Hangzhou, Zhejiang – Esports Center.
"This is going to hit?? Oh my god!! Four captures!! Let's congratulate Team Ella for taking the 3026 Identity V: Call of the Abyss Global Finals Championship!!!"
At the Identity V: Call of the Abyss Global Finals, amid the hoarse commentary and cheers from the crowd, the handsome boy under the spotlight put down his phone.
His teammates rushed up from the stands, swarming him in a group hug.
The cameras stayed trained on them the entire time.
Everyone was immersed in the joy of winning the championship again—but the boy who had just pulled off the four-capture under extreme circumstances remained expressionless. It was as if the person who performed that flawless play wasn't him. Upon closer inspection, something seemed off: his lips were pale, and fine beads of sweat dotted his forehead.
But everyone else was too caught up in their celebration to notice.
That night, at the championship celebration, Lu Xiangyang sat at the far end, neatly dressed in his team uniform, signing autographs. Only his wrist showed a hint of a bandage.
"SUN, I've liked you for so long! You're amazing!!"
A fan cosplaying as a reporter had red eyes, wiping away tears, careful not to ruin her makeup.
Lu Xiangyang handed her a piece of paper, his voice cold: "If you keep crying, your contacts are going to slide out."
The fan realized he was joking and immediately smiled through her tears, her eyes still red: "SUN, you're incredible, leading us to four consecutive championships! You know, I joined esports because of you."
Lu Xiangyang's lips curved slightly. After signing, he handed her the poster with a sincere and solemn tone: "Thank you for being with me these past four years."
By the time he finished, it was past 3 a.m.
The hotel Ella booked was far from the venue, so they had to take taxis.
"Let's ride together, the three of us."
"Fine, I'll go with Xu and the others."
Everyone naturally split into cars, leaving only Lu Xiangyang alone.
It was as if everyone had deliberately forgotten him—even though tonight's victory had been won by his extreme four-capture play.
Lu Xiangyang was used to this; after so many years, nothing had changed.
He rubbed his aching wrist and, expressionless, hailed a car for himself.
After the teammates' car left, laughing and joking, it wasn't long before Lu Xiangyang was standing alone, seemingly swallowed by the dusk.
Only then did he frown slightly, rubbing his right hand.
This hand had trembled in pain throughout the match tonight.
His tendonitis had persisted for some time, but the club's training schedule was too intense. He had neither time nor money to treat it, so he kept postponing it… until now.
He smiled faintly, but it looked lonely and desolate.
Perhaps in a while, he wouldn't be able to compete anymore.
But now, whether he played or not, it was no longer up to him.
After getting back to the hotel, a few fans who had been waiting caught him, wanting photos.
He hid the fatigue on his face, pretending to be energetic.
During a photo, one fan casually asked: "Why didn't you come back with Leah and the others?"
Lu Xiangyang said lightly: "I had some things to take care of, so I let them go ahead."
"What?!" The fan frowned in dissatisfaction. "You were the MVP tonight!"
After saying goodbye to the fans, Lu Xiangyang returned to his room.
Once inside, he hurried to the bed, opened his bag, poured the medicine from a white bottle into his palm, swallowed it dry, then collapsed onto the bed, cold sweat covering his forehead.
His wrist hurt too much.
Lu Xiangyang had discovered his tendonitis a year ago.
At first, it wasn't severe, but when his mother fell ill, he requested two months of medical leave from headquarters.
Headquarters immediately rejected him, citing contractual violations.
Yes, it violated the contract.
Lu Xiangyang's biggest regret was that, after finishing youth training trials, his mother was suddenly diagnosed with a cerebral aneurysm, life-threatening, needing 60,000 for surgery.
For 18-year-old Lu Xiangyang, it was overwhelming.
At that moment, Ella's manager approached, seemingly noticing his distress, and gently asked what happened.
The boy, only 18, red-eyed and helpless, explained everything.
After listening, the manager was silent for a moment, then said: "I'll make a call. Please wait here."
Lu Xiangyang nodded.
He didn't know what the manager said to headquarters, only that when he returned, he smiled and extended an olive branch:
"As long as you join our team, we'll cover the 60,000 surgery fee."
At that moment, the manager was like a beam of light to him.
He was once the person Lu Xiangyang was most grateful to.
But what Lu Xiangyang didn't know was that an endless abyss awaited him.
After joining the team, his demeanor changed.
The manager was no longer gentle, instead cold as ice.
The teammates looked at him with disgust.
