Chapter 447: Generous Reward

Winning the game, completing the mission, and reaping the reward—it was undoubtedly the most perfect outcome.

After confirming the special mission was complete, Lu Ke breathed a small sigh of relief and began to inspect his reward.

“Mission Reward: One random attribute +10.”

Because it was random, it was, to some extent, a matter of luck. Reflexively, Lu Ke’s gaze fell upon his Hidden Attributes. ‘Luck: -17-75.’ He had no idea how his luck was today.

Thinking back on the game, the zero-second winning play, despite its twists and turns, had ultimately ended in victory. ‘That should mean my luck is pretty good today,’ he thought. ‘It has to be a positive number, at least.’ With that in mind, Lu Ke didn’t hesitate any longer and decisively opened the mission reward.

A crisp DING echoed in his mind, signaling that the reward had been redeemed. But that was it. There was nothing more. No extra prompts, no special screens—everything just returned to calm.

The scene was rather odd, like firing a blank. The sound was loud, but the actual effect was frustratingly unclear, making him wonder if the reward had even been delivered. He began to question the proper way to open it—after all, this was the first time Lu Ke had ever seen such a reward.

Instead of impatiently asking Qi, he temporarily closed his inbox and opened his Personal Attribute Panel to browse through it carefully. Lu Ke knew Qi’s style; if the system didn’t provide a prompt, it was meant to be mysterious. So, rather than asking, he decided to take matters into his own hands.

Slowly, he scrolled down, examining each attribute one by one, afraid that a moment of carelessness would cause him to miss the change. It wasn’t until he reached the very bottom that he found his target.

“Resistance to Injury Index: 87.”

If Lu Ke’s memory served him right, the initial value for his Resistance to Injury Index was seventy-seven, the same as his Endurance Index and Recovery Speed.

Initially, these three stats hadn’t been particularly eye-catching. They weren’t too high, but they weren’t too low either. “Resistance to Injury Index: 77; Endurance Index: 80; Recovery Speed: 75.” Overall, compared to his abysmal quarterback stats—a sea of red—and his mediocre physical attributes, these three were already above average.

Everyone knew that for a professional athlete, injury was always the greatest enemy, and even geniuses were no exception.

Those geniuses plagued by injuries were like shooting stars; no matter how brilliantly they shone, their moment was fleeting. The heroes who achieved true greatness were those who won the long war against injuries, allowing them to maintain a high level of performance over an extended period and write their own success stories.

For Lu Ke, injuries were also a massive problem, a threat more ferocious than a tiger that demanded his full attention. But until now—through high school, college, and into the pros—injuries hadn’t been his primary challenge. The main struggle was simply earning a chance to stand on the field and compete, far more pressing than the potential risk of getting hurt.

So, after getting the system, Lu Ke’s attention had always been focused on his skills, while the injury-related attributes were left neglected. After all, to put it bluntly, if you couldn’t even qualify to be on the field, the possibility of losing your spot due to injury didn’t exist.

Now, however, the situation was quietly changing.

After ten weeks of battles in the regular season, Lu Ke had gradually solidified his position as the starting quarterback. An eight-and-one record was the best testament to his success. This meant that playing in games would become routine, and consequently, opponents’ tactical analyses and potential attacks against him would also become commonplace. The issue of injury was no longer just a “hypothetical” possibility.

In the third week, against the Cincinnati Bengals, Lu Ke had suffered a minor arm strain, which wasn’t serious. This week, his arm muscles were again showing signs of fatigue from overuse. Although it hadn’t severely impacted him, the problem was already beginning to surface. The fact that he hadn’t sustained a real injury yet, at least not one that affected his performance, was a blessing in this unfortunate situation.

This also meant that the Resistance to Injury Index, Endurance Index, and Recovery Speed—three stats that had been left to collect dust in a corner—had to be brought into his upgrade plans, perhaps even more urgently than any other attribute.

There was an indirect, but not absolute, link between physical attributes and injury-related attributes.

Some athletes were physically outstanding but were “glass cannons,” plagued by injuries their entire careers. Others were the opposite: physically average but incredibly resilient to contact and pressure, with injuries seeming to steer clear of them. It could be said that this was a kind of unchangeable innate talent.

