All Chapters of Benched Before the Finals, Crowned by His Rivals: Chapter 1 - Chapter 10

10 Chapters

第1章

The night before the Global Finals, Derek Cole proposed a dare with my starting spot on the line.Tessa Quinn, an academy trainee, and I would take turns answering strategy questions. Every wrong answer meant surrendering a piece of gear.Once the mouse, keyboard, and headset were all gone, the person sitting in my chair would be tomorrow's starter.The coach and team manager, Marcus Walsh, were both there, and the session recording light on the wall was on.Any change to the Finals roster required documentation, and this training room was set to auto-archive.I thought Derek was joking until he slid my professional account key to the center of the table.The silver card stopped right beside Tessa's hand. My registered tag, TIME, was engraved in the bottom-right corner.Derek tapped the table twice."First question. What's Radiance's core strategy?""Protect-the-carry."Every championship roster for the past three years had been built around bot lane. The answer wasn't up for debate.D

第2章

I'd lived at the Radiance training house for seven years, but everything I truly owned barely filled one suitcase.A few changes of clothes, two strategy notebooks, and a bracelet my mother had left me.The matching mugs and championship rings stayed where they were. I had no intention of touching them again.I'd barely finished packing when Derek pushed through the door.He kicked the suitcase wheel."Running away from home again?""Move.""Chloe Harper, you're twenty-six years old. Threatening to break up and quit the team? Really?"I pulled my suitcase toward the door, but he blocked the way."You leave Radiance, where are you going to go?"Seven years ago, Derek couldn't afford the entry fee for the city qualifiers. I was the one who split my prize money with him.When the organization wanted to drop him, I put my career on the line to vouch for him.Now he stood high enough to look down and see the three scars on my hand, but he no longer cared to look."You're right. So I'm leavi

第3章

At 4:00 a.m., the League convened an emergency review session.Nightfall had already submitted the surgical certificate for their starting support. As long as I regained free agent status before noon, I could be added to the emergency roster.The only thing standing in the way was my Radiance contract.Nightfall's legal team pulled up the breach clause."If you leave on your own, you'd owe an eight-figure buyout.""Unless Radiance issues an immediate termination first.""They will."At 8:00 a.m., Radiance's team bus pulled out of the training house on schedule.No one contacted me.At 8:10 a.m., Tessa posted a photo of herself in the front row of the starting lineup bus.My noise-canceling headset hung around her neck. The caption implied I'd overslept and held up the whole team.Ten minutes later, "Chloe Harper Missing on Finals Day" began trending.Radiance didn't issue a correction. Derek even added a line during an on-bus interview."When a veteran player gets taken care of for too

第4章

By the time I reached the backstage area, Radiance's pre-match interview was playing on the wall screen.A reporter asked why TIME hadn't appeared with the team.Derek sat front and center. Tessa wore the starting jersey, her seat right next to his."Esports needs fresh blood. Veterans who coast on past glory need to make way.""The organization has optimized the starting roster."The reporter pressed further."TIME is also your girlfriend of seven years.""Personal feelings can't override professionalism."The live chat exploded. Labels like "deserter" and "coasting on past glory" piled onto my name.Tessa gave the camera a solemn nod."Chloe taught me so much. I'll carry that same drive forward for her."As she finished, she held up my custom mouse and gave it a little wave.When the interview wrapped, Radiance walked in from the other end of the corridor.They hadn't spotted me yet. Joey was guessing whether I'd try to sneak backstage with a fake badge.Tessa hugged the gear bag."A

第5章

Tessa recognized the badge. Her fingers went slack on the gear bag.Joey rushed to Walsh."Wasn't her contract already terminated?""That's exactly why she's a free agent again."Walsh wiped the sweat from his forehead."The League approved Nightfall's emergency request."Derek grabbed my sleeve."The Finals roster was locked ages ago. There's no way you're playing!"Nathan pried his hand off."The emergency free agent clause was signed by every team in the tournament. Radiance included.""And we should thank you for sending that immediate termination."Derek wheeled on Walsh.Walsh answered without raising his head."We assumed she wouldn't dare sign."The color drained from Derek's face."That document was just a scare tactic. I never actually wanted you gone.""But I actually wanted to leave.""You can't join Nightfall. We're opponents today!""Isn't that perfect?"He clenched his jaw and accused me of betraying Radiance.I raised a hand and pointed at the starting jersey Tessa was

