Chapter 134 - 132: League of Gods Autumn Season
"That’s right. Randall Jennings."
Cecilia Sterling gave a slight nod but didn’t say much more.
She had only met Mr. Jennings twice, and one of those times he had been unconscious. Cecilia wasn’t sure she could even get in touch with him, so she didn’t want to give Rowe and the others any false hope.
But as soon as the team dinner was over, Cecilia contacted her mother.
Jasmine Sterling was at home practicing her dancing, and a thin sheen of sweat still covered her forehead when she answered her daughter’s video call.
"Oh, practicing your dancing?"
Seeing her mother’s firm, radiant skin on the video call, Cecilia couldn’t help but say, "You’re looking great lately. You look several years younger. Seems like my suggestion to get you into a dance class was the right one."
Jasmine picked up a towel to wipe her sweat before replying, "Well, I’ve been getting plenty of facials too. And you, you put so much money on a beauty salon card and so much money toward my dance classes. It makes me feel like I have to go, or it’d be such a waste!"
"How is it a waste? Look at you! Who would guess you’re in your forties? People would believe you if you said you were thirty."
Jasmine laughed, amused by her daughter’s words. Noticing that Cecilia was still outside, she changed the subject. "Why are you still out so late?"
"I was at a team dinner. Mom, I need to ask you about something important."
Before her mother could ask for details, Cecilia cut to the chase. "When Mr. Jennings came to our house, he left a business card on the table. Do you still have it?"
"Mr. Jennings?" Jasmine was momentarily confused, seemingly unable to recall who that was.
"The Mr. Jennings you saved at the restaurant not long ago, the one who went into anaphylactic shock," Cecilia reminded her.
Comprehension dawned on Jasmine. "Oh, him! His business card, right? I remember putting it away somewhere. Let me look for it!"
As she spoke, she got up and walked over to a storage cabinet in the living room to rummage through it, all the while asking her daughter, "What do you need his card for?"
"The team has a new project, and we’d like to get in touch with the Jennings Group. I want to try contacting Mr. Jennings to see if there’s an opportunity."
Jasmine knew her daughter had invested in a startup in Lorcain, but she didn’t understand the specifics. Hearing this, she instinctively asked, "His group’s business is huge. Do you think you can even get a meeting?"
Cecilia wasn’t sure herself, but that was the nature of business. You couldn’t let a single potential opportunity slip by. You never knew if you’d succeed or fail until you tried.
"Ah, I found it!"
Jasmine held the card up to the camera and waved it. "Should I take a picture and send it to you?"
"Yes, please," Cecilia replied, then quickly asked, "By the way, Mom, is Ethan’s competition over yet? He promised me he’d focus on studying for his college entrance exams after this tournament!"
"It’s tomorrow. He insisted I go watch him in person and cheer him on, but I don’t understand any of it. Your aunt is also clamoring to go have a look, as if she could understand it either. I’ll take a video for you tomorrow!"
Cecilia smiled and nodded, chatting with her mother for a few more moments before hanging up.
Her mother quickly took photos of the front and back of the business card and sent them over. Cecilia cropped the phone number from the image and saved it. ’Should I contact him tomorrow,’ she hesitated, ’or wait until after the project’s first round of testing is successful?’
On October 17th, the League of Gods National Autumn Tournament was held at the Veridia City Sports Center Gymnasium.
This was a hugely popular team-based competitive online game that had taken the world by storm, testing not only a player’s individual mechanical skill and awareness but also the team’s coordination and strategy.
Each major region held four national tournaments: Spring, Summer, Autumn, and Winter. Teams were ranked based on their total cumulative points from these four events. The top three teams in the final standings for the Cathay region would qualify to represent Cathay against international teams from other regions in a global championship.
The game’s international championship was watched by players all over the world. The prestige of winning was immense, and the MVP would even receive a personal prize of up to 300 US Dollars.
However, Ethan Sterling’s squad was currently just an amateur team. Unlike professional teams that registered through their respective eSports clubs, amateur squads had to register for the tournament themselves and even pay an entry fee to compete.
There were quite a few teams like this. These amateur teams had to first compete in online preliminaries and breakout rounds. Only the final eight winning squads would get the chance to face off against the professional teams from domestic clubs in today’s offline finals.
Since this was their debut in the Autumn Tournament, they obviously had no points from the Spring and Summer events. Therefore, their goal this year was simply to participate and gain some experience; they weren’t fixated on climbing the ranks.
When Jasmine Sterling and Yvonne Sterling arrived outside the gymnasium, they were stunned by the sight of the surging crowds.
They were surrounded by young people, both men and women. There were fan clubs holding up LED signs and posters. Some of the more popular professional players even had support events organized for them outside the venue.
Support vans, flower walls, and support banners were everywhere. It was just like the fan culture around celebrities!
"Do these young people have nothing better to do? How much energy and money must go into all this?" Yvonne Sterling was dazzled and found it all quite incomprehensible.
Her daughter, Sarah, was a fan of celebrities too, but at most, she just bought magazines and photo books. She had never done anything like this.
Jasmine didn’t understand it either, of course. But they were older now, and there were many things about the younger generation they couldn’t comprehend. They were the ones who had fallen behind the times.
The two of them took the tickets Ethan had bought for them and, after following the crowd to get them scanned, spent a long time searching before finally finding their seats.
As the start time approached, the gymnasium was already packed. Fans of various teams had begun chanting their support slogans in unison, their shouts making the roof seem to tremble.
And it was a back-and-forth affair, one chant ending only for another to begin, wave after wave!
The two sisters, Jasmine and Yvonne, went from feeling out of place at first to gradually getting used to it. They even began to find the vibrant, energetic passion of these young people to be quite refreshing and inspiring.
It was even a little moving.
They didn’t understand the rules of the tournament, much less the rules of the game. All they remembered was that Ethan had told them they were the second team to play, and their team was called the "SYBF Team."
It was an acronym for a Chinese phrase that meant "We Bow to No One"!
The four massive screens suspended in the center of the gymnasium broadcasted intense matches. The two sisters tried their best to understand the game and figure out the rules, but they eventually realized it was hopeless. They could only rely on the commentators’ passionate, high-energy explanations to figure out which side was winning.
"Jasmine, just watching the screen is making me dizzy. How can Ethan and his friends even understand how to play such a complicated game?"
Jasmine smiled. "Young people have quick minds. Not like us."
Just as she said that, the teams for the second match took the stage. Ethan’s team had drawn the short straw; their opponent in the first round was a professional team.
Seeing her son walk onto the stage from a distance, Jasmine got excited too, joining the young people around her in screaming and cheering.
Yvonne went even further, jumping to her feet and waving her hands. "Ethan! Ethan!"
Ethan was also scanning the crowd for his mother and aunt. When he spotted them, he broke into a wide grin, not looking nervous at all.