Practice

After Miles had laughed with his family, he walked out of his room. Walking was a bit of a challenge so he walked slowly and with his arms out. But as he continued to walk, his muscle memory kicked in and then he was able to walk properly.

Then he walked out of his house through the front door which was by the kitchen. Then he walked outside and around the house to the backyard. In his backyard, was a massive closed building. He walked to the door and slid it open. When he did, he looked inside and saw a huge basketball court.

The Parkers had their own full basketball court in their residence. Since Henry used to be a pro basketball player and both his sons played basketball, it was only natural to have one. Many other families that had children who played basketball had a court within the premises of their homes. There were public parks, but they were always full.

Miles walked in and marvelled at the place. It had been a whole year since he had last practised here. Well since the current him had practised here. Being able to stand in this court felt like an honour to him. He walked to the ball rack and took one ball out. Then he felt the grip of the ball. The smell of the rubber on the ball. Everything was just perfect.

Then he took the ball and bounced it on the polished maple wood floor.

Boom!

The ball pounded on the floor as it bounced in the air and into his hands. It was an intoxicating sound, one he had almost forgotten. Then he bounced it, again and again, dribbling the ball to the three-point line. He took a deep breath and then looked at the rim of the hoop. Then he did a standing three-point shot. He shot the ball and it flew and swish it went into the net.

Miles exclaimed. He didn't think he would get in but muscle memory took over and he got it in. Then something happened that he also didn't expect. A screen popped up in his face.

[Ding! First three-point shot in practice (1/1)

Rewards

Exp: 100

Life points: 20]

'System was does this mean?'

[You are getting rewarded for making your first three-point shot in practice. Your next reward will be when you make 10 in practice then 100, 1000 and so on. Not only will you be rewarded for practice but for official matches too. When you complete an achievement you get life points and Exp. The Exp is needed to level me up. When you level up you can unlock locked functions which will give you better resources to improve your game.

You buy these resources from the System shop using the accumulated life points. However, the shop is locked and will only open when you level up. For now, if you have enough LP you can buy a lottery pick.]

Miles nodded his head and then he remembered he had a free low-grade lottery pick, 'Lottery' He thought.

[Lottery

Free lottery spin: 1 (low-grade lottery pick)

Low-grade lottery pick: 100

Medium-grade lottery pick: 1000

High-grade lottery pick: 10000]

Then he clicked on the low-grade lottery pick and the coloured squares appeared again. This time the colours weren't on the same numbers. Thus the number 13 wasn't green, instead, this time it was blue. Miles mulled over what number he was going to pick then he went 7 it was red.

The screen went black and on it were white words that said [Loading your pick, please wait]

Miles waited for about 30 seconds then his prize was available. On the screen, was a bottle of transparent water.

[Title: 'Passive workout.'

Description: When you drink this your muscles will continue to strengthen after a workout. However, only by 50% of the amount of effort you put in before drinking this drink.

Duration: 2 hours]

Miles jumped for joy when he saw the description, 'This is amazing! I will use this tomorrow. That way I can make the best of it. Since the amount of effort you put into it is a factor in how much passive workout you get… System what other stuff could I have gotten?'

[Unfortunately, I can't tell you that. Even if I could, I wouldn't. Where's the fun in that?]

'Haha, I guess there is no fun in that… Well then, time to begin my training.'

Miles walked to the hoop and picked up the ball he had just thrown. Then he walked to the side and rolled the ball rack to the three-point line and then held a ball in his hands.

'System when I last saw my results everything was F does that mean I suck?'

[That was your statistics when you were in a wheelchair. If you check now it is different. It has been updated to your current physical chart.

Name: Miles Parker

Age: Seventeen

Title: None

Position: None

Height: 6ft 3

Internal Attributes

Leadership: D

Vision: C

Teamwork: N/A

Basketball IQ: C

External Attributes

Ball handling: C

Balance: C

Dribble: B

Lay up: C

Set Shot: C

2 pointer: C

3 points: B

Free throw: B

Pass: C

Man to man: D

Block: D

Steal: C

Rebound: C

...]

'How do I increase my statistics? Through normal training?"

[Your statistics are in comparison to the High schoolers of this world. Yes, for now, all you can do is train and your statistics will go up themselves. Later there will be other methods to increase your statistics.]

Miles understood, he wasn't afraid of hard work. He was just happy he had the opportunity to play again. However, there was something that stuck out to him when the system spoke, 'Of this world? Do the other words play this game too?'

'Yes, there is one world called Earth where the inhabitants play the game.'

'How do we stack up versus them?'

[Professional players of that world enter something called the NBA. They are better than your school's F to A league players and your University's F to A league players. However, some of your professional league players are better than theirs. If I had to make a comparison they are about the same level as your professional C league players. Your B and A league's players are far above theirs. However, in their world, there are many other sports. Here basketball is the only sport so it's not surprising.]

'Ah, I see. So they have a variety of sports that's pretty cool. I love basketball so I'm fine with my world only having one.'

After speaking to the system and using his free lottery spin, he began his training. He stood behind the three-point line and began throwing the balls in the net. He did a variety of shots. Cross over, step back, Fade away. Normal Jump shot. Pump fake jump shot. Off the spin 3 point shot. As he did balls would go in and balls would miss. He continued till he got another notification.

[Ding! Three-point shot in practice (10/10)

Rewards

Exp: 250

Life points: 40]

Miles swiped away the screen and continued his training. Once he had thrown all the balls that were in the basket, he collected them and put them back in the basket. Then he restarted and began throwing in the net. Currently, Miles would make 3/5 of the shots. However, this was uncontested so he wasn't happy with his result. He used to be able to throw 7/10 shots so he was significantly weaker than before.

But that wasn't too much of a problem because he intended to work hard to do better. He had to. He only had 6 months to raise all his stats from D and C to B. If he could do that he would be able to transfer out of this C league school and go to a B league school. He would take the try out exam at the beginning of next year to the school he wanted to join. If he got accepted he would earn more per month and he would play against better players. To achieve this Miles intended to leave his current basketball team and focus on solo training.

If he needed to do other training, he would go to the park and partake in the regular tournaments that were happening there. That way he could see how he would fare in a game. But for now, he needed to train by himself.

Miles wanted to enter an A-league school but they didn't hold open try-outs like the schools below them. To enter an A-league school you had to get a personal invite. Miles knew he wouldn't be able to get his stats to A in time so he wouldn't be able to get an invite from an A-league team. Even if he miraculously did get an invite, he would be a sub for a sub. The amount of game time he would receive would be the bare minimum. Miles wasn't looking to be side-lined. He wanted to play games until he got better.

Coming to this conclusion, he continued to sink in three shots in all the ways he could. He tried off-balance three shots. Arc shot three-pointers. Flat shot three-pointers. He imagined scenarios and shot them as if that were the case.

Miles continued until he got another notification.

[ Ding! Three-point shot in practice (100/100)

Rewards

Exp: 500

Life points: 80

[Ding! System levelled up (800/800)

Rewards:

Daily quest unlocked

Training Regimens unlocked]

[Ding! Daily Quest Available

Title: Practice your layups for two hours straight (0/2)

Rewards:

Exp- 200

Life Points- 20]

Miles smiled and then he placed all the balls back into the rack and walked to the post so he could practice his layups.