Although he had accumulated thousands of points with consecutive victories during this period, spending a thousand points to unlock a user manual felt somewhat extravagant.
A thousand points, not a hundred.
Just to unlock a manual.
Tang Long, feeling the pinch, chose to unlock it.
Black Jade Water!
It can activate dead, atrophied, and aged cell molecules through cell division, alter the eukaryotic structure of cells, and change the cell division method through the double helix layering, thereby achieving cellular regeneration!
Regeneration?
Tang Long gasped.
This was far more potent than Bone-Growing Water.
The exchange points, however, left Tang Long bewildered.
This Black Jade Water was valued at fifty thousand points per bottle!
He only earned a few hundred points per game, which meant he would have to play hundreds of games to exchange for a single bottle!
With eighty-two regular season games, plus playoffs, and including domestic competitions, the Olympics, and the FIBA World Championship, it would take at least two years to exchange for a bottle of Black Jade Water.
It was simply outrageous.
But the function was genuinely powerful.
Without a bottle of this stuff in hand, he felt as restless as a cat scratching.
Were there no consecutive victory rewards?
Soon, Tang Long was disappointed.
There were no such rewards; the points simply accumulated as usual.
Fine, he’d tighten his belt and endure this hardship for now!
…
“Why is this guy so boring? He either trains or is on his way to training every day. Even if he’s not going to bars, he should at least be going on dates or something!”
Catherine complained indignantly at a coffee shop.
She had followed Tang Long all day again, achieving nothing and even getting chewed out by her editor.
She had indeed poured too much of her energy into Tang Long lately, resulting in her articles being of poor quality and logically jumbled. And it seemed she had a personal vendetta against Tang Long.
The cameraman glanced at Catherine and, after a moment’s hesitation, said, “Catherine, aren’t you being a bit too obsessive? Tang just isn’t accepting your interviews.”
Furthermore, in her pursuit of traffic, she often relied on her looks and sought to create sensational news.
She also enjoyed stirring up conflict, and many people would have long stopped engaging with her if it weren’t for the hope of something more.
“Harry, are you going to be a traitor?”
Catherine glared coldly at the cameraman, her widened eyes filled with the fury of betrayal.
“I just think you’re too fixated right now.”
Harry picked up his jacket, preparing to leave. He walked a couple of steps, then returned to look at Catherine: “Catherine, don’t forget, you’re a news reporter!”
“I don’t need you to tell me that, you traitor!”
“Alright then, I’ll request a transfer to another department.”
The cameraman left without looking back.
Catherine stared at the coffee in front of her and drank it down in anger. It tasted bland, and she felt it should be wine instead.
But clearly, Catherine hadn’t recognized her own fault.
“I’m not wrong. There must be something to uncover about this Tang. When that time comes, all of you will regret your current decisions.”
Meanwhile, at the Cleveland training facility.
“Coach Brown, if we defeat the Spurs, the Cavaliers’ winning streak will reach 29 games. Last season, you lost to the Spurs 4-0 in the finals. Facing the Spurs again, do you have confidence?”
“Absolutely, the entire team is prepared. The current Spurs can no longer stop our winning streak!”
Mike Brown answered Xiao Gen’s question with full confidence.
What was supposed to be a serious press conference took a completely different turn when Mike Brown added another sentence.
“Xiao Gen, you know Tang quite well now. Don’t you believe in Tang’s ability? You report on him more than the entire team!”
Hearing this, Xiao Gen’s pretty face flushed red.
“I…”
Her prepared remarks vanished, and she didn’t know how to respond.
At this critical moment, it was Tang Long, who was present at the pre-game press conference, who came to her rescue.
“Xiao Gen, did you hear that? Coach Brown is willing to accept your exclusive interview. Look, the coach even wants you to interview more players from our team. Aren’t you going to thank Coach Brown?”
“Thank you, Coach Brown. Then after the game, I’ll interview Coach Brown first.”
Mike Brown glanced at Tang Long a couple of times, then chuckled and nodded: “I heard Tang agreed to your interview because of the win. If we win this game, I’ll accept your interview!”
“Then I wish Coach Mike a 29-game winning streak.”
Watching Xiao Gen conversing with the coach and players at the press conference as if they were having a casual chat, the other reporters present looked on with envy and jealousy.
Among the many envious gazes, there was one pair of eyes in particular.
These eyes were filled with hatred.
The better Xiao Gen performed, the more intense the resentment in her eyes became.
“Alright, if there are no more questions, we’ll end the interview here. We need to prepare for the game.”
Mike Brown spoke casually, but he took this game very seriously.
Last season was the Cavaliers’ peak, yet they were defeated by the Spurs in the finals.
It was bad enough to lose, but being swept 4-0 in the finals left Mike Brown deeply unsatisfied. He was determined to win against the Spurs in this game!
The Spurs were currently third in the Western Conference, averaging 95.4 points. The Spurs under Popovich had a balanced offense and defense.
In their use of the Sixth Man, Ginobili often led the bench unit to create crises for other teams, which was one of the reasons the Spurs were in the top three in the Western Conference.
Popovich also took this game seriously, especially Tang Long, who often stepped up to change the game’s momentum when the Cavaliers were struggling.
Furthermore, this guy’s stamina seemed inexhaustible, as he often led the second unit to close the scoring gap, which was very similar to his Spurs team.
“Tim, you’ll need to play more minutes in this game.”
The task of defending Tang Long naturally fell to Tim Duncan. Although Kurt Thomas and Francisco Elson could execute his tactics better on defense, they were no match for Tang Long in terms of offense and rebounding.
If Tang Long appeared with the second unit and the score wasn’t spread, the bench unit would become a tool for the Cavaliers to gain an advantage, something Popovich could not allow.
“Yes, Coach Pop.”
Duncan was very obedient to Popovich. Moreover, before the game, Popovich had repeatedly shown the Cavaliers’ game footage to the team and thoroughly analyzed the Cavaliers’ characteristics.
“Manu, Tang particularly likes to block shots. This is his strength, but also his weakness. Try to draw fouls on him as much as possible. I want him to have at least three fouls by the end of the first two quarters. If you can do that, I’ll let you start for the entire game!”
Popovich looked at the “Demon Blade” Ginobili and said with solemnity.
Ginobili quickly nodded: “Coach Pop, don’t worry. We’ll handle Tang. He won’t have an easy time in our Holy City!”