At first, he didn't know why. He tried sharing snacks, even observing for a few days to match their tastes before buying them after training.
But the teammates tossed the snacks onto his desk without looking and snapped impatiently: "Don't bother. We don't need it."
Later, it got worse: meals, gatherings, team-building events—he was never invited.
At first, Lu Xiangyang would quietly cry in bed, feeling wronged. Later, he grew used to it, pretending not to notice.
Yet those same teammates acted affectionate in public filming and in official matches.
Perhaps because of Lu Xiangyang's good temper, they became even more shameless.
Some extremely ill-behaved online personalities even started spreading rumors about him. When fans asked on stream why SUN never talked to them, they just smiled and sighed: "I don't know… maybe he thinks we're too weak? He even refuses meals with us."
Lu Xiangyang never bothered to explain, so people believed it, and his reputation suffered.
He reminded himself to endure—after all, the manager had helped him so much.
And with his mother still unconscious and needing surgery, he couldn't back down over such trivial hardships.
But soon, Lu Xiangyang realized how naive he had been.
He discovered that official employees earned over 50,000, while he only received slightly over 10,000.
He raised it with the manager several times, but each time it was brushed off.
He continued to endure.
After single-handedly leading Team Ella to the Abyss Global Championship—despite the team being barely competent—he thought he had repaid that debt. When he requested to terminate the contract, he was told the five-year clause required him to stay with Ella, or pay a ten-million breach fee.
Even if he paid the fee, he could not join another team for five years; if he wanted to continue competing, he had to return to Ella.
Lu Xiangyang's salary was barely enough for his own living expenses, gifts for fans, and his mother's medical fees—saving ten million was impossible.
He panicked: "You never told me about this before!"
The manager remained calm: "I didn't mention it, but it's in the contract. Didn't you read it?"
The boy looked incredulous. The manager said slowly: "This is the first lesson society gives you."
After that, Lu Xiangyang changed.
Before, he was cheerful and sunny, hiding suffering behind a smile, greeting everyone at the club even if ignored.
Now, he no longer smiled at anyone. Cold as ice, he trained with a blank expression.
Once, when a teammate insulted him, he punched him. The teammate ended up bleeding, and almost his entire monthly salary was docked. He was slandered online, and his public image suffered.
…
Lu Xiangyang collapsed onto the bed, his heart aching.
He frowned slightly, rubbing it, thinking it might be from days of overnight training.
Then his phone rang. A number he didn't recognize.
"Hello?"
"Is this Mr. Lu Xiangyang?"
"Yes, speaking."
"Could you come to People's Hospital now? Your mother…"
His breath caught. His voice trembled with anxiety: "What happened to my mom?"
"She suffered a sudden stroke and passed away."
In that instant, his mind went numb, his voice lost.
Shaking violently from grief, he tried to get up to go to the hospital but went black in front of his eyes, crashing heavily to the ground.
In the fall, he knocked over two glass cups. They shattered with a clear sound.
The hotel's soundproofing was poor—his teammates in the next room probably heard.
He struggled to get up… but couldn't.
"Get up… Lu Xiangyang, get up…"
He couldn't. His teammates didn't come.
Worse yet, his vision blurred, then went black.
As consciousness faded, he thought: Am I going to die?
Lu Xiangyang, you can't die. Your mom is still in the hospital.
But his subconscious warned him: this time, he might not survive.
All the overnight training, physical exhaustion, and suppressed emotions had pushed his body to the limit.
His body had known it all along; he just ignored it.
…Am I going to die?
He was unwilling to accept it.
If he could go back, he would never have signed with Ella.
Never.
—
Lu Xiangyang died.
His body was only discovered the next day when the team prepared to leave for Guangzhou. No matter how they knocked, the hotel room door wouldn't open.
The manager impatiently told the front desk to break it open. Everyone froze when they saw Lu Xiangyang collapsed on the floor, his face gray.
He was already dead.
The manager quickly called 120. By the time the doctors arrived, remaining fans at the hotel saw a stretcher being carried out, covered with a white cloth.
His wrist was exposed during the movement.
That person's wrist was so thin it seemed almost boneless, with a bandage still stuck on it.
T/N: Warning: Narcissus story! Narcissus story! (In short, it's a self-cest story! If you don't want this kind of theme, I advise you not to click or read this story. Again, it's a self-cest story! The story is about the MC, who is also the "Gong" in this story, and will fall in love with and date himself while inhabiting another body he received after being reborn.)