American Football: King of the Bay Area

The scrimmage restarted in full swing, but it was clear the coaches, scouts, and players had all raised their standards. Von Miller had delivered a dominant, professional-level defensive performance; Lu Ke had scored the first Touchdown of the day’s scrimmage; and Julio Jones and Logan Newman had executed a spectacular coordinated run. Now, people were expecting to see even more.

The atmosphere inside Lucas Oil Stadium was heating up.

Standing on the sidelines, his surging excitement was still hard to suppress. Lu Ke couldn’t help but clench his fists, cheering himself on once more.

’Maybe he’d started too late. Maybe his natural physical talent was still his weak point. Maybe his skills still weren’t at a professional level. But... he could see a possibility.’

’The official start of the league in September was still a full seven months away. With the System’s help, he believed he could become a qualified professional player. He wouldn’t slack off on a single day of training or a single mission. He would sprint with all his might toward his dream.’

’The question now was, was his performance at the Rookie Training Camp enough? In the draft two months from now, would he be able to find someone who could see his potential?’

Clenching his fists tightly, his turbulent emotions gradually calmed. All the players were focused intently on the scrimmage on the field, and Lu Ke finally had a moment to summon the System again. DING DING DING! A series of cheerful, lively chimes played in his mind, composing a moving melody.

”Congratulations on completing ’Special Mission: Proving Yourself in Adversity’. The mission rewards are as follows: Speed +1, Strength +1, Acceleration +1, Agility +1, Jumping +1, Throwing Power +1, Unknown Quarterback Training Skill Package +1, Unknown Team Interview Opportunities +5; Additional Base Skill Point +1.”

Before tallying his mission rewards, Lu Ke first reviewed his mission completion status: Passing yards, eighty, far exceeding the required fifty; completion percentage, 66.666 percent, with six successful passes out of nine, just barely meeting the sixty percent standard; target, Julio Jones, connected successfully three times; opponent overcome, Richard Sherman, completed two passes against him.

It was just a simple scrimmage, just ten offensive drives, but the process was far more thrilling than the outcome. Looking back on it now, it was still breathtakingly intense. This was why Lu Ke loved the game so much: the adrenaline rush, the down-to-the-wire moments, the brutal, cutthroat competition. When two meet on a narrow path, the brave one wins; when two brave ones meet, the strong one wins!

Then, Lu Ke began to browse his mission rewards. After all the base points were added, his current basic physical stats were: Speed 66, Strength 48, Acceleration 62, Agility 70, Jumping 49, Throwing Power 79.

The foundation of his physical talent was still barely satisfactory, but Lu Ke could feel his stats increasing bit by bit, and his confidence was growing bit by bit as well. This wasn’t something that could be achieved overnight; it was a long and steady process. He needed to keep his feet on the ground and continue moving forward step by step.

Of course, wielding an overpowered cheat like the Rugby Superstar System, his strength was already increasing at a flying pace. He shouldn’t get any greedier.

His gaze fell upon the ”Unknown Team Interview Opportunities” and the ”Unknown Quarterback Training Skill Package”, but then he noticed there was also an ”Additional Base Skill Point +1”. This was an unexpected discovery. If Lu Ke remembered correctly, this item hadn’t been in the reward options when the special mission first appeared.

’Qi?’ Lu Ke called out in his mind. Without needing to ask further, Qi’s explanatory voice rang out, ”This is a potential reward for special missions. In the scrimmage just now, you scored a Touchdown, exceeding the scope of the mission requirements. You completed the mission to 120 percent, thus triggering an extra reward.”

No wonder it had the prefix, ”Additional”.

However, Lu Ke caught another piece of information. ’Wait, you just said this is a potential reward for special missions, which means only special missions can drop potential rewards? Not daily missions or match missions?’

”Yes.” With that one clean, crisp word, Qi snuffed out all the wild and fantastic ideas brewing in Lu Ke’s mind.

Lu Ke didn’t mind, though. He shrugged. ’That seems fair enough.’ Then he rubbed his chin. ’Huh, does this mean I didn’t do enough to complete my first special mission? Qi, tell me, if I get a photo with Cam Newton and upload it to Instagram, would that count as exceeding the mission requirements?’

”...” Qi met this with silence.

’Lu Ke immediately shook his head in denial. ’Pah, pah, pah, wouldn’t that be the same as admitting that Newton is a future potential superstar? Hmph. From now on, every time I see him, I’ll put him in his place. I’ll stomp that ’potential’ right out of ’potential superstar’.’’

”...” Qi remained silent.

Having unexpectedly gained a base skill point, Lu Ke didn’t hesitate and immediately added it to Observation Field of View. The stat now became 64.

