Lin Fan had no idea that the foul-mouthed Koreans speaking fluent Mandarin had already taken a serious interest in him, spending the entire night studying his match VODs.
Because right now, he was exhausted.
Still, after receiving professional-player guidance and going through high-intensity blade practice, his longsword techniques were finally starting to look the part. At the very least, he could trade a few blows with others now instead of being completely helpless.
All of it came from hard training—an overwhelming sense of achievement.
At 11:40 p.m., he finally finished today's slacking task. That was just how days with matches were—time was always uncomfortably tight.
"Task reward distributed."
"Future Guardian: max proficiency. Game Sense +5%."
"Panel update complete."
Host: Lin Fan
Champion Pool:
Heimerdinger (100%),
Vladimir (100%),
Blitzcrank (100%),
Syndra (100%),
Varus (100%),
Viktor (100%),
Kalista (100%),
Jayce (100%).
Passive Bonuses:
Game Sense +30%,
Mechanics +25%,
Farming +5%.
Although the champion pool now contained a bunch of random picks, at least he wouldn't feel shackled in actual matches. He wouldn't instantly "retire on the spot" just because one champion got banned. Barely qualified as a champion puddle.
The only pity was that he still lacked current meta mid-laners.
Still, Jayce was an urgent lifesaver. Even though he was addicted to Rise of Kingdoms and Naraka: Bladepoint, his heart had always belonged to League of Legends.
So he was very clear about the upcoming league opponents.
Five days later—Saturday—the opponent would be LNG.
And LNG's mid laner was none other than the system-defying Doinb.
Plenty of people domestically loved him, plenty hated him, but there was no denying that he had always been a top-tier mid laner in the league.
His champion choices had a bit of that "Mid-lane Overlord" vibe, but unlike Overlord, Doinb often secured mid priority first, then used it to get his teammates ahead.
Especially after Ale decided to stop slacking off, LNG's oppressive power had returned.
Doinb's investment into the side lanes was no longer wasted.
Ale could carry like a god.
As a result, LNG's record was steadily climbing.
No one knew how far they would go, but they were definitely a playoff-caliber team.
A formidable enemy.
Having Jayce would add another layer of win probability in Saturday's match.
As for mid-lane Kalista… sure, it might work against Ucal or Teacher Ma, but against players of this caliber, it was basically feeding.
Switching games—now came the happiest part of the night: Rise of Kingdoms.
My Ma Chao was starving for blood.
Time to chop. Time to chop.
He charged out enthusiastically—only to go limp after three seconds.
Damn it. Ma Dai really was Ma Chao's lifelong nemesis!
How could he possibly lose?
Thankfully, the spellblade squad came in with a one-versus-four sweep.
S1 Spirit Emperor spellblade was still insane.
Against these ragtag teams, it was one slash per unit. Too bad S1 couldn't climb mountains, or the merit points would've been flying through the roof.
Watching his spellblade massacre everything in sight finally eased the frustration of Ma Chao getting shattered.
He could go to sleep in a pretty good mood.
Knowing when to stop—night battles were coming up next.
Charging out to hit enemies took way too long.
February 23rd, Wednesday. Two matches today.
They had nothing to do with TES, but after dinner, JackeyLove still sat down early at his computer and entered the league livestream.
"Do you guys think Old Song has any tricks up his sleeve against his junior today?"
"Rookie's form is really good right now. V5 is already on a seven-win streak. EDG is just starting to recover. V5 should probably take this one," Mark said.
"Though the process might be a bit rough."
After all, this was EDG—the reigning World Champions. Some respect was still due.
But the actual match gave Mark zero respect.
V5, riding a seven-win streak, was in peak form. Everyone was popping off.
Game one ended in 26 minutes.
Game two was decided when Rookie's Orianna pulled a four-man Shockwave, locking in the win. EDG's base was flattened in just 24 minutes.
Both games combined took under 50 minutes.
Eight wins in a row.
Terrifying dominance.
"V5's momentum is kind of insane."
"Yeah, if they keep this up, it feels like the Spring Split won't be anyone else's game."
"There's still a long way to go. Has the coach arranged any scrims?"
"Seems like they're set, but I don't know who the opponent is," JackeyLove replied to Mark.
"If only Fan-ge could keep up this form…" At this stage of the league, there were only seven matches left, and every remaining opponent was a tough nut to crack. If mid lane suddenly collapsed, the pressure on him would skyrocket.
Just look at the first half of the Spring Split—because Knight underperformed, he alone couldn't carry games. TES ended up posting their worst record in history: six straight losses.
As JackeyLove thought of this, his gaze subconsciously shifted toward Lin Fan.
He noticed Lin Fan was currently fighting on the front lines.
When Naraka: Bladepoint first got popular, JackeyLove had played it for a while himself.
So he could clearly feel that Lin Fan's mechanics had become smoother.
He'd improved.
As expected of Fan-ge.
"Damn!" Why was he even thinking like this? Naraka was fine as a way to kill time when there were no matches, but if someone seriously trained it like a pro esport… wouldn't he end up switching games like GodV?
"…It might actually be necessary to have Fan-ge practice a bit at night."
Mainly because after watching V5's match, JackeyLove was feeling immense pressure.
He had no idea what road lay ahead for TES.
The main issue was that Lin Fan never trained seriously—there was no real peace of mind.
But at that moment, his eyes widened.
After finishing Naraka: Bladepoint, Lin Fan actually opened the League of Legends client.
Fan-ge… my Fan-ge… was he finally getting serious?
JackeyLove quickly pulled out his phone, snapped a photo, and sent it to Luo Sheng.
In the coaching room, Luo Sheng jumped up from his seat the moment he saw the picture.
He hurriedly put on his shoes and sprinted toward the training room.
The other players on the team were equally shocked by the scene.
Lin Fan mainly wanted to test the hero reward he'd obtained from completing today's task—Shaco.
Many people considered Shaco an absolutely disgusting champion.
But being disgusting to others felt completely different.
That's right—Lin Fan planned to hop in and disgust a certain little Korean.
He locked in Shaco and waited to enter the game.
As one Sunshine Boy game came to an end, Lin Fan felt exceptionally refreshed.
So damn satisfying. He had tortured his opponents all game—endless magic tricks, baiting them into stepping on boxes, then vanishing into stealth.
Sure enough, Sunshine Boy existed purely for happiness.
He stretched lazily.
"Huh?"
There was a whole crowd standing behind him.
"…Why are you all standing behind me?"
TL: If you want to read ahead by at least ten chapters, patreon.com/EdibleMapleSyrup