The days passed one by one. With no matches on the schedule, life was pretty comfortable.
Every day was just logging into Infinite Borders—developing, leveling, and building branch cities.
Early progression really did take up a lot of Lin Fan's time.
By now his power had reached 24,000. At this pace, he could break 25,000 today—if he slowed down, then by tomorrow at the latest.
And keep in mind, early progression had only been going for six days. Hitting 25,000 in seven days was terrifying speed.
Even so, he still wasn't first on the power leaderboard.
Brave Guanguan was still sitting firmly in first, becoming the first player on the server to break 25,000.
Season 1 was like that. Season 2 was like that too. This guy really had something.
Lin Fan stared at the leaderboard. He'd thought his macro was already top-tier, but there was still someone even more ruthless. The good thing was: there would be chances to learn later.
Just then, a "1" popped up next to the portrait in the lower-left corner.
Getting private messages was normal. He clicked it.
It was Brave Guanguan.
[Going for conquest this season?]
[Yeah. Our quality is way worse than the Northern Army's. If we can't win, then we can only go for conquest.]
[If we go, then go together. One or two people won't matter. I talked with Laoye and the others—we're thinking of grouping up to go for conquest.]
[Sure. If they push in and we're trained up, we'll go.]
[Remember to upgrade your buildings.]
[Of course.]
Lin Fan typed back quickly.
To be honest, staying down the mountain wasn't that interesting anyway.
And he had no sense of belonging in this alliance. If he were alone and couldn't take cities, he might as well play it like a single-player game.
Since someone was willing to go for conquest together, that was perfect. With the Brave squad's quality, plus ten or so randoms, grabbing a partition shouldn't be hard.
And he already had three level-40 teams.
First was Ghost Lu Bu Hooligan, and then Dudu—standard Chop King.
Every city fight he was rank one. Going for conquest was fine too—pure dimensionality reduction.
Of course, the only ones who could keep pace with him were Brave Guanguan and Laoye.
From what he'd learned these days, they were both first-generation members of the Xingtian group. After taking down the Big Villain back then, they stopped playing high-intensity matches.
They quit for a while, then started new accounts because they couldn't find other games to play.
Hearing that, Lin Fan felt it was kind of funny.
If that was true, then Guanguan probably knew Laoye.
What felt like something you'd never run into—might actually reconnect later.
A full cycle. Pretty interesting.
"Is this mutual respect between the strong?"
"The chat between #1 and #2 feels invincible."
"If Brother Infinite Borders hadn't lost those five hours early, he'd be #1."
"Hahaha, back then he should've just forfeited and streamed early progression at base."
"Then the next day TES base would have 'missing person' reports…"
Chat was still filling the screen.
Even when they watched Infinite Borders, they were completely immersed.
Mainly because nobody expected S1 to be so stable, but S2 to have this much entertainment.
Xuzhou alliance kept flip-flopping—wanting to be an ally, but also wanting to kneel and lick conquest. The relationship was extremely ambiguous.
The Northern Army's alliance leader even posted WeChat chat screenshots so everyone could eat melon to their heart's content.
Especially that most confident line from Xuzhou:
"I can decide the entire war situation. If I fully side with the Southern Army, you won't keep conquest. I returned for my brothers. I can give you conquest slots. Big partition is enough."
The Northern Army leader's response was simply: "We'll see," and he posted the screenshot.
So people kept asking Lin Fan to open alliance chat for mini theater.
After all, Xuzhou already had backstab thoughts.
Everyone in the alliance was furious. There was a feeling of: forget everything else—we just want to crush Xuzhou first.
Sure, you're returning vets and your card pool is thick, but your headcount is low.
Six hundred people pile in and bombard you round after round—can you take it?
But in the end, it was light and soft. The alliance leader endured humiliation and kept cooperating with Xuzhou.
To this day, it was still a fragile cooperation that could break at any time.
"Brother Infinite Borders' alliance leader is like a turtle man. Xuzhou's leader already cheated, clothes off, then the other side said the goods stink and told her to get lost."
"Holy crap, that metaphor is way too vivid."
