American Football: King of the Bay Area

Hidden Attribute, ”Luck”.

In competitive sports, skill is the ultimate benchmark for determining a winner. However, the unexpected is always an inevitable and objective part of the game. This is especially true in matchups between closely matched opponents, where, aside from on-field performance and a player’s condition on the day, accidents can become the unknown factor that decides the outcome.

A ball grazing the net or edge in ping-pong, a shot hitting the goalpost in soccer, a ball rimming out in basketball, an irregular bounce in tennis... These uncontrollable factors are all part of the game.

In confrontations between players, the number of freak accidents is countless. They can neither be controlled nor predicted. Situations where the slightest deviation leads to a vastly different outcome are also a crucial part of the competition.

Among the many accidents, luck can often play an unpredictable role.

After quickly browsing the detailed description for the Hidden Attribute, Lu Ke understood at once.

Overall, the ”Luck” Hidden Attribute was basically consistent with Lu Ke’s guess. It mainly affected the uncontrollable accidents in a game. It was invisible and intangible, but at times, it could genuinely influence a game’s outcome.

At the same time, like ”Anticipation,” ”Luck” only affected Lu Ke himself. In other words, it only applied to the quarterback’s passes and tactical plays. It was like that interception in today’s game—he had been, more or less, a bit short on luck. Anything beyond that, such as unexpected incidents when the special teams or the Defense Team were on the field, fell outside the influence of Lu Ke’s Hidden Attribute.

This was fair. After all, Lu Ke wasn’t some kind of lucky charm whose good fortune could extend to the entire team.

But the problem was...

”Qi, are you kidding me? Are you sure the data isn’t wrong? You’re screwing me over, aren’t you?” Lu Ke stared at his ”Luck” attribute, dumbfounded and aghast.

But Qi’s incredibly calm voice sounded in his mind, ”Luck has never been a constant. It shifts quietly with different situations and circumstances. There is an old saying in China: Feng shui turns; thirty years east of the river, thirty years west. That is the true essence of luck.”

”...Are you sure you’re talking about luck and not feng shui?” Lu Ke was speechless and could only make a snarky comment. When Qi met his remark with silence, Lu Ke could only give a wry smile.

His gaze fell on the ”Luck” attribute again, where the value behind it was a startling: -25-75.

First, it wasn’t a fixed value, but a fluctuating one. Second, the minimum value was actually a negative number: negative twenty-five to positive seventy-five.

This was absolutely unprecedented, completely different from any situation before. But after he calmed down and thought it over, it made sense.

Just as Qi said, luck wasn’t a constant value. Otherwise, if a person’s luck attribute reached its maximum, it would be as if lotuses bloomed with every step, every footfall landing in lucky ”dogsh*t”—truly invincible, to the point of breaking the balance of reality. If that were the case, all Lu Ke would need to do is stack all his special points onto this one Hidden Attribute and set himself on an easy path to glory.

But obviously, that was impossible.

Therefore, the luck for each game would fluctuate according to the actual situation.

Perhaps in some games he would be particularly unlucky—every pass an error, every play ending in butterfingers. In that case, there would be nothing Lu Ke could do but lament that he ”was a little short on luck.”

At this moment, Lu Ke couldn’t help but feel fortunate that after completing the last hidden mission, he hadn’t chosen to unlock the luck attribute, but had instead chosen to pragmatically increase his own strength. Now, it was proven once again that his choice was the right one. In competitive sports, absolute skill was the true path to victory.

The problem now was that the minimum baseline for his luck was negative twenty-five. This value was so shocking it genuinely startled Lu Ke. ”Qi, I thought I was a super lucky person. Otherwise, the system wouldn’t have chosen me, right? Why is my luck in the negatives?”

Qi didn’t answer directly. Instead, it calmly and coolly changed the subject, reporting another set of data, ”The data range for luck is from negative one hundred to positive one hundred.”

”...” The rest of Lu Ke’s words were caught in his throat. ”You mean my luck is actually considered pretty good? At least it’s not abysmally bad at negative one hundred?”

Qi made no sound, but Lu Ke knew that was exactly what it meant. From a positive perspective, at least the minimum value was only negative twenty-five, which wasn’t a complete disaster. And the maximum value also reached seventy-five, which was a decent number.

What’s more, the system had unlocked this hidden data, which meant that, just like ”Anticipation,” he could complete missions, gain special points, and then use them to change the relevant values.

Naturally, his gaze fell to the upper right corner of the system page, which clearly displayed, ”Basic Points: 27; Special Points: 1+8 (Can only be used on the Hidden Attribute ’Luck’).”

Without any hesitation, Lu Ke immediately applied the eight designated special points to the newly unlocked ”Luck” option. But a prompt sounded in his mind, ”Would you like to change the lower limit or the upper limit?”

