Haikyuu!!: The Disaster of Gamers

In the early morning, the smell of old wooden floors and cheap anti-slip powder in the gymnasium hadn't yet dissipated when it was diluted by a group of energetic teenagers.

After Kageyama Tobio returned yesterday, I don't know what kind of whispers he whispered in those people's ears, but now they all seem to have had their stats forcibly modified in the system's backend, and their training intensity is ridiculously high. Hyuga Shoyo is jumping around at the net like a flea with springs, while Kageyama's passes have a fierce force that seems to want to scrape the ball off its surface.

Lu Ren leaned against the equipment box by the sidelines, his eyelids drooping, exuding a sense of dejection as if he had just crawled out of a hellish dungeon. Yesterday's raid on Qingye City's west side to gather intelligence had consumed more brain cells than a five-game battle. Right now, he just wanted to hang himself on the ceiling and be a quiet backdrop.

He pulled a vacuum-packed bag from his bag, tore it open, and a rich, spicy aroma of five spices instantly filled the air.

That was braised duck gizzard that Qingze Yazhi specially brought back for him from her last trip to China. It was made using a recipe from a long-established brand in Chengdu. It was very chewy, salty, savory, and spicy, and was a holy grail for replenishing physical and mental energy.

Lu Ren stuffed a piece into his mouth, his cheeks bulging as he stared blankly at the scene.

"Wouldn't it be too strong a flavor to eat that kind of thing so early in the morning?"

A voice, tinged with disdain yet also tinged with hesitation, rang in my ears.

Lu Ren didn't turn around; he could tell who it was just from that arrogant tone, which seemed to have a built-in filter. He mechanically handed the bag to the side: "Braised duck gizzards, good for the brain. Want some, Tsukishima-kun?"

Hotaru Tsukishima stood to the side, looked down at the dark, shiny chunk of meat, and twitched her lips: "No need, I don't intend to let my stomach die during training."

Lu Ren withdrew his hand, continued chewing, and didn't say anything.

Tsukishima didn't leave.

His long legs stood there like lightning rods. He would push up his glasses one moment and look at the patterns on the floor the next. His hesitant expression made him seem to Lu Ren like an NPC stuck in a glitch, endlessly spinning in place.

"Speak your mind." Lu Ren swallowed the meat in his mouth. "Your hesitation is interfering with my appreciation of Hyuga's artistry in catching the ball and hitting the wall."

Hotaru Tsukishima froze. He took a deep breath, as if he had made a huge decision, and lowered his voice: "About Wakatoshi Ushijima... could you teach me how to stop that kind of powerful spike?"

Lu Renzheng's hand, which was about to put a piece of duck gizzard into his mouth, froze.

He slowly turned his head, his dead fish eyes wide open for the first time in front of Tsukishima. He reached out and touched Tsukishima's forehead, then touched his own, his expression horrified.

"Who are you? Get out of Tsukishima Hotaru's body right now." Lu Ren's tone was serious. "Hearing such words from your mouth is more chilling than Kageyama suddenly getting the top score in the whole school. Has some strange patch overwritten your underlying code?"

Tsukishima's face flushed instantly, a vein throbbed on his forehead, and he gritted his teeth, saying, "I'm serious. Coach Ukai said that when it comes to dismantling mechanisms and developing targeted tactics, you probably see things more clearly than him. I want to... stop Ushiwaka."

Lu Ren looked at him. Although Yuedao's eyes still held that usual defensiveness, there was indeed a fire hidden deep within them. It was the restlessness of someone who was suppressed by a strong person and was unwilling to be just a "passerby".

"Want to learn?" Lu Ren tossed the last duck gizzard from the bag into his mouth, patted the crumbs off his hands, and a playful glint appeared in his eyes. "You have to have the right attitude when asking for help. In the game, you have to give a senior mentor a lot of respect when you ask them for advice on skills. Come on, call me 'Teacher Lu Ren' and let me hear it."

Hotaru Tsukishima's expression became incredibly complex in that instant, as if he had swallowed a thousand flies, or as if he wanted to devour Rikuren alive on the spot. He clenched his fist and squeezed out four words through gritted teeth: "Rikuren... teacher."

"Your tone is too stiff. Could you be a little more delicate? Add a touch of that 'please' at the end?" Lu Ren raised an eyebrow, pushing his luck.

Tsukishima turned and walked away, taking very long strides.

"Just kidding! Just kidding!" Lu Ren quickly reached out and grabbed Tsukishima's sweatpants by the back. "Come back here. How come you have no sense of humor at all? This kind of personality makes it easy for people to get the better of you in PvP."

Tsukishima turned around with a dark expression. If looks could kill, Lu Ren would have already dropped to the starting village.

Lu Ren stood up, dusted himself off, and walked into the shadows under the basketball hoop. At this moment, the others who had been practicing gradually gathered around. Tanaka Ryunosuke and Nishitani Yu, the two lively characters, were the first to join in the fun, while Kageyama and Hinata also stopped what they were doing and looked on curiously.

"Since 'Tsukishima-kun' has condescended to do so, let's talk about the big boss, Ushijima Wakatoshi." Lu Ren casually picked up a volleyball and twirled it between his fingers. "First question: what is the essence of blocking?"

