In this world, there’s no such thing as absolutes. Who would have thought that the greatest perimeter magician in history would be caught up to? Michael Jordan’s first three-peat before his initial retirement directly matched the magician’s historical status.

Pierce may sometimes feel a bit exasperated by his friend’s personality, but overall, he thinks Henry Bolton’s character is quite good. He’s just a bit of a loner, not someone who’s annoying, and once you get to know him, he’s actually easy to get along with. He just has a habit of backstabbing—he’s a reserved, scheming guy.

On Henry Bolton’s side, after watching the midday news today, he turned off the TV, stretched his body, and got ready to practice one-arm rowing and work on his muscles.

His future self is quite skilled at socializing, but the Henry Bolton of this world doesn’t talk much, though he’s very good at backstabbing—an instinctive talent. But he only shows this side with close friends like Pierce, who play basketball and eat together every day.

Combining the two, he’s become quite unique now. With new acquaintances, Henry Bolton might become very smooth; with those he’s more familiar with, he’ll show care; and with someone as close as Pierce, who’s always looked after him… his scheming, backstabbing nature is fully revealed.

There are still seven or eight days until the McDonald’s All-Star Weekend, and Henry Bolton hasn’t been idle. The next day, April 17th, when the gym was free again, Henry Bolton continued to practice his mid-range shot and work on the muscle groups that help improve it.

Visible progress is incredibly motivating!

Training is so monotonous that his future self really wouldn’t be able to stick with it, but his current self is already used to this lifestyle. Plus, he’s making progress at a rate he’s never experienced before, so he actually enjoys training and is gradually calming down from that overly excited state.

A few more days passed, and Henry Bolton has slowly gotten used to his current life… at least as long as nothing particularly troublesome or inconvenient comes up, he’s gradually adapted.

He’s gotten used to reading the newspaper and eating a milk sandwich in the morning, fast food for lunch, and salad for dinner… This is partly because the memories of this era were already accustomed to this lifestyle, so he was able to adapt so quickly overall.

Henry Bolton calmed down and focused on training, no longer dwelling on the fact that colleges weren’t interested in recruiting him early. Seeing this, Pierce breathed a sigh of relief and stopped worrying about it—there was nothing he could do to help anyway.

A few days ago, he had discussed with Henry Bolton whether he should tell the University of Kansas to recruit Henry Bolton as well, or else he wouldn’t go to Kansas. Henry Bolton replied, “You want to be a basketball tyrant as soon as you start college? How are you going to make it to the NBA then…”

Pierce wasn’t annoyed by this; instead, he calmed down. He’s not stupid, just hasn’t experienced enough yet—not the future “Captain Pierce.” Right now, he’s the leader of a small clique at school, but he’s smart and understood what Henry Bolton meant, and was very touched by it.

The reason Pierce had this idea is because early recruitment is extremely important. Almost every athlete who gets a full scholarship to an NCAA Division I school is a high school prodigy recruited early. Those who only get recruited to the college team in the summer almost never get a full scholarship.

Henry Bolton is no longer down about this, and Pierce hasn’t brought it up again.

Besides Pierce, the head coach of the Inglewood High School basketball team, Scott Collins, is also paying attention. He’s always been very satisfied with this high school prodigy he brought back from China. Lately, he’s been busy trying to help Henry Bolton get a full scholarship to a Division I college team. He can get someone into an NCAA Division I team, but as for the scholarship… honestly, for a college student playing in the NCAA, if it weren’t for the high full scholarships of Division I teams, what’s the real difference from non-Division I teams?

They’re all just practicing skills, learning tactical discipline in college, and playing amateur basketball with a bunch of students—99% of whom will never make it to the NBA. Of course, Division I gets more attention than non-Division I, and you occasionally run into top college players, which is less likely in non-Division I, and the attention is lower. But even non-Division I students can make it to the NBA, and it’s not that rare. The key is still the scholarship—at the end of the day, it’s about the money.

In the past few days, Scott Collins also learned that Henry Bolton will not only participate in the McDonald’s Dunk Contest but also the Adidas Training Camp. He hopes Henry Bolton can use these opportunities to win the recognition of some NCAA Division I basketball coaches… Even if that doesn’t work out, he has a second plan, but that will depend on Henry Bolton’s effort and ability—at the very least, he needs something that can impress that guy who looks exactly like him.

But Henry Bolton’s recent progress… is just too fast!

Every two or three days, Scott Collins can visibly see Henry Bolton’s improvement in shooting—his makes per 50-shot training session are clearly increasing!

……

Time quickly passed to April 24th, the day to check in at the hotel designated by McDonald’s.

When Henry Bolton woke up in the morning, he saw that line of text flash by.

396 days left to live…

If he can get a perfect score dunk in the upcoming dunk contest, he’ll gain another 30 days to live.

With a thought, the text appeared again.

“Special contract player Henry Bolton ability evaluation: 63