Finally, all the noise was over. It wasn't until Lu Ke returned to his apartnt that the chatter in his ears finally stopped, and the world beca quiet. After the ga, the team doctor, Walter, perford a basic check on Lu Ke and confird 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 gas.
But Jim Harbaugh was still worried. At his insistence, Walter perford 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 treatnt 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 mbers 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 ca all the way here to watch your ga? What's going on?"
Even more exaggerated was that so 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 ti, Lu Ke realized that gossip culture wasn't just in Hollywood. In professional leagues, their connection with Hollywood was relatively closer. Every ti the Los Angeles Lakers had a ho ga, a star-studded guest list would be there. This made the people in professional teams even more unstoppable when it ca to gossiping. The chatter was endless.
The only quiet monts 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 et?" It was truly a funny and frustrating situation.
After returning to his apartnt, Lu Ke finally enjoyed so peace and quiet, and he finally had so ti to himself. Thinking back to the ups and downs of today's ga and the hype after the ga, 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 ga and continued his winning streak. But at the sa ti, 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 gas would increase, and there would be more and more uncertainties. The impact of his performance on the field would beco greater and greater. If a similar situation from today's ga happened again, Lu Ke couldn't guarantee that he would be able to replicate the victory. In competitive sports, skill doesn't an 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 an they were invincible.
In every ga, there are countless unknown factors that can affect the outco. The current state of the players and the opponent's state can both influence the direction of the ga, not to ntion the unforeseen events that are everywhere in competitive sports. They had to take it one step at a ti and truly defeat their opponents to win. This was especially true in team sports.
The sa was true for Lu Ke. Even if all his stats were perfect, it didn't an he would be unstoppable. The gas still had to be taken one at a ti. 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 ga 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 ti, 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 ga 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, requirents, 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 ga 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 requirents:
"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 requirents had been t, but the problem was the second requirent: 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 soone 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 ga and deliver a brilliant performance, but whether the special mission could be completed was still a ticking ti bomb.
At this mont, thinking back to the fluctuations in his performance during the ga 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 coback. 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 gas 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 ssages. His eyes imdiately fell on the most important ssage:
"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 confird later, but it seed the system had already made a judgnt. Lu Ke's performance had t the requirents—or perhaps the system had already peeked at the two ratings?
Lu Ke then saw the mission completion status in the ssage, 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 judgnt: 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 ga. Fortunately, that didn't happen today.
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