American Adventure: My Uncle is Don Quixote

He looked at Head Coach Dabor, then turned to face the defensive players who had just been complaining.

"All of you, shut up," he said. "Is the NFL about skill and results, or is it about you guys putting on a show? This isn’t some office game where you compete to see who can clock in the longest."

Everyone, including Head Coach Dabor, was stunned.

’Didn’t Dexter Lawrence just have a conflict with Li Wei, wanting to teach him a lesson about locker room culture? How did he go soft after just one run-in?’

"I have no problem with it, as long as he can lead us to victory," Lawrence said, pausing to make his stance clear. "I don’t care if he’s taking classes on Mars from Monday to Wednesday. Anyone here who has an issue with his schedule can go try to match his passing distance and accuracy, and then top it off by recreating his touchdown replay."

As soon as he said that, every player present shrank back, not daring to let out another peep.

Even though Li Wei had only played in one preseason game, his level of dominance shattered everything they thought they knew about quarterbacks.

Forget the second half—just looking at the first half with all the starters, Li Wei’s accuracy as a standard quarterback was frighteningly precise. His long-pass ability was a cut above even a peak-form quarterback like Mahomes.

Looking at the video replays, Li Wei’s passes basically never missed. As long as the offensive players ran their designated routes, they were guaranteed to make the catch.

Dropped passes only happened when interference from the Seattle Seahawks caused players to deviate from their routes or slow down.

And beyond his skills as a standard quarterback, Li Wei’s physical abilities also far surpassed those of any other player in the NFL.

These players had heard that other teams were desperately studying tactics specifically designed to counter Li Wei, aiming to shut him down at all costs.

Under conventional tactics, an NFL game was like an army attacking a mage (the quarterback) who was protected by a wall of soldiers. That’s because a typical mage’s physical stats were much lower—say, A-rank long-range ability, but E-rank strength and speed.

But Li Wei’s preseason performance was like they fought desperately to get to the mage, only to find out this mage was a goddamn Ogre Mage—not only was his long-range ability S-rank, but his strength and speed were S-rank too.

How to counter Li Wei had already become a dedicated research project for other teams.

With Lawrence, a veteran, now backing him up, the locker room turmoil was finally suppressed.

As they were dismissed, a defensive player ran over to quietly ask Dexter Lawrence a question. It was the locker-room equivalent of asking, ’My lord, we were prepared to die in battle. Why did you surrender first?’

"Is there any benefit to antagonizing him?" Lawrence retorted. "Since it’s pointless, why make things so unpleasant? Is this your first day as a pro?"

"He’s our leader, our quarterback," he said after a pause. "He’s not our opponent, and this isn’t the time for infighting."

With that, he shook his head and left.

The defensive player watched Lawrence’s back as he walked away, thinking to himself, ’As expected of a veteran. He’s got the diplomatic bullshit down to a science.’

Thinking it over, he quickly figured out what Lawrence’s game was.

Since Li Wei had already proven his abilities in the preseason—creating a solo play worthy of the NFL’s Top 10 highlights even with a lackluster defense—he had subtly sent a message to the management: he didn’t need an expensive defensive lineup to win.

If Lawrence kept up the standoff and deliberately tried to trip Li Wei up, and Li Wei *still* managed to win the Super Bowl—hell, he didn’t even need the Super Bowl, just to make the playoffs—then next year, even if Coach Dabor had his head slammed in a car door and then run over by a Cadillac Escalade, he’d know to cut the defense’s budget again. They could do it to boost the Giants’ revenue, or to rebuild a new defensive unit completely centered around Li Wei.

A newly formed defensive unit would become Li Wei’s personal bulldogs, acting as his enforcers. And if Li Wei happened to have a thing for these big, brawny defensive players built like wild boars, they’d have no choice but to obediently drop their pants and reveal the thongs they had already put on just for him.

So, rather than continuing the standoff and waiting for the Giants to cut their pay or clean house next year, it was far better to use the time they had as teammates to get on Li Wei’s good side. If they did their jobs and didn’t force Li Wei to unleash his "second form," they might just be able to keep their own jobs.

Too bad Li Wei wasn’t there and had no idea what these defensive players were thinking.

Otherwise, the classic Brother Yu meme probably would have popped into his head—the one with the utterly bewildered expression.

「A few days later.」

The semester officially began at Yale University.

According to Yale’s undergraduate system, students typically need to complete 36 credits to graduate. This means an average course load of four to five classes per semester. Li Wei had chosen to take five.

However, even with only five classes, it was by no means an easy task.

Yale’s courses were known to follow a 1:3 rule: for every one hour of class time, students were expected to spend three hours on after-class reading and writing.