Who would still play tennis after being reborn?

Chapter 34 A different world

"Is it okay if we don't use ball skills?"

Zhang Ming, who had reached the bottom line, suddenly raised his head.

Don't you need ball skills?
Gu Cheng agreed without hesitation: "Okay."

"Please advise!"

"Please advise!"

The two greeted each other.

Zhang Ming's expression suddenly turned serious as he took the tennis ball from Liu Xing: "By the way, Lao Liu, could you please be a referee?"

This wasn't the first time Liu Xing had seen such a solemn expression on Zhang Ming's face, but that rare fighting spirit and will to fight still made him clench his fists.

Without relying on his ball skills, Zhang Ming has a high chance of beating Gu Cheng given his ability and foundation.

Although I don't know why Zhang Ming told Gu Cheng not to use his ball skills, it's clearly not the time to think about those things right now.

He walked over and sat down on the referee's chair.

"The match begins, one game to decide the winner, Zhang Ming serves."

All eyes began to focus on the field.

Zhang Ming took a breath, tilted his head back and tossed the ball into the air, then bent down and jumped, shifting his center of gravity upwards.

Immediately afterwards, a racket appeared in mid-air, steadily catching the falling tennis ball.

boom!
A dull thud was heard as the tennis ball flew through the air in a yellow arc, quickly tracing across the court before landing firmly in the inside corner of the service line in an instant.

"So fast!!"

"Is this what a professional player's serve is like? It's so fast, appearing near the service line in an instant."

Wu Yifei and the others, who were still standing on the sidelines, blushed immediately upon seeing this serve.

When Zhang Ming played against them before, his serves weren't this fast, and the angles weren't nearly as tricky as this one. To put it bluntly, if Zhang Ming had served like this during a coaching match, they probably wouldn't have had time to even react, let alone receive the serve.

One should probably just stand there and stare blankly at the bottom line.

"Wow, Zhang Ming's serve didn't seem this fast! How come it was already in Gu Cheng's half of the court the moment it was hit?" Li Yang swallowed hard, gaining a completely new understanding of the professional players' strength.

Yu Xinjie gritted his teeth slightly: "Because... this is Zhang Ming's true strength. Otherwise, do you think professional players are just sitting around doing nothing? Anyone who can break into the world's top 200 is a monster, not a single one of them is normal, they're all freaks, okay?"

He had watched Zhang Ming's matches and knew that when Zhang Ming played coaching matches against them, although he said he wasn't throwing the game, he was actually throwing it the whole time. It was just that because of the shutout, no one noticed.

Yu Xinjie couldn't understand why Zhang Ming was going all out against Acheng, who had just started learning tennis.

No one thought Gu Cheng could return the ball, because it was too fast; there wasn't even time for his eyes to see it.

However, Gu Cheng's next reaction surprised everyone. He not only caught up in time, but also received the serve at an extremely fast speed, hitting the ball straight to the left baseline.

Zhang Ming quickly moved to the net to intercept, and just as the tennis ball crossed the net, he hit the ball in the opposite direction from Gu Cheng.

"A beautiful serve and net shot!"

"Their playstyle is so clean and efficient; this is the true strength of a world-class professional player. They're incredibly strong!"

Wu Yifei shouted excitedly.

Yu Xinjie, watching from the stands, grew increasingly silent.

Is this a newbie?

Screw newbies.

How can a novice fight back and forth with Zhang Ming when he's going all out?
If it were him, let alone a back-and-forth, he would most likely fail to return the first serve, and might even be penalized by being forced to stand. His skill level is simply not on the same level as Zhang Ming's.

Gu Cheng, however, was able to hold his own against Zhang Ming.

Which one is higher or lower can be known at a glance.

"Holy crap! Acheng is that good?" "Old Yu, I feel like Acheng is even better than you." Li Yang pointed at the dashing figure on the field: "Acheng's talent is too strong. He's only been learning for two days and he's already better than you. He can even go toe-to-toe with professional players."

