score maniac

Chapter 1: The Birth of a Scoring Machine

“…8 seconds left, the Philadelphia 76ers inbounds! Chen Mu! It’s Chen Mu! Chen Mu has the ball and faces a double team, faking out his defenders one after another… He breaks through! He pauses at the free-throw line, ready to shoot… A fake! He takes a mid-range jumper…!!!” On TV, the final moments of Game 7 of the 2010 NBA Finals were playing. The powerful defending champions, the Los Angeles Lakers, had pushed the up-and-coming Philadelphia 76ers to the brink. Kobe Bryant’s clutch “and-one” play gave the Lakers a precious one-point lead. In the final moments, the Philadelphia 76ers successfully inbounded the ball under extreme pressure and passed it to their ace—a two-time MVP, that season’s scoring and rebounding champion, and an All-NBA First Team and All-Defensive First Team selection—the all-around superstar Chen Mu. Under the watchful eyes of the world, the Chinese power forward dribbled up the court, shaking off every Lakers player in his path, and as he prepared to take a mid-range shot Chinese fans around the world held their breath. Then “... Swish!” The ball swished through the net, sending up a beautiful splash. Three seconds later, from Wachovia to every corner of the world where Chinese people live, “…Whoosh—!!!!” Cheers erupted from the stands! “It’s in! Chen Mu has hit the game-winner! The Philadelphia 76ers! The Philadelphia 76ers have won the championship!!!” On the live broadcast from a Chinese television station, the on-site commentator did his best to hold back his tears of excitement, and amid the roar of the Wachovia crowd that echoed around the globe, he relayed this thrilling moment to Chen Mu’s homeland. “Yeaaaaaaaaah—!!!” Fans across China leapt straight out of their seats, waving their arms so wildly they nearly knocked over their own chandeliers, while glasses, drinks, and snacks on the tables were all sent flying to the floor. Drivers on the road who couldn’t watch the live broadcast pulled their cars over to the side of the road and honked their horns frantically, hoping the sound would carry across the ocean to the United States, ten thousand miles away, to cheer for the first championship won with a Chinese player as the core. “Holy shit, that’s awesome, that’s so freaking awesome, holy shit!!!” In an apartment building in City H, Gu Yu also leapt up from the couch, shouting nonstop at the TV screen, on the verge of tears. As a die-hard fan, Gu Yu—like most Chinese basketball fans in recent years—was a hardcore supporter of Chen Mu. From Chen Mu’s meteoric rise during the national youth team’s training camp, to his gradual progress in the NBA, to his dominant performance at the Asian Youth Championship, and finally to his ascension to god-like status after winning a slew of honors—including the P Award—Gu Yu had watched every single game he could find, never missing a single one. As one of the veteran “Wood Chips” on Chen Mu’s fan site, “Wood Chip Headquarters,” Gu Yu had even traveled across the ocean in 2009 to watch a Philadelphia 76ers game in the United States. When he saw Chen Mu in person and got his autograph, tears streamed down his face. He didn’t know why, as a guy, he’d suddenly become so emotional. Perhaps people who love sports are just easily inspired by the passion of the moment! “Ahhh, I can finally update the stats in my game!!!” Like many basketball fans, Gu Yu plays basketball video games. To support his idol Chen Mu, he even manually updated the Philadelphia roster in the game based on his own understanding. Gu Yu always felt that the stats assigned to Chen Mu in the official roster were too low, so after making his own adjustments, Chen Mu’s ability rating shot up to 99—but he still didn’t think that was strong enough. Now that the Finals were over, Gu Yu didn’t even have time to share his joy with his best friend; he immediately opened the game, eager to boost Chen Mu’s stats once again. “Hmm… Let’s see if the official website has been updated first. In the previous roster, the boss was listed as injured—that really pissed me off!” Gu Yu, who was a bit of a perfectionist, clicked on the game’s official website to check—but official updates never happen that fast, so naturally, he couldn’t find a new patch. After