Cleveland International Airport:
The Cleveland Cavaliers had spent just one night in Atlanta. Early the next morning, they headed back to Cleveland.
As soon as he got off the plane, Su Yi said goodbye to his teammates and headed for the parking lot.
When he spotted Xu Rui's car, Su Yi plopped into the passenger seat.
But Xu Rui, in the driver's seat, didn't react at all. He just kept tapping away at his phone, looking worked up.
Su Yi glanced at him in confusion. "A Rui?"
After a long while, Xu Rui seemed not to have heard him, still completely absorbed in his phone.
Su Yi nudged him and called again. "A Rui!"
Only then did Xu Rui snap out of it. He looked at Su Yi in the passenger seat, surprised. "Yi, when did you get in? How did I not see you?"
"You're so glued to your phone you didn't even notice me. Did you get a girlfriend recently?"
Su Yi teased him.
He thought Xu Rui was texting some female friend.
"Of course not. I'm helping you clap back at LeBron stans. They're just too much. These stans don't even watch the games. They're saying you were useless in overtime.
As if they don't know who was hogging the ball in overtime!
He opened with 0-for-3 and even threw in a turnover.
I'm starting to think the guy's a Hawks mole!"
Xu Rui had watched the entire game last night. When Su Yi sank that game-tying three, he'd jumped around the living room in excitement.
He'd thought the Cleveland Cavaliers would win and extend their streak to four games.
But LeBron James's play in overtime had really disgusted him.
He came out and just kept shooting.
That would've been bad enough, but he kept missing.
And then he turned the ball over!
In the end, he cost the team the game.
Losing was one thing; everyone shared the blame.
But the LeBron stans weren't just praising LeBron James like crazy—they were putting down his teammates, too.
That included Su Yi, who'd hit the game-tying three.
Even though Su Yi had made that shot, in the stans' eyes, LeBron James deserved 90 percent of the credit.
Xu Rui was so disgusted that he'd turned into a keyboard warrior and started furiously clapping back at the stans.
Those jerks could praise LeBron all they wanted, but they had to do it by putting down a whole bunch of teammates!
Damn it!
"Don't get worked up. This is just their usual routine."
Su Yi tried to comfort him.
After last night's game, he'd already guessed what today's narrative would be: LeBron James had played like a god, while his teammates were CBA!
"Let me see what they're saying."
Su Yi took Xu Rui's phone to see for himself:
"My LeBron fought through overtime and scored 34 all by himself. How can he carry teammates who are CBA!"
"Six assists to get the whole team going, while certain people shoot open threes like they belong in the G League!"
"That late assist sent the game to overtime. Haters only know how to look at turnovers!"
"34+7+6+1—he filled up the stat sheet. Who else can do that?"
"50% shooting, like a big man! The definition of efficiency!"
"If his teammates had made just two more shots, would we even need overtime?"
"What was that rookie doing in overtime? Invisible the whole time!"
"All the overtime plays were LeBron isolations. Does the coach not have a playbook?"
The bottom line: the team lost, but my LeBron didn't. His teammates were CBA!
After reading them, Su Yi couldn't help smiling. As expected, LeBron stans never disappointed.
He handed the phone back to Xu Rui. "Come on. Don't we have employees to meet?"
"Yi, are we really just going to let this go? Maybe I could get some reporters to—"
Xu Rui said indignantly, but before he could finish, Su Yi cut him off.
"A Rui, now's not the time. I need to establish myself with the Cavaliers first. I need to get stronger—strong enough that the team can't do without me! Then we can strike back in the media, and it'll have a completely different effect."
Su Yi had already worked out a complete plan. He just had to put up with a little "unfairness" for now.
It wasn't really unfairness, anyway. It was called adapting to survive!
In his previous life, he'd often heard people born in the 2000s talk about reforming the workplace, and every time he heard it, he wanted to laugh.
Without the right connections, how could you reform anything?
If you didn't know where your next meal was coming from, how could you reform anything?
If you didn't even know where you'd sleep tomorrow, how could you reform anything?
Unless your family owned a mountain of money, you could do whatever you wanted.
But those people were few and far between.
The scariest part was that many people couldn't even get into the workplace.
So it was better to lie low, develop, and build up your strength. Only then would you be able to reform the workplace.
"Yi, I believe you'll succeed."
Xu Rui had complete faith in Su Yi. After all, over the past year or so, he'd seen him work too many miracles.
"All right, drive. We shouldn't keep our employees waiting."
As soon as Su Yi finished speaking, Xu Rui drove out of the parking lot and headed for the central business district in Cleveland!
Xu Rui had rented an entire floor there for Yirui Studio's offices.
As soon as Su Yi arrived at Yirui Studio, he was greeted by a crowd of people welcoming him.
"Su!" "Su!" "Su!" ... They wore Su Yi's No. 24 Jerseys and shouted his name over and over.
Looking at all these familiar faces, Su Yi couldn't help feeling thrilled.
These were all famous names in the future:
Brandon Beck and Marc Merrill, the founders of Riot Games.
Eric Barone, creator of Stardew Valley, which would sell 41 million copies.
Markus Alexej Persson, creator of Minecraft, the king of sandbox games.
When Xu Rui first invited them, they'd turned him down. But after Xu Rui showed them Plants vs. Zombies and introduced its creator, they'd been tempted.
In the end, the deciding factor was, of course, cash!
And just like that, Yirui Studio's three powerhouse teams were formed.
Su Yi then drew on his knowledge from his previous life to talk things through with them, quickly solving the problems they were facing.
Their gazes grew increasingly fervent as they looked at Su Yi.
If Su Yi told them to go east, they'd probably go east without question.
Time flew by. In the blink of an eye, night had fallen. Su Yi checked the time and said, "All right, let's call it a day. Dinner's on me tonight."
"Thanks, Boss!"
Everyone answered in unison.
Dinner lasted a full three and a half hours.
Afterward, Su Yi went home and immediately washed up. Once he was done, he lay in bed and silently opened his personal status panel:
Name: Su Yi Gender: Male; Height: 198 cm; Weight: 101 kg (108 kg); Wingspan: 221 cm. Speed: 77; Explosiveness: 75; Strength: 75 Vertical: 77; Stamina: 82; Agility: 75 Layup: 74; Mid-Range: 90; Three-Point: 96 Dunk: 72; Off-the-Dribble Shot: 72; Free Throw: 74 Steal: 77; Block: 73; Rebound: 72 Passing Vision: 72; Playmaking: 72 Defense: 75; Offense: 75 Ball Handling: 73; Passing: 75 Injury Resistance: 99 Overall: C+ Skills: Hot Potato Master (When receiving a teammate's pass in the final five seconds of the 24-second shot clock, shooting accuracy increases by 50%)
After last night's game, Su Yi had realized that the body was the capital of revolution.
Without the right physical attributes, he wouldn't get anywhere in the NBA.
So he completely revamped his training plan.
He was going to raise all five of his attributes—speed, explosiveness, strength, vertical, and agility—to 80!
The thought left Su Yi too excited to sleep. He got out of bed, changed into workout clothes, put on his AJs, and hurried to his home gym to train.
Before you continue