Haikyuu!!: The Disaster of Gamers

The volleyball flew steadily toward Kageyama Tobio.

Kageyama didn't stop, his body coming to a stop beneath the volleyball. He raised both hands, fingers spread wide.

Karasuno's counter-attack formation spread out instantly.

Ryunosuke Tanaka cut in from the left baseline, while Asahi Higashimine surged forward on the right wing. The two jumped almost simultaneously, creating a pressure-filled double-line fast attack at the net.

The two players drew the attention of Shiratorizawa's blockers.

However, at the moment of contact with the ball, Kageyama's wrist abruptly changed the passing axis.

The volleyball bounced off his fingertips and flew down the middle.

Hinata Shoyo had somehow sprinted up from the back row, like an orange monster with springs, and with a powerful push off the floor, he soared into the air.

This was the perfect opportunity for a quick counterattack. Shiratorizawa's central defensive line was completely stretched thin.

At the highest point, Hinata swung his right arm, ready to smash the volleyball down.

Suddenly, a head of red hair appeared in front of the net, which had been empty in front of the field of vision.

Tendou Kaku.

He didn't even look at Kageyama's passing motion, nor did he pay attention to Tanaka and Higashimine's decoy runs. A fraction of a second before Hyuga jumped, Tendo, relying on illogical intuition, took a large step to the left and jumped directly.

With long arms outstretched, his hands blocked Hyuga's spike route like iron clamps.

boom!

The volleyball struck Tendo's palm solidly, bouncing back into Karasuno's half of the court at an even faster speed than it had come, and slammed heavily into the three-meter line.

The referee blows the whistle. Shiratorizawa scores.

The scoreboard flips over, Shiratorizawa 13:11 Karasuno.

"You guessed right!" Tendo Satoru landed, made a gun gesture with his hands, and blew non-existent gunpowder smoke towards Karasuno's half of the arena.

Hinata landed on the ground, staring blankly at the volleyball on the floor.

"How did that guy get here?"

On the other side of the net, Tendo Satoru was still twisting his body in celebration.

Lu Ren stood in the back row, watching this scene. He wasn't angry; instead, he chuckled softly.

He licked his dry lips, his eyes shining with the fervent light of someone who had stayed up three nights playing games and finally reached the hidden boss level.

"The BOSS's special defense mechanism has been triggered? Interesting, this makes the strategy worthwhile." Lu Ren cracked his wrists, his joints making a crisp sound.

Conventional tactical deception is ineffective against this kind of intuitive "command reading" cheat. Tendou Satoru's blocking is like a clipping bug that occasionally appears in the physics engine; it's illogical, but extremely deadly.

Tendo's solo block greatly boosted Shiratorizawa's morale.

The Shiratorizawa support group in the stands erupted in deafening cheers.

The serve returns to Shiratorizawa. Ohira Shion serves.

The ball wasn't fast, but its landing point was extremely tricky, heading straight for Karasuno's baseline corner.

Daichi Sawamura received the ball with a side slide, barely managing to raise it high, but his first pass was inaccurate.

Tobio Kageyama was forced to run out of the three-meter line to adjust his pass.

This hasty organization was simply unable to break through Shiratorizawa's well-prepared defense. Higashimine Asahi's powerful attack was effectively blocked by Shiratorizawa's double block.

The ball landed in Shiratorizawa's half of the field, and Hayato Yamagata caught it easily.

Kenjiro Shirabu didn't even need to think; he simply pushed the ball to the right wing.

Ushijima Wakatoshi takes a running start and jumps.

Karasuno's three-man block proved too weak against overwhelming power. Ushijima unleashed a powerful shot from his left arm, sending the volleyball, imbued with terrifying wind pressure, smashing through the gap in the blockers' defenses and slamming into Karasuno's backcourt.

Shiratorizawa 14:11 Karasuno.

In the next round, the script repeats itself.

Karasuno's attack was disrupted by Tendo Satoru's intuition, and Hyuga's spike went out of bounds in an attempt to avoid the block.

Shiratorizawa 15:11 Karasuno.

The point difference widened to four points.

Coach Wu Yang on the sidelines decisively signaled to the referee to call a timeout.

The whistle blew. The entire Karasuno team walked off the field.

The atmosphere in the rest area was terribly oppressive. The continuous loss of points, coupled with Ushijima's unreasonable numerical dominance and Tendo's illogical defensive mechanics, made the players' breathing heavy.

Hinata grabbed a towel and rubbed his face hard, remaining silent. Kageyama, holding a water bottle, frowned, frantically reviewing the passing route in his mind.

Lu Ren acted as if nothing had happened, casually snatching the tactics board from Coach Wu Yang's hand and pulling out a marker.

"Stop looking so bitter and resentful. It's not Game Over yet." Lu Ren tapped the tactical board with his pen, drawing everyone's attention.

"Do you think Tian Tong's blocking is difficult to deal with?" Lu Ren drew a red cross on the tactics board to represent Tian Tong. "His style of play is called 'illogical random number' in the game. He doesn't look at the first pass, the setter, or even the attacker's positioning. He relies purely on his animal instincts to gamble on the landing point."

"How can we beat him? He always bets right!" Hinata couldn't help but exclaim.

"Gamblers always lose sometimes." Lu Ren drew a circle of dense dots around the red cross with a black pen. "The best way to deal with illogical random numbers is to cover them with even more chaotic random numbers."

