Lin Fan logged into Rise of Kingdoms, then went to the water bar to grab a bottle of water before happily sitting back down at his station.
He then turned on the stream.
Ever since TES won the MSC in 2020, the entire team had signed streaming contracts with Douyu.
Although their Spring Split results were terrible, the platform's promotion never stopped. The moment Lin Fan went live, traffic was immediately pushed to his stream.
In fact, after winning the match that afternoon, many viewers had already been camping on Douyu.
TES had just ended a six‑loss streak, and JackeyLove hadn't streamed for over a month. People wanted to see whether he would go live after the win.
Instead, they ran straight into Lin Fan.
As a result, not long after the stream started, a large wave of viewers flooded in.
The chat immediately became lively.
Compared to before, the tone of the comments was noticeably gentler.
"Is this Rise of Kingdom Bro's stream? I play Rise of Kingdoms too—what server are you on? Let's play together."
"Holy crap, he's really playing Rise of Kingdoms."
"These two games felt like a completely different person. Dine's mid lane is actually this cracked?"
"One Syndra, one Varus—his proficiency looks insane."
"…."
Lin Fan ignored the chat completely.
He focused on playing Rise of Kingdoms.
With Luoyang already captured, the situation had stabilized. His alliance had become the conquering alliance.
Season 1 was mostly about consolidation. There weren't any real blood feuds yet. At this stage, everyone just found places to farm merit, flip tiles, and grind honor.
The real fun only started in the Conquest seasons—clashing with major alliances, fighting across servers, or running small squads to farm weaker players for massive merit gains.
S1 and S2 were basically just coasting.
Unfortunately, the seasons were long. Many players quit before ever reaching the Conquest season, never getting to experience its real excitement.
"If I send my chopping king in here, how many can he cut down?"
Even a standard chopping king could reach top‑tier status in the Conquest season—let alone Lin Fan's fully red thirteen‑star build.
In the early seasons, it was pure slaughter.
He quietly turned up the volume, waiting for the system's victorious sound effects.
Instead, he heard the wail of defeat.
"…What?"
Lin Fan immediately opened the battle report and checked the opponent.
Brave Guanguan.
Cao Cao, Gongsun Zan, Ma Yunlu—fifteen reds.
Only 27,000 troops.
They had eaten his full‑strength chopping king and still had over 17,000 troops left, with roughly 5,000 wounded.
That meant more than 21,000 effective troops remained—almost a low‑loss win.
"Gongsun Ma Yunlu is kind of insane."
No essential weapon equipped, yet his chopping king still got destroyed.
He opened the round‑by‑round report to see exactly what happened.
"???"
"What is this guy doing?"
"Can't you tell? He's analyzing the battle report. Still, I didn't expect the chopping king to lose to Ma Yunlu."
"Gongsun Zan is crazy. Once his skills trigger, the frontline disappears in one or two rounds."
"Stacking blades is broken."
"Isn't this supposed to be a League of Legends stream category?"
"He's under that category, but streaming Rise of Kingdoms isn't against the rules. There are barely any RoK streamers—once I found him, I followed instantly."
"Yeah, the streamer's a good guy. He helps with formations for free, and they actually work. My merit's skyrocketing."
"But… he's a League of Legends pro."
"Doesn't he need to train?"
"No idea. We're here because he plays Rise of Kingdoms."
Half an hour passed.
The screen was still Rise of Kingdoms.
Some viewers were getting impatient, but most were just watching for the spectacle.
Another hour passed.
Then Rise of Kingdoms disappeared.
Not because he logged off—but because all five main city teams had finished fighting.
Two teams stayed behind in forts to recruit troops. The rest instantly recalled home to replenish.
So he exited the game.
Everyone assumed he would finally open League of Legends to train.
Instead—
He launched PUBG.
Old‑school rat gameplay.
Drop, find a car first.
At that point, the chat exploded.
"You win one game and you're already this inflated?"
"Are you serious? Your record is 1–6, not 6–1! V5 is on a five‑game win streak and they went straight back to training."
"Rookie just played insanely well and is already grinding Syndra again."
"I can only say this is arrogance. Next match against JDG, if you play, Yagao will smash you."
Seeing that comment, Lin Fan was actually pleased.
Looks like calling himself TES's mid laner in the interview really changed people's perception.
This Saturday really was against JDG—and yes, the pressure was real.
Yagao was in great form this year, even being called the best domestic mid at Worlds.
And Kanavi? JDG lived or died by his performance.
JDG's current record was mid‑table, three wins and two losses, only five games played.
Add in 369 on top lane versus Zoom—former teammates swapped sides—and the narrative was already maxed out.
By Saturday night, plenty of people would be ready for the showdown.
Three days left.
He would only be stronger.
Honestly, no pressure.
And today's task was almost complete.
To be honest, the reward was a massive power spike for him.
Daily Task: Slack off for 6 hours. (Completed: 5 hours 36 minutes 44 seconds)
Reward: Full Mastery – Mechanical Herald.
Expanding his mid‑lane champion pool was crucial.
Viktor wasn't flashy, but in the slow Spring Split meta, his pick rate was high.
He finally had a true meta champion.
Just slack off for another 24 minutes and he could clock out.
Even though he died right after landing in PUBG, Lin Fan didn't care and queued again.
Task completed. Reward granted.
Perfect.
He ended the stream immediately.
The chat was still flaming him for getting cocky after one win and wasting time instead of training—
Then the screen went black.
…He just ended the stream?
The viewers stared at their screens in silence.
Reality was even more exaggerated than the rumors.
He really didn't train at all.
"Wait three days. Just watch him."
As expected—
Lin Fan was trending again.
TL: If you want to read ahead by at least ten chapters, patreon.com/EdibleMapleSyrup