After chatting a bit, everyone went back to their own PCs.
As for Lin Fan telling JackeyLove to play CrossFire with him, that was purely a joke. He didn't want Luo Sheng pointing at his nose and cursing him out—especially since he knew JackeyLove's CrossFire aim was pretty slick.
At a critical time like this, training properly was the only correct path. Not everyone had a "cheat" like he did.
Otherwise, he'd definitely want to experience the joy of leveling up through training, instead of only getting to enjoy that "Deep Blue stat allocation" feeling…
But honestly, CrossFire was getting a bit boring.
"Alright. We haven't played League of Legends in a long time. Let's log into the client and see if anything major has changed."
With that, he quickly typed in his account and password and logged in.
Meanwhile, the stream was gradually filling up—college students were around the time they started waking up.
Before getting out of bed, people naturally liked doing a little activity.
Either "pulling out Kun," or finding a livestream to kill time.
TL: Pulling out Kun refers to... well, masturbating.
So the moment they opened Douyu, saw Brother Infinite Borders at the top of the category, they clicked in without thinking.
As the stream loaded, they subconsciously rubbed their eyes.
Did they click the wrong room?
Was this really Brother Infinite Borders' stream?
They checked the title—yep, Brother Infinite Borders.
Was someone sub-streaming for him? No. He streamed every day—why would he need a substitute?
And more importantly, that pig-head face down there—wasn't that literally Brother Infinite Borders?
To be fair, he even looked kind of neat and handsome.
But why was he logging into the League client?
Had he finally awakened—realizing the next matches were important, so he needed to train hard and maintain form for stage?
Nice, nice.
When a hardworking Brother Infinite Borders got serious, he would evolve into… Brother Hero!
For a moment, eighty percent of the room got excited.
The other twenty percent got nervous.
Because it was precisely because Brother Infinite Borders kept distracting himself with random games that he couldn't show 100% of his power—giving the teams they supported a chance to win the title.
If he started working hard…
How terrifying would he be?
What about their favorite teams?
So that twenty percent hung around in Lin Fan's stream every day just to egg him on to play other games.
Because the "new toy" psychology was the same for everyone.
The moment he got bored of one game, they'd hurry to recommend another.
As long as he stayed addicted, they felt safe.
As for Chinese esports?
Whatever.
As long as the team they hated didn't take off, that was enough.
Unless Brother Infinite Borders joined the team they liked—then they'd pray he trained properly.
But today…
For the first time ever, he was logging into the League client on stream.
The pressure instantly spiked.
"Wait—you guys seriously think I'm going to play League?"
"My CN server account decayed all the way down to Platinum 1. Even if I trained there, the intensity wouldn't be high."
"Besides, the League client isn't just Summoner's Rift. You can also play Teamfight Tactics."
"After the Fortune set in S4, I barely played the later sets. It looks like it's Set 7 now. Is there still that lose-streak cashout playstyle?"
"I checked a guide—seems like no. There's only this 'Mirage' thing now. Everything's random."
"Bro, you should recheck the guide's date. Or log into the Palm Assistant app and look. Does this set even have Mirage like you said?"
"Holy—Academy Yone is back in TFT again! Adventurer Xayah Knife's tyranny is over."
"Honestly, this set is boring. I'm already waiting for S8…"
Hearing how poorly everyone rated Set 7, Lin Fan got curious.
Was it really that bad?
To be fair, not many people around him played S7.
The most fun set really was S4.
Armored Sejuani and Aatrox ruled the world.
Plus Fortune lose-streak cashouts—the fun was maxed out.
Without that, TFT really did lose a lot of its charm.
"Ahem… the guide was definitely the wrong one. But since we're already logged into the League client, it'd be weird not to play a couple games, right? We're not actually going to play Summoner's Rift."
"Yare! You're a pro player—why can't you play Summoner's Rift?" A lot of people couldn't lie down anymore. They sat up in bed and started complaining.
At that moment, Lin Fan clicked Find Match.
And surprisingly, there were plenty of TFT players—he got in almost instantly.
"The happiest thing about TFT is reading guides while you play. From what I just saw, the most fun way to make money is Golden Scale. If it goes smoothly, you can even chase a 3-star 5-cost."
"Let's see which units are Golden Scale…"
But at 2-2, during the neutral round, he immediately looted a Volibear.
