Chapter 438 - 279: The King Has Arrived
For a moment, Jin Heon thought she had misheard.
She subconsciously looked up, then realized with a start: ’Doesn’t this make it obvious I was eavesdropping on Anya and Elizabeth’s conversation?’
But luckily, neither Anya nor Elizabeth was paying attention to her. She let out a sigh of relief, though she also felt a little dejected.
Anya hadn’t misheard either. The smile on her face froze for a second.
She forced a couple of laughs, then picked up her water glass. "Liz, that joke really scared me."
Elizabeth stared into Anya’s eyes, then suddenly broke into a smile as well.
"Sorry, I spoke without thinking," she said with a laugh. "I shouldn’t have made that joke."
With that, the two women started laughing again.
’Is that really true?’ Jin Heon thought to herself.
’People only "speak without thinking" when they’re telling the unvarnished truth.’
Anya was about to say something else, but a sudden low-frequency roar cut her off.
BOOM!!!
Four cannons at the top of the stadium fired in unison with a tremendous bang, followed immediately by a dense barrage of fireworks erupting from launchers in the four corners of the field, bursting into huge clusters of blue and white light against the gray winter sky.
Jay-Z’s "Empire State of Mind" blasted from the speaker arrays at an almost violent volume. "New York! New York!" The city’s name was roared by 82,500 throats at once.
"Let’s go," Anya said, standing up. "Time to watch. The game’s starting."
It was as if their recent conversation had never happened. Elizabeth followed, and the two walked shoulder-to-shoulder to the floor-to-ceiling window.
Don Quixote was already there, his hands pressed against the glass, waiting for his proudest and most treasured nephew to appear.
Jin Heon took off her headphones and was the last to walk to the glass, standing behind Anya and Elizabeth.
Suddenly, all the lights in the stadium went out.
82,500 people took out their phones and glow sticks, creating a galaxy of blue and gold stars.
A well-produced entrance video began playing on the giant LED screens. The footage started with an aerial view of New York City, sweeping past the Statue of Liberty, the Empire State Building, and Central Park before finally settling on a panorama of MetLife Stadium.
At the end of the short film, a line of bold, white text appeared in the center of the black screen:
[THE KING HAS ARRIVED!]
The lights of the players’ tunnel flared on. A piercing white light shot out from the tunnel, and standing at the end of the light was a figure with his helmet tucked under his arm.
He walked at a steady, unhurried pace, as if strolling, facing the camera on the giant screen.
Number 1 jersey.
Li Wei.
The fans shot to their feet in unison. Everyone started clapping, everyone started chanting the same name.
"King! King! King!"
"Li Wei! Li Wei! Li Wei!"
With every chant, they clapped once.
Like a war drum.
"Damn..." Park Su-yeon said, holding a glass of champagne as she watched the big screen. "I’d be willing to gain 20 pounds to work for a boss like that."
"I know, right..." Jessica had to admit. At that moment, she felt like she’d been a die-hard Li Wei fan for ten years.
"Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the NFL Championship Game!" Joe Buck’s voice rang out simultaneously from tens of millions of TVs and phone screens. "I’m Joe Buck! And sitting next to me is my partner, Hall of Famer Troy Aikman."
"Troy," he said, turning to his partner, "before we officially get started, I want to ask you a question—have you ever seen a team go through an entire season, from the regular season to the playoffs, without losing a single game?"
Troy Aikman leaned back in his chair, twirling a pen in his hand.
"Joe, to be honest, I have not," he said, slowly shaking his head as he watched Li Wei on the screen. "Back in my playing days, not even the Dallas Cowboys or the San Francisco 49ers at their peak could manage an undefeated season. But the New York Giants—or to be more precise, Li Wei—he’s making the impossible possible."
"If they beat the Chiefs and advance to the Super Bowl," Joe Buck interjected, his eyes fixed intently on the camera, "they’ll be heading into the Super Bowl with a perfect, undefeated record. Troy, what does that mean?"
"It means..."
Troy paused. "It means Joe Buck is about to make a fortune."
Joe Buck froze for a second, then burst out laughing. "How did you know I bet on the Giants to win the Super Bowl with an undefeated record?"
"You really did?" Troy’s eyes widened. "If I’d known, I would’ve bought a ticket too!" He then added with a laugh, "Just kidding. If they go on to win the Super Bowl, they’ll be the first team in NFL history—and possibly the last—to win the championship with a perfect undefeated season."
"The 2007 New England Patriots went 16-0 in the regular season, but they lost in the Super Bowl to—coincidentally—the New York Giants!"
Troy Aikman himself couldn’t help but laugh. "And this year’s Giants have already gone further than those Patriots. If they do it, it will be a record that can never be replicated. Future teams can only hope to match it, never surpass it. Because you can’t get any more perfect than ’undefeated.’"
"And the core of it all is that 19-year-old young man—Li Wei," Joe Buck said, taking a deep breath. "Let’s keep our eyes peeled and see what today’s game brings. Can the Giants defeat the resurgent Kansas Chiefs? What kind of challenge will the Chiefs bring to the Giants? And will your old pal Joe Buck hit the jackpot and become a millionaire? Let’s wait and see!"
