qian bro, how did you know I’ve been practicing this champion recently? Don’t worry, I definitely won’t disappoint everyone!”

Seeing Ma Yang so full of confidence, Pei Qian almost believed him.

But Pei Qian’s rationality told him that Old Ma would never disappoint him.

Just like when Ruan Guangjian said he couldn’t play, when Ma Yang said he had no problem, there would be big problems.

Sure enough, looking at the team members’ expressions, each one looked like a warrior about to go to the execution ground.

Instructor Ma is in the jungle, and using Happy Ruanman to jungle!

This match was truly going to be difficult.

Huang Wang and Jiang Huan had originally planned to follow the script from their previous games with Mr. Ma, but now that strategy couldn’t be used!

Fortunately, Mr. Pei was a bit more merciful than Zhang Yuan and didn’t force Mr. Ma’s score to be positive, so there was still hope.

It was precisely because they had experienced even more tragic hell that everyone could strive to handle this with ease!

The jungler quickly gave up his position to let Instructor Ma warm up.

Ma Yang very professionally opened a custom game, brought out a dozen training dummies, and happily used Wind Ink Guest Ruan’s E ability to dash back and forth between them.

Seeing Old Ma so happy, Pei Qian silently nodded.

Hmm, we’ve got this!

Old Ma indeed never disappointed him.

Pei Qian had also considered whether to let Ma Yang use his account. With the title “Ruan’s Designer” above his head, he would probably be targeted even more severely.

But on second thought, he decided against it. After all, accounts couldn’t be lent to others, and boosting was strictly prohibited—these were matters of principle in competitive games.

Pei Qian believed that even without the title “Ruan’s Designer” above his head, Ma Yang would make his mark!

…

The match began quickly.

Pei Qian opened his phone to watch the bullet screen comments while keeping an eye on Old Ma’s first-person perspective.

Due to the live broadcast, there was a three to four-minute delay in the feed, but that wasn’t a big issue.

On the bullet screen, viewers had noticed this unusual player change.

“DGE.Instructor Ma? Why is this name so long?”

“What does it mean?”

“Uh, literal translation should be Ma Instructor? But this usage feels weird, like construction site English.”

“Damn, I thought Huang Wang was going to play Happy Ruanman, but it turns out it’s Instructor Ma? Could this be DGE’s secret weapon?”

“Nice, nice, Happy Ruanman playing the roaming position. This match is going to be entertaining!”

“Wow, this Happy Ruanman is just farming? What happened to the promised Instructor Ma? Instruct us already!”

“Farming jungle, returning to base, buying equipment, continuing to farm… Brother, at least buy and place a ward? Are you never going to gank even once?”

“Damn, Instructor Ma went to counter-jungle! Ah, Instructor Ma got solo killed by the enemy jungler and gave away double buffs!”

“Sorry, Instructor Ma, I wronged you. Please continue farming!”

“I think it would be better to just go AFK directly, leaving the home jungle for other team members to eat. It’s better than farming jungle monsters only to go and feed…”

Pei Qian watched the live broadcast on his phone while observing Ma Yang’s first-person perspective, silently giving a thumbs up.

Old Ma hadn’t disappointed him!

This move of rooting in the jungle and ultimate entertainment should completely live up to his surname.

At this rate, breaking the winning streak should be just a matter of…

Wait, what?

Pei Qian had barely been optimistic for two minutes when good news came from the top lane.

Solo kill!

Two minutes later, good news also came from the mid lane.

Another solo kill!

Three minutes after that, good news came from the bottom lane too.

The enemy jungler forced a tower dive, then got outplayed under the tower, resulting in a one-for-three exchange. The ADC got three kills and immediately took off!

As for the few kills that Instructor Ma had given away, they seemed to have no decisive impact on the normal situation.

Pei Qian was shocked.

What on earth was the enemy team playing? They couldn’t even win a five versus four?

Although Pei Qian already knew that these two DGE teams were strong, playing like this was too ridiculous!

