I was out enjoying myself in the streets of City G when my phone vibrated on silent mode. I quickly paid the cashier the money for the cake slices I got in the pastry shop and headed to my next destination down the road, a 7-11. It was very warm day late May day in City G, cheap popsicle sounded really good right now. I was craving the red, white, and blue ones from the States, but I doubt they would have them in China. I took my phone during my walk and saw it was Lin that was calling.

"Hey. 'Sup Lin?"

"You need to come to the stadium right now." He said in all seriousness in his voice.

I checked the time on my phone really quick it was not even 8:30PM yet. He originally told me I could do my own thing until 9PM because the announcement for Project Cloud Piercer would be made between the individual challenge and team challenge tonight. Usually the individual matches would at least last for an hour with all the commentary and breaks between each of three matches.

"I thought I had more time?"

"Samsara front loaded their 3 strongest players in the individual matches. We are already in match three, and Blue Rain is not holding up well at all. You need to come to the stadium as soon as possible. The announcement is going to happen right after the match ends. We need you here now." Lin urged.

The tournament was supposed to be divided into an individual challenge and a team challenge. Between the two matches, one home and one away, the first team to reach 10 points win the whole thing. If it is as Lin had predicted, Samsara was trying to end the match and season early by completely avoiding the team challenge. It was smart strategy for Samsara, but terrible for the sponsors, audience, and broadcasting channels.

"Let me flag down a cab." I replied. I understood the gravity of the situation.

"How far out are you?"

"Maybe 7 to 10 minutes down the street? I'm close. I can see the stadium from here." I gauged.

"Don't bother, traffic outside might be bad. You might get stuck. Just walk to the backdoor as fast you can."

"K. I will hurry." I said as I started to powerwalk towards the stadium.

I sighed as I looked down at my cake box. I had got one slice of each cake they had in the shop that day to try. Yes, one slice of each, you did not read wrong. There was maybe 9 different slices of cakes in the box. Don't judge. They all looked equally delicious and I was indecisive so I got them all. Besides, I had a special stomach just for cakes. How I'm keeping my thin figure? I honestly have no idea. Maybe the magic of Asian metabolism? I was hoping to enjoy these little beauties over a cup of cheap McD iced creamer, that they call coffee, before heading to the stadium. Well, guess there goes that plan, I mentally pouted.

x

By the time I arrived at the backstage, I was already too late. The Blue Rain players were already done with their after match interview and were leaving the stage. I could only guess the devastation Blue Rain had just suffered during the match by the gloomy looks on their faces. You could almost see the dark lines down all their faces and imaginary mushrooms growing on top of their heads. Out of the group of people, I recognized two in the group: Captain of Blue Rain, Yu WenZhou, and the big mouth that I didn't remember the name of.

"Hi." I greeted the two people I knew as their group walked pass by me. Since I was already late, I couldn't be later than late for the announcement that probably already happened without me.

The Big Mouth sent me a glare and walked away with a huff while stuffing his hands in his team jacket. He was obviously in a terrible mood.

"Ah, Naomi. Hi. Please don't mind him. He is…" Yu WenZhou actually stopped to talk to me. I could tell he was trying to be pleasant, but there was grief behind his polite smile. He was trying to hide it, but I could still tell Yu WenZhou was hurting from the loss too. They were so close to the champion title but then somehow got beaten so miserably on their own turf.

"No problem. I understand." I offered a small smile to Blue Rain's captain for comfort. "There is still next season! Good luck."

"Next season." Yu WenZhou looked off into a distance with a thinking expression and then gave me a sincere smile. "Yes, we will just have to try harder next season don't we. Thank you." He nodded his head in appreciation before walking towards where his teammates waited for him.

"Hey Blue Rain's Captain." I called to him before he got too far. "Here, something to cheer the team up maybe." I walked briskly to him and carefully handed him the cake box I had been holding.

"?" I could see the question mark on his face.

"I don't think I will be able to enjoy them tonight with everything going on and it wouldn't be good to have them spoil. Hope you guys will be able to enjoy them for me." I quickly waved at him and rest of his team before running off to find Lin and YueHua.

x

"Hey. Sorry. I tried to get here as fast as I could. What did I miss?"

I had texted Lin when I arrived in the stadium to see where he was. I would have called, but there was so much noise all around so it wouldn't be very practical. After a lot of texting back and forth, and asking the backstage staff, I finally found Lin and YueHua standing in a little corner backstage.

"Pretty much everything. We had to do everything for you." YueHua said acidly and rolled her eyes at me.

Who put a stick up her butt?

