From Pokémon to The International, Dota 2

Over the next three days, Gu Ran was highly enthusiastic, spending his days either playing matches or solo queuing, streaming for more than ten hours every day, and before he knew it, his MMR had reached 10800.

After his solo queue session ended that day, Gu Ran closed the live stream, and a results dialog box popped up:

Today's live stream duration: 13 hours and 23 minutes

Peak concurrent users: 11025

New followers: +1786

Gift income: 1524.5 yuan

Recently, I've been climbing the ranked ladder every day, and my live streaming income is also steadily improving. The number of fans following me is skyrocketing. It feels great to see such clear positive feedback after all this hard work!

He took off his headphones, leaned back in his chair, and stretched. His spine cracked segment by segment from his tailbone to the back of his neck, like rusty hinges being forcibly pried open. He had been sitting for over ten hours, barely moving his body except for his fingers moving on the keyboard.

Perhaps it's time to consider getting up and working out every few hours during the livestream. He could learn from Brother Jia, who does a certain number of push-ups after each loss. This would provide exercise and add a different kind of entertainment value; viewers might get tired of watching solo queue every day.

He looked up at the ceiling light, which the landlord had installed two years ago when he moved in. It had been flickering occasionally lately and looked like it was about to break.

Also, the hot water in the shower often runs out while you're taking a shower. He originally thought of it as taking a cold shower occasionally to stay healthy, but now he's thinking that he should contact the landlord and mention both of these issues together.

Gu Ran is someone who doesn't like to bother others.

His rented apartment was about 20 square meters, with not much furniture, but it was basically enough.

The only furniture in the room was the computer desk, which he bought himself. It has a 2.5-meter-long composite board tabletop and aluminum alloy legs. It almost killed him to carry it up from the courier point downstairs.

The desktop is big enough to fit two monitors and a set of peripherals. The monitor on the left was a second-hand item I bought on Xianyu (a second-hand marketplace) last year; the frame still has cartoon stickers left by the previous owner, who tried to peel them off but couldn't get them completely off, so he was too lazy to touch them again. The one on the right is newer, but it's still a cheap one that cost a few hundred yuan.

Gu Ran was thinking that once her income arrived this month, she might be able to rent a better place, but she also felt that moving would be too much trouble. After thinking about it, she decided to get a better screen first.

While I was struggling with this decision, I opened Meituan Waimai (a food delivery platform) and started thinking about which group meal deal would be the most cost-effective for tonight's late-night snack.

He ordered takeout while lying in bed, put down his phone, and casually picked up a small notebook next to him. This notebook contained his summary of his abilities over the past few days. He would record any new discoveries he made about his abilities in this notebook each day.

He calls this ability "overclocking" because each time he activates it, his actions appear to be extremely extreme from the audience's perspective. After the effect ends, there is a period of fatigue, and he needs to rest for a while after each burst of power.

It felt a bit like the kind of explosive skills that protagonists in the novels he likes to read, such as "Blood Burst," "Soul-Burning Luck," or "Eight Gates Formation."

The characteristics summarized so far are as follows:

1. After overclocking, I felt like I had entered a game and become the hero myself, but from the outside, I still appeared to be operating the game normally. I don't know the reason why.

2. Currently, it is impossible to actively control the activation of overclocking, but we have gradually figured out some methods. For example, it is easier to enter overclocking under excited or tense and exciting conditions. Sometimes it can be entered by strong subjective will and sometimes it cannot. It is speculated that it may need to be assisted by strong emotional stimulation.

3. Exiting overclocking mode is now largely under my control. Generally, I exit as soon as the time for extreme operation has passed, which minimizes side effects.

4. Side effects after exiting include dizziness, hand soreness, tinnitus, etc., and the longer the overclocking time, the more obvious the side effects. Based on the past few days of testing, it is also related to the proficiency with the hero used. The higher the proficiency with the hero, the fewer side effects there are when performing extreme operations. The reason is that the higher the probability of performing such operations on one's own, the smaller the side effects.

5. Once you enter overclocking mode, your proficiency with that hero will surge afterward, as if you've retained some muscle memory.

6. Currently, you can only enter overclocking mode once per game. The cooldown time seems to be around one hour, which is also related to the length of time you spend in overclocking mode.

He goes through the contents of this notebook every day, adding ideas or correcting previous mistakes.

These past few days he's been playing solo queue, trying out all sorts of mid-lane heroes, just wanting to get each hero into overclocked mode. Once he gets into that mode, his proficiency with the hero will be close to the so-called "master" level.

It's a bit like that joke: "Seeing something makes you know it, doing it makes you proficient, and winning at it makes you a master."

He even occasionally uses some unconventional mid-lane heroes, which often earns him "friendly greetings" from his teammates.

Sometimes when I get tired of solo queuing, I'll duo queue with Lu Chen or Shikamaru's smurf accounts. The experience of solo queuing and duo queuing in this game is completely different. When queuing solo, it's mostly like playing a single-player game, and the main purpose is to familiarize yourself with the hero's mechanics. In terms of team rhythm, both sides usually drag it out, making it difficult to achieve the team execution shown in professional matches.

Duo queue is much better; with communication, you can receive more information and have a more accurate grasp of the situation and battlefield. This is even more true in competitive matches; some say that playing solo and duo queue feels like playing two completely different games.

When her phone rang, Gu Ran thought it was the food delivery, but when she picked it up, she found it was a call from home.

"Hey, Gu Ran, how have you been lately? What do you think about that exam I told you about last time? Maybe you should call it a day?"

My mother's voice came from the other end of the phone.

"My live streams have been going really well lately. I landed a big deal, and my income this month is already close to 20,000 yuan. I might get another 10,000 yuan or more in prize money from the event."

Gu Ran felt that his voice was a little stronger than before.

"An? Really? You're not kidding your mom, are you?"

Knowing that his mother might not believe him, Gu Ran immediately opened his live stream, clicked on the income page, took a screenshot, and sent it to the "family" group chat.

"Wow, you did a pretty good job, kid. You never told me how much you earned before, but now that you've made some money, you're not hiding it anymore."

"Hmm, there might be another competition to participate in later. Let's talk about it after I finish this competition."

"Then you can tell your old man, 'Hey, Lao Gu, your son's on the phone, come and talk to him for a bit.'"

The voice on the other end of the phone changed.

"Hey, how have you been lately? Are you feeling alright? You're always sitting at home doing live streams, so remember to exercise. Go out for walks when you have time, and eat less takeout. If you do order takeout, it's best to order from restaurants that offer dine-in service. The other day, your mom and I saw on TV that takeout vendors use that kind of rancid oil. Eating that will cause health problems sooner or later."

"Okay, I understand."

Every time we talk on the phone, it's the same topic: Mom wants me to take the civil service exam, while Dad is mainly concerned about my health.

After chatting for more than ten minutes, Gu Ran hung up the phone. Just then, his takeout arrived. He opened Bilibili, watched the game clips, and enjoyed his late-night snack.