"So staying in this alliance is suffocating. Look, Brother Infinite Borders is already planning to go for conquest with teammates. If he leads, he could really pull a squad together."
"When I used to play Infinite Borders, I don't remember it being full of weirdos like this."
"Kid, your experience is still lacking. I've seen plenty of freaks. Backstabbing like this is just small-level disgusting."
"If you've got time, go watch Paocai's stream. There are too many twists in there."
None of that really had anything to do with Lin Fan.
Today's goal was three level-seven skins.
Taking them would increase tax income and also boost power by 1260, which was perfect to break 25,000.
He could touch the tail end of day six.
Once the fortress was ready, he'd insta-hit. All three teams marched out.
But the distance was long—it would take over an hour.
"Alright, time to kill a bit. Two rounds should line up with the timing."
Lin Fan watched them marching and got a little itchy too.
It had been a long time since he'd played Goose Goose Duck with Xiao Zao and the others.
These other games really did neglect them.
"Lin Big Hammer~ Lin Big Hammer finally arrived, Douyu's number one!" Gangzi's signature voice was as familiar as ever.
"Now that Big Hammer Bro is here, good guys are finally saved. Xiao Zao bites whoever he sees. Last game had me completely numb."
"Damn it. I really didn't expect you'd treat my Silly Bird as a Canada Goose, then vote out 'Canada' for real." Xiao Zao was dizzy. Did he really look that much like a good guy?
I just wanted to vote myself out. Why did nobody vote me?
Gangzi hurried to move on. "Go~ go~ go~"
The host started the next game immediately.
Sure enough, if you haven't played for a while, you'll get a "knife" role.
This one wasn't great: Assassin.
Up top, Xiao Zao kept shouting, interrogating Gangzi's role.
Lin Fan watched silently from the side.
"I've got a knife, I've got a knife. My role is rock-solid!" Gangzi said arrogantly.
"You have a knife? Then you're either Pelican or wolf. Your role definitely isn't good." Xiao Zao was decisive—Spacebar. Hand up, knife down, he chopped Gangzi into a drumstick beside a flowerpot.
Seeing that, Lin Fan instinctively wanted to stab Xiao Zao—he didn't know Xiao Zao's real role, and killing him during cooldown was best.
But then Old Sis and Shen Chao came in together.
Lin Fan changed plans—too risky to gamble.
And Xiao Zao was cautious, not coming close. Hard to take the stab.
"I'm a knife-good. K-God said he's a knife-good, and he kept sticking to me. I knew something was wrong, so I chopped him.
Don't report, don't report."
Xiao Gou said quickly.
"No. At this point we still need to check the outside slots—how many people died—then discuss whether we vote you." Shen Chao ran to the drumstick, pressed R to report.
Only K-God was dead. And Xiao Gou was claiming knife-good.
So tempo suggested skipping, and said anyone too aggressive should be treated as neutral or worse. Later they'd single-chat Xiao Gou since he was the second knife-good.
So the meeting skipped.
Next round spawn—Lin Fan and Xiao Zao spawned in the tunnel, staring at each other through a square.
"What role are you? What role are you, Lin Big Hammer!"
"Me? I'm Silly. I don't want to win."
"You're Silly? Don't run—let me stab you. Don't run, let me stab you!"
"Don't stab me! I'll help the good guys. I'll help the good guys. I just want to play a bit longer."
"Lin Big Hammer, you tricked me in circles before. Today I finally caught you—revenge."
Xiao Gou was certain: good guys don't fake roles—at least they won't claim neutral.
He'd already claimed knife-good. In that situation, you're either Sheriff or Justice.
If Lin Fan came claiming neutral and Lin Fan was actually Sheriff, and he stabbed Xiao Gou—double death—good guys would be unplayable.
So Xiao Gou was 100% sure Lin Fan was Silly Bird.
He really wanted to kill him right away.
"But if we keep running like this, I'll run out. Then your Sheriff role is exposed, right?"
"But if I don't kill you, you'll run out and yell. Isn't my role exposed anyway?" Xiao Zao stared at the screen with an intelligent gaze. In that moment, it was like every Malphite brain on the planet had crashed and rebooted into Xiao Zao.
