Haikyuu!!: The Disaster of Gamers

The sound of the scoreboard flipping was particularly jarring inside the stadium.

20: 12.

21: 14.

22: 15.

It's like playing a Souls-like game where the boss seems enormous with a huge health bar, wielding a giant spiked club that could instantly kill you. But once you calm down and roll around a few times, you'll find that the boss's attack animation is ridiculously long, its turning speed is as slow as a rusty gear, and it only knows how to repeat one or two basic attacks.

At this point, the fear disappears. In its place comes the monotonous, gratifying feeling of a skilled worker harvesting the produce.

This is the situation at Kadokawa High School.

Bai Zexiong stood at the net, his chest heaving, sweat dripping from his chin onto the floor. His once imposing arms now felt as heavy as lead. He looked at the group of guys in black jerseys on the other side of the net, his eyes filled with confusion.

He was clearly taller.

He could have scored by simply slamming the ball down.

Why does the ball never land on the floor?

"One more ball! Bai Ze!" Kadokawa's setter was still shouting, his voice trembling with a hint of relief.

The volleyball flies high into the sky.

Bai Ze jumped. This was probably the umpteenth time he'd jumped this game. Those jumps that relied solely on Achilles tendon and muscle power visibly decreased in height as his stamina declined.

Opposite him, Hotaru Tsukishima did not rush to jump.

The boy with black-rimmed glasses simply watched coldly as the enormous figure grew weaker in mid-air. It wasn't until Bai Ze swung his arm that Yue Dao extended his own.

There's no need to block out all angles.

All you need to do is be there.

Snapped.

To avoid the block, Bai Ze instinctively tried to flick his wrist to hit a short cross-court shot. But his rough technique simply couldn't support such a delicate maneuver. The volleyball hit the white tape of the net, bounced once, and landed weakly within Kadokawa's own court boundaries.

23: 16.

"I'm sorry..." Bai Ze lowered his head, his voice muffled in his throat.

"It's okay! Next ball!" Kadokawa's captain clapped his hands, trying to rouse the team's morale, but the feeling of powerlessness spread like a plague.

The gap in strength can't be bridged by shouting a few times. This isn't a scene from a shonen manga where someone suddenly becomes incredibly powerful; this is the brutal reality of competitive sports. In terms of technique, experience, and tactical system, Karasuno completely outclassed Kadokawa in every dimension.

Another round has passed.

24: 17.

Karasuno has reached match point.

Rotation.

The number 13 player who made the entire Kadokawa team tremble with fear once again stepped onto the service line.

Lu Ren spun the ball in his hand twice, feeling the texture of the leather surface. He glanced up at the opposite side. Kadokawa's backcourt players were tense, their positions noticeably back—they were terrified of that jump serve from the baseline.

"simple."

Lu Ren tossed the ball high into the air.

He took a running start. The rhythm of these steps was superb, each step perfectly timed. He leaped into the air, his body arching like a crossbow bolt ready to fire.

Kadokawa's free agent, Komaki, stared intently at the trajectory of Lu Ren's arm.

Here it comes! Heavy artillery!

Lu Ren's palm struck the ball solidly.

Bang!

A muffled thud exploded.

But this ball didn't have the terrifying downward spin of the previous jump serve; instead, it was a flat shot. Like a cannonball, it flew straight towards the back left corner of Kadokawa's court—the junction between the libero and the outside hitter.

That position is the "gray area" where coordination errors are most likely to occur.

"I'll do it!"

"your!"

Two voices rang out at the same time, and then both hesitated for half a second.

In that half-second of hesitation, the volleyball was already crashing down in front of him. Kadokawa's libero, Furumaki, could only grit his teeth and make an extremely awkward diving motion, barely managing to bail the ball up with one hand.

"Got it!" Gu Mu shouted, his voice cracking.

The ball didn't fly towards the setter, but instead soared high over the net and headed straight for Karasuno's backcourt.

"An opportunity ball!"