Yu Xinjie was speechless. Just learning? If he'd just learned, he'd eat shit for him.

This shows that Gu Cheng's skill level is definitely good enough to go pro, right?

on the field.

Gu Cheng noticed an opportunity behind Zhang Ming's right side as he served and volleyed, and immediately hit the ball to the far right.

But just as he struck the ball, Zhang Ming seemed to have already predicted its trajectory, quickly turning around and slamming the ball into the air. The tennis ball appeared directly behind Gu Cheng and bounced out of bounds.

"15-0."

"Gu Cheng has been scored on. Zhang Ming handled this play exceptionally well, anticipating Gu Cheng's shot and launching a counterattack."

"However, is this Gu Cheng really a freshman? He's too strong, he's on a completely different level from us. With his skills, he could totally be a professional player, so why didn't he go abroad?"

The layman looks at the excitement and the insider looks at the doorway.

People who don't understand tennis only know that this match was exciting, with both sides going back and forth, unlike before when it was basically one-sided.

For Yu Xinjie, Wu Yifei, and Wei Wentao, however, a single point was enough to determine the relative strengths of both sides.

Wei Wentao, in particular, never took his eyes off Gu Cheng.

Does Gu Cheng have such a high level of understanding of tennis?

Wei Wentao felt that he had been a PE teacher for nothing, as he had no idea that the school had produced such a student.

On the court, Zhang Ming, who had just scored a point, became increasingly serious. He quickly served the second ball, and after a brief contest, the game gradually turned against Gu Cheng.

"30-0!"

Before they knew it, Zhang Ming had taken the lead.

When Zhang Ming served the third ball, he suddenly shouted, "Gu Cheng, tell me, why do you play tennis?"

why?
The moment Gu Cheng received the serve, memories of the Prince of Tennis world from six years ago flooded his mind almost instantly.

At that time, he knew nothing about tennis. It was only by chance that he met a kid who was learning tennis that he saw the charm of tennis and saw perseverance in the other kid. The spirit of constantly striving for dreams deeply moved him.

Then, when he was at his hungriest, the other person gave him the last of their food. The small body ran around the court, shouting, "Brother, let's play tennis together!"

That day, Gu Cheng touched a racket for the first time.

From that day on, he picked up a racket and practiced tennis day and night.

Especially after learning that he had been transported to the world of Prince of Tennis, his desire to compete against Tezuka Kunimitsu, Echizen, Fuji Syusuke, Atobe Keigo, Sanada, and others on the court became even stronger.

As he rapidly grew stronger, he entered Seigaku with outstanding grades, fighting alongside the other Seigaku members. From the regional tournament to the Kanto tournament, he finally entered the national tournament as the Kanto champion. Just when everyone was dreaming of winning the national tournament, he returned to his original world.

The world is like a cycle. He returned at the most important time. He hadn't even had a chance to participate in the national competition, nor had he met any of the world championship training camp players he had been longing to see, nor had he experienced the realm opposite to the selfless realm—the Asura God Path—before he suddenly returned to his original world.

Gu Cheng was happy to return to his original world, but he was also filled with regret. He had not yet grasped the ultimate perfection of the Heavenly Robe, nor had he come into contact with the Asura God Path.

Having left the world of Prince of Tennis, he may never have the chance to comprehend the final, yet unopened door to the realm of selflessness, let alone comprehend the legendary Asura God Path.

There are so many regrets, but I can't put them into words.

“Because of… a dream.” Gu Cheng finally answered, “I wanted to see a different world, but unfortunately… I didn’t see it, and I probably never will.”

Why did you give up on your dream again? Why did you abandon your original intention of playing tennis?

Zhang Ming's hand swung his racket in an exaggerated arc through the air: "Shouldn't playing tennis be something that makes people incredibly happy?"

Tell me, why are you giving up?

"why?"

Zhang Ming's hysterical screams echoed through the sky at that moment.

(End of this chapter)