The more games he played, the more the usefulness of Observation Field of View became apparent. It was his grasp of the entire situation on the field, including the protection from the Offense Line, the status of the receivers on the field, the breakthroughs by the Defense Line, and the positioning of the defensive secondary. The entire read and interpretation presented a three-dimensional picture in his mind, clear as day. Whether for choosing an offensive play or escaping a sack, it was an absolute ace in the hole.

’It was only at 64 points right now. Lu Ke was a little excited to think about what would happen if it increased to 80. Would the whole world look brand new? And what about 100?’

Pushing the chaotic thoughts in his mind aside for the moment, he unhesitatingly opened the Unknown Quarterback Training Skill Package. After a ”DING”, he then opened his Special Skills list. One of the entries was ”Absolute Step: 0/2”. It was grayed out, indicating it couldn’t be used. In today’s scrimmage, the two uses of the Absolute Step skill had been like a divine intervention, becoming a key factor that decided the game. He had no idea when he’d get this skill back.

His gaze then fell on the training skill package. ”Complete the following training:

Three-cone drill, five sets of five reps;

Twenty-yard shuttle, ten sets of one rep;

Agility ladder lateral movement, ten sets of four round-trips;

Weaving around poles, ten sets of four round-trips;

Ball-Carrying Run, ten sets of four round-trips.

Training Rewards: Ball-Carrying Run +1, Evasive Ability +1, blocking ability +1, dribbling ability +1, illusionary ability +1.”

All five different training exercises were for a quarterback’s footwork techniques, focusing on foot movement within the pocket formed by the Offense Line. The final reward points were also all focused on footwork-related skills.

Similar to the first Quarterback Training Skill Package, the purpose of this training package was also very clear: to standardize Lu Ke’s technical movements, fine-tuning his established techniques within the limited training, in hopes that Lu Ke could complete his passes more efficiently and directly.

Without the Absolute Step Special Skill, steadily improving his own footwork was undoubtedly the best way to look toward the future. Although the footwork requirements for a pocket quarterback weren’t as strict as for a mobile quarterback, pocket quarterbacks were more dependent on their Offense Line. If they faced a powerful Defense Team that tore straight through the Offense Line, a pocket quarterback’s poor footwork wouldn’t be able to save them.

Offense wins games, defense wins championships. This truth applies to soccer, and it also applies to football. So, how exactly does one tear through a defense and break that law? It was definitely not that simple, but strengthening his footwork was a good start.

Finally, with a nervous and excited heart, Lu Ke opened the last remaining reward: Unknown Team Interview Opportunities.

But after clicking on it, there was nothing. The Special Skills section showed ”Team Interview Opportunities 5/5”, but the entire skill was grayed out and unusable. Since the entire screen was in his mind, Lu Ke anxiously raised his hand, trying to reach right through the large screen to operate a keyboard. He then realized that Logan, who was standing next to him, was looking over with a bewildered expression. Lu Ke’s mouth fell open for a second before he patted Logan’s shoulder. ”It’s nothing, nothing. There was a mosquito.”

Logan stared at Lu Ke as if he’d seen a ghost. ’Indianapolis in February? A mosquito? An alien mosquito?’

Lu Ke quickly looked back at the field, watching the ongoing scrimmage, and quietly asked in his mind, ’Qi, what’s going on? Why can’t I use this skill?’

”You don’t need to lower your voice in your mind,” Qi said dutifully, though it sounded suspiciously like a complaint. It was only then that Lu Ke noticed Qi hadn’t called him ”Host”, but instead used ”you”. It was progress, a small step, but a very welcome one. Qi’s voice continued, ”This is one of the Passive Skills. It can’t be activated. You just need to wait, and the team interview opportunities will happen naturally.”

Lu Ke couldn’t help but let out a sigh of disappointment. Luckily, there was just an incomplete pass on the field, and everyone gasped in surprise, so his action didn’t seem out of place.

’Lu Ke had originally thought that he could actively choose what to do with the five team interview opportunities—pick his favorite teams, or teams that he thought would appreciate his talents. Or, at the very least, the System would arrange the team choices in advance, and then he could do some simple preparations based on those teams’ characteristics, hoping to present a better version of himself during the interviews.’

’But apparently, he was still too greedy.’

The disappointment and regret lasted only for a moment before Lu Ke quickly pulled himself together. The mission had rewarded him with five team interview opportunities, which was already incredibly rare. Otherwise, he might not have gotten a single interview opportunity at all, left completely ignored. That would have been true rock bottom.

’Now, he had five interview opportunities. No matter which teams they were with, he had to seize them. After all, with his current qualifications, he didn’t exactly have a lot of options.’

That night, after completing the footwork training package and improving his various stats, they started receiving calls from teams for interviews. It turned out Lu Ke had been selling himself short. In this year’s Rookie Training Camp, he was definitely not a nobody.