"Aldon! Aldon! Aldon!"
"Marcus! Marcus! Marcus!"
Standing on opposite sides of a square table, the defensive and offensive team members had a clear line drawn between them. On the table in the middle, there were sixty mugs of beer lined up neatly. More than two-thirds of them were already empty. Aldon Smith and Marcus Lynch were standing on opposite sides of the table, chugging one beer after another.
The cheers and shouts of encouragement were deafening. The defensive team members even imitated the Icelandic Viking war cry, stomping their feet to create a drum-like sound effect, and yelling at the top of their lungs to cheer on their representative player. But unfortunately, the massive shouting was useless. Aldon put down his mug, waved his hands repeatedly, and was about to run away.
But the other defensive team players grabbed Aldon. "You liar! You brag about how much you can drink every day, and now you can't do it!" "You've only had five mugs. My God, Colin Jones drank more than you. Go on, have another one!" "Guys, let's go. Grab him. I'll pour it down his throat!"
The defensive team was a complete mess, while the offensive team was still orderly. Everyone was cheering for Marcus in unison. Michael Crabtree had a look of disbelief on his face, exclaiming, "God, is Marcus a hippo in disguise? How can he drink so much?"
At this moment, the San Francisco 49ers' bar party was in full swing. All the players came to the bar tonight and were divided into offensive, defensive, special teams, and reserve teams. They drew lots to decide who would compete in a beer chugging relay race.
There were a total of sixty mugs of beer on the table, thirty for each team. Each team could only send a maximum of six players to take turns drinking according to their ability. They could leave once they reached their limit, but the rule was that each player could only play once. This meant that if the first four players only drank one mug each, the last player would have to drink the remaining twenty-six mugs. The team that finished first won.
In the previous competition between the special teams and the reserve teams, Scott Tolzien became a hero by drinking ten mugs by himself, leading the reserve team to victory and advancing to the final. Now, the game between the offensive and defensive teams was in progress. Aldon and Marcus were the second-to-last players for their respective teams.
Aldon, who usually bragged about how much he could drink, surrendered after only five mugs. But Marcus, who was usually quiet, was on his seventh mug, and his speed was still frighteningly fast. His fighting power was truly astonishing.
"I thought beer was just a beverage," Lu Ke asked in surprise.
Crabtree's expression immediately became strange. It was true that beer was a kind of daily beverage for Americans and wasn't considered alcohol in the strict sense. But the problem was that beer still had alcohol, and after chugging several mugs in a row, even if you didn't get drunk, you would get bloated.
Lu Ke shrugged and said nonchalantly, "When I was in college, we used to play this game where beer, wine, and whiskey were all mixed together. You'd drink whatever you got and you couldn't pick and choose."
Crabtree's mouth involuntarily opened slightly, and for a moment, he didn't know what to say. Ted Ginn, who was standing next to him, chuckled and bumped into Crabtree. "This proves that we've all become detached from college."
The defensive team was in chaos, but on the offensive team, after Marcus chugged his eighth mug, he turned around with ease. "Lu Ke, do you need me to help you again? Or can you handle it?"
Lu Ke was the last player on the offensive team.
Luckily, his offensive teammates were very supportive today and didn't deliberately try to make things difficult for Lu Ke. Everyone performed well and only left two mugs for Lu Ke. Marcus wasn't unable to drink anymore, but he was leaving a chance for Lu Ke to perform.
Lu Ke didn't answer. He just walked up, grabbed a mug, and chugged it down. His generous demeanor immediately made all the players on the offensive team cheer. The defensive players on the other side all started to complain, their faces full of defiance. The game hadn't even ended yet, and they were already protesting about the "unfairness."
But it didn't affect Lu Ke at all. In a flash, he had poured both mugs of beer into his mouth. Then, Lu Ke turned the two mugs upside down and placed them on his head, showing off and provoking the defensive players.
At this, the offensive team completely exploded. "Roar, roar, roar! Losers! Losers!" They couldn't wait to kick their opponents when they were down. The defensive team tried to struggle for a bit, but the reserve team couldn't take it anymore and swarmed over them. "Get out of the way! Get out of the way! The final is about to start! The final! You guys back off."
Kyle Williams immediately refused. "You guys, you're trying to catch us off guard and take advantage of our bloated stomachs, aren't you?"
Joe Staley also immediately stepped forward. "You guys all went to the bathroom just now. At least give us some time to go to the bathroom!"
