Chapter 1: A Humiliating Termination

The rain came down in sheets, thunder exploding across the night sky. Lin Yue stood in the center of the "Firmament" team headquarters, drenched to the bone and looking utterly broken. Chen Xiao held the termination contract in his hand, the edges of the paper softening from the rain. His gaze swept over her face, cold and sharp as a blade.

Around them, the red lights of the livestream cameras flickered frantically. The chat was a tidal wave of malice, flooded with words like "discarded," "washed up," and "get out of the esports scene." In full view of the cameras, Chen Xiao tore the contract into shreds. The scraps fluttered down at Lin Yue's feet, mirroring her shattered dignity. His voice was ice, devoid of any warmth, as he declared the end of both their relationship and her professional career.

Lin Yue gritted her teeth, her knuckles white as she struggled to maintain a shred of composure, but the stabbing pain in her heart was colder than the rain. She remembered how she had given up a stable, high-paying career just to prove her value as a commentator, content to play the supporting role. Now, all she had to show for it was this humiliation. The entire internet was laughing at her naivety, convinced she no longer had any commercial value.

"I gave up a high salary for this team. And now this?" Lin Yue asked, her voice trembling, her fingers white from tension.

"You chose to play the sidekick. Now you're irrelevant. Don't try to play the victim," Chen Xiao replied coldly, his eyes showing not a hint of regret.

"How can you be so heartless? You won't even leave me with a little dignity?"

"Dignity? In the face of data, emotions are worthless." Chen Xiao turned and walked away, his silhouette resolute, leaving her alone in the vortex of the storm. In an instant, her former lover had become her most cruel tormentor, and she had become a sacrificial lamb for the whole world to watch.

Su Na stepped out from the shadows, her high heels clicking against the floor with a crisp, chilling sound. Dressed in a lavish professional suit with flawless makeup, she wore a practiced, corporate smile, though her eyes were calculating. She walked up to Lin Yue and cast a contemptuous glance at the scraps of paper on the floor, as if looking at a pile of trash.

Su Na's voice was soft yet piercing, carrying clearly into every microphone as she announced that the team would sever all ties with Lin Yue. She emphasized that Lin Yue was no longer of any use, even hinting that her continued presence would drag down the team's brand image.

The livestream chat scrolled frantically, with voices supporting Su Na dominating the conversation. Lin Yue's name was tagged with every insult imaginable. Su Na pulled out her phone and, in front of everyone, kicked Lin Yue out of every team group chat. The movements were efficient and devoid of hesitation, as if she were simply deleting an obsolete file.

"Sister Yue, don't try to use old feelings to kidnap the team. Your negative heat is just too high," Su Na warned softly, a fake smile playing on her lips.

"I just want an explanation. Why erase me completely?" Lin Yue asked desperately, her voice shaking.

"Commercial interests come first. Explanations only damage the brand. Please leave." Su Na delivered the final blow, her tone brook no argument. With that, she turned and left, leaving Lin Yue isolated under a barrage of freezing stares.

Two security guards stepped forward quickly, grabbing Lin Yue roughly by the shoulders and dragging her toward the exit. Lin Yue struggled, stumbling and nearly falling. Passersby pulled out their phones to record, their lenses zoomed in on her wretched face. The videos were uploaded instantly, the headlines screaming: "Former Elite Commentator Lin Yue Terminated, Becomes a Laughingstock."

The trending charts were quickly overtaken by "Lin Yue Discarded." Her rating plummeted, and the comments were a monochrome of mockery and schadenfreude. Lin Yue was shoved through the revolving doors, and the rain outside instantly extinguished the last flicker of hope. She collapsed onto the steps of an alleyway, rain mixing with the tears streaming down her cheeks. Around her was a filthy alley, the neon lights shattering into fragmented reflections in the puddles.

She thought of Chen Xiao's cold eyes and Su Na's calculations, anger and despair intertwining. In this frozen world, she felt like a piece of discarded junk, ignored by everyone. Her phone screen lit up, filled with venomous private messages and abuse. She shut the phone off and curled into a ball in the corner, waiting for the rain to swallow her whole.

Just as Lin Yue's consciousness began to blur, an old black cardboard box drifted into her line of sight through the curtain of rain. The box was mottled and worn from the water, stained with mud and looking completely out of place. Driven by curiosity, she crawled toward it. The moment her fingers touched the lid, a strange heat surged from her fingertips and spread through her entire body.

The lid slid open slowly, revealing a black helmet inside. Its surface was etched with complex circuitry patterns that emitted a faint glow. There was no brand logo on the helmet, yet it looked mysterious and dangerous in the dark. Trembling, Lin Yue reached out. The second her fingertips brushed the surface, a sharp roar exploded in her mind.

It felt as if something had forcibly plugged into her neural center; the pain was like steel needles piercing her cerebral cortex. She let out a suppressed groan, clutching her head as she knelt in the muddy water. The raindrops hitting her back were ice-cold, but the burning sensation inside her grew more intense. The indicator lights on the helmet shifted from dim to bright, red spots of light dancing between her trembling fingers.

The violent pain forced Lin Yue backward, the back of her head slamming hard against the steps. Her vision blurred, and countless streams of green code began to leap across her eyes, constructing a massive virtual sandbox. The helmet had automatically activated its neural synchronization system, forcibly linking to her brainwaves.

