Chapter 46: Payton's Dropped Signature Skill!

What does "unless you can't help it" mean? Is he telling me to be careful during training, or is he planning to beat me up?

Jordan looked at Lin Tian and said, "You think I'll be scared of you just because you knocked out three scrubs? Let me tell you, if your opponent were me, you'd be the one hitting the floor! I could finish you off in 20 seconds max, Lin! You can't scare me!"

What on earth?

Lin Tian curled his lip. He hadn't expected Jordan to suddenly blurt out something like that. He had originally wanted to say a few more words, but the referee was already blowing the whistle!

The referee was urging Lin Tian to leave the court quickly so as not to disrupt the normal flow of the game, while also waiting for Jordan to hurry back onto the court so the game could resume!

Lin Tian smiled, patted Jordan on the shoulder again, and said, "I'll leave the rest of the game to you! I think you can score 50 points tonight! At least 50 points! Keep it up, Michael, I'll be waiting in the locker room to celebrate with you!"

Without waiting for Jordan's bizarre expression to return, Lin Tian walked back into the player tunnel amidst the cheers of the entire arena!

At this moment, Jordan wore a classic Nick Young face.

"What the hell? The kid is actually cheering me on, what the f*ck? Who does he think he is?!" Jordan almost rushed into the player tunnel to demand why Lin Tian was encouraging him to play well.

Fortunately, the referee blew the whistle again, urging Jordan to get back on the court immediately.

Meanwhile, the three beaten-up members of the SuperSonics had managed to stagger to their feet one after another.

As hard as Lin Tian had hit them earlier, he had still held back a bit. Otherwise, those three guys wouldn't have been able to stand up under their own power until the next morning!

It wasn't a blood feud after all; there was no need to actually beat people to death.

The unexpected incident on the court was now completely resolved, and all the players, regardless of whether they had recovered their composure, had to start preparing to resume the game.

As for Lin Tian, he had already walked back to the locker room and opened his system once again!

Lin Tian hadn't fought that battle for nothing!

Just as he started throwing punches, the system prompts came flooding in one after another!

"Shawn Kemp's emotions fluctuated. Dropped item: Thick Fat (3 servings)."

"Thick Fat: Restores 30% stamina when used, but the day after each use, body fat increases by 1KG, and feel, speed, and vertical jump drop by 5% for a week!"

Good grief, is this gaining 1000 in supplies just to waste 800?

"Ervin Johnson's emotions fluctuated. Dropped Experience Points: 100!"

"Detlef Schrempf's emotions fluctuated. Dropped one-time skill trial card: German Big Gun (3 minutes)."

"German Big Gun: Grants Schrempf's three-point shooting ability!"

As expected, actually fighting drops way more stuff!

Looking at the items dropped by these two, Lin Tian found they were completely different from the loot he used to get purely from trash-talking!

Even Schrempf, who hadn't participated in the brawl, had experienced emotional fluctuations and dropped a one-time skill trial card!

In addition, Perkins, Hawkins, and the others had all dropped quite a few Experience Points!

This wave reaped a massive fortune for Lin Tian!

And the biggest surprise came from Gary Payton!

"Gary Payton's emotions fluctuated. Dropped permanent skill: 'The Glove Steals LV1 (0/1500).'"

"The Glove Steals LV1: Increases the host's stealing ability by 7%!"

"Good grief!"

Lin Tian sighed inwardly, marveling at his own incredible luck!

Just throwing a couple of random punches had netted him the grand prize. Why did the legendary Payton go down in history and terrify countless opponents? His success relied on two things:

A foul mouth and fierce defense!

Now, Lin Tian didn't even need to learn the foul mouth part—his mouth was already foul enough to provoke even Payton. All that remained was Payton's defense!

What Lin Tian had acquired was precisely the signature skill that made Payton a Defensive Player of the Year and a nine-time All-Defensive selection: Steals!

And this wasn't even the entirety of Payton's defensive prowess, just his stealing ability alone!

Combined with his previous 'Intercepting Hands', Lin Tian now possessed two steal-related skills!

Unfortunately, Lin Tian's stealing ability hadn't upgraded to A-plus tier with this new 7% boost. It seemed he would at least have to upgrade this skill to LV2 for that to be possible!

In his mind, Lin Tian was already calculating what skills to upgrade once he accumulated the next batch of experience points. Should he just focus mainly on steals? In a place like the NBA, mastering one supreme skill is infinitely more useful than being a jack-of-all-trades!

After all, if so-called versatility isn't refined to a masterclass level, it easily turns into absolute incompetence!

On the other hand, as long as a single specialty is practiced to the absolute extreme, even with major flaws in other areas, it can definitely allow a player to survive in the league for a very long time!

Not to mention that Lin Tian's playing style was already suited for fast breaks and transitions.

If he added league-top-tier stealing ability on top of that, it would undoubtedly be a massive bonus!

However, since Lin Tian only had a little over two hundred experience points left anyway, thinking about that was still a bit far off. Instead of letting his mind wander, he might as well focus on the immediate present!

Returning to the locker room all by himself, Lin Tian was quite relaxed, not giving the fight another thought.

He took off his shoes, turned on the television, and began watching the game on screen.

Ever since he left the court, the Bulls had been surging with unstoppable momentum!

Especially Jordan, who was holding back a head of steam and continued the nearly explosive state he showed in the first quarter!

From Jordan's perspective, Lin Tian had actually dared to threaten him!

Well, Jordan was going to make the people of Seattle pay the price for provoking him!

Well... don't ask why Lin Tian threatened Jordan, yet Jordan took it out on the Seattle SuperSonics.

If you must ask, it's because bullying Seattle was easier!

During the second half of the second quarter, the beaten-up SuperSonics players looked like wilted eggplants—limp, listless, and completely unable to generate any matching intensity.

In half a quarter, Jordan effortlessly sliced through them for another 10 points, racking up over 30 points by halftime alone!

Under his leadership, the Bulls blew the game wide open once again!

At the end of the first half, the score was locked at 55 to 40!

The Bulls led by 15 points!

Entering the second half, Jordan arrogantly spewed trash talk directly at the SuperSonics' bench as both teams stepped onto the court!

"Three minutes! In three minutes, you can all start getting ready to go home! Because I'm going to completely blow this game wide open!"

In Jordan's view, this piece of trash talk should have had plenty of weight and destructive power.

Yet, to his surprise, the entire SuperSonics team remained completely unfazed, entirely unaffected!

Or rather, their morale had long been beaten out of them by Lin Tian's punches, along with all their courage and any remaining desire to play hard for the rest of the night!