The Chiefs’ head coach, Andy Reid, certainly brought a challenge.
And it was the most targeted challenge they had faced from any opponent all season.
Right from the kickoff, the Chiefs abandoned the standard 4-3 or 3-4 defense, instead opting for a formation that pushed six men to the front line, right in front of Li Wei.
Their intention was obvious: don’t give Li Wei any room to operate.
After getting the ball, Li Wei scanned the field and found all his running lanes were blocked.
He tried to look for a pass, but the Chiefs’ safeties had already dropped back, locking down the wide receivers.
Dabor stood on the sideline, his expression grim.
Their tactical logic was crystal clear. They were using six men to block Li Wei’s specialty, the quarterback run, while using the rest to focus on defending the deep pass routes. The intention was tantamount to telling the Giants outright: ’None of you besides Li Wei are worth guarding.’
Kansas City Chiefs: You hear that? Everyone on your team besides Li Wei is trash.
New York Giants: You’re not wrong.
Dabor stood on the sideline, his expression turning even uglier.
He noticed Li Wei looking at him and silently shook his head.
At the end of the first quarter, the score was Chiefs 14, Giants 3. The Giants were trailing.
"What do you say, Coach? Let me try going head-on."
Li Wei said to Head Coach Dabor on the bench.
"Can you handle it?" Dabor asked, looking at Li Wei with concern. "What if you get injured before the Super Bowl... This is psychological warfare. They’re betting that you won’t dare to risk it all."
"It’s fine," Li Wei said casually. "The way things are going, if I can’t break through, we’re probably heading home anyway."
’Sometimes, playing football was exhausting for Li Wei. I have the physical strength of the Hulk, but I can only use a tiny fraction of my Power.’
At the start of the second quarter, everyone noticed the style of the Giants’ offense began to change.
Li Wei no longer tried to pass, nor did he try to get around that human wall.
Since he couldn’t get around it and couldn’t rely on his teammates, Li Wei could only resort to his previous playstyle.
A head-on clash!
On the first down, after receiving the snap, he charged straight into the center of the Chiefs’ six-man front.
BANG!
A 320-pound defensive tackle was knocked back a step, his heels dragging through the turf. Li Wei used the gap created by that step to squeeze through sideways.
Although the six-man rush quickly brought Li Wei down, he still managed to push forward for a full five yards.
’It can’t be helped. I could actually get back up, but that would be too inhuman. There’s no way I could pass that off.’
But even so, the effect of Li Wei’s head-on assault was remarkable.
Second down. Same position, same direction.
The Chiefs added a linebacker to fill the gap, but Li Wei still didn’t shy away from the confrontation. Like an angry bull, he pushed his way out between two defensive players.
Five yards!
"My God!" Joe Buck shouted, slamming his hand on the table. "He chose to charge straight ahead! He broke through a six-man front! The Li Wei from the beginning of the season is back!"
"That’s courage, Joe," Troy said with feeling. "If he gets injured and can’t play in the Super Bowl, the pressure and backlash would be overwhelming, but Li Wei is taking it on."
"This is what the fans want to see!" Joe Buck yelled. "This is why they call him the King!"
The reaction in the stadium proved Troy’s point.
Every time Li Wei got up from the pile of players, a cheer even wilder than the last erupted from the stands.
The Chiefs’ defensive coordinator was already starting to argue with the head coach.
The six-man front formation was a gamble, trading defensive depth for frontline thickness. They were betting that Li Wei and the coaching staff wouldn’t dare to run head-on for fear of injury.
But not only did Li Wei dare, he smashed them head-on time and time again.
In the 9th minute of the second quarter, a gap appeared in the Kansas defensive front as their stamina started to wane.
On the next down, Li Wei had just made a play-action fake when the front line reflexively lunged forward. They then saw Li Wei suddenly stop, lean back, and swing his right arm in a wide arc.
A 50-yard long pass! The ball traced a perfect arc through the air and landed precisely in the hands of the wide receiver.
Touchdown!
"Beautiful!" Joe Buck slammed the table. "He spent a whole quarter wearing down the Chiefs’ stamina, all for this moment! A 50-yard deep bomb! Touchdown!"
In the second half, the Chiefs were forced to abandon the frontline tactics they had spent two full weeks studying and return to their standard defensive system.
He chose to put all his chips on Mahomes.
And the man known as the world’s best Quarterback after Tom Brady seemed to unleash his full potential in this game.
He left everything he had on the field.
Two incredible passes moved the ball to the Giants’ 30-yard line, and then a perfect play-action pass faked out the Giants’ safety for a direct touchdown.
Throughout the game, Li Wei and Mahomes went back and forth. The Giants would take the lead, only for the Chiefs to catch up a short while later.
Right down to the final quarter, with only two minutes left in the game, the Chiefs and the Giants were still neck and neck.
38-38.