Chapter Five: System, Is This Drop Rate Even Reasonable?

With a heavy sigh, Xinran gazed at her darkened screen and the death timers ticking down for her four teammates in the upper left corner. Total annihilation! She watched as the old master, with only a sliver of health left, somehow refused to die. After wiping out their team, he leapt onto their high ground and performed a victory dance, even sending a mocking "Sorry" in the chat.

“Incredible!”
“My mom asked why I’m kneeling while watching the stream. I told her I want to prostrate myself on the floor!”
“Are all the new streamers this fierce nowadays? I love this aggressive playstyle—the plane is yours!”

The barrage of comments scrolled wildly through the streaming chat.

On the Shark streaming platform, the recommendation order for streamers wasn’t strictly based on popularity. Instead, they occasionally inserted rooms with high comment activity or large numbers of gifts between the top-ranked channels. Although Lin Hao only had eighty thousand followers, every move in his game was dazzling, which kept his chat incredibly lively. As a result, his channel had been promoted to a prominent spot in the recommendations.

By the end of this match, more and more viewers had flooded in. No matter when they joined, they all witnessed Lin Hao’s godlike final play. Especially that first move—binding Nakoruru outside and then flashing inside to demolish the tower—was nothing short of breathtaking for the audience! Anyone who played Honor of Kings could appreciate how stunning that maneuver was.

...

“Xinran’s rage points: +800!”
“Nakoruru’s rage points: +600!”
“Shen Mengxi’s rage points: +100!”

Lin Hao heard the voice prompt echo in his mind, and the corners of his mouth curled up in a smile. Clearly, solo lane play had its limits, but team fights were another story. With his mechanics, he could frustrate the entire enemy team—and maybe collect rage points from all five opponents at once!

Of course, not everyone would fly into a rage after losing a team fight. But this time, binding Nakoruru and then flashing in to take out the high ground was the key move that infuriated her.

In Xinran’s own stream, she stared blankly at the screen as the word “Defeat” flashed before her eyes. Despite her anger, curiosity got the better of her. This old master, with such fluid movement and a distinctive style—he was no nameless player!

Yet, as a top-tier summoner on the Honor of Kings peak ladder, she had never encountered this old master before.

Hmph, if I ever run into him on the peak ladder, I’ll pick Xi Shi and make sure he gets locked down!

Meanwhile, the viewers in Xinran’s stream were already investigating the mysterious old master on the opposing team.

“That was Haoran!”
“Who’s Haoran? Never heard of him! Is he a streamer?”
“Where does Haoran stream?”
“On Shark Live, room number 1143121.”

Xinran naturally saw these comments and frowned slightly. Haoran?

She’d never heard of him!

As a top hundred player on the peak ladder, Xinran had run into countless streamers during her broadcasts. There were only a few dozen at the pinnacle of the King’s Canyon, and they often ran into each other. Even if she didn’t know them off-stream, a couple of matches together and they’d become familiar.

But this Haoran—she had no recollection of him at all.

Xinran checked Lin Hao’s profile.

ID: Shared Heartbeat.

What a unique name!

She checked his win rate. Hmm, rather unremarkable. His peak score was around 2000.

That didn’t add up! Someone with such a distinctive playstyle and high-level skills should have some reputation, yet his profile was so ordinary.

Was he playing on a smurf account? Or perhaps he was a brand-new streamer?

Interesting!

Whatever the case, Xinran made sure to remember the ID: Shared Heartbeat.

...

After wrapping up his evening stream, Lin Hao checked how many rage points he’d accumulated.

15,200!

In just over three hours, he’d racked up about fifteen thousand rage points. Apart from the first match against Xinran, which doubled his points, the rest were just ordinary players.

“System! Draw a prize!”

After ending the stream, Lin Hao waved his hand, ready to start the lottery. Today was the first day of his ascent!

Ever since he was young, Lin Hao had dreamed of becoming an esports pro. But with limited talent, the best he could do was reach the top 10,000. At that level, he could earn some money as a rank booster, but it was exhausting. Given his family’s wealth, he had no need to grind away as a booster.

Streaming was a bit more relaxed, but with so many top players in the field, standing out was tough.

But now, with the system, everything was about to change!

Today, with the movement skill he acquired, he’d already improved dramatically. Given time, he might even become strong enough to compete in the KPL—and perhaps build a new dynasty of his own.

Filled with ambition, Lin Hao imagined his glorious future as the system began the lottery draw.

...

The system’s lottery was cheap—only 160 rage points per draw.

With all the rage points he’d earned tonight, he figured he’d turn into a Super Saiyan by the end.

Rubbing his hands together in excitement, Lin Hao watched as blue lights flashed by in his mind, but all he got were “Thank you for participating” messages.

“...”

“Hey, system, just what are the rules for this draw? Why is the drop rate so low?”

“No comment. The host is free to speculate,” the system replied coldly.

Speculate my foot!

Lin Hao was frustrated, but what could he do? He had to keep drawing.

Finally, on the tenth pull, a purple light flashed in his mind!

Oh?

A different color!

“Congratulations, host, you have obtained the National Server Yuan Ge skill!”

Yuan Ge!

This was the hero he had always wanted to master but could never quite figure out.

The skill infusion was just as fast as it had been when he was a newbie. Lin Hao felt the new memories filling his mind and grinned.

So that’s how it is!

Now, even though he didn’t have the top national badge for Yuan Ge in the game, his skill level was truly on par with the best in the country!

However, the system’s hero skills only guaranteed he would have the ability to reach the national leaderboard with that hero. When future balance changes or new environments arose, it would be up to Lin Hao to adapt his tactics and playstyle accordingly.

Still, Lin Hao had begun to notice a pattern.

If blue light meant no prize, then purple light meant a single hero skill, and gold light represented a universal skill that could raise his overall ceiling!

For instance, even a national top Yuan Ge player couldn’t absolutely dominate in every match at the top of the peak ladder—every player there was a national-level expert, and sometimes even they would get outplayed.

But with a golden skill—like the movement ability Lin Hao drew as a newbie—his ceiling would skyrocket!

Imagine a national-level Yuan Ge with script-like movement—the potential would far exceed that of any ordinary top-tier Yuan Ge.

With that, Lin Hao spent the rest of his rage points on more draws.

To his disappointment, the system had no pity mechanism; the remaining rage points all resulted in “Thank you for participating.”

“Damn, system, don’t tell me rage points can only be spent on the lottery? And with odds like this?”

“After the system upgrades to level 2, the rage point exchange shop will unlock. At that time, the host can exchange rage points for rewards.”