After grabbing a pizza and heading home, Su Feng stared at the virtual interface before him and devoured large bites—completely caught up in excitement.
"Current iron points: 379,000. You can upgrade the system to the next stage. Proceed with the upgrade?"
379,000 iron points?! Su Feng had once thought that even reaching 15,000 iron points was impossible—but now he believed that if he could somehow tie Kobe Bryant to himself, become his friend, then the NBA might be within reach.
"Upgrade!"
Without hesitation, Su Feng leveled up first. After all, there was still so much to explore within this system.
"Upgrading… 7%… 11%… 15%… 97%… Upgrade complete!"
As soon as the update finished, Su Feng noticed the interface color had shifted—from white to gray.
Host Profile
Name: Su FengNationality: ChineseAge: 16Height: 188 cmWeight: 71 kg
Current Ability Ratings (U.S. high-school elite level)
Shooting: 22 [48]+Passing: 10 [18]+Jumping: 22 [36]+Strength: 13 [33]+
Equipment & Resources
Shooting style: NoneSpecial move: NoneIron points: 364,000Next unlock requirement: 100,000 iron points
"Why did my ratings drop after upgrading?" Su Feng wondered—until he read the interface details and realized that the previous system had shown a generic "American high-level" rating, whereas the upgraded version converted his stats into U.S. high-school elite standards.
To illustrate, when Tracy McGrady first entered the NBA, his "bouncing" rating was 90, yet he couldn't consistently complete dunks in real games. His raw athleticism hadn't fully adapted to the professional court—only later, after dominating the NBA, did McGrady perform even more explosive dunks.
"So, after conversion, I'm only a U.S. high-school elite player? That's rough," Su Feng muttered.
He then noticed a secondary number beside each rating, indicating the maximum potential he could reach through self-training.
"That means no matter how hard I train, my max shooting limit is just 48…"
Still far from professional caliber—otherwise he wouldn't have spent dozens of one-on-one matches with Kobe and scored only one basket. Then he saw a plus sign next to the potential value. Curious, he tapped it:
"Spend 500 iron points to increase the high-school shooting limit?"
He confirmed "Yes," and [48] changed to [49]—the plus sign remained. Excited, Su Feng tapped repeatedly until his shooting potential reached [67] and the plus disappeared.
"This system needs continuous upgrades to push my limits," he reasoned. Since his system level capped his potential, he had to keep upgrading.
"Update complete!"
Big dogs are truly big dogs. This feeling of never running out of iron points was too satisfying!
After another upgrade, the interface turned green.
Current Ability Ratings (U.S. college level)
Mid-range shot: 15 [60]+Three-point shot: 12 [48]+Passing: 3 [31]+Ball control: 14 [28]+Jumping: 15 [50]+Strength: 6 [41]+Backcourt rebound: 7 [21]+
Equipment & Resources
Shooting form: NoneSpecial move: NoneIron points: 228,000Next unlock requirement: 500,000 iron points
"After this upgrade, I've unlocked new categories: three-point shots, backcourt rebounds, and ball control," Su Feng realized. "New classifications only appear after upgrading—otherwise I couldn't even see or improve them."
Upgrading to version 3.0 converted his ratings again—this time to U.S. college standards—and his potential values rebalanced accordingly, each dropping by about 7 points. He immediately maxed out all plus signs again, though now each cost 2,000 iron points.
"If not for Kobe, my little angel, who knows how many years I'd need to train to reach my goals?"
After maxing out his potentials, his stats read:
Mid-range shot: [68]Three-point shot: [68]Passing: [36]Ball control: [35]Jumping: [58]Strength: [44]Backcourt rebounds: [23]
Through this process, he confirmed that potential upgrades weren't evenly distributed—three-point potential jumped by 20 points, but strength only by 3. Looking at his slim arms, Su Feng figured that some skills required specific real-world training.
"Well, that makes sense. But why is my ball-handling potential only 35? My dribbling is smooth!" he complained. Instantly, the interface played highlights from his one-on-one match against Kobe—stolen dribble after stolen dribble. Blushing, Su Feng whispered, "Was my dribbling really that bad?"
Having been humbled, he almost finished analyzing version 3.0. Even after maxing potentials, he still had 122,000 iron points—but the next upgrade demanded 500,000. Since he couldn't upgrade yet, his attention turned to version 3.0's new roulette feature:
"Want to prove you're the Emperor? Spin for a mysterious prize—only 9,998 iron points."
In Su Feng's mind, it felt like a "Gacha Gold" gacha from mobile games.
"Gacha? LET'S GO!"
No questions—if you can afford it, you have to roll. With a fortune of iron points, Su Feng decided to test the feature and see what surprises awaited him…