Haikyuu!!: The Disaster of Gamers

Tokyo in the summer is a giant steamer, and Saitama Prefecture is probably the bottom layer of that steamer, filled with water. The air is as thick as some kind of spoiled jelly, and every breath condenses into scalding steam in your lungs.

The gymnasium floor was gleaming with sweat, and the sharp screech of shoes scraping against each other sounded like a bunch of crazy rats having a party.

"One more set!" Daichi Sawamura's roar was noticeably hoarse.

Karasuno High School just lost to Ikugawa High School. The score was ugly, and the game was even uglier. Their tactic, known as the "Chimera," is still in the process of gelling, and the result of everyone running around haphazardly is that their defense is leaky everywhere. So, the much-anticipated punishment has arrived again—a diving save every time.

Lu Ren lay sprawled on the floor, like a salted fish that had just been pulled ashore and sun-dried for three days. He maintained his chin-down position, his eyes unfocused as he stared at the pair of sneakers belonging to Hinata Shoyo in front of him.

"There's definitely a bug in this game's stamina bar system," Lu Ren muttered, his voice barely audible except on the floor. "Why is that orange-headed character's stamina locked at infinity, while mine is dropping faster than a certain iPhone's battery?"

"Lu Ren! Get up! Stop playing dead!" Tanaka Ryunosuke lunged at him from the side, bringing a gust of hot air with him. "That's the sweat of youth!"

"That's a sign of dehydration." Lu Ren rolled over, barely managing to sit up, and completed the last movement of this set.

Despite his constant complaining, when the break whistle blew, Lu Ren didn't find a shady corner to lie dormant as usual. He pulled out the black-covered notebook from his gym bag, and spun a ballpoint pen, covered in teeth marks, rapidly between his fingers.

It's free practice time now, or it might be time for other schools' competitions.

For most people, this is a chance to catch their breath. But for Lu Ren, it's time to "look up the strategy guide".

He put on that baseball cap with the brim pulled low and wandered around the edges of the various courts like a wandering ghost.

Field 3, Fukutani Academy vs. Otokoma High School.

This is definitely a high-level game.

Lu Ren found an excellent vantage point—the back of the referee's chair. He sat cross-legged, his notebook spread out on his lap, and his pen flew across the paper.

On the court, Kotaro Bokuto is going crazy. The black-and-white-haired outside hitter has just spiked a ball right off the line and is now waving his fist at the air, shouting "Hey Hey Hey!"

"Single-celled organism, extremely volatile emotions, a god in favorable situations, but in unfavorable situations... well, we'll have to observe." Lu Ren wrote this line on the paper, then drew a simple owl next to the name "Wood Rabbit" and put a question mark above the owl's head.

His gaze shifted and landed on Akashi Kyoji, the setter for Fukutani.

That setter was frighteningly calm. No matter how much Bokuto acted up, he could accurately place the ball in the most comfortable position, and even find time to give Bokuto a psychological massage.

"Manipulator. Or rather... Beastmaster?" Lu Ren narrowed his eyes, noting next to Chi Wei's name: [Core logic: As long as the ace is appeased, the team gains a +20% buff to all attributes. Weakness: Probably dies from overwork.]

Next up is Otoko.

This team gave Lu Ren a headache. Not because they were particularly strong, but because they were too "slick".

That guy with the mohawk, Kuroo Tetsuro, has such a soft, cotton-like hand shape when blocking, but he always manages to get the ball going; that libero, Yoru Eisuke, has such disgusting positioning, it's like he's got a full-map vision cheat.

"Tower-based strategy. It relies on whittling down the opponent's health to break their mentality." Lu Ren bit his pen, his brows furrowed into a deep frown. "To break this kind of situation, you either need to overwhelm them with numerical superiority, or you need to disrupt their rhythm even more."

He was engrossed in writing when he suddenly felt a gaze upon him.

Turning my head, I was met with a pair of golden eyes that looked like a cat's.

