Chapter 135: Baili Shouyue!

Lin Hao’s fans found it somewhat amusing to watch the barrage section filled with users named "XXXXXX" bickering endlessly. It was as if a South Korean and a Brit were trying to communicate in Chinese. Fans from the three different camps were actually stirring up drama against each other right inside Lin Hao’s stream. While Lin Hao’s fans and his two moderators were present, they only banned users who resorted to insults and profanity. After all, not a single comment attacking Lin Hao himself had appeared!

That was the interesting part. Among the three, Yi Fan’s playstyle was relatively eccentric. Combined with the nature of his signature hero, Old Master, he was the type whose stats often looked lackluster—as if he were constantly running into the enemy to die—yet he would silently achieve great things, like taking down key defensive towers or stalling the opponent's core force.

Wei Liang had the skill, but he wasn’t great at managing his chat. He usually focused entirely on the Peak Tournament, aiming for the pinnacle of King of Glory and the number one spot. Consequently, his chat was constantly filled with people stirring up drama between him and Yi Fan.

Xiao Jin was relatively better off, but... the hero Li Bai was a controversial topic in itself. The moment Xiao Jin played even slightly poorly in a match and failed to carry, the chat would instantly label Li Bai a "trash hero" that only a fool would play, claiming Xiao Jin was just being carried.

Seeing this, Lin Hao couldn't help but laugh. It seemed, perhaps, this was all his own doing. It was his fault for being too dominant; his performance overshadowed Yi Fan, making his climb to the top of the Peak rankings seem "watered down." Then, Wei Liang, who had been knocked off the top spot, and Xiao Jin, who had been forced to play Marksman so Wei Liang could take the Jungle role, were all caught in the crossfire.

Regardless, at least no one was coming for him! Lin Hao thought for a moment and decided to let them argue, choosing not to silence anyone unless things went too far. After all, it increased his engagement, and engagement, to some extent, meant money. Why not? Lin Hao shook his head with a smile and started another game.

By midnight, Lin Hao’s Peak score had steadily climbed to 2580. Looking at the leaderboard, he realized he had somehow reached second place. Interestingly, Wei Liang had dropped to 2568. This meant that even after playing on his main account all night, he hadn't overtaken Lai Shen, but had instead fallen to third. Currently, the three of them—Yi Fan, Lin Hao, and Wei Liang—had pulled away significantly from the rest of the pack. The fourth-place score was 2547, and the rest of the top ten hovered around that mark.

"Five more games and I’ll be the national number one. Let’s keep pushing tomorrow!" Lin Hao said, preparing to end the stream after his matches. "For those who haven't sent your free glow sticks, feel free to drop them. I climb the ranks steadily every day and provide real-time commentary on high-end match tactics. If you like what you see, hit that follow button—you won't regret it!"

The chat chimed in with timely teasing.

"Teaching a new way to annoy people every day."

"I feel like Haozi uses the recall-taunt less often now."

"Times have changed. These are top-100 Peak matches; Haozi naturally can't mess around like he used to."

"Are you kidding? Our streamer is invincible! Even if he went pro, he’d still be using recall-taunts!"

"Haha, you probably can't use recall-taunts in professional matches; it’s bad form."

Lin Hao chatted briefly with his fans before quickly signing off. He had played quite seriously tonight, and there were indeed fewer segments dedicated to taunting his opponents. Still, he felt his own strength wasn't enough yet; when fully focused, even with the urge to collect "rage points," he couldn't spare the mental energy to perform those taunts during critical team fights. It seemed he needed to keep working hard—working hard at drawing from the system!

Lin Hao opened the system's lottery interface, ready to start today’s draw. He hadn't collected too many rage points today, only about 71,000. Although there was a bonus for bumping into other streamers, these high-ranking professionals generally had decent temperaments; while minor annoyance was common, true "mental breakdowns" were rare.

Draw!

At Lin Hao’s command, the system began. After a dozen "Thank You for Participating" results, a flash of white light finally streaked across his vision. Oh?

"Congratulations to the host for obtaining: Hero Skill Point 0.1x Discount Coupon!"

This was a special type of hero coupon. It was essentially the same as picking a hero of his choice. Lin Hao’s gaze wandered through the system’s hero skill point store, finally locking onto one hero: Baili Shouyue.

This was a skill point he had wanted for a long time. With the personal skill point bonuses for prediction and positioning, a hero like this—who required a great deal of non-targeted aiming—was a perfect fit for him. He had chosen Nuwa last time, but he wouldn't miss out on Shouyue this time!

...

The next evening, shortly after six, Lin Hao had just finished dinner when Wang Zhaoyi sent him a message. Since Lin Hao had risen to fame, the Elephant Guild had indeed provided him with significant promotion and convenience in all aspects of his streaming. Truth be told, before the system arrived, he had been a member of the Elephant Guild, but he certainly never had someone specifically assigned to handle his affairs or treat him as a priority for events. Back then, he was just a background character.

Lin Hao knew the guild was just casting a wide net; signing a contract only cost them the price of printing. But after catching a big fish like Lin Hao, they were naturally doing their best to cultivate him.

The Shark platform had also shifted a certain amount of traffic toward Lin Hao because his Peak score was rising steadily, now closing in on the top spot. Shark didn't care which of their streamers was number one; they only cared that a Shark streamer held that position and beat out the streamers from Huochi. Now, as the "Light of Shark," Lin Hao received a surge in traffic, promising a significant boost in popularity for the night.

Wang Zhaoyi, the liaison from the Elephant Guild, had also prepared a brand-new poster for Lin Hao immediately. The eye-catching title, "Shared Heartbeat: Charging for Peak Number One," left Lin Hao very satisfied. Once the poster was up, Lin Hao went live.

The stream's popularity instantly surged to three million.

"He's here!"

"Charging for the top spot today!"

"The Luna play yesterday was insane; I didn't expect Brother Hao to have that in his arsenal!"

"I came here after watching the replay. I regret not catching it live yesterday!"

Lin Hao exchanged a few pleasantries with the audience and entered the matchmaking queue for the Peak Tournament. After a one-minute wait, he finally got in. As expected, it was another high-stakes peak showdown.