Chapter 12

"I’ll do my best to secure university startup resources for you, but you’ve got to follow every single point in your proposal—get it official, make it look professional, and deliver real results!"

Professor Yu Qun took off his gold-rimmed glasses and tapped the 47-page document titled "Five-Year Development Plan for the E-Sports Industry" on his desk: "Do you know why the college made an exception to grant you Class-A startup resources?" He pointed to the data charts in the appendix. "Last year, Zhejiang University’s Ele.me project was valued at over a hundred million. Your e-sports proposal is the only one in the past three years that can match it in business model."

"So don’t embarrass me. If you pull it off, the college will reserve a direct PhD slot for you."

"Understood!!!"

Yu Qun added, "Also, if e-sports really grows as your proposal predicts—with a boom around 2015 and 2016—you need to accumulate as much capital as possible now. Don’t let yourself get kicked out once the cake is baked."

"If you hit obstacles, don’t suffer alone—come tell me."

Jiang Ming’s eyes filled with gratitude as he replied loudly, "Thank you, Professor."

He knew full well he was just an ordinary college student—even with a second life, without prior experience in this field, even if he rode the wave of the times, he’d still end up nothing more than a slightly wealthy "new money."

To truly enter an industry worth tens of billions as an ordinary person—even if luck lets you sneak in—you’ll eventually be kicked out.

Didn’t people like Dong Baiman and PDD try forming teams?

Of course they tried!

But what was the outcome?

Jiang Ming stared at the new buds sprouting on the wutong tree outside the window, recalling the fleeting "internet cafe emperors" from his past life.

The memory of Royal Club’s forced sale in 2014 due to cash flow collapse still pricked at his back.

So since freshman year, Jiang Ming had consciously stepped forward—actively answering questions in class, acing every exam, building his reputation as a top student, while leveraging his future knowledge from the internet explosion era to attract the attention of senior figures in his business school and secure an invitation to become their disciple.

In society, the only person who’d fully support you without ties of blood or kinship is one person.

That’s a teacher!

"Oh, one more thing!"

"And don’t take favors without giving back. The college has helped you so much—could you take on a research project for the college, based on your e-sports proposal, and regularly provide data and materials?"

"No problem!"

"Oh, one more thing!"

"Professor, just say it all at once—I’ll do whatever I can..."

Jiang Ming couldn’t help but smile wryly—his professor had clearly been possessed by Jackie Chan’s dad.

"I just want you to not drop out. Work harder—read your professors’ books ahead of time, keep up with exams, and I’ll find a way to help you with your regular grades."

After leaving the professor’s office, as Jiang Ming walked through the wisteria-covered corridor of the business school, his phone buzzed nonstop:

Once he confirmed Lin Xuejie had handled things, he didn’t return to the startup shop but headed straight for the team’s training base.

On the way, Jiang Ming thought, "The professor’s right. Right now we’re still a makeshift crew with low costs, but once we enter the LPL and go professional, rent, daily operations, hardware equipment, and player salaries—all monthly expenses will add up fast."

"Getting kicked out after the cake is big is a later problem—what matters is not collapsing halfway."

"Current real-time data from my Taobao store: daily sales of meat-pastry buns have nearly hit 400 orders, and ad space prices in my livestream are rising steadily."

"The top priority is still using my head start to claim the cake in high-quality LOL video creation—just teaching videos aren’t enough."

"If online store sales grow further, I can renegotiate supply prices with Youchen, and my livestream platform contract is about to expire..."

LOL videos can be divided into two categories: teaching videos and entertainment videos. My new hero tutorial series falls into the first category, while parodies like "Teacher Xu’s Patrol Series" belong to the second.

Both types can be further expanded. Some videos, like "The Style of the Strongest Master," only require editing—I don’t need to do them myself. I can hire two top-tier media students... uh, I mean, outstanding talents from Jinling University—to handle them, and I won’t need to pay them much.

My core is the online store. Boosting its visibility and using video traffic to quickly secure more funding is essential in this barren era of e-sports lacking sponsorship and commercialization.

The store’s current products mainly consist of e-sports peripherals, seasonal clothing, and snacks!

Sales of e-sports peripherals are average. Excluding cheap keyboards sold as mechanical ones to trick customers, profit margins here aren’t high—keyboards last a long time.

Clothing is the same. For reputation and future prospects, Jiang Ming never followed some competitors who sold T-shirts for 20–30 yuan and marked them up to 100–200.

So the most profitable items in the store are actually snacks like meat-pastry buns—perfect for gamers: tasty and filling.

Over the past two years, countless e-sports streamers made a fortune selling meat-pastry buns.

"Looks like I’ll have to keep selling meat-pastry buns to ensure steady cash flow," Jiang Ming sighed with a wry smile.

When he first started the store, he’d boldly declared, "Watch me sell ten thousand meat-pastry buns..."

Now it seemed he’d not only reach that target soon—he’d far exceed it.

After all, yesterday alone, he sold several thousand meat-pastry buns.

Thinking of this, Jiang Ming remembered something, pulled out his phone, and quickly sent a WeChat message to Lin Xuejie.

(You transferred 4,000 yuan to Lin Yidan! PS: Last month’s salary)

Lin Yidan: "Waaaah! My salary not only got raised on the spot, but paid on the 2nd too? Thank you, boss!"

"Boss is so generous, I love you so much. (Instantly re-energized for work JPG)"

Indeed, no matter where you are, warm words mean less than a big cash transfer.

With some cash in hand, Jiang Ming’s confidence soared—he typed back:

"Xuejie, work hard on hiring these few days—store orders will keep spiking for a few more days, so hire extra part-time packers. Also, help me find media students—I’ve got some video editing freelance jobs."

Hmm, if it can be outsourced, no need to hire full-time staff yet.

On the other end of the network, Lin Jingyi typed back: "Alright, alright—how about interviews? Like before, online, or do you need to come back to campus?"

"You handle it—I’ll be busy these next few days."

"Also, when receiving snacks from Youchen and packing them for shipping, check the production dates—don’t sell expired products."

In his memory, many meat-pastry bun streamers had gotten into trouble for passing off low-quality goods; some even ended up in state custody. Jiang Ming didn’t want that happening to him.

"No problem—I check every incoming and outgoing shipment daily. How many media students do you need?"

"Two."