As the forty-plus gigabyte installation package finished downloading, Lin Fan skillfully opened his livestream. In no time at all, the viewer count in the room surged by over a hundred thousand.
"I knew Brother Infinite Borders would go live tonight."
"Brother Infinite Borders' card pool is way too strong, right? The LPL's final trump card!"
"Saying that is going to make Xiye unhappy…"
"It's ridiculous that Xiye hasn't retired yet. Look at how bad he is—if he can even find a job, it's only because WE completely collapsed."
"They won, what, two or three games in Spring Split? With this performance, I'll say it right now—WE won't win a single game in Summer Split. Straight sixteen-game losing streak, dead last in the league."
"What is Brother Infinite Borders playing? It kind of looks like Genshin Impact."
"It is Genshin Impact! Is Brother Infinite Borders becoming a Genshin grinder too?"
"What do you mean by Genshin grinder? So anyone who plays League of Legends is a League grinder, then?"
"Holy shit… isn't this exactly like that Genshin guy?"
"Brother Infinite Borders has always been like this. Have you ever seen him seriously train? I haven't—not even once."
"I'm just curious—when Brother Infinite Borders plays Genshin Impact, is he free-to-play, or is he a heavy-spending whale? With miHoYo's habits, I hit hard pity every single time…"
"I'm crying, I'm crying. As if anyone doesn't hit full pity every time—sometimes even losing the 50/50! That's the most outrageous part."
The livestream chat was noisy and chaotic, but the club's computer hardware was more than powerful enough. Even with the game installing and the stream running at the same time, there wasn't the slightest bit of lag.
Before long, the game finished installing.
Full of anticipation, Lin Fan opened the game interface. After registering an account, he logged in.
Genshin Impact was a game he'd always only heard people talk about, but he had never actually tried it himself.
It wasn't because he blindly followed what others said about how bad the game was. Rather, after learning a bit about it, he'd heard that the quests were insanely annoying, with the developers seemingly doing everything possible just to disgust players…
Back then, Infinite Borders had state clashes going on, and he really didn't have any spare time to split his focus onto Genshin Impact. So he'd only registered an account early on and barely played afterward.
Now, though, Lin Fan had plenty of time on his hands. If he didn't take the opportunity to try out the continent of Teyvat, that would really be inexcusable.
"Looks… pretty decent, actually…"
As soon as he entered, the two siblings were locked in battle with a god. Naturally, facing a scripted loss, they had no ability to resist a deity.
After choosing the character he liked as the protagonist, the other sibling was taken away by the god.
Then the screen went black. Accompanied by explanatory scenes, the game steadily guided him into the quest flow.
Chapter – Prologue: The Outlander Who Caught the Wind Begins
Lin Fan had just started playing and hadn't fully adapted yet. His controls were clumsy, making him look painfully stiff on screen.
Thinking back to when he first played Naraka: Bladepoint, it seemed that even professional players needed time to get used to new games.
Quite a few viewers began teaching Lin Fan how to play in the livestream.
Teaching others felt almost instinctive, especially when it came to teaching a professional player.
The chat instantly exploded with messages.
Not only that, many people quietly downloaded Genshin Impact at that very moment.
Playing along together was a kind of fun in itself.
Especially now that quite a few wealthy viewers started sending gifts.
All they wanted was a spot on Lin Fan's Genshin Impact friends list.
Before he knew it, hundreds of airplanes had been gifted in a single night…
Lin Fan was almost embarrassed—he was completely stuffed.
With his thin skin, he still added a few friends.
After more than two hours, he finally reached level ten and could claim the twenty-pull reward.
Straight to the beginner banner—time to pull!
Two ten-pulls, fired off immediately.
Everyone assumed nothing good would come out, but then a golden meteor streaked across the screen…
"Holy shit? A hit?"
"No way—something on the very first ten-pull?"
The chat filled with rows upon rows of question marks.
They simply couldn't accept what they were seeing.
Everyone had expected to watch twenty pulls end with a guaranteed Noelle.
Then they'd enjoy Brother Infinite Borders' look of despair…
Misery loves company—if you're unlucky, others should be unlucky too.
"What is Diluc? Is this card strong?" Lin Fan asked curiously.
"Back when Infinite Borders pulls gave him Ma Chao instantly, I already thought this guy was absurd.
Now Genshin Impact too—who gets Diluc in ten pulls? Is this what an ultra-lucky player's world looks like?"
"Is the second ten-pull going to give Keqing? I can't accept that."
"With Diluc, early-game exploration is completely stress-free. This is way too good."
Amid the discussion, Lin Fan started the second pull.
Another flash of gold followed.
For the first time, the beginner banner rates felt outrageously high.
Another five-star appeared!
"Unforgivable!"
"Even Qiqi came out? That's even crazier than Keqing!"
"I can't take this. Qiqi actually dropped? I waited forever and never got her, and Brother Infinite Borders just clicked once?"
"That team's complete—Diluc plus Qiqi. Just seeing those two cards hurts."
"It's like watching a brother casually drive a luxury car. Impossible to accept."
Lin Fan understood the mindset of the viewers.
He even opened the character screen and showed them directly.
"Putting everything else aside, miHoYo really did a good job designing the characters."
