I am a Big Player
Chapter 429 - 423. Yuan Peng’s Resentment (First Update)_1

Chapter 429: 423. Yuan Peng’s Resentment (First Update)_1

In the time after the new year, the inaugural Dota Global Official Event, known as the TI series, dazzled the world once again.

This was the first event, where players fought their way through various regional qualifiers and then gathered in China, eventually leading to competitions between 16 teams.

The reason they came all this way was for the high prize money of this year: a base prize of ten million renminbi, and a community-funded pool from global merchandise sales totaling 9.02 million renminbi, summing up to a total of 19.02 million renminbi.

In the history of electronic sports, such high prize money was unprecedented. In 2006, when the parallel world had not yet a clear concept of esports or a mature gaming industry, for Qinghe Games to provide 19.02 million as prize money for an esports event was a tremendously audacious move.

In this world, the esports industry had a much higher starting point than in the previous one.

Ren He did not want to watch it slowly develop and take shape; he was well aware that this is a society driven by money. What caused the esports industry to gradually garner attention in his previous life? It was because of its increasingly high economic returns.

A game streamer’s signing fee reaching eight or even nine figures is something unimaginable for ordinary people.

Since money and fame could draw attention, Ren He decided to offer them both.

He didn’t care if these professional players would forget their original intentions after receiving the money; he only knew that doing so would allow the esports players to escape the hardships of life sooner, and that was enough.

He couldn’t manage the rest.

At this time, with Qinghe’s faction spreading its branches and subsidiaries gradually becoming regulated, some with simple development processes had already started trial operations, while others, such as search engines and group buying services, were still at their startup stage and not yet officially launched.

The development of the internet is both rapid and prolonged—rapid because it changes day by day, prolonged because, in the previous life, most internet empires underwent long transformations, not something that could be achieved overnight.

Ren He had the patience to wait.

As the early spring season arrived, and in accordance with the school’s calendar, it was time for him to return to the Juilliard School of Music along with Yang Xi.

Internationally, the issues concerning Ren He hadn’t exploded because people overseas didn’t know who Ren He was—and didn’t care to.

This was a case of public opinion and frenzy clearly constrained by national boundaries. Much like the events involving Guo Meimei and Jia Junpeng in his previous life, which, at most, had influence that reached the overseas Chinese in Southeast Asia.

In North America, however, no one cared about them; similarly, no one cared about Ren He. Although Dota currently had over three million online users globally, this number, spread across different regions, represented merely a developing situation without causing any significant buzz in public opinion.

When people began to realize the terror of Dota, it would probably be the time when there were six million concurrent players—that would truly mark the beginning of its glory.

Currently, Qinghe Games was explosively popular in China due to Kunlun’s influence, but abroad, not yet.

But that didn’t mean Qinghe Games couldn’t be successful in the future; by that time, the news heat about Ren He would have long passed.

If Ren He’s identity as Knight were to be exposed, it would certainly become a global news sensation, because Knight was a global idol.

Therefore, once Ren He arrived in North America, even if his identity as the behind-the-scenes big boss of Qinghe’s faction were exposed, no one would care about him; his influence was far less than that of Yang Xi, and even less than his identity as a young professor.

Even if someone recognized him there, it wouldn’t appear on the news—such is the reality for journalists: only stories of value get reported, the rest can be forgotten.

However, Ren He didn’t know that Yuan Peng, the journalist whom he had met a few times and had twice used Tear Potion on, felt a spark of hope reignited upon seeing news about Qinghe Faction.

Yuan Peng had been on Knight’s trail for a long time, so long that he had somewhat lost track of when he had become so obsessively fixated on this secret identity.

From the perspective of an average person, since Ren He didn’t share any common traits with Knight—a prominent internet corporation’s big boss versus someone who played with their life—it seemed there was no connection.

Yet Yuan Peng began to feel a hunch about a link to Ren He, considering he was Xu Nuo’s classmate and had co-founded Qinghe Games with him.

No one knew that Knight and Xu Nuo were classmates; even now, no one suspected any connection between Xu Nuo and Knight, as his story had been dismissed as fake news too long ago and, subconsciously, everyone regarded it as valueless.

Nevertheless, Yuan Peng alone remembered how it all began.

At first it was at a breakfast diner, Ren He’s superhuman speed doing push-ups, but it was their encounter at the marathon session that left Yuan Peng uncertain if that young man ultimately won any prize. However, upon reflection, he realized that he had only seen a student-like competitor that day.

Moreover, when he met him that time, it was clear that he lacked a competitor’s number on his back, which matched the final winner Xu Nuo’s claim: not registered.

Yuan Peng had reasons to believe that the person he intended to intercept, if not Xu Nuo, was definitely closely connected to Xu Nuo.

After the fake news incident erupted, Yuan Peng had sunk into despair for a while, to the point where he had no motivation to track and investigate Xu Nuo. At that time, he even went to the school to verify, and found no one in the class matching his memory; Ren He had also conveniently skipped class for a whole week at that point.

But now he thought, maybe if he had just paid more attention to Xu Nuo back then, he might have really discovered Knight.

If he didn’t know Xu Nuo, why report Xu Nuo’s name in the marathon? And why mention the class so specifically?

A question occurred to him—the marathon back then was eligible for extra points in college entrance exams. It was possible that this person was Xu Nuo’s close friend, impersonating Xu Nuo to gain extra points for him!

Now, despite the internet still lacking any image of Ren He, and journalists unable to find him, Yuan Peng had a strong gut feeling that this Qinghe boss named Ren He might indeed be Knight.

Yuan Peng turned around, went back inside to dress, took his press card, and went straight for the No. 13 Middle School; he needed to find everything that could confirm his hunch.

Finding Ren He’s identification photo was probably impossible, given that two years had passed since graduation. However, the class graduation photos were likely still available, as homeroom teachers tend to keep such things.

Yuan Peng didn’t need to get any evidence; he just needed to know that the person truly existed and was indeed the same person from his memory—that was enough.

And then he would use his actions to find all the proof that Ren He was Knight!