Chapter 660: Final Harvest
The plane slowly left San Francisco International Airport. The noise and chatter in the cabin continued for a while before gradually subsiding.
Whether they were from the San Francisco 49ers or the Houston Texans, the young players on this trip were mostly rookies. It was their first time going to Hawaii for the Pro Bowl, so they were naturally excited. While discussing the season that had just ended, they were also looking forward to the upcoming Pro Bowl. Amidst all the laughter and chattering, they quickly became familiar with each other, looking like a group of female college students on a spring break trip together.
After the flight became stable, Lu Ke's ears finally quieted down.
Originally, Lu Ke, Logan, and Marcus were seated together, but Watt and Lu Ke had been talking about this year's offseason training plans. Logan and Marcus almost fled in a hurry and finally switched seats. Now, Watt was sitting to Lu Ke's right.
At this moment, Watt had opened the in-flight entertainment system and was watching "Hard Knocks."
It's a reality show produced jointly by the NFL and HBO. It first aired in 2001, and each season, it follows a professional football team's pre-season training camp, showing the team's preparations for the upcoming season. Although the show has a certain entertainment value, for the general public, it's the best way to understand the professional league.
Watt was currently watching the season featuring the 2009 Cincinnati Bengals.
As expected of Watt, he didn't even let go of a moment to relax. He was constantly bombarding his mind, which even Lu Ke had to admire.
Lu Ke looked away, closed his eyes, and relaxed. Involuntarily, all kinds of expectations and associations came to his mind: about the Pro Bowl, about the offseason, about the skills challenge, and... about the Conference Championship game. His thoughts were chaotic and buzzing. The frustration and regret inevitably surged up again.
Losing was still a result that was hard for him to accept. To avoid repeating the same mistake, he had to work even harder and fight even more in the next season. The Super Bowl was still his unwavering goal.
He took a deep breath. Since the Conference Championship game ended, this was the first time Lu Ke had opened the system to check the completion of his tasks.
"Ding, congratulations to the host for completing the rookie season of his career:
Season record: fourteen wins and four losses;
Winning percentage: 77.78%;
Season mission completion index: 80%;
Season fame index: 90;
System rating score: 85.
Summary: As a rookie, you created an unattainable season peak, proved and realized your self-worth, made a huge breakthrough, gained a place in the entire league, and became widely known to fans. But as a player, there is still a gap to a perfect season. You just missed the Super Bowl spot at the last minute, and there is still room for improvement."
After Lu Ke carefully read through the series of instructions, a dialogue box popped up from the system, "Do you want to end the rookie season system evaluation and proceed with the system upgrade?"
"Little Seven, does the system need to be upgraded?" Lu Ke was full of questions. This time, he couldn't find any extra prompts, so he took the initiative to ask.
"Yes. After clicking confirm, the 2011 season will officially end, and a new season operation mode will begin," Little Seven replied professionally. "The mission system will be fully upgraded."
The amount of information was a bit overwhelming. Lu Ke didn't rush. He sorted out his thoughts and asked his questions one by one. Based on Little Seven's answers, the full picture of the system upgrade gradually became clear.
Once the upgrade was complete, it would mean the official end of the 2011 season.
Starting from the offseason, all mission systems, including daily missions, game missions, special missions, etc., would be updated. At the same time, the missions related to the Conference Championship would be reset to zero, and a new mission cycle would begin. In simple terms, it was to completely bid farewell to the 2011 season and start the 2012 season.
The Pro Bowl was an exception.
Although the Pro Bowl was still part of the 2011 season schedule, for teams and players who didn't make it to the Super Bowl, the Pro Bowl itself was a form of relaxation and entertainment before the offseason officially began. The system would categorize everything into the offseason calculation. Even if there were missions, they would be related to the offseason.
In short, from the rookie season to the sophomore season, the system would also be updated accordingly. On the one hand, it would adjust the missions based on the host's strength improvement. On the other hand, it would re-arrange the missions based on the actual player adjustments, including rookies and free agency.
Of course, it could be inferred that the system would be adjusted accordingly during every offseason.
After confirming that he understood the whole situation, Lu Ke didn't rush to upgrade the system. He chose "no" and first confirmed the completion of the Conference Championship mission. Although Lu Ke knew that the game was lost and most of the missions would inevitably not be completed, he still had to review the game from a more objective perspective.
