However, for some unknown reason, they were rejected when they applied to become a franchise owner of Legends Rise when the game's compet.i.tive scene had turned to franchising. Franchising brought in a lot of sponsors and money to their compet.i.tive scene, and made it possible for players to start getting paid more and more.

It also provided Job Security for professional players as they now signed legitimate legally binding contracts with their employer instead of the old system that was full of loopholes waiting to be exploited. The whole Franchising System was set to promote eSports, but after it was implemented, it saw many teams who were previous powerhouses leave as they were unable to secure a spot in the new system.

One of those teams was the Phoenixes, and now, it seems like they were finally able to rise from the ashes and join the eSport once again!

...

"We recently got a new team owner from an ex-pro player from another sport. You might know him as 'Nuke'. Under his management, we were able to secure a spot in the franchise system!" the man explained.

"I see... I'd like to know more!" Li Ming replied!

The other recruiters could only start bidding more and more aggressively at Li Ming's quickly disappearing back. Somewhere in the back of the crowd, Celeste could be heard collapsing from stress.

...

Li Ming entered a room with the recruiter. The man had lead him to one of the discussion rooms that were reserved for recruiters to discuss contracts with players that they were interested in.

"Please, have a seat", the man gestured towards an empty seat in the front of his desk. "My name is Conflux, and I'm the current team captain of the Osaka Phoenixes!"

The man poured out a cup of tea for the two of them.

"I'm glad that you picked our team to join," Conflux started, "we were in a serious need of young talent to add to our roster!"

Conflux pulled out a 4 neatly stapled piles of paper from his desk. These pieces of paper had the information of all the team's members. To Li Ming's surprise, there was 1 veteran players, as well as 2 players that he had occasionally met during his ranked games. The final member was someone that he had neither seen nor heard of before.

Conflux was a name that Li Ming had run into once or twice in his ranked games. Li Ming remembered being on the same team and completely dominating the enemy team with little to no resistance. This resulted in one of the most boring matches that Li Ming had ever played. They had both exploited the enemies' weaknesses with their own game knowledge and dissected the enemies' plans before they even loaded into the game. As a swordsman with a bruiser* type build, Conflux had coordinated with Li Ming perfectly.

Lasks was the other name that Li Ming had recognized from his ranked games. He had played against him once and with him another time. In the game where they were on opposite teams, the two of them had a very brutal mage vs mage fight that lasted only five minutes. But those five minutes were some of the most intense 5 minutes that Li Ming had ever played. He knew very well that Lasks was a very mechanically* skilled player.

The veteran player was a player who loved tank characters. His name was Collisio, and he was a former player of a former world champion team. He was well known for his unshakable mind and his unwavering will. You could always trust in him to make the right decisions during a team fight.

The final player was a character named MeiChie. It stated on the player that he was incredibly skilled in playing a gunner type character. He showed similarity to Collisio as he had a very calm and serene mind that was immune to the chaos of the battle field. He would never panic and make a wrong move in a stressful situation.

With Li Ming being the fifth and final member of this team, they would have a well rounded team.

Li Ming was handed a stack of papers and a pen. After carefully reading the first one, he suddenly felt a sense of disconnect. He didn't know if this was the right path for him. What if he turned out to be a failure that couldn't perform well? Wouldn't that mean that he would have wasted time not searching for a career?

"Um... Could I have some time to think about this? I'd like to speak to my guidance counselor about this before I make this decisions." Li Ming asked.

"Hm... how long would you need?"

"About a week. I'll be back in Osaka by next week. I only came here because I won the golden ticket, after all. After watching the games, I'll send an email to brief my counselor about it. Then, I'll go and see you after I listen to what she says."

"I see. Well, go ahead and ask her. I still want to thank you for taking our team into consideration. Us Phoenixes will never die!"

...

Li Ming walked out a back door, led by Conflux. He had requested to take a path that would allow him to avoid the attention of others.

Conflux had given him an extra ID card for him to use this pa.s.sageway again tomorrow when he came back to play Legends Rise for fun. Apparently, Mato hadn't lied to him completely. The tryouts were only taking place for 3 days, and today was the last day. From tomorrow on, there would be lots of computers set up to imitate a Gaming Cafe.

Finally, Li Ming would be able to play the game in a relaxed manner.