Haikyuu!!: The Disaster of Gamers

The whistle was shrill, and the red letters on the electronic scoreboard were glaring.

Nishitani Yu dusted off her hands, turned and walked to the sidelines, exchanging high-fives with Tsukishima Hotaru, who was holding up her number plate.

"Don't die, Glasses Guy." Nishiya grinned, revealing a set of white teeth.

Tsukishima pushed up his black-rimmed glasses, his face showing his usual disdain: "Please don't talk to me with those lines from a shonen manga protagonist, it's too noisy."

He walked onto the court and stood at the net. Although he was sharp-tongued, his eyes, through his glasses, coldly scanned the "Beast Army" on the other side.

Jozenji serves.

The ball's trajectory remained unpredictable, carrying a carefree, "whatever" attitude. Daichi Sawamura lowered his center of gravity, his thigh muscles tensed, and he stood like a rock, blocking the ball's inevitable path.

"I'll do it!"

The pass was perfect, so steady it made people want to cry.

Sugawara Koji tilted his head back, his gaze meeting the volleyball in the air. Lacking the millimeter-precise pressure of Kageyama's passing, his pass carried a motherly tenderness—"Child, the meat is right there, eat it."

The volleyball traced a gentle parabola as it flew toward the left wing.

"Asahi-senpai!"

Asahi Higashimine took a running start, his slightly weathered face filled with the determination to win. He swung his arm in a wide arc, as if venting the tension of being substituted in, and unleashed a powerful shot into the heart of Jozenji.

"Bang!"

The libero from Jozenji practically threw himself out like a sandbag, bracing the ball on his shoulder. The ball flew high, landing near the net.

In the chaos, Jozenji's setter, Takeharu Niki, didn't even look at the attacker's position and made a back pass.

"They've broken through!"

Lu Ren and Dong Fengxu jumped at the same time. Their arms formed a wall in front of the net.

"Smack."

The ball hit the edge of Lu Ren's palm and changed direction.

"One touch!" Lu Ren shouted after landing, turning around to observe the landing point.

Daichi Sawamura lunged forward, catching the volleyball just before it hit the ground.

"Counterattack!"

Sugawara quickly adjusted his position and passed the ball to Tanaka Ryunosuke on the right wing.

"Look at me! Look at me! I'm Grandpa Tanaka!"

Tanaka roared and leaped, his bald head gleaming under the overhead light. He aimed straight ahead, his arm whipping like a whip.

However, the reaction speed of the Jozenji team was simply outrageous. Just as Tanaka spiked the ball, two blockers sprang up as if they were springs, their six hands blocking the angle completely.

"Thump!"

The volleyball was blocked hard and hit Karasuno's penalty area.

22:15.

"Damn it!" Tanaka scratched his head in frustration after landing. "These monkeys jumped way too fast!"

Lu Ren glanced at the members of the Jozenji team who were celebrating by bumping their chests, and frowned slightly.

These guys' blocking lacks any anticipation; they rely entirely on physical strength to brute force their way through. The most disgusting thing about these "statistical monsters" is that if you talk to them about tactics, they'll try to out-react you; if you try to out-react them, they'll play random numbers with you.

Jozenji continues to serve.

It was Sawamura Daichi who received the ball again. This Karasuno captain is like a tireless sweeping robot; no matter where the trash is thrown, he can clean it up perfectly.

"Asahi!"

Sugawara once again cast his vote of confidence in the ace.

This time, Dong Fengxu didn't go in recklessly. He seized the opportunity to exploit a weakness in the opponent's blocking hand position, and with a flick of his wrist, he delivered an overhand spike.

The ball was extremely powerful, directly knocking the arm off the back row defender of Jozenji.

The volleyball, like a wild horse, flew straight towards the GG sign area outside the court.

"Out of bounds! Score!" Hinata excitedly pumped his fist on the sidelines.

"It's not over yet!"

Lu Ren's pupils suddenly contracted.

Suddenly, Hajimeji's attacker with the pineapple-shaped haircut—Mohata Kazuma—leaped over the railing and charged into the buffer zone in front of the stands. Just before the ball hit an older man's head, he hooked it back with his hand.

The volleyball soared high, swept across half the court, and landed in the half of the court belonging to Jozenji Temple.

This was definitely a chance.

Logically, at this point, you should stabilize your rhythm, get the ball over the net, or launch a decent attack.

But Jozenji's brain circuits are clearly not on the server of "normal logic".

The ball was still floating in mid-air, three meters away from the net, when the blond guy named Terujima Yuuji started his run-up like a mad dog.

"Hey, where do we jump from?" Tsukishima Hotaru's expression was like someone was writing an essay during a math exam.

Terujima jumped from outside the three-meter line, his body twisting in the air like a pretzel. Facing the ball that was high and floaty, completely unsuitable for a spike, he actually swung his arm directly.

There was no running start, no setter coordination, it was purely—I don't like watching the game, so I'm going to smash it.

"Bang!"

He spiked the volleyball from an extremely bizarre angle, grazing the bottom edge of the net and firmly embedding it in Karasuno's bottom corner.

Daichi Sawamura was stunned.

Nishitani, sitting in the audience, gaped with astonishment.

Even Coach Uyang almost dropped his notebook.

22:16.

The entire stadium was silent for a second, then erupted in deafening cheers.

