Champion, please stay!

Chapter 15, Section 15: The Angry Elementary School Student

"Of course, you have to be thick-skinned to play ball!"
Ray's playing style back then was very different from now. In high school, he was considered the next Michael Jordan, and when he first entered college, all he could do was drive and pass.

But he was smart and knew the importance of shooting, so he started practicing his mid-range and long-range shots. Most importantly, he dared to shoot in games! Even if he missed, he would still shoot the next shot. Despite being attacked by reporters and even disliked by his teammates, he remained steadfast in doing what he believed was right.

The right goal, coupled with unwavering belief and a thick skin—that's the key to Ray's success. You already possess one-third of his qualities, which is a good start, isn't it?

"Leon, get out!"

"You're not going to do physical therapy anymore?"

"Then finish before you leave!"

"OK..."

"By the way, did Ray improve his three-point shooting quickly in his freshman season?"

"He made 1 of 10 three-point attempts in the first 5 games of his freshman season, and I remember that his three-point shooting percentage was just over 40% by the end of the season."

"屮!"

"Haha, I told you he's different, but you're special too. With your rate of improvement after you started working hard, plus your thick skin, you might be able to reach that level by the end of the season. But you have to persevere, I know that's difficult."

"We also need to rely on you."

"Of course, I'll help you if you want."

"Thanks, Leon. By the way, I noticed today that Jim seems quite different from the strict and rigid old man I remembered?"

“He’s always been like this, it’s just that you and Jim don’t spend enough time together privately. He’s the head coach, and he has to maintain his authority in public, otherwise who would listen to him? He’s quite easy to get along with in private, but he can also be very stubborn…”

"Never mind then, I'm stubborn too, it's fine as it is now."

"Yeah, right, I found the way you grabbed rebounds today really interesting!"

Yi Shui's eyes lit up when he heard this. Although Coach Long's rebounding style relied more on awareness, it would be even better if he could practice under simulated game conditions... Wait a minute!
Damn! It seems like I only grabbed 8 rebounds today?

He opened the system, and a notification had appeared right after the match ended.

"Mission: The Return of the Genius."

Goal 1: ... Completed. Congratulations on receiving the reward: 10-hour double efficiency shooting training card.

Objective 2... has failed.

I should have crawled into the sewer!

Yi Shui was heartbroken and couldn't breathe, but thankfully there were still competition rewards to come.

"Match Level: Warm-up Match. Your playing time reaches the starting level (starting from 15 minutes). Congratulations on receiving the basic match reward. If you help the team win, the basic reward will be doubled."

Congratulations on receiving the rewards: a 3-hour double efficiency card for three-point shooting and a 3-hour double efficiency card for rebounding.

"This game's performance meets the minimum standard for individual rewards. Target score: 41 points. Congratulations on receiving the reward: 2-hour Double Shooting Efficiency Card. (Base scores for warm-up games: Points: 20, Rebounds: 10, Assists: 5...)"

With a double card that provides a total of 15 hours of shooting and 2 hours of rebounding, Yi Shui felt a little less heartbroken.

He estimated that next week's shooting practice would be doubled throughout, but there wouldn't necessarily be a task in every game. He hoped that there would be a task in the next game against that player.

...

In the evening, the Husky team left Raleigh and arrived at Davidson, a small town about 30 kilometers north of Charlotte.

Yi Shui was wondering why they had to come here today. The next match was the day after tomorrow. At the very least, if they had lunch the day after tomorrow, they could drive from Raleigh to Davidson and still make it to the 3 pm match.

But once he entered the town of Davidson, he understood why.

After arriving in Raleigh yesterday afternoon, he noticed that the leaves of the roadside plants were all chapped and the river water was obviously eutrophic... Although the greenery seemed to be very good, the actual living environment was clearly not good.

During a conversation with his teammate Chris DeKay, who grew up in Charlotte, Yi Shui learned that Raleigh is mainly a polluting city with industries such as clothing, paper products, food, and medical supplies manufacturing. It is indeed one of the worst cities in North Carolina, and DeKay certainly looked down on the place.

But DeKay also mentioned Raleigh's advantages—even though Black people make up more than 30% of the population, the city is quite safe because of its high concentration of low-end manufacturing and high employment rate. However, even Black people want to earn enough money to leave the city, since nobody wants to spend all day on an assembly line.

Davidson Town is different. It's a typical wealthy area. Once inside the town, Yi Shui didn't see any facilities like factories. The only large-scale industries seemed to be schools, hospitals, and farms.

When Yi Shui went to sleep that night, he also felt the difference. After all, it was a sparsely populated wealthy area. Although the hotel facilities they stayed in were obviously not as good as the hotel in Raleigh City, it was much more comfortable and quiet. Even though it was on the street, there was almost no sound of cars passing by.

After a good night's sleep, Yi Shui woke up at around 7 a.m. the next morning.

The team practice was in the afternoon, with a rest day in the morning. But after breakfast, he couldn't stay still. After asking the front desk for directions and reporting to the head assistant coach, he left the hotel and went to Davidson College, about 1 kilometer away... the nearby stadium, Belk Arena.

Compared to the Red Cell Arena where the game was played yesterday, this place is much smaller, roughly the same size as the Huskies' old home arena, the Universidad Gymnasium. Yi Shui went inside for a look and saw that the playing area was indeed about the same size as their old home, probably seating over 2000 people. No wonder that guy was so depressed when he joined this team after being rejected by Duke. In terms of home arena size alone, it's about the same as an NCAA team in the 70s, only it's newer. After satisfying his curiosity, Yi Shui prepared to return to the hotel. As he passed what appeared to be a training area, he heard the sound of hoops being shot.