Of course, many factors influenced injuries: training habits, body mechanics, style of play, subconscious self-protection during contact, and so on. All of these were interconnected.

Compared to Lu Ke’s physical attributes, his Resistance to Injury Index, Recovery Speed, and Endurance Index could be considered “outstanding.” A look at his career injury history proved it; even in college as a practice squad player, where daily collisions and impacts were part of basic training, Lu Ke had protected himself well and consistently avoided major injuries.

This was a good thing.

Now, Lu Ke’s attention returned to the three injury-related stats. The fact that today’s special mission reward had been automatically applied to his Resistance to Injury Index was another stroke of good fortune. It had forcibly lowered his injury risk, proactively preparing him for the tough matchups in the second half of the regular season.

Before this game, Lu Ke had been thinking that his Tactical Awareness had already reached ninety-five. If he could win again this week, it was highly likely that Tactical Awareness would become his first maxed-out technical stat. This was undoubtedly exciting, and Lu Ke was looking forward to seeing the effects of a maxed-out stat, wondering if it might trigger some kind of chain reaction.

But after this game, he had to think it over again carefully.

As he pondered, his gaze fell on his completed game missions.

Complete passing Touchdowns, three, plus three base points; complete at least one hundred passing yards in the first half, completed, plus one base point; raise first-half completion percentage to at least seventy percent, completed, plus one base point; complete specified formation passes in the first half, two long passes from the Shotgun Formation, completed, plus one base point; win the game, completed, plus three base points.

After tallying it all up, he had earned a total of nine base points from this week’s game.

Nine base points were enough to max out his Tactical Awareness. At the same time, he could also improve his passing-related stats, which would be another significant step forward for his abilities as a quarterback.

Ever since the first week of the regular season, Lu Ke had been steadfastly improving his professional skills, step by step shedding the label of an undrafted rookie and growing into a competent quarterback. He was now rapidly advancing toward the “excellent” tier. The progress he’d made in just ten weeks—a short two and a half months—was certainly gratifying.

However, as he played more, more problems began to reveal themselves.

Passing ability alone wasn’t enough; he also needed the ability to read defenses. And just reading defenses wasn’t enough; he also needed to be able to devise corresponding tactics. Even with high Tactical Awareness, if he couldn’t adapt on the fly in a constantly changing game, it was just armchair strategy that couldn’t bring victory.

This was why the quarterback was called the on-field commander. Everyone knew football was a team sport and couldn’t be won by a single hero, but this was also why the quarterback remained the center of attention.

The longest stave in his barrel was now outstandingly long. It was time to start patching up the shortest ones to raise the barrel’s overall capacity. Lu Ke realized that beyond his technical and tactical skills, his physical ability to withstand contact also had to be improved. Even if it wasn’t for head-on confrontations, he at least needed the ability to protect himself and avoid more injuries.

Lu Ke was never an indecisive person. Once he had a clear path and made a judgment, he moved to the execution phase without hesitation or worry. This wasn’t reckless impulse but resolute decisiveness, a trait he exhibited both in games and in life.

Thus, Lu Ke abandoned his plan to max out his Tactical Awareness and turned his attention to his physical attributes.

Careful thought, meticulous deliberation, then a final decision and immediate execution.

First, he added three base points to his Resistance to Injury Index. It had already been raised from seventy-seven to eighty-seven, and now, in one fell swoop, it reached ninety. Compared to his Endurance Index and Recovery Speed, his Resistance to Injury Index had to come first.

Second, he allocated the other six base points entirely to his general physical attribute. It had previously been raised to seventy-one and now took another leap forward to seventy-seven. This meant that compared to a year ago, Lu Ke’s physical condition had undergone a monumental transformation.

This time, however, his body seemed to have grown stronger and more resilient. The sudden addition of six base points didn’t cause him to vomit uncontrollably like last time. He merely felt the blood under his skin begin to gently boil, and a faint, dull ache flowed through his limbs.

But that was all.

Moreover, this sensation only lasted for a short while before everything returned to normal, as if nothing had happened. Lu Ke carefully reviewed his individual physical stats, including strength and speed, but unfortunately, they hadn’t changed. The benefits from his strength training were clearly still in the accumulation phase and required persistent, long-term effort.