"Holy—this is Golden Scale? Then what am I missing? Which 1-cost and 2-cost units are in it?"
"Aatrox is Golden Scale too… so I'm only missing one more. Roll, roll."
As he spoke, Lin Fan started searching for the 2-cost Kayn.
The chat spammed laughter.
"Hide Kayn!"
"Rolling for a 2-cost right now is how you roll yourself into bankruptcy."
"But with Volibear, not rolling for Kayn to hit 3 Golden Scale doesn't make sense."
Lin Fan rolled once—missed—and was down to four gold.
The chat laughed even harder.
Gritting his teeth, he rolled again.
"Come on!"
Luck was still on Lin Fan's side. The second roll finally hit, and he bought it without hesitation.
3 Golden Scale online.
"Something's off… there's a dog."
"Holy shit—3 Golden Scale in the first stage? And it's Draven's Axe too. Isn't this basically a free win?"
"I can't accept it! Just find a Swain—this is eaten."
"Hide Idas. If I see you open 5 Golden Scale at level 5, I'm gonna lose it."
Lin Fan moved fast. He slapped Draven's Axe onto Volibear, then started reading the description.
"This item—once it stacks to 100, it instantly pops rewards: ten gold plus a basic component. The more gold you have, the higher the AD bonus… holy, that's insane!"
"Then we need a Guinsoo's. Put it on Xayah or Swain and farm money."
"Nice. 3 Golden Scale strength is pretty solid. We even won this round. Next we go winstreak and preserve HP."
He leveled up, then threw in a 2-star Sett.
With an item advantage, the board was already strong.
To guarantee the streak, he even pushed level 5 and added Karma.
That gave him 3 Dragonmancer and 3 Golden Scale.
"If I want 9 Golden Scale, I need a spatula. With my HP this healthy, getting a spatula from carousel will be hard. We'll see if one drops later."
"At least the early game is smooth. Even if 9 Golden Scale is impossible, 7 Golden Scale is still fine. With max economy, we can try to chase a 3-star 5-cost."
"Holy—!"
Right after hitting level 5, at 2-5, the bottom loot orb lit up purple.
Idas!
The 8-cost boss arrived!
That meant he could open 5 Golden Scale immediately.
Straight to the moon.
The viewers were completely stunned.
Was the first game always this lucky?
"Brother Infinite Borders really does have dog luck…"
"Any game he plays for the first time, he just wins."
"Eat, eat, eat—take huge bites."
"This is Tencent's rescue plan, get it? Let him play TFT first, keep him logging into the client. As long as he logs into the client, playing games is only a matter of time."
But even though everyone was enjoying it, they couldn't accept the second augment choice.
A gold augment—normal.
But Pandora's Bench showed up.
That meant the system wasn't going to hand him a spatula.
And the funniest part?
A fully stacked Draven's Axe popped a B.F. Sword.
Now he could easily open 7 Golden Scale.
Of course, 9 Golden Scale still needed one spatula…
But after the carousel ended, the chat started spamming:
"v50, let me play this game for you!"
"v100—how do you hit TWO Golden Scale Emblems?"
"You have to let me play. 3-star 5-cost is basically being shoved in your face. Just go. At level 8 you can open 9 Golden Scale—find Soraka and Yasuo, print money, winstreak to 9, and full-send rolls."
"Dog-luck streamer. Destined to go nowhere."
"I've watched Brother Infinite Borders for over two months. Two words: TALENT. Real gaming talent—you have to admit it."
With two Golden Scale Emblems, everything was smooth sailing.
He coasted to level 8 and opened 9 Golden Scale.
And since Draven's Axe stacked early and came with extra items, basically every unit had two or three items.
In that state, the board power was maxed out.
Once he had enough gold, he hit level 9 and started full-rolling.
In the final wave, he all-in'd and found 3-star Soraka.
One cast—and Lin Fan's HP bar filled up.
"Hahahaha! Full-HP win—so damn good!"
At full health, Soraka threw out a second cast and deleted the enemy board.
"Woo! Huge success. TFT is so fun. First game and I already hit 3-star Soraka."
Saying that, he couldn't resist and queued up Game 2.
"Honestly, at this time, the TOC tournament is coming soon. If I hurry and hit Challenger, I might catch the last-minute slot. I'll sign up and go grind with them."
