Chapter 80 Main League Match 1

The fact that the league officials can issue such a reminder indicates that at least some key evidence has been uncovered, and now it's basically just a matter of final procedural verification.

Fang Zhuo learned from talking with Tao Tao these past few days that the Star Alliance's unified organization's ability test is similar to the college entrance examination on Earth.

Its process is extremely rigorous, subject to dual oversight by the Star Government and the League Committee, and is an absolutely fair selection process that can change the fate of any citizen.

He didn't believe Zeng Ge hadn't considered the consequences before daring to tamper with the test.

First of all, this is not driven by pure profit – Zeng Ge is the designated successor of the family business, Platinum Technology, which currently has a market value of over two trillion yuan.

Even if the cash that the business owner can extract from the company is limited, there is no way they will be short of money.

What was the reason for that...?

With so much effort, such a grand plan, and so many risks involved, there must be other untold benefits behind it.

Using voice commands, Fang Zhuo brought up a screen and wrote down Zeng Ge's actions over the past few years on the big screen, creating a simple mind map.

Based on the information currently available, Zeng Ge's influence extends beyond ability testing. He also deliberately orchestrated matches to lure players who had risen through the ranks from PC games into fixing games, trapped a group of players with harsh contracts, and even the strong link between live streaming platforms and personal identities, which was not mentioned in the original work.

The series of actions not only involved Lin Yuzheng's original teammates from the original work, but also affected a total of nearly a hundred players.

Referring to the original text, Fang Zhuo simply listed the affected personnel.

These actions may seem scattered, but they all ultimately point to one goal: to cleverly bring down a large number of competitors.

If these innocent contestants have anything in common, it's that they are all outnumbered and powerless, unable to escape the predicament that Zeng Ge has woven for them.

The same tactics might work on some people, but they are completely ineffective on those who were born with a silver spoon in their mouths. Zeng Ge has been targeting those low-born, underprivileged players from the very beginning.

If a poor boy like Cheng Che from the countryside loses the path of ability testing, he will never have the chance to enter the small circle of mecha competitions again; but those second-generation entrepreneurs can easily enter the team through connections and even receive mecha-related training from a young age, easily winning at the starting line.

The investment schemes orchestrated in the match-fixing scandal are nothing to the pampered second-generation rich kids. Losing millions in investments can easily drive an ordinary, low-income player down a path of no return.

Match-fixing certainly doesn't deserve sympathy; the real pity lies with those innocent players who are banned.

More importantly, the match-fixing scandal destroyed the industry's trust in players selected from PC games, and coaches stopped poaching players from PC games, effectively ruining a path to advancement.

The same applies to the live-stream exposé incident.

Small-time contestants like Pei Jiahang only do those attention-grabbing live streams when they're short of money, but back then, the content of his live streams turned into swords being used against the contestants themselves.

As a result, the owners of top esports teams became extremely cautious afterward, fearing being implicated by public opinion, and from then on, they began to scrutinize the players' previous livestream content more closely.

Zeng Ge's various operations were carried out with minimal effort and at extremely low cost, cutting off the paths for people at the bottom to climb up.

Like an invisible giant hand.

Sticky, dark, and subtly, it pulled people down.

Some contestants didn't understand what they had encountered or what they had done wrong from beginning to end, and thus unknowingly missed the smooth path that was rightfully theirs.

Fang Zhuo sighed softly.

The benefits Zeng Ge could gain from these operations were not significant for him personally, but they were enormous for the entire circle of wealthy people.

Mechs were originally a game that only the wealthy could afford to play, and now Zengo has further narrowed that circle.

In the future, not only will the bosses be rich and powerful, but even the mecha competition contestants will no longer come from ordinary backgrounds.

The top teams gradually formed connections and exchanged interests, with money forming a thick wall that ordinary people could not break through no matter how hard they tried.

Fang Zhuo pushed aside the screen in front of him, walked to the porthole of the spaceship, and silently looked at the training planet below.

After the terrain was set up, someone had already moved the mechs over.

Today is the players' day off, but several members of the JR team still chose to come and get used to the new training venue.

Looking down from hundreds of meters above the ground, it was impossible to tell who was who; only the blue and orange team uniforms worn by the teammates were noticeable.

The team members were carefree, and Pei Jiahang was full of energy on the very first day of signing the contract, even doing a joint live stream with Ma Xusen.

In the live stream, Pei Jiahang was wearing his team uniform upside down over his head, showing off his new training watch to the camera.

"I just found a watch on the ground. Oh dear, I was so careless. Who dropped it?"

Pei Jiahang deliberately turned his body slightly to the side, standing in the preparation area of ​​the tower, with the camera overlooking the training ground behind him:

"I came to a newly developed scenic area with my friends, but we suddenly got lost. Does anyone know where we are?"

At this moment, a large number of question marks flooded the chat, and as more details of him were revealed, the number of viewers in the live stream skyrocketed.

[How could I have been so careless? How did this custom-made training watch, worth over 200,000 yuan, end up on the ground? Please send it over quickly so I can check if it's damaged. Address: Building 15, Hangting Community, Central Avenue, the main urban area of ​​Beijing.]

