Chapter 306 - 193: If You Can’t Beat Them, Join Them
The moment the referee declared the game over, a system notification popped up on Li Wei’s retina:
[The Knight Legion you led has triumphed over the legion of southern barbarians. Though you were outmatched and outnumbered, you nevertheless displayed the virtue of ’Bravery.’]
[Free Attribute Points +0.1]
’Outmatched and outnumbered?’
Li Wei scoffed.
As the attribute points were tallied, the fallout from the game didn’t die down. Instead, it exploded across the nation in an incredibly dramatic fashion.
Li Wei’s arrogant antics—especially throwing his towel onto the star at the center of the Dallas field and his refusal to wear a helmet in the second half—had officially made him public enemy number one in Texas.
The data showed that within 24 hours of the game, the number of tweets with the hashtag "#BanLiWei" surpassed 3.5 million. Dallas fans even launched a petition to the NFL, demanding a severe penalty for Li Wei’s "unsportsmanlike conduct."
But this extreme hatred was just a drop in the ocean compared to the other side of the coin: an extreme cult of personality.
Li Wei’s social media accounts saw explosive growth after the game. An analysis of the user data revealed that this new wave of followers shared many of the same traits: most weren’t hardcore football fans and barely understood the basic rules of the NFL.
These "bandwagon fans" only believed in absolute power and physical dominance. Among this much larger group of fans, Li Wei’s fame was reaching its zenith. Together with the increasingly solid base of Giants fans, they infuriated the old Texas rednecks online, completely overwhelming them.
For New York fans, pulling off such a physical and psychological massacre on their archrival’s home turf made Li Wei more than just a Quarterback. He was a hero of the Metropolis who had avenged a decade of frustration. In under three hours, his number 1 jersey was sold out in all physical and online stores in and around New York.
However, his soaring popularity with the general public stood in stark contrast to his reception in the mainstream media and among professional pundits.
The front pages of major sports papers, ESPN’s roundtable discussions, and veteran commentators—more than half of them were critical of Li Wei.
"Arrogant, crude, and utterly lacking in basic professionalism!"
The chief columnist for *Sports Illustrated* wrote scathingly in a feature article, "Li Wei, with his freakish physical gifts, is destroying the tactical systems and team spirit the NFL has cultivated over decades. His refusal to play in the third quarter was a blatant affront to modern professional sports ethics."
On one hand, there was the frenzied adoration of the fans; on the other, the condemnation of the professional media.
But after a few days, the Dallas fans found their voices growing quieter and quieter.
Many soon discovered that some Dallas fans had completely switched allegiances after the game, now supporting the Giants—or to be more precise, supporting Li Wei.
They could support Dallas and enjoy the "thrill" of spending 12,000 USD on a ticket only to get utterly shat on...
...or they could support the New York Giants and enjoy watching Li Wei steamroll other teams as unstoppably as an autumn wind scattering fallen leaves.
If you can’t beat them, join them. The Texas rednecks weren’t that fond of being masochists.
Li Wei largely ignored the commentary and public opinion from the outside world.
The only things he cared about were his attribute points and the full 1.6 million USD in after-tax income from the game.
The party last week had cost him a little over a million, so with the earnings from this game, Li Wei’s funds were back up to 4 million USD. Even better, his free attribute points had reached a very healthy 0.8.
Thrilled at the prospect of allocating his points, Li Wei returned to New York and drove once more to his secret base in New Jersey.
His heavy investment guaranteed top-tier quality. Despite not having been there for days, neither the shooting range nor the training room had any unpleasant odor.
Li Wei looked at the stats on his panel and spent 0.7 attribute points all at once, pushing his Strength from 5.3 to 6.0.
[Strength 5.3] —— [Strength 6.0]
[Free Attribute Points: 0.8] —— [Free Attribute Points: 0.1]
Li Wei felt a deep, profound undercurrent, far weightier than before, surge from the depths of his spinal cord. It swept through his entire body like a high-voltage current, tearing every muscle fiber apart, re-forming it, and making it tougher than ever.
When he opened his eyes again, he let out a long, slow breath.
"Time for a test!"
He stepped back onto the dynamometer, gripped the alloy bar with both hands, sank into his stance, and took a deep breath—
The numbers on the dynamometer’s display jumped wildly, quickly surpassing his previous record of 12,671 N (Newtons) before finally settling at 16,532 N.
"If I convert that... 1,687 kilograms?"
Li Wei released the bar and let out a long breath.
The documented world record for a deadlift was just 500 kilograms. With his Strength at only 6.0, he was already 3.3 times stronger than the peak of human achievement.
’No, that’s still not broken enough,’ Li Wei thought, dissatisfied with the numbers. ’I need to get stronger.’
To get a better sense of what this strength meant in practical terms, Li Wei went outside to a pile of scrap that hadn’t been cleared away yet.
After rummaging around, Li Wei pulled out a solid piece of rebar about 15 millimeters in diameter.
He gripped both ends of the rebar and held it horizontally in front of his chest.
Under the power of Li Wei’s deceptively slender hands, the hard, solid rebar began to bend and deform at a visible rate, like a cooked noodle, until he had folded it into an almost perfect U-shape.
’That’s right!’ Li Wei suddenly thought. ’Why don’t I find some handcuffs to test this on?’
Unfortunately, he wasn’t able to buy any handcuffs.
Just as Li Wei was looking for something else to destroy, a long stream of dialogue boxes popped up from the Jester Skull, which had been hopping about nearby:
[Silver-level strength? In the age before the gods turned to stone, your current brute force would be enough to land you a post as a centurion in a second-rate lord’s personal guard.]
"Admit it," Li Wei muttered to himself. "You’re just jealous of me."
[Jealous? Me, jealous of a crude brute like you? I feel pity for my great master! In that epoch of blood and fire, before the laws of the world crumbled, you could have worn a dragon’s spine as a belt and drunk wine from a titan’s skull. But now?]
The Jester Skull let out a burst of laughter that appeared like a subtitle: [HAHAHAHAHA].
Then it was once again mercilessly silenced by Li Wei, who stashed it back in his inventory.
After changing his clothes, he got into his Rolls-Royce Cullinan. Driving through the New York night and the dazzling, decadent streets of Manhattan, he returned to his luxury apartment in Battery City Park.