American Football: King of the Bay Area

In the first week of the regular season, the San Francisco 49ers defeated the Seattle Seahawks at home, and Lu Ke earned fifteen base points. He also received a Quarterback Training Package—Strength Training. After that, his daily training missions underwent an earth-shattering change. The training cycles, training plans, and even the training tasks were all completely revamped.

The most direct change was a significant increase in the components of his strength training. Additionally, the specific yoga exercises were also further enhanced.

To put it simply, Lu Ke needed to gain weight, increase his strength, and further improve his ability to handle physical contact. But Lu Ke was, after all, a pocket quarterback, so his body couldn’t become too cumbersome. Flexibility and agility remained crucial for him to complete his passes. Thus, both strength and yoga training were given equal importance.

Today, after the conclusion of Week 5 of the regular season, Lu Ke finally noticed that he had eighteen available base points, not seventeen. Another daily training mission cycle had ended. Naturally, after checking his inventory, he had earned another base point.

Besides that, this also meant that exactly four weeks had passed since he started the strength training and the upgraded yoga training. Just as Qi had said, daily training was a long-term mission. In addition to earning base points, Lu Ke’s own physical attributes would also change accordingly. Now, it was time to reap the rewards of this round of training.

”I know. But the reward cycles used to be longer. This time it’s only been a month, hasn’t it?” Lu Ke hadn’t calculated it in detail because daily training had gradually become a habit. ’But one thing is for sure: aside from accumulating base points, it usually takes at least half a year of relentless effort, maybe even longer, for physical attribute scores to improve naturally.’

Qi’s reply was simple and clear. ”Because the system missions have been adjusted.”

Previously, the main focus of the daily training missions was Lu Ke’s quarterback techniques. The concentrated strength training had only started this past month. Now, the results of that training were becoming apparent.

First and most gratifying was his physical quality. After being stacked all the way to seventy in one go, it had increased by another point in just one short month. He could clearly feel his ability to handle contact had improved.

Second, his strength increased by two points, from sixty-one to sixty-three; his throwing power also increased by one point, from seventy-nine to eighty.

Next, his explosiveness also increased by one point, from seventy to seventy-one.

Then, his agility went from seventy-one to seventy-two, and his jumping went from fifty to fifty-one.

Finally, and also the most surprising and incomprehensible, was his willpower, which went from eighty to eighty-one. Strength training couldn’t possibly improve willpower. ’Could it be because of the yoga training?’

Without a doubt, the improvement was all-around; in total, he had gained eight points across the board. This wasn’t an accumulation of base points, but a real, physical change in his body’s attributes. ”Qi, can you explain this?” Lu Ke voiced his confusion. Even for a month of concentrated training, such growth was illogical.

”This is a process of quantitative change leading to a qualitative one. The accumulation over the past year was relatively limited in terms of data reflection; but after breaking through the ceiling of your physical quality, a month of concentrated training has improved all related stats.” Qi’s explanation was very detailed. ”As for willpower, that’s because you’ve been relentlessly completing the daily training missions, especially the strength training over the past month. It’s another case of quantitative change leading to qualitative change, which triggered the point increase.”

In other words, through his persistence and hard work over the past year, Lu Ke’s physique had indeed been getting stronger little by little. He just hadn’t broken through that final barrier, so the results shown in his stats were limited, but his physical condition had been quietly changing all along. Now, after the concentrated training, it had all truly burst forth.

In addition to this, Lu Ke’s weight had also increased accordingly. He had now reached ninety kilograms (approx. 198 lbs), a full five-kilogram (approx. 11 lbs) increase from before.

’The weight gain must have been a slow, creeping process. I probably gained a little each week, but I wasn’t paying close attention, so I didn’t notice. It wasn’t until today, when I saw the huge changes in my strength attributes, that I finally noticed the change in my weight.’

Although Lu Ke was still on the lighter side, he was not far from his final goal of ninety-five kilograms (approx. 209 lbs).

Then, another question arose in Lu Ke’s mind.

’My physical attributes are improving bit by bit with training. The effects are visible, even if they’re slow. So, what about my quarterback techniques? Since I got the system, my technique stats haven’t improved naturally at all; they’ve relied entirely on me allocating points. Does that mean my actual skills are stagnating?’

Instead of just guessing, Lu Ke posed his question and received an answer from Qi.

”You can think of it like this: before you got the system, your physical talent had already hit its ceiling, but your technical abilities had not.”

”To be precise, this is true for every player. Physical talent can only reach a certain limit. Once that limit is reached, improvement becomes incredibly difficult. Technical abilities are different, however. Things like route running, footwork, and pass control can all be improved through relentless training.”