"No, no. The final starts now! The final!" The reserve team members were all shouting loudly, especially Colin Kaepernick, who didn't want to give the offensive team any time to rest. "Let's start now. Our last round just ended, too. This is fair. Are you trying to play dirty tricks?"
The defensive players, who had just lost the game, dragged Aldon away to beat him up. Justin Smith, also a defensive team member, came forward and spoke up for the reserve team. "What, are you guys scared? Are you afraid of losing the game?"
The offensive team members were about to continue protesting, but Lu Ke slammed down his mug. "Bartender, more beer! If we're starting now, we're starting now. I guarantee you'll lose without any complaints!" At the same time, Lu Ke turned to his teammates, and a look was enough. 'I can handle it. You guys go use the bathroom first.'
At this, everyone started cheering.
This was Lu Ke's first time participating in a team gathering. All the players had very little knowledge of Lu Ke. The impression they had of him was always limited to the image of a hard-working player who was "the first to arrive at the training ground every day and the last to leave." That was it. They knew nothing about Lu Ke's personality, habits, hobbies, drinking capacity, and so on.
People always seemed to have a fixed mindset: undrafted rookies who worked hard at training were usually not interested in alcohol, drugs, or women, as if they were living the life of a monk. Now, Lu Ke suddenly stood up with a dominant aura, and people naturally went crazy.
Logan and Marcus didn't hesitate and immediately turned to the bathroom to relieve themselves. Mike Iupati and Ted Ginn also quickly followed, asking anxiously, "Is Bambi okay?"
Even Marcus looked at Logan curiously.
Logan smiled and said mysteriously, "Don't worry. Beer has no effect on him."
Just as people had a fixed and rigid impression of him, Lu Ke wasn't a heavy drinker. At gatherings, he would only drink a few mugs of beer. Staying away from alcohol and maintaining a good lifestyle for daily training was a basic rule. Becoming a professional athlete required sacrifice.
Of course, there were also professional players who loved alcohol. It just didn't apply to Lu Ke.
However, if you thought Lu Ke was a terrible drinker, you were bound to be disappointed. Lu Ke's weakness was hard liquor, such as tequila, whiskey, and vodka. He wasn't used to drinking these liquors, and he would usually feel sick after two or three mugs. But beer was just a beverage to him, and he could also handle his wine pretty well.
When he came out of the bathroom, the entire bar had gone wild. Everyone was shouting in unison, "Bambi! Bambi! Bambi!" It wasn't just the offensive team. The special teams and defensive players were also howling, and gasps of surprise could be heard one after another. They were all shocked.
Marcus, Iupati, and Ginn were all curious and quickened their pace to get closer. They saw that there were already a large number of empty mugs on the table. A quick count showed a total of ten. This meant that the one Lu Ke was currently chugging was his eleventh mug. This had already broken Scott Tolzien's previous record, so everyone went crazy.
After finishing the eleventh mug, Lu Ke picked up his twelfth, and this time, everyone couldn't hold back anymore. "12! 12! 12!" They shouted in waves, as if it were a carnival.
Marcus and the others exchanged glances and then all looked at Logan. Logan, on the other hand, shrugged, as if this was completely normal. He shouted loudly, "Hey, hey, man, leave some for us. Don't drink it all by yourself. Slow down, slow down." He looked so confident that he even had time to joke, which caused the reserve team members to all start booing.
After finishing twelve mugs, Lu Ke picked up his thirteenth. He then looked at all his teammates who were cheering him on, grinned, raised his mug, and toasted Tolzien, who was on his seventh mug. Then he turned around and handed the mug to Logan, who was next to him.
Clearly, there was no suspense as to who would win. No matter how good Tolzien was, he was still fighting a losing battle. He had already drunk ten mugs before and was now chugging his seventh. His stomach was about to explode.
Logan immediately continued the relay and chugged the beer with complete ease. Tolzien finally couldn't take it anymore. He put down his mug and ran toward the bathroom. The offensive team's Anthony Davis and Chilo Rachal both stepped forward to block Tolzien's path, and the laughter was simply endless.
"Hey, handsome young man. I see you have a unique bone structure and a bright future. How about we have a game of darts to decide the winner?"
Lu Ke turned around and saw Patrick Willis, who was playing darts on the side. In addition to the drinking contest, there were other activities in the bar, such as billiards, karaoke, foosball, and darts. The San Francisco 49ers players filled the entire space, and it was very lively.
After confirming that the drinking contest was no longer in suspense, Lu Ke walked toward the dart board.
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