A week before the draft, Lin Mo's scale showed 88.5kg—3kg heavier than three months prior, all muscle. The strength coach squeezed his arm: "Body fat down from 12% to 8%. Now you can collide with NBA tanks."
But he cared more about another number: the training camp now had 32 kids, and the one-armed teenager's one-handed three-point shooting percentage had risen from 17% to 31%. After training yesterday, the teenager had held up a ball and asked: "Brother Lin, will you forget us when you go to the NBA?"
"I won't," he'd replied, but pre-tryout anxiety surged—the Lakers' tryout list included five point guards, one of whom was last year's NCAA assist leader, rated "S-" by the system, half a grade higher than Lin Mo's "A+."
In the training gym mirror, he looked at his left elbow—the scar from an old injury remained. The system had once suggested "surgical repair could improve flexibility by 3%," but he'd refused. "A few flaws make you human," Coach Wang had said.
In the final mock tryout, he deliberately turned off the system's "real-time data analysis," reading defenses on his own: when the opponent's zone collapsed, he lobbed to the interior; after switches, he used crossovers to get past smaller defenders. The stats weren't stunning: 14 points, 7 assists, 1 turnover, but the assistant coach wrote in his report: "Basketball IQ exceeds physical abilities, knows how to use his mind to compensate for gaps."
Packing late at night, Lin Mo put LeBron's video tape, the handcrafted basketball pendant from the teenager, and his note-filled old notebook into his bag. The system popped up the final tryout reminder: [Lakers tryout focus areas: decision-making after screens, defensive intensity, clutch shot handling]. He glanced at it, then opened the training camp group chat, where the kids had sent dozens of voice messages cheering him on—the one-armed teenager's voice was loudest: "Brother Lin, just think of the NBA as a bigger court!"
He smiled, suddenly feeling those 3kg of muscle made him more secure than any system upgrade.