Haikyuu!!: The Disaster of Gamers

On Saturday morning, the neighborhood where Lu Ren lived was so quiet that only a few early birds could be heard chirping.

Lu Ren stood in the entryway, holding half a piece of toast he hadn't finished eating, and stared at the long line of people in front of him, his mind briefly going blank.

Standing outside the door were not only the "four idiots" who had originally agreed to meet—Hyuga, Kageyama, Tanaka, and Nishinoya, but also Sawamura Daichi, who looked like he was there to supervise, Sugawara Koji, who was smiling and carrying gifts, and even Tsukishima Hotaru and Yamaguchi Tadashi were mixed in at the end of the group.

Ya-Chi was getting slippers for everyone, shrugging her shoulders: "I can't help it, everyone said they wanted to come and 'witness a miracle'."

"Excuse me!"

Tanaka and Nishiya spoke in unison, their voices so loud they nearly ripped the ceiling off Lu Ren's house. Sawamura Daichi reacted quickly, grabbing one of their heads with each hand to forcefully lower the volume, then looked at Lu Ren apologetically: "Sorry, I was worried about these guys; I was afraid they'd tear your house down."

"And we also want to see how you, Lu Ren, manage to carve something beautiful out of these rotten pieces of wood this weekend." Tsukishima Hotaru leaned against the door frame, her tone revealing an undisguised fascination with the spectacle.

Lu Ren sighed, stuffed the last bite of toast into his mouth, and stepped aside to make way.

"Come in, just don't use my parents' collection of porcelain as volleyballs for practice."

To celebrate their wedding anniversary, Lu Ren's parents drove to a hot spring in a neighboring county early in the morning, and the two-story building became the base for the group of volleyball players.

The living room was quickly rearranged. The coffee table was pushed to the corner, the sofa became the "exam proctor's seat," and a large area in the middle was covered with a carpet and set up with four small, makeshift tables.

Listen carefully.

Lu Ren dragged a portable blackboard out of his study—this was what he usually used to review game videos and strategize. The crisp sound of chalk striking the blackboard instantly silenced the previously noisy living room.

He wrote two large characters on the blackboard: Pass.

"There's only one goal for today. It's not to get you all a perfect score, nor is it to help you understand the mysteries of calculus." Lu Ren turned around, pointing his pointer (actually a self-help stick) at the four people on the ground, "but to help you, these accounts that haven't added enough intelligence attribute points, to get past the 'final exam' dungeon by exploiting a bug that prevents you from passing."

Hinata Shoyo knelt on the mat, his back ramrod straight, his eyes gleaming with a thirst for knowledge… or rather, a longing for the Tokyo expedition: “Oh! That sounds amazing! Is this a finishing move?”

"I suppose so." Lu Ren pushed up his non-existent glasses, turned around, and drew a huge circle on the blackboard. "First, we need to figure out the enemy's attack patterns."

He pulled out a test paper from a stack of folders next to him; it was last year's final exam.

"The math teacher is a typical conservative; his question-setting logic is like a beginner boss who only knows one set of moves." Lu Ren circled several places on the test paper with his pen. "The first question will definitely be about sets and functions, and the third question will absolutely be solid geometry. As long as you memorize these three formulas and plug the numbers in, even if you get the answer wrong, you can still get half the points for the steps."

Kageyama Tobio stared intently at the exam paper, his brow furrowed, his expression even more serious than when he faced Ushijima Wakatoshi on the basketball court.

Suddenly, he raised his hand.

"What's wrong, Kageyama-kun?" Riku asked.

Kageyama pointed at the blackboard, his tone unusually serious: "Since you have last year's exam paper, where is this year's?"

The air froze for three seconds.

Lu Ren nearly snapped the chalk in his hand: "Huh?"

"Didn't you say you were going to help us 'cheate'?" Kageyama asked matter-of-factly, even with a hint of trust in Riku's intelligence capabilities. "Since you can analyze the teacher's question-setting habits, you must have already gotten hold of this year's original questions, right? Just like how you predicted Oikawa-senpai's serve landing point."