Then Lin Fan actually opened the playoff schedule and Douyu's streamer tournament timetable,
and started analyzing whether it was possible…
It really was.
He immediately pulled out his phone and contacted Douyu's staff.
"I'm gonna ask if there are restrictions for pro players entering Douyu's TFT league. If I can sign up, I'm going all-in."
"Holy shit? Brother Infinite Borders is serious?"
"This is hilarious. If you want a pro who doesn't do his job, TES's dine is the strongest!"
"Now that's actually interesting—pro team player entering a TFT tournament. The hype would be insane!"
"I'm noticing you guys are getting a little carried away. Brother Infinite Borders is only Iron II. How many divisions is he away from Challenger? And you're already fantasizing about tournaments?"
At that moment, Lin Fan received Douyu's reply.
The tournament requirements were public anyway:
Meet the rank requirement,
and be a Douyu official streamer.
Lin Fan met both.
Meaning: if he could climb to Challenger during this period, he could represent Douyu in the tournament.
And if he advanced…
He'd face streamers from all platforms on one stage,
and later represent the China region in the next competitions.
How could that not light a fire in him?
Now he finally had something to do, instead of drifting day to day like before.
"Alright. With today's pace, let's first push to Gold."
"In half a month, playoffs will be over, and it'll be the Douyu streamer tournament. The timing lines up perfectly."
"?"
"Wait… is Brother Infinite Borders actually serious? No way."
"Looks kind of serious. I'll vote yes—if he can enter the streamer tournament, he's winning it all!"
"This is gonna be fun. If Brother Infinite Borders really enters the streamer league, the double-identity buff—especially if he wins—just imagining it is hilarious."
"Queue-snipe, queue-snipe! I can't touch Challenger, but I can still run into him in Iron."
"True. Let's play together!"
Nobody really took Lin Fan's plan to enter the TFT streamer tournament seriously.
He was obviously joking—no way he'd actually do it.
After all, he'd just touched Set 7, and he still needed guides to play Golden Scale.
How could he possibly hit Challenger in such a short time?
As the saying goes: dog-luck streamers don't go far.
But with this many viewers, people really did start running into him in ranked afterward.
It was kind of outrageous.
Only very high ranks and very low ranks were easy to match into,
because you could count the player base on your fingers, so you bumped into the same people.
Especially Iron IV—round and round, always the same batch.
And at this rank, games weren't like other ranks at all.
Climbing wasn't important.
Having fun was.
The mindset was pure, so every match was a blast—even if you got stomped.
Otherwise, you wouldn't see nonsense like a "Warlock 9v1" game, where Master Yi refused to surrender and died a hundred times, making everyone furious.
That smurf streamer didn't end well.
Smurfing with skill was one thing—bribing opponents to create a 9v1 was just scummy.
Of course, that was ages ago. Anyone who remembered it was an old player.
As soon as people matched into Lin Fan and typed in all chat, everyone knew it was him.
Instant content.
They didn't "play together"—they hard-contested.
Missing one component? They'd go steal it.
An ultra-lucky player was a special species—far beyond what these unlucky souls could compete with.
While everyone contested, Lin Fan casually hit 3-star "Dump Truck."
"Holy—what am I even looking at? He's playing Adventurer Xayah, but Brother Infinite Borders hits 3-star Sy'fen?"
"And you say you aren't cheating? I'm sick."
"While everyone is contesting Xayah, Brother Infinite Borders quietly pulls out 3-star Dump Truck!"
"The angry dump truck runs everyone over."
"I'm dying…"
But as the day passed, the result of JDG vs WBG came out.
In the end, JDG edged it 3–2 and eliminated WBG.
TheShy's playoff run came to an end.
Meanwhile, Lin Fan was eating wins nonstop, and his rank had already climbed to Platinum II.
Only then did people start to feel something was off.
His win rate was way too high—even with people targeting him.
Thinking back to what Brother Infinite Borders said…
Could he really hit Challenger in ten-plus days?
Then represent Douyu in the tournament…
If so, the truly terrifying scenario would appear:
Would he actually cut through the streamer league, then represent China in the TOC global event?
TL: If you want to read ahead by at least ten chapters, patreon.com/EdibleMapleSyrup