Basketball System: Rebound of the Underdog

The players for the last quarter lined up in front of their bench—Yuze, Renren, Jinping, and the other benchwarmers who played in the first and second quarters.

Max's excited smile fell as soon as he saw the line-up for the final quarter. "He's still not playing?"

He wasn't the only one confused about Kai not joining the game.

Even the audience, despite rooting for the Knights, couldn't help but question Kai's absence.

"Wait, why is Kai Guo still sitting on the bench?"

"He hasn't played all game!"

"I did say that I came to watch Max Zhou. However, I was also looking forward to watching Kai!"

"That's true. He was very funny last season. I would love to see him again."

"Do you think he has improved?"

"I think so! But even then, I just want to watch him make a fool of himself."

"Let the mad dog play!"

Grace nudged Fei's shoulder.

"What?" Fei snapped.

"Is he not going to play?" Grace timidly asked as he pointed to Kai Guo.

Fei's eyebrows furrowed. "Do you even know that guy?"

"Yeah," Grace smiled. "He's Kai Guo! He's quite popular among niche fans," he said with red cheeks.

Fei narrowed his eyes at him. "Don't tell me," she muttered. "Do you actually like him?"

Grace scratched the back of his head. "I just think he's pretty cool," she chimed. "Besides, doesn't he look handsome?"

Fe's eyebrows raised as she took a good look at Kai.

Then, she shook her head with an amused chuckle.

"Sure, whatever you say," she said, not taking Grace seriously.

On the other hand, Max's excitement went down to zero as soon as he saw that Kai wasn't playing at all.

Ailun nudged his shoulder. "Are you alright?" he asked, sensing his sour mood.

Max pursed his lips and didn't respond.

Instead, he got the ball from the referee and prepared himself to play the game.

The last quarter finally ended, and Yuze and Renren utilized their past teamwork to go against Max Zhou.

Renren and Max faced each other, a small smile playing on Renren's lips.

"Hi, cousin," he said in a friendly tone.

However, Max wasn't in the mood for greetings, so he quickly surpassed Renren and threw the ball from the three-point line.

64-73.

The crowd erupted into deafening screams. It was Max's very first three-pointer of the game, and he did it so nonchalantly!

"He can shoot from afar, too," Andy remarked.

Kai shook his head in amusement. "He has a good form, right?"

"Yes," Andy said. "I was able to refine my form by playing in the basketball games in arcades. I can tell that Max had also practiced a lot."

The game continued, and Yuze and Renren proved that they had been great teammates before.

They were able to curate plays that none of the Knights expected, leading them to slowly close the gap.

"That guy is a good point guard," Yutong remarked from the bench, crossing his arms in front of the chest.

Shin nodded in agreement, his eyes also focused on the tall duo.

"They have good teamwork, too," he muttered.

"They recruited really good players this time," Coach Guanyu said with a small frown.

Shin and Yutong turned to their coach. Even though Guanyu's facial expression was mostly nonchalant, which was pretty difficult to read, the two players noticed that there was an underlying worry in his features, making the two of them frown.

However, their frowns were quickly replaced with celebratory screams as Max went for another three-pointer.

Kai nearly stood from his seat as the gap widened even more.

71-78.

"What is happening?" Andy muttered. "He can't be good at shooting under the rim and also at three-pointers."

Jet shook his head. "Of course, he can. He's Max Zhou—the only player who made it into the Elite Five in Jilin City! He's on a different level."

Meanwhile, Ailun and Fabin couldn't help but chuckle as they continued observing their friend.

To the normal person's eye, it may seem that Max was just playing as usual.

However, they noticed that Max wasn't in a good mood—which was still beneficial to them since Max played even better when he was agitated!

Max clicked his tongue, not even looking at the players as he went past them. All he could see was the ring, and his mind was clouded with disappointment.

"I wanted to play with you," he muttered as he went for a slam dunk.

"Are you hiding your skills until the games officially start?" he incredulously asked while performing a line-up.

"Then, I shouldn't have played too," he whispered as he shot another three-pointer.
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The crowd was amazed as Max continued with his crazy plays.

"Is that even possible?"

"My ticket didn't go to waste. Max is such a talented basketball player!"

80-92.

Lina shook her head and called for a time-out.

At that moment, Max snapped back to his usual sanity.

Then, he glanced at the scoreboard, seeing that there was still three minutes left in the game.

As he walked back to their bench, he couldn't help but hope for Kai to play—even for the last three minutes.

"Is it not possible?" Muchen asked as Yuze and Renren went back to the bench.

Yuze shook his head. "No," he said.

The team sighed in disappointment.

"However," Yuze continued, capturing their attention. "I believe we can beat them with the proper line-up."

Lina's posture straightened. "So, there's hope?" she asked.

Yuze smirked as he downed the rest of his water.

"I believe so," he answered.

"Max Zhou is Max Zhou," Yuze continued. "However, he's just Max Zhou. His team is alright, but they're not extraordinary like him."

"On the other hand, we have a team that compliments each other very well."

"If the time comes and we utilize our strongest powers," he said, his gaze lingering on Kai longer than necessary, "then I believe we can beat them."

Renren nodded in agreement. "One more thing," he added.

"I think he's upset, so it's very hard to get past him."

"Upset?" Lina asked. "About what?"

Renren turned to Kai. "Well, he's always muttering a name when I'm near him."

Then, Renren smirked.

"It seems like you gained another admirer, Kai."