Sawamura Daichi's voice was calm and reassuring. He didn't need to move much; he simply adjusted his footing slightly and steadily placed the harmless tennis ball near the three-meter line.

That is, the most comfortable spot for Kageyama Tobio.

"Hinata!"

Kageyama didn't even glance at the attacker's position.

The instant the ball fell into his hands, an orange afterimage had already cut into the three-meter line.

That was Hinata Shoyo.

While Bai Zexiong was still stunned by the previous pass error, his brain only received the instruction to "block" when he saw Hyuga jump.

too slow.

For Karasuno at this point, this reaction speed is practically like a slow-motion replay.

Kageyama flicked his wrist.

The volleyball appeared in front of Hyuga as if it had teleported, stopping right there.

Hinata waved his arm in the air.

There was no obstruction whatsoever. Before them lay a vast, uninhabited area, where the tower named Baize still awkwardly bent its knees on the ground.

Boom!

The volleyball hits the floor vertically, and bounces even higher than the net.

The whistle blew.

25: 17.

The first game is over.

……

The rest area on the sidelines.

The Karasuno players were replenishing their fluids. Hinata Shoyo was excitedly gesturing to show off the feel of his spike from earlier, while Kageyama Tobio stood by, his face dark, correcting him on the timing of his jump.

Although they won the first game, the atmosphere wasn't as relaxed as they had imagined.

"That big guy is adapting a bit faster than expected." Daichi Sawamura wiped his sweat, his brow furrowed slightly. "In the last few balls, he started trying to stop swinging wildly and instead use fixed-point blocks. Although his movements are still stiff, his two-meter height is undeniable. As long as he stays in position, he's a threat to our attackers."

"Indeed." Sugawara Koji handed over a bottle of water. "If they completely abandon their attack in the second set and switch to defending the net, Hyuga's attack routes will be severely compressed."

This is what makes "physical cheating" so disgusting.

If the technique isn't enough, the model will make up for it. As long as Bai Ze stands in front of the net, he is a natural wall of despair. Even if he does nothing, just by raising his hand, he can force Karasuno's attackers to pursue more difficult angles, thereby increasing their error rate.

"Tsk, what a hassle." Ryunosuke Tanaka pulled a towel over his head. "Isn't there any way to cripple him outright?"

"No need for that."

A lazy voice interrupted.

Everyone turned their heads.

Lu Ren was sitting on a bench, holding a half-empty energy gel in his hand, his expression as casual as if he were discussing what to eat for dinner.

"As long as I'm in the front row in the second game, I can face him for a few rounds."

Hotaru Tsukishima, who was wiping her glasses, paused upon hearing this, a perfectly standard fake smile tugging at the corners of her mouth: "Oh? Our 'math prodigy' has another brilliant idea? Are you planning to use trigonometric functions to calculate the probability of him falling, or use calculus to find the limit of his mental breakdown?"

Lu Ren rolled his eyes and made a perfectly standard international friendship gesture towards Tsukishima.

"Put away your meager imagination, Tsukishima. Dealing with a boss whose mental defenses are weaker than a tutorial tutorial doesn't require any brainpower at all."

Sawamura Daichi was somewhat puzzled: "Just a matchup? You want to block him completely? But his hitting point is too high, even if you..."

"Who said we were going to block the net?"

Lu Ren crushed the energy gel packaging and casually tossed it into a trash can two meters away. (Hollow entry into the net.)

He turned his head and looked at Kadokawa's rest area not far away. His eyes gradually became somewhat gloomy, and even carried a hint of unsettling fanaticism.

"Winning hearts and minds is the best strategy, Captain."

Lu Ren lowered his voice, his tone becoming soft and sticky, like a venomous snake flicking its tongue.

"The biggest fear for a novice who comes to the field later in life is not being outmatched in skill, but rather self-doubt."

"When I go on stage later, I'll stick close to the net and have a good 'talk' with him in a voice that only he can hear."

Lu Ren cleared his throat, his expression instantly switching to a hypocritical look of pity and compassion.

"For example... 'Hey, big guy, you're so tall but you can't even touch a ball, aren't you ashamed?'"

