In just a short while, across major livestream platforms, female streamers' rooms were getting spammed one after another with "Brother Infinite Borders matchmaking" messages.
And honestly, the energy these adorable fans unleashed was beyond imagination.
It shot straight onto Weibo trending.
For TES fans, this was a big deal.
What's going on with Brother Infinite Borders? Why did he suddenly start "looking for a partner"?
People were confused, watching in bewilderment.
But plenty of people with ideas quietly took note of the news.
At the end of the day, you had to try. What if, like those other girls before, you caught an opportunity?
You never know.
If you became part of the "pro players' wives circle," you'd be a socialite.
Spending the money players gave you, sitting in cafés drinking coffee and eating cake—wouldn't that be beautiful?
Especially Brother Infinite Borders.
That physique, that face.
And not to mention his annual income was terrifying.
Of course, more people started digging into how this rumor even spread.
And when they heard what Lin Fan said, most of them couldn't hold it in and just broke down crying.
"I've never used a grid notebook either. Brother Infinite Borders really has had a hard life."
"To reach this level, he must've paid a lot. I was wrong… back when Brother Infinite Borders played support, I cursed him plenty."
"Same…"
"I was wrong, I was wrong. I'm going to his livestream and buying a membership."
"I'll go too. Six bucks isn't much."
…
Meanwhile, the first to receive the news were the Douyu female streamers.
They couldn't hold back. One batch after another poured into Lin Fan's livestream.
"Brother~ I heard you're looking for a girlfriend? Do I have a chance?"
"I'm 36D, top-tier figure, flat stomach, and I'm a TES fan…"
"Brother Infinite Borders, I love watching your matches. Your lane pressure is insane, you're the number one domestic top laner—can you carry your little sister in games?"
Lin Fan was completely stunned watching several female streamers pop up.
What the hell? Some of you don't even know what position I play?
Fine—package deal.
Muted for a year.
But seriously, how did my stream suddenly get filled with so much weird stuff?
"Ahem. Don't spread nonsense, don't mess around. I never said anything like that. How did it get twisted into me 'looking for a partner'?"
"My scalp is tingling. So this is the power of the internet? Now I've finally seen what 'rumors come from nothing' really means."
"No. Let me say it again: I'm not trying to find a partner, and I don't feel lonely. I was just saying policies are good. If the orphanage hadn't taken me in, even if I didn't starve to death, there's no way I could be a pro player today."
Even if he shouted himself hoarse insisting it was false, it didn't stop more and more female streamers from flooding in.
Not only that—even Luo Sheng next door got alarmed.
He pushed the door open and shouted at Lin Fan, "I thought you didn't have that idea. If you do, I can introduce my cousin to you. She's a good age match too—same as you, born in '98."
"No, no. I didn't say any of that. The fans are talking nonsense and twisting my meaning. I never brought up this topic, and I don't like '98 anyway. I'm a young player—how could I possibly play against someone born in '98?"
"I like someone a bit older. Three years older is best. A woman three years older is a gold brick to hold."
"No interest? That's a pity. My cousin is pretty great. Graduated from a normal university. Sweet girl."
"…"
"Coach, that's too biased. I'm your player too. Why don't you introduce someone to me?" Da Huang leaned his head over when he heard that.
Luo Sheng rolled his eyes so hard he almost said those two words out loud.
Huang Renxing had some self-awareness. Seeing Luo Sheng's expression, he immediately sat back down.
"You young guys are still immature. One little breeze and you can't hold it. You need more practice. Look at the match you played—nobody asked you to carry, but at least don't become a burden to the team."
"If your ranked history doesn't exceed fifteen games today, you won't be scrimming this week," Luo Sheng said.
"Okay, Coach…" Da Huang replied immediately.
If the team didn't schedule him for scrims, that meant he wouldn't be playing in upcoming matches.
He'd just played a game and got completely outclassed by Qingtian. There was no way he could accept getting benched after that.
So fifteen ranked games today—he couldn't miss a single one. He immediately queued up for ranked.
The viewers couldn't help laughing when they heard White Moon's double standard.
"This substitute top is pretty funny. Doesn't know his place."
"I really didn't expect White Moon would try to introduce his cousin to Brother Infinite Borders."
"Come on. With Brother Infinite Borders' conditions, how many people would line up to throw themselves at him? Look at how many internet chickens are flooding in."
"Go spam high-quality streamers. Don't bother with these internet chickens."
"And make sure it's someone higher quality than Brother Infinite Borders, older than '98. With this many witnesses in chat, he definitely won't pick a bad girl."
Watching the chaotic chat, Lin Fan felt for the first time that overly enthusiastic viewers were genuinely a headache.
"Alright, alright. Anyone else want to Gomoku solo? I'll show you what TES's number one chess player looks like—god-tier move!"
Lin Fan hurriedly said, trying to change the subject.
And it worked. His terrible Gomoku instantly reignited tons of roasting.
"I can't understand how someone can be this bad at Gomoku. That was so obvious!"
"Yeah… but considering what Brother Infinite Borders said earlier, maybe think twice before you type that."
"…"
Lin Fan watched everyone start roasting his Gomoku again and thought—maybe it was actually more comfortable when they were discussing how to find him a partner.
"Don't look at me like I'm bad at Gomoku. I'm actually good at Go. If we had more time, I'd go on Fox Go and bully you guys."
