Haikyuu!!: The Disaster of Gamers

The sharp whistle cut off the noise inside the venue.

"Watch this—!"

Ryunosuke Tanaka slammed the volleyball in his hand onto the floor with such force that it seemed to create a dent. He took a running start, pushed off the ground, and his entire body stretched into a recurve bow in mid-air.

"Take this, my strongest serve!"

The ball, like a cannonball, slammed into the back row of Jozenji with obvious backspin.

"Whoa! Good shot!" Jozenji's libero practically lunged forward, his movements haphazard, like a goalkeeper saving a penalty kick, but he did manage to get the ball up. The ball flew high, spinning wildly.

"Sorry! Let me fix it!"

Jozenji's setter, Takeharu Niki, didn't even adjust his footwork before jumping while running and awkwardly flicking the ball towards position three.

"What kind of pass is that?" Hotaru Tsukishima frowned at the net. This kind of pass is completely aerodynamic and violates the basic aesthetics of setting.

But Jozenji's main attacker, Terujima Yuuji, burst out like a monkey, pulling up for a jump shot from the spot without any running start, his arm swinging like a whip.

"Snapped!"

Fast attack. A fast attack with absolutely no rhythm.

Lu Ren fell to the ground in the back row, the ball hitting his forearm and bouncing into the air. "First pass in place." He got up from the floor and dusted off his knees.

Kageyama Tobio was already in position. His fingertips touched the ball, and his eyes instantly locked onto control of the air in front of the net.

"Tsukishima!"

Hotaru Tsukishima jumped. His movements were textbook perfect, every step perfectly timed. He looked at the opposite blocker, his mind racing: the setter's position was too far to the left, the attacker's approach was blocked, and the opening was in a straight line.

He swung his arm and smashed the ball.

However, just as the volleyball was about to pass over the net, the blond-haired guy from Jozenji, Terujima Yuuji, strangely pulled his hand back as it fell, and then stretched it out again like a spring.

That's not a blocking technique; it's pure physical instinct.

"Thump!"

The volleyball hit Terujima's palm, bounced back onto Karasuno's court, and scored a point.

The referee blew the whistle, 17 to 12.

Hotaru Tsukishima landed, his face as black as the bottom of a pot. He pushed up his glasses, staring at the group of "wild monkeys" opposite him who were celebrating by bumping chests together, his teeth clenched. This kind of completely unreasonable and illogical fighting style was the kind of "garbled code" that he, as a rationalist, hated the most.

"You're really unhappy, aren't you?"

Lu Ren had somehow appeared behind Tsukishima, holding up his collar to let in some fresh air. "Do you feel like you're playing a game with a bunch of cheaters using a random number generator?"

Tsukishima didn't turn around, his voice cold and hard: "Their movements were completely unpredictable. The muscle contractions, the direction of their gazes—it was all fake. You can't predict this kind of shot."

"Who told you to make a prediction?" Lu Ren rolled his eyes and pointed to his head. "When you're dealing with a monster that's riddled with bugs because of poorly written code, the more you try to deduce it with logic, the more likely you are to crash."

"Then how do we fight?"

"Don't treat them like 'volleyball players,' treat them like 'dynamic obstacles.'" Lu Ren lowered his voice, a hint of amusement in his tone. "Since we can't predict them, we'll rely on memory. Although monkeys' movements are random, their reactions when startled are fixed. As long as you give them a strong enough stimulus, their 'random algorithm' will collapse."

Tsukishima paused for a moment, then looked thoughtfully at the other side of the net.

The turn was taken. Lu Ren stood in the front row, and west Gu Xi replaced him in the back row.

Jozenji serves. It's a soft, easy float serve; for Nishiya, receiving such a serve is easier than drinking water.

"I'll do it!"

With her knees slightly bent, Nishitani Yu delivered the ball steadily to Kageyama's head.

At the moment Kageyama Tobio's fingers touched the ball, his wrist twitched subtly. The ball, which seemed destined for Tanaka on the left wing, suddenly changed direction and was shot horizontally towards Riku Ren on the right wing.

"It's that annoying dead fish eyes again!" Terujima Yuu shouted. The three people in front of Jozenji Temple, like sharks that had smelled blood, instantly built a three-person net wall in front of Rikuren.

The wall is very high, and because of their excellent physical condition, the area they block off is frighteningly large.

Lu Ren looked at the six waving arms in front of him from mid-air. If it were an ordinary attacker, he would probably choose to avoid their sharp edge or try a surprise attack with great force.

But in Lu Ren's eyes, this is not just a wall, but a huge "material library" full of collision volumes.

"The blocking technique was too scattered, full of loopholes."

Lu Ren didn't exert any force; he made an extremely subtle pause in mid-air. Instead of slapping the ball towards the center, his palm sliced ​​towards the edge of the little finger of the outermost blocker, like a scalpel.

Since we can't win in a direct confrontation, we'll use the game's physics engine to make judgments.

"Smack."

A soft thud. The volleyball grazed the edge of the opponent's fingers and flew out of bounds.

The thug went out of bounds.

"Good shot—!" Tanaka shouted from behind.

The scoreboard flips over: 18 to 12.

Lu Ren landed and shrugged at the opposing blocker who was staring blankly at his fingers: "Your collision volume is too big, it's practically an invitation for me to rack up points."

Next up is Kageyama's serve.

