Basketball System: Rebound of the Underdog

Ringing.

That was everything Kai heard.

The crowd's screams were so deafening that he felt his eardrums being violated.

It was as if he was surrounded by nothing but noise, and that, in itself, became his silence.

As the ball bounced to the ground and the buzzer sounded in the entire venue, Kai felt his heart accelerate.

For the first time in the night, he felt breathless.

However, as breathless as he was, he wasn't tired.

In fact, he felt he could play another quarter.

Yet, the game was over, and they were hailed as the victors.

"The Shizi Dogs make history!" Mark screamed, his papers scattered all over the floor.

"Feng Arts High, with their state-of-the-art basketball facilities, is defeated by none other than the basketball team of Shizi High—a school that wasn't known for their basketball team for years."

"However, this team is writing their name on stone! For the first time in what seems like forever, the Feng Foxes won't be playing at the finals!" he continued.

The people at the professional scorer's table turned to their colleague in surprise.

"Well, Mark's excited," one of them said.

The others chuckled, just letting their colleague be.

"I, too, can't help but cheer for the Shizi Dogs. It was an exhilarating game, and I'm glad I was called here to the table," another chimed.

The cheerleaders were going insane. Suzy had thrown away their final routine and set herself free.

She screamed at the top of her lungs, feeling excitement run through her veins. In her entire cheerleading career (which wasn't too long), she had felt the most excited she had ever been.

Bao hugged his friends as he felt the high of their victory.

All of them did.

Dylan, Yuze's biggest fan, burst into tears as he looked at the court. He had been with them for the past three years, watching their games with every opportunity that came. They didn't make it very far for those years, but now, everything has changed.

"This is their year," Dylan muttered as he glanced at their bench.

The group of teachers forgone their professional images for a moment and stood from their seats, giving each other high-fives.

Even Sir Dao, who had been on edge since the start of the game, couldn't help but stand as he felt his heart pumping. Miss Cherry screamed excitedly, and before they knew it, the two of them held hands and started jumping like lunatics.

There was a small smile on Sir Dao's face.

It seemed as if he was transported back to the time when he was playing basketball at his university.

However, as soon as he realized he was celebrating Kai's win, he let go of Miss Cherry's hand and sat back down on his seat, clearing his throat as if none of it even happened.

Coach Yixing of the Xing Stars fell to the ground as Kai sank the last shot.

His players turned to him with wide eyes.

"Coach!" Zedong exclaimed, quickly going over to where he was and helping him up.

Coach Yixing still appeared out of it as he was hoisted up by his players.

"I can't believe this," he whispered. "Just when I came up with a strategy to beat the Feng Foxes."

"Coach, are you alright?" Zedong asked.

Coach Yixing pursed his lips and finally stood straight.

"Well, boys, we have our work cut out for us," he said. "We're going to intensify our training from now on!"

The Stars felt like they had been whiplashed.

"But we're already training so hard!" some of them protested.

Coach Yixing turned his gaze toward the Shizi Dogs and shook his head. "Our training needs to be traumatizing for us to be able to beat a team like them," he muttered.

However, as much as Coach Yixing was disappointed, another person was much more dejected than he was.

Coach Ben felt like his soul had left his body as he sat on the bench.

"I can't believe this," he muttered.

"Everything I worked hard for," he continued ranting.

The other members of the Feng Foxes gazed at the ground, also feeling immense disappointment.

Yiming, who was in his last year, pursed his lips and walked to the bench with his head hung in shame.

"It's over," he muttered. He felt like everything he had worked hard for in the past three years had come to an end.

Their team had never made it into the Nationals, so when they heard that two teams were going to qualify for this year, they were more excited than ever.

The Yin Yang Knights were the only team that they couldn't beat in their district, so they were pretty confident.

However, the Shizi Dogs had come along and snatched away that opportunity.

Yiming felt tears brimming in his eyes; however, he quickly wiped them away when he saw Yuze also holding back his tears.

He was at their bench, surrounded by his teammates, and at that moment, it felt like they were mirroring each other's figures in the past years.

However, the only difference was that Yuze was now at the side of victory.

Yiming shook his head. "It was either me or him," he muttered.

Then, he lifted his head once more, and there he saw Kai—the player he thought was the reason for their victory.

"If it weren't for you," he muttered, feeling his heart squeeze in pain. Stay connected through My Virtual Library Empire

Kai was still standing in the middle of the court, taking everything in. His eyes were dewy with unshed tears, and he looked at the crowd with an air of disbelief.

With the artificial lights shining down on him, Yiming couldn't help but scoff.

"Is he filming a movie or something?" he muttered. He looked like a K-pop idol who was doing a sports concept with how he looked.

However, Yiming knew that there was more to Kai than just his looks.

In his mind, he was the sole reason why they had lost.

The common denominator.

Anything could change, but if he was still there, then they would have lost.

A hundred percent.

And the scary part was?

Yiming thought Chunlei was right.

Kai was still hiding some skills up his sleeve.