For the first time, Henry Lincoln found his true life goal, one that belonged to himself, rather than seeking liberation just to escape the pressures of life.

Chapter Six: The Invincible Player

In 1993, on April 28th, a little past eleven at night—almost the next day already—most people would have long been asleep by this hour. But in an apartment building somewhere in Utah, Henry Lincoln was still making one last effort.

Over the course of one month and twenty days, he had to complete the massive task of 127 repetitions. As time went on, Henry Lincoln realized that he had truly become a “hands-on expert.” On the interface of the Basketball Legend System, his pleasure points had increased from six to seven, then from seven to eight, and finally, more than half a month ago, reached nine. Now, with the final repetition completed, Henry Lincoln finally obtained the tenth pleasure point.

And with that last low growl, Henry Lincoln felt completely drained, collapsing motionless onto his desk, not wanting to move at all. At this moment, even though his little stick was still exposed, he had no intention of putting it away. If it had been two months ago, Henry Lincoln would never have done something so perverted. But now, he found that his sense of shame was almost zero. This young man, thoroughly trained by Alice and the system, was now mentally on the verge of collapse.

“Pervert, congratulations, your pleasure points have finally reached 10. Now you understand why I said that the more you repeat this, the slower your pleasure points will increase, right?”

Watching Henry Lincoln lying on the desk in the system space, eyes unfocused and looking completely spent, Alice chuckled as she spoke. She seemed to greatly enjoy seeing Henry Lincoln like this.

He truly understood now. Hearing Alice’s teasing, Henry Lincoln was absolutely certain in his mind: the more you do this, the less pleasure you feel, until all that’s left is endless emptiness and pain.

“No matter what, I finally finished the task, and my pleasure points are up to 10. My height can now reach 1.98 meters. That’s tall enough for a shooting guard. Wasn’t Michael Jordan, the greatest shooting guard in NBA history, also 1.98 meters tall?”

“I’ll never have to do something this painful just because of my height again!”

After calming down a bit, Henry Lincoln once again entered the system space inside his body. Just like over the past month, the space was still about 10 square meters. Alice was still wearing the same shirt as always. But unlike the first time he came here, Henry Lincoln had recently noticed a white quilt spread on the floor in the corner of the space.

According to Alice, she was living an energy-saving lifestyle. In this special space, everything required energy to use. Since the chip’s energy would only last for a little over two months at the minimum consumption rate, if Henry Lincoln couldn’t get a large sum of money to recharge the chip before July 15th, the chip would go into complete hibernation. So, even though sleeping on the floor was uncomfortable, and she could only bathe every two or three days, and only ate two meals a day—both just buns and steamed bread—and had no change of clothes except for the shirt she’d worn for who knows how long (and it was even vacuum-sealed inside), Alice was basically living a slum life in this space—worse than a slum, really.

So every time he entered here, the pain Henry Lincoln felt in reality would be somewhat alleviated. He just liked seeing this little girl suffer. If it had been two months ago, no matter how much Henry Lincoln loved money, he would have felt sympathy for a fourteen- or fifteen-year-old girl. So, many times, Henry Lincoln felt like he really was developing in a “perverted” direction.

Familiar purple and gold, familiar card. Over the past month, whenever Henry Lincoln felt pain or couldn’t go on, he would do two things: watch Jordan and the Bulls play, to remind himself of his goal, and come to this special space to look at the card he’d pinned so much hope on. These two things always helped him get through any pain.

Of course, over the past month, besides his solo activities, Henry Lincoln had also gained a deeper understanding of this space. Not only did he learn that the chip space was extremely special, but he also gained a much deeper understanding of some personal system operations.

So, the first thing he did upon returning to the space was to add the remaining 10 pleasure points to his height. On Henry Lincoln’s personal info panel, his height changed from 1.88 meters to 1.98 meters, though his wingspan stayed the same at 1.98 meters. Still, that height and wingspan were already enough.

“Learn the Kobe-style turnaround fadeaway jump shot skill!”

When Henry Lincoln’s right hand lightly touched the card again, this time there was no longer the usual electronic rejection sound.

“Ding, host meets the card’s learning requirements. Successfully activated the Kobe-style turnaround fadeaway jump shot card!”