"Aren't there any rewards for breaking records and winning championships and stuff?"
Remembering there were still a few loose ends, Li Hao felt he should ask Xiaoyou to make things clear.
"Of course there are! At least one Mega Lotto Spin, with all kinds of surprise prizes waiting for you!"
The vixen hesitated for three seconds before speaking.
She probably just gives you whatever she feels like, Li Hao thought to himself.
"If you achieve an NBA regular season MVP, FMVP, scoring title, and championship within a year, plus win an international tournament, you can claim the ultimate reward: bringing someone back to life!
This reward can only be claimed once!"
Knowing what he was thinking, Xiaoyou offered a supplementary explanation.
Such a great thing? But isn't that way too hard...
Well, if it weren't hard, it wouldn't be called the ultimate reward.
Li Hao thought of his childhood friend Zhao Liang.
There really wasn't anyone else. His own parents were still around, and would be even twenty years later.
Besides, his grandparents and maternal grandparents were all alive, having lived into their eighties.
There'd be no point in bringing them back after they kicked the bucket; they'd probably be close to ninety by then...
"Right, does winning a match reward one or two physical attribute points again? My stats are so terrible, at least two points, right?"
"I might not have made myself clear. It's one reward point that can be used to increase attributes and purchase items in the store, which will open after the first game.
Only performances at the level of the NBA regular season and above, or national-level tournaments, grant rewards. But if you lose, one point will be deducted."
"My physique is so weak, losing can't be entirely my fault, can it? How about we skip the point deduction?"
"That works too. Host chooses Plan B: no points deducted for losing, but for every missed shot during the match, one reward point will be deducted regardless of whether you win or lose."
"Ah! Ah!"
Before Li Hao could finish yelling, Xiaoyou glanced at the countdown and cut him off.
"Time's up. Beginning return to the real world.
Given the host's limited brain capacity, all memories of the virtual spacetime will be deleted.
Only basketball-related skills and knowledge will be retained, along with the solidified muscle memory acquired from training, which will be triggered whenever a relevant situation arises."
Accompanied by an expletive, the sky lit up, and Haozi returned to the Waltham Training Center.
Why did I curse?
Li Hao was a bit puzzled, wiping a tear from the corner of his eye.
Why did I suddenly feel so emotional?
Just now, there clearly wasn't anything special happening.
He only knew that, following the system's instructions, he had clicked the super evolution button.
But why had the story suddenly jumped to chapter 16?
Did the author really drag out a dozen chapters for something that could be finished in an instant?
That's just too shameless.
Li Hao had always been willing to attribute the worst possible motives to this bunch of authors, but this had pushed even the upper limit of his imagination.
Serves him right for being a flop.
Eh, suddenly he felt like he never wanted to play basketball again in his fucking life, and didn't even want to lay eyes on any circular objects.
When he caught a glimpse of a pair of oversized headlights drifting past from not far away, he decided that thought was utter bullshit.
I'm going to win a championship!
Now that he had a system, he ought to do something with this world.
"Hi, I'm Peter. Please follow me this way."
Seeing the boy in a daze, Perry spoke up to snap him out of it.
Fortunately, this manager didn't understand Chinese, and simply assumed the curse word was a greeting, gesturing wildly for the big boy to follow him.
"Got it, Mr. Perry, right? I heard Tom mention you. He misses the days you guys used to play ball together so much."
In truth, the visa officer who sent him over had only mentioned that the person receiving him was his high school classmate.
Since they were classmates and both interested in basketball, they must have played together before.
Otherwise, one wouldn't have known his draft application was approved without even checking, while the other happened to be with the Celtics.
"Oh, really? That damn Tom definitely didn't mention to you that he and I fought over the head cheerleader."
Peter shook his head, looking so smug that it made you wonder if he actually won.
"No wonder he's still single; looks like he was hurt pretty deeply."
"Yeah, after Tom snatched Pepe away from me, some football player stole her away six months later. It made him drink so much he got locked up by the campus police for the night!"
After answering, Peter glanced at Li Hao a few times, thinking to himself that this boy's American English was way too good—listening to him, you'd think he came straight from New York.
You didn't win, so what are you so happy about? And the guy still got dumped after half a year...
While talking, Li Hao opened his attribute panel in his mind.
Strange, Xiaoyou clearly hadn't mentioned this, so why did he just know it?
And it felt as though he had done it a million times before.
Wait, when did he find out the system administrator was named Xiaoyou?
Host Name: Li Hao
Age: 18 years and two months old
Height: 189 cm
Weight: 78 kg (Many athletes have a height-to-weight ratio around this during the draft, for example, Lord Jordan was only about 88 kg when he first entered the NBA.)
Wingspan: 197 cm
Hand Span: 20.2 cm
Speed: 82
Strength: 33
Endurance: 43
Flexibility: 65
Body Coordination: 110
Real-time Stamina Sufficiency: 95
These were all completely unremarkable; only coordination was worth looking at.
Jumping ability was related to strength, weight, and height; the higher the strength and the lighter the weight, the better the jump.
After optimization by the system, his basketball skill attributes were now terrifyingly strong.
Mid-range Shot: 179
Three-pointer: 289
Free Throw: 110
(The human limit for free-throw shooting percentage is in the nineties, and this stat is set at 100. Even with a 100% hit rate, it can only exceed the limit by a tiny bit.)
Off-ball Movement: 179
Rebounding: 87
Perimeter Defense: 126
Interior Defense: 71
Blocks: 43
Because his strength and height limited his vertical, he couldn't rely on methods like blocking shots.
If his strength increased significantly, there would still be plenty of room for defensive improvement.
The three-point value was high because it deviated too far from the human limit of 100.
"Good enough." Li Hao knew that apart from himself, the skill stats of the strongest basketball players maxed out around 100.
Shooting attributes weren't just "good enough"—they were freakishly, terrifyingly strong.
Why wasn't his mood fluctuating at all?
Well, according to the system, this should be a completely normal, everyday occurrence.
So there was nothing to be surprised about.