Just as he expected, the ”Luck” attribute could be changed. As long as he stacked enough special points, the value could escape the negative range and return to the positive. But the crappy part was that he couldn’t change the lower and upper limits at the same time; he had to alter them one by one.

On one hand, Lu Ke once again felt glad he hadn’t greedily chosen the ”Luck” attribute before. On the other hand, he also mused, ’Since modifying the ”Luck” attribute is so difficult, does that mean its effects in real life are incredibly significant? The greater the difficulty, the stronger the effect—isn’t that how it usually works?’

After some serious thought, Lu Ke decided to modify the ”lower limit.”

At his current stage, Lu Ke needed to focus on his own strength, making down-to-earth improvements rather than relying too much on luck. Therefore, modifying the lower limit to avoid a catastrophic ”car crash” scenario was the priority. As for raising the upper limit, that could wait until later.

Thus, the ”Luck” attribute became ”-17-75.” He had taken a big step toward completely escaping the negative values.

Afterward, Lu Ke also went ahead and applied the other special point to ”Anticipation,” raising it from eighty-one to eighty-two. The influence of this Hidden Attribute on the course of a game was undoubtedly more obvious, and it was a quality Lu Ke urgently needed to improve.

After allocating these points, Lu Ke’s gaze once again fell upon his various attributes. He had twenty-seven basic points, and he had to put them where they would count the most, to truly elevate his abilities to the next level.

First, Tactical Awareness. It was already at ninety. Now, Lu Ke added five points in one go, bringing it to ninety-five. If all went well, this strength of his would become his first attribute to reach the maximum score.

Deep down, he still felt a faint thrill of excitement. However, the excitement only lasted for a moment. He knew that even if all his attributes reached their maximum, it still didn’t guarantee he would win every game. Not to mention, football is a sport that heavily emphasizes teamwork. Even focusing solely on the quarterback, they couldn’t always perform at 100% of their ability in every single game.

Second, Observation Field of View. He boosted it from eighty-two to ninety in one go, adding a full eight basic points.

This was a skill that complemented Tactical Awareness. It was also the core reason Lu Ke had been able to consistently lead the offense down the field so far this season. Now, Observation Field of View had become the second of Lu Ke’s skills to reach ninety points. His strengths needed to be continuously optimized to enhance his competitiveness.

Third, under his passing abilities, Lu Ke carefully considered how to allocate points among the six sub-categories: Short Pass Accuracy, Mid-range Pass Accuracy, Long Pass Accuracy, Tactical Area Accuracy, Running Pass, and Ball-Carrying Run.

To put it simply, these six sub-categories constituted a quarterback’s passing ability. The first four related to accuracy on stable passes from within the pocket. The last two related to passing accuracy while running on his feet, either because the pocket collapsed or pressure arrived. In a real game, the values of the last two categories could, to some extent, affect the performance of the first four.

Lu Ke’s first instinct was to enhance his Running Pass and Ball-Carrying Run abilities, as these could often create more passing opportunities in desperate situations amidst Fierce Waves.

However, recently, the San Francisco 49ers’ Offense Line had been playing more and more steadily, and the pocket was becoming more and more solid. The situations requiring Lu Ke to actively or passively run out of the pocket were decreasing. Moreover, at his core, Lu Ke was still a traditional pocket quarterback. In his tactical mindset, a Ball-Carrying Run was always a secondary option.

After careful consideration, Lu Ke still decided to first strengthen his fundamental quarterback skills—which were also the signature skills of a pocket quarterback.

And so, Long Pass Accuracy increased from eighty-two to eighty-five. Mid-range Pass Accuracy increased from eighty to eighty-three. Short Pass Accuracy also rose from eighty to eighty-three. The last five basic points were all stacked onto Tactical Area Accuracy, bringing that sub-category from seventy to seventy-five.

Twenty-seven basic points, and just like that, they were all gone, bringing the total back to zero.

The overall strategy for allocating the basic points was very simple: focus wholeheartedly on improving his quarterback technical skills. To be more precise, it was about enhancing the fundamental skills of a pocket quarterback, pushing his strengths and advantages to the absolute limit. This had become the foundation of Lu Ke’s performance in games, as proven over the past few weeks.

Now, most of the relevant skills for a pocket quarterback had been elevated to a new tier, entering the seventy-point range. Next, Lu Ke needed to shift his focus slightly:

Fake Pass Action, forty-five points; ball protection ability, fifty-nine points; Resistance to Injury Index, seventy-seven points; Endurance Index, eighty points; Recovery Index, seventy-five points.

These sub-categories all needed a corresponding boost. Only then would Lu Ke not fall behind in the second half of the regular season.