Lu Ren turned to Coach Wu Yang: "Coach, the conventional tactics are ineffective against that guy. I request to activate the second phase of the 'Chimera' tactical change."

Coach Wu Yang paused for a moment, then understood what Lu Ren meant: "A chaotic free-for-all with no positional differences? Wouldn't it be too risky to use it now? We only succeeded with this tactic a few times during our training camp."

"The opponent is a max-level BOSS, are we saving our ultimate moves for the New Year?" Lu Ren pushed the tactical board to the middle of the team. "Listen carefully, in the next round, completely abandon the conventional positioning. Don't worry about the main attacker, middle blocker, or setter. As long as the ball is in the air, everyone is an attacker and everyone is a screener."

Lu Ren pointed at Kageyama: "Kageyama, after the first pass is in place, you also participate in the first wave of spike screening. Make the scene a complete mess, the more chaotic the better. Tendo's intuitive radar can lock onto one target, but what if there are five targets at the same time? Let his broken machine overload and crash."

Kageyama stared at the tactics board and nodded vigorously.

"Our goal isn't to execute some spectacular plays, but to create a mess that the system can't handle." Lu Ren tossed his marker aside. "To muddy the waters, and then overwhelm the master with sheer chaos."

The pause has ended.

The referee blew his whistle, signaling for both teams' players to enter the field.

Lu Ren followed the team to the net. He happened to be rotated to the front row, and across the net was Tendo Satoru, who was stretching.

When Tendou saw Rikuren, he grinned and said, "Oh my, Karasuno's number 13, how was that block just now? Was it hopeless? My intuition is 100% accurate, you know."

Lu Ren put one hand on his hip, looked at Tian Tong, and wore that typical amused smile.

"The intuition cheat is really useful." Lu Ren leaned closer to the net and lowered his voice, "But can you predict which button I'll press next?"

Tendou Satoru's smile froze for a moment. He saw no fear or impatience in the eyes of this Number 13, only the mockery of a hunter watching his prey fall into a trap.

"Pretentious." Tendou Satoru stood up straight, his red hair standing out conspicuously under the stadium lights.

The whistle blows.

Shiratorizawa serves. Goshiki Kou stands at the baseline and delivers a powerful jump serve.

The volleyball, spinning intensely, flew over the net and headed straight for Karasuno's back row.

"I'll do it!" Daichi Sawamura shouted, firmly planting himself in a horse stance, his hands clasped together, and he pushed the ball upwards to meet its trajectory.

"The pass is perfect!"

The moment the earth uttered those words, the atmosphere in Karasuno's half of the game suddenly changed.

There is no conventional left-right separation, nor is there a clear distinction between the front and back rows.

Of the five players on the field, apart from Dadi who had just received the ball, the other four started running around like crazy.

Hinata Shoyo cuts directly to the middle from the right; Tanaka Ryunosuke makes a diagonal run to the net from the left; Riku Ren jumps directly from outside the three-meter line, assuming a back-row attack stance.

The most outrageous one was setter Hiroo Kageyama.

He didn't go to receive the first pass at all, but instead ran side by side with Hinata to the net and made an extremely realistic spike jump.

Five moving coordinates, five completely overlapping and intersecting routes.

The entire Karasuno stadium turned into a pot of boiling porridge.

On the other side of the net, Tendou Satoru's pupils contracted sharply.

His intuitive radar was activated at full power at that moment.

Left side? No, Tanaka is just bait.

In the middle? Hyuga and Kageyama jump at the same time, who will dunk?

The back row? That number 13's takeoff height is completely threatening.

In a fraction of a second, Tendou Jue's gaze frantically swept across the four leaping figures. His brain was processing this illogical movement information, his intuition was screaming alarms, but he couldn't pinpoint the real attackers at all.

"Who is it?!" Tendou Satoru gritted his teeth and instinctively jumped towards the middle lane.

Just as he took off, the volleyball he had passed landed in front of the net.

Koji Sugawara had silently crept up from the back row without anyone noticing. As the substitute setter, he took control of the ball at that moment.

Sugawara gently lifted the ball with both hands and pushed it to the far left.

There, Dong Fengxu had already completed his run-up and leaped high into the air.

As Tendou Satoru watched the volleyball fly towards an area he was completely unprepared for, his body already beyond any possibility of adjusting.

boom!

Higashimine Asahi's heavy cannon slammed into the floor of Shiratorizawa without any resistance.

The referee blows the whistle. Karasuno scores.

Shiratorizawa 15:12 Karasuno.

The entire Sendai Gymnasium was silent for a second, then erupted in a huge gasp.

The Shiratorizawa players stared at Karasuno with disbelief in their eyes. Even Coach Washi on the sidelines stood up, his eyes fixed on Karasuno's half of the field.

"What kind of chaotic positioning was that just now?" Wu Segong stared wide-eyed from the back row.

Karasuno's halftime.

Lu Ren landed and dusted off his hands. He looked at Tian Tongjue, whose face looked rather pale, through the net.

"How's it going, Red Hair?" Lu Ren raised an eyebrow. "My keyboard has full N-key rollover."

Tian Tong Jue did not refute, but stared intently at Lu Ren. His carefree expression finally subsided, replaced by the