Chapter 16 In the afternoon, Zhao Zhinian recalled Jiang's earlier...
In the afternoon, Zhao Zhinian remembered the manager's request that Jiang Botao had relayed and began working on writing articles for Samsara. Although she wasn't sure if Jiang Botao was just being polite or if it was a genuine request, she still took the time to carefully write two promotional articles about Samsara's upcoming battle for the Wild Boss: one focused on Samsara's tactical analysis and teamwork highlights, taking into account the competitive situation of the Wild Boss battle in the God's Domain; the other was more focused on publicity and promotion, emphasizing Samsara's cohesion and competitiveness.
She sent the document to Zhou Zekai: "It's finished. Please check if there are any errors. If there are no problems, please forward it to your manager."
Zhou Zekai quickly glanced at the document and gave Zhao Zhinian his approval: "Very good." He immediately forwarded the document to the manager.
Not long after, the manager called Zhou Zekai directly, speaking very enthusiastically. He specifically asked Zhou Zekai to convey his gratitude to Zhao Zhinian, saying that he would contact relevant online channels to publish the article, and sincerely welcomed her to visit the Samsara Club often. He also thanked her for leading the team's captain and vice-captain to dedicate herself to building the online game team during the off-season, telling her not to feel pressured and to play online games with Zhou Zekai more often. This made Zhao Zhinian a little embarrassed, repeatedly saying it was just a small favor.
After hanging up the phone with the Samsara manager, it was already lunchtime. Too lazy to go out, the two headed to the Samsara cafeteria for dinner. The cafeteria lady was as enthusiastic as ever, piling Zhao Zhinian's plate high with food, as if to make up for her "hard work" in the afternoon.
During the meal, Zhou Zekai hesitated for a moment, then suddenly asked her, "Will you come again tomorrow?"
Zhao Zhinian quickly shook her head: "Weekends are precious for working people, I need to give myself some time to catch my breath." She explained: "Tomorrow I plan to sleep in, do laundry, clean the room, and take care of some miscellaneous chores... After being out for two days in a row, I feel like the weekend has been wasted, and going to work on Monday will be especially painful."
Zhou Zekai nodded understandingly, though a hint of disappointment flickered in his eyes: "Okay. Then... let's go to District Ten again."
"Okay!" Zhao Zhinian replied with a smile.
After dinner, Zhao Zhinian didn't linger and prepared to go home to rest. Of course, when she left, Zhou Zekai offered to take her home again.
"Really, there's no need!" Zhao Zhinian quickly waved her hand to refuse. "You didn't drive either. You're just sharing a taxi with me. It's too much of a waste of your time to drop me off and then go home by yourself. We can both go home and get some rest earlier."
Seeing Zhou Zekai's somewhat aggrieved and hesitant expression, she felt a pang of sympathy and quickly added, "How about this, we'll meet in the tenth district tonight. You can also go back and comfort the injured Guild Master Guyin. Besides, what if there's another wild boss spawning in the God's Domain tonight? We'll miss it if we waste too much time on the road."
This reason successfully convinced Zhou Zekai. He nodded: "Okay. See you tonight."
In the end, she took the [Flowing Moon] account card with her and bid farewell to the Samsara Club.
That evening, no boss spawned in the Realm of Gods, so the two arranged to meet in the tenth server and run a dungeon together. However, after a day of intense gaming, Zhao Zhinian was exhausted and felt mentally drained. Zhou Zekai also advised her to rest early, so after the dungeon ended, she said goodbye to Zhou Zekai and quickly logged off.
For working people, weekend mornings are often nonexistent.
The next day, Zhao Zhinian woke up groggily, grabbed her phone, and saw that it was already past ten o'clock. She lazily scrolled through her phone in bed for a while, and came across a funny compilation video of Honor of Kings, which she casually shared with Zhou Zekai.
After lying in bed long enough, she finally got up slowly, ate brunch, looked around the house, rolled up her sleeves, and prepared to start a thorough cleaning. But just as she started cleaning, her phone rang. It was her department director calling.
"Chinen, I need to inform you of something. Get ready, you'll be attending the interview for the resident host position at 'Star Orbit War' next Friday." The director's tone sounded a bit rushed, clearly indicating that he had just received the notification himself.
Zhao Zhinian was somewhat surprised: "Star Orbit War? Director, this interview... I remember Chen Yupeng from our department was preparing for it, right? I've never played the game and I didn't sign up."