"Block the opponent's attack and score directly." Tsukishima's answer was perfect.

"Wrong." Lu Ren stopped the ball. "That's the result, not the essence. In my logic, blocking is 'restriction.' What you need is not to block Niu Ruo, but to restrict his methods of scoring. Blocking the ball is just the fastest and most satisfying way to score, but it's not the only way."

"What do you mean?" Tanaka Ryunosuke scratched his head. "If we don't stop him, are we just going to let him deduct money as he pleases?"

"Why is Niu Ruo's spike so powerful?" Lu Ren didn't answer, but instead looked at everyone.

"The power is outrageous, like a heavy hammer." Tanaka swung his fist.

"The spin on the left hand," Sugawara Koji added, "when you receive the ball, it flies outwards, which is very uncomfortable."

"His ball control angles are very tricky; he can hit both long-range and diagonal shots," Tsukishima said coldly.

Lu Ren nodded: "So, once you remove these things, Niu Ruo's spikes are no different from an ordinary person's, right?"

"Everyone understands the logic, but how do we separate them?" Hinata Shoyo jumped over, his face serious. "Are you going to poison Niu Ruo, Lu Ren? Make him get diarrhea?"

In an instant, all eyes turned to Lu Ren. Their eyes were filled with absolute trust, as if to say, "If it were you, you really could do it."

Lu Ren's lips twitched slightly: "What kind of image do you guys have of me? I'm a law-abiding player, okay?!"

He cleared his throat, tossed the ball to Kageyama, and gestured for him to stand on the other side.

"What I mean is, if he's strong, don't go head-to-head. A direct confrontation is something only a simple-minded person like Kageyama would do." Lu Ren pointed at Tsukishima. "You need to learn 'soft blocking.' Don't try to just smother the ball; instead, pull your hand back a little and use your fingertips to cushion the ball's momentum. Once the ball slows down, Nishiya and Daichi-senpai can save it."

"As for spin, that's a matter of physics. You'll get the feel for it by receiving more spikes with your left hand. The most crucial thing is the angle." Lu Ren walked to the net and made a gesture. "Guiding block. Tsukishima, your strengths are composure and height. You need to deliberately leave an enticing opening, such as a straight-line trajectory, forcing him to spike there, while our defensive focus is already positioned on that straight line."

Hinata's eyes lit up: "Isn't this just driving the prey into a trap?"

"That's right." Lu Ren looked at Tsukishima, "But what Tsukishima wants is a 'head-on confrontation,' the kind of direct block that silences the entire arena. Right?"

Tsukishima nodded silently.

Lu Ren sighed, caught the ball, and weighed it in his hand: "A direct confrontation with someone like Niu Ruo, whose level of brute force is so high, is almost impossible. His offensive power is overflowing; no matter how thick your defensive gear is, it will eventually break through. Unless…"

"Unless what?" Tsukishima pressed.

"Unless you have enough patience." Lu Ren's eyes deepened, a look he only showed when tackling those hellish difficulty single-player games. "In games, there's always a type of boss that players can't defeat by simply stacking stats. They have high health, high attack, and strong defense, making them almost invincible. But these bosses often share a common weakness—they rely too much on their 'powerful skills'."

Lu Ren squatted down and drew a circle on the wooden floor with his finger.

"When facing this kind of monster, the most common tactic players use is not burst damage, but applying debuffs, that is, negative status effects."

"A single touch slows him down. A block that forces him to change angle increases his fatigue. Repeatedly receiving his powerful spikes undermines his confidence. What you need to do is not to deplete his health bar all at once, but to continuously pile these negative effects on him throughout the entire match."

"When he discovers that his once-proud spike is no longer a guaranteed kill, when he finds that each point requires three times the effort of before, when he finds that the bespectacled guy on the other side can always disrupt his rhythm like a ghost... at that moment, the BOSS's defense will crack."

Lu Ren stood up and looked directly into Tsukishima Hotaru's eyes.

"At that time, the opportunity for a 'head-to-head confrontation' that you've been waiting for will naturally come. At that moment, what you need to do is not to block the ball, but to catch his 'descended' fighting spirit."

Hotaru Tsukishima stood still, her mind rapidly reconstructing the scene described by Lu Ren.

This isn't a revenge story from a shonen manga; it's an extremely cold and patient hunt.

"How exactly do we wear him down?" Tsukishima asked.

Lu Ren shrugged, reverting to his lazy demeanor, and turned to walk towards the rest area.

"I don't know, you'll have to figure that out yourself. I'm just providing the strategy; you're the one doing the dungeon. But if you keep calling me that sweetly next time, I might consider writing a detailed numerical analysis report for you."

"roll."

Hotaru Tsukishima replied coldly, but this time, he didn't push up his glasses. Instead, he turned and walked towards the net, shouting to Kageyama, "Hey, King, a few more balls, try hitting the one with the most power."

Lu Ren sat on the bench, looking at the gymnasium that had once again fallen into a frenzy of training. He took out another bag of duck gizzards from his bag, and a barely perceptible smile appeared on his lips.