Seeing the task reward, Lin Fan didn't dwell on it for long. Anyway, once he finished today's slacking task, he'd know what was going on.
Still, he couldn't help looking forward to it.
With a neat carp-flip, he sprang out of bed.
He brushed his teeth and washed up at top speed, then rushed to the cafeteria to settle breakfast first. There was a lot to do today. Even though there was no pro league match, the solo queue tournament started at 2 p.m., and according to the plan, the trio matches would start at 6 p.m.
With the Naraka: Bladepoint event having run this long, NetEase had become pretty experienced with schedule and format arrangements.
Generally, there wouldn't be any major deviations.
Of course, all the major forums were lively today.
"Really looking forward to Brother Infinite Borders getting crushed. If he can't win and gets eliminated, he can finally focus completely on the pro league."
"Not that far, not that far. Honestly, I think Brother Infinite Borders has to keep being 'unprofessional.' Seeing that kind of scene gives me confidence."
"Hold on—why would you be happy about a player being unprofessional? That's insane. Did Brother Infinite Borders CPU you?"
"What does CPU mean? You mean PUA."
TL: PUA in Chinese context means to psychologically manipulate/gaslight someone
"Spotted an honest guy. Everyone hurry up and bully this honest guy!"
"But that's actually how it feels. When I see Brother Infinite Borders playing League, I panic. When I see him playing other games, I feel calm, like the league will definitely be fine and today's win is guaranteed.
All I can say is Brother Infinite Borders has a trick. If you learn from him in relationships, you'll be invincible. The push-and-pull is taken to the extreme."
"Talking about that is pointless. I suggest everyone just enjoy Brother Infinite Borders' performance today."
"No one cares about Knight? I heard from backstage staff that Homme scolded him stupid. He couldn't say a word in the lounge. From yesterday until now, he hasn't played a single ranked game."
"What's there to care about? I saw his true nature long ago. Against strong teams he disappears, against weak teams he goes all out. It's just those little haters being possessed, trying to hype Knight up to trash Brother Infinite Borders and JackeyLove.
But since TES can keep winning, it doesn't really matter."
"Honestly he's not wrong. This is the current pro environment. I still can't understand—given his scandals, why do so many people still try to hype him? Those little haters are ridiculous. In other circles he'd have been banned ages ago!"
Stealing someone else's girlfriend really is a serious moral issue. In ancient times, you'd get thrown into the pig cage.
And yet he still had fans supporting him. Absurd.
Normally, people would all be shouting for him to be condemned. Even if you could survive in pro play, you'd be the type with zero fans.
But before TES versus JDG even began, there were tons of fans cheering and supporting him.
"Black fans gone insane" wasn't wrong at all. At this point they didn't even know right from wrong.
All you could say was: basic human decency is a good thing… unfortunately this group didn't have it.
Sure, if Knight played well, having fans would be fine. But he doesn't even play well…
"Big bro is insane. You're my internet spokesperson."
"Talking about this is pointless. Brother Infinite Borders is live—watching the stream is more fun."
"I'm crying. Brother Infinite Borders goes between three points every day. He has no personal life at all."
"A pure pro player is like that. Good news: training early in the morning. Bad news: it's not League."
Lin Fan's livestream.
Seeing his morning viewer count break seven or eight million was nothing new. If it were a weekend, ten million would be easy.
"Solo queue? No pressure. Twenty minutes and another chicken dinner," Lin Fan spread his hands toward the camera.
"It's too early—these pro players aren't even awake yet. High-ranked Naraka pubs are still a bit lacking. The skill range is huge. For me it's pretty easy. They're probably in the practice room, preparing for this afternoon's solo tournament."
Lin Fan glanced at the livestream chat.
"As for the tournament… it's fine. It's solo, and there are no IDs. You only know it's me after you kill someone, so it's not like they can gang up on me. Plus, fewer players is actually good for me—I can perform better."
"League, huh… It's not training time yet, right?" He glanced at his lit-up champion pool—barely over forty champions.
There were already 160 champions in the game, and more would be released each year.
Only after mastering all champions could he stream League every day. Otherwise, he could only keep slacking… being 'unprofessional.'
Especially this time—
The system even pulled a duplicate champion reward.
Syndra…
That was a big problem.
If he followed the original pace, even without 100% mastery, he'd still be over 50%. At this speed, another year would be enough to master all champions. But if the system kept rolling duplicate champions, that was trouble.
