Year Kobe Affair

"System has been activated!"

"Master: Su Feng. Nationality: Chinese. Age: 16. Height: 188 cm. Weight: 71 kg."

"Current proficiency (High School Standard) of Shooting: 28; Passing: 14; Jumping: 28; Power: 18."

"Scoring moves equipped: none. Brick shots: 1. Brick shots remaining to unlock the next level of the system: 15,000."

Su Feng was absolutely astonished by the virtual image that had popped into his brain.

"Game cheats received?"

"System", "Brick shots"…

"Hey, can you just give me more details?!"

Time-traveling to the past. Caught in a shooting incident on the way to school. He had encountered so much incredible stuff that the basketball cheat didn't leave him astonished for too long.

Undoubtedly, Su Feng's composure had always been his most precious gift.

With some careful consideration, Su Feng came to the conclusion that he probably stood a chance if he worked hard enough. After all, he had "Feng" in his name.

Maybe he would become the next Rukawa Kaede1.

"Enter the NBA… Become a basketball star… Marry a rich and pretty lady?" The thought of it was even making Su Feng a bit excited.

….

In order to make sure he wasn't just hallucinating, Su Feng picked up the ball and made a few more fadeaway shots.

"Ding! Brick shots +1!"

"Ding! Brick shots +1!"

"Ding! Brick shots +1!"

"Ding! Brick shots +1!"

He had always been very bitter at his atrocious scores from his cool combos.

But now he couldn't help enjoying the brick shots!

Who could understand his enjoyment… or pain?

Additionally, Su Feng discovered that when he called for the system in his head, it would appear. It even helpfully indicated at the bottom right that only he could see it.

But the system didn't have any detailed set of instructions, so Su Feng had to figure it out himself. He soon realized that…

If he purposely missed, it wouldn't be added to the brick shot count!

"So I need to focus on the shooting, and if I can't get it in, it will count it towards a brick shot…"

As expected, finding a loophole in the system wasn't easy. Su Feng soon reverted back to focusing on shooting.

"Ding! Brick shots +1!"

"Ding! Brick shots +1!"

"Ding! Brick shots +1!"

"..."

"15,000 brick shots to the next level of the system? My goodness! It's only 54 now? Damn, when did I become so good at shooting?"

Su Feng wanted to cry. He was actually getting some ball sense now…

"Who can I complain to now?

"All I want is brick shots!

"I wanna be a bricklayer!

"Don't stop me! I want to become a golem!"

"How long will it take to get to 15,000 brick shots!??" The initial excitement in Su Feng's chest was slowly fading off.

But he wouldn't give up. If it was anything else, he might not have been able to persevere. However, basketball was something that he could keep on playing for days and never get sick of it…

"Seems like I need to learn from Sakuragi Hanamichi. 20,000 practice shots a week, huh?"

But he was uncontrollably getting better… It was probably going to take more than 20,000 shots to unlock that next level!

But just as Su Feng was getting indulged in creating more difficult moves to happily produce more brick shots…

"Nice posture, man! But you're too slow. If you throw like that a thousand times, I can block a thousand times. And by the way, this is my court."

Su Feng turned towards the direction of the voice…

And he was petrified…

It was obvious…

No matter how calm he had always been, he was petrified. Not out of fear, but rather a dumbfoundingly pleasurable surprise…

Unbelievable.

Crazy.

Ridiculous!

It was a simple reason. He knew this person in front of him. Although he looked way younger than what he could recall…

Was it really him?

It was him!

Yes, it was him!

26 years ago. Philadelphia.

It had to be him!

26 years ago. That teenager overflowing with youthfulness!

Yes!

Even 26 years ago, he was already an outstanding young man. Undefeated.

Quoting the words of his fans, 8 was the faith and 24 was the hard work all day long. The angel and the demon of Los Angeles. Friends came and went. The only constant was the flag of victory flapping in the wind against the sky.

Errmm… more accurately, it would be flapping below the air-con fan!

He was the record holder for the highest number of brick shots in the NBA.

He left a glaring mark in the basketball memories in the 90s.

Love him or hate him, no one could change the fact that he was a legend creator.

If one could say that Nash inherited the essence of a no-look pass after Magic Johnson had retired, then this man took it to the extremes by creating the no-pass look!

People (or rather his fans) awarded him the title "The Mamba", but Su Feng (or rather everyone except his fans) would prefer the nickname "The Lil' Bricklayer".

He was the only Norse God in the NBA. He had slammed 14,481 ultimate moves with the hammer of Thor. He was the Tsuchikage of Land of Earth in the NBA universe2. He was the embodiment of the spirit of 81 points. His name was like a roar of thunder. His stories were widespread. No worries for loneliness, as everyone would witness his dominance.

The first name was Kobe. The last name was Bryant.

Kobe Bryant.

The unstoppable golem. The angel of Los Angeles. He reigned over 81 million brick roads.

Su Feng would never fail to recognize him.

Because he was a member of the Mamba Army.

A pious and relentless one!

Even at this moment, he still felt like what had happened on the night before his time travel was merely a hallucination.

After a long pause, Su Feng dropped his ball and inched towards Kobe before touching the latter on the head, mumbling, "It's really you…"

Kobe was speechless.

"Why suddenly so intimate??!"

Kobe unhappily pushed Su Feng's arm away and said seriously, "I don't know you. And I don't want to repeat myself again! This is my court!"

"Yes, yes. That's it! That's how he is!"

Su Feng was elated, not only because of meeting someone he knew, but also someone he admired.

It was like fate!

At that moment, he made the resolution to go for basketball.

"But I don't see any sign that says the court belongs to you." Su Feng had returned to his composed self.

And Kobe was entertained.

"Damn, this dude is kind of cool," he thought.

And what Su Feng then said totally left Kobe dumbfounded.

"Young man, I can see you are extraordinary. If you wanna prove that this is your court, I will give you a chance. Let's play one on one. If you win, it's yours," Su Feng said as he smiled shrewdly at Kobe.

Kobe was totally puzzled.

"Are you kidding me?" he thought to himself.

"One on one?

"Does he not know that I'm the best at that in Philadelphia?

So what was Su Feng trying to do? Was he trying to take a photo with his idol?

Of course not.

Half an hour ago, Su Feng discovered the only but very interesting set of instructions on the brick shot count: the brick shot count will increase with the intensity of the training or game.

So now, Su Feng was trying to verify it.

Although Kobe was still a high school student now, he would soon enter the NBA by skipping college. Perhaps he was still slightly below the NBA level right now, but he was definitely not very far away from the bottom-tier NBA players.

So if Su Feng could one-on-one Kobe, wouldn't the system automatically recognize that he was playing at a much higher level than what he was at now?

In that case, how much brick shot counts was he going to get?

The answer would be revealed soon!

….

[0] A reference to a Chinese comic series "Year Hare Affair"