Tanaka and Nishiya next to him also had their eyes shining, as if Lu Ren would pull out that "get-out-of-jail-free card" to Tokyo from his pocket at any moment.

"Are you all idiots?!"

Lu Ren finally couldn't hold back any longer and smacked Kageyama squarely on the forehead with a piece of chalk. "I'm a tactical analyst, not a hacker! And certainly not a damn prophet! If I had the original questions, would I bother lecturing you all? I'd just print the answers on your foreheads!"

"Pfft." Tsukishima couldn't help but laugh out loud from behind.

Sawamura Daichi covered his face in pain: "Sorry, Rikuren, this guy's brain circuits are all one-way streets."

Lu Ren took a deep breath, trying to calm the urge to kick the group out. He pointed to the formula on the blackboard: "Listen, I don't have the original question. But I have data. Based on the probability of these types of questions appearing over the past five years, the chance of them appearing is as high as 90%. You don't need to understand why 'A implies B,' you just need to remember, when you see a question that looks like an 'alien symbol,' just write down this formula!"

"This is called—mechanism breaking."

Lu Ren wrote these four characters heavily on the blackboard.

"It's like playing a video game." Seeing that the group was still confused, Lu Ren decided to switch to another language. "Mathematical formulas are your 'skill combos.' English reading comprehension is like 'finding mission items'—no matter what the article is about, when you see keywords in the questions, go to the article and find words that look the same. The answer is usually in the sentence before or after."

"Oh—!" Hinata and Nishinoya exclaimed in realization, "So it's a spot-the-difference game!"

"Almost there." Lu Ren tossed aside the chalk, dusted off his hands, and said, "Now, the theory lesson is over. Let's begin the practical exercise."

He pulled out a thick stack of printed papers from behind him.

That wasn't just a few exam papers.

That was the real deal – a sea of ​​practice questions.

"This is a 'collection of must-know exam question variations' that I compiled last night while staying up all night." Lu Ren revealed a smile comparable to that of a devilish drill instructor. "Since your brain can't process it, then memorize it with your body. Practice these question types until they become muscle memory, so that even if your mind goes blank, your hands can automatically write out the formulas."

"Do we have to finish everything?" Tanaka's face began to turn pale.

"No food until you finish your work," Lu Ren announced coldly. "Senior Daichi, Senior Sugawara, the doorway is yours to manage. Don't let a single fly out."

"Leave it to us." Sawamura Daichi stood at the entrance with his arms crossed, looking just like a gatekeeper guarding the entrance to a dungeon.

"Aaaaaah! Hell!"

The wails echoed throughout the living room, but they didn't last long.

Ten minutes later, all that remained was the scratching sound of the pen tip on the paper and the occasional sound of someone scratching their head in frustration.

Lu Ren wasn't idle. He held a red pen in his hand and moved back and forth among the four people.

"Hinata, stop biting your pen. That formula is for differentiation, not summation. You've got the signs backwards."

"Kageyama, if you can't write the kanji, write the kana. Don't draw circles there. The examiners aren't codebreakers."

"Tanaka, give up on the classical Chinese dictation section. Don't worry about those few points. Focus your energy on modern Chinese reading; it's more cost-effective."

"Nishiya... never mind, just make sure you don't fall asleep."

Time passed second by second, and the sun moved from due south to the west.

The air in the living room became somewhat stuffy, a mixture of the smells of sweat and ink.

Hotaru Tsukishima had initially come to watch the spectacle, but as he watched, his expression became slightly more serious. He realized that Lu Ren wasn't teaching haphazardly. Although this method of "just aiming for a passing grade, not in-depth understanding" was considered heretical by orthodox education, it was the only viable lifeline for these guys whose basic knowledge was practically zero.

Lu Ren completely turned exam preparation into a data-driven game. He abandoned the tough questions and focused solely on the easy ones with high point values ​​and predictable patterns.