thinking for a moment, he opened the “Wood Shavings Headquarters” forum. Scrolling through the posts, he sure enough found a new roster patch created by fans. Download! He clicked the download button and waited happily for it to finish. The patch wasn’t very big, so it wouldn’t take long… “Hmm…?” On the side of the webpage, a floating ad window caught Gu Yu’s attention. “Still frustrated that the game doesn’t do justice to Big Brother Chen Mu’s earth-shattering rebounding skills? Download the ‘Rebound Obsessed’ patch now and enjoy the thrill of dominating the league with Big Brother!” That ad copy sure is blunt, ahem… With a “ding,” the roster patch finished downloading in a flash, but Gu Yu’s mouse cursor remained hovering over the ad window, refusing to move. Rebound Maniac? Wasn’t that the nickname everyone gave him shortly after he joined the league? Anyone who’s played NBA games knows that scoring, dishing out assists, and getting steals and blocks isn’t hard in the game. But to grab thirty or forty rebounds in a single game like Chen Mu does? That’s as hard as climbing to the moon. Countless players have spent hours trying to put together a game that truly showcases Chen Mu’s rebounding dominance, yet almost none have succeeded. At its core, this is because when playing the game, players’ ability to predict where the ball will bounce is far inferior to that of the real-life Chen Mu. But this “Rebound Obsessed” mod… “It’s not like it’ll cost me a thing~” Gu Yu shrugged and clicked the link. Well then, a whole new world has opened up. “This, this, this…” Looking at the webpage that popped up, Gu Yu immediately realized this was a hub where players uploaded all kinds of custom cheat mods. “Rebound Freak” was naturally the most popular one; rumor had it that it could predict where the rebound would land, allowing players to “foresee” the spot just like Chen Mu did. On top of that, all sorts of bizarre cheats were popping up left and right. There was the “Hulk” cheat, the “100% Accuracy” cheat, the “Bypass Trading Rules” cheat, and countless others. The dazzling array of cheat patches piqued Gu Yu’s interest. He clicked “Sort by Time,” and the latest patches were listed at the top. Ranked first was a patch post with 0 views and 0 downloads. “Score Maniac…?” The patch’s name was straightforward and easy to understand, but when Gu Yu checked the posting date, he was stunned. “It’s been out for five years?!” Gu Yu did the math: Five years ago was exactly when Chen Mu—known to fans as “The Boss”—joined the league. The question was, if this patch had clearly been released so long ago, why did it have zero clicks and zero downloads, and why was it still at the very top of the list when sorted by time? “Is this a system error?” Gu Yu frowned and shook his head, then curiously clicked on the post to take a look. “All-around superstars are everywhere—where are the traditional shooting guards? As long as you run the right plays and get into the exact ‘position,’ you won’t get your shot stolen or blocked—every shot goes in! The ‘Scoring Machine’ mod lets you experience the thrill of ‘scoring for the sake of scoring’!” What kind of ridiculous description is this? Gu Yu was at a loss for words. For a cheat mod, it had way too many prerequisites—what’s with all this “not getting stolen or blocked” nonsense? How is that supposed to be “thrilling” at all? He checked the uploader’s ID—never seen it before. Clicking on the username, he saw the person had posted several threads, but every download count was zero. Among them was a pretty old version of the “Rebound Addict” mod, but when Gu Yu clicked on it, it showed a 404 error. Maybe I’ll check the next one…? Since the patch wasn’t very big anyway, Gu Yu clicked to download it. He set up the new roster at the same time and placed the downloaded patch into the game’s main folder. Let’s play! “Bang—!” As soon as the game screen loaded, a blinding light shot out from the screen and slammed into Gu Yu’s head. As expected, Gu Yu passed out. A new world has begun—welcome! This book’s world-building draws partly from *The All-Around Rebound Obsessive*—for those familiar with it, that familiar sense of emotion has never faded! Everyone, cast your votes! Longji Congee Shop 480957067, open 24 hours a day!