Chapter 63: A New Potential Scouted

As the storm circle began to shrink, I kept my scope trained on the ridge ahead, keeping one eye on Luna’s character model.

She was moving with uncanny precision. Her initial stiff, hesitation-filled beginner movement was completely gone. Every slide-cancel, wall-bounce, and corner-peek she pulled off was executed with pinpoint, fluid perfection.

She wasn’t a noob. She was an absolute predator hiding behind a default skin.

I tapped my interface overlay to check her profile stats, catching a detail I had missed in the lobby. Her account icon was flagged with a default male tag—a clever decoy to dodge the relentless toxicity of the average gaming server. In a game filled with insecure dudes who automatically assumed female players were dead weight, she had kept her mouth shut until the absolute last second to avoid the usual harassment.

And now, she was casually tearing the lobby apart.

[Combat Log: Enemy Squad Detected – Distance: 150m] [Target 1 Status: Shields Cracked (Luna_Sky)] [Target 2 Status: ELIMINATED (Luna_Sky – Headshot with Custom Sniper)] [Target 3 Status: ELIMINATED (Luna_Sky – Close-Quarters SMG Spray)]

A full, fully-geared squad had ambushed her in the industrial courtyard, and she had wiped all three of them in under four seconds. It wasn’t just good aiming; it was high-level tactical movement.

Our dead, spectating teammate was dead silent on the team comms now, his banner hovering in shame over the hot drop zone while he watched Luna work.

"Nice shots," I said casually through my mic, racking a round into my own rifle as I covered her flank.

Luna unmuted her mic, a subtle, dry chuckle escaping her throat—a far cry from the timid girl from five minutes ago.

"Thanks," she said softly, her voice cool and completely relaxed under pressure. "Sorry about the quiet act earlier. You get tired of being told to go back to the kitchen before the match even starts, so I usually just stay on mute."

[System Alert: 3 Squads Remaining] [Zone Shrinking in: 10 Seconds]

"I get it," I replied, scoping out two enemy squads firing at each other near the final zone. "Let’s clean this lobby up and get out of here."

While lining up a cover angle for her, a sudden thought struck me. My system had worked on women trapped in toxic corporate contracts, but could it scan someone across a network connection?

I focused my mind, silently calling up the golden translucent interface in my vision.

[System Scanning Target: ’Luna_Sky’...] [Target Identification: Female / Online Entity] [Current Fame / Value Rating: 3.6 / 10 (Severely Suppressed, Hidden Identity, High Algorithmic Suppression)] [Hidden Potential Rating: 9.5 / 10 (S-Rank Pro Gaming / Streaming Apex)] [Evaluation: World-class reflexes, elite mechanical foresight, and extreme market potential as a top-tier professional esports athlete and global stream icon.] [Investment Opportunity Detected!]

A slow, cold smirk spread across my face as I stared at the glowing text. A 9.5 potential rating sitting behind a default skin, using a fake male profile tag just to avoid getting harassed by low-tier randoms.

[Combat Log: Enemy Squad Eliminated] [CHAMPION!]

The victory banner flashed gold across the three curved monitors.

"GG," Luna’s voice came soft and calm through my headset as the match summary screen loaded up. "You played solid support, Noob_Ethan. Thanks for not being annoying like our third."

"Good game," I said, leaning back in my leather seat, my eyes fixed on her hidden stats.

As an investor, walking away from an S-Rank asset hiding right in front of me was out of the question. I clicked her profile name and hit Add Friend, then pulled open a private direct message window.

"You’ve got world-champion mechanics," I typed into the private chat, keeping my tone casual but direct. "Why are you playing on a dead account instead of stomping high-tier tournaments?"

A few seconds passed before her reply popped up.

Luna_Sky: "Lol thanks. But tournaments cost money to team up for, hardware costs a fortune, and sponsors don’t take female gamers seriously unless they act like twitch eye-candy. I’d rather just play for fun."

I leaned into my desk mic, speaking directly into the squad audio before she could exit the lobby.

"What if someone funded the hardware, built you a team, and backed you completely?"

I asked calmly. "No trash corporate contracts, no fake personas. Just pure skill."

Luna let out a dry, quiet laugh through the headset.

"Who?" she asked, her voice dripping with plain skepticism.

"Me," I said plainly.

"Right," she replied, clearly not taking a single word seriously. "Look, no offense, ’Noob_Ethan,’ but every actually rich guy who plays this game drops thousands of dollars on physical glowing heirlooms, legendary skins, and ultra-rare weapon flairs just to flex. You’re running the literal free default skin and a standard banner. Even I’m using a cheap battle pass skin. So forgive me if I don’t instantly believe you’re some secret multi-millionaire esports backer."

I didn’t waste my energy trying to argue with her or convince her over squad chat. Actions speak louder than typed promises every single time.

While she was talking, I pulled up a browser on my second monitor, searched her gamer tag, and found her live broadcast feed on a major streaming platform.

Sure enough, she was live. Her stream view count was sitting at a depressing twelve viewers, buried under thousands of bloated, corporate-backed channels. Her camera was off, her layout was completely default, and she had a simple text overlay at the bottom of the screen reading: Saving up for a decent microphone and GPU.

I watched as she queued up for her next solo match, totally unaware that the default-skin teammate she had just carried was currently staring at her stream layout from an underground gaming bunker built into a multi-million-dollar estate.

I clicked the Donate button right under her live stream, pulled out my primary account details, and entered a number that was about to break her brain.

I clicked the button, sending a massive wave of 10,000 gifted subscriptions straight into her tiny, quiet channel under the username Noob_Ethan