He saw the other four team members fully focused, their mechanics completely maxed out!

Previously, everyone had been thinking about how to entertain, so their mechanics were relaxed, only getting serious during critical team fight moments.

But now, the situation was different.

Instructor Ma had completed all the entertainment targets by himself, so the others could go all out, just ensuring victory!

Moreover, Instructor Ma had come in and given away double buffs, successfully baiting the enemy jungler.

The enemy jungler was enjoying feasting on Instructor Ma so much that he didn’t want to gank other lanes for a while.

As a result, Huang Wang and the others began to make insane plays, going all out, striving to destroy their lanes!

As they played, it somehow turned into an advantage in all three lanes.

Once the advantage was established, the snowball grew larger and larger. The enemy jungler didn’t even dare to gank anymore because doing so might result in getting 1v2’d.

Pei Qian watched helplessly as Ma Yang continued to farm the jungle. Whenever he went to gank, he just fed, farming from the start of the game to twenty minutes, managing to get his score to 0-8-0.

Then the most terrifying thing happened.

His score froze! The death count stopped increasing!

Because the other teammates had already broken through all three lanes. All outer towers had fallen, and Ma Yang was happily dashing back and forth with E in his jungle. No enemies would come to disturb him anymore.

The enemies had all been pushed back into their half of the map by the other four teammates in a 4v5!

With Instructor Ma entertaining in the back, all team members didn’t need to worry about the entertainment effect anymore. They could just maximize their mechanics and go on a killing spree!

So, a very strange scene appeared.

Old Ma was happily dashing back and forth with E in the back, while the other four were happily camping the enemy’s high ground.

The scene depicted a very surreal 5-4-1 formation.

People might think they were playing football, with Old Ma as the goalkeeper.

Ma Yang repeatedly farmed the jungle, finally farming out two complete items.

He typed directly in all chat: “I can finally come out and make my move!”

However, just as Ma Yang was about to click his mouse towards the enemy high ground, the screen involuntarily slid towards the enemy’s main base, and then he witnessed the explosion of the enemy base.

“Victory!”

Two large artistic characters appeared on the screen.

Ma Yang shook his head somewhat disappointedly: “Sigh, the opponents were too weak. I hadn’t even had the chance to exert my power, and they were already defeated.”

The streaming site’s bullet screen comments exploded!

The voting results also came out quickly. This time’s entertainment index had once again received a perfect score!

“I suddenly feel that I could win a championship if I went to the jungle for DGE.”

“Indeed, farming in the jungle for twenty minutes with a score of 0-8, going out to gank just to give away double buffs. This Instructor Ma has proven that at DGE, ‘you could do it too.’ Hell, even a tethered dog could win!”

“I even suspect Instructor Ma did it on purpose, choosing a Happy Ruanman to entertain. Although he was feeding, it didn’t make people feel annoyed, but rather delighted!”

“So is this the true strength of DGE team members? Was that all just entertaining strength before? Could they win while casually entertaining? This time, they went all out, so they directly destroyed their lanes?”

“So impressive, I watched Huang Wang’s first-person perspective the whole time. He’s completely like two different people compared to ranked games! This guy in high-end ranked keeps talking, saying he’s only using 50% of his strength. I thought it was just talk, but it turns out it was true!”

“Such a club, I’m becoming a fan! May I ask where I can see the other team members’ streams?”

“Are there any team uniforms or merchandise for sale? I want them!”

“I’m more concerned about what the others look like now, since we’ve already seen Huang Wang, that professional boxer and muscle man, and he’s always saying on his stream that the other team members have similar physiques. I think if they could all appear on stage together, that scene would be beautiful!”

“Quick, vote, max out the entertainment index! ZZ Live, Yiyi Live, you’d better act quickly. There are only a few team members. If you’re late, you won’t get them!”

…

Having witnessed the whole process, Pei Qian fell into silence as he looked at the overwhelming bullet screen comments in the live stream.

What shocked him was that these DGE team members had already become this ferocious?

