Haikyuu!!: The Disaster of Gamers

The final whistle of the first set still echoed in their ears as the Karasuno players returned to the bench with towels and water bottles. Sweat dripped from their chins onto the floor, and each of them looked like a crab just pulled from a steamer, steaming hot.

Uyang didn't give the group of kids much time to breathe. He slammed the tactical board on his thigh, and the marker made a screeching sound as it was drawn on it.

"Listen up, we won the first game, but those guys on the other side weren't convinced at all." Ukai pointed to the messy lines on the tactics board, his brows furrowed. "You've all seen Jozenji's style, it's all instinct, all haphazard. Talking to them about a defensive system? That's like casting pearls before swine."

Sawamura Daichi tilted his head back and gulped down a mouthful of water, wiping the sports drink stains from the corner of his mouth: "Indeed, their rhythm is too fragmented, making it difficult to predict."

"So, in the second round, we're not going to waste time with them." Wu Yang tossed aside his marker, his eyes flashing with the fierce glint of a thug about to collect protection money. "Since their defense is full of holes, we'll go all out on the offense. Forget about playing it safe, just blast their floor! Use firepower to push these wild monkeys back into their cages!"

"Yes—!" the crowd responded in unison, their morale soaring.

Lu Ren sat on the edge of the bench, holding a half-empty bottle of water in his hand. His gaze passed over the crowd and landed on Kageyama Tobio, who had just returned to the team.

The talented setter was sitting cross-legged on the floor, listening intently to Coach Uyang's instructions. If you ignored his menacing face and the two huge wads of white toilet paper stuffed in his nostrils, the scene was actually quite inspiring.

The two wads of tissues were stuffed so tightly that the ends stubbornly stuck up, trembling with Kageyama's breath. Combined with his "I'm going to kill someone" expression, the contrast was a visual shock worthy of a system bug.

Lu Ren turned his head to one side, and his shoulders began to tremble unnaturally.

You can't laugh.

This is a teammate, a key player, the hero who just blocked the net with their face. Laughing out loud at this moment will deduct merit points.

He tried to think of sad things. Like losing five ranked games in a row yesterday, like the cafeteria lady accidentally turning braised pork into potato chunks, like Qingze Yazhi confiscating his game console...

No, it won't work.

Those two wads of tissues seemed to have found his funny bone, dancing wildly in his mind.

Kageyama seemed to notice the extremely impolite gaze, turned his head, and stared directly at Lu Ren with his signature single-eyelid, deadpan eyes. The tissue swayed with his movement.

"puff."

Lu Ren couldn't hold it in and let out a slight gasp. He quickly covered it up with a cough, pretending to have choked on water.

Kageyama didn't speak, but simply narrowed his eyes. His gaze was pure, like he was looking at a stray dog ​​urinating on his shoe.

"What are you laughing at?" Kageyama's voice was muffled, with a heavy nasal tone because his nose was blocked.

That's even funnier.

Lu Ren pinched his thigh, trying to distract himself with physical pain. He waved his hand, his facial muscles contorted as he forced a laugh: "No... cough, I wasn't laughing. I was thinking of something happy."

"You're clearly looking at my nose." Kageyama stood up, casting a shadow that was incredibly oppressive.

"No, I was observing your... aura." Lu Ren shrank back a little, but the corners of his mouth still involuntarily turned up. "Really, very strong. Especially that look, very... very artistic."

Although Kageyama Tobio was simple-minded, he wasn't stupid. He stared at Riku Ren's face, which was about to cramp up, and the veins on his forehead throbbed merrily.

"Lu, Ren."

"Pfft, hahahahahaha—!"

Lu Ren finally broke down. In the instant his rationality snapped, he completely gave up resisting, and his laughter exploded like a string of out-of-control firecrackers in the noisy stadium.

"Sorry... hahahaha! But... you're too... hahahaha! That tissue... were you planning to cosplay as an elephant?" Lu Ren laughed so hard he slid off the bench, pounding the floor. "Is this how a king stops bleeding? So hardcore, hahahaha!"

The surrounding air froze for a second.

The next moment, a dark figure pounced.

Kageyama Tobio completely abandoned the ability to communicate like a human, regressing into the most primitive form of beast. He pinned Lu Ren to the floor, gripping the man's collar tightly with both hands and shaking him violently.

"What's so funny! Who did I get hurt because of, you bastard!"

"Help...help me...hahahaha!" Lu Ren laughed maniacally as he was being shaken like a rag doll. "Stop shaking me...the tissues are going to fall out...hahahaha!"

"Shut up! Don't laugh!" Kageyama's face turned bright red, a mixture of shame and anger. He was both embarrassed and annoyed, wishing he could stuff the two wads of tissues into Riku's mouth.

"Let go... I was wrong... Haha... I was really wrong..." Lu Ren laughed until tears streamed down his face, his stomach aching as if he'd been punched. "I've already paid the price... Kageyama... let me go..."

Kageyama paused, looking at him suspiciously: "What price?"

Lu Ren pointed to his cheek, panting heavily, and said with a serious expression, "My face hurts so much from laughing. My jaw muscles are about to cramp up. Doesn't this physical pain outweigh your mental anguish?"

Kageyama's expression went blank for a moment.

He tried to process this logic in his mind: Lu Ren laughed -> Lu Ren's face hurt -> Lu Ren was punished -> So they're even?

Logical closed loop. What a load of rubbish!

"Are you kidding me?!"

Kageyama's anger level instantly exceeded its limit, and he entered a state of extreme heat. He raised his fist, ready to perform a physical exorcism.

"Hey, hey, hey! Calm down, Kageyama!" Tanaka Ryunosuke reacted quickly, grabbing Kageyama by the waist and pulling him back.

