"Seriously, top lane is a 1v1 man's duel—what are you doing here, jungler? And our jungler, is he sitting the postpartum month in the jungle or what?"
Lin Fan, immersed in Rise of Kingdoms, snapped back to reality as this line hit his ears.
The voice came from Wayward, seated at the far edge of the room near the water dispenser.
Judging by the tone, he'd just been ganked to death in lane.
Which was perfectly normal. Even at Worlds, he played like this—let alone in daily ranked games. Lin Fan was long used to it.
And Wayward was ambitious. He had his eyes firmly set on TES's starting top lane position.
That was understandable.
Qingtian simply wasn't up to the task, and his mentality wasn't great either—he tilted easily and started inting.
TL: Inting is intentional feeding and dying. Tilting is throwing the game and being bad.
As for Duke, his strength was undeniable, but his age was catching up to him. Keeping pace with the meta was increasingly difficult. He'd been relying on experience for a long time.
If JDG hadn't taken a liking to 369—and if TES hadn't firmly believed their earlier losses were 369's fault—they wouldn't have agreed to swap Zoom in.
Otherwise, Zoom might not have even found a team this season.
Simply put, TES's future in the top lane belonged to Wayward.
Of course, this wasn't just Wayward's ambition.
He'd been promoted from the academy team, and TES clearly intended to develop him. He'd even played in the opening five matches.
His performances were solid, and he'd become part of the rotation with Duke. He definitely had ability.
That said, it might have been because he hadn't yet faced truly elite top laners. Most games were peaceful farm lanes waiting for teamfights.
Plus, Tian occasionally swung by top lane to help, giving Wayward a bit of a "Rookie of the Year" vibe.
When everyone was praising his bright future, Lin Fan alone knew the truth.
It was all just Shockwave.
The current meta suited him.
But when the Worlds patch came, he wouldn't have a single champion he could pull out.
TES finishing ninth at Worlds—top lane Huang played a huge role.
Every game he picked a strong top laner, spammed emotes, and showed off.
Was he really stronger than his opponents?
No.
Not even close.
But he did have one achievement: the only top laner to get beaten by every other top laner in the group stage.
"Nice, nice, nice—beautiful, Mark!"
JackeyLove's shout rang out again. From the looks of it, his early synergy with Mark was going well.
No wonder those two quickly found their rhythm in later matches.
And with Mark's shotcalling, TES no longer looked completely headless.
Lin Fan knew that even with max-proficiency Heimerdinger, without the right game sense, true coordination with the team would still be lacking.
At best, he could gain lane advantages. In teamfights, flaws would still show.
So there was no rush.
He checked the time.
Less than an hour remained on the eight-hour slacking task.
Finally close to getting off work.
These seven-plus hours had flown by. His power in Rise of Kingdoms had already reached 1,700, and he'd opened eight level-five tiles.
That pace was excellent.
But when he checked the rankings, something felt off.
At this speed, he wasn't first—he was third.
First was an ID called Brave Guanguan, second was Brave Uncle Ye.
Clearly a small group that had dropped from the Conquest Season back to S1.
Not to be underestimated.
In just over seven hours, they'd already hit 2,000 power. At twenty-four hours, they could break 5,500—maybe even 6,000.
That kind of opening speed was impressive.
He glanced at his Ma Chao, still recruiting troops.
After some thought, he chose not to pull reserves. The current version no longer allowed reserve abuse.
No rush. There was plenty of time.
Once the eight-hour slacking window ended, it'd still be far from bedtime. He could keep playing.
Competition sparked motivation—strong opponents made things interesting.
Especially since they weren't even in the same state.
The main joy of Rise of Kingdoms was the opening phase.
The earlier you finished level-five tiles, the earlier you could hit Town Hall 7 for barracks, then transition at Town Hall 8.
Speed meant better experience.
And speed depended entirely on card pool depth and strategy experience.
In other words, whales could convert five-star commanders into experience.
Monthly card players had to suffer through three-star commanders and copper coins.
The gap showed immediately.
At his current pace, hitting Town Hall 7 within twenty-four hours was no problem—thirty-six hours to Town Hall 8 was even possible.
At that point, switching to a chopping king build in S1 would be pure slaughter.
Then suddenly—
A surge of foreign knowledge flooded his mind.
For a brief moment, he felt wildly inflated, as if using this champion, he could massacre the professional stage.
Mid lane or support—it made no difference.
So this was max-level Heimerdinger.
Terrifying.
Only four words could describe it.
Ding!
"Eight-hour slacking task completed."
"Max proficiency Heimerdinger acquired."
"100,000 currency reward issued."
His phone buzzed with a text message.
Lin Fan picked it up and saw a 100,000 transfer.
He felt little emotional fluctuation.
Even though his current salary was only 15,000 a month, as rewards scaled up, Heimerdinger wouldn't be his only maxed champion.
At that point, becoming a ten-million-per-year player would be inevitable.
This 100,000 was just startup capital.
Money that made slacking even more comfortable.
"Time for dinner. Might as well reinstall League of Legends…"
Feeling the complete Heimerdinger knowledge in his head, temptation stirred.
Scrims were coming up in the next few days. Even if the coach only let him play once, he couldn't not have the game installed.
That wouldn't be slacking.
That'd be provoking the club.
No stage time—he'd probably be packing up immediately.
The game finished installing.
Maybe duo with JackeyLove tonight?
He glanced at JackeyLove, fully engrossed with Mark.
Better not.
Those two were building synergy. Jumping in now would only disrupt their rhythm.
Still…
Yesterday, JackeyLove had been desperately inviting him to duo.
Today, he'd completely become someone else's.
Men really did change fast.
Brother Jie… Brother Jie.
TL: Why it sound like he's getting back at his cheating girlfriend XD
But thinking about his max-level Heimerdinger, Lin Fan suddenly wanted to know—
In his first ranked game as support Heimer…
Which lucky ADC would it be?
TL: If you want to read ahead by at least ten chapters, patreon.com/EdibleMapleSyrup