Was the system watching him play Infinite Borders too much? Was it starting to copy NetEase's bad habits—no longer dropping new cards?
TL: sob what
It never learned the good things, only this kind of nonsense.
"Slacking time: 3 hours, 3 minutes, and 27 seconds…"
Three hours already?
A little bored.
What time did Dai Laoliu and the others play until last night? It was already noon and they still weren't awake?
Maybe eat lunch and come back to wait for the solo tournament?
He rubbed his stomach—not really hungry. But the problem was that the afternoon would be high-intensity competition, and he didn't even know if he'd have time to eat.
If he didn't, the matches would run until after 9 p.m., close to 10. That would be too late.
"Cough cough. Brothers in the stream, wait a moment. I'm going to grab lunch. When I come back, it'll be about time to prep for the tournament."
Of course, he didn't turn the stream off.
The camera was aimed at the chair.
"Brother Infinite Borders' livestream chair, monthly income: one million."
"How did he vanish in a blink? Where'd he go?"
"Eating lunch. Afternoon schedule is packed. Honestly, I'm looking forward to it."
Even though Lin Fan wasn't at the computer anymore, the stream's popularity not only didn't drop—it rose. Barrage messages rolled by in dense sheets.
After all, JackeyLove was still in the training room.
Early in the morning, he was already shouting, "Your mom's kiss!"
And honestly, listening to JackeyLove perform like that was pretty entertaining too.
"Come on, come kill me! Come on, come on!"
"Your mom's kiss!"
"Hahahaha, I can't take it. TES's double carry are really talents. One slacks all day, the other keeps yelling for people to come chop him."
"Hurry and make JackeyLove stream. It's missing a little flavor when he doesn't stream."
"JackeyLove only streamed once—on the day Mark got bullied. After that, he's just been training."
"Honestly, this is good. Full focus on training. A player like Brother Infinite Borders is one of a kind in the whole league."
"There's a second one though, right? Genshin Bro."
"Genshin Bro actually trains, and he plays a lot of ranked too. Brother Infinite Borders is truly unique. You only see him training other games. When he participates in TFT, he trains TFT. When he participates in Naraka, he trains Naraka."
"In a sense, Brother Infinite Borders really is a pure pro player."
"But I feel like Brother Infinite Borders and Yu Shuang have something going on in interviews. They seem really familiar."
"No way, right? Didn't Yu Shuang and Guan Zeyuan get back together?"
"Who said they got back together?"
"Your news is so slow. When some random person showed up at Yu Shuang's place, she called Guan Zeyuan immediately. In the middle of the night, he sprinted to her place. Doesn't that prove something? They just don't plan to announce it again."
"Yu Shuang 'Auntie' still has that charm. Guan Dog is so lucky. Bliss."
"We call her Auntie, but Yu Shuang is a 90s kid. 'Still charming' feels like a weird description."
"It's okay. Smashable. But I think Rita is prettier in the League scene. I suggest Brother Infinite Borders pursue her!"
"Bold. Brother Infinite Borders only needs to be beautiful alone. Pursue my ass. If anyone's pursuing, it should be Rita pursuing him. Girl chasing guy is easy. While no one's made a move yet, the single female casters and hosts in the scene should try."
"JackeyLove is the classic example, right? But I really think that one was because they were exemplary: one studying abroad, one grinding esports, growing together…"
"Luo Xin has a lot of… poses. Too bad she got wasted on Wang Lao'er."
"Besides these… it feels like there's no one. The real option is Rita, right?"
"Hey, expand the range. Rich older sister isn't impossible. Isn't Miss good?"
Even if the stream was only showing an esports chair, everyone still chatted with enthusiasm.
When it comes to gossip, guys can be even more outrageous than girls.
Sometimes they act like they don't want to talk about it—but their ears are practically standing up.
Then they go home and secretly search it online.
As for pro players dating—so long as it doesn't affect results, most people don't really oppose it.
After all, the esports "model couple" is Rookie and Xiaoyu, and the "model married couple" is Doinb and Tang Xiaoyou.
See? "Wife buff" is a real thing.
Rookie and Doinb both won Worlds.
And everyone's age is up there. Getting lonely and wanting to date is normal. It's not like celebrities whose market value drops the moment they date.
Of course, stealing someone else's girlfriend is still unforgivable.
TL: tsk tsk so that's what Knight was doing.
Lin Fan stayed in the training room playing games all day—obviously a top-tier single dog—so fans naturally started caring about his lifelong happiness.