This is very much in line with his style.

Extremely utilitarian, extremely rational.

"Hey, Lu Ren."

Tadashi Yamaguchi, who had been silent until now, leaned closer and asked in a low voice, "Is this really going to work? They look like they're about to burst into flames."

Lu Ren glanced at the four who were on the verge of overload. Hinata's eyes had turned into mosquito coils, Kageyama was muttering something but it was impossible to understand what he was saying, and Tanaka and Nishiya were already slumped over the table, their souls seemingly out of their bodies.

"The human brain is like a muscle; it only becomes stronger after it tears and heals under extreme conditions." Lu Ren unscrewed a bottle of mineral water, tilted his head back, and took a swig. "Right now, it's their 'tearing period'."

"and……"

Lu Ren put down the water bottle and his gaze fell on Ying Shan's draft paper covered with scribbles.

Although the handwriting was messy and the steps were chaotic, the key formula was correctly applied amidst the tangled mess.

"These guys can remember such complex tactical combinations on the volleyball court, there's no reason they can't remember a few formulas." Lu Ren's lips curled up slightly. "As long as they feel that this is also a kind of 'competition'."

Listen carefully!

Lu Ren suddenly raised his voice and slammed his hand on the blackboard.

The four people, who were previously half-dead, suddenly sprang to their feet, thinking that the coach was calling for them to assemble.

"We're at 40% progress now," Lu Ren said, pointing to the clock on the wall. "There are still two hours until dinner time. If you can raise the accuracy rate of this practice test to over 60%..."

He paused for a moment and turned to look towards the kitchen.

There, Qingze Yazhi and Senior Jiezi were carrying several huge trays out.

"We're having a special sukiyaki tonight," Ya-Chih added with a smile. "There's plenty of meat."

"Meat!!!"

The four people's eyes instantly turned into searchlights, and their previously depleted health bars seemed to be instantly replenished by the healer, even overflowing.

"I want to eat ten plates!" Hinata roared, grabbed a pen and started typing furiously, his hand speed so fast that it even left afterimages.

"Get out of my way! This question is mine!" Kageyama retorted fiercely, launching an attack on the next geometry question.

Tanaka and Nishiya let out beast-like roars, treating the exam paper like a volleyball that had to be spiked over the net.

"So naive." Tsukishima pushed up his glasses, and although he complained, he still picked up a pen and poked Hinata's back. "Hey, you've got this wrong. Are you trying to calculate a quadrilateral instead of a triangle?"

"Oh? Thank you, Tsukishima!"

"Don't thank me, I just don't want to miss my trip to Tokyo because of you idiots."

Lu Ren leaned against the blackboard, watching this scene where even studying could be so exciting, and felt more tired than after playing a five-game battle.

"Thank you for your hard work, Professor Lu." Sugawara Koji walked over and handed Lu Ren a bottle of sports drink. "It seems that whether on the court or in the exam room, you are very good at manipulating these single-celled organisms."

"Stop making fun of me." Lu Ren unscrewed the bottle cap. "This is much harder than playing against Shiratorizawa. At least Niu Ruo's spikes have a predictable trajectory, but these guys' brain circuits are practically randomly generated gibberish."

Sugawara smiled gently, looking at Kageyama, who was struggling with a function problem: "But it's precisely because it's gibberish that it has infinite possibilities, isn't it?"

Lu Ren did not refute.

He looked out the window at the sunset gradually turning red, then looked at his teammates inside who were struggling desperately for the same goal.

Although they complained about how troublesome it was, and the process was full of hilarious glitches, the energy these guys had was actually quite endearing.

"Perhaps."

Lu Ren took a sip of the drink, the sweet taste spreading in his mouth.

"As long as they don't fall asleep during the exam, they've won."

This special challenge, dubbed "Final Exam Tutoring," has only just begun. For Lu Ren, figuring out how to drag these volleyball idiots, who only have muscle memory, past the passing grade is probably the most severe tactical challenge he has faced since coming to this world.