Zhao Zhinian had only heard of the game "Star Trek: War" by name, knowing it was a relatively unknown foreign shooting game with earlier international tournaments, but a relatively new one in China. She had also done some preliminary research on the on-site host interview; their hosts not only introduced the teams and players but also summarized the matches and interviewed professional players—a highly specialized role. Having no experience with the game, she felt completely unqualified. Furthermore, with Chen Yupeng, a seasoned gamer, setting a high bar for her, Zhao Zhinian didn't even apply.
Moreover, she has already devoted all her energy to Glory, and is eagerly anticipating the hosting position that will be added to the Glory Challenge next season. Although it is not a formal Glory professional league hosting position, but only a secondary league for promotion and relegation, it is still an extremely rare opportunity for her.
The director offered a tactful explanation over the phone. Apparently, "Star Trails War" had just begun, so the game's official team was taking the host selection process very seriously. They planned to film and release an official selection video and hold a popularity poll to generate buzz. However, when the game's leadership reviewed the plan, they felt the number of participants was too small and the event wouldn't look good enough. They then requested that the partner media outlets and talent agencies add a few more people to make up the numbers, which is why the director called her over the weekend.
In order to maintain its cooperative relationship with the official team, the company decided to send two more people: one was another well-known senior MOBA game host in the company, and the other was Zhao Zhinian.
Zhao Zhinian understood immediately. The world really is a giant makeshift operation!
She and that senior colleague were simply company-assigned to accompany the "prince" in his studies, serving as "human backdrops" to create atmosphere. So she readily agreed: "Okay, Director, I will prepare well."
After hanging up the phone, she thought about it. Although she was just there to make up the numbers, there was an official video recording, and another senior colleague had the reputation and experience to back her up. As a newcomer, if she performed poorly and was edited into a negative example, it would affect her future job opportunities, which would be bad.
Let's not seek merit, but rather avoid making mistakes.
She immediately changed her afternoon plans, turned on her computer and began searching for information about "Star Trek": tournament history, well-known teams, star players, basic gameplay, popular characters, weapon skills... Thanks to her experience of systematically studying Glory and taking notes during this period, she was able to collect and organize information much faster.
Next, she downloaded the game client, created an account, and started playing.
Thanks to her FPS game foundation built by her professional Glory Gunner career, she picked up "Star Trek" much more smoothly than she expected. Although she was far from being an expert, at least she wasn't completely clueless.
On Monday, Chen Yupeng, a colleague who had originally signed up, also learned that the company had added two more people. Since they were both newcomers, he came to greet Zhao Zhinian. After learning that Zhao Zhinian had never played the game before, he spoke with some sympathy and understanding, and even offered to play a few rounds with her to help her get familiar with it.
Zhao Zhinian thanked him for his kindness, but still politely declined: "Thank you, Yupeng! It's no need to trouble yourself. Your focus on preparing for your interview is the most important thing! I'm just going to make up the numbers, have some fun, and just don't embarrass myself. Really, you don't need to worry about me!"
She knew in her heart that, regardless of the reason, they were nominally competitors at this moment. The two weren't exactly close, and she couldn't be sure if the other person truly harbored no resentment. To avoid unnecessary trouble and potential consequences, it was best to keep her distance and not take up the other person's precious preparation time.
So, in the following days, whenever she had free time, she would immerse herself in "Star Orbit Wars," familiarizing herself with the map, characters, and weapons.
Then, Zhou Zekai caught her in the act.
In the past few days, Zhou Zekai has sent her several messages inviting her to go to the Tenth District together, but she has declined each time, saying that she "has something to do".
Until one time, when he sent her a message, she was in the game "Star Orbit Wars" and casually replied: "Wait a minute, I'm playing another game, I'll get back to you when I'm done."
Zhou Zekai immediately pressed on, "Another game?"
Zhao Zhinian had no choice but to briefly explain the situation, emphasizing that he was just cramming at the last minute to make up the numbers, and that he would come back to play Glory after finishing this week.
Zhou Zekai, on the other side of the screen, looked at the message and subconsciously breathed a sigh of relief. Zhao Zhinian hadn't played Glory for the past few days, and he had even been a little worried that she might have lost interest in Glory, or that she might have something else on her mind and didn't want to play with him anymore.
[Zhou Zekai]: Oh.
[Zhou Zekai]: I thought you stopped playing Honor of Kings.
[Zhao Zhinian]: How could that be! Glory is my "main" game! I'll be back after I finish my interview (and count the number of interviews)!
[Zhou Zekai]: Okay. Keep it up!
[Zhou Zekai]: Although I don't want you to go.
[Zhou Zekai]: I'm still cheering you on!
[Zhao Zhinian]: Don't worry, Teacher Zhou! There's absolutely no chance of me being selected! I'm just a heartless filler!
