Chapter 40: Save Where You Can!

Damn it!

It feels like money has to be spent everywhere.

As expected, in the early days when esports clubs had very few monetization channels, running one was genuinely difficult unless you were the child of a wealthy family.

With the base located in Nanjing, the team would also need a support van. Even if conditions were tough in the beginning, getting a holy grail of delivery vans like the Wuling Hongguang would still cost at least thirty to forty thousand yuan.

"No, no, no!" Jiang Ming shook his head fiercely. "Formal is formal, but I cannot use the standards of future esports clubs to demand things of the present."

Parts that could be economized should be trimmed first, and expanded gradually later on.

First was the personnel structure.

The club was currently a small temple, so there was no need to fill all positions at once.

First was Senior Sister Lin; she usually served as the manager, but she could also moonlight as the team leader when they went to matches.

Amitabha, may the senior sister's capabilities shoulder heavy burdens!

As for the assistant coach, since Gang Xun was just recruited, they needed to find one more person. Anyway, starting from scratch, the best choice was naturally to look among high-elo solo queue players.

For club logistics, they needed a cooking auntie. Her salary could be raised slightly, and ideally, for a package covering food and lodging, she could also take care of the sanitation issues for the club and the players.

Mainly the facility's cleanliness, while laundry was just a matter of buying a washing machine.

Oh right, they also needed a driver. This position could be combined with the club's logistics management. When there were no matches, she or he could help the auntie with logistics, buying rice and vegetables, and handling heavy lifting.

When there was a match, that person would step up as the Mount Akina racing god.

Jiang Ming knew the construction labor market Senior Sister had mentioned. Most of the people there were older with only raw physical strength, relying on getting up early every day to do manual labor at various construction sites. If the skill requirements were only basic life skills like cooking and driving, recruiting someone would not be difficult, and the salary and benefits would be extremely affordable, just as Senior Sister had said.

Unlike other commercially minded enterprises, as long as the core issues of team players and the head coach could be resolved—problems that an esports club faced—everything else was relatively easy to settle.

Fortunately, in this regard, Jiang Ming possessed an innate advantage that others did not.

"And then there are the player contracts..."

After all, the LPL was different from small-scale internet cafe teams. Once branded with the professional league label, the players' salary standards needed to be increased accordingly.

In front of the computer, Jiang Ming pondered for a long time, drew a slash over the originally determined figure, and added a base salary of 2,800 yuan, with performance bonuses to be added in the later stages.

Do not think it is low. In 2013, when the esports craze had not yet risen, aside from a few stars who could command high salaries of around ten thousand yuan, the salaries of players in many teams were actually pitifully low. One or two thousand yuan was the norm, not to mention that delayed payments were frequent, bosses would run away without paying, and some rival teams even used instant noodles to substitute for prize money.

The advantage of NXG was that the players were all cultivated single-handedly by him, and there were no star players to speak of, so the increase in the salary budget was not too significant.

As for the contract duration...

Jiang Ming's expression shifted, but in the end, he could not harden his heart to be like some contract-trap club and completely fleece these young people to death.

After all, armed with the foresight of a prophet, he knew very well that in just one year's time, these gaming youths, currently at the very bottom of society, would transform into esports players, and their salaries would multiply exponentially.

Contract terms would range from one to three years, signed entirely on a voluntary basis.

Swish! Swish!

From dusk until late into the night, Jiang Ming finally finalized the next development plan for the NXG Club.

...

The team base was a matter of the sooner the better, so that night Jiang Ming did not stream too late. After apologizing to his viewers, he ended the broadcast early to rest.

The next day, four in the morning!

"Tsk, now that I've become a successful person in the future, I'll even have material for a humblebrag."

Stepping outside and looking at the pitch-black surroundings, Jiang Ming sighed inwardly.

I am now someone who has witnessed Nanjing at four in the morning.

In the future, when asked about the secret to success by others and wanting to act cool, I can just drop the line: "Have you ever seen Nanjing at four in the morning?"

Just thinking about it made the upward curve of his lips almost impossible to suppress.

"Director Jiang, I've already arrived at the location! (Location)"

Ding-dong, a message sent by Lin Jingyi appeared on his phone, sent five minutes ago!

Well, he had been too hasty; he hadn't expected his subordinate to be so fierce.

Waiting in place for a few minutes, he finally flagged down a taxi. Jiang Ming showed the driver the address: "Driver, to Andemen!"

"Andemen?"

The Nanjing taxi driver, who usually wasn't very fond of chatting, looked curious and glanced at Jiang Ming through the rearview mirror.

"Little brother going to Andemen so early? Are you going to recruit people?"

"Yeah, is the driver very familiar with that area?"

"Familiar? How could I not be? It's the largest labor market in our Nanjing city; how could someone in my line of work not know it?"

Jiang Ming's eyes instantly lit up, and he said, "Driver, since you go there often, could you trouble you to help me shout out a couple of times later? Help me recruit two people, mainly for cooking and driving, it won't be in vain—"

"Small matter." The driver waved his hand, cutting off Jiang Ming's attempt to offer compensation. "Don't talk about any remuneration. The people around Andemen are just poor devils trying to eke out a living by selling a bit of manual labor. For a young man like you to think of coming here to give them a decent livelihood is already pretty good. I clawed my way out of this ghost place myself; how could I take your money?"

"Th—thank you."

Jiang Ming's mood was inexplicably complicated.

Provide a livelihood?

He was simply valuing the fact that the labor workers here were relatively cheap.

Nanjing city at four in the morning was still immersed in the damp winter mist, and the outdoor temperature was chillingly low. The taxi driver parked his car at a street corner near the Andemen sign, and the green glow reflecting from the dashboard illuminated Jiang Ming's somewhat drowsy face.

He hadn't felt it when he first got up, but sleepiness was now washing over him in full force.

However, many people were already squatting on the concrete ground to the right of the Andemen grand plaza, their hard hats and woven nylon sacks blurred into indistinct silhouettes under the streetlights.

Jiang Ming stepped out of the car, and the morning breeze carrying the unique daily scent of the labor plaza rushed into his nasal cavity, prompting him to tighten his down jacket.

"Director Jiang!"

"Senior Sister!"

In the crowd, Senior Sister Lin, who seemed to have been conversing with job seekers for quite a while, waved at him.

Following the direction of Senior Sister's location, the hands extending from the crowd under the streetlights were all covered in cracks—those hands either held crumpled "resumes" consisting of only a couple of lines, or grasped paint-chipped thermos cups, exhaling faint wisps of white mist in the freezing air of a December dawn.

Clearly, all kinds of breakfast carts were parked nearby, yet most of them could only bear to take a bite or two of the steamed buns they had brought themselves, washing them down with large gulps of lukewarm water from their cups.

He did not walk forward, perhaps unable to stomach this atmosphere.

Jiang Ming's state of mind at this moment was actually the same as that of most people possessing the inherent kindness unique to the Chinese.

Even though he himself was not doing particularly well, he simply could not bear to witness the suffering of others.