"Don't be impulsive, Kageyama! Killing your teammate will get you banned!" Hinata Shoyo also rushed over and grabbed Kageyama's arm, hanging on it. "Although this guy is really annoying, we still need him for the next game!"

"Let me go! I'm going to kill him! Even if the King of Heaven himself comes, I'll still kill him today!" Kageyama struggled frantically as the two men pulled him, and one of the two wads of tissues flew out with his roar, fluttering to the floor.

Lu Ren lay on the floor, wiping away the tears from the corners of his eyes. Looking at Ying Shan, who was suspended in the air, he showed no remorse whatsoever. Instead, he felt that it was time to add fuel to the fire.

After all, while a BOSS's defense is high when it's in a berserk state, its intelligence drops drastically.

"Don't be so irritable." Lu Ren slowly got up, straightened his disheveled collar, and adopted the tone of a wise elder. "You're a genius setter, the commander-in-chief on the court. If you can't even control this kind of emotion, how can you lead the whole team?"

He paused, his gaze sweeping over Kageyama's furious face, a smug, irritating smile playing on his lips, before casually uttering that taboo term:

"Is that right, Your Majesty?"

boom.

If Kageyama only wanted to beat someone up before, now he probably wants to destroy the world.

"King...or..."

Kageyama's pupils contracted violently, his rational defenses shattered in that instant. Those two words were like a key that unlocked some kind of destructive program, directly detonating all his nerves.

"I'm going to kill you!!!"

The power Kageyama unleashed was astonishing; he actually dragged Tanaka and Hinata, who were clinging to him, forward two steps. He flailed his fists wildly in the air, each punch accompanied by a whooshing sound.

"Just one punch! Tanaka-senpai, let me go! Just let me land one punch!" Kageyama roared, his face contorted with rage. "I guarantee he'll still be in the ring after this punch! I'll avoid vital points! Just one punch to the face! Just one!"

"No! That punch will kill Lu Ren! He'll definitely die!" Tanaka gripped Kageyama's waist tightly, his face flushed red. "Daichi-senpai! Help! This kid's gone mad!"

Just as Daichi Sawamura was about to come over to quell the situation, a beautiful figure was faster than him.

Qingze Yazhi appeared at the center of the chaos without anyone noticing. Holding a tactical board, she struck Lu Ren on the back of the head without saying a word.

"Snapped!"

The sound is crisp and pleasant to hear.

Lu Ren was about to continue making faces when he was slapped on the back, causing him to stumble forward and almost kneel down in front of Ying Shan.

"What are you doing?" Lu Ren covered the back of his head and glared at Ya Zhi.

"Shut up." Ya Zhi rolled her eyes in annoyance, grabbed Lu Ren's ear, and dragged him aside like a dead dog. "You're only happy when you've driven your own setter to his death, aren't you? You think the game is too easy and want to play hell mode?"

"Ouch! Ouch! Be gentle! My ear is going to fall off!" Lu Ren cried out dramatically, but his body obediently followed Ya Zhi away.

As Yazhi dragged the person away, she turned back to Kageyama with an apologetic smile: "Sorry, Kageyama, this guy is a bit dim-witted. I'll teach him a lesson. Save your energy for the match, don't waste it on trash."

Upon hearing the word "trash," Lu Ren protested, "Hey, that's a personal attack!"

"Shut up." Ya-zhi tightened her grip.

Seeing Lu Ren being punished, Ying Shan's urge to tear down the stadium finally dissipated somewhat. He was panting heavily, his chest heaving violently, and the wad of tissue paper lying on the ground looked particularly forlorn at his feet.

Sugawara Koji walked over, picked up the tissues and threw them into the trash can, then handed Kageyama a new pack, patting him on the shoulder helplessly: "Alright, don't bother with that guy. Only Yazhi can handle Lu Ren's mouth."

Kageyama took the tissue and wiped his face briefly, saying, "Someday... I'm going to deliberately pass the ball 10 centimeters high so he'll break his leg jumping."

"Alright, alright, pass it higher." Sugawara soothed him like a child, "But for now, save your anger. In the next game, vent all that anger on Jozenji."

Kageyama turned his head and looked across the court. The group from Jozenji were warming up, laughing and joking, and didn't seem discouraged at all by losing the first game.

His eyes turned cold.

"Of course." Kageyama clenched his fist, his knuckles cracking. "I'll let them know what happens when they mess with... cough, when they mess with Karasuno."

Meanwhile, in another corner, Lu Ren rubbed his ears, looked at Kageyama's soaring [status value], and smiled with satisfaction.

"See? I told you rage is a kind of buff," Lu Ren muttered to himself. "Right now, Kageyama could probably punch right through the floor. Those monkeys from Jozenji are in for trouble."

Ya-zhi glanced at him sideways: "You just want to watch the show, don't you?"

"Life is like a play, it all depends on acting skills." Lu Ren shrugged, a sly glint in his eyes. "Besides, don't you think that 'single-celled organism' is much more pleasing to the eye when he's angry than when he's usually so lifeless?"

"Nonsense." Yazhi shoved the water bottle into his arms. "Drink some water. If you dare to slack off in the next game, I'll post the recording of you laughing like a pig on the school's intranet."

Lu Ren froze as he was drinking water.

"...When did you record this?"

Ya-Chih shook her phone; the screen displayed the recording interface. She smiled like a little fox who had stolen a chicken: "Just when you said, 'I remembered something happy.'"

Looking at the red recording icon, Lu Ren suddenly felt that this world was full of malicious traps targeting players.

"You win."

The whistle blew.

The second round begins.