American Adventure: My Uncle is Don Quixote

Fack! This Li Wei is way too good at posturing!

Lawrence's face was still pale, and his stomach was still churning.

But for some strange reason, when he looked into Li Wei's slightly questioning eyes, he felt a sense of peace.

"I believe you," he forced a smile that looked more like a grimace and clapped Li Wei firmly on the shoulder. "You're our King, after all. The King."

He took a deep breath and turned to walk back to his seat, the despair in his posture seemingly diminished.

The bus slowly drove into the underground tunnel of MetLife Stadium.

The moment the doors opened, the frenzied roar of game day pierced through dozens of meters of concrete, making everyone's heart tremble.

The players filed out, carrying their equipment. To everyone's surprise, however, a simple pre-game interview session had been set up in the player tunnel today—a rare occurrence.

A forest of long-lensed cameras was already set up, and the reporters' eyes gleamed like hungry wolves, fixed on the players getting off the bus.

The instant Li Wei stepped off, all the cameras locked onto him.

A blonde female reporter was the first to sprint over on her long legs, thrusting a Fox-branded microphone forward to be the first to reach Li Wei.

"Li Wei! Facing this historic 17th game, what are your thoughts right now?"

Li Wei took off his headphones and looked at the reporter with a puzzled expression. After a pause, he answered, "I don't have any special thoughts."

"Aren't you nervous?" the reporter pressed on, her words coming in a rapid-fire burst. "You know, the Washington Commanders have sworn to get their revenge today and end your legendary winning streak!"

Li Wei stopped in his tracks, his brow furrowed slightly as he asked in confusion, "Who?"

"The Washington Commanders!" The reporter, stunned for a moment, repeated loudly, "Li Wei, you have prepared for today's game, right? Don't tell me you don't even remember who your opponent is?"

"Who?" Li Wei shook his head. "I don't care who's on the other side. I'll just crush them like I always do and take the win, all the way to the Super Bowl. To me, this is just another Sunday."

On any other day, a statement like that would have likely incited a media frenzy.

But today, the blonde reporter actually cracked a smile.

"Of course, I know this is all just part of your 'persona'," the reporter said with a wink. "But have you considered that your carefully crafted tyrant persona has completely collapsed?"

"I don't know what you're talking about," Li Wei said with a shrug.

"Don't pretend," the reporter said. "The story of you selflessly helping New York's Mole People has been exposed all over the internet. You're trending again today, and not just because of the game."

"Huh?" Li Wei was completely baffled. "What exposure?"

Another reporter shouted, "A major influencer with millions of fans exposed you in a video they made about exploring secrets."

Through the reporters' jumbled explanations, Li Wei finally understood. Just in the past two days, a major YouTuber with millions of fans had made a video titled "A True Record of Survival in New York's Underworld." The original purpose was to document the lives of the homeless people known as "Mole People" who lived in abandoned subway tunnels.

It was supposed to be a standard urban exploration video, but a dramatic scene unfolded during the influencer's interviews.

The influencer's cameraman happened to be wearing a fan T-shirt with Li Wei's face on it. When the camera panned across a few of the ragged Mole People, one of them—an old, gap-toothed homeless man wrapped in a tattered sleeping bag—suddenly pointed at the cameraman's shirt and yelled:

"Hey! I know that Asian kid! He's an Angel!"

At the influencer's prompting, the old homeless man, with tears streaming down his face, vividly recounted for the camera the story of how this young man had driven up and given several of them a huge bag of food.

"Besides giving us food," he said, swearing up and down, "he also gave socks, food, lighters, and other supplies to people in other parks. Without him, at least a few dozen of us would have frozen to death in this damn blizzard this winter."

"Are you sure you saw him clearly?" the influencer asked in disbelief, pointing at the T-shirt on his cameraman. "This is a huge superstar, the biggest name in North American sports right now! He would drive out in the middle of the night to give you food? No bodyguards? No camera crew?"

"As God is my witness, he's an Angel sent down from God," the old homeless man said indignantly. "Would you forget the face of the Angel who saved you? That's him! I'll never forget it, not until the day I die!"

"Hey man, Li Wei, I don't know if you'll ever see this video," the influencer said at the end, giving a remote salute to Li Wei, "but I salute you. You're a true hero."

After the video was uploaded, some people initially thought it was a publicity stunt.

But then, the McDonald's, delis, and convenience stores that Li Wei had visited all posted their photos with him, along with in-store records and receipts. Some records even went as far back as a McDonald's purchase from Halloween two years prior (Chapter 78), at a time when Li Wei was just an ordinary high school student, almost a full year before he blew up!

Now there was no denying it. It was concrete proof.

Li Wei was just a good person. He had been all along.

"Regarding your good deeds," the female reporter asked excitedly, "is there anything else you'd like to say?"

