Legendary Football Superstar

Nine base points, huh? Sounds like some heavy-duty gear, but when Luke cracked open his beat-up personal info sheet, he knew it was just a drop in the ocean. Still, after sixteen weeks of brutal training, the payoff was sweet, and the satisfaction? Off the charts.

For the first time ever, Luke really chilled out and took a good, hard look at his stats, especially the quarterback skills. Besides the same old basic info, here's what he saw:

**Basic Stats:**

- Physical Fitness: 62/100

- Mental Toughness: 81/100

- Tactical Awareness: 67

- Willpower: 80

- Speed: 65

- Strength: 47

- Acceleration: 61

- Agility: 70

- Jumping: 48

**Quarterback Skills:**

- Throwing Power: 78

- Short Pass Accuracy: 67

- Medium Pass Accuracy: 64

- Long Pass Accuracy: 81

Throw on the Run: 60

- Play Action: 45

- Ball Security: 59

- Field Vision: 50

- Ball Carrying: 59

- Elusiveness: 59

- Stiff Arm: 53

- Juke Move: 53

- Spin Move: 53

**Receiving Skills:**

- Catching: 38

- Route Running: 15noveldrama

- Spectacular Catch: 15

- Catching in Traffic: 15

- Burst: 15

**Injury-Related Attributes:**

- Injury Resistance: 77

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- Stamina: 80

- Recovery Speed: 75

After scrolling through, Luke was stoked to see his "Physical Fitness: 62/100" had bumped up by a point. He was dead sure he hadn't thrown any base points at it, but it still climbed from "61" to "62." That meant all those grueling months of training were finally paying off.

Just like Seven said when Luke first got the system, the attributes kinda rub off on each other. It's a tiny nudge, but it's there. It's like how little changes add up to big ones; only with long-term grind can you see real shifts.

The reason they call it "daily basic training" is all in the "daily" and the "basic." Tiny tweaks here and there make big changes in your body and skills.

In five months, Luke hadn't skipped a single day of training. That one-point boost in physical fitness? It was slow and less flashy than adding base points, but his body felt the difference. It was more real and satisfying than just seeing numbers go up, letting

Luke see the fruits of his hard work.

This was a pretty sweet find.

Then, Luke's eyes zeroed in on the quarterback skills. The numbers laid out his strengths and weaknesses, clear as day.

For a quarterback, footwork and running skills are clutch. Basically, it's all about dodging tackles, protecting yourself, and making throws while defensive players are breathing down your neck. This is a huge part of football. The offensive line can't block every hit, and the quarterback can't always throw from a comfy spot like a statue.

The key skills here are throw on the run, play action, ball security, field vision, ball carrying, elusiveness, stiff arm, juke move, and spin move.

Play action is all about faking out the defense. The fake run and real pass, or fake pass and real run that Luke pulled off in practice games are prime examples. Ball security is about holding onto the ball when you get hit, avoiding fumbles. Ball carrying is like a running back's gig, where the quarterback takes off with the ball, looking for a chance to pass.

Think of it this way: long pass accuracy, medium pass accuracy, and short pass accuracy are for when you're standing still. The other skills make sure you get the chance to show off that accuracy. If you can't get a pass off, even perfect accuracy is useless.

But here's the kicker: except for a throw on the run score of sixty, which is just okay, all the other stats are a hot mess. Even if Luke wanted to boost his points, he wouldn't know where to start.

Before he became a backup QB for the UCLA Bruins, Luke didn't get how crucial footwork and running were. Just looking at his basic stats, his running, agility, and stamina were decent. In high school, he leaned on these and his smarts to find open spots and make passes.

But once he became a backup, Luke started to see that his physical game and ball- carrying skills were seriously lacking. In the high-stakes, complex college games, his weak spots stood out like a sore thumb. Looking back, it's no wonder he bombed during his freshman tryouts.

Luke hadn't really thought about it before, so when he got the system, he dumped his points into long pass accuracy and short pass accuracy. Looking back, it wasn't a bad call, but he could've been smarter about it. Luckily, after joining the backup squad, his training got more structured, and being the sharp guy he is, Luke started to get a better grip on how to spread those points around.

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and turn. The next chapter awaits, exclusively on our site. Dive in now! Without wasting any time, Luke threw his nine base points like this: three into short pass accuracy and the other six into throw on the run. This bumped his medium pass accuracy to seventy and his throw on the run to sixty-six.

Luke knew he had a ton of weak spots, like a leaky bucket needing patches everywhere. But if he had to pick a priority, it was definitely his passing game. More specifically, turning his passing accuracy into actual completions and, hopefully, touchdown passes.

Now, Luke's long pass accuracy, medium pass accuracy, and short pass accuracy were sitting at eighty-one, sixty-four, and seventy, respectively. This put him at the average level of a college QB for stationary passing, maybe even better than Kevin and Darius. The "maybe" part was because the system couldn't gauge the other two QBs' skills; it was just a guess based on daily practice.

With his throw on the run bumped up to sixty-six, Luke had a better shot at showing off his passing accuracy.

In just five months, with the system's help, Luke had gone from a total noob who couldn't even make the practice squad to an average college QB. This crazy progress made Luke hungry for more training and more game time. Training was the bedrock, but games were the real test.

Luke was itching to get on the field. It was the ultimate proving ground! Only the strong survive!

As Luke did the math, he had a little over three months until the March rookie training camp. He wondered how much he could level up by then. He also thought about how far he was from going pro and what he still needed to work on. While he trained and studied, the 2010 NCAA season flew by.

By the second week of December, specifically Saturday, December 11th, the UCLA Bruins were gearing up to face their last opponent of the season, their crosstown rivals, the USC Trojans.

The UCLA Bruins and the Trojans? Man, they're like the Hatfields and McCoys of NCAA football. This rivalry is legendary, a never-ending grudge match. Even the beef with Stanford doesn't come close to the heat of this showdown.

Over the past decade, the Trojans have been on a tear, winning over ten games in the league for five straight years, becoming the league's top dogs. Since the new millennium, USC has taken nine out of ten games against the Bruins, with UCLA snagging just one win back in 2006.

No joke, for the past ten years, USC has been stomping all over UCLA, making it so bad that UCLA students couldn't even hold their heads up in private. It's been the longest, darkest stretch in this rivalry's history.

This year, things were even more intense. First off, UCLA got wrecked by Stanford in the season opener, losing "0-35." No one wanted to take another L from USC; that would be the ultimate humiliation.

Secondly, under Kevin Prince's leadership, the Bruins had a bumpy season. The QB's performance was meh, but the defense was solid, and their trio of running backs was strong. They ended up with a 6-5 record, tying with USC!

USC was in a rebuilding phase this year, stumbling through the season and already racking up five losses. This was UCLA's golden chance for payback!

These two rivals were sitting at fourth and fifth in the league, with USC holding the fourth spot thanks to a scoring edge. But the outcome of this game could flip the script. If UCLA beat USC, they could leapfrog their rivals, crack the top four, and snag a spot in this year's Rose Bowl!

The NCAA's six major conference bowl games aren't national championships but conference championships. Unlike basketball, football doesn't have playoffs but uses invitational games. Usually, two of the top four teams get invited, based on their records, performances, and the strength of their opponents. These two teams then duke it out for the final "bowl." For the Pac-12 Conference, the ultimate prize is the Rose Bowl!

So, this year's crosstown rivalry wasn't just about bragging rights; it was a do-or-die battle for a bowl game spot!