Basketball System: Rebound of the Underdog

The players' gazes shifted from Chunlei to Kai, awaiting his answer.

Truthfully, the other Shizi players were curious, too. Lina was the only one who knew that he played for a short while, so she smiled to herself when Chunlei asked him that particular question.

"A month," Kai answered honestly. It had been less than a month since he transmigrated into this body and started playing basketball. He didn't count his past experiences as a child player since he felt that high school basketball was different from elementary basketball.

"A month?" Jet exclaimed, looking at Kai with wide eyes.

"Yeah," Kai said. "I only started playing basketball this year. Jinping knows."

They all turned to Jinping, who merely nodded before looking away.

"So, that's why you can't shoot a free throw," Jet said while stroking his chin.

Meanwhile, the second-string players were also in disbelief. They thought that Kai was a noob at heart, just like them. However, it seemed like he was, quite literally, a noob at basketball since he started very recently.

Chunlei tried to mask his surprise, but it still shone through.

"You didn't play in your previous years, then?" he asked another question.

"During Junior Secondary Year?" Kai asked. "No. I wasn't a player."

"No, I meant when you were a first-year student," Chunlei said.

Kai froze while the others stifled their laughter.

"I'm still a first-year, though," Kai said, making his teammates guffaw.

The Feng Foxes were once again shocked. How could such a mature-looking player only be a first-year student?

"You're kidding. You repeated a year, didn't you?" Yiming asked with narrowed eyes.

"I didn't," Kai truthfully said.

"Yeah, surprisingly," Jinping remarked.

"A month," Chunlei whispered. "That's a short amount of time."

"I guess," Kai said. "It doesn't matter, though. We made you nervous, didn't we? You were definitely expecting a much larger gap!" he exclaimed.

Yiming clicked his tongue while Yuze slapped the back of Kai's head.

"Don't be so cocky just because you landed a shot by using this guy's head," he scolded Kai while dissing Yiming.

"Hey—"

Yiming was about to argue, but Yuze cut him off before he could say anything.

"Shang's waiting for us. Let's go," he said, not even bothering to say goodbye to the Feng Foxes before dragging his players out of the gymnasium.

The Feng Foxes stared at their retreating backs, their minds still filled with the thought that Kai was only a first-year student and had a month's worth of experience.

Chunlei smirked, crossing his arms in front of his chest.

"Well, this year's going to be interesting."

***

The Shizi players were now back in Shang's father's truck and on their way back to their neighborhood. Shang was advised to go to a hospital, so after dropping off the other players, Shang's dad made his way to a nearby hospital.

"I still can't believe you've only been playing for one month," Dylan said. "I've been playing for seven years!"

"I don't think you should tell that to people," Tony said.

Kai chuckled and absent-mindedly listened to their conversation.

In truth, he was busy in his own world since his system was currently calculating the amount of people he had proven wrong.

[People proven wrong (they think that the host is actually a decent player): 23]

[People proven wrong (they think that the host is actually pretty funny): 34]

[Total: 57]

Kai stopped as soon as he saw the second announcement. What the heck did the system mean by that?

He proved 23 people wrong with his basketball skills, but he proved 34 people wrong by proving he was actually a pretty funny guy?

What kind of progression was that?

"Hey, are you okay?" Dylan asked as he looked back at Kai.

Kai shook his head in amusement. He didn't know whether to be delighted or offended because of the revelation.

He was about to walk again when he suddenly heard Yuze calling his name.

"Kai," he said.

Dylan's eyes brightened as soon as he saw Yuze.

"Can I talk to Kai for a minute?" Yuze asked the second-string players.

Dylan enthusiastically nodded. "Of course! You can even make him your slave if you want."

Yuze chuckled. "It'll only be quick."

"We'll wait for you at the public court then," Dylan called. "We still have to train for tomorrow's tournament."

Kai held out an 'okay' sign as his teammates walked away from the two of them.

Frankly, Kai didn't know what Yuze would talk to him about, so he was pretty nervous.

"What is it?" Kai asked.

Yuze hesitated for a moment.

Actually, it was for a pretty long time, so Kai got a little impatient.

"If you don't have anything to say, then I'm going to leave. Our team is facing a good opponent tomorrow."

Yuze sighed as he ran his fingers through his hair. Honestly, his pride was killing him, so he couldn't bring himself to say his next words.

"Well?" Kai asked.

Yuze's shoulders slumped before finally speaking.

"First of all, I just want to say how awful you did in the game a while ago," Yuze deadpanned.

"You had so many missed shots. You were closer to the ring, but you didn't get some rebounds. You also made some traveling mistakes and charging fouls."

"I get it," Kai sighed. "Did you call for me just to scold me?"

"However," Yuze sighed. "You were a good addition to the team," he said the last statement quickly and under his breath, so Kai wasn't able to hear him.

"What?" Kai asked in confusion.

"You were a good addition to the team," Yuze finally said, causing Kai to raise his eyebrows in surprise.

"I honestly thought that the Feng Foxes would have a lead of more than 20 points, similar to the practice game last year. However, we were able to narrow it down to 12 points, which I believe is slightly, very, very slightly, attributed to your participation."

Kai pursed his lips since he couldn't hide his smile.

"So, Lina and I have been talking, and we have come to a decision."

Kai held his breath, already having a hunch of what he was going to say.

"You have been promoted to the first-string team."