第6章

Before game two started, Radiance's internal arguing was already bleeding into the referee's headset.Tessa blamed Joey for botching the vision. Joey fired back, asking why she couldn't even remember her own jungle pathing.Derek didn't hear a word of it.His attention was locked on my seat. All he wanted was to kill me once and prove game one was a fluke.Radiance burned three bans on aggressive supports. I switched to Spectra, a fragile utility champion.Derek finally believed he'd found his opening.At the eight-minute mark, I walked alone into the bot-lane river with barely a third of my health left.Nathan asked me."You're really using yourself as bait?""He'll come."Ten seconds later, Derek flanked from the side. Tessa and Joey trailed behind.Three of them collapsed on me. I deliberately slowed my retreat by one step as I backed toward the turret.An ability grazed my champion. My health dropped to the last sliver.Derek dashed under the turret without hesitation.It was his s

第7章

I'd barely removed my wrist brace when Derek burst through the door.His breath was raw, his eyes bloodshot."Everyone out. I need to talk to Chloe Harper."Nathan closed his tactics board."This is Nightfall's lounge."Derek didn't bother answering. He charged straight up to me."Why are you trying to destroy Radiance?""That's seven years of our lives!"I set the wrist brace on the table."You're the one who drove me out.""I was just venting!""A signed termination agreement is just venting?"Derek reached for me. I stepped aside."I didn't think you'd actually sign."He said it as though the fault still lay with me.I shouldn't have left. I shouldn't have had the courage to choose again."Chlo, sit out game three.""I'll pull Tessa and re-sign you after the match. We can go back to how things were.""The roster's locked. The contract's in effect."I looked at him."Captain Cole, you've forgotten the rules of your own league?"Derek opened his mouth several times before finally sque

第8章

By game three, Radiance had lost the structure a team is supposed to have.Tessa hoarded jungle camps but refused to step into the river.Joey gave up warding for her entirely. The other two players each guarded a lane, focused only on padding their personal stats.I couldn't hear their arguments, and I didn't need to.Five champions scattering across the map in five different directions said everything.This game, I picked Oracle.It was the protective support I'd played most over the past seven years.Derek once said that as long as Oracle stood behind him, he'd fight the whole world.Now the same champion stood on the other side.At five minutes, he crossed the minion line to chase me.At seven minutes, he abandoned jungle camps and followed me into a side lane, where I turned and locked him down.Nathan followed up. He went down again.At ten minutes, Derek Flashed in an area with zero vision.Nightfall collapsed from four directions. His screen went gray within seconds.He kept tr

第9章

At the post-match press conference, every question was aimed at my emergency transfer.Radiance had just announced that I'd been cut for declining performance. I'd responded by winning Finals MVP.The League Disciplinary Committee had secured the evidence and cleared me to release the portions of the recording that concerned my own rights.I connected my phone to the press room screen and pressed play.Derek's voice announcing the start of the game echoed through the hall.Then came the three rounds of voting, the confiscated gear, and the players mocking me as they demanded I give my spot to a rookie.Finally, the snap of the account key breaking rang out.Derek's "Don't you dare come crawling back" was preserved in full.When the recording ended, the room was silent for several seconds.Radiance's official account was flooded with demands for answers. Sponsors suspended their partnerships that evening.The League investigation confirmed that Radiance had made unauthorized roster chan

第10章

Rain ran down Derek's hair and dripped off his jaw. He was still on his knees in the muddy water, holding up the clear case.Seven years ago, we'd cashed our very first tournament winnings.Outside Bayside Station, he'd held out a cheap ring, too nervous to finish a single sentence.Back then, I believed that if we survived the hardest stretch together, we'd stand side by side forever.I learned later that someone who stands by you through hard times won't necessarily still respect you once they've reached the top."Chlo, I really do know I was wrong."Derek's voice had gone hoarse."Tessa's gone. There was never anything between us.""I'll retire. I'll give you all the prize money. You can play as long as you want.""Radiance will answer to you and only you."I reminded him."Radiance is disbanded."Derek's hands started shaking."Then we build a new team. You're the captain, I'll be the sub.""Just come back, and I'll give up everything."He lifted his hand to grab the hem of my coat

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