At that moment, Qiqi started exercising.
"Seven-two-seven-seven-two-two-seven…"
Adorably overwhelming.
"Take her out and try fighting—let's test the strength."
"Not gonna lie, two five-stars are insane. Everything dies in one hit."
"Holy shit, this is liftoff!"
"Being this lucky—yeah, I'm definitely playing Genshin Impact now."
"I can already tell—this is miHoYo fattening the pig. They know Brother Infinite Borders has money. Lure him in first, then butcher him later."
"Makes sense. Kill two birds with one stone—future slaughter plus free advertising. With this many viewers, anyone seeing these rates would board this pirate ship."
"Just wait until later banners—can't wait to see Brother Infinite Borders dizzy from pulling, losing 50/50s on characters and weapons."
"Time to grind. I'm speeding up progress. Genshin Impact is actually pretty fun."
As he spoke, Lin Fan opened the quest menu and started scrolling through the list.
Seeing this, everyone else nearly ground their teeth to dust.
"I can't accept this. Two accounts, forty pulls—nothing."
"So miHoYo really tailors drops by player? Traffic brings five-stars nonstop?"
"Aren't you worried? Brother Infinite Borders already has to grind Infinite Borders, and now he's adding Genshin Impact too. I'm not optimistic about TES' future."
"At this point, how are you not used to it? Brother Infinite Borders still slaughters in pro matches!"
At that moment, inside the LNG base.
Doinb watched the stream with a deeply furrowed brow.
"What is he doing, playing Genshin Impact? A feint? Lure me in, then secretly practice after turning off stream? Brother Infinite Borders is strong—this seems unnecessary… but I have to stay 100% alert."
"Or is he hiding in the shadows, secretly grinding champions?"
After his rampage in the regular season and playoffs with Twisted Fate and Ahri, anyone who thought Lin Fan's form would drop was just foolish.
This guy had definitely been practicing on a hidden account—just too well concealed.
He probably already mastered every meta champion.
Facing a player like this gave Doinb a headache.
The next match was against TES, yet after all this research, he learned nothing.
This much time would've been better spent rewatching today's matches instead of sitting through a whole night of Genshin Impact.
A complete clown show.
"How's the research going, Inb?" Ale walked over.
"What research? He played Genshin all night. Judging from chat, he pulled some insane stuff."
"To be fair, the games Brother Infinite Borders plays look pretty fun. I might try them sometime."
"Don't. At your age, if you split focus like that, you'll have no form the next day."
"Get lost. I'm still in my prime. But Brother Infinite Borders really is abnormal—whether it's an act or not, he spends tons of time on other games and still keeps peak form. That's crazy."
Doinb voiced his conclusion again.
"Enough. We can't figure him out. Let's just prepare ourselves and do our best."
LNG felt pressure against TES, but not as much as people imagined.
Their lineup was solid enough.
Worst case, they'd just go head-on and see whose tactical depth ran deeper.
After analysis, Brother Infinite Borders' in-game choices weren't as many as expected.
He was best at grouping with Tian to help bot lane.
One extra person made ganks far more successful.
If they guarded against that, TES would struggle to make plays bot.
That was the angle LNG could exploit.
With that thought, Doinb closed Lin Fan's stream.
He logged into his Korean server account and queued up.
Maintaining form mattered more than anything else.
At his age, skipping training meant getting destroyed the next day.
Rookie also closed the stream.
He couldn't tell at all what Lin Fan was planning.
What kind of pro streams during playoffs, and plays other games on top of that? Completely unreadable.
Fortunately, V5 had a revival chance, so Rookie's pressure wasn't as heavy.
He only needed to wait for the winner to challenge him.
Still, based on the regular season, TES felt more likely to win.
"That first-time Genshin, no spending. I've seen enough gacha videos. Our philosophy is playing for fun—only Tencent games do that properly."
Rookie couldn't really understand that.
Even spending a hundred felt like a big decision to him.
"Brother Infinite Borders isn't wrong. Other gacha games never end well. Only Tencent—pay and you're stronger." Karsa nodded knowingly.
Rookie agreed, though spending money was still out of the question.
"After we play TES, I really want to ask how he maintains form."
"Does he really not practice?"
"JackeyLove said he really doesn't. Mostly just scrims."
"That's insane. I don't believe it."
"Maybe he secretly trains later and JackeyLove's feeding you fake info."
"Possible. He's an opponent after all."
"Either way, don't underestimate him. Want to duo later?"
"Sure. Been a while."
Lin Fan had no idea he'd been scrutinized by two Korean players.
He was still fighting on the continent of Teyvat.
And waiting for system tasks to complete.
11:47.
A pleasant notification sounded in his mind.
"Task complete. Max proficiency obtained: Ice Witch."
His mid-lane champion pool expanded once more.
Roaming synergy instantly maxed out.
Lin Fan stretched his neck. After sitting for over three hours, he was exhausted.
Time to move around and head back to rest.
At that moment, the phone on his desk vibrated.
A WeChat message—from Xiao Zao.
"Kill or not? Mastor and Shenchao are waiting."
"Damn right we're killing!"
TL: If you want to read ahead by at least ten chapters, patreon.com/EdibleMapleSyrup