Chapter 110: The Absolute Ruler

Who is the king of the court for the Warriors? Lin Fei! Who is the most anticipated player? Still Lin Fei! Who is the craziest of them all? Still that damn Lin Fei!

Second round of the playoffs, Game Three! The Warriors’ home court—and Lin Fei’s home court as well! Counting the game in which Lin Fei was ejected and barely played, he had practically been resting for nearly a full week!

Terry was still as arrogant as ever. The Mavericks were still as conceited and contemptuous as ever. Perhaps they still believed that the Warriors’ victory over the Thunder had involved more than a little luck.

But what the fans remembered was that cold, stern smile of Lin Fei’s in the newspaper. Perhaps only a few Mavericks players had seen it, but if they had, they might have felt a chill run through them.

The game began!

Lin Fei was actually coming off the bench! Unbelievable! What exactly was Nelson plotting? Very few people could see through it.

A substitute? Merely because he had been suspended for one game?

If Lin Fei was a substitute, then he would surely be the Sixth Man of the Year. And if he was the Sixth Man, he would inevitably go head-to-head with that other mad Sixth Man—Terry. The man who had dared to taunt the scoring champion: “With me guarding him, he won’t even get a chance to shoot.”

From the opening tip, the Warriors carried an entirely different energy. Curry pushed the fast break and passed to Keynes, who slammed the ball through the hoop, as though venting all the fury that had been bottled up inside him during the previous game. That basket truly opened the floodgates for Golden State.

Then Jobs calmly took Nowitzki one-on-one in the low post and sank a delicate hook shot. Ax was unwilling to be left out, either. He slipped along the baseline and threw down a vicious tomahawk dunk!

Judging by the momentum on the court, the Warriors looked like an entirely different team from the one in the previous game. The contrast was like heaven and earth.

Had the Warriors finally returned?

Within the first five minutes, Golden State had surged to a 16–6 lead, up by ten points! The Mavericks felt thoroughly suffocated by the situation. Though only four minutes had passed, the pace of the game belonged entirely to the Warriors.

Lin Fei sat quietly on the bench, watching the developments on the court. Perhaps he was analyzing them; perhaps he was thinking. From time to time, he would cast a sidelong glance toward the Mavericks’ bench. There was no doubt whom he was watching: the man who had cursed him, the man whose actions had directly led to his suspension, and the man who had continued shouting from the sidelines that he would destroy him.

Every so often, Lin Fei smiled. He had many kinds of smiles, perhaps, but this one was exceptionally cold.

The Mavericks called timeout and sent out their strongest lineup, putting Terry on the floor.

Nelson glanced at Lin Fei.

Lin Fei understood immediately.

This was his moment.

The Warriors adopted a two-point-guard system.

Curry continued to bring the ball up, while Terry matched up directly with Lin Fei. When Curry reached midcourt, he handed the ball to Lin Fei.

Lin Fei took possession, snapped his head up, and glared at Terry. Terry had been somewhat careless, but that look struck him like a bolt of lightning, sending a violent shock through his heart.

Lin Fei tried to accelerate. Terry barely had time to react. Then, after that burst of speed, Lin Fei suddenly pulled back just as quickly.

It was only the single second in which Terry had been stunned.

Lin Fei retreated a step, then rose directly into the air.

A pull-up jumper.

A pull-up jumper that was practically a challenge.

The shock Terry had just felt, combined with Lin Fei’s unbelievable speed, left him no time even to reach the ball in Lin Fei’s hands.

The arc of the shot was graceful, seemingly carrying a trace of fury. Yet both its trajectory and its speed were exquisite.

Swish.

The three-pointer dropped cleanly.

The fans in the Warriors’ arena erupted. Lin Fei had shaken Terry as easily as if he were dribbling around a wooden post. Divine speed, flawless shooting—perfection itself. How could the fans respond to such a play with anything less than thunderous applause?

That basket left Terry feeling completely lost.

To be honest, it was only now that he had truly witnessed the legendary combination of Lin Fei’s unstoppable speed and pinpoint shooting. The young man was shorter than Terry, and his physical strength and leaping ability might even have been inferior. Perhaps his greatest advantage was his youth.

But even in his own prime, Terry had never possessed speed like this.

He had always prided himself on being one of the fastest players in the league. Yet compared with Lin Fei’s speed, that reputation was utterly insignificant. Terry had defended countless elite players—from Kobe to Paul to Nash—but never had anyone carried out a sequence of moves so effortlessly right in front of him and taken the points with such ease.

At this moment, he could barely remember his own boast: “If I guard him, he won’t even get a chance to shoot.”

All he could think about now was how to lock Lin Fei down completely.

After making the shot, Lin Fei did not forget to glance at Terry.

It was hatred.

Hatred that had been suppressed for far too long.

At last, it had erupted.

The attacking fury Lin Fei had displayed in the previous game seemed ready to engulf the entire court. This court belonged to him. He was about to become its absolute ruler.

If the game was a stage, then perhaps he was the only dancer upon it.

The God of Slaughter had returned to his throne. The absolute ruler of the court was about to unveil his opening act.

The fans’ cheers sounded almost like the roar of a crowd celebrating the coronation of an emperor.

No one knew how this god of destruction would perform. His hatred and fury had drowned out everything else.

And that, without a doubt, was precisely what the fans had come to savor.

Score! Score!

That unified chant rose once more throughout the arena.