All I Really Want Is To Play Basketball - Chapter 9

Chapter 9: Already a mature…

Translator: Atlas Studios

Editor: Atlas Studios

Under Kobe’s guidance, two more awesome skills were added into Su Feng’s bag of tricks.

Using the words of many Kobe haters in Su Feng’s previous life, Su Feng had now developed into a mature bricklayer…

Of course, to Su Feng, the playing style most suitable for him currently was that of Klay Thompson, who basketball fans in the future jokingly called “Buddha”.

In this environment, where the hand check rule still existed, not only was Klay’s off-the-ball technique practical, it was also highly effective.

Although Su Feng had not played in the American high school basketball league, he believed that in terms of defending, he was definitely already an expert among America’s high school basketball leagues…

Indeed, Gou Zei Xu Xu had never lied to him.

Stacking armor and taking hits were essential parts of every young warrior’s development.

….

That day, after looking at his statistics and the 140,000 brick shots he had accumulated in the past two days, Su Feng was deep in thought.

“Master: Su Feng; Nationality: Chinese; Age:16; Height:189cm; Weight: 74.5kg…”

“Master’s current proficiency [NBA draft second round pick level], Short-range shooting: 38 [64], Mid-range shooting: 70 [79], Three-point shots: 70 [80].”

“Passing: 10 [45], Vision: 15 [50], Ball Control: 38 [50].”

“Horizontal movement: 70 [88], one-on-one marking: 71 [91], Stealing: 41 [81].”

“Jumping: 40 [71], Power: 33 [45], Backboard Rebounds: 18 [30].”

After more than two months of trial and error, Su Feng completely understood the system’s tricks.

Firstly, after the system was upgraded to version 6.0 and Su Feng’s potential had been converted, Su Feng’s current potential was displayed in the brackets above.

Secondly, other than using the Brick Shot Points to increase his potential, special attributes like power required Su Feng to reach a certain weight before his potential for that attribute would increase after he levelled up.

Previously, Su Feng’s power attribute had been stuck for a long time. It was only after he gained 3.5kg that his potential increased a little.

Moreover, after reaching the potential the system displayed, Su Feng could gain additional increases through some special incidents.

One example was Su Feng’s defending attributes, which were a pain in the ass for him.

“How great would it be if I could add those stats to my attacking attributes?” Su Feng sighed.

Because of his daily one-on-ones with Kobe, Su Feng could often hear the system suddenly say, “Congratulations, Master! Your one-on-one marking attribute potential has been increased by +1!”

“So Klay’s method is more suitable for me after all!” Su Feng thought.

As a keyboard data master and a longtime player of the NBA2K series, Su Feng knew that he had to seize every resource he could get his hands on to achieve his life goal of entering the NBA, becoming a basketball superstar, and marrying a beautiful, rich, fair-skinned lady as soon as possible.

“Actually, now that I think about it, this system is pretty scientific.

“Because even if I did not meet Kobe, so long as I trained hard consistently, I would be able to…

“Reach my current potential before my second or third year of college…

“…”

Cough…

“The next system upgrade requires 15 million Brick Shot Points…

“It looks scary, but as long as I have Kobe as my cheat, I should be able to upgrade the system to version 7.0 before graduating from high school.”

One had to say, it felt great to be able to level up using a bug…

Cough… back to business.

Looking at the 140,000 Brick Shot Points he had left, Su Feng decided to save up until school restarted and try his luck at the lucky draw again.

That was because for version 6.0, his equipped skills and equipped badges section were still empty!

Su Feng refused to believe it. So long as he washed his face and prayed sincerely, there was no way he would be unlucky.

….

Clang.

In the blink of an eye, it was August 23rd.

That day was Kobe’s 16th birthday, and Su Feng had prepared Kobe’s birthday present way in advance.

It was a poster of Anfernee Hardaway.

Just as Su Feng expected, Kobe liked the birthday present very much.

That was because Kobe’s idol at that stage in his life was the famous Penny Hardaway.

“Haha, if I get a chance to in the future, I’ll definitely get Anfernee to sign this poster!” Kobe said while looking at Su Feng excitedly.

Su Feng did not reply.

Ugh, could it be?

If Su Feng remembered correctly, a tragedy happened to Kobe in his youth in Su Feng’s previous life…

Back then, Kobe was still in high school, and when he asked for Hardaway’s autograph, he…

Got rejected!

Cough…

It could not be so coincidental…

Right?

….

After celebrating Kobe’s 16th birthday, other than immersing himself in joyful bricklaying with Kobe, Su Feng also had the additional task of making a long-distance international call to his parents every night.

Previously, Su Feng was most worried about how to get along with his parents in this life.

After all, he was about to call “strangers” his mom and dad, and he could not do that.

Luckily, from “Su Feng’s” memories, Su Feng understood that he was born with a silver spoon in his mouth. If he was not hopeless, his parents would not have sent him to America…

But one had to admit, the fact that he was able to come to America to attend high school in the 90s meant that “Su Feng” had a family background that would make others green with envy.