Three touchdowns were completed, adding three special points. He increased the use of short passes in the first half, with a short pass percentage of more than thirty percent, which was completed, adding one special point. He also increased the passing completion rate in the first half, with a completion rate of more than sixty percent, which was completed, adding one special point.
He failed to complete the specified play calls in the second half, with at least three play-action passes or fake runs, which was not completed. He also failed to increase the long-pass completion rate in the second half to at least fifty percent, which was not completed.
He also failed to get a win in the playoffs.
Looking at the mission completion status for the entire game, it was clear that after losing two important receiving targets, Ted Ginn and Michael Crabtree, Lu Ke's passing offense efficiency plummeted across the board, especially in terms of long passes. Even with the Hail Mary, he still couldn't show the threat of his long passes, truly demonstrating the meaning of "a clever cook cannot make a meal without rice."
But, from another perspective, Lu Ke's desperate Hail Mary attempt at the last minute was successful. Besides the undeniable element of luck, it also showed that Lu Ke had more possibilities in his use of tactics. Maybe he should be more bold.
If he had used Kyle Williams and Brett Swain more wisely and dealt with the unexpected situations in a more intelligent way in the second half, would the outcome of the game have been different?
The lack of experience still brought an inevitable blind spot at a critical moment.
In the end, he received five special points for the game missions.
In terms of the number of points alone, it was a new low for the season, even lower than the two consecutive losses. But because it was the playoffs, the significance of the special points was different, which meant that the harvest was still commendable.
In addition to the game missions, there were special missions.
"Special Mission: The Glory of the NFC Championship."
According to the mission requirements, he had to "avoid interceptions, equal to or less than one; and have more passing touchdowns than Eli Manning." Unfortunately, Lu Ke failed to complete them.
In fact, if you only counted the regular time of the game, Lu Ke had zero interceptions, and both Lu Ke and Eli Manning had three passing touchdowns. They were tied. He was only one touchdown away from completing the mission. But there were no "ifs." Lu Ke still missed the completion of the special mission, and he would inevitably be punished for his failure.
"Failure penalty: The effect of offseason training is reduced by 10%. The 'Hating Paparazzi' skill index is reduced by 30%. The difficulty of daily training missions is increased by +1."
This was clearly not good news. For Lu Ke, the offseason training would be more difficult, even unimaginably so. The difficulty was increased, and the effect was reduced. Furthermore, this offseason he would also have to face the constraints of his bottleneck. Just from the literal meaning, one could imagine the difficulty.
But from another perspective, it could be seen as building up strength for a great leap. Perhaps, this difficulty could be regarded as a necessary path to building a solid foundation, to prepare for a greater breakthrough in the future. In that case, everything would become positive.
Despite this, the difficulty of the offseason was still incredibly high. Now, looking back, inviting Watt to be a training partner might turn out to be a pleasant surprise.
When checking his missions, Lu Ke realized that another special mission had appeared at the last minute of the game.
It wasn't a hidden mission, but a special one. But at that time, the atmosphere of the game was too tense, and Lu Ke was so focused that he completely ignored the special mission's notification sound. He didn't even realize that a special mission had appeared.
"Special Mission: Hail Mary.
Mission description: Attempting a Hail Mary might be the most difficult moment of any quarterback's career. Even if you give it your all, you may not be able to complete it. But at this moment, the outcome of the game rests on this one long pass. This might be the last pass of the 2011 season. Success or failure depends on the host's arm and fingertips. Go all in and create a miracle!
Mission rewards: Choose one of two rewards: a high-level replay viewing function; or one gold point.
Failure penalty: None (losing the game is the most severe punishment)."
As the mission description said, for any quarterback, a Hail Mary was an incredibly difficult challenge. When the outcome of a game rested on a Hail Mary attempt, it meant that they needed some luck to win. This was the best description of a crisis.
Fortunately, Lu Ke completed the Hail Mary. Even now, thinking back, it was an incredible moment. What's more, it was a sixty-five-yard Hail Mary. Perhaps if he tried it again, Lu Ke might not be able to complete it. Unfortunately, even after completing the Hail Mary, they still didn't have God's blessing and couldn't win the game.
It was precisely because of this that the loss became even more bitter.
Lu Ke exhaled lightly, put all the distracting thoughts aside, and began to seriously consider which mission reward he should choose: a high-level replay function or a gold point?
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