'People are training so early? The Davis Academy players are impressive... Wait! Could it be...?'

The training ground door was open, and Yi Shui wasn't worried about being too impolite. She went to the door and peeked inside... Sure enough, it was a white-skinned, curly-haired elementary school student!
Curry, with his keen senses, stopped shooting and looked towards the door.

Yi Shui, refusing to feel awkward, took the initiative to walk into the training field and greeted, "Hi, good morning, are you Stephen Curry?"

Curry nodded, sized up the handsome guy who was taller than him, and replied, "It's me. Do you know me? Are you an international student at our school? I don't think I've seen you in any clubs before."

Yi Shui: "My name is Brook, just a Kamen Rider passing by... cough cough, could you sign my autograph?"

"Huh?" Curry was completely confused, but when he heard that he wanted an autograph... his voice rose: "Of course!"

Yi Shui quickly took out the notebook with the pen clipped to it and handed it to Curry. Luckily, Curry had the habit of "a bad pen is worse than a good memory".

After Curry quickly signed his name, before he could even say a word, the tall, handsome guy across from him snatched the notebook away. Curry frowned, but seeing the other guy's happy expression as he looked at the autograph, his mood improved.

Looking at the 'old-fashioned elementary school student's' signature in his hand, Yi Shui felt it had great collectible value! He wondered how much it would sell for in ten or twenty years. However, the handwriting was rather ugly, probably because he hadn't commissioned someone to design an artistic signature yet. It could be used as a piece of embarrassing history.

"Oh, right!" He took out his phone and said, "Stephen, can I take a picture with you?"

Nokia's professional waterproof phone can not only make calls, send text messages, and crack walnuts, but also play music and take photos. The key feature is that it supports memory cards for storing songs and photos, making it quite feature-rich.

Curry had just nodded when his shoulder was put on his arm. This guy… but when he saw the camera on the back of the phone pointing at him, he still smiled.

Yi Shui glanced at the photos he had taken. Although the resolution was less than ideal, the focus was quite accurate, and the photos were well taken. He was just about to formally introduce himself to Curry when a text message arrived.

"Jerry told me you were at Belk Arena? We just got to the parking lot to prepare for practice, and you came to find us while you were still inside. We had some time this morning to practice your rebounding technique..."

Upon seeing the text message, Yi Shui lost interest in the elementary school student he had already 'used,' waved his hand, and said as he jogged away, "Sorry, Stephen, I have to go now, see you tomorrow!"

Curry: "???"

Hearing the sounds coming from the corridor, Curry was filled with questions again.

As the training ground quieted down again, if it weren't for the ballpoint pen still in his hand, he would have thought he was hallucinating.

'Where did this guy come from?'

'I have a foreign fan?! He's so tall, he must play basketball, right? See you tomorrow? If he comes tomorrow, should I ask him to play some basketball? If he plays well, I can invite him to join the club…'

'But I feel like I've seen this guy somewhere before?'

...

September 23, 2007, 2:30 PM.

At Belk Stadium in Davidson, Charlotte, the Wildcats, playing at home, had already entered the field.

Their star player, Curry, was a little disappointed.

He met a strange person yesterday who said he'd see him today, but he spent the whole morning at the training ground and the guy never showed up.

If it weren't for the ballpoint pen still in his bag, he would have really thought it was an illusion. How could he have foreign fans?

After a while, the stands started to get noisy. Curry looked toward the visiting team's tunnel and saw several people in suits and work clothes come out. Sure enough, it was the Husky team.

Suddenly, Curry froze. He saw the 'foreign fan' he had been looking forward to all morning! But the guy was wearing a white training suit with a dark blue husky embroidered on his chest!
When Curry saw the muscular white man on the left and the tall black man on the right, a picture suddenly flashed into his mind.

Last May, in the second semester of his 12th grade, he had to try out for various prestigious universities on his own because he had not received an invitation from a Division I university. In May, he went to the main campus of the University of Connecticut in Storrs, but before participating in the tryout, he learned that the Husky team had already signed 6 of the top 100 high school players in the United States, so he chose to give up.

Just as he was leaving the Kangda Gymnasium, he saw a very special group – the yellow, white and black trio in front of him!

Curious, he asked a passing student from Cornell University. The student didn't recognize the Black player either, but recognized both the Asian and White students. They were talented freshmen who had just finished their first season. The strongest among them, "Eastern Star," had just been selected for the Big East League's All-Rookie Team and almost won the Rookie of the Year award.

"See you tomorrow!"

Curry clenched his fist as he recalled what the guy across from him had said yesterday morning.

So that's what it meant? A feeling of being played welled up inside me...

On the other side, after Yi Shui entered the venue, he immediately spotted the elementary school student. Just as he was about to wave and greet him, he saw that the student was looking at him with a very unfriendly gaze!
"Stephen Curry, who harbors astonishing talent, is furious that you toyed with him and is determined to get back at you... Mission: Angry Elementary School Student Triggered..."

Yi Shui: ? ? ? ? ?
Requesting monthly votes! Requesting recommendation votes!
In the first week, I updated 5.2 words in 7 days. I felt that I wouldn't even last 30 days before the new book was released, but I didn't want to worry about that. After that, I continued to update about 7000 words a day. Any more than that would be impossible. If I were to release the book after half a month, I can imagine how bad the subscription would be. There would definitely be no more updates.

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(End of this chapter)