Goose Goose Duck really is one of those small games that gets addictive fast.
Lin Fan's original plan was to play one or two rounds, show everyone his new outfit—after all, it was officially custom-made just for him.
And regardless of anything else, he was extremely satisfied with that hammer this time.
With the ID "Lin Big Hammer," it was truly name and form matching.
If he had a knife in-game, that hammer coming down for a kill looked insanely cool.
Other people might get custom outfits too.
But that exclusive kill animation?
That was his one-and-only.
Gaggle Studios made it to thank Lin Fan for the huge contribution he'd made by streaming and promoting their game recently.
The game launched last year.
Even though it was free, its audience was still small—it was completely crushed by Among Us.
But lately, small circles playing Goose Goose Duck had genuinely boosted its heat.
Servers were full every single day—something unthinkable just half a year ago!
Before, they were thinking about how not to go bankrupt.
Now they had new thoughts: how to make the game even more popular.
At this moment, Gaggle Studios truly realized how terrifying the traffic from a pro player streaming a game could be.
There were earlier examples too.
For instance, Lwx playing ParanormalHK drew other pro players to try it.
It even became a hot update later—Jia Hui solo-killing LPL pros.
Viewers got curious, and for two months ParanormalHK stayed in Steam's top three bestsellers.
That kind of influence wasn't weak at all.
It could completely change a company's fate.
But many game companies believed that was a chain reaction—the collective power of the entire LPL.
After all, later you had TheShy, Rookie, GimGoon… so many top pros playing too.
It seemed unrepeatable.
So when companies promoted games, they rarely aimed at players directly.
Lin Fan's appearance truly changed that idea.
First, Infinite Borders—no need to mention it.
Its spending always ranked around top nine among mobile games.
Even Naraka: Bladepoint—though it kept getting worse—whenever Lin Fan streamed it, active players increased.
They didn't even need bots to pad numbers like before.
And even more recently—
Fall Guys.
Cheats were rampant before, and there were too few maps, so people lost interest quickly.
DAUs kept dropping.
But Lin Fan played for just an hour or two, and active players jumped by thirty percent.
That was ridiculous data.
There had never been a streamer who could produce such an immediate, visible effect.
That was exactly what publishers valued most.
And he was also a weirdo—truly one of a kind among pro players.
He didn't need to train.
In his spare time, he loved searching for fun new games.
What baffled everyone was that even without training, he maintained great form and slaughtered every opposing mid.
At first, everyone thought it was just a flash in the pan.
That he'd be exposed once he faced real elite mids.
But three full months passed.
If that still didn't count as skill, then there were no strong mids left on Earth.
So for game publishers, this was perfect.
He didn't spend huge time training.
Instead, he had plenty of time to stream and promote games.
And many publishers believed their games weren't unpopular because of quality, but because they lacked exposure.
So they contacted TES one after another, hoping the club would connect them and get Lin Fan to try their game.
TES wasn't interested.
No matter how much you paid, it wouldn't beat what the parent company made.
But since it was a chance for Lin Fan to earn extra cash, they still asked him and showed him the quotes.
For these companies that liked using underhanded tricks, Lin Fan didn't even have interest in reading the game titles.
I play games to relax and reduce the pressure of pro play.
Not to run ads and make money.
If I do that, I'd just dirty the last pure refuge I have for relaxation.
So he told Guo Hao to ignore that thankless nonsense.
As a pro, you just need to win matches.
Other stuff wasn't necessary.
Guo Hao nodded hard in agreement.
He had so many thoughts he wanted to say.
Like: can you please train a bit and keep your form…
But when it reached his lips, he couldn't say it.
So instead he said:
"Lin Fan, if you need anything, tell me. We'll do our best to meet it. In the knockout stage, play well."
"Of course. I feel my form is great. Knockout stage won't be a problem."
Watching Lin Fan push the door open and leave, Guo Hao wanted to slap himself twice.
