Finally, all the noise was over. It wasn't until Lu Ke returned to his apartment that the chatter in his ears finally stopped, and the world became quiet. After the game, the team doctor, Walter, performed a basic check on Lu Ke and confirmed that his right arm was fine and only overworked. The next step was a combination of massages and recovery exercises, not to treat an injury, but to prevent one from happening in future games.
But Jim Harbaugh was still worried. At his insistence, Walter performed a more detailed examination on Lu Ke. However, the scan results needed to be analyzed and judged by a team of specialists, and the final diagnosis would be announced tomorrow.
After all the examinations were completed, Lu Ke received a special massage for recovery. Unlike usual, today's massage was extended by thirty minutes and focused on his right arm, shoulder, and core. The cold bath afterward was also closely monitored by the relevant staff. All of this showed that Lu Ke's treatment on the team was now completely different.
However, during today's entire examination and massage process, no one was an exception, not his teammates, not the professionals, not even the other staff members who passed by. They all asked their questions out of curiosity. "I heard Leonardo DiCaprio was here? I heard he's your friend? I heard he came all the way here to watch your game? What's going on?"
Even more exaggerated was that some people crossed half of Candlestick Park, coming from the office building to the stadium, just to ask what was going on. They couldn't wait to see the famous Leonardo with their own eyes. For the first time, Lu Ke realized that gossip culture wasn't just in Hollywood. In professional leagues, their connection with Hollywood was relatively closer. Every time the Los Angeles Lakers had a home game, a star-studded guest list would be there. This made the people in professional teams even more unstoppable when it came to gossiping. The chatter was endless.
The only quiet moments were during Walter's basic and comprehensive examinations, but the funny thing was that after the examinations were over, Walter also asked, "So, how did you and Leonardo meet?" It was truly a funny and frustrating situation.
After returning to his apartment, Lu Ke finally enjoyed some peace and quiet, and he finally had some time to himself. Thinking back to the ups and downs of today's game and the hype after the game, everything felt so incredible that it was like a dream. But Lu Ke knew it was real, all of it was real. He should be glad that he survived today's game and continued his winning streak. But at the same time, he should also be aware that the fluctuations in his performance in the second half were a hidden danger. He had to improve his skills and learn how to adjust his performance on the fly.
As the season and his career progressed, the difficulty of the games would increase, and there would be more and more uncertainties. The impact of his performance on the field would become greater and greater. If a similar situation from today's game happened again, Lu Ke couldn't guarantee that he would be able to replicate the victory. In competitive sports, skill doesn't mean you will always win, but skill is the key to victory. At their peak, Michael Jordan, Peyton Manning, and Diego Maradona were all absolute kings on the field, but that didn't mean they were invincible.
In every game, there are countless unknown factors that can affect the outcome. The current state of the players and the opponent's state can both influence the direction of the game, not to mention the unforeseen events that are everywhere in competitive sports. They had to take it one step at a time and truly defeat their opponents to win. This was especially true in team sports.
The same was true for Lu Ke. Even if all his stats were perfect, it didn't mean he would be unstoppable. The games still had to be taken one at a time. But before the official battle, fully arming himself and improving his skills was the best way to win. What's more, Lu Ke didn't have a single stat that was perfect yet.
He let out a soft breath, gathered all his scattered focus, and then summoned the system to check his gains from today. This week's game was undoubtedly special because the opponent was one of the most-watched teams in the country, because the opponent was one of the best-performing teams in the league, and because Charles Davis's provocation truly sparked everyone's attention. Although Charles had provoked Lu Ke once before and failed, the situation was completely different now.
When the first bet happened, not just Charles, but the entire league was full of doubts and challenges against Lu Ke. Charles's words were harsh, but he was just one of many. It was not surprising. But this time, the bet happened after the 49ers had a 7-1 record. People could dislike Lu Ke, but no one could deny the fact of their victory. Naturally, all of this made the game special, and even the system acknowledged it. Besides the regular mission, there was also a special mission, a special mission that he absolutely couldn't lose!
"Special Mission: The Disdain from Charles Davis." Putting aside all the mission descriptions, requirements, and rewards, just the failure penalty alone was enough to be Lu Ke's biggest motivation.
"Failure Penalty: A random attribute will be reduced by 5 points; the 'Grudge Reporter' skill will have a three-week cooldown; and your performance in the next game will be reduced by ten percent." If the mission failed, a random attribute would be forcibly deducted by five base points. Lu Ke didn't know if it would be more fatal if his tactical awareness, which currently had the highest single score, was hit, or if his fake pass, which currently had the lowest single score in his specialized skills, was deducted. Of course, there was a one-in-a-million chance that the stat that would be affected would be his receiving ability, which was indirectly related to his quarterback skills, like his route running, clutch catching, catching in a crowd, and burst speed, which were all 15 points. If that were the case, the negative impact would be minimal.
However, Lu Ke couldn't take that risk. So, this was a special mission that had to be completed. He couldn't afford to fail. After opening the system, the first thing he did was open the special mission. He looked at the mission requirements:
"Lead the team to victory; have a higher quarterback rating and PFF rating than Eli Manning; and have no interceptions or fumbles."
He could confirm that the first and third requirements had been met, but the problem was the second requirement: beating Eli Manning in both quarterback rating and PFF rating. This was an unknown variable. Obviously, from the system's perspective, to make Charles shut up for good, a victory wasn't enough. Lu Ke also needed to win in his position as a quarterback—to surpass Manning. However, the difficulty was far greater than what the words implied.
The quarterback rating was just a rigid string of numbers that could be calculated from a player's stats and easily compared. But the PFF rating involved the opinions of professionals, which was subjective. In other words, if someone in the PFF rating system agreed with Charles Davis and thought Lu Ke's performance was not as good as Manning's, then the PFF rating would be unpredictable. In other words, Lu Ke could do his best to win the game and deliver a brilliant performance, but whether the special mission could be completed was still a ticking time bomb.
At this moment, thinking back to the fluctuations in his performance during the game and his terrible third quarter, Lu Ke felt even more helpless. What's more, Manning's performance today was also brilliant. His composure in the second half almost started a comeback. He could only be thankful now that he hadn't thrown an interception or fumbled the ball, at least not enough to make his quarterback rating a disaster. Otherwise, even if he had won, the special mission could have still failed. If that had happened... it was very likely that the base points he had earned from today's mission would have to be used to fill the hole left by the failure penalty of the special mission.
After realizing this, Lu Ke couldn't help but rub his temples. The difficulty of the missions was increasing, and the difficulty of the games was also increasing. Skills, skills, skills. He had to improve his skills as soon as possible, or his growth might slow down.
He carefully read through the details of the special mission and then opened his inbox to check for unread messages. His eyes immediately fell on the most important message:
"Congratulations on completing the special mission: The Disdain from Charles Davis."
The sword hanging over his head was finally gone. He had thought that the quarterback rating and PFF rating data would not be tallied so quickly and that the mission results would have to be confirmed later, but it seemed the system had already made a judgment. Lu Ke's performance had met the requirements—or perhaps the system had already peeked at the two ratings?
Lu Ke then saw the mission completion status in the message, with a detailed note:
"Eli Manning, quarterback rating 115.2, PFF rating 1.1; Lu Ke, quarterback rating 122.4, PFF rating 1.4. Mission judgment: Passed."
The data of the two quarterbacks was actually very close. Strictly speaking, if it weren't for Manning's two interceptions and Lu Ke's zero, Manning would have surpassed Lu Ke in both quarterback and PFF ratings. In football, it's not uncommon for a quarterback to have a better performance but still lose the game. Fortunately, that didn't happen today.
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