[An abacus bead hit my face]

[This doesn't look like a tourist attraction. Why are there dragon pits and defensive towers? Was this filmed at an official competition venue?]

[The turret looks so new! The secondary leagues in all major regions have just finished, and all the venues are under maintenance. Where did this stadium come from?]

[...I have a somewhat tentative guess. I just saw that Ma Ge's livestream room had the exact same setup. Could it be...?]

[Holy crap, don't tell me the JR team owner built a 1:1 scale tournament venue himself. That's a bit over the top. Did the Sixth Division Star Government grant JR team such a huge plot of land? No wonder they're the division's favorite, the treatment is amazing.]

The terrain of Ma Ge's live stream background is a bit different from this one, so they shouldn't be the same venue. The two venues combined are at least over a million square meters.

Although our sixth division is indeed not doing very well, the Star Government couldn't have just granted such a large piece of land out of thin air.

[Just checked the Star Alliance map. Just a friendly reminder: there are several asteroids near Star 6C. You can find basic information about the asteroid owners on the official website...]

[Holy crap, holy crap, holy crap, did JR team use an entire planet as their training ground? Isn't that a bit too extravagant?]

[Who stole my life? I was originally Brother Fang's eldest daughter, but after I was born, I was replaced by a villain, and I lost my pampered princess life QAQ. Add me on WeChat (50) and I'll take you to eat and drink the good life after I claim my identity.]

[Fun fact: Fang is only 25 this year. I suggest you change your sales pitch.]

[Wait, why is Pei Pei wearing a blue and orange headband at JR's training ground? Wasn't he playing in the secondary league in the eighth division last week?]

[Let's loan him out. After all, even though Pei Shen has lost his reputation and chastity, he still has a huge contract worth over 20 million. The transfer fee alone is enough for a small team to operate for several years.]

[Hilarious! You mean you can handle an asteroid but not tens of millions in breach of contract fees? We'll see when the league website updates the player salary list next week. I declare the gods back in their rightful place!]

[Aaaaaah, JR is at full strength!! Can the main league start soon? I want to see the Dream Team dominate!]

On the screen, the live stream camera turned to the mech repair room in the middle of the training field. The size of the repair room alone was comparable to the total area of ​​the training fields of other teams.

The comments section was filled with amazement. Pei Jiahang's voice, played through the speakers, sounded as excited as a college student who hadn't yet been through the harsh realities of military training. He even pounded his chest twice in front of the camera.

No one spoke inside the YXG team's base at that moment.

After a long while, listening to the noisy live stream coming from his teammates' terminals, Lin Yuzheng frowned slightly and rubbed his temples.

"Excuse me, Xiaobai, could you turn the volume down a little? I haven't been sleeping well lately, and I have a bit of a headache."

"Sorry, sorry." Bai Fan quickly lowered his voice: "I quite like watching Pei Pei's live streams, they're really entertaining. I was a little excited when I saw that he transferred to JR."

Lin Yuzheng and Zeng Ge exchanged a glance, and both remained silent.

The atmosphere in the base was a bit awkward, so Bai Fan put his arm around the railing. To ease the silence, he turned to the team manager and joked around:

"Old Jiang, learn from JR. They've set up an asteroid training ground. When will we get that kind of treatment?"

The team manager, in a good-natured manner, turned back and threw the question back at the team: "Have your dad donate one to our team."

Bai Fan stuck out his tongue and laughed, "You're thinking too much. I can't afford to donate that."

What was said in jest was taken to heart by Zeng Ge; those two seemingly casual words struck him like a ton of bricks.

As if things weren't going to go wrong, not only did Juke dismiss Platinum's request for a meeting, but the league officials' attitude has also been ambiguous recently.

The ability test was suspended for more than two weeks. When asked, the answer was that a new round of ability requirements adjustments were being made. However, the official staff sealed off the test sites in each competition area, and no one could enter.

Zenger's unease continued until the day of the draw for the main league match.

JR team still had quite a grand presence, with Fang Zhuo driving a spaceship whose total value was no less than that of an A-class mecha.

With public automated navigation vehicles already meeting the travel needs of most people, the sheer number of luxury private cars is astonishing, yet some people choose spaceships, a mode of transportation with an extremely high premium, for the sake of convenience.

Sitting in the draw hall provided by the main league organizers, Zeng Ge remained silent, watching coldly as the team managers eagerly surrounded Fang Zhuo.

"Please invite the representative of the YXG team to come up on stage to draw lots."

Upon hearing his number called by the staff, Zeng Ge got up and took out a small ball from the black box.

According to the competition rules, teams that advance from the higher-ranked regions last year will be matched with opponents from the weaker regions.

This was originally a rule that would have been advantageous to YXG, but Zeng Ge was in a bad mood because he might be drawn against the JR team in the first round.

Unfolding the draw slip in their hands, the host in the live broadcast room read out the match schedule for the first round of the main league knockout stage:

"YXG vs. JR, starting tomorrow."