Chapter 318 - 203: Giants Fans Are Ecstatic
In the broadcast booth, Joe Buck watched Li Wei’s back and suddenly gasped.
"I get it! Li Wei isn’t messing around, he’s planning to go head-to-head!" Joe Buck slammed his hand on the desk, his excited voice booming through the microphones to over twenty million viewers. "The whole world has been hyping up Patrick Mahomes’ passing as unbeatable, saying Li Wei is just a brute who knows how to run people over! This is Li Wei declaring to the entire league: ’You think you’re the best passer, Mahomes? Then I’ll stand on defense and see for myself just how good you really are!’ He’s dead set on taking Mahomes down!"
Troy Aikman opened his mouth, subconsciously wanting to argue against such a crazy move, but for a moment, he couldn’t find the words to object.
Carried by Joe Buck’s roar on the national broadcast, this insane theory swept through MetLife Stadium and every corner of the internet like a hurricane.
In the stands, the Kansas City Chiefs fans, after a brief moment of stunned disbelief, erupted in an unprecedented wave of fury!
An insult! This was a blatant, shameless insult!
A rookie Quarterback, who had never received a single day of professional defensive training, dared to swagger into the safety position, intending to challenge Patrick Mahomes—the man with a Super Bowl ring, hailed by the entire league as the best active player.
This was no longer a duel between two master gunslingers. At this point, the game felt more like Li Wei had thrown his gun aside, run up to Mahomes’ target, and pointed at his own nose, saying, "I’m standing right in front of the bullseye. I bet you can’t even hit me!"
"Fuck you, Li Wei!"
"Go back to the bench and suck on your pacifier, you arrogant yellow-skinned bastard!"
The die-hard Kansas City fans, clad in their scarlet red jerseys, completely lost their minds.
Like bulls enraged by a red cloth, their faces flushed crimson and veins bulged on their foreheads. A forest of middle fingers shot up from the visiting team’s section. A wave of the most vicious Midwestern slang and Spanish curses washed over the stadium, so vile that anyone with a weak constitution would feel corrupted and broken just by hearing it.
Some of the more hot-tempered fans even hurled their beer cups and half-eaten hot dogs at the lower railings, shaking the partition nets like zombies from Resident Evil.
If the on-site security hadn’t quickly drawn their batons to desperately maintain order, these fans, who felt their faith had been trampled upon, would have gladly stormed down from the stands to tear Li Wei to shreds.
"Mahomes! Pass him to death!"
"Smash his helmet with that damn ball! Make him leave MetLife in a wheelchair!"
However, in stark contrast to the extreme fury of the Kansas City fans, were the Giants fans, who held the overwhelming majority in their home stadium.
After a brief moment of astonishment, a crazed excitement took over, a thrill so intense it shot up their spines.
So arrogant! Unbelievably, boundlessly arrogant!
But why did they idolize Li Wei? Wasn’t it precisely for this brand of arrogance—the kind that trampled the entire league’s dignity underfoot and ground it into the dirt?
Where was this? This was fucking New York, the heart of capitalism!
This place revered the absolute law of the jungle, survival of the fittest. Li Wei’s philosophy of "Whatever you do best, that’s where I’ll destroy you" perfectly aligned with all their fantasies of a "Tyrant" or a "King."
"King! King! King!"
A synchronized roar began to build in the sea of deep blue, and after just a few seconds, it erupted into a superstorm powerful enough to tear the roof off the stadium.
The Giants fans stomped their feet wildly. The massive steel stands emitted a teeth-grinding RUMBLE under the resonance of tens of thousands of people, and a small-scale earthquake replayed itself in New Jersey.
One red, one blue. Fury and fervor. The two extreme emotions violently clashed inside MetLife Stadium.
The oxygen in the air was sucked dry by the fans’ roars. Even a simple breath smelled of thick gunpowder and scorched hormones.
Any ordinary player caught in the center of this terrifying storm would probably feel their legs go weak and their mind go blank.
But Li Wei just stood alone in the deep defensive zone, facing an army all by himself.
He was the last line of defense against that army, yet he stood like a god who had existed since time immemorial.
TWEEEEET!!!!
Once everything was set, the head referee’s sharp whistle cut through the air of the powder keg, which was about to explode.
The Kansas City Chiefs’ center snapped the ball securely into Patrick Mahomes’ hands.
To the left? No. To the right? That’s a decoy.
Mahomes’ feet moved with incredible agility within the pocket. Even as the Giants’ defensive line charged like mad bulls, he remained perfectly calm and composed.
Without Li Wei, the Giants’ raw strength was only that of a second-tier NFL team. Sacking or containing him, Patrick Mahomes, was still a considerable challenge.
"Extremely beautiful pocket footwork! Mahomes is completely unfazed by the off-field emotions!" In the broadcast booth, Troy Aikman’s eyes lit up. "He sees it! The receiver on the right is running a deep crossing route, and he’s got a full two-body-length lead on the Giants’ cornerback!"
Mahomes made his move.
