Haikyuu!!: The Disaster of Gamers

The sharp whistle broke the brief commotion inside the stadium.

"Substitute!"

Ukai Shishin stood up, holding up her number plate. Nishitani Yu and Higashimine Asahi left the arena, replaced by an excited Hinata Shoyo and a lazy Riku Ren who was stretching his wrists.

"Don't die, little one." Lu Ren casually tossed out a remark as he passed by Hinata.

"I won't die! I'm going to score points!" Hinata jumped twice on the spot, the soles of his shoes rubbing against the floor, making a squeaking sound, like a toy rabbit that had just been fully charged.

The score was 17-10. A seven-point deficit would be a death sentence in a formal match, but the guys from Jozenji seemed to have no concept of "despair." Terujima Yuuji was still laughing and joking with her teammates, completely ignoring the substitution.

Jozenji serves.

The shot was unremarkable. To the Karasuno players, who had just gotten used to Kageyama's killer serve, this shot was like a slow-motion replay.

Lu Ren stepped to the right, knees slightly bent, arms in front of him. The volleyball struck the inside of his forearm with a dull thud, then obediently bounced towards the setter's position.

"Perfect." Lu Ren mentally gave this shot a passing grade.

Kageyama Tobio stood at the net, his gaze sweeping across the entire court. Hinata Shoyo had already started his attack; that orange figure instantly cut into the middle lane, so fast that it left afterimages on his retina.

"Give it to that shorty!" shouted the net player from Jozenji, but his body remained motionless.

With a flick of his wrist, Kageyama delivered the volleyball precisely to Hinata's highest hitting point.

Hyuga leaped into the air, her field of vision instantly opening up. However, the expected overwhelming arms did not appear. The other side of the net was empty; the three blockers from Jozenji seemed to have agreed beforehand, all remaining on the ground, some even taking a step back.

There's no barrier?

Hinata's movements in the air faltered for a moment. It felt like throwing a punch with all your might, only to land on a pile of cotton – the force had nowhere to go, making you feel nauseous.

"The tricks of Qingye City West?" Lu Ren raised an eyebrow.

When Oikawa Tetsu directed Aoki against Hyuga, he used this tactic—leaving the net open for the back row defenders to directly face the spike. Although Hyuga's quick attacks were fast, at that stage, their power and trajectory were too predictable. As long as no one was blocking their view, the back row could easily block and receive the spike.

"Snapped!"

Hyuga spikes the ball.

Because there was no reference point, and coupled with the awkwardness in his heart, the spike wasn't very powerful. Jozenji's libero, Tsuchiyu Shin, was already standing on the path of the ball, and didn't even need to move, simply putting his arms together to cushion the ball.

"Got it!" Tu Tangxin shouted.

"Counterattack!"

Shinji Futaba quickly organized an attack. The attackers from Jozenji scattered instantly, like a swarm of wild bees released from their cage, rushing towards the net without any strategy.

"What a mess of positioning." Hotaru Tsukishima frowned at the net. This kind of illogical attack was the most troublesome.

Shinji Futaba made a flat pass, and Yuji Terujima jumped on the left wing. Facing a single blocker, he didn't use any fancy moves and just went straight for the ball with a powerful overhand smash.

"Bang!"

The volleyball hit inside Karasuno's sideline.

11: 17.

Tōzen-ji scores.

"Yohoo!!" Terujima whistled at Hinata after landing, gesturing with his finger in front of his eyes. "Short guy, your shot is so straight, we can see it clearly even without blocking."

Hyuga landed, staring intently at the grinning face opposite him, his fists clenched until they turned white.

"Don't worry about it, don't worry about it!" Daichi Sawamura clapped his hands. "We'll get the next ball back!"

Hinata didn't speak, only nodded heavily. But the pressure emanating from him was frighteningly low. For a decoy aspiring to become an ace, being targeted by the net is an honor, but being ignored by the net is the greatest humiliation.

"Are they angry?" Lu Ren stood in the back row, looking at Hinata's almost steaming head, and twitched his lips. "Don't these guys even read the version update announcements?"

If you treat the current Hyuga like the Hyuga from the preliminaries, you'll suffer a terrible defeat.

The match continues. Jozenji serves.

Daichi Sawamura received the pass steadily.

"One more ball!" Hyuga roared, charging towards the net once more. His run-up was even more ferocious than before, and the moment he pushed off the ground, it seemed as if he wanted to shatter the floor.

Kageyama Tobio didn't even glance at the others. He knew his partner too well; if he didn't give him the ball at a time like this, this idiot would probably explode on the spot.

"Take it!"

Kageyama Seiden.

The volleyball traced a very short arc and stopped in front of Hinata.

The blocking players from Jozenji Temple still didn't jump. They were convinced that Hyuga would just blindly shoot, and that as long as they guarded the deep sections of the straight and diagonal lines, they could save the ball.

"Idiot." Lu Ren mentally sentenced the other person to death.

Hyuga was in the air, and this time, his eyes were wide open.

From the field of vision, Jozenji's backcourt defensive positioning was completely visible. The libero was on the left, the receiver on the right, leaving a large open area in the middle. And at the edge of that area was a blind spot on the sideline.

He's no longer that clueless young man who could only close his eyes and wave his arms.

The moment Hinata's hand touched the ball, his wrist deftly flicked outward.

"Snapped!"

The volleyball didn't fly to the backcourt as Jozenji had expected; instead, it cut down at an extremely tricky angle, right along the sideline.

"What?!"

Tu Tang tried to make a save, but his center of gravity was completely shifted, and he could only watch helplessly as the ball hit the floor and bounced out of bounds.

11: 18.

Karasuno regained the serve.

