I'm a platinum-level author, so what if I play professionally?

In the office, Zhu Kai sat with his legs crossed, displaying his authority as a coach.

Song Wen sat down in front of him in a very casual manner.

"Xiao Zhu, have you ordered my takeout yet?"

With just one sentence, Zhu Kai's composure was completely shattered.

Zuo Wu glanced at Zhu Kai, who awkwardly put his foot down.

"Song Wen, right?" Zuo Wu said while looking at the information in his hand. "Congratulations on passing our assessment. Your performance in the trial was excellent, and we have decided to make an exception and let you directly enter the first team. However, since you are a newcomer and still need to get used to the team, you will be a substitute for a while."

"A substitute?" Song Wen turned to look at the man sitting next to him. "To be his substitute?"

Hearing the undisguised disdain in Song Wen's tone, the still young girl blushed and remained silent.

In the afternoon, they played three team matches, and Song Wen completely dominated the mid lane in all three of them.

Zuo Wu nodded and said:

"Yes, Zz1tai is a veteran player after all, and he has a lot of experience."

"Are you kidding me?" Song Wen raised an eyebrow, about to retort, "His experience can't possibly be as rich as mine. I have six championships..."

On the other side, Wang Ke immediately grabbed Song Wen and said:

"Getting you directly into the first team's substitutes is already an exception, so stop talking nonsense, bro."

Zuo Wu was not lying about this.

Normally, no matter how good a new player is, they should first go to the youth training team to hone their skills and adapt to the content and pace of professional team matches.

This isn't a novel where practice matches aren't necessary, tactics are improvised before the match, and the protagonist just picks a hero and plays relentlessly, achieving a 100% win rate without losing a single game.

In fact, Song Wen should thank Zitai.

If it weren't for Zz1tai's truly awful performance in those three games, to the point that Zuo Wu and Zhu Kai began to doubt whether Zz1tai was even capable of being the starting mid laner, Song Wen, even if he had been on fire during the trials, wouldn't have been able to make it directly into the first team.

Seeing Wang Ke blocking his way, Song Wen glared fiercely at the unworthy Zizhi, who peed a few more times before finally speaking:

"What about Wang Ke?"

Zuo Wu looked at Wang Ke, pursed her lips, and looked very conflicted.

"Wang Ke, I admit your awareness and command are top-notch, even among professional players, but to be honest... your mechanics are a major problem. The third game was ruined because of your mistakes, which cost us our early advantage..."

"Can you blame Wang Ke for that?" Song Wen couldn't help but interrupt Zuo Wu. "You should ask that idiot Korean. He flashed right onto someone's hook. If he hadn't been so reckless, would Wang Ke have missed his Q in his haste to save him?"

They played three games in total. Wang Ke and Song Wen won the first two games. They thought everything was going perfectly, but in the last game, O-Huang suddenly started to exert his power, feeding four kills in the bottom lane in five minutes and directly giving up the game.

Zuo Wu didn't react to Song Wen's words.

In his view, the ability shown by 18-year-old Song Wen in these three games can be described as having great potential, so he has enough patience for Song Wen.

Snake Esports was originally a team led by Zuo Wu, who brought a group of young players from the secondary league to the LPL. Because of their successful experience, compared to those wealthy clubs that spend a lot of money to buy established star players, they prefer to cultivate some young players. Therefore, Snake Esports currently has one of the largest numbers of substitutes and academy players among all LPL clubs.

Despite having seen so many exceptionally talented young people, Song Wen still received extremely high praise from Zuo Wu.

Compared to Song Wen's performance, what Zuo Wu valued more was Song Wen's absolutely confident mindset during the game. Even when facing the Snake Team's first team members, Song Wen showed no stage fright.

He deeply understands that having a strong mentality is the most crucial factor in becoming an excellent professional player.

Zuo Wu has seen too many so-called genius streetball players, but once they enter the professional arena, they become just ordinary people. The main reason for this is their mentality.

And Song Wen was right. In these three games—or rather, since joining Snake, Ohq's performance in training matches has been far below their expectations.

But what can we do? We've already bought it!

Zuo Wu didn't beat around the bush and continued:

"Wang Ke, as you know, you're already 23 years old. Many professional players have already retired at your age, and even if they don't, their skill level has started to decline. Your skills weren't top-notch to begin with, and they'll probably only continue to decline as you get older. Clubs definitely want to see a sufficient return on their investment in developing new talent. Besides, our team currently has SofM as our starting jungler and two substitutes. After considering everything, I think the investment and returns in developing you will probably be disproportionate, so... I'm sorry, you didn't pass this trial."

Wang Ke listened quietly as Zuo Wu finished speaking, then calmly nodded.

He had actually anticipated this outcome.

Although he had never played professionally, he had been writing League of Legends novels for so long that he naturally knew some things.

At 23, it's definitely no longer suitable to play professionally.

If it weren't for Song Wen's help, Wang Ke probably wouldn't have even gotten this trial opportunity.

Just as Wang Ke was about to speak, he saw Song Wen suddenly stand up.

"Brother, let's go!"

"What are you doing?" Wang Ke was stunned for a moment. "Why are you leaving? With your skills, making it into the starting lineup for the Snake Team is a piece of cake, isn't it?"

Song Wen laughed smugly.

"You're right, but I think they have no taste. If they look down on you, they look down on me."

Her posture, which was standing to the side, blushed again as the two of them talked as if no one else was around.

Seeing that Song Wen looked like he was about to slam the door and leave at the slightest disagreement, Zuo Wu quickly spoke up:

"The jungler position is indeed not suitable, but I've thought about it for a long time. Wang Ke, I actually wanted to invite you to be our team's analyst."

Song Wen paused for a moment, then looked at Zhu Kai.

"An analyst? Isn't that one of Xiao Zhu's subordinates?"

Zhu Kai waved his hand with a smile.

"Forget about subordinates, we're all family."

Song Wen wanted to say something more, but Wang Ke, who was standing to the side, had already nodded.

"Okay, I agree."

In fact, Zuo Wu's words made Wang Ke realize something.

Given his current situation, it would indeed be better for him to work as an analyst behind the scenes rather than as a professional player.

In this way, he can also access more theoretical knowledge, which can then be used to enrich his novels, so that he won't always be asked by readers—have you ever played professionally? Some things are written randomly or based on assumptions.

As for the future, Wang Ke is not worried.

For most people, their 23rd year might be the beginning of their decline.

But as long as he and Song Wen stand on a higher stage, they will only become stronger!

Twenty-three years old is the age to start afresh.