Chapter 217: Chapter 137: Sense of Crisis
SLAM!!!
A deafening noise.
"You think?!" Matty’s roar exploded like a thunderclap in the cramped strategy room. The kind, avuncular man from a moment ago vanished, replaced by a completely unhinged, rabid dog.
It was only then that Li Wei realized the man before him was the Matty that Dabor had mentioned in his office.
"Are you playing a fucking guessing game with me? This is the NFL! Not your mommy’s book club!"
"Your protection scheme is ’I think’? Ha!"
Matty’s bloodshot eyes went wide. He mimicked Timmy’s timid tone in a shrill, exaggerated shriek:
"So on game day, when a 300-pound defensive end smashes your ribs into dust like a bulldozer and shoves them into your lungs, are you going to be lying on a stretcher, grabbing the paramedic’s hand and saying, ’Doc, I think you can still save me’?!"
The room fell dead silent.
"By the way," he caught his breath, instantly reverting to his kind, elderly persona, "the audible command is on page 12 of this playbook, marked in large, bold, black font. You’ve been looking at this playbook for a full two hours. So, Timmy, can you tell me what you were doing for those two hours? Texting your boyfriend? Or picking out a suitable partner on Blued?"
He adjusted his collar, looking at the shell-shocked Timmy. "Take your ’I think’ and get the hell out of my meeting room! Now! Immediately! You waste of air! You don’t even deserve to breathe the AC in here! Wipe down the chair you were sitting in before you leave!"
Devastated, Timmy put down his tablet. Under the sympathetic gazes of over a hundred pairs of eyes, he ran out of the conference room in tears.
Matty seemed like he wasn’t quite finished. He smacked his lips and scanned the room.
His eyes landed on Li Wei, who was sitting front and center, enjoying the show. And in Li Wei’s hands was a book: *Mathematical Models in Asset Management Courses*.
"Tell me, our big star, feeling pretty secure, are we?" he said, walking up to Li Wei and looking down at him. "What’s that in your hands?"
"It’s my college textbook," Li Wei shrugged. "I’ve already finished reading the playbook they handed out."
Although Li Wei’s current memory wasn’t perfectly eidetic, he could still manage short-term photographic recall. Besides, memorizing the playbook and organizing tactics was a Quarterback’s job anyway. It had only taken him two hours to get the gist of the entire playbook. A couple more read-throughs, and he would have it all memorized.
"Finished? Alright, then. Let’s see the difference between a signed, big-star Quarterback and the D3 university Quarterback who just got his ass kicked out."
Matty’s voice suddenly boomed: "In an ’Empty 3 Jet’ formation, you call ’Rio’ as an audible, but the weak-side safety doesn’t drop back. Instead, he suddenly drops down to cover your X receiver’s slant route. Who’s your second read, and how does the protection change?!"
"If the weak-side safety drops to cover the slant, the original ’Rio’ protection is automatically canceled. The center slides left to protect, leaving the strong-side linebacker for the running back to pick up."
"As for the read progression..." Li Wei wagged a finger. "The X receiver is just a decoy. The Z receiver runs a go route to attack the deep zone left open by the safety dropping down."
"And in case you were going to ask," he added in a matter-of-fact tone, "that’s on page 45, third paragraph, Coach Matty. Not everyone would have been able to answer that question."
"Uh..." A strange sound escaped Matty’s throat. He chewed his gum furiously, as if trying to chew up his embarrassment and swallow it.
In the end, he did accidentally swallow the gum.
"Very good."
Matty held it in for a long time before finally forcing out those two words.
Li Wei shrugged and went back to his *Mathematical Models in Asset Management Courses*.
Just now, as he was flipping through the textbook—touted as one of the most difficult undergraduate courses at Yale University—a new mission had suddenly popped up. And this mission was related to what Don Quixote had mentioned to him a while back about the Royal Knight Academy:
[You have picked up: Royal Knight Academy Preparatory Textbook]
[Entry into the Royal Knight Academy requires not only sufficient strength, but also ample knowledge. Memorize and master its contents to gain the Royal Knight Academy’s approval.]
[Mission Reward: +0.1 Free Attribute Points]
The following days were monotonous and boring. Li Wei had put all the rookies in their place, one by one, and none of them dared to act up during training anymore.
Perhaps when the final 53-man roster was formed, the veterans would be the next ones needing to be taught a lesson.
For the next two days, Li Wei’s life was a simple routine of training and eating meals portioned out by the nutritionist. Because his appetite was so enormous, and he didn’t dare eat too much for fear the nutritionist would discover his metabolism was unusually high without any corresponding weight gain, Li Wei used the excuse of high-cardio workouts to get a little more food.
He had wondered before why his energy consumption was so high. He later speculated that the bulk of it was probably being consumed by his passive skill, Silver Body. He could only hope that this problem would resolve itself once all his attributes reached 3.0.