The corner of Li Wei's mouth twitched uncontrollably as he fell silent for a few seconds.

"I hope everyone will just focus on how I crush my opponents. Thanks."

After saying that, he quickly walked into the players' locker room, leaving the reporters to break out in good-natured laughter.

Perhaps before, they might have asked malicious questions to get a more sensational story, but in this moment, they all hoped Li Wei would win.

[Your knightly deeds are being sung throughout this Kingdom. Minstrels have woven your mercy and generosity into an epic, now widely told in the taverns and squares of the Kingdom.]

[You have obtained: 0.2 free attribute points.]

As Li Wei changed his clothes, he couldn't stop the corner of his mouth from curling up.

'I can get 0.2 attribute points for free just because some random things I did in the past were accidentally exposed by the media?'

'Looks like I'll have to build up my reputation sometimes.'

However, the system seemed unsatisfied with rewarding Li Wei just 0.2 attribute points.

After the Ancient Magic Potion, the second series quest popped up.

[Series Quest (Gold-rank): Widespread Fame (1) Triggered]

[Quest Info: A great Knight must conquer the hearts of the people with supreme virtue. Let your glorious deeds and mighty name spread across the entire continent, becoming a living legend sung by all. But first, you must achieve widespread fame within this Kingdom.]

[Quest Objective: Practice virtue and gain recognition (1/5)]

[Widespread Fame (1) Quest Reward: Silver Treasure Chest*1]

[Final Quest Reward: Gold-rank Treasure Chest*1]

Li Wei stared intently at the treasure chest icons in the quest menu, finding it difficult to keep his expression neutral.

A Silver Treasure Chest! A Gold Treasure Chest!

He knew all too well the value of these chests. The[Jester's Skull]he got from a Silver Treasure Chest before had helped him immensely. If he could get another new chest, or even more, he couldn't imagine what other wonderful changes might happen in his life.

However, the trigger condition for this quest seemed a bit difficult. He had been so famous before, but it had never triggered this quest.

Could it be that the results from his tournament battles didn't count towards spreading his fame?

'I'll stop thinking about it.' Li Wei collected himself and temporarily closed the system panel in his mind.

The system's triggers were often abstract, and he still had a lot to figure out by trial and error.

'Who knows, maybe the system will send me to find a dragon one day.'

For now, he had to focus on the game.

The moment he pushed open the locker room door and walked toward the field with his teammates, an oppressive, deafening roar washed over him.

The Giants fans were completely unaffected by the team's late-season slump. MetLife Stadium, with its capacity of 82,500, had not an empty seat in the house and had already transformed into a roiling ocean of blue.

The fans spontaneously stood up and sat down, creating wave after wave that rippled through the stands.

The sea was boiling!

The ear-splitting roar echoed and amplified under the stadium's bowl-shaped dome. The air was thick with the smell of beer, hot dogs, and cheers so loud they felt tangible.

Countless blue jerseys printed with "1" surged wildly in the stands. A massive banner hung from the upper deck, spray-painted with blood-red letters that read: "17-0! MAKE HISTORY!"

Over 45 million people across America were watching this game.

And in the national sports channel's broadcast booth, the golden commentary duo of Joe Buck and Troy Aikman faced the camera, their expressions grave as they analyzed this highly anticipated showdown.

"Good evening, fans across America, and welcome to a night destined to go down in history. Honestly, we've been talking for hours, but I don't feel tired in the slightest," said Joe Buck. "The atmosphere here at MetLife Stadium is absolutely suffocating. But Troy, I don't think tonight will be an easy coronation for the New York Giants."

"That's right, Joe. This is going to be a meat grinder of a battle," Troy said. "The key isn't the two teams' skills or player reserves. The key is—mentality!"

"Tell us more, Troy."

"Just like I was saying, Joe," Troy paused. "Take the 2007 New England Patriots. That year, they entered the playoffs with a perfect 16-0 record, also shouldering the expectations of all of North America. And as soon as they entered the playoffs, their invincibility was shattered by the New York Giants of that era."

"The gears of fate have turned, and now it's the Giants' turn to bear the weight of a 16-game winning streak," he said with a sigh. "This level of psychological pressure is enough to make inexperienced players choke. I'd even dare to predict that if they lose this game, at least a quarter of the players will retire."

"But the Giants have Li Wei, don't they?" Joe Buck said with a smile. "He's a young man who can work miracles. Let's hope he can continue to lead the Giants forward."

As the commentary continued, the head referee blew the whistle to start the game.

Unfortunately, Troy Aikman's prediction about the game's direction proved to be precisely accurate.

The moment Li Wei called the snap count, his starting left tackle, due to extreme nervousness, leaned forward before the ball was even snapped.

It was like a false start in a sprint.

Yellow flags instantly flew all over the field.

"False start, offense, number 78. Five-yard penalty!"

An inauspicious start. A commotion erupted in the stands.