Basketball System: Rebound of the Underdog

It felt like the world suddenly dimmed, and he was placed in a simulation where he could hyper-focus on the conversations surrounding him.

"Oh shoot. I think I left my oven on."

Kai turned around and saw a student with a worried look on his face before he darted out of the gymnasium, presumingly turning off his stove.

"I hope the cheerleaders come today. I'm not really interested in the game since I know that we're going to win anyway."

He heard another comment, his gaze leading to a cocky-looking student a few rows above them.

And just like that, Kai continued hearing such not-so-pleasant comments about their team.

"Really, though. I came here for Yiming and Chunlei. However, it seems like they're not even going to play."

"I mean, why would they waste their energy playing against a team like Shizi?"

"Isn't this the first time that Shizi came here?"

"Yeah, and hopefully the last time. They conducted a practice game last year, too, but it was at Shizi High."

"Oof, Yiming must have been out of his mind. Why would he agree to go there?"

"I heard it was a gangster-filled area."

"Well, this team does look like a bunch of hillbillies—except for Yuze, of course. It would have been great if he joined our team instead."

Kai looked at his teammates to determine whether they were hearing the conversations too.

However, it seemed like he was the only one.

Then, Kai was compelled to look at the opposing bench, where twelve players were currently stretching and conversing among themselves. Kai couldn't hear them clearly over the noise of the gym but could read their mouths and their expressions with eerie clarity.

"Look at these guys," a player with the surname 'Ling' sneered, casting a dismissive glance in the direction of the Shizi team. "We'll crush them without breaking a sweat."

"Yeah, seriously," another chimed in, a smug grin spreading across his face. "I heard they barely made it past the first round of last year's Winter Cup. What a joke!"

Just then, Kai saw a familiar face—Peng Yang and his 'model' team at the bleachers just right above the official players. Some other second-string players were with them as well. They, too, had smug looks on their faces, appearing confident that their official team would plummet Shizi High to the ground.

At that moment, Kai realized that nobody in the room supported Shizi High—not a single soul.

And just like that, his hyperfocus suddenly disappeared, and he couldn't decipher the noise around him nor lip-read what the players were currently saying.

[Your weekly mission is entitled: Doubt Defied.]

[Prove the skeptics wrong.]

[For the entire week, the number of individuals proven wrong will be tallied, and for every successful instance, XP will be added in congruence to the number of individuals.]

[Embrace the challenge and elevate your game through relentless determination.]

Once again, Kai glanced around the court. There were a whole lot of people to prove wrong.

He smiled to himself. At first, he found it unpleasant that no one was cheering for them at all.

However, now, it seems like it only gave him more chances to increase his XP.

"Kai's smiling creepily," Alen pointed out, causing Kai to drop his smile.

"That's just my normal smile," Kai deadpanned.

"Well, you looked weird," Mingze suddenly said.

Kai shook his head in amusement. He was about to tell the two of them off when a loud cheer suddenly resonated in the gymnasium.

The players of Shizi High were confused for a moment. They looked around the gymnasium until settling on the large door on the side of the Shizi players. They exchanged looks of disbelief when they found the source of the sound—the starting lineup of the Feng Foxes.

As expected, they had a different aura compared to the current players sitting on their bench.

Dylan cleared his throat and gathered the second-string players as the starting team made their way inside the gym. At that moment, it felt like they were in a teen drama, walking in slow motion, like the main characters that they were.

"Buchen Ding," Dylan started off, taking the initiative to introduce the players one by one.

"He's the third-year Center. Like his name suggests, he's indeed big—almost unbelievably so, even in comparison to Yiming. He somewhat resembles a bear on the court, his sheer size making him an intimidating presence in the paint. He's the tallest Center in the entire city, so Yuze, despite being more talented, also has a hard time playing against him."

"Next is Kexin Wu," Dylan continued.

Kai directed his gaze to the man right next to Buchen, who was almost the same height as him but significantly thinner.

"He's the slender shooting guard whose wiry frame is a nuisance in the court. When I first saw him, I thought he looked like a modern-day Slenderman. However, that's his advantage on the court. His long limbs allow him to shoot lethal shots."

"The smaller guy next to him is Shilei Ma," Dylan sighed with a hint of bitterness in his tone.

"We're almost the same height, but he has been hailed as a starting player during his second year. Despite his shorter height, he possesses a grip of steel and a wide reach that makes him a great defender. I bumped into him once, and I felt like I was going to fly away because of how strong he was."

Kai nodded, listening intently to the information that Dylan was imparting. However, he couldn't help but shift his focus on the two players trailing behind them with relaxed expressions on their faces.

"The last two are their star players—Yiming Yang and Chunlei Dong," Dylan said, repeating the descriptors that Lina told them a while back.

Kai tuned Dylan's voice out and focused on their auras instead. While the other three already felt talented, these two were just on another level. They radiated a different sense of confidence and skill.

Yiming, much like Shizi's own Yuze, had a similar body build—tall, muscular, and intimidating.

Meanwhile, Chunlei exuded an aura of innate talent that set him apart from the rest.

He was a little bit shorter than Kai, but it felt like he was destined for greatness. A small smirk played on his lips as he waved to the audience, his eyes sparkling as the girls practically praised the ground he walked on.

For Kai, he felt a bit like Peng Yang and Jinping. However, compared to them, he had already proven himself to be an excellent player.

Then, they finally settled on the bench, but not before looking at the players of Shizi.

Chunlei, being the bright person that he was, waved enthusiastically at the team.

"Shizi, let's have a good game!"