On the next possession, Iverson of the Eastern All-Stars hit a short jumper under the basket.
Then Kobe raised a hand, asking Francis for the ball.
Francis thought it over, but in the end, he passed the ball to Kobe.
Kobe immediately drove in from beyond the three-point line. Tracy McGrady stood in front of him, eyelids drooping as he raised an arm halfheartedly.
Kobe leaned back for a jumper over McGrady. He was usually deadly accurate, but this time the shot hit the rim.
Ben Wallace of the East grabbed the rebound.
Kobe frowned and hurried back on defense.
By the end of the first quarter, Kobe had scored six points. He had a bad feeling about it. What if I really got humiliated today?
He instinctively looked for Li Chen. When he saw Li Chen chatting and laughing with the young woman, he felt a twinge of displeasure.
I paid for you to come watch me show off and win MVP, not to flirt with a celebrity.
Kobe didn't take the floor at the start of the second quarter. As he watched Garnett keep scoring, his heart bled.
Garnett already had twelve points, while Kobe had only six.
Kobe silently cursed Garnett, hoping he'd miss his shots. But Kobe's curses were unusually effective today—more powerful than his blessings—and Garnett was playing like a fish in water.
Kobe finally got back on the floor in the second half of the second quarter.
But it seemed Kobe had put on the wrong jersey and picked the one meant for clanking shots off the rim. By halftime, he had scored only ten points, while Garnett already had twenty.
Kobe was panicking. His face felt hot.
He regretted it a little. He'd been too impulsive; he shouldn't have invited Li Chen.
But when the game reached the latter half of the fourth quarter, Li Chen was surprised.
Kobe's score was different from what he remembered from the original timeline.
He remembered Kobe scoring only around twenty-one or twenty-two points. Now the guy had twenty-five, while Garnett had twenty-eight.
Garnett's score was normal, but Kobe's was a bit unexpected.
Li Chen rubbed his chin. Could it be because of me?
He hadn't known he had the power to motivate people. Damn, is the Little Blacksmith about to make a comeback? The thought made Li Chen uneasy. He didn't want to see Kobe gloating.
After that, the All-Star Game played out much as it had in history.
Jordan hit a near-buzzer-beater, and Kobe still made one of two shots to send the game into overtime.
In the end, Garnett still won All-Star MVP.
But Kobe did a lot better than he had in the original timeline, scoring thirty-one points.
With a little better luck, it wouldn't have been impossible for him to snatch the MVP award from Garnett.
After the game, Li Chen returned to the hotel.
The next day, Li Chen boarded his flight back to Los Angeles with a dark expression.
Kobe was staying in Atlanta with Vanessa for a day, so Li Chen had no choice but to pay for his own flight back to Los Angeles.
As he watched Li Chen leave, looking thoroughly displeased, Kobe felt as refreshed as if he'd just gulped down an ice-cold drink on the hottest day of summer.
Vanessa asked, "Is that the jerk who bothered us first thing in the morning?"
Kobe nodded firmly. "Yeah, that's the jerk."
Meanwhile, Li Chen had just gotten off the plane and turned on his phone when, not long afterward, Bill Duffy called.
Li Chen answered. "Good morning, Bill."
"Haha! Good morning, Chen."
"Another company wants me to endorse something?" Li Chen asked eagerly.
"That's right."
"How much are they offering?"
"Pepsi is offering four million over three years, but I think we should only sign a one-year deal for a million."
"Anta, a company from your country, has offered seven million over three years. I think that's a good offer, so we should sign with them."
Li Chen paused, then understood Bill Duffy's intentions.
He smiled. "Bill, are you really that confident in me?"
Bill Duffy nodded. "Chen, I've been watching you play. Next year, you'll definitely prove your worth."
Li Chen thought it over, then nodded. "All right. I don't know much about this stuff, so handle it however you think best."
At that, Bill Duffy rolled his eyes, thinking, When you negotiated with Robert Greenberg from Sketchers, you sounded like you knew more than I did.
Bill Duffy had already taken care of everything before informing Li Chen. All Li Chen had to do was attend the signing ceremony.
Half an hour later, Bill Duffy drove Li Chen to the signing.
Once the signing was done, a prompt sounded in Li Chen's mind.
[Prompt: Host has obtained 8.5 million exclusive skill coins.]
Li Chen paused. After looking into it for a while, he figured out what the exclusive skill coins were.
They were experience points for upgrading skills.
But that raised a question: why hadn't signing with Sketchers triggered a prompt? And what about signing with the Clippers?
After examining it carefully, Li Chen found one thing the two deals had in common.
Both contracts had special terms and additional conditions. Until those conditions were met, the system wouldn't award any exclusive skill coins.
He shuddered at the thought. If he'd used real money to upgrade his skills, he'd be sick over it now. Luckily, he hadn't had any money back then, or he'd have been in trouble.
After Bill Duffy dropped him off at home, Li Chen eagerly began studying the skill upgrades.
Upgrading a D-rank Skill to C-rank cost one million; upgrading it to B-rank cost three million; and upgrading it to A-rank cost ten million.
An A-rank Skill was out of the question. He didn't have enough.
After thinking it over, he spent four million coins to upgrade Miracle Shot to B-rank.
The B-rank Miracle Shot Skill had a 30% chance of making the shot.
Then he upgraded Clutch Shot to B-rank as well. At B-rank, it also gained a 20% increase in its chance to hit.
With both Skills upgraded to B-rank, he wouldn't be left helpless in the clutch like he had been against the New York Knicks.
Thursday, February 12, 2003.
Today's game at the Phoenix Suns' home arena, US Airways Center, was a revenge game.
You could tell just from the thunderous roar of the fans.
The Clippers' starting lineup for this game was:
Andre Miller (Point Guard)
Li Chen (Shooting Guard)
Corey Maggette (Small Forward)
Elton Brand (Power Forward)
Wang Zhizhi (Center)
The Phoenix Suns' starting lineup:
Marbury (Point Guard)
Joe Johnson (Shooting Guard)
Shawn Marion (Small Forward)
Stoudemire (Center)
Outlaw (Power Forward)
The referee blew his whistle, and the players from both teams took the court.
At the same time, the S-rank Skill randomly awarded to Li Chen for this game was revealed.
[Eagle Eye: Increases the host's field of vision by 50%, help-defense speed by 10%, and passing accuracy by 10%.]
Li Chen was surprised. He hadn't expected to get an auxiliary Skill like this.
He already had excellent vision. What would it be like after a 50% increase? Just imagining it filled him with anticipation.
A moment later, Stoudemire tipped the ball.
Joe Johnson got to it.
The Clippers raced back on defense.
The Clippers were still using a 2–3 zone defense this game.
Before you continue