Chapter 1197: Consequences

Translator: Nomyummi Editor: Nomyummi

The storm caused by the 1v3 didn’t pass after the end of the competition. It could be said that for the reporters, the real excitement was only just starting.

Several reporters, Ruan Cheng at the lead, were enraged to the core by Tang Rou’s attitude, and they immediately began to write all sorts of articles condemning her. Esports Time, the publication for which Ruan Cheng wrote, was a bimonthly publication, so there was still a week before the next edition’s release. He couldn’t wait that long, and impatiently posted on his personal blog to begin a crusade against her, calling this whole thing a scandal and provoking a big reaction. The other major media outlets also reported on this matter, attacking from various angles.

But amidst all this, quite a few reporters gave understanding toward Tang Rou. Chang Xian, for example, clearly stood on Tang Rou’s side, looking down upon Ruan Cheng and all those other reporters. But the problem was, the company he worked for, Esports Home, had strict requirements of its subordinate reporters. Articles from invited reporters could have the warning "this does not represent the views of this publication" attached, but articles from their own reporters faced constraints.

It wasn’t that Esports Home couldn’t have a position, but this time, Tang Rou’s actions were extremely controversial. Destroying one’s prior commitment like this was impossible to put in a good light. Up through now, Esports Home emphasized their impartiality in the circle, so for this situation, the conclusion of their discussion didn’t express a clear position, and they played a bit for both sides. With this, Chang Xian’s article expressing clear support for Happy and Tang Rou naturally wasn’t suitable and was shot down by the editor-in-chief three times. Chang Xian was a passionate young person. After all this hassle, he was tempted to just quit this and not write, but then he thought, if he did that, then wouldn’t the voices supporting Happy and Tang Rou become even weaker?

So Chang Xian dug through numerous articles written by his seniors, studying them to learn how to guide an opinion under these kind of circumstances so that when touching upon both sides at the conclusion, there would be a subtle leaning toward one side. These sort of games couldn’t hide from the experienced editor-in-chief, but as long as it wasn’t too obvious, a slight bias wasn’t a big problem. After all, a robotic article with no position would appear to lack judgment and influence.

On one hand, Esports Home placed strict limitations on their own articles, but on the other hand, they used this topic to draw many eyes. Esports Home invited two pieces from outsiders, one was the article posted by Ruan Cheng to his personal blog, and for the other, they found the famed commentator Cha Xiaoxia.

Ruan Cheng’s position was obvious. As for Cha Xiaoxia, that was someone who already publicly declared himself a Happy fanboy. This sort of commentator generally wouldn’t be invited to write about a team of which he was a fan, but now Esports Home specifically invited him, undoubtedly to counter Ruan Cheng’s position.

Cha Xiaoxia didn’t disappoint. He was warm and understanding toward Tang Rou, while cold and mocking towards Ruan Cheng and his people.

There were all sorts of voices, but overall, the indisputable truth of breaking one’s word generated mostly negative discussions of Tang Rou. Esports Home’s Chang Xian tried to express a vague position, Cha Xiaoxia flew a clear banner in her support, and a few others expressed understanding of her actions, but in the end they couldn’t gain the upper hand. In the end, even they had to admit that Tang Rou’s behavior was improper in some areas. They could only express their understanding, but they couldn’t describe her as completely faultless or justified.

Amidst the storm of criticism, real consequences quickly appeared. Various businesses who had taken an interest in Tang Rou all withdrew their intentions of making a deal. Even some sponsors who had already signed contracts with Happy expressed their extreme dissatisfaction with Tang Rou’s speech, putting a heavy question mark on the potential of future cooperation. Happy... Because they were just entering the Alliance, not many sponsors would directly sign a long contract with them. The standard was a one-year contract, and then depending on their performance and results this year, they would make further plans. And now, this negative attention was not something that the sponsors liked.

And then, the Alliance paid attention to this storm as well, and with "improper words and actions" as their reason, they gave Happy and Tang Rou a fine. The Alliance was very sensitive about matters of image. After all, in the beginning, video games were called "electronic heroin." Even though public perception had greatly improved, the Alliance didn’t dare let their guard down.

Even though all of this had been somewhat expected, the ferocity of it all surprised Chen Guo. Especially the fine from the Alliance, it was like adding oil to the fire, making the condemning voices grow even louder.

What a pain!

Chen Guo was in low spirits. But when she arrived at the training room, she saw Ye Xiu and Wei Chen sitting in front of a computer in serious discussion.

That’s good, they haven’t been affected by this. Chen Guo was glad, and her admiration of the mental strength of these old veterans increased. With their fearless attitude toward attacks, the spirits of the others will stabilize quickly. A team really needed this sort of guiding compass presence!

As she thought this, Chen Guo walked over toward them to listen to what they were discussing.

"Tsk tsk tsk, these dumbasses, do they not do any background research before writing this stuff?" Wei Chen was saying.

"That sort of info probably isn’t publicly available! More importantly, they don’t have that sort of imagination!" Ye Xiu lamented.

"Well, that’s true... Hey this... This one’s pretty harsh," said Wei Chen.

"That’s what I call poison!" Ye Xiu said.

"They really don’t know how to spell death!"

