American Football: King of the Bay Area

”Quarterback.”

Without any hesitation, Lu Ke made his choice decisively. His dream of eleven years was finally about to come true! He couldn’t help but clench his fists, the feeling of his blood pumping coursing through his palms.

”Jersey number, eleven.” No hesitation, no second thoughts. In the depths of his mind, he had anticipated this day a thousand, ten thousand times. He was practically bursting with impatience. His birthday was November 11th, and number eleven was also his jersey number in high school. ”So, are there any system rewards or something? Like, some kind of unstoppable Special Skills? I don’t need a lot, just three or five would be fine.”

”None.” Qi’s icy voice was completely devoid of warmth, a stark contrast to Lu Ke’s excitement. It was like a bucket of cold water poured over him.

Lu Ke grumbled in frustration, ”You’ve got to be kidding me. No rewards at all? In any game, you get basic rewards right when you start. I’m not asking for a Heaven-Slaying Sword or a Dragon Slayer Saber, and I’m not asking for a hundred million US Dollars. To not even get a basic reward is such a letdown. If you do this, how are players supposed to feel motivated? How are they going to strive? If you want players to spend money, you have to give them a little taste of sweetness at the beginning, you know?”

”Rewards?” Qi’s voice sounded a little confused. ”Are you referring to the basic attribute points granted upon system activation? You previously had five basic attribute points, which have all been allocated.”

”What?” Lu Ke was completely stunned. As he carefully thought back, his mind gradually cleared. ’No way. Are you saying those points I just randomly assigned were the basic reward points?’

”Yes!” Qi’s voice returned to its usual calm, icy tone.

”Can I restart?” Lu Ke was on the verge of tears. ”Don’t you know how important attribute allocation is in games? Randomly assigning points can completely ruin an account.”

In a game, the direction and method of character point allocation are extremely important. If you mess up your character’s build, you can just delete it and start over. But in real life, he couldn’t just die once and then restart.

He felt like he had made a terrible mistake in a moment of impulse. ”Qi, what are my character attributes like now? Were those five points wasted? Wait, where did I even put them?”

In the chaos just now, Lu Ke had answered randomly and couldn’t quite remember the details. But before he could think further, the interface in his mind refreshed, settling on the skills page. Lu Ke scrolled up and down, but soon discovered there were just too many options.

After filtering out all the attributes for the Defense Team and the attributes for other members of the offense, there were still a full thirty attribute options just for a quarterback.

Only then did Lu Ke notice that his physical fitness score was only sixty-one out of a hundred. He had barely passed.

What did this mean? Among ordinary people, he was considered pretty good, but for an athlete, it was just barely a passing grade. In college football, he was only at a practice squad level. As for the Professional Alliance, that was just a pipe dream.

However, his Spiritual Quality was eighty-one, the highest of all his stats, which was truly remarkable. Lu Ke stroked his chin and began to think seriously. ’Could it be that this ability was the reason I was able to be the team’s quarterback in high school?’

According to the system’s evaluation scores, it was absolutely impossible for him to become a professional football player after graduating from college. The best choice was to obediently become an office worker, play some basketball and football in his spare time, and let his dreams of playing sports end there.

But now that he had the system, the impossible could become possible!

This time, Lu Ke didn’t rush. He calmed down and carefully reviewed every sub-category, even including the stats for the Defense Team. After all, if the system scan showed he was more suited to be a defensive player in every aspect, then choosing to be a quarterback would be pure delusion.

But soon, Lu Ke felt relieved, wanting to roar to the heavens, ’I really do have the potential to be a quarterback!’ Although overall, it was more a question of which stats were bad and which were even worse, fortunately, the stats that weren’t *as* bad happened to show that he was better suited to be a quarterback.

Among all the sub-categories, the highest score was his Endurance Index at eighty. This was the only attribute in the eighties—besides Spiritual Quality. Other than that, only five of his stats had passing scores: Throwing Power, Short Pass Accuracy, Mid-range Pass Accuracy, Long Pass Accuracy, and Running Pass.

The numbers for these five attributes were abysmal, but at least they were passing. Compared to all the other failing stats displayed in bright red, this was a case of picking the best of a bad bunch. And these five attributes were all closely related to a quarterback’s passing skills.

What did this string of data mean? It meant that he was like a stationary pylon; if he just stood in one spot and passed, he could still get some things done. But on the field, a quarterback needs to be mobile, confront the Defense Team, call plays to direct his teammates, observe, and make judgments. In those areas, he would be completely useless.

