Guo Hao pushed open the door to his manager's office while picking at his teeth.
Although the team was still on a losing streak, they had successfully brought in Mark as support. Judging from yesterday's results, his synergy with JackeyLove was already very good.
They went straight into a ten‑game win streak.
Even for top‑tier pro players, winning ten ranked games in a row wasn't easy.
After all, in ranked games, if you're a pro, the others are pros too—plus all kinds of high‑elo solo‑queue monsters mixed in.
Climbing rank was never as simple as people imagined.
Take Uzi for example—he'd already dropped over a hundred points. If he hadn't run into Lin Fan yesterday, the losing streak probably wouldn't have stopped.
This alone showed how strong the coordination between JackeyLove and Mark was.
The money had clearly been spent where it mattered.
With this, results were almost guaranteed.
Guo Hao was in a great mood. He leaned back in his chair, legs crossed, and started checking yesterday's updates.
Then he opened Weibo.
His good mood instantly vanished.
"Why is Dine trending again? Can't he just behave for once?"
Frowning, he read through everything.
At this point, he didn't know whether to laugh or get angry.
A support picking Heimerdinger instead of playing properly—at least they won, and Uzi had a great game experience.
If that match had turned into a full-on troll fest, it would've sparked another massive controversy.
The whole club would've been dragged into it.
Luckily, things somehow worked out.
Still, Lin Fan's recent training attitude was a real problem.
Yesterday he played exactly one ranked game—and then never logged into League again.
Was he really doing what he said, playing Rise of Kingdoms?
That wouldn't do. He needed to be warned.
Even with Mark signed, Lin Fan was still an important support on the roster. His form had to be maintained.
He might need to sub in at any moment.
According to Luo Sheng, scrims were scheduled for the afternoon. The main goal was to help JackeyLove and Mark build chemistry, but Lin Fan still needed opportunities—otherwise he'd lose all motivation.
Slacking off every day and trending on social media was bad for the club's image.
If sponsors decided not to renew, that would be a real headache.
At the very least, any drama should wait until the team stabilized.
Thinking this, Guo Hao picked up the phone again.
He needed to call Luo Sheng over and deal with this properly.
Lin Fan arrived at the training room later than usual, rubbing his eyes.
There was still some unfinished business in Rise of Kingdoms last night—he'd played until after two in the morning.
That kind of bedtime was actually normal for pro players.
Some even played until four or five in the morning.
Of course, the club didn't allow that, for health reasons.
Most LPL clubs required twelve hours of training per day—thirteen or fourteen for higher intensity.
The LCK was similar, though their clubs gave players more freedom to choose training time.
Some players there even trained so long they passed out.
After greeting everyone, Lin Fan sat down and waited for today's slacking task.
Yesterday's eight-hour task had given insanely generous rewards.
But today there were scrims…
The system had better not assign something too long.
Ideally…
The coach wouldn't put him in.
Please, let me just slack through today.
*Ding.*
The familiar sound rang out.
"Task issued: Daily slacking — 10 hours."
"Rewards upon completion: 80% proficiency Vladimir, 80% proficiency Blitzcrank, Operation +5%, Game Sense +5%."
Vladimir and Blitzcrank…
Not max proficiency, but after experiencing full‑mastery Heimer, even eighty percent felt extremely playable.
Plus the bonus operation and game sense—this reward was stacked.
As expected, the longer the slacking time, the better the rewards.
The only problem was ten hours.
There was no way that would finish before scrims.
Time was tight, and Lin Fan didn't want to pull any weird plays during scrims.
All he could hope was that the coach wouldn't pick him.
The coach should really let JackeyLove and Mark play more together—after all, the next regular‑season match was coming up soon.
Before they reached eight wins, they couldn't afford to lose another game.
Since today's task was set, all that was left was to grind it out properly.
Ten hours was a long time.
Starting at 8:30 a.m., even skipping meals, it'd take until 6:30 p.m.
Coach's office.
Luo Sheng had already scheduled the scrims the day before.
Everyone except Lin Fan was supposed to get playtime.
But unexpectedly, the manager disrupted the plan first thing in the morning.
Luo Sheng opened the match history.
Sure enough, since the meeting, Lin Fan had only played one ranked game.
It did look like he was giving up.
That kind of behavior really wasn't acceptable.
If this continued, selling him later would be impossible.
At the very least, he needed to return to regular training.
Luo Sheng picked up a pen and added Lin Fan's name to the notebook.
…
By noon, Lin Fan had slacked off the entire morning.
Five hours still remained.
But the scrim notice had already gone out—2:00 p.m., BO7.
High intensity, no different from an official match.
According to the plan, finishing would line up with dinner time.
The next day would be full VOD review.
That was the standard scrim process.
When Lin Fan saw his name on the scrim roster, the corner of his mouth twitched.
Was this a joke?
He'd been slacking this hard, no one had talked to him yet—and he was still scheduled to play?
That was absurd.
At two o'clock…
Today's slacking task…
JackeyLove saw Lin Fan deep in thought and patted him on the shoulder.
"Brother Fan, scrims start at two. How about one duo game after lunch? We haven't played together at all these past two days."
"Huh?"
No chance.
He was already stressing about not having enough time to finish the slacking task.
Playing a duo game would only make it worse.
Lin Fan immediately shook his head.
"No, no. QQ Speed has an event today. Log in before one o'clock and you get a free A‑rank car. I need to finish that first."
TL: QQ Speed is kart racing game, like Mario Kart but Chinese
He stuffed the last of his bun into his mouth and rushed toward the training room.
"…What did he just say?" JackeyLove looked at Mark.
"If I heard right," Mark replied calmly, "you heard it right."
"He said he's going to do a QQ Speed event…"
JackeyLove nodded slowly.
Yeah.
Definitely not hallucinating.
But this was getting ridiculous.
TL: If you want to read ahead by at least ten chapters, patreon.com/EdibleMapleSyrup