Legendary Football Superstar

John and Luke were both stuck on the practice squad, and honestly, Luke was even worse off. For the first two years, Luke couldn't even make it to the practice squad. It was only in the third year, thanks to Anthony's pity, that he got a spot. So, John figured beating Luke would be a walk in the park.

But once the shuttle run kicked off, John realized Luke was keeping up with him, which lit a fire under him. John had already fallen from the main team to the practice squad, like a nosedive from heaven to hell. Was he gonna sink even lower? So, John gritted his teeth and went all out, giving it everything he had.

He sprinted, stopped on a dime, turned, sped up, sprinted again, and stopped abruptly once more, turning again.

When the shuttle run wrapped up, John finished just a body length ahead. He'd

pushed so hard he couldn't stop in time, gliding forward and tumbling onto the grass. But instead of crying out in pain, John burst into laughter, letting all his emotions out.

Luke slowed down, hands on his knees, and couldn't help but laugh too. "How's it feel? Pretty good, huh?"

"Yeah... yeah..." John panted, but then that ridiculous grin came back. "Actually, I shouldn't feel good. I almost lost. That's not the mark of a decent wide receiver." Losing a forty-yard shuttle run to a quarterback? That was embarrassing, especially since Luke wasn't even a real quarterback; he was just a practice squad player with no real position.

"Look at it this way. After a year of training, I've gotten this good. Isn't that a positive sign? And when you give it your all, you show different strengths. So, if you keep training, doesn't that mean you could get back on the main team, even if it's just as the third backup?"

Luke's words made John go quiet, the smile still hanging at the corners of his mouth, his chest still heaving: How did he end up like this? Was it really because his talent vanished? Or because he stopped trying? Or was it the intense competition and his dad's reputation that put too much pressure on him, making him give up? So, what was he holding on to now?

"I've got two more sets of shuttle runs to do. How about it, wanna join?" Luke extended his right hand. "I bet your stamina isn't as good as mine, so this time I can beat you."

"Bullshit ". John didn't hesitate snapning back.immediately grabbing Luke's right, hand to pull himself up. "That was just a warm-up for me. Now that I'm warmed up, I can easily leave you in the dust. If you're not afraid of embarrassing yourself, I'll let you lose again."noveldrama

From that day on, John became Luke's regular training buddy. Besides ball-handling and partner drills, they did basic exercises like pull-ups, weighted squats, sit-ups, and even ran 33,000 feet together. Three days flew by, and Luke nailed his second daily training task, earning another basic point.

Luke hadn't had a chance to allocate the points from his first daily training task, so now he had two points.

Initially, Luke hoped to slightly improve his other weaknesses, but he soon realized that as a quarterback, he had too many shortcomings, and all of them were below par. Two basic points were a drop in the bucket; he couldn't possibly fix all his weaknesses with them. So, he decided to put both points into his long pass accuracy, bringing that stat up to 81.

Finally, one of Luke's quarterback skills broke the 80-point mark, moving from mediocre to good. Although it was still far from the excellent 90-point mark, it was a good start.

After completing the second daily training task, the third daily training task appeared. This time, not only did the number of training items increase significantly to fifteen, but the consecutive training days also extended from three to seven. This left Luke speechless. "This is only the third task, and it's already seven consecutive days. Does that mean in the future, to earn a basic point, I'll have to train for a whole year?"

At first, Luke thought earning basic points wouldn't be difficult, as long as he trained every day. But now it seemed unrealistic. The real purpose of daily training was to hone basic skills, requiring years of persistence. Simply relying on these basic, non-technical drills to become a football star was clearly impossible.

Daily training tasks weren't shortcuts but foundations, which also meant that to grow quickly through basic points, he would have to rely on game tasks and special tasks.

Since getting the system, there hadn't been any action on other types of tasks, and Luke couldn't figure out how to trigger them. Every time he asked Seven, the answer was always the same: "No access for now."

So, Luke put the other tasks on the back burner and zeroed in on the daily training grind. Each day was tough but super satisfying. Compared to the basic points, he could feel himself getting better with each session-real, tangible progress. The whole training setup, methods, rhythm, and metrics started to make sense, and that once far- off dream began to feel within reach. It was such a rush that he couldn't help but dive into it. Training became a joy, and he threw himself into it every day.

The voice in his head chimed in again, and Luke knew he had nailed the seven consecutive days of daily training tasks, scoring another basic point. Then, a new task popped up.

He didn't rush to use the points but checked out the new task: twenty basic training items, to be done consecutively for seven days. The difficulty hadn't doubled to ten or fourteen days like he thought it might; it stayed at a seven-day cycle, which was a nice surprise. "Is it because my foundation is so bad that the system can't stand to see me being useless? Seven, is that it?"

He didn't hear Seven's response but caught John's half-joking voice instead, "Smiling like that, did you get hit in the head with a football? Lost your mind?"

Luke rolled his eyes at John, "I was just daydreaming about your sister." This guy-talk retort got everyone around them jeering. John opened his mouth but the noise was too much, so he just shook his head and laughed silently.

"Hurry up, everyone, pick up the pace!" Anthony's voice boomed through the loudspeaker. "We're not here on vacation; this is a training camp, a training camp! There are only five days left until the NCAA season starts. Everyone, gather up!" With that shout, everyone stopped chatting and started moving faster.

The NCAA, the National Collegiate Athletic Association, is a big deal, organizing all sorts of sports leagues for over a thousand four-year colleges in the U.S. and Canada. Before going pro, NCAA games are the best way for college athletes to show off. Scouts are everywhere, watching NCAA games to pick the players their teams need.

The NCAA is huge for American college students, even bigger than pro soccer leagues in the U.S. Major TV networks broadcast NCAA games. The NCAA has multiple levels and dozens of leagues, with competitions in football, baseball, ice hockey, basketball, track and field, gymnastics, wrestling, and more.

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In the NCAA football league, there are six top-tier conferences, and UCLA is part of the Pac-12 Conference.

As the name suggests, this conference has twelve teams. They play twelve games over four months to determine the league rankings and compete for the top prize, the Rose Bowl.

This year's Pac-12 season officially kicked off last week with a game between USC and the University of Hawaii, with USC coming out on top. This week, the games will fully kick off, and UCLA will face Stanford in their first match.

The first game of the season is always huge, especially when the opponent is a long- time rival. Just like in soccer, the most thrilling matches are always the derbies-city derbies, national derbies. In the NCAA, UCLA's national derby rival is Stanford, and their city derby rival is USC. They're arch-enemies, ready to tear each other apart, and every game is electrifying.

This year is no different.

To focus and prep for the games, the team, led by the coach, left the noisy campus and headed to an out-of-town training camp to cut out all distractions and fully concentrate on the final prep. After three days of training, the new season would officially begin.

John and Luke tossed their footballs back into the cart. John asked quietly, "Do you think we have a shot at making the roster?" The so-called roster included the third- string backups. But as long as they made the roster, there was a chance.

"The roster? Keep dreaming." Kevin walked over, tossed his football like a basketball, missed, and didn't even look back as he walked away.

John didn't care and shot back, "It's sadder when some people don't even have dreams."