Each sub-category had a maximum score of one hundred. With thirty of them to work on, adding points one by one, Lu Ke had no idea when he could become a top-tier quarterback. But one thing was certain: he now had a chance at success. Whether or not he could achieve it was up to him.

’Long Pass.’ Lu Ke’s gaze fell on the Long Pass Accuracy attribute. He remembered that in his panic, he had chosen to dump all his basic attribute points into Long Pass Accuracy. Now, that skill was at a full seventy-nine points!

Seventy-nine points! That explained the stunning pass from earlier. In high school, his longest pass was fifty yards, and that was with a huge stroke of luck, something he only managed once. But just now, he had easily completed a sixty-yard pass. This was the reason!

He had put all five basic attribute points into his long pass, making this single stat the highest among all his technical skills. With no defenders to interfere, he had successfully maximized his Long Pass Accuracy, delivering the football securely into Logan’s arms!

Thinking about it carefully, before adding the basic attribute points, his Long Pass Accuracy was already seventy-four. His Short Pass Accuracy was sixty-three, and his Mid-range Pass Accuracy was sixty-four. The comparison revealed that even in high school, Lu Ke was a quarterback who relied on long passes to open up the game, which perfectly matched reality.

Upon closer inspection, Lu Ke discovered that in the physical attributes category, his Strength was only forty-six, which was a nightmare. But in the technical skills category, his Throwing Power was seventy-eight, which was closely linked to his outstanding Long Pass Accuracy. In other words, his physical fitness was mediocre, but through technique and explosive power, he could fully utilize his body’s strength when throwing. His efficiency was excellent, often allowing him to complete incredible long passes.

’I never thought I’d be a Popeye-style quarterback.’ Lu Ke’s thoughts began to drift. He imagined himself dominating on the field at the Super Bowl and felt himself floating on air, drifting a little too far. After a moment, his thoughts returned, and he went back to carefully examining each of his technical skills. Out of the corner of his eye, he suddenly caught a flashing red number in the top-right corner. It was ”Basic Attribute Points: 1”.

”Huh? Qi, why is there another basic attribute point here? Why didn’t you remind me?” Lu Ke said excitedly. When he first got the system, the notifications were annoyingly frequent, but now Qi had chosen to remain silent. He almost missed it!

”Because this was earned from a match objective, it is up to the Host to decide when to allocate it,” Qi replied dutifully. ”In the three-on-three matchup just now, the Host successfully completed a pass, earning Basic Attribute Points +1.”

”Ha! So that’s how it is!” Lu Ke couldn’t help but rub his hands together eagerly. ’So, how should I assign this point?’ He decided to treat the five initial points as a mandatory system reward. From now on, his character’s attributes should be under his own control. This time, Lu Ke couldn’t afford to be careless; he had to think it through carefully.

The problem was, faced with a sea of red on his character sheet, a single attribute point was hardly enough to make a difference. All his lofty ambitions were brought back down to earth.

After some serious thought, Lu Ke decided to run an experiment. From high school to college, Lu Ke had suffered enough from physical confrontations, even during his year as a practice player. So, he wanted to add this precious attribute point to Strength and see what effect it would have—at the very least, Long Pass Accuracy had shown an immediate effect earlier.

With a crisp ”DING,” Strength went from forty-six to forty-seven.

Lu Ke looked down at himself, carefully examining his body, but... there was complete silence. ’Shouldn’t my blood be boiling? Or my muscles getting scorching hot? Or at least a feeling of being filled with power? Even if I don’t transform into a monster like the Green Giant Hulk, at the very least, I should feel *something*, right?’

But the problem was, there was nothing. Not the slightest sensation. Not a single trace. It made Lu Ke feel like an idiot.

”Qi, ’fess up. Are you a fake?” Lu Ke demanded with a straight face.

”Host.”

”Lu Ke. My name is Lu Ke! It’s not like I don’t have a name. I’m already calling you Qi. Or are you really a fake? Am I actually concussed right now, and this is all a hallucination? Am I just talking to myself?”

”…You only added one point of Strength, not ten. The feeling won’t be that obvious. Remodeling the body is a slow process. It’s not a hormone, nor is it a catalyst.” Qi did its best to remain professional and provide Lu Ke with an answer.

Lu Ke thought about it carefully. That did make sense, and he couldn’t argue with it. ”Then why didn’t my Throwing Power change?”