He glanced at the time—it was already 1:30 p.m. Naraka's officials were already calling for him to enter the room.
There really wasn't time.
"I'm not bragging. If I weren't a League pro, I'd have become a professional Go player."
"Pro qualification? No time to qualify. I'll just say it here: I can pass easily."
As he spoke, he entered the official room code and waited for the Naraka matches to begin.
"Brother Infinite Borders isn't bluffing, right? He says it so confidently… it almost sounds real."
"I also feel like it might be real… but he's so terrible at Gomoku. Can he really play Go?"
"Go and Gomoku aren't directly related… but after playing Go, people definitely play Gomoku."
"I play Go, and honestly, we never play Gomoku after. A Go game takes too long—'old-man grinder' isn't just a joke. After one game you just want to rest."
"Does that mean Brother Infinite Borders really knows Go?"
"Hard to say. Fifty-fifty. Probably more about saving face."
Lin Fan glanced at the chat and saw everyone still talking, so he simply closed his eyes to rest.
This was exactly the same state he had in the MSI finals.
It was called Brother Infinite Borders' unique way of adjusting.
People guessed he only did this before important matches.
And now, with Naraka's knockout stage about to start, he entered this state again—clearly he was getting serious.
Even after the matches began, the topic didn't shift much.
But the match intensity had clearly risen a lot.
In knockout stage, you ran into pros the moment you stepped outside. Even Lin Fan found it a little taxing.
Right after landing, he dealt with the Wolves team's solo player Kaibao. Then an ambusher, Xiangxiang, showed up. If Lin Fan hadn't been comfortable on Canaan and burned two escapes, he might not have survived the pursuit.
That scene made the Naraka planners' scalps go numb.
They almost thought Brother Infinite Borders was about to get knocked out.
Thankfully, it didn't happen.
Close call.
After testing the intensity, Lin Fan stopped playing as aggressively as before.
He began looking for opportunities slowly. In this kind of match, playing like a rat was actually pretty fitting—
Unless there was truly a one-on-one chance.
After all, most opponents didn't bring Blue armor. Even if Lin Fan was already charging an attack, they'd use instant step to interrupt it.
Lin Fan's strongest reaction-based plays didn't have much effect.
The core was parry. If you can't parry, you have to win on fundamentals.
So deciding the winner was hard. And if another rat like before appeared, it would be troublesome.
He fought his way into the final circle and only got six elimination points.
But at this point, everyone felt it was basically stable. Game One would surely be around twenty points—after that, just play for placement.
The higher your placement, the higher your elimination multiplier.
But Lin Fan wasn't the type to just turtle.
In the final circle, he drew most of the aggro. Even though he got focused and only took third place, he still grabbed three more eliminations in the final circle.
As a result, his score ended up higher than first place's.
21.4 points—leading.
Those pros stared at the rankings, feeling their faces burn.
Before the match started, no one thought Brother Infinite Borders could actually take first place.
Game One didn't end with a chicken dinner, but getting first in placement points was already absurd. This was a sixty-player lobby with thirteen pros.
So in Game Two, those pros set a very clear target: kill Canaan.
Because Lin Fan always picked Canaan in solo.
But in Game Two, Lin Fan directly swapped to Kurumi.
Kurumi isn't as strong in solos, but plenty of people still use her.
When all the Canaans got eliminated and "top dine" still didn't appear in the kill feed, everyone realized something was off.
After reaching the final circle, when Kurumi killed the last player and the ID appeared, everyone finally realized Brother Infinite Borders had swapped heroes.
This game he got even fewer kills, but Lin Fan took first place. His elimination multiplier reached 1.7, and his total still exceeded twenty points.
Two-game total still firmly in first place. Compared to the players behind him, qualifying pressure wasn't big.
The planners were grinning too. Brother Infinite Borders making the solo finals still brought heat.
His skill really was good. Even with so many pros, his performance was still excellent.
Then trio stage should have some impact too…
But the viewers in Lin Fan's livestream noticed that after he won, his expression didn't look happy.
Instead, he looked… confused.
"That Kurumi was so clean. I remember Brother Infinite Borders' first hero was Kurumi."
"He got a chicken dinner. Why does he look like that? Does he not want to win?"
"Two games, first in group!"
"So many pros… even Xiang Yu, who's insanely strong in solo. He just dueled Brother Infinite Borders and still lost."
"I heard you guys saying Brother Infinite Borders could just go pro in Naraka. I thought it was all hype, but now I'm convinced. No problem at all."
"Yeah, but his expression is weird. Two games in, still first, and he's not smiling. It's kind of… subtle."
In reality, the reason for that expression was simple:
The slacking task completed, and the reward shocked Lin Fan.
"Detected host's Syndra proficiency at max. Switching reward…"
"Professional Go Rank: 2-dan…"
In an instant, massive amounts of Go knowledge flooded his brain.
"Holy shit. I said earlier I could play Go, and now I actually can! No—System, I was just kidding!"
What level is professional 2-dan, anyway?
Lin Fan was extremely curious…
Could it be he should actually enter a pro qualification tournament? Go doesn't really affect pro league play much.
But… is there any need?
TL: If you want to read ahead by at least ten chapters, patreon.com/EdibleMapleSyrup