What the hell did I just say?
I could've just told him to train a bit—why couldn't I say it?
Sigh… training should be left to the professionals. Let Luo Sheng plan it properly.
Honestly, with Lin Fan here, TES's chances of winning MSI this year felt pretty good.
If they could win MSI, the traffic and influence would surely satisfy the parent company, and next year's budget would be secured.
Then they could keep upgrading the roster!
Ale, Bin, TheShy… when their contracts expired next year, TES could get involved.
With Lin Fan mid and JackeyLove bot, grabbing an elite top laner wouldn't be that hard.
Especially Ale and Bin.
Neither had won Worlds.
They were young and hungry for results.
In that situation, it really was possible to land a deal.
As for jungler, Tian was… average.
Guo Hao didn't understand the game deeply, but he knew the value of an FMVP.
The weight was right there.
And he always chose players based on traffic anyway.
To be honest, if you have a lot of fans, your strength probably isn't that far off.
After all, esports isn't like idol fandom.
Being handsome doesn't automatically mean you'll succeed and have fans.
A classic example was Aki, OMG's jungler.
He was handsome and tall, sure.
But he was truly bad.
So naturally he had no fans.
Especially that one "Alps" game—classic of classics—only 940 damage for the whole match.
Thinking about it, that wasn't terrible.
At least it was more than 443—over double.
And the Kid was the ADC, the team's main damage source.
Aki was only the jungler; low damage was understandable.
When a team collapses, the hardest role to play is jungle.
So domestically there wasn't really a perfect jungle replacement anyway, and Guo Hao had no plan to swap junglers right now.
Besides, mid-jungle synergy is a package.
With Lin Fan there, major problems shouldn't appear.
While waiting for the knockout stage, Lin Fan kept trying different single-player games.
If you play the same games too much, you get bored.
You have to look for new stuff to keep that freshness.
Otherwise, once you're fully burnt out, you'll never want to open it again.
But single-player games are good for killing time—playing them long-term isn't that interesting.
Then someone suggested Lin Fan go play Jia Hui.
Competitive games didn't produce many embarrassing moments from Tu Bro, but horror games definitely could.
Pros have fast reactions—so the jump scares can look even funnier.
That could be hilarious.
But ParanormalHK had been out for a long time now; its pull wasn't that strong.
Still, the idea itself gave everyone more thoughts.
Watching Tu Bro stream a horror game would be great.
"Ahem. What's so fun about horror games? No need. I've played ParanormalHK over a thousand times. I know every route by heart. Nothing to it."
Lin Fan replied calmly, face not red, heart not racing.
Seeing his expression, the audience got fooled for a moment.
"Right, it was super popular. Tu Bro definitely played it."
"Three Fu… Three Fu is being tried lately…"
"Yeah. But Tu Bro hasn't touched Three Fu on stream at all recently."
"Three Fu's ending gave me chills. After watching, I wanted to play the full version."
Lin Fan saw chat drifting in an uncontrollable direction and quickly changed the topic.
"Uzi has time now. He said he'll stream tonight and play Goose Goose Duck with us. I'll ask when he's starting."
As he spoke, he lowered his head and pulled out his phone.
Something felt off.
"Is Tu Bro afraid of horror games?"
"Maybe. He plays every type of game, but he never touches horror."
"Exposed?"
"Feels like he got exposed! Brothers, I suggest we go stir up trouble in K-God's chat, or get Uzi to stoke the fire."
"Yeah. Those guys play games with their mouths—if they burn up, all that's left is the mouth."
…
Before long, a bunch of people flooded into Uzi's stream.
He looked confused, seeing all the 'horror game' talk.
After reading carefully, he caught the core:
Tu Bro is scared of horror games.
His eyes narrowed.
Oh, that sounded fun.
"Brothers, when we group up tonight, do you want to see Tu Bro get scared playing a horror game?"