In that moment, he was the smartest man in the world.
But then the kill effect popped.
It wasn't Xiao Zao killing Lin Fan.
It was Lin Fan killing Xiao Zao.
And the role displayed above: Assassin.
"Lin Big Hammer! What a Lin Big Hammer. You're actually a wolf."
"Hahahaha, Xiao Zao, you like stabbing people." K-God started gloating.
"What Silly Bird dares to claim neutral to a Sheriff? Isn't that just delivering a free kill?"
Hearing Gangzi say that, Xiao Gou realized it too.
Right. He'd already claimed knife-good—so why would a neutral come claim neutral to him? That's just donating.
"Ugh… Lin Big Hammer played my IQ again."
"That play dropped you straight to T4. No problem."
"Then what are you?"
Hearing Mastuo's mocking, Xiao Gou snapped back.
"Ahem. I'm Pelican. Pelican."
"Brothers, see? I didn't stab wrong. Brother Infinite Borders is high-IQ. He comes out and spins everyone in circles. But what is Mastuo? The moment he lifts his head, I know what he's thinking."
Listening to Mastuo and Xiao Gou bicker, chat scrolled like crazy.
Walls of "hahaha."
This entertainment value was maxed out.
First round: god knife, chopped Pelican.
Second round: got tricked by a wolf and died.
Second meeting: one shot sniped out Justice.
Now there were no knife roles left.
Pelican died in round one. In that situation, Lin Fan slaughtered freely—knife up, knife down, took three or four more.
Hard carry, first place.
"Damn, Brother Infinite Borders is killing them numb."
"Why didn't Pelican eat people?"
"I'm the damn Pelican. I got stabbed first round. I didn't eat a single person. I wanted to farm pigs!"
"Next time I'm never doing 'true heart for true heart' with Xiao Zao again. He's toxic."
"You instantly claimed you had a knife, and I'm Sheriff. With that many people, I didn't believe you could be knife-good. You're definitely bad. Stabbing you is correct."
"You didn't believe me, but believed Lin Big Hammer was Silly, and got stabbed. Tsk tsk."
"Big Hammer is too deceptive…"
"Go… go… go."
With this many people together, it really was fun. Even JackeyLove wanted to join.
Everyone welcomed him too.
"Come, come. If you join, our ADC squad grows even bigger."
"We were just missing you, Water Bro."
TL: JackeyLove's game name has the pinyin(sounds) as A Shui. Shui is the same pinyin for water.
But then Lin Fan said: "If you feel like you hit your training goals today, then it's fine to come have some fun."
After that, nobody in voice dared to speak.
True—among pros, only Brother Infinite Borders doesn't need to train.
Everyone else has training requirements.
Calling JackeyLove over might not be great.
At minimum, he should evaluate for himself—especially with MSI coming.
And JackeyLove's popularity is huge. Someone might come flame…
Sure enough, water ghost sisters appeared in chat.
"Don't lead our Jackey astray."
"He's such a hardworking player. If he drops form because of this nonsense and can't win a title, who's responsible?"
JackeyLove heard Lin Fan, thought for a moment, then took Mark and obediently went back to Korean solo queue.
These games look fun…
But MSI is next, and form must be maintained.
Damn it—how does Fan-ge maintain form like this?
He really envied it.
* * *
At the same time, TES manager's office.
"What do those Koreans mean? Visa obstruction? What didn't pass for Lin Fan's documents?"
"They didn't say. They only said the documents didn't meet regulations."
They planned to go to Korea the day after tomorrow.
And now they say the visa didn't pass?
Are you kidding?
If you say it's deliberate, it doesn't look like it—everyone else's visa is fine. Only Lin Fan didn't pass.
Approved, but not fully approved.
TES informed everyone immediately.
Not long after, it sparked discussion across the whole internet.
People said South Korea was doing it on purpose, but it didn't quite look like it…
Yet by normal process, a second application would be too late!
——
TL: If you want to read ahead by at least ten chapters, patreon.com/EdibleMapleSyrup