Since Lu Ke played in his first football game, no, since Lu Ke applied to join the football team at school, his basic physical qualities like weight, body type, muscle endurance, and explosiveness have always been questioned. He looked like a candle in the wind, tall and thin, swaying, as if he could break at any moment.
Although a quarterback is not a position where heavier is better, having enough weight and size can help a quarterback avoid more injuries and mistakes during collisions and confrontations. As for physical talents like muscle endurance and explosiveness, they are related to every aspect of the game.
A year ago, Lu Ke's body stats were 193 cm and 78 kg. Now, they are 193 cm and 85 kg.
Even in a basketball game, it would be difficult for someone with this height-to-weight ratio to gain an advantage in a direct confrontation. In a more intense and brutal sport like football, he had no advantage at all. Increasing his weight and muscles has always been the goal of Lu Ke's daily training.
However, due to his physique, Lu Ke's weight gain has always been slow and difficult. In the year he had the system, he trained tirelessly every day, never slacking off. He also followed a muscle-building diet. He was sick of eating chicken breast, and he had to close his eyes to drink protein powder. Yet, the results were still not great.
The most obvious comparison was Logan Newman. His training intensity was only half of Lu Ke's, and his diet was very similar. But the weight gain that Logan achieved in just three months took Lu Ke a year to achieve. It's true that you shouldn't compare yourself to others.
The game against the Seattle Seahawks was not only Lu Ke's first official NFL game but also the first time in his career that he played a full game. Five touchdowns and a sweeping victory seemed glorious, but only Lu Ke knew that his physical strength had reached its limit and was almost depleted. The aftereffects of the intense confrontation would probably require another massage and relaxation session tomorrow.
Physical qualities, physical qualities, physical qualities. They were Lu Ke's weakness before, they are his weakness now, and this situation won't fundamentally change for a long time.
Now, the system finally couldn't stand it anymore and rewarded Lu Ke with an opportunity to strengthen himself. So... a strength training pack appeared. This was a quarterback training pack, but it had strength training in it. Of all the positions on a football team, the one that needs the least strength training is the quarterback, but now Lu Ke had to complete it.
Luckily, this was a skill training pack, a one-time thing. After he completed it, it would be over. If it were a part of his daily training... Lu Ke shivered just thinking about it.
He went through all the training exercises again and felt that the road ahead was long and difficult, and he had to work hard to reach his goal. To become a top quarterback, there are no shortcuts.
But why were the training rewards "Strength +3, Explosiveness +1"?
Lu Ke wanted to complain that after such heavy strength training, his strength only increased by three points. But then his attention shifted to something else. "Little Seven, I don't remember there being an 'explosiveness' option on the attribute panel."
"Just like with the willpower option, the system will continue to update the basic attribute panel at the appropriate time," Little Seven's voice came right on cue, simple and clear, explaining the situation.
As Little Seven was explaining, Lu Ke found the "Explosiveness" option on the attribute panel. He hadn't noticed it when he was checking the hidden attributes, but now he saw that it was between the "Acceleration" and "Agility" options and was part of his basic physical attributes.
Sixty-eight. Lu Ke's explosiveness was sixty-eight.
This score was not high, but it was not low either. It was average, but lower than he expected. Lu Ke thought his explosiveness would be better, for example, the instantaneous burst of power in his pass, or the instantaneous burst of power before a sack. But on second thought, sixty-eight was a reasonable score because his reflexes were good, but his muscle explosiveness was just mediocre.
This meant that there was another area for him to focus on with his base points in the future. Was this a good thing or a bad thing?
After opening the hidden attribute, the special skill packs, and the quarterback training packs, and reviewing all the rewards from his special missions, Lu Ke calmed down. His eyes fell on the fifteen base points he had earned from today's game. How should he spend them?
Logically, he should still focus on his quarterback skills. For example, his medium-pass accuracy was still only sixty-five, and his short-pass accuracy was only seventy. They both had a lot of room for growth.
Also, his stats for running passes and pocket footwork were all in need of improvement. His ball-protection ability was only fifty-nine, which meant there was a high chance he would fumble when sacked. It was a miracle that he didn't fumble in today's game, with all the chaotic blitzes.
He had always followed this strategy of using his base points to strengthen his specific quarterback skills, making his strengths more prominent and earning more room to perform on the field. But after the first week's game, Lu Ke felt that he had to use some of his base points to improve his physical qualities.