Kozume Kenma stood on the sidelines, holding a water bottle, watching him with a blank expression.

"What are you writing?" The grinding sound was very soft, and could be drowned out by the sound of sneakers rubbing if you didn't listen carefully.

Lu Ren closed the notebook, obscuring the words "Death Note" on the cover, and grinned: "Nothing much, just jotting down some recipes. Your captain's mohawk hairstyle reminds me of some kind of crispy fried ingredient."

Moyan stared at him for a while, seemingly assessing the credibility of his words, and finally simply said, "Liar."

"Likewise." Lu Ren shrugged. "Your second-chance fake fooled the whole team. Even I almost thought you were going to pass to the fast break."

Moyan didn't say anything more, turned around and walked back to the group.

Lu Ren watched his retreating figure and wrote a line heavily in his notebook: [Kozaku Grinding: Enemy's brain. High-IQ player. Physically useless (crossed out, similar). Must be prioritized; it is recommended to mentally corrupt him from the start.]

After gathering this batch of intelligence, Lu Ren felt a burning sensation in his throat. He put away his notebook and sauntered towards the managers' lounge.

There is water, watermelons, and intelligence there.

Kiyoko Shimizu was cutting a watermelon, while Hitoka Taniguchi, standing next to her, helped by handing her plates like a startled little hamster. Beside them, Ikawa and Mori's manager were chatting happily.

Lu Ren straightened his black T-shirt, which was soaked with sweat, adjusted his expression, and put on a harmless "well-behaved junior" face.

"Excuse me, beautiful ladies."

He leaned closer and casually swiped a slice of watermelon from the plate. "It's so hot that even the cicadas have stopped chirping. You guys still have to take care of such a large group of sweaty wild animals. You must be exhausted."

The manager of Senran was a short-haired girl who was taken aback by Lu Ren's sudden flirting, then laughed: "You're that...that math-savvy liaison from Wuye, right? I heard you really angered our headmaster yesterday."

"That's a side effect of academic exchange." Lu Ren took a bite of watermelon, the juice bursting in his mouth, slightly relieving the heat. "By the way, that number 7 who served so fiercely earlier, does he usually practice javelin? His arm swing doesn't look like a volleyball style."

"Huh? You figured that out?" Ikawa's manager covered his mouth in surprise. "He used to be on the track and field team, but he switched to volleyball later."

"No wonder." Lu Ren looked like he suddenly understood, subtly shifting his body into the shade. "His back injury must be quite serious, right? That kind of power generation is fierce, but it puts a lot of strain on his lumbar spine. If the match goes to the fifth set, the quality of his serve will definitely drop drastically."

The two managers exchanged a glance, their eyes showing a hint of surprise.

"You noticed that... Indeed, the coach has always told him to control the number of serves."

Lu Ren chuckled inwardly.

Bingo. Intelligence acquired.

While Ikawa's serving team is formidable, their stamina is a major weakness. If we can slow down the pace and wait for their main server to run out of energy, that will be the time to launch a counterattack.

He was just about to pry out more information about Owl Valley's "Wood Rabbit Weakness List" when he suddenly felt a familiar, sharp pain in his right ear.

The pain wasn't sharp, but extremely precise, like a grappling technique that had been honed through countless trials.

"Ouch! Ouch! Let go! Let go! My ear is going to fall off!" The watermelon rind in Lu Ren's hand almost flew out, and his whole body tilted like a shrimp due to the force.

Qingze Yazhi stood behind him, a standard, chillingly kind smile on her face. Her fingers pinched Lu Ren's ear, the pressure perfectly controlled—enough to cause him pain without causing any real harm.

"Lu, Ren, Tong, Xue"

Ya-zhi's voice was incredibly sweet, but Lu Ren detected the murderous intent within it. "Everyone's doing their diving punishments, even Hyuga's practicing catching the ball extra. What are you doing here? Flirting with the manager from another school?"

"Innocent! Utterly innocent!" Lu Ren tilted his head, trying to clear his ears. "I was on duty! This is intelligence warfare! I was gathering intelligence!"