Hinata landed, clenched her fist, and swung it hard in Terujima Yuuji's direction. There was no roar, but the meaning in her eyes was clear:

Try ignoring me again?

"This kid..." Terujima's smile froze for a moment, then he regained his nonchalant expression. "Not bad luck."

Rotation.

Lu Ren, holding the volleyball, slowly walked towards the service area.

He stood at the baseline, habitually spinning the ball twice in his hand, searching for the air hole.

"That number 13, his serve is really powerful." The players from Jozenji immediately tensed up; the powerful serve at the end of the previous set had left them with a considerable psychological scar. Everyone lowered their center of gravity, preparing to receive the barrage of attacks.

Lu Ren looked at the enemy's formation, which seemed to be facing a formidable enemy, but his heart remained unmoved.

"These guys' defense relies entirely on instinct. They are indeed physically strong, but..." Lu Ren took a few steps back, not to the usual distance for a jump serve, "For creatures that play by reflexes, the best solution is to play unconventionally."

The whistle blows.

Lu Ren throws the ball.

The height is moderate, and there is no rotation.

Run-up, jump.

The movement looked like a powerful spike, and the back row players of Jozenji instinctively tensed their muscles. However, at the moment of impact, Riku Ren's palm did not completely cover the ball; instead, he used the heel of his palm to deliver a short, powerful push to the center of the ball.

Jump float ball.

The volleyball didn't come hurtling towards us; instead, it drifted across the net like a drunken ghost.

"It's a float ball! Move forward!" Shinji Futaba shouted.

The ball isn't very fast, so as long as you judge the landing point accurately, it's not difficult to catch. One of the main attackers from Jozenji confidently stepped forward, hands in front of him, ready to catch the ball.

"Too slow," he thought to himself.

The ball flew right in front of him, seemingly aimed directly at his forehead.

Just as his fingers were about to touch the ball, the volleyball suddenly seemed to be lifted up by an invisible hand, and without warning, it "raised" upwards and jumped a bit.

"well?"

The attacker's pupils dilated.

My fingertips brushed against the bottom edge of the ball.

The volleyball flew over his head and hit the out-of-bounds area behind him.

"Out of bounds... no, it's the hand going out of bounds!" The referee signaled that Karasuno had scored.

11: 19.

"What the heck did that ball go?!" Terujima Yuuji ran over and patted her teammate on the back. "Why did that ball suddenly change direction?"

"I don't know either! It just suddenly floated up!" The team member looked bewildered, staring at his hands and questioning his existence.

Lu Ren stood at the baseline, expressionless as he caught the ball thrown to him by the caddie.

"The aerodynamics of the physics engine doesn't make sense for characters like you who only invest in agility and not intelligence," Lu Ren thought to himself.

Stopped standing still again.

The point difference has widened to 8 points. In a 25-point game, this is already garbage time.

"Since the margin for error is so high, let's try something new."

Lu Ren took a deep breath, and this time, he retreated to a position five meters behind the baseline.

That's the running distance for a powerful jump serve.

"Again, something serious?" The entire Tōzenji group retreated, their eyes fixed on Ryūren's movements.

Lu Ren began his running start.

One step, two steps, three steps.

They moved extremely fast, each step making a loud thud on the floor.

Take off.

The height of this jump was astonishing. Lu Ren stretched out to the extreme in the air, his arms swinging in a wide arc, his momentum more ferocious than any of his previous shots.

"It's a full-scale attack! Retreat!" Tsuchitsu Shin roared, his body instinctively leaning backward to absorb the force.

However, just as Lu Ren's palm was about to strike the sphere, his wrist suddenly locked.

It's not a slap.

It is "smash".

Use the hardest bone in your palm to slam the ball hard into the center with extremely high arm swing speed, and forcefully stop the ball at the moment of contact, so that the ball does not have any spin.

This is a special skill that Zhao Gang, the devilish coach from the provincial youth team, taught him when he returned to Sichuan for winter vacation.

—A powerful jump float.

It combines the speed of a jump serve with the unpredictable trajectory of a float serve.

"Bang!"

A loud bang.

The volleyball shot out like a cannonball.

"So fast!"

The players from Jozenji only saw a blur before the ball had already crossed the net.

"This ball isn't drifting! It's straight!" Tu Tangxin judged the ball's trajectory. The ball was too fast; there was no time to think, and he could only instinctively reach out his arm to block it.

The ball has arrived.

Just as Tu Tangxin's arm was about to touch the ball, the cannonball, which was originally flying in a straight line, suddenly seemed to hit an invisible wall and abruptly "bent" to the right without warning.

It's not an arc, it's a broken line.

It's like a packet loss or lag in a game, where the ball's position instantly teleports.

Tu Tangxin's arm swung, but missed its target.

"Thump!"

The volleyball slammed heavily onto the floor beside him, bouncing towards the GG sign behind him.

The entire room fell silent.

11: 20.

Tsuchitsu Shin froze in place, still in his catching position, his expression shifting from confidence to terror. What had just happened? The ball… had teleported?

"What... what kind of serve is this?!" Terujima Yuu's eyes widened, and she almost dropped her chewing gum.

In the stands, Oikawa Tetsu from Aoba Castle West suddenly stood up, staring intently at Lu Ren on the field, his eyes filled with disbelief: "That kind of floater shot with that arm swing speed... just how much more is this guy hiding?"

Lu Ren landed, shook his slightly numb hands, and looked at the group of people opposite him who looked like they had seen a ghost. Finally, he couldn't help but curl a wicked smile at the corner of his mouth.

"How is the new patch going, players?"

He spoke softly, his voice drowned out by the cheers erupting from Karasuno's side.

This is the only fun in this garbage game – crushing your opponent's psychological defenses to dust with absolute data and mechanics.