Although quarterbacks can avoid direct confrontation with the protection of the offensive line, and the offensive line can be maximized by the quarterback's defensive reads and on-field command, the offensive line is not infallible. A pocket can get broken. What's more, the level of competition in the NFL is not the same as in the NCAA, and he needed to keep up with the pace.
More importantly, physical quality is not just about the ability to take a hit; it's also about endurance.
After the regular season began, the games came week after week. The same intensity, or even higher, was like a raging storm with no room to breathe. The intensity of the first week's game was already overwhelming. As the season progressed, every player would face a double test of body and mind, and Lu Ke was no exception.
Considering that Alex Smith and Colin Kaepernick were watching like tigers, Lu Ke needed to deliver a top-level performance every week, so his physical endurance was something that could not be ignored.
So, without any hesitation, Lu Ke immediately made his decision. His eyes fell on his basic attributes, and he decided to change his strategy for spending his base points this week.
Among the overall attributes, his physical quality was sixty-four, and his mental quality was eighty-three. The specific stats were as follows:
Tactical Awareness: 70Willpower: 80Speed: 67Strength: 49Acceleration: 63Explosiveness: 68Agility: 71Jumping: 49
Lu Ke had always been thinking about a question: What was the relationship between the two overall options, physical quality and mental quality, and the individual stats?
For example, if he were to raise his physical quality all the way to a perfect hundred, would his individual stats also increase? Conversely, if he were to raise his individual stats, would his physical quality score also increase accordingly?
However, Lu Ke never had enough base points, and there were too many areas that needed to be filled. There was no room for him to experiment. So, he could only imagine things in his mind. But today was different. Lu Ke needed to improve his physical attributes and also prepare for the long season.
With fifteen base points, he could do a small, initial experiment to confirm some of his guesses.
First, Lu Ke added eight base points to his strength, so forty-nine immediately became fifty-seven. The reason he didn't raise it to a passing score was because he was taking the strength training pack into account. After he completed the training tomorrow, his strength attribute would reach sixty, and he would finally have a passing grade.
Next, Lu Ke added one base point to explosiveness, which went from sixty-eight to sixty-nine. With the added points from the strength training pack tomorrow, this new attribute would enter the seventy mark, and his on-field reaction ability would have a qualitative leap.
Finally, looking at the six remaining base points in his hand, he gritted his teeth and added all of them to his physical quality. Ding, ding, ding... After six continuous sounds, sixty-four became seventy.
Before Lu Ke could even start to analyze it, he could feel his blood slightly churning and his skin slightly burning. It felt like being in a sauna, with hot air coming in from everywhere.
At first, Lu Ke thought it was just his mind playing tricks on him. He thought that with six base points, there should be some kind of reaction, so he gave himself a placebo effect. But then, Lu Ke clearly felt an urge to throw up in his stomach. It felt like someone had punched him a dozen times. The soreness, bitterness, and churning feeling were almost impossible to stop.
Before his brain could react, Lu Ke started to dry heave. The feeling was just too bad. The soreness, numbness, stiffness, and discomfort he felt after the game today, all the negative energy in his body came rushing in like a tide. He felt like a punching bag that was being punched continuously by three people at the same time. Even his bones were groaning.
The whole process lasted for about thirty seconds, and then in an instant, like the tide receding, all the feelings disappeared. If his clothes weren't soaked in sweat, Lu Ke would have thought that the thirty seconds were just a dream-like illusion.
Why did this happen?
Was it because adding six base points at once to the physical quality option caused a tremendous qualitative change, which led to a physical reaction in real life? After all, he had only been adding one point at a time, and the feeling wasn't obvious. But this time, it was a direct leap in quality, so the body's reaction was naturally more intense. It was like he had just had surgery.
He sat back in his chair, breathing heavily, and waited for his body's fatigue to slowly fade. Lu Ke was surprised to find that the negative feelings from today's game seemed to have lessened a bit. However, he couldn't be sure if it was just his mind playing tricks on him or a real feeling. He would only know after his relaxation training tomorrow.
Afterward, Lu Ke's eyes fell on the attribute list after he had added the points. It looked like there were no changes, but it also looked like there were. Lu Ke carefully examined it again and began to ponder: What were the stats like before the points were added? What were the specific, detailed changes?
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