The streams of code weren't random; they formed orderly tactical trajectories, as if simulating the optimal solution for a battle. Lin Yue's consciousness struggled through the agony, but she discovered that the pain wasn't fatal—instead, it brought an unprecedented sense of clarity.

She saw the trajectory of every falling raindrop, the paths of distant cars, and even the vector maps of the airflow. The world transformed into a grid composed of data—cold and precise. She fought to stay conscious, refusing to let her mind be consumed by this power.

The helmet seemed to establish a temporary firewall in her brain to prevent information overload. Though her body was still shaking, her gaze gradually sharpened, her fear replaced by a calm, piercing curiosity.

Just then, footsteps echoed from the shadows of the alley. Old K appeared, wearing a rumpled leather jacket and flipping a coin in his hand, a bloodthirsty, greedy smile on his face. He stared at the helmet in Lin Yue's hand, his eyes filled with a manic longing.

Old K's voice was raspy and low, sounding exceptionally grating against the sound of the rain. He demanded to know where the thing came from. Lin Yue shielded the helmet, responding coldly that she had simply found it and it had nothing to do with him. Old K laughed contemptuously, hinting that this helmet belonged to the black market and shouldn't be in the hands of a commoner.

The two thugs behind him shifted restlessly, rain dripping off the blades of their knives. Lin Yue felt the danger closing in, but red markers had already appeared in her vision, locking onto the thugs' movement trajectories. She took a deep breath, trying to stay calm, her brain racing to analyze the tension in the opponents' muscles.

"This thing has an owner in the black market. Does a worm like you even understand that?" Old K pressed forward, his tone full of menace.

"I found it. It's none of your business. Don't push me," Lin Yue replied, her eyes freezing over as she protected the helmet.

"Hand it over, or die in this rotten alley," Old K spoke again, his voice an absolute threat.

Lin Yue didn't answer immediately. Her gaze swept the environment behind Old K; Predictive Vision activated, allowing her to see the left thug's arm rising three seconds before it happened. She sneered inwardly. This was the power of technology, and this was her chance to strike back. When Old K ordered the attack, Lin Yue shifted her body, dodging the first strike.

The left thug's blade sliced through the space where she had just been standing, splashing water. Seizing the moment Old K was distracted, Lin Yue utilized the Compute Compensation function, instantly calculating a vulnerability in the opponent's network flow data. She lunged forward, grabbing Old K's wrist and using his own momentum to hurl him into the right thug. The two collided in mid-air, their weapons clattering to the ground.

Old K looked at Lin Yue in shock, unable to believe that a washed-up streamer could dodge an attack with such precision. Lin Yue picked up the helmet, her eyes cold, declaring that she would never be anyone's pawn again. Old K backed away, his face pale, as he whispered the helmet's black-market serial number. His voice trembled, betraying an intense, primal terror.

The rain began to let up, and a familiar figure appeared at the mouth of the alley. Jiang Xue was drenched, clutching a first-aid kit tightly to her chest, her eyes full of worry and anxiety. Seeing the helmet in Lin Yue's hand and the blood on the ground, she rushed over and hugged Lin Yue, her voice choking up. Jiang Xue revealed that she had been searching for Lin Yue because she had sensed an unknown talent fluctuation coming from her.

She carefully checked Lin Yue's injuries, her gaze gentle yet firm, revealing the loyal and resilient side hidden beneath her soft, cute exterior.

"Yueyue, I've been looking for you for so long. Are you finally ready to face yourself?" Jiang Xue asked, holding her hand with heartache.

"I've hidden for too long. Now, I just want to stop running from fate." Lin Yue looked at the helmet, a spark of determination in her eyes.

Leaning into Jiang Xue's embrace, Lin Yue felt a warmth she hadn't known in a long time. Jiang Xue looked up at the helmet, a complex expression crossing her face, hinting that this object was inextricably linked to Lin Yue's destiny. She gently squeezed Lin Yue's hand, encouraging her to embrace this transformation and stop running. Looking into Jiang Xue's clear eyes, the ice in Lin Yue's heart began to melt.

She realized she wasn't alone; there was someone silently guarding her, waiting for the moment she awakened.

Lin Yue put on the helmet. A red warning box popped up in her vision again; the system notified her that it had detected a source of intense hostility toward the host. A red light flashed, and a locking signal extended rapidly through the rain, pointing toward the top floor of the brightly lit skyscraper in the distance. Chen Xiao's image appeared on the screen, his name tagged as a Maximum Threat Level.

Lin Yue looked up, rain sliding down her cheeks, her gaze becoming steady and deep. She stared at that building—the place that had given her both glory and humiliation—which had now become the starting point of her revenge. The compute power within the helmet continued to run, mapping out paths for her to break the game.

She knew that from this day forward, she was no longer the discarded pawn for others to slaughter, but the hunter in control of her own fate. Chen Xiao thought that terminating her contract would destroy her; he had no idea that it was exactly the catalyst she needed for her comeback. The night grew deep and the rain stopped. Lin Yue clenched her fist, a cold smile curling her lips, ready to welcome the coming storm.