"Forget the small shrimp, but the bigger fish are definitely done for," Ye Xiu said.

"The first one to be taken care of will definitely be Ruan Cheng," Wei Chen said confidently.

"He’s really doing this diligently," said Ye Xiu.

"He’ll probably lose his job immediately?"

"Who knows!"

.

"Think he’ll be directly killed?" Wei Chen said.

"That’s probably an exaggeration!" said Ye Xiu. "We’re talking about a proper businessman here."

"But this is his own daughter! For her to be attacked like this, even killing wouldn’t be enough to resolve the hate."

"I think it’d probably just be..."

"Ahem!!!" Chen Guo loudly coughed, angrily interrupting this shameless discussion. And here she was thinking that they were discussing some serious topic, only to find that they were just dreaming about what kind of powerful retaliation Tang Rou’s background could help her execute.

"Boss is here?" Wei Chen turned his head and casually greeted her before going back to cheerfully look at those articles and discussions about Tang Rou.

"I came to see what you two were busy with over here!" Chen Guo said.

"Oh, Little Tang’s really being attacked! How do you think her old man will help teach these guys a lesson?" Wei Chen actually tried to drag Chen Guo into the discussion as well.

"Shame on you! Little Tang already said that she was taking this upon herself, when has she ever used her background to get something?" Chen Guo said.

"You can’t put it like that. We all know Little Tang’s domineering attitude, but this must be taking a toll on her dad’s heart! He has to take care of a few of them as a warning, don’t you think?" Wei Chen said, particularly confident.

With that, Chen Guo couldn’t find any rebuttal. She could only believe that Tang Rou absolutely would not turn back and beg her family to save her, but like Wei Chen said, even if Tang Rou didn’t need it, the Tang family might act anyway.

Just as she was hesitating, the door behind her opened and Tang Rou walked in, talking to someone on the phone.

"Yes, I’m fine, don’t worry about me, just leave it!"

She hung up the phone, and the other three in the room looked at each other. This phone call sounded like it was from Tang Rou’s family, and was probably about this situation. What was the Tang family going to do?

Looking at the three people who were in a daze, Tang Rou waved her phone. "My dad’s also worried about this!"

"What’d the old man say?" Wei Chen asked, filled with respect. "Bankrupt Esports Time first?"

"The new edition of Esports Time hasn’t even come out yet!" Ye Xiu said.

"Even if you can’t chase the monk, you still have to tear down the monastery," said Wei Chen.

"What nonsense is this!" Chen Guo said.

Just as she said this, her cell phone rang. Chen Guo answered, still with a hint of anger in her voice. "Yes?!"

"Is this Boss Chen?" A male voice spoke on the other end.

"Yes, who’s this?" Chen Guo checked the phone number on the screen, but it was an unknown number.

"This is Tang Shusen," the other person said.

"Hm?" Chen Guo quickly thought about this name, it seemed a bit familiar!

"I apologize for the trouble Tang Rou has caused you. My daughter’s personality is just like that, very strong!" the caller said.

OH!

Chen Guo’s heart skipped a beat. Only now did she react to who this was, and she immediately answered, "Mr. Tang, sir, please don’t talk like that, we..."

"Ahhhh!" Tang Rou evidently figured out who the caller was from Chen Guo’s words and attitude, and she rushed forward and snatched away Chen Guo’s phone.

"Dad, what are you doing!" Tang Rou said loudly, her face revealing an extremely rare expression of embarrassment.

They couldn’t hear what the caller said, but Tang Rou answered, flustered, "I know, I’ll take care of it myself. You go to your meeting!"

"Yes, alright."

"How many times have I said it, my class is called Battle Mage, Battle Mage! Battle God is a title, it’s referring to one especially powerful character in this class."

"Yes yes, the player controlling it is more important, you’re right."

"Yes, he’s in our team now."

"Yes, the unspecialized Lord Grim. You know a lot about this!"

"Talk about what! You guys don’t speak the same language." Tang Rou shouted.

Ye Xiu and the other two looked at each other. Listening to that, it seemed that Tang Rou’s father had researched Glory, and even wanted to talk for a bit with God Ye Xiu?

"Dad, please stop making such a fuss, if you can’t beat Frost Forest then let Secretary Wang find you a guide."

Sweat! The three others wiped at their sweat. This level of skill was really a bit low.

"I can beat it!"

"I can’t carry you! You’re in the eleventh server. Even if my character returned to the normal server, I can only go to the tenth server, so we wouldn’t be together."

"No no, don’t come over, if I have time I’ll make a character over there and find you, okay! We need to start practice, I’m hanging up now."

"Yes yes, see you!" Tang Rou finally hung up the phone. She let out a long breath, and then looked at the other three, embarrassment still showing on her face.

"Uh... He recently also got a Glory account, and he plays it sometimes in his spare time," Tang Rou explained helplessly.

"I could hear." Ye Xiu nodded.

"What’s his account name? I can give Wu Chen a heads up, take care of him a bit?" Chen Guo tried to be serious.

"If he wants to be an experience baby, then just leave him to me!" Wei Chen said with all the air of someone trying to curry favor.

"Can we please just start practice?" Tang Rou was almost crying.