"Quarterback."
Without any hesitation, Lu Ke made his choice. After eleven years, his dream was finally about to come true! Unconsciously, Lu Ke clenched his fists, feeling a rush of adrenaline in his palms.
"Jersey number, eleven." There was no hesitation or overthinking. Deep in his mind, he had anticipated this day a thousand, a million times. He was even a little impatient. His birthday was November 11, and eleven was his jersey number in high school. "So, are there any system rewards? Like, some special skills to dominate the field? Not too many, three or five would be fine."
"No," Little Seven's cold voice lacked any warmth, a sharp contrast to Lu Ke's excitement and a complete bucket of cold water.
Lu Ke complained, feeling dejected, "Seriously? No rewards at all? Any game has basic rewards when you start. I didn't ask for the Heavenly Sword or Dragon-Slaying Saber, and I didn't ask for a hundred million dollars. Not even a basic reward? That's such a buzzkill. How are players supposed to get motivated? How are they supposed to work hard? If you want players to spend money, you have to give them a little something to start, you know?"
"Rewards?" Little Seven's voice sounded confused. "Are you talking about the base points after the system was activated? You had five base points, and they have all been added."
"What?" Lu Ke was stunned. As he replayed it in his mind, the memory slowly became clearer. "No way. Are you saying the points I randomly added were the basic reward points?"
"Yes!" Little Seven's voice was calm and cold again.
"Can I start over?" Lu Ke felt like crying. "Don't you know how important character-building is in games? Randomly assigning points can ruin an account."
In games, the direction and method of assigning points to a character are very important. If a character's stats are ruined, you can just delete the account and start over. But in real life, he couldn't die and start again.
He felt like he had made a terrible mistake in a moment of impulse. "Little Seven, what are my current character stats? Were those five points wasted? Wait, where did I even put them?"
In the chaos, Lu Ke had answered randomly and couldn't remember clearly. But before he could think further, the interface in his mind refreshed and showed the skill page. Lu Ke scrolled up and down, only to find there were too many options.
Excluding all the stat options for the defense and other offensive positions, there were still thirty stat options just for the quarterback.
It was then that Lu Ke noticed his physical stats were only sixty-one out of a hundred, barely a passing grade.
What did this mean? He was decent among average people, but for an athlete, he was just barely passing. In college football, he was only at a practice player level, and the professional league was a pipe dream.
However, his mental stats were eighty-one, the highest of all his numbers, which was incredibly rare. Lu Ke stroked his chin, thinking hard. Could this be the reason he was the team's quarterback in high school?
Based on the system's evaluation, after college, he would never be a professional football player. His best option would be to get a regular office job and play basketball or football in his spare time, and that would be the end of his sports dreams.
But now that he had the system, all impossibilities could become possible!
This time, Lu Ke didn't rush. He calmed down and carefully read every single stat category, including the defensive stats. Otherwise, if the system showed he was better suited to be a defensive player, his choice of quarterback would be a delusion.
But soon, Lu Ke relaxed, wanting to scream to the heavens, "I really do have the potential to be a quarterback!" Although, overall, some of his stats were terrible and some were even worse, luckily, the less terrible stats happened to show that he was more suited to be a quarterback.
Among all the categories, his highest score was in endurance, which was an impressive eighty—the only one over eighty besides mental stats. He only had five other stats that were passing grades: throwing power, short-pass accuracy, medium-pass accuracy, long-pass accuracy, and throwing on the run.
The numbers for these five stats were abysmal, but at least they passed. Compared to the rest of the failing red numbers, they were the best of a bad bunch. All five of these stats were directly related to a quarterback's throwing skills.
What did this series of numbers mean? It meant that he was like a stationary post; if he stood still and threw, he could complete some tasks. But on the field, a quarterback has to run, fight against the defense, execute plays, direct teammates, observe, and make judgments. In those situations, he would be useless.
Each category had a maximum of one hundred points, and there were thirty of them. Adding points one by one, Lu Ke didn't know how long it would take to become a top quarterback. But he was sure that he now had a chance at success. Whether he could do it was up to him.
"Long-pass accuracy," Lu Ke's eyes fell on this stat. He remembered that in his haste, he had chosen to add all the basic points to long-pass accuracy. Now, this skill was a whopping seventy-nine points!
Seventy-nine points! That explained the stunning pass from earlier. The reason his farthest throw in high school was fifty yards, and that was with a stroke of luck, was because of this. And the reason he just easily completed a sixty-yard pass was all thanks to this!
He had put all five base points into long-pass accuracy, making it his highest-ranked technical skill. With no defensive players to interfere, he had successfully utilized his long-pass accuracy to the fullest, delivering the ball perfectly into Logan's arms!
Thinking back, before he added the base points, his long-pass accuracy was seventy-four, while his short-pass accuracy was sixty-three and medium-pass accuracy was sixty-four. Upon comparison, it was clear that in high school, Lu Ke was a quarterback who relied on his long passes to make plays, which aligned with the real situation.
After a closer look, Lu Ke discovered that in the physical stats section, his strength was only forty-six, which was a nightmare. But in the technical stats, his throwing power was seventy-eight. This was directly related to his outstanding long-pass accuracy. In other words, his physical stats were average, but through skill and explosive power, he could fully utilize the strength he had when throwing. The efficiency was excellent, allowing him to often complete incredible long passes.
"I can't believe I'm a Popeye-style quarterback," Lu Ke's mind drifted, imagining himself dominating the Super Bowl. He felt like he was floating, carried away by his thoughts. After a moment, Lu Ke came back to reality and carefully examined each of his technical stats. Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed a red number blinking in the top right corner. It was "Base Points: 1."
"Huh? Little Seven, why is there another base point here, and you didn't tell me?" Lu Ke said excitedly. When he first got the system, the notifications were annoying, but now Little Seven had stayed silent, and he almost missed it!
"This is from a game task," Little Seven replied dutifully. "The host decides when to add the points. In the three-on-three match just now, the host successfully completed the pass and received one base point."
"Ah, I see!" Lu Ke couldn't help but rub his hands together. "So, how do I add this one point?" He would consider the first five points a system reward that was forcefully added. From now on, he would have control over his character's stats. This time, Lu Ke wouldn't be careless. He had to be thoughtful.
The problem was, with such a terrible stat sheet, one base point wasn't much to work with. All his grand ambitions came crashing back to reality.
After careful consideration, Lu Ke decided to run an experiment. From high school to college, Lu Ke had suffered enough from physical contact, even during his year as a practice player. So, Lu Ke wanted to add this precious single base point to strength to see what effect it would have. After all, the long-pass accuracy had shown an immediate and visible effect.
With a crisp "ding," his strength went from forty-six to forty-seven.
Lu Ke looked down at himself, examining his body closely. But... there was nothing. Shouldn't his blood be boiling? Or his muscles feel hot? Or at least feel a surge of power? Even if he didn't transform into the Hulk, there should be some feeling, right?
But there was nothing. Not a single sensation. This made Lu Ke feel like an idiot.
"Little Seven, be honest. Are you a fake?" Lu Ke questioned seriously.
"Host."
"Lu Ke. My name is Lu Ke! I have a name, and I call you Little Seven. Or are you really a fake? Am I really concussed and this is all an illusion, and I'm just talking to myself?"
"...You only added one point to strength, not ten. The feeling won't be that obvious. Body modification is a slow process, not an instant effect from a hormone or a catalyst," Little Seven replied, trying to maintain its professionalism and give Lu Ke an answer.
Lu Ke thought about it. That made sense, he couldn't argue. "Then why didn't my throwing power change?"
NOTE:
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