Right now, DGE’s second team was playing. Rumors said that the second team got crushed by the first team every day in training matches. Huang Wang’s muscular physique was the best proof.

If the first team were to play, wouldn’t they fly to the sky and stand shoulder to shoulder with the sun?

Even with Instructor Ma, the ultimate weapon, deployed, it still couldn’t stop DGE’s winning streak.

Pei Qian now realized that the situation was far more severe than he had imagined!

Thinking back carefully, it seemed he had misjudged DGE Club’s strength from the very beginning.

At that time, he had wishfully thought that as long as he disrupted the team members’ training plans, didn’t find them professional coaches, and forced them to work out every day, he could slow down their improvement, making them unable to keep up with the established clubs in China.

But thinking about it now, Pei Qian realized that his thinking contained many presumptuous errors:

DGE Club had selected high-ranked players to begin with, those with talent and foundation.

DGE Club was established a full two months earlier than all other GOG clubs, having undergone professional training for two more months.

Coach Yaling’s addition rapidly improved all team members’ physical fitness and nutrition, and physical condition would also affect the state of esports competitions.

Under the pressure of extra practice, the two team captains racked their brains to study game mechanics and devise new tactics, with the two teams’ strengths rising in a cyclical alternating fashion.

A large amount of monotonous custom training seemed to have made everyone’s fundamentals more solid, making their grasp of in-game details more excellent.

Once this first-mover advantage was established, each team member would hold themselves to the highest standard…

Of course, electronic sports were very talent-dependent.

If these people lacked talent, even with two more months of professional training, they couldn’t have become this strong.

And on this point, Mr. Pei’s super-lucky constitution had played its role again…

Drawing such good cards was just ridiculous!

In short, many complex issues interacting together have resulted in the current situation!

Seeing the content of these bullet screen comments, Pei Qian inexplicably felt an enormous sense of crisis.

If DGE Club’s popularity continued to rise like this, sponsors would likely soon come knocking at the door, offering sky-high sponsorships.

At the same time, after these team members’ images were exposed, people would pay attention to how they got their physiques. The Tuoguan Fitness would likely experience another wave of popularity.

No, absolutely not!

After the Tenda Life APP came out, the situation at Tuoguan Fitness was rapidly deteriorating. Every day, people were signing up at various branches of Tuoguan Fitness.

If there were another wave of promotion and surging popularity, Tuoguan Fitness turning losses into profits would be a foregone conclusion!

He had to come up with a countermeasure.

Now, immediately!

But what exactly should be done?

Pei Qian had no clue.

At this moment, Zhang Yuan came over and quietly said, “Mr. Pei, I just received a phone call. Could you come over? There’s something I need to discuss with you privately.”

Hmm?

Pei Qian saw Zhang Yuan’s expression seemed a bit conflicted, so he stood up and followed Zhang Yuan outside the villa.

Zhang Yuan hesitated for a moment, then said: “Mr. Pei, H4 Club’s Team Leader Su just called.”

“Recently, GOG has been hinting about a world invitational tournament, right? With the championship prize of 1 million dollars plus tournament skin revenue sharing, other clubs are tempted!”

“Team Leader Su asked me if DGE could participate. I told him honestly that we couldn’t, because we’re the organizers.”

“Then Team Leader Su asked if we could sell them Huang Wang. Their team is especially lacking a mid laner, and Huang Wang often duo queues with Pang Ling, so they have a good relationship. H4 Club is willing to pay us a high transfer fee.”

“To be honest, I can’t make up my mind. Emotionally speaking, Huang Wang is my team member, and I’ve brought him up. I’m reluctant to let him go. But then again, they can’t participate in major tournaments and can only play in entertainment competitions organized by streaming platforms, which breaks my heart.”

“Mr. Pei, what do you think about this matter…”

Pei Qian’s eyes lit up, and joy immediately appeared on his face.

“Sell! Sell him immediately! Tell Huang Wang to start packing his bags right away!”