The interview on Friday arrived as scheduled.
After a whole day of waiting, the result was as expected: Zhao Zhinian was indeed among those eliminated in the first round.
In order to demonstrate the game's popularity, nearly sixty people signed up for interviews. They were interviewed in groups and ranked according to their scores. Among them were many well-prepared and insightful competitors like Chen Yupeng.
The officials were clearly aware that these latecomers were basically just there to make up the numbers, and each company probably had given instructions to their main representatives beforehand, so the interviews with them seemed a bit more casual.
However, Zhao Zhinian's last-minute cramming over the past few days wasn't entirely in vain. Thanks to her systematic information gathering skills, the hosting and commentary experience she gained from Glory, and her fluent English expression—she had previously learned a large amount of game-related English vocabulary because she knew Glory had international tournaments—her overall performance not only didn't rank last, but was actually in the middle range. The judges commented that her language organization skills, on-the-spot reactions, and knowledge base were all good, but her understanding and professionalism regarding the "Star Trails" game itself were indeed insufficient.
Chen Yupeng successfully advanced to the next round, and his name was displayed on the official popularity voting page. She and another senior congratulated Chen Yupeng before going home.
After the interview, the weekend arrived, and Zhao Zhinian immediately told Zhou Zekai about this "reasonable" result.
[Zhao Zhinian]: The interview is over! As expected, I was eliminated in the first round.
[Zhou Zekai]: It's okay.
[Zhou Zekai]: Coming to District 10? I'll take you.
Seeing his comfort and invitation, Zhao Zhinian smiled. She hadn't played Honor of Kings for a week and missed it a bit, so she readily agreed. She and Zhou Zekai logged on to the tenth server again after a week.
Gu Yin and the members of the Samsara Guild warmly welcomed her return. After this week, Gu Yin finally understood a truth: if Zhao Zhinian doesn't log on, their top player won't come to the tenth server!
So, Gu Yin was exceptionally warm towards her, and Zhao Zhinian also explained to Gu Yin with a smile why she hadn't been online for a week: "I had a job interview for another game this week, and I went to prepare for that game at the last minute."
Gu Yin immediately declared loudly: "All other games are secondary! Glory is the best in the world!"
Zhao Zhinian joked along with him, "Yes, yes, Glory is the best! I just returned to Glory's embrace as soon as I finished my mission!"
However, just a few days after her return to Glory, she received a message from the director that Star Wars had contacted their company again.
The director told her that after careful consideration, the official team of the "Star Trails War" game fully recognized her performance in the interview and extended another invitation to her, but this time it was not for a hosting position, but for a translation position.
Because "Star Trek: Clash of Clans" is a foreign game, its development in China started relatively late. Many players in domestic tournaments are foreign, and their Chinese proficiency is generally average. Teams usually bring their own translators, but the quality varies greatly, and translators don't always accompany the team. The game's official organizers didn't originally provide professional on-site translators, which caused several problems for interviews. During the host selection process, the organizers noticed Zhao Zhinian's excellent English skills, especially her precise grasp of game-related terminology. She also possesses other skills required for hosting, so they wanted to invite her to serve as the on-site translator for the tournament.
Of course, the other party also painted a rosy picture for her, outlining a bright career prospect. They said that translation was only temporary, and as the game's competitions developed and she became more familiar with the game, there was a possibility that she could switch to hosting or commentary positions. In particular, the Star Wars regional competition was developing well and was preparing for the World Championship. If she participated in the World Championship in the future, her English advantage would stand out among the hosts, and she would definitely have the opportunity to accompany the team for interviews and hosting.
The director knew that Zhao Zhinian had been working hard for the opportunity to host the Glory Challenge, and that taking on the "Star Trail Battle" job would inevitably create a conflict in terms of time and energy. Therefore, he simply told Zhao Zhinian that the company had not yet given her a definite answer, and that she should carefully consider it in light of her career development plan.
On one hand, there's the translation job for "Star Orbit War," which has moderate popularity and an uncertain future, but a definite opportunity. Although it's just translation, it's at least a real and stable e-sports related job. On the other hand, there's the Glory Challenge hosting opportunity that she's been longing for, but the outcome is uncertain and the competition is expected to be fierce. Of course, Glory has higher popularity and a better future, so she's more interested in it, but she also has to admit the worst-case scenario: she might not get the opportunity.
Holding her phone, Zhao Zhinian looked at the two completely different paths and felt conflicted. Although having choices is a good thing for a newcomer, both paths had uncertain prospects and their own advantages and disadvantages. This sudden choice disrupted her original focus on Glory.
A note from the author:
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