If chat asked about someone else—like JackeyLove—Uzi wouldn't encourage it.
With that time, why not train more?
But Lin Fan was different.
First, he never trained.
Second, in Goose Goose Duck, he often tricked Uzi into circles.
That alone was unforgivable.
If everyone wanted to see it, being a push behind it was only natural.
Do it.
With that topic, and with Gangzi's mouth, it would absolutely happen.
Thinking about it, League suddenly felt boring.
Uzi just wanted to finish faster.
So he played at full power, then typed 15 in chat…
No way around it—2–9 couldn't be saved.
If you dragged it out, you'd only suffer more.
"Alright brothers, start start start. The tempo is in C-room. We're in, we're in."
At this moment, Lin Fan also closed Genshin, logged into Goose Goose Duck, and entered the game.
"What the hell, white-skin Kun is here! That hammer feels so satisfying."
"The first player in China with a custom skin."
"Hahaha, if I have a knife, I'm stabbing that hammer guy first!" K-God yelled in his duck-throat voice.
"The biggest taboo in Goose Goose Duck is playing with emotion. In my opinion, if Pelican finds the hammer guy and eats him, that's totally fine," Uzi laughed.
"Hahaha, twelve people all go to the Laboratory first. Go, go, go."
Scene change—the match had started.
From the background role, Lin Fan confirmed he was a villain.
And not just any villain—an absolute powerhouse: Invisibility Duck.
A god-tier duck who could kill without being seen and escape the scene.
Also known as the Clown Duck!
"Xiao Zao, right? K-God, right?"
You two wanted to kill me earlier—now you'll taste Big Hammer's horror.
He sprinted toward the Laboratory.
Xiao Zao and K-God always ran there at spawn.
Waiting there meant he could catch them.
Sure enough, after waiting a bit, he saw black-skin Kun leading green-skin Kun in circles around the lab.
"K-God is wolf! K-God is wolf!"
"Xiao Zao, Xiao Zao—bites everyone on sight."
Instantly, everyone's attention got pulled over.
Lin Fan seized the opening, entered invisibility, and slashed—clean and fast.
They were standing together anyway, so it didn't matter which one he hit.
Xiao Zao was still smiling and fooling around with K-God.
He was Dodo—being called wolf didn't matter.
But at that moment, the kill animation played.
Lin Big Hammer lifted the hammer, jumped up, launched the target, and smashed him into a meat pancake.
"Lin Big Hammer!" Xiao Zao went numb. He didn't even see the killer—just died.
The instant the body hit the floor, someone nearby hit the alarm.
"K-God, I'm asking you—are you exploding or not? K-God front-killed! K-God stabbed Xiao Zao right in front of everyone. I didn't expect him to dare stab with so many people there."
"No need to say more. K-God front-killed, vote him out."
"What the hell! I'm Sheriff, I'm Sheriff… and I didn't stab!" Kryst4l screamed at the top of his lungs, trying to clear his name.
But the final caller pointed at Lin Fan…
"Since so many people saw it, there's nothing to say. Full vote—send Master flying!"
A full vote-out instantly made Master go GG!
"Hahahahaha, was my invisibility play clean or not?"
Chat spam exploded.
"Menace!"
"One stab, two victims!"
"So evil…"
As for Xiao Zao and K-God—now ghosts—they started talking on the side.
"What a Lin Big Hammer. One stab and he sent both of us out."
"K-God, I heard Tu Bro doesn't dare play horror games. You got ideas?"
"Horror games? Say less. Horror games it is—we'll scare him!" Master's eyes lit up the moment he heard it.
He was a master at stirring drama.
Maybe that was an ADC trait…
Xiao Zao was the same.
He didn't need others to bring tempo—he could bring it himself.
The two hit it off instantly, ready to collude and run a win-win scheme together.
TL: If you want to read ahead by at least ten chapters, patreon.com/EdibleMapleSyrup