32 Points

Beep!!!

As the final buzzer sounded, the game was over. Thanks to Westbrook's consecutive mid-range jumpers in the final minute, the Thunder held on to their three-point lead. When Lowry's last-second three missed, the Thunder narrowly beat the Raptors 120–117.

After hastily shaking hands and exchanging hugs with their opponents, Chen Xi hurried back to the locker room.

"System! System! Hurry, hurry!"

[Host achievement detected: Scored 30 points in a regular-season game for the first time. Reward issued.]

[Congratulations! You received: 3 Random Bronze Badges, 1 Bronze Badge Upgrader]

"Let's open them, let's go!!!"

[Drawing Random Badges]

[Congratulations, host! You received the badge: Dribbling Expert (Bronze)]

[Congratulations, host! You received the badge: Volume Shooter (Bronze)]

[Congratulations, host! You received the badge: Dodge Finisher (Bronze)]

"Nice, nice, not bad at all. I got the core badges for finishing at the rim and shooting threes. I'm even more of a beast now!!"

Chen Xi beamed as he looked at his three new badges.

"Use the Badge Upgrader."

[Please select a Bronze Badge to upgrade.]

"Upgrade First Step Master." Considering how poor his Breakthrough Attribute was, and that he wouldn't be able to improve it much in the short term, Chen decided to make up for it with a higher badge level.

[Confirm upgrade: First Step Master (Bronze)]

[Upgrade complete. Congratulations, host! You received the badge: First Step Master (Silver)]

Nice!

"System, bring up my stats. Let me take a good look."

[Attribute Panel displayed.]

[Chen Xi:

Physical Talent: Height 196; Wingspan 208; Weight 88 kg

Attribute Panel: Mid-range 78 (+2); Three-pointer 100; Free throw 84 (+3);

Ball handling 60 (+2); Passing 62 (+2); Breakthrough 50 (+5)

On-ball defense 78 (+1); Help defense 56 (+1); Rebounding 45

Strength 53 (+5); Speed 62 (+4); Stamina 67 (+5)

Block 30; Steal 43 (+2); Layup 48 (+3)

Vertical 72 (+2); Physicality: 70]

[Values in parentheses indicate improvements from training.]

[Badges: Catch and Shoot (Silver), Quick Draw (Silver), Corner Three Specialist (Bronze), Off-Ball Pest (Silver), Death Coil (Bronze), Spot Shooter (Silver), Lockdown Defender (Bronze), First Step Master (Silver), Dribbling Expert (Bronze), Volume Shooter (Bronze), Dodge Finisher (Bronze)]

[Evaluation: An elite shooter, a second-rate perimeter defender, and a third-rate slasher. I, your system, acknowledge that you're qualified to stay in the League.]

"Hahahaha! Damn! All that hard work was worth it. Most of my lower attributes have been improving pretty quickly."

Chen Xi grinned at his shiny new stats panel, beaming with delight, then turned and headed for the showers.

Meanwhile, Westbrook was being interviewed by reporters.

"Russell, congratulations on putting up another near triple-double: 36 points, 8 rebounds, and 10 assists. Did you consider grabbing a couple more rebounds to get the triple-double?"

"Of course not. The Raptors are a strong team, and we had to stay completely focused against them. I didn't have time to worry about stats while I was out there."

"Besides you, Chris Chen also scored 32 points tonight, and did it very efficiently, taking only 15 shots and making eight threes. What did you think of his performance?"

"Chris is an outstanding shooter. I've never seen anyone shoot better than him. I think it's the reward for all his hard work. He and Victor are the hardest-working players on our team. They're always the first to arrive and the last to leave at practice, and they even come in to get extra work on their days off. I don't see why God wouldn't show some love to people who work that hard."

"Compared with Victor, do you think Chris has earned a spot in the starting lineup?"

"We're a team. All we care about is winning. Nobody cares about that stuff. It's up to the coach. If it helps us win, I can come off the bench, too."

Faced with the reporter's attempt to stir up trouble, Westbrook fell back on the classic team-first answer. In short, his official statement had to be squeaky clean!

"Russell, Chris is averaging 20.3 points, 1.8 rebounds, and 2.6 assists so far, with a 46% field goal percentage and 57% from three. Do you think Chris is the best rookie in this draft class?"

"Of course. Nobody's better than my teammate. Chris is definitely the best rookie in this class. You heard it here!"

The room erupted. After all, Chen Xi was only a second-round pick, selected 26th in the second round.

Among this year's rookies, the first overall pick, Ben Simmons, hadn't played because of an injury. But the man taking his place was Joel Embiid, who was only playing in his third year in the league but already showed impressive maturity. Behind him were Brandon Ingram, Jaylen Brown, Jamal Murray, Buddy Hield, Malcolm Brogdon, and plenty of other talented rookies. Westbrook's comment had offended every one of them. Of course, he might not have cared in the slightest.

The next day, several reporters blocked Chen Xi's way as he arrived at the arena.

"Chris, we'd like to ask you a few questions!"

"Whoa! Where'd you guys come from?" Chen Xi jumped in fright. What was wrong with them? Lurking here to ambush him first thing in the morning?

"What do you want to ask? I don't have much free time today. I've got practice soon."

"What do you think about Russell saying you're the best rookie in this draft class?"

"What do I think? I think I'll sit down and think about it. I support our team leader unconditionally. Whatever the boss says goes."

"So you agree with him, then?"

"If Russell thinks I can do it, I'll just have to make the effort." Chen shrugged.

"After yesterday's interview, Joel Embiid posted online that he'd never even heard of Chris Chen. He thinks Westbrook is just grandstanding. What do you make of that?"

"Embiid? Who's that? I don't know him. Is he an NBA player?"

The reporters immediately perked up. This was exactly what they wanted. They hadn't gone to all that trouble to find out Chen Xi's schedule and stake him out early in the morning for nothing. They could take that quote back, "touch it up a little," and kick off a whole new war of words!

"The starting center for the Philadelphia 76ers."

"Starting center? A rookie?"

"Embiid missed the first two years of his career with injuries, so this is his rookie year."

"All right, then. I hope he stays healthy this year."

There was no harm in being a little cocky. The Rookie of the Year award came with a full 15 attribute points! As his attributes increased, improving them through training would get harder and harder. There was such a thing as a limit, but attribute points could help Chen Xi improve his abilities beyond that limit. Their value was obvious.

The Emperor wanted to compete for it, and Ingram wanted in on the action too? Then bring it on!!!

Just a small reminder: this is the Emperor's third year in the league. Chen Xi shrugged and stopped answering questions, then turned and walked into the arena. He had to hurry today and get used to the boost from his new badges.

"Damn! Victor! You beat me here again!!!"

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