Over the past three weeks, Lu Ke hadn't had the chance to do a detailed summary of his system missions. After losing a game to an interception, everything became blurry. In his brief career, Lu Ke hadn't had many wins, and losses were even rarer. He needed time to process everything, and he spent a lot of time training because it was the best, and arguably the only, way to start winning again. During this time, he knew about the success and failure of his missions, the consequences he faced, and the difficulties he encountered. But everything happened too fast. All the events of the past three weeks were crammed together, like a runaway train rushing through, leaving nothing but wreckage. Things were indeed chaotic.
With the system, Lu Ke could get rewards and quickly grow his strength when he won. But when he lost, he had to accept the corresponding penalties. It was a fair trade. In the past, there were no penalties for failing a mission, and Lu Ke had always felt fortunate because he knew he couldn't win forever; no one in competitive sports could. In the loss against the Philadelphia Eagles, Lu Ke didn't have to face any consequences. But this time, after losing to the Arizona Cardinals, Lu Ke had to face the penalty for failing his mission.
During halftime of the game against the Cardinals, the system gave him a special sub-mission, reminding Lu Ke to get back on the winning track, but he failed. The penalty for failing this mission had three parts: first, his personal performance in the next game would decrease by 15%; second, his training effectiveness for the next week would decrease by 15%, while the team's training effectiveness would decrease by 5%; and last, his skill to retaliate against reporters would have a 30-minute cooldown, which is why Lu Ke was so well-behaved in his post-game interview that day. The second penalty's purpose was to remind Lu Ke that he had to get the entire offense back on track and avoid mistakes and overconfidence, because he couldn't win games alone. In the end, the San Francisco 49ers still lost to the Arizona Cardinals.
Then, a chain reaction occurred, which affected the San Francisco 49ers' road game against the Baltimore Ravens the following week. From the game's actual progression, Lu Ke's personal performance was indeed subpar, and the accuracy of his technical skills was off to varying degrees. It was like a game of Super Mario where there were too many brick walls. Every jump was a struggle, which affected the smooth flow of the game. This required Lu Ke to be even more focused, without a single moment of relaxation throughout the game. The drain on his energy and physical strength increased exponentially.
Furthermore, there was also a special mission in this game. At a crucial moment in the fourth quarter, the mission directed Lu Ke to lead the team to a comeback. Unfortunately, he still couldn't complete it. There were two penalties for failing the special mission: first, his in-game performance in a specific technical area would decrease by 25% in the next game; second, he would randomly blush five times in front of his offensive linemen in the following week. In the end, the San Francisco 49ers lost to the Baltimore Ravens, falling into a two-game losing streak.
The following week, Lu Ke blushed three times in front of Mike Iupati, and everyone was confused, thinking Lu Ke and Iupati were about to get into a fight. Deep down, Lu Ke was a little relieved that they didn't imagine something else. Otherwise, every time he saw Iupati in the locker room, everyone would probably start making fun of them.
Then, in the game against the St. Louis Rams, the mission penalty also came into play. Lu Ke noticed that his accuracy on medium-range passes was affected. So, in that game, Lu Ke focused more on balancing his passing and running game, increasing his control in the short-pass area, and reasonably distributing his passing routes to avoid making mistakes in the medium-pass area. This also meant that Lu Ke had to maintain a high level of focus throughout the game, constantly calculating and recalculating his tactical arrangements and defensive reads. Now Lu Ke finally understood why Zhuge Liang died so young. The exhaustion of his mental and physical energy was truly grueling.
This was the first—or rather, the first and second—time Lu Ke experienced the system's penalties, which could also be called state adjustments. For any professional athlete, their competitive state is extremely important. In some games, you just don't have the touch, and everything you do goes wrong. But in some games, you're on fire and unstoppable. The so-called penalty for failing a mission was similar to this, limiting Lu Ke's performance.
For example, in the game against the Ravens, Lu Ke's personal performance decreased by 15%, but in reality, the main reason for the loss was that the offense couldn't keep up with the rhythm of the opponent's defense. The negative impact on Lu Ke's personal performance only made things worse. From the stats alone, Lu Ke's performance was actually better than in the game against the Cardinals.
Another example is the game against the Rams, where Lu Ke's medium-range pass accuracy was severely limited. Almost every pass he made was a miss, which required Lu Ke to use his brain and choose a more varied strategy, avoiding his weaknesses and finding other ways to win. The result was that the team won. In a team sport like football, victory is a collective effort. A truly great quarterback should know how to use the other weapons on the team to get a win when he's not at his best. Or, he should know how to leverage the parts of the team that are performing well while avoiding the parts that are struggling, to secure a victory.
In the past, failing a mission felt like the end of the world, bringing a sense of dread. Now, the penalty for failing a mission feels more like a motivation to constantly grow. In the two games where he had to endure a penalty, Lu Ke's focus was at an all-time high. In the past, he always thought he was fully invested in the game, but only after going through it did he realize that the intensity of the games was different. These two games against the Ravens and the Rams truly gave Lu Ke a taste of what it was like to play in a playoff or Super Bowl-level matchup. The test on his nerves was extraordinary.
The final result was one win and one loss. In a way, this was a very unique experience. For Lu Ke, who has always lacked game experience, this was even more valuable, as it was a part of his growth that the system couldn't just give him. The phrase "failure is the mother of success" has been said so many times that it feels like a cliché. But after the test of two consecutive losses, Lu Ke gradually realized his own takeaways. For some people, failure can be a blow, a fleeting memory, or a source of pain. Failure itself doesn't have any meaning; it's just a painful or unproductive memory. But for some people, failure is experience. They learn from their failures and grow quickly, laying the foundation for overcoming future challenges.
Besides the mission penalties, Lu Ke's mission completion during the two losses was not optimistic, and his base point earnings were lackluster. In the game against the Arizona Cardinals, Lu Ke only earned one base point. In the game against the Baltimore Ravens, Lu Ke earned two base points.
But on the bright side, first, he still earned some base points. Second, he withstood the test of the mission penalties. The system was now starting to influence every aspect of his life. After two consecutive losses and the negative effects of the mission penalties, Lu Ke still managed to lead the San Francisco 49ers to victory against the St. Louis Rams. The significance and value of this victory were far greater than people imagined. At the same time, the mission was finally completed successfully. After the game against the Rams, Lu Ke had a total of seven base points.
In addition to the game missions, Lu Ke had other rewards. Not from the special missions, as there were no rewards for failing them, but from his daily training. After completing two more cycles of his daily training missions, he received an additional two base points. Furthermore, the first phase of one of his goal missions was also ready to be tallied. It wasn't the first goal mission, "Develop a Passing Corps," which would be tallied after the regular season ended, but the second goal mission, "The Transformation of a Team's Winning Temperament." This was a mission to win a consecutive number of games, requiring the team to continue winning after a three-game winning streak. When the team's winning streak came to a halt, the accumulation of the goal mission also stopped.
This time, the San Francisco 49ers only managed a five-game winning streak, which meant that Lu Ke received three base points. Although he couldn't keep accumulating them, it was still an extra bonus. After tallying everything, Lu Ke now had a total of fifteen base points.
This was his total income after three weeks of games. Compared to the big harvests from before, it was naturally incomparable. But considering he lost two of the games and had an unexpected bonus from his running training on the day after the two consecutive losses, the rewards from these three weeks were still far beyond what he had imagined. This could become an important turning point in Lu Ke's growth. Sometimes, the training and experience that come from failure are more important. Of course, if it can be avoided, the ultimate goal is still to pursue victory.
With all the rewards from the past three weeks tallied and all the unread messages in his inbox cleared, Lu Ke's eyes fell on the fifteen base points. It was time to add more points.
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