"Or... 'Look at your teammates. That libero bruised his knees trying to save you from that mistake. That setter's fingers were trembling as he tried to pass the ball to you. They worked so hard, gave it their all, and what was the result? Because of you, a useless piece of trash who's good for nothing but height, their summer is over.'"

Lu Ren became more and more excited as he spoke, his mouth uncontrollably stretching to his ears, and his eyes flashing with a strange light called "pleasure".

"It's because of you, Bai Ze. It's because of your incompetence that you gave them futile hope, and then you extinguished it with your own hands. Look at their tired and desperate faces, tsk tsk tsk, you are so cruel..."

The surrounding air suddenly became quiet.

Hinata Shoyo shrank behind Kageyama, trembling.

Ryunosuke Tanaka dropped the towel in his hand. He swallowed hard and took two steps toward Yu Nishiya. "Hey, Yu... is this guy really on our side? I'm getting a chill down my spine."

Nishitani Yuu's face stiffened: "This isn't just trash talk anymore, it's a mental attack! It's a curse!"

Yuan Shiki silently made the sign of the cross on his chest.

Lu Ren was completely absorbed in his own script, still chuckling mischievously: "As long as this idea takes root in his mind, and then I combine it with a few blocks to score... bang! His mentality explodes. I guarantee that for the rest of his life, whenever he sees a volleyball, he'll remember today's nightmare, and he'll even wake up crying from his dreams..."

Snapped.

A hand slammed down on Lu Ren's shoulder.

Lu Ren turned around and was met with Sugawara Koji's face, which was smiling brightly but seemed to be emanating dark energy.

"Lu Ren-kun," Sugawara's voice was so gentle it could melt your heart, "While all's fair in war, we still need to be decent human beings. Defeating our opponents honorably is Karasuno's style, right?"

"Huh?" Lu Ren blinked, his sinister aura instantly dissipating, returning him to his usual lazy demeanor. "I was just saying, providing an alternative. After all, it's the most efficient..."

"Rejected." Sawamura Daichi said decisively, his face dark. "Using methods that could cause lifelong psychological trauma to first-year students is prohibited! Are you here to play volleyball or to be the villainous boss?"

"Tch." Lu Ren curled his lip. "A boring sense of justice."

……

At the same time.

Across the net is the rest area of ​​Kadokawa High School.

As Bai Zexiong was listening to the coach's tactical instructions, he suddenly shuddered, a chill running from his tailbone straight to the top of his head.

"Achoo—!!"

A thunderous sneeze interrupted the coach's words.

Bai Ze rubbed his nose and looked around blankly. For a moment, he felt like he was being watched by some kind of predator at the top of the food chain, and the feeling of being stripped naked and thrown into the freezing snow made his hair stand on end.

"What's wrong, Bai Ze? Have you caught a cold?" the setter asked with concern.

"N-nothing...it's nothing." Bai Ze sniffed, glancing somewhat fearfully in Wu Ye's direction. "It's just that I suddenly have this feeling...like I just escaped a disaster."

"Huh?" The teammates looked at each other in bewilderment.

"Alright! Don't get distracted!" Kadokawa's coach patted the tactics board. "The second set is crucial! Momozawa, don't feel pressured. As long as the ball is set in place, just smash it boldly! That number 13 has a strong serve, but she's not as tall as you at the net! Make good use of your advantage!"

Baize nodded and clenched his fist.

But he didn't know that it was the "conscience" that remained in the Karasuno team that saved him from a form of mental bullying that could have led to his immediate resignation.

However, even without those vicious verbal attacks, the "physics lesson" prepared by number 13 was enough to give him a hard time.

"Alright, get on stage!"

As the referee blew his whistle, both teams returned to the field.

As Lu Ren passed by the net, he glanced at Bai Ze, who was staring at him warily, and a meaningful smile appeared on his lips.

While verbal attacks are not allowed, using volleyball to teach someone a lesson shouldn't be considered against the rules, right?

The hunt continues in the second round.