Almighty Coach

Although Dai Li was muttering his complaint, he was satisfied with this reward item from the bottom of his heart. Athlete patches were the reward that would bring essential changes. The cost of 10,000 points of experience might be high, but the earnings were far beyond that cost.

After some transient surprise and delight, Dai Li then put patches aside and looked at another reward item. No one would be unfamiliar with it, if he or she had studied at a primary school: an extra book cover used to wrap up the textbook. But there was no design except for two big words on it: cover upgrade.

Cover? Upgrade? He didn’t know what it meant.

"You should read the two words in converse order. Upgrade cover is the name." The system then said, "Do you remember those skill books you that had before? This upgrade cover is used to upgrade your skill books. Cover the book with it, and the skill in the book will be upgraded, the effect of which will thus be improved significantly. "

"Can I use it repeatedly?" Dai Li asked immediately.

"No. It’s a disposable consumable. So, before you use it, you should make clear what skill you want to upgrade," the system answered in a quite serious manner.

"Then, could you please tell me the effect of the upgrade?" he inquired.

"The exact effect of the upgrade is randomly generated. I can’t give you an exact answer," the system explained.

"Huh, another bet on luck." Dai Li then frowned and began to think.

The skill books he owned at present were: Weight Loss Exercises, Fat Loss Exercise, Massage and Muscle Relaxation, Rehabilitative Massage, Stretching Yoga, Warm-up Square Dance and Stamina Rampage. The Morale-boosting Book was more a piece of paper versus a book now, so it couldn’t be upgraded with the cover. He had to choose one of those skill books to upgrade.

Weight Loss Exercises and Fat Loss Exercises have similar effects, but the proportion of athletes in need of losing weight is quite small. Thus, these two skills are minor, and I don’t need to give them any upgrade. Dai Li gave up Weight Loss Exercises and Fat Loss Exercises first.

As for Stretching Yoga, although it helps to improve body flexibility and coordination, stamina rampage also boosts flexibility to some extent. The increase of flexibility brought about by stamina rampage is far less than Stretching Yoga, but stamina rampage can promote other qualities, such as endurance and strength. In this view, the comprehensive gains of stamina rampage are better than Stretching Yoga. Hence, he denied Stretching Yoga.

Warming-up square dance is only applied in warming-up. The usage is limited, and square dance is not well-accepted by people, due to its form. Warming-up square dance was, therefore, negated.

Compared with relaxing massage, Rehabilitative Massage is much more important. As a coach, I have worked with the national team, the provincial team, and Dingtian Club. In my career, I saw not a single athlete that would not get hurt. It’s unavoidable that athletes get hurt in training. From this aspect, Rehabilitative Massage is of great practicality, ranking only second to stamina rampage.

Thought out here, Dai Li had determined to make a choice between Rehabilitative Massage and stamina rampage. In comparison, stamina rampage could be applied to all athletes, while Rehabilitative Massage only was aimed at the injured. Therefore, stamina rampage had a wider range of application.

However, Rehabilitative Massage was able to create miracles. Since he acquired the skill, he had helped several athletes to recover from their injuries, and then had built trust with them.

What a hard decision to make! He even imagined counting on tossing a coin.

Well, I should upgrade Rehabilitative Massage. Although stamina rampage can work in a larger field, it’s a BUFF on capability at root. Rehabilitative Massage will recollect one’s lost hope...

Dai Li couldn’t help thinking of Feixiang Lin, who gave up on himself, due to his injury, and then later got back to the game, thanks to his recovery. So to say, Rehabilitative Massage brought him a new life.

Thinking this way, he put the cover on the skill book of Rehabilitative Massage, because he liked the excitement of creating miracles most. After a golden blink, the cover was changed. There was now a tangible frame around the edge of the book. Dai Li read the book immediately, but found nothing new there.

"The same massage technique, no change. That’s to say, the upgrade is merely the increase of skill effect?" he asked.

At this moment, the system explained slowly, "The effect of Rehabilitative Massage is indeed improved, and the massage now will revitalize damaged nerve issues, as well as promote the regeneration of nerve cells."

"What do you mean?" Dai Li asked promptly.

The system answered, "You know, the efficiency of recovery differs, according to the parts of body that get injured. The most difficult part for recovery is the nerves. Many injuries effects on those are irrevocable. Once damaged, there will be no chance to get well. However, the new function of Rehabilitative Massage can heal them to some extent. Of course, the result depends on the injured themselves."

Dai Li recalled what he knew and then nodded in comprehension.

Cells of different parts of muscles or tissues have different efficiencies of recovery. For example, the cells on people’s lips are the most active cells. Everyday, there are many cells dying or being regenerated. So, the wounds on lips will heal rapidly and leave no scars.

Another example is that the wounds on skin will be fine earlier than the ones of muscles or bones. Once the epidermis is hurt, the basal cells at the edge of wound will proliferate in 24 hours, and then move to the center of the wound, forming the epithelium that covers the granulation tissue. Thus, slight scratches on the skin will heal soon.

For the wounds of inner muscles, they need to be sutured. Torn ligaments and fractures should be treated with operations. Such injuries will require a long time for complete recovery. As the saying goes: "A wound to the bone needs 100 days to recover." The injuries in critical parts of body, such as a meniscus tear and a serious fracture of ankle bone, even take a year to heal. If nerve tissues are damaged, whether they will heal at all is doubtful most of the time. For most tissues and organs of the human body, physical recovery means returning to correct functioning.

Take the fracture of a finger as an example. When the fracture occurs, it’s impossible for one to pick up chopsticks. The finger is damaged, at a physical level, and is malfunctioning. When the fracture is healed, one can pick up chopsticks as a result. The recovery is at both the physical and functional levels.

But the damages of nerves are different. Physical recovery doesn’t necessarily mean re-functioning. For instance, people suffering from spine nerve damage may not stand on the ground anymore, even if their spine nerve is recovered.

The new effect of Rehabilitative Massage is to revitalize damaged nerve issues and promote the regeneration of nerve cells, which is obviously against such nerve damage. It looks cool.

But after a thorough analysis, Dai Li was only depressed.

For athletes, nerve damage is a very serious, irregular injury. As it is irregular, the probability of its occurrence must be low. It might take a few years to meet an athlete with nerve damage. At least, I haven’t met any in all my years as a coach. So, this new effect looks nice, but it is not that useful.

Dai Li sighed in much regret, saying, "If I had known that, I would have upgraded the stamina rampage!"