I am a Big Player
Chapter 376 - 374, Sky-High Endorsement (Second Update)_1

Chapter 376: 374, Sky-High Endorsement (Second Update)_1

Ren He and Yang Xi returned to San Francisco the next day because they still had four songs left to record, and the owner of the recording studio was waiting for him to come back to work. Although Ren He had taken a week off, the boss didn’t know what he had gone to do; such cheap labor must be respected for their personal wishes. Otherwise, if Ren He suddenly quit, it would be his loss, not Ren He’s.

Colleagues in the recording studio were quite happy to see Ren He back. He was low-key and amiable, often treating everyone to lunch.

In foreign countries, going Dutch with colleagues is more common, a custom, so when Ren He generously treated everyone, it felt quite novel to them.

During lunch that day, a bunch of people got together, and someone suddenly brought up Knight: "Did you guys see the news? Many people are guessing Knight returned to San Francisco after the challenge!"

Ren He perked up his ears, and someone asked, "What’s that based on?"

"Think about it, where was Knight recording his songs before? Definitely San Francisco, and he was in San Francisco at that time, right? Everyone in our line of work understands that once a person is used to a production team, they won’t easily switch; they must have formed an understanding. So everyone is guessing that for the remaining four songs Knight is writing for his girlfriend, he’ll definitely come back to San Francisco to record," the person across Ren He said while confidently eating a sandwich.

"That seems to make sense, but I’ve asked many colleagues at other recording studios, and Knight hasn’t gone to their places to record songs."

The person across Ren He shrugged: "Who knows, there are so many recording studios in San Francisco... I do hope he comes to our recording studio; after all, we are the best. If we get to say Knight recorded music here, that would be so cool! I’d be able to brag to my friends again!"

"After Knight completed his challenge in the US, his fans have become even more fanatic. I wonder if there are any more challenges to come."

Ren He just listened to their discussions with amusement. How could they imagine that Knight had indeed returned to San Francisco and was sitting right in front of them...

The matter of Knight’s challenges on Yosemite’s two cliffs didn’t just end there, but continued to ferment. In the past, those who successfully challenged the Dawn Wall would receive a congratulatory message from the President of the United States, as the former number one did.

But would a Chinese person who succeeded receive a message? However, even if the US President wanted to send a message, he couldn’t find the person...

Many people laughed, waiting for the outcome. In fact, the White House had no intention of making any statement on the matter.

Send a goose egg, right, send it to whom?! They had to know where the person was to send it properly, right?!

Because of this, some people protested on the White House official website, claiming that the current American summit was racially discriminatory and only sent messages to White people, not to Asians. The White House spokesperson was baffled. Did it really need to escalate to this level? We genuinely couldn’t find him, okay?!

They could certainly locate him through TK if necessary, but the question was, for this matter, was it worth getting into intelligence work again? Give it a rest! We’re busy!

Ren He didn’t expect any congratulatory messages; he just wanted to peacefully finish producing Yang Xi’s entire album.

He was content that his colleagues in the recording studio couldn’t guess that he was Knight. After all, apart from nationality, there wasn’t much connection between the two. Knight was so dazzling, while Ren He was so understated.

A week later, TK’s official website finally released Knight’s challenge video—a 24-minute documentary, the first of its kind to document his challenge process in this format.

In this video, everyone could see a detailed record of which route Knight had taken in Yosemite, and how Knight himself personally dealt with the loose rocks on the cliff.

It was precisely the process of clearing the debris from the cliff that made people understand that extreme sports are not as simple as they seemed; it’s not just about the glory after success, but also about the hardships during preparation.

Then came the segment challenging Half Dome. Someone watching Knight tie on the Red Scarf, facing away from everyone and raising an arm to give a thumbs up; everyone was stirred. This silhouette, often mentioned after Mount Everest, appeared for the first time in everyone’s view, along with that signature victory pose!

The professional realm of free solo climbing paid even closer attention to Knight’s process of ascending Half Dome. Why was he so fast?

After watching, many fell silent, they also sensitively realized Knight’s ability to memorize the route. What does it feel like for a free solo climber to remember each upcoming handhold?

Some had previously thought that Knight might not have much climbing experience and had climbed solely based on his strong physical fitness, because everyone understood a principle, human energy is limited, and no one had heard previously of Knight’s experience training in free solo climbing.

But in truth, after watching the video they understood that during the climbing process, Knight’s every move was precise and professional, even more so than those masters.

Especially when crossing a fissure in the rock wall by pull-ups without any support, many honestly admitted that they could not do it without the help of equipment.

By now, what extreme sports hasn’t Knight become the first in? Road downhill, oxygen-free ascent of Mount Everest, speed skiing, parkour, free solo climbing...

Where were his limits? No one knew...

Now it was time for other fields to worry. Knight was only 16 years old, he still had so much time to engage in extreme sports. The most frustrating part was his age, so young!

Those who had been surpassed as the first ones could only laugh at this thought. There was no need to rush; one by one, we’ll take it slow. We just moved a step ahead...

At this point, the commercially astute TK executives started to consider making Knight action figures. The last round of Red Scarf sales had caught them by surprise; they had a fifty-fifty profit split with Knight, and just from the Red Scarf sales, their share was 3.3 million US dollars, which had been transferred to Ren He again.

Even Ren He hadn’t expected a Red Scarf to sell so well. This part of the sales might be a small portion of TK’s overall performance, but the thing is, this was just one item that had been developed; Knight’s commercial value was far from just that.

When Knight first appeared in public view, he couldn’t even compare to some of the big-name sports stars, but now his commercial value was undeniably on par with those super sports stars.

In another life, the top ten sports endorsements started at 49 million US dollars, with giant sports brands accounting for half of that figure.

So the 7.2 million US dollars TK was paying Ren He annually now seemed a little short. TK couldn’t help but offer new terms: forego most of the existing contract terms, maintain certain original parts, a guaranteed contract of 28 million US dollars, an additional 3 million US dollars in annual fees for every new challenge Knight undertook, and a fifty-fifty split with Knight on developing related commercial values.

That is to say, from now on, Knight’s annual endorsement fee was already over a hundred million, and that was just from one sponsor. What if you include the others?

Without doubt, Knight was now one of the most commercially valuable sports stars!