Basketball System: Rebound of the Underdog

Kai and Lina walked side by side, none of them speaking as they made their way to Lina's house.

After Lina yelled at Kai to put her down, Kai had no choice but to follow her request. In the end, he didn't want to make her uncomfortable. However, it seemed like the damage was already done as they were now walking in awkward silence.

Kai could feel that Lina wanted to be left alone. However, he still wanted to fulfill his promise of walking her back home. Besides, he didn't want to leave her all alone now that the skies were dark.

Although Lina walked slower than usual, Kai matched her pace, not wanting to give her an even harder time.

When her house came into view, the two of them sighed in relief.

Lina glanced at Kai, a small frown gracing her forehead.

'Does he hate being with me now?' she thought.

Kai led her to the gate and even opened it for her.

"You should go," Kai said.

Lina wordlessly nodded, still trying to find the right words to say.

"I'll see you tomorrow," Kai said before turning around and leaving Lina without any further farewell.

Lina opened her mouth and was about to call for Kai. However, she stopped when she saw that he was already rushing to leave the vicinity.

She sighed and looked down at the ground.

"I thought he would understand," she muttered.

Then, she shook her head before going inside their gate and shutting it close.

On the other hand, Kai mindlessly walked back to their house. He planned on riding a bus but realized that he needed some time to think about everything that had happened.

He paused for a while and recalled the moment he tried lifting Lina up.

Kai stared at his hands and frowned in confusion.

He couldn't be mistaken. What he felt at that moment wasn't human flesh. Instead, it felt hard and artificial—like metal.

Kai's mind ran with possibilities.

"Maybe she was keeping a metal rod to protect herself from robbers and other strange people?" he muttered but shook his head when he realized that he was being ridiculous.

He sighed. "Let's just check our weekly mission."

[Incoming weekly mission!]

[Free throw? Free upgrade.]

[Sink five shots in the free throw line after being fouled.]

[+10 XP for every successful shot. However, the quota of five shots must be met.]

[Once unmet, there would be no rewards.]

Kai pursed his lips. He was already quite confident with his shooting skills from the free-throw line, so he didn't have a problem with his new mission.

However, it also entailed that he needed to be fouled at least two times for that to be able to happen. Not only that, but he had to make almost all of his fouled shots in.

Kai thought of an easy way to achieve his objective but found that his mind kept straying to Lina.

Then, he shook his head once again—more aggressively this time.

"Let's focus on the game first," he muttered.

"Just the game."

***

Sunday finally came, and the city's basketball court was once again bustling with a myriad of people.

Since it was a free day for almost everyone in the city, more people came to watch the last two games of the afternoon.

"Will the Yin Yang Knights take it?" Mark Li's voice boomed through the entire court.

"And they do!" he exclaimed, making the crowd erupt into loud cheers.

"Yin Yang Knights!"

"Yin Yang Knights!"

"Yin Yang Knights!"

The court shook with the cheers of their enthusiastic fans, making the losing team feel even more dejected as they went back to their bench to pack up.

"With over a 40-point gap, the Yin Yang Knights take the crown and bags a sure spot in the semi-finals. They will then be facing the winner of the loser bracket, which will be determined by next Friday!"

The Yin Yang Knights waved to their fans, bowing in gratefulness for the support they had given thus far.

Then, they left to go to their holding room to celebrate their win. Almost all of their games had been won with at least a 20-point gap, so they had a good feeling that they were going to win the Winter Cup this time around, too.

With their departure, the people started leaving the venue. However, some students, who were still feeling the high of the game, held their friends back as they attempted to stand.

"Don't you want to watch the next game?"

"Who's going to be playing again?"

"The Feng Foxes and the Shizi Dogs."

"Eh?" one of them exclaimed. "The Shizi Dogs managed to get this far?"

"Yeah! They're actually doing a decent job. I want to see how they'll play against the Foxes this time."

"Goodness, I should keep up with the rest of the games, too."

"Let's stay since I'm curious, but I want to leave if it gets boring."

"Sure!"

With that, some students decided to stay, even though they weren't necessarily rooting for any team. That made some parts of the bleachers unavailable for the students of Shizi High and Feng Arts High.

Yani, who was being dragged by Suzy, couldn't help but complain as she entered the venue.

"What are we even doing here?" Yani groaned. "We have classes tomorrow morning, you know?"

"I know," Suzy said. "But I'm curious about this game."

"I'm not," Yani said. "You haven't watched a Shizi Dogs' game before. What made you change your mind now?"

Suzy's mind strayed to one person before she shook her head. "No one," she said.

"I saw some of their clips on the school's page and found it fun." Your next journey awaits at empire

Yani sighed. "I still want to go home."

"Besides," Suzy quickly added. "Some of the members of the cheerleading team are here, so it'll be fun to watch with them."

Yani frowned in confusion.

"The members of the cheerleading team? What are they doing here?" she muttered.

"Let's just go," Suzy said, dragging the reluctant girl inside.

Yani clicked her tongue and let herself be dragged, expecting to see a small crowd as they entered the venue.

"It's going to be so noticeable that we went to watch their game," she grumbled. "I bet the others are going to tease us about this—"

Yani's words were caught in the back of her throat as she was faced by a larger crowd—a much larger one than she had expected.

Nearly all of the seats on the right side were filled, and some of them were even wearing Shizi's signature pink color, while some brought balloons to cheer for the team.

Yani frowned in confusion as Suzy led her to their seats. The other members of the cheerleading team waved at them as they sat, but Yani still couldn't wrap her mind around the situation.

It had never been like this.

"What the heck is going on?"