But after looking around, there really weren't many suitable options.
When Lin Fan came back from lunch and saw how chaotic the chat had become, he was completely confused.
Good grief.
His life plans had been arranged. They even planned how many kids he'd have?
The viewers didn't just want to be his "food and clothing parents"—they wanted to be his parents in real life too?
He checked the time. There was still an hour and a half until the Naraka match.
He couldn't play many games in that time, so he might as well interact with viewers.
He still remembered the scene from his first day after rebirth, when haters blew him up.
He had to get that back.
He rolled up his sleeves and said to the camera, "Bring me some haters. Gomoku solo!"
Then he immediately opened QQ Games, found Gomoku, entered a room, and sat there waiting for haters to arrive.
The livestream chat exploded.
"The trash chess player is back?"
"This is the only game I can beat Brother Infinite Borders at. Don't stop me—let me teach him a lesson!"
"The dumb ones are still typing. The smart ones already went in."
And that was true. Two seconds after Lin Fan sat down, someone entered the room.
"Hello, Brother Infinite Borders! I'm your fan!"
"Cough cough. Words are useless. Don't think that just because you typed you're a fan I'll go easy. I'll end this within 20 moves."
Before the game even started, he talked big.
Then three minutes later—he got slapped in the face.
The fan's white pieces formed five-in-a-row.
Who dares say Uzi can't do it now? The real "white piece" stands right in front of you!
"Hahahaha, I can't take it, I'm dying…"
"Brother Infinite Borders is pretty funny. So this is how he plans to 'educate haters' with his Gomoku technique?"
"Don't slander him. That's a fan. Precisely because it's a fan, Brother Infinite Borders intentionally gave him a game."
The barrage messages flooded in waves. It was obvious that everyone was delighted because Lin Fan lost at Gomoku.
No one knew how other players were at Gomoku, but Brother Infinite Borders was truly awful…
"Hahaha, just looking at him, you can tell he never played Gomoku on a grid notebook during class."
Seeing that message, Lin Fan said, "That's true. I've never used a grid notebook. From childhood to now, I never have… If it weren't for good policies, growing up in an orphanage, I wouldn't even have been able to go to school."
Then he smiled at the camera.
TL: ;-; my heart
In an instant, the entire livestream went cold.
"…"
The person who typed that message couldn't help slapping themselves twice.
I'm a beast! Why would I type that? What am I doing?
"Brother Infinite Borders, I'm sorry! I really didn't mean it!"
"Ahhh, Brother Infinite Borders, Brother Infinite Borders!"
"Rate baby don't cry! Big sis hugs you! Big sis feels so bad for you!"
Only then did many people react. Brother Infinite Borders might look cheerful in chat and stay in the training room all day, but in reality, he really had nowhere else to go.
Because he was an orphan.
Other than staying at the club, where could he go?
"It's fine. It's been over twenty years. I'm used to it."
"Hahaha, you can't get distracted when playing chess. I won this one, right?"
Lin Fan happily showed off his five-in-a-row to the viewers.
He looked genuinely happy.
But after thinking of that heavy topic… how could anyone's mood change instantly?
"Seeing Brother Infinite Borders like this, my heart hurts…"
"Brother Infinite Borders… so you were never truly happy. No wonder you play these games all day—to distract yourself."
"Brothers, I think we should put that topic back on the agenda. Being alone really is too lonely. I'm going to other streams to post matchmaking ads!"
At this point the barrage went even further off the rails.
Weird.
Stop overthinking things!
Recommended: A friend's new book, "LOL: My Teammates Keep Grinding and I Keep Getting Stronger." It's about playing Onmyoji. If you're interested, check it out.
TL: Here's the book the author recommended
Title: LOL: My Teammate's Inner Volume, I'm Getting Stronger (LOL:队友内卷,我越来越强)
Author: Qing Shizi (青石子)
Main Character: Lin Huan
Where to read: Qidian Chinese website (起点中文网)
Status: Completed
Description: The protagonist Lin Huan is a professional League of Legends player who gets reborn with a system. The interesting twist is that he just wants to earn enough money to play Onmyoji (阴阳师, the mobile game he calls "itchy mouse"), but his teammates keep grinding harder which makes him stronger through the system. It's a system-flow esports novel with a lighthearted tone.
If you want to read ahead by at least ten chapters, patreon.com/EdibleMapleSyrup