"Do you need to eat watermelon to spy on the enemy?"

"This is...this is a disguise! To blend in!"

"Then why is there a Q-version emoticon of Senior Mutu in your notebook?" Yazhi took the notebook out of his pocket with her other hand, turned to a page, and pointed to the silly owl head on it.

"That's character profiling! Psychological analysis!" Lu Ren still stubbornly insisted.

The surrounding managers all burst out laughing. Jiezi adjusted her glasses, and the corners of her mouth turned up slightly.

Ya Zhi sighed and let go. Lu Ren quickly covered his ears and jumped two meters away, rubbing them as he complained, "Are you a devil? Where did you learn this grip strength? Don't blame me if you never get married!"

"Mind your own business." Yazhi rolled her eyes at him, shoved the notebook back into his arms, and then took out an unopened sports drink from the box next to her and slapped it hard on his chest.

"Finish your drink and head back quickly. Coach Wu Yang was just looking for you; he said he wants to try out that new formation. If you dare to slack off again, I'll post your old photos in the alumni group."

Lu Ren's expression changed instantly.

"You're ruthless." He gritted his teeth, unscrewed the bottle cap, and took a huge gulp. "Can't you just forget about this old grudge?"

"It depends on your performance." Yazhi crossed her arms and gestured with her chin towards the basketball court. "Go quickly. Don't keep everyone waiting."

Looking at her "housekeeper" demeanor, Lu Ren felt a strange sense of irritation from the high temperature dissipate considerably. He precisely tossed the empty bottle into the trash can, then turned his baseball cap around so the brim faced backward.

"Alright." He stretched, his joints cracking. "Now that we've gathered enough intelligence, it's time to go back and teach those guys a lesson."

He turned and walked toward the Karasuno field.

At this moment, Hinata and Kageyama were practicing that damned "straight up and down" fast attack. The ball bounced off the ground again and again, and the two argued again and again. Tsukishima Hotaru watched indifferently at the net, while Yamaguchi Tadashi nervously cheered her on from the side.

This is Karasuno as it is now.

Rough, chaotic, and riddled with bugs.

But in Lu Ren's eyes, it was like a game client frantically loading patches. Although it was currently running incredibly slowly and could even crash at any moment, the core code was being restructured.

He walked to the sidelines and tossed the notebook to Gu Direnhua.

"Renhua, please help me organize the content from pages 15 to 18. We'll be using it for the debriefing meeting tonight."

"Huh? Okay, okay!" Gu Di hurriedly took the notebook, flipped it open, and his eyes widened immediately. "This, this is... the serving rotation pattern of Ikawa High School? And Mori Ran's number 7 jump habit?"

"Shh." Lu Ren put his index finger to his lips. "Trade secrets. Don't let those big idiots hear, or they'll start yelling some boring stuff like 'despicable' again."

He walked onto the court and stood opposite Kageyama.

"Hey, Your Majesty," Lu Ren called out, interrupting Kageyama and Hinata's argument, "Stop figuring out how to pass the ball more stylishly. I just took a look, and if we want to win the next game, you need to learn to pass the ball more collaboratively."

Kageyama frowned: "Huh? What do you mean?"

"It means..." Lu Ren pointed to his head, "We should try the Evolution Monster Fast Attack."

In the distant stands, Coach Nekomata squinted at the scene and said to Coach Naoi beside him, "That Karasuno number 7... he's more of a tactical analyst who's infiltrated the field than a player. This type of player is the most troublesome."

"Yes," Naoi nodded, "but his physical fitness does seem to be a big problem."

"That's a limiter," Coach Neko chuckled. "If even that limit is removed, this crow will probably turn into an eagle."

On the field, Lu Ren sneezed.

"Who's insulting me?" He rubbed his nose, then got into a catching stance, his eyes instantly shifting from lazy to sharp. "Come on, let me see just how high the difficulty ceiling of this stupid game really is."