While looking at the defenders on his left, he suddenly whipped his right arm forward from an angle that defied conventional logic!
"That’s the dominance of the league’s number one player!" Joe Buck exclaimed. "Mahomes’ father was a professional baseball player. Mahomes himself played baseball until high school before switching to football. Perhaps that’s the reason for his incredible talent and skill."
"That’s right, Joe," Troy Aikman nodded in agreement. "That’s an absolute blind spot. There’s no defensive player who could possibly be in that position—"
Troy’s last few words got stuck in his throat, turning into a strange, choked groan.
Li Wei shot into the ball’s parabolic trajectory like a bolt of deep blue lightning.
His Spirit attribute, as high as 4.0, allowed him to see through Mahomes’ look-offs, his fakes, and to anticipate his true intentions even half a second before he threw the ball.
In just a few massive strides, he covered more than ten yards laterally, brutally cutting off the long pass that was considered nearly indefensible in the league!
Under the gazes of over eighty thousand people, Li Wei leaped into the air. His hang time was so exaggerated it seemed he had escaped gravity.
SMACK!
The football, which should have been the long pass of the week, was savagely snatched out of mid-air by Li Wei with one hand!
INTERCEPTION!!!
Li Wei landed steadily, the ball clutched in one hand. From under his helmet, his gaze locked with the league’s number one player, Patrick Mahomes, who stood dozens of yards away, frozen in shock.
"My God!!! Oh my God!!!"
Joe Buck felt like he’d lost all sensation in his throat as he let out a guttural roar: "He read it! He actually anticipated Mahomes’ passing intent! A game-winning long pass from the best active Quarterback, intercepted on defense by another Quarterback!!"
"Oh my heavens," he clutched his head with both hands, jumping up and down in the broadcast booth. ’What am I even saying?’
"AHHHHHHHHH!!!"
The Giants fans went insane, completely and utterly insane! They threw everything they could get their hands on into the air. The deafening screams and roars, along with their deep blue jerseys, created a tsunami that threatened to capsize the entire MetLife Stadium.
Meanwhile, the Kansas City fans who had just been screaming curses were now like drakes with their necks collectively squeezed, mouths agape, but unable to produce a single sound.
"Our ball! The New York Giants have possession!"
As the referee extended his arm horizontally, pointing towards the Kansas City end zone, Mahomes took a deep breath, removed his helmet, and trudged back to the sideline bench with heavy steps.
He glanced resentfully at Li Wei, who was now switching back to the Quarterback position, and thought with unwilling resolve:
’It’s fine. This is a good thing, Patrick. Calm down.’
As the best active player, he knew all too well why two-way players had all but vanished from football.
Every interception, tackle, and full-speed sprint on defense drained several times more stamina than playing on offense.
He was certain Li Wei’s heart rate was over 150 right now.
He conferred with the Kansas City Chiefs’ head coach, and they decided on their strategy for the rest of the game.
In the Celestial Dynasty, this tactic had a very down-to-earth name: "Wear Down the Old Man."
Once they wore Li Wei down until he was exhausted, as long as they still had time on the clock, they could pull off a comeback.
For the rest of the quarter, the game became a contest of Mahomes’ calculations and the Kansas City Chiefs’ desperate resolve.
Without a doubt, Mahomes’ strategy was brilliant.
On offense, Mahomes abandoned his flashy long passes, instead utilizing numerous screen passes, quick releases, and running back rushes behind blockers.
They had only one goal: make Li Wei move! They threw the ball to every corner of the field, forcing Li Wei, playing at safety, to constantly sprint back and forth, provide backup coverage, and make full-effort tackles.
And on defense, whenever Li Wei was on the field as the offense’s Quarterback, the Chiefs’ defensive unit acted like rabid dogs. Even if it meant Li Wei would get a first down by bull-rushing them like a bulldozer, they would still slam their bodies into him, using their sheer weight to halt his advance.
After two quarters, although the Kansas City Chiefs paid a heavy price—two defensive players had to leave the game with mild concussions from trying to stop Li Wei head-on—they finally managed to keep the score tight, relying on Mahomes’ high football IQ and strategic maneuvering.
The halftime whistle blew, and the score on the big screen froze at 14:13. The New York Giants were ahead by only one point.
HUFF... HUFF...
Mahomes tore off his helmet and walked towards the player tunnel. His jersey was completely soaked with sweat, and his lungs heaved like a worn-out bellows.
"He must be done for," Mahomes said to Head Coach Spagnuolo while taking deep breaths of pure oxygen from a sideline tank. "In the first half, he played one hundred percent of the offensive snaps and participated in eighty percent of the defensive snaps! That’s nearly seventy rounds of extreme exertion and high-intensity collisions! Even an elephant would be having muscle spasms from lactic acid buildup by now!"
The head coach confidently slapped his playbook shut with a sharp CLACK!
"Exactly! We still have two full quarters," he said. "He’ll definitely be back on the bench in the second half. Our offense is more than a level above the Giants’. It’s a first-rate team against a third-rate one. The advantage is ours!"