"Hahahaha! It's in! It even made it in!" Terujima Yuuji laughed so hard she almost fell over after landing, pointing towards Karasuno. "Scared, weren't you? Scared, weren't you!"

Lu Ren stood there, watching the volleyball still spinning on the floor, and his lips twitched.

What is this?

Physics engine crashed?

Or is the GM modifying the data online?

In the game, this kind of ball movement would definitely be considered an "illegal operation" and would force the player to disconnect.

"Don't worry about it! That was just luck!" Sugawara clapped his hands and loudly reassured his teammates, but his smile also carried a hint of stiffness.

luck?

This can't be explained by luck anymore. It's like a bunch of students randomly pressing buttons on a controller and ending up with an infinite combo.

Jozenji serves.

This time it was Takeharu Niki's turn to serve. The ball speed wasn't fast, but the landing point was very tricky, heading straight for the junction between the front and back rows.

Sawamura Daichi once again demonstrated his stabilizing role, delivering a perfectly executed side pass that sent the ball over Sugawara's head.

"Nice catch!"

Sugawara held the ball with both hands, glancing out of the corner of his eye to see that Tanaka had already moved to the left side to prepare for an attack.

"Tanaka!"

The ball has been passed out.

Tanaka jumped, and Jozenji's net moved in an instant.

"Tsk."

Tanaka forcefully pulled back in mid-air, not spiking, but gently pushing the ball towards the back row.

"How naive!"

Like a ghost, Terujima Yuu appeared at the landing point and made a diving save to retrieve the ball.

"Counterattack!"

Jozenji's pace quickened instantly. Niki Takeharu threw the ball to position four, and Terujima Yuuji, who had just saved the ball, got up and ran up. His stamina bar seemed to be locked, with no sign of bottoming out.

"Stop him!"

Sawamura Daichi shouted.

Terujima jumped, and facing Karasuno's double block, he actually made a backhand motion in mid-air, avoiding the block and forcefully smashing the ball.

"Snapped!"

Sawamura Daichi fell to the ground and used one hand to prop up the ball.

"That was close!"

The ball flew towards the net, but wasn't high enough.

Sugawara had to jump up to adjust his pass.

At this point, Lu Ren was the only remaining frontline attacker for Karasuno.

"Lu Ren!" Sugawara shouted, pushing the ball towards position two.

Lu Ren takes a running start.

His mind was now a jumble of random thoughts. Faced with this group of unpredictable lunatics, conventional tactical maneuvers were ineffective. Since systemic logic didn't work, he had to revert to the most primal game theory approach.

He pushed off the ground and jumped.

His body stretched out in the air, his right arm raised high, as if he was about to smash through the floor.

The three people in the front row of Jozenji Temple were instantly aroused and charged forward like bulls seeing a red cloth.

"Stop blocking that dead fish eye!"

Three massive hands covered the sky and blocked all offensive routes.

Even the defenders in the back row instinctively retreated to the baseline, ready to receive a powerful dunk.

Looking at the impenetrable wall of people in front of him, and those fanatical faces filled with "I want to block the shot," a hint of mockery flashed in Lu Ren's eyes.

They really are a bunch of single-celled organisms.

Give them a little bait and they'll launch a full-scale attack, completely disregarding whether their crystals at home have exploded or not.

At the last moment of his arm swing, Lu Ren's wrist suddenly stiffened, and his previously taut palm instantly became soft.

No re-deduction.

No critical hits.

With just a gentle flick of the fingertip.

The volleyball floated lightly over the three pairs of outstretched arms, like an autumn leaf, slowly falling into the no-man's land within the three-meter line of Jozenji Temple.

It was completely empty and clean enough to set up a mahjong table.

Terujima Yuuji was still in the air, holding the blocker's pose, her eyes practically bulging out of their sockets, and could only watch helplessly as the ball landed.

"Thump."

The soft sound of the landing was exceptionally clear in the noisy stadium.

23:16.

Lu Ren landed, clapped his hands, and looked at the group of "beasts" still in the air opposite him, his tone as calm as if he were reading an instruction manual:

"No matter how fancy your maneuvers are, they're useless if you don't have the intelligence. Your defensive formation is so porous you could fit a truck in it."

After landing, Terujima Yuu staggered a bit, and as she watched the ball roll away, the smile on her face finally froze.

The feeling was like playing a fighting game, where you were frantically pressing buttons, unleashing all sorts of flashy combos, only to have the expressionless player on the other side simply press a light punch button and instantly defeat you.

Pure intellectual suppression.

"Stop spacing out." Lu Ren turned and walked back, casually saying as he passed Yue Dao, "See? To deal with these monsters that roam the map, you don't need to compete with their skills. Just put a trap in their path."

Tsukishima adjusted his glasses, his lips unusually not drooping: "Although your analogy is terrible, it's still passable."

The cycle repeats.

Ryunosuke Tanaka walked to the baseline with the volleyball in his arms.

He took a deep breath, slapped his cheeks hard, and shook off all the frustration of being blocked.

"Alright—! Watch my serve!"

He throws the ball, takes a running start, and jumps.

The volleyball, spinning intensely, hurtled towards Jozenji's court, signaling that Karasuno's counterattack was far from over, and that this farce, filled with bugs and glitches, should come to an end.