However, what made Su Feng really speechless was that “Su Feng” was so careless that he did not even know what his own parents did for a living…

From his memories, Su Feng could only pick out a few keywords like “selling shoes”, “sporting goods”, and “Wenzhou”.

“Sigh, it’s fate after all. There’s no way to avoid it. If I get a chance in the future, I shall help him earn a few lifetimes worth of money…”

In reality, after transmigrating, Su Feng had recorded “Su Feng’s” every expense in America.

The reason for that was simple. He wished to have nothing on his conscience.

I shall take care of your parents.

Because of the personality of Su Feng’s second life, Su Feng felt a lot more relaxed during his long-distance international call with his parents. Meanwhile, Su Feng’s parents also only told him one simple thing…

Live well!

“It’s sad how children don’t understand their parents’ love for them.” Subconsciously, Su Feng also thought of his own parents in his past life.

For a moment, Su Feng felt a little sad.

….

“Oh right, Su, you mentioned before that you were studying at Nefaria High School, right?” Luckily, after seeing Kobe, Su Feng immediately felt better.

After all, Kobe was a living source of Brick Shot Points… Cough, his idol was in front of him in the flesh!

“Yeah, why?” Su Feng asked while handing Kobe a sandwich.

“Nothing much, just asking.”

Unfortunately, Kobe’s grin had already revealed his innermost thoughts. It was just that Su Feng could not understand why Kobe would ask him that at that moment.

“Good luck, work hard in the 11th grade!” Seeing that Su Feng had started getting suspicious, Kobe immediately changed the topic.

“Work hard in the 11th grade…” However, the fact that Kobe changed the topic only made Su Feng more suspicious.

After all, it was not worth it to work hard in the 11th grade in America…

That was because there was still the 12th grade…

….

After close to three months of vacation, Su Feng started the 11th grade on the 5th of September.

And very quickly, Su Feng realised why Kobe would suddenly ask what school he attended again a few days ago…

That was because, following the end of the vacation, America’s High School Basketball League, also known as the NSAA, was about to begin.

The NSAA was different from the NCAA. The NSAA was held among different states. Among them, competition was most intense in Illinois, Indiana, and Kentucky.

Nefaria High School, which Su Feng studied at, was in Pennsylvania. Before the season began in Pennsylvania every year, high schools in the same city would organise friendlies with one another.

These friendlies were similar to the NBA’s preseason. Their purpose was to remind everyone to prepare themselves for the tough, new season ahead.

And as luck would have it, the opponent of Nefaria High School, which Su Feng studied at, in the friendly this year was Lower Merion High School, which Kobe studied at…

After seeing Su Feng as a good friend, Kobe would take the friendly match very seriously. That was because after more than three months of interaction, Kobe believed that Su Feng’s current abilities were enough for him to be chosen as a starter for Nefaria High School’s basketball team.

After all, in the state competition last year, Nefaria High School lost to Lower Merion High School by a whopping 58 points and was absolutely thrashed…

So, Kobe also saw the friendly match as his first ever clash with Su Feng in an official competition.

Although Su Feng had not won against Kobe in a one-on-one yet, if not for his carefulness, Kobe might really have been beaten by Su Feng in several one-on-ones recently.

After all, after entering August, Kobe revoked the rule that prevented him from blocking Su Feng’s shots.

Emmmmm, no matter how good their relationship was, Kobe would never forget the insults that b*stard Su Feng had thrown at him previously.

Let’s just say Virgos hold grudges.

“But then again… it seems like this friendly match has nothing to do with me,” Su Feng thought while being caught between laughter and tears.

Um… wait a minute.

He might be involved after all.

That was because Su Feng really was a member of Nefaria High School’s basketball team.

Hmm…

Hmm!

Although Nefaria High School’s basketball team was not strong, to encourage students to actively participate in societies and sports, they had a first team, second team, third team, and…

Reserve team.

And Su Feng happened to be a member of the reserve team.

Obviously, “Su Feng” also loved basketball. But his basketball skill level was very low. So when he confidently thought that he could make a name for himself in America, enter the NBA, become a basketball superstar, and marry a beautiful, rich, fair-skinned lady, the heavens jolted him back to reality.

From his memories, Su Feng knew that although a reserve could be considered a member of the school’s basketball team, the treatment they received was miles apart from that of the main team, who could actually play in the NSAA.

Other than being able to use the equipment in the school’s basketball court for free, the reserve team members were not much different from cheerleaders.

Normally, they were in charge of handing towels and cups of water to the main team and cheering them on…

Essentially…

They had no chance of playing.

“Oh well, let’s go take a look… After all, besides Kobe, I know nothing about American high school basketball.”

Su Feng felt that Kobe might have wasted his time.

Because when Nefaria and Lower Merion played their friendly match, he would be a cheerleader at most…

….