"No one knew something like this would happen." Lin glared at YueHua's direction before comforting me. "Don't worry too much about it. It really wasn't anyone's fault. But if it was anyone's fault, it is my fault. I did tell you just to arrive by 9PM. The announcement is already made. Reception would be better at Samsara's home stage, but this isn't bad either. Samsara and the press are looking for you to take a picture with Zhou ZeKai in front of the figure together. I will let them know you are here now."

x

I apologized for my lateness when I was in front of everyone that was still left in the stadium, which was only the Samsara team and the media people. The audience had already dispersed since most of them were still Blue Rain's fans, and they had followed the Blue Rain team out of the stadium. Everyone, minus YueHua, was super nice about my tardiness and quickly directed me to stand next to Zhou ZeKai in front of the Plexiglas case the figure was in.

"Hi." Zhou ZeKai greeted me with a single word. He seemed to be glad to see me again though since he smiled brightly my way. It must be the stage lights shone on him because he was too blinding to look at right now. Someone get me sunglasses please!

"Congratulations! Ready for the picture?" I politely smiled back.

"Yea." Zhou ZeKai happily nodded.

In the end Zhou ZeKai and I both did V's(1) with our hands for the pictures because the victory hand sign seemed appropriate for the occasion. We both then said the generic 'it was nice to work with you' on the project and yada yada in front of the media. I had talked in English and Lin translated next to me.

I decided to leave the stage after the pictures but the media kept me with question about White Robed Witch's role in next season.

"What does Glory Co. have planned for you for the 9th season?" One reporter raised the mic towards me.

"From insider rumors, will we see you more at tournaments, Naomi?"

"What more can you tell us about what you will be doing next season?"

"Er…I don't know anything about that…" I quickly glanced to Lin next to me, I saw him shrugged his shoulders and shook his head subtly. I caught his signal to not say anything about the topic.

Glory Co. was going to announce something at the awards ceremony next week. An inside leak from the company? Even if the information was leaked, I wasn't allowed to say anything before the official announcement. Heck, they were asking the wrong person here, even I had been kept in the dark about the details.

"Media friends. Rumors are just rumors, please don't take it seriously." Lin started to handle the situation with the press while rushing me off the stage.

He promised the media that Glory Co. would share more information with them if the rumors were founded and pushing the media's full attention back to the champion team. YueHua just crossed her arm and rolled her eyes in my direction. She had not been the same since our business trip together to City S.

The people from eSport news were disappointed but couldn't get anything more out of Lin and I. After the press issue was addressed, a crew quickly moved the figure and the case to the backstage area where Lin and I supervised the packing of the figure back into a secured, padded, and nearly indestructible case.

"Well now everything is done. Let's all go back to the hotel now." Lin suggested.

"You guys do that. I will stay for a little longer." YueHua said haughtily before presumably went to find a good spot to stare at Zhou ZeKai during the rest of the Samsara's press conference.

x

"Are you hungry? This old man has worked up an appetite after all the commotion. Have you been to a night market in China yet? A lot of goodies there." Lin rubbed his hands together excitedly. His wife must make sure he eats right so don't allow him to go to the night market stalls or fast food places very often.

"No. I have heard of them, but never been to one. I always worry about being at one alone." I admitted.

"You live too cautiously! You will never have fun if you don't take risks." Lin disapproved.

"I rather not get food poisoning thanks." My parents had warn me multiple times before I moved and even occasionally not to eat at street stalls and night markets because food can be a bit iffy(2).

"Night markets are perfectly very safe. I grew up eating food from them and I'm still alive! Lets go and grab a bite together since this old man is with you tonight."

After we made sure the figure for Cloud Piercer was packed up and secured for transportation back to City B again. Lin and I left the stadium to a night market close by. For the rest of the night Lin and I spend our time eating different types of skewers, sweets, seafood, and fried food from street stall to stall. I have to admit everything was really cheap and delicious. Only time will tell if I will be sitting on the toilet all night long from food poisoning.

(1) V sign is the same hand gesture peace sign.

(2) Some night market food stalls can be iffy because some places use/reuse dirty oil, cheap/not fresh food sources to keep cost low. Cleanliness/quality control for these stalls are low at times.

To Naliyu: Aww. Your review was so sweet. Yes, it seems like everyone have a love and hate or hate and hate relationship with Ye Xiu doesn't it?

To Guest: The betting pool wouldn't be too much actually. They max each person out at 100UDS and not everyone joined the bet and not everyone bet the max. The total in there I would say is around 3-4K UDS and she would need to split it with another person. It's a good amount but very small compared to what team needs. Happy in the light novel sold their guide for 20 million RMB. That's roughly 3 mil USD. So anything Naomi can give to them are small cookies.

Special thank you to all the readers/love from the Philippines. I am really surprised how many views I got from you guys this month! Can't thank you all enough! :)