This "king of the court" spun the ball, his face so gloomy it could drip water. He tossed the ball high into the air, his whole body like a fully drawn bow.

"boom!"

The serve hit directly into the gap in Jozenji's serve reception.

Although Jozenji's libero reacted in time, the ball's force was too great, knocking his arm away. The ball flew out of bounds, and it looked like a point was about to be conceded.

"Don't give up! There's still hope!"

Terujima Yuji rushed out of bounds and used his foot—yes, his foot—to hook the ball back.

The ball flew back onto the court in a crooked manner, and Takeharu Niki could only barely manage to nudge it towards the net with one hand.

"Turn it over!"

Jozenji's main attacker, Numajiri Rintaro, rushed forward without thinking twice, intending to spike the ball. However, he charged too aggressively and completely misjudged his jump point.

Just as he swung his arm, Sawamura Daichi on Karasuno's side had already anticipated the ball's trajectory and steadily blocked the position.

The ball was hit over the net, and the ground easily lifted it up.

Opportunity ball.

Lu Ren was standing near the three-meter line when the volleyball landed right above his head. Instead of passing it to Kageyama, he reached out and assumed a setter's stance.

"Hinata!"

A streak of orange lightning flashed across the court. Hinata Shoyo jumped from position three, his height astonishing.

The defenders of Jozenji were drawn to Hyuga's bait-like nature and jumped up in a panic.

"Bang!"

Hyuga's spike slammed into the opponent's blocker's hand. But the ball didn't die; it bounced back to Jozenji's court.

After landing, Terujima Yuji tried to jump again to counterattack, but he forgot that his previous save had already depleted his balance. As soon as he pushed off the ground, he lost his balance and crashed into the net like a truck with malfunctioning brakes.

"Beep—! Touching the net is a foul!"

The referee blew his whistle mercilessly.

The score is now 19-12.

Terujima hung on the net, looking completely bewildered.

Watching this scene from across the net, Lu Ren couldn't help but smirk: "Truly the 'No. 1 Unexpected' team. Even their way of giving away points is so creative. Are you guys here specifically to test the referees' eyesight?"

Kageyama continues to serve.

This time, Jozenji learned their lesson. They stopped pursuing fancy catching techniques and simply volleyed the ball up.

With the setter in place, a quick counter-attack begins.

Hinata Shoyo leaped high at the net, his fingertips brushing the bottom of the volleyball.

"One touch!"

As the ball slowed down, Yu Nishitani appeared at the landing point like a ghost and steadily cushioned the ball's trajectory.

As Lu Ren watched the volleyball fly towards him, his mind went completely blank. Passing the ball now was too slow; the opposing defense hadn't fully settled into position yet.

He took two steps to run up and then jumped.

Seeing that the move was about to spike the ball, the back row defenders of Jozenji immediately lowered their center of gravity to prepare to receive the powerful spike.

However, Lu Ren's wrist went limp in mid-air, and what was originally a powerful smash turned into a light drop shot.

"It's a drop shot! Front row!"

Terujima Yuuji reacted incredibly quickly; his beast-like instincts kicked in once again. He didn't even use his hands, but instead stretched out his long leg and kicked the ball up with the instep just before it hit the ground.

The volleyball bounced high, clearing the net and flying back into Karasuno's half of the court.

Lu Ren was still in the air when the ball flew straight toward his face.

"I knew you couldn't use common sense to figure out how to play ball with monkeys!"

Lu Ren cursed inwardly. It was too late to jump again after landing; the ball would hit the ground.

He forcefully twisted his waist in mid-air, using his core strength to extend his airtime by a fraction of a second. Since he couldn't land to reset the cooldown, he would simply unleash his second ultimate move in mid-air.

He gritted his teeth, his face contorted with rage from the force of his blows. As the ball hurtled back, he swung his left arm in a wide arc during his descent, slamming it back with an extremely awkward motion.

"Die!"

This shot had no skill involved; it was all about rage.

The volleyball, like a meteorite, crashed into the three-meter line at Jozenji Temple with a loud bang, then bounced into the stands.

The entire room fell silent for a second.

The score changed hands, now 20-12.

Lu Ren landed, staggering a couple of steps before regaining his balance. He gasped for breath, glaring at Terujima Yu'er opposite him: "Kicking with your feet? Are you playing soccer? Can't you at least respect the game's physics engine?"

Terujima Yuu stared blankly at the bouncing ball, then suddenly burst into laughter: "Hahaha! That was so cool! What was that double aerial attack? I want to learn it too!"

"Learn from me? You big dummy!" Lu Ren turned around with a dark face. "That's a bug. Using it too much will get your account banned."

Although he said that, he had to admit that this team's resilience was simply outrageous. Any other team would have given up long ago on that shot, but these guys managed to save it with their feet.

Kageyama serves again.

This time, Jozenji finally put together a decent play.

With the first pass in place, Takeharu Niki delivered a flat pass. Yuji Terujima cut in from the left wing, using his core strength to avoid Tsukishima's block in mid-air, and spiked the ball into Karasuno's bottom corner.

20:13.

Terujima landed, gave Lu Ren a thumbs-up, and his eyes were full of provocation: "Hey, dead fish eyes! Don't think you've already won. The game has only just begun!"

Lu Ren looked at that arrogant figure and stretched his aching shoulders.

"The game has only just begun," he muttered under his breath, his eyes gradually turning dangerous. "However, I've already written the strategy for the boss battle. Now it's time for a speedrun."