Chapter 156: Haoran V587

Finally, he reached the number one spot on the Peak leaderboard.

With the conclusion of this match, Lin Hao's Peak tournament score reached 2,637, surpassing Yifan's 2,634 to claim the top rank.

"Number one!"

"My classmate used to mock my favorite streamer for never hitting peak number one, and now I can finally slap him across the face!"

"Haoran is awesome!"

Lin Hao lingered on the interface for a moment, feeling a tinge of emotion.

In the past, he might have yearned intensely for the number one spot, but right now, he didn't feel particularly excited.

Given his current level of skill and the enhancement of his skill points, even in a match where the average ranking was among the top hundred peak players, he remained entirely at ease, securing the MVP title nine times out of ten.

Peak matches differed from professional esports. In high-tier games, players' tactical literacy did not always align, and climbing the ranks relied much more heavily on sheer individual prowess.

For instance, among the newly minted top ten peak players, apart from Yifan and Lin Hao himself, there were two top-tier Vayne—wait, Yuan Ge—streamers. Yet, in reality, a hero like Yuan Ge could hardly ever find a place in the KPL.

Therefore, Lin Hao knew clearly that reaching the number one spot was only a matter of time, considering his undeniable strength.

Seeing Lin Hao reach the summit, his fans began showering him with gifts. Regardless of the size, Lin Hao thanked every single one of them, which served as a collective expression of gratitude for all his supporters.

"Thanks to Haoran's Number One Fan for the super rocket!"

"Thanks to my dear daddy for the rocket!"

"Thanks to 'Wants to See Haoran and Xinran French Kiss' for the airplane!"

Lin Hao paused for a moment, a sudden grid of dark lines appearing across his forehead. "...Ban the user who sent that airplane."

...

Reaching the number one spot was, at best, minor news for these top-tier peak streamers.

Players capable of reaching the top hundred were only separated from the number one by about a hundred points.

Therefore, in their eyes, maintaining the number one spot at the end of the season and etching their names into the history of Honor of Kings' Peak tournament was the ultimate achievement.

Yet, when they clicked on Lin Hao's profile, they would discover that his comprehensive rating actually reached a staggering 96!

Such a high overall rating was usually only seen on accounts handled by professional boosters.

In other words, the number one peak rank might not even be Lin Hao's limit.

Wei Liang looked at the rankings on the Peak leaderboard.

He had dropped again.

By now, he had fallen out of the top ten. Ever since that time he was surpassed by Haoran, his Peak score had been steadily declining, and his form had deteriorated severely due to a streak of consecutive losses.

"I'm done playing!"

Before the clock even struck midnight, Wei Liang decided to end his broadcast early. His condition today had gone from bad to worse, and he had even squandered winnable matches simply because his mind was wandering.

Ending the stream at lightning speed, Wei Liang hesitated for a moment before opening Shark Live and searching for Haoran's channel.

Since they were on competing platforms, it was naturally impossible to watch a Shark streamer while on Tooth TV.

Consequently, when Wei Liang entered, he kept a very low profile. His Shark account was a rookie profile that had never been topped up with money; no one would recognize him here, and he didn't even have an entrance animation.

"His game sense is vastly superior to mine," Wei Liang murmured after watching for ten minutes.

"There are many things I wouldn't even think of. More importantly, when you need to make rapid decisions in the tense atmosphere of a team fight, it's genuinely difficult to process that much information and still execute the safest and most correct decision."

Lin Hao was still playing Luna. Coincidentally, Wei Liang's Luna was also at the top-tier level of over 20,000 points, so he took this opportunity to secretly learn a thing or two.

"His mechanics are about the same as mine; the main gap lies in game sense," Wei Liang thought, just as he heard Lin Hao explaining his thought process on awareness. "Huh? He can commentate while executing complex mechanics?"

Then, he watched as Lin Hao even managed to squeeze in a recall animation or an apology emote to mock opponents during the brief lulls in team fights.

"You can do that?"

Wei Liang felt his worldview collapsing. This was a match among the top hundred peak players—how could he treat it so casually, turning a high-stakes game into a recreational match just like a Diamond or Star tier ranking game?

And he did it with such effortless control, slaughtering opponents as if they were mere poultry...

...

Lin Hao naturally had no idea that Wei Liang had visited his stream.

He didn't play until midnight tonight either. After reaching the number one spot, Lin Hao played three more matches, winning two and losing one, widening the gap between himself and the second-place player once again.

After that, it became difficult to find matches.

"Now I finally understand why peak number one streamers all create smurf accounts to play. Once the score gap widens like this, it's simply impossible to find a match."

This was because the matchmaking system of Honor of Kings paired players within brackets of a hundred points.

In mid-tier divisions with massive player populations, matchmaking typically occurred within a 100-point range; even at 1,799 points, it was impossible to match with someone above 1,800 points.

In high-tier divisions, rating stretching might occasionally occur, but even then, it wouldn't be stretched too drastically.

The problem was that there were currently only three players at 2,600 points, and only around fifty at 2,500. Stretching the search any further would drag in players at 2,400 points, and it was hard to guarantee that these few players would log on and queue at the exact same time. Consequently, such conditions made the system's matchmaking logic highly unreasonable.

Therefore, they could only wait for the players below to climb up, building a solid foundation of 2,600-point players, while ensuring there were enough "lower-tier horses" at 2,500 and 2,400 points before Lin Hao could successfully queue up and find a match.

In that final match to secure the number one spot, the average ranking of both teams had already reached around the top one hundred peak players. Finding ten people to queue and start a quality match simultaneously under those conditions was no easy feat.

After ending his broadcast, Lin Hao began pondering a question: Should I make a smurf account too?

It would be a great opportunity to provide standard, mainstream tier tutorials for everyone.

At that moment, the system's chime sounded.

"Congratulations to the host for reaching the number one peak rank. Level 2 system unlocked. Prices for items in the mall have been reduced to one-tenth."

Lin Hao's eyes lit up when he heard this.

The system had mentioned this possibility quite a long time ago.

Upgrading to the Level 2 system and lowering the mall prices meant that he would only need to spend 100,000 rage points to redeem a purple skill point. At this rate, if his streams went smoothly for three days, he could exchange for a National-Server skill without needing to gamble anymore.

After some thought, Lin Hao decided to simply save the rage points he collected today. While accumulating 1,000,000 rage points for a skill point might feel distant and endless, 100,000 rage points was entirely manageable.

"Haoran, are you ready for the AC Club tryouts? We need to head over to the AC base for the tryouts this Friday."

Wang Zhaoyi sent him a message right after he finished his stream.

Ah, that matter.

In fact, Wang Zhaoyi had already handled all the trivial arrangements for him last week.

This tryout was akin to a semi-closed event. Four streamers were invited to participate, and parts of the training sessions would be filmed for promotional purposes.