Basketball System: Rebound of the Underdog

Kai sped out of the house after he shoved a piece of toast in his mouth.

Grandma Bingbing looked at him with wide eyes.

"Sit down, will you?" she exclaimed. "You're going to get appendicitis if you run while eating."

Kai stopped for a moment and turned around.

"That's a myth, Grandma! There isn't any scientific basis behind it," he said.

Grandma Bingbing clicked her tongue.

"What do you know about Science?" she muttered.

Kai chuckled as he continued chewing on the bread.

"I need to go. I'm going to be late," he said before finally leaving their house.

The old woman shook her head and sat on the dining table to eat breakfast all alone.

"Of course, he would be late," she said. "Why was he running around the neighborhood so early in the morning?"

Kai arrived at their classroom, breathless but on time.

He immediately went to his seat and looked at his progress bar.

Days passed after he read the life-changing book, and it seemed like the main protagonist wasn't lying when he said that exercising was the best way to improve one's skills!

His progress bar had increased by 15 in the past week! It was usually difficult to get points for his own hard work, so Kai felt that it was a great achievement. Find exclusive stories on empire

On top of his usual progression, he increased a total of 35 this week.

[Current level: Proficient (86)]

With that, he listened to Sir Muchen's lecture.

***

Kai arrived at the court and frowned when he saw that the team wasn't dressed in their jersey.

Lina, too, wasn't in her usual tracksuit.

Instead, she wore her skirt uniform with some jogging pants.

As Kai arrived, the team couldn't help but laugh when they saw him already wearing his basketball attire.

Jet clapped loudly before placing one hand on Shang for support.

Shang clicked his tongue and pushed him away.

"I'm still injured!" he exclaimed.

Jet ignored him and continued teasing Kai.

"It seems like little Kai wants to play basketball," he exclaimed.

Kai's frown deepened. "Aren't we going to train today?" he asked, ignoring Jet and turning to Yuze.

Yuze shook his head.

"We're going to watch the game between the Xing Stars and the Feng Foxes," Yuze said.

Kai's eyebrows raised in surprise.

"It's today?" he asked.

Lina chuckled and went beside him. Lina felt her cheeks reddening as she stood next to Kai.

She was a tall girl, around 166 cm, but standing next to Kai made her feel pretty small.

"The semi-finals start today," she said. "The game between the Huishi Alligators and the Yin Yang Knights has already commenced. We might be able to catch the last quarter if we're lucky."

Kai clicked his tongue. "Let me get changed then."

He was about to go to the bathroom when Yuze and Kun held onto both of his arms.

"Nope! Let's just go," Kun happily exclaimed, helping Yuze drag Kai to Shang's dad's truck.

The kind, the old man looked at them joyously as they went up his truck. He glanced at Kai with a meaningful smile, remembering he was the one who comforted Shang while he was in the hospital.

"Let's go, boys!" he exclaimed before stepping on the engine.

Fortunately, there wasn't any traffic, so they arrived at the court relatively fast.

However, even then, it seemed like the game between the Yin Yang Knights and the Huishi Alligators was about to end.

The Shizi Dogs entered through the audience's entrance, with Lina being the first one to enter.

She looked around and frowned when she saw that there weren't any seats to cater to all of them. There were some empty seats here and there, but they needed an entire row just for their team.

Lina clicked her tongue. "It looks like we have to wait for the game to finish."

Yuze shrugged, nodding toward the scoreboard.

"The game is about to finish."

"We have one minute left on the clock!" Mark Li exclaimed, his voice still in good shape.

It was as if he had been relaxed the entire game.

Kai looked at the scoreboard and saw the large gap between the Alligators and the Knights.

So, that was why.

"Max Zhou, our star player, is going in for a finishing dunk!"

"...and he dunks it!" Mark Li exclaimed.

The buzzer is heard all around the court.

"It seems like the Yin Yang Knights will continue their journey in the Winter Cup! With over a hundred points, they are now the leading team with the most points in the league!"

As soon as the game was finished, Max Zhou was bombarded with fans and media alike.

Kai smirked and shook his head.

Well, it seemed like the Elite Five member deserved his title. He had once again proven that he was the best high school player in the entire city.

Some people started leaving, so Lina was able to find good seats for them.

"There!" she exclaimed. "Let's go."

The Shizi Dogs walked to the empty seats. However, they didn't go unnoticed.

"Is that the Shizi Dogs? They actually came to watch!"

"A lot of teams came to watch, but I wasn't expecting the Shizi Dogs. They never came last year."

"I think they did. We just didn't recognize them."

"What's that? Is Kai Guo wearing his uniform?"Nôv(el)B\\jnn

Kai looked down at the ground as he heard chuckles directed toward him. He clicked his tongue.

They should have let him change before they went!

Jinping went beside him and patted his shoulder.

"Good luck on the game, bud," he said, making Kai shake his head.

"He's that funny guy who went viral, right?"

"I loved watching his funny plays!"

"Kai!"

Kai turned around as he heard his name being called.

There, he saw some young students wearing Yin Yang's jerseys.

Then, not knowing what to do, he waved his hand, causing them to smile and exclaim in excitement.

Kai was taken aback.

Meanwhile, Jet went beside him and patted his back.

"Well, it looks like we have Mr. Famous over here!"

Kai pushed him away. "Stop it," he said, his cheeks reddening from embarrassment.

This didn't go past Jet since he started teasing Kai even more.

"Are you feeling shy?" he asked, poking Kai's cheek.

Then, he stopped as he looked at his finger.

"Hey, your cheeks are surprisingly supple."

Kai clicked his tongue and dragged him to their seats.

"You're really weird," he said.

Jet shrugged and sat next to him, and then, on the other side was Shang.

Fortunately, the two didn't tease him further and instead talked about their respective love lives—or the lack of it.

Kai stared into the distance for a moment. However, he snapped back to reality when squeals were heard around him.

Jet and Shang stopped talking and lifted their heads, so Kai did the same.

His eyebrows immediately raised as soon as he saw the people hovering above them.

Max Zhou, with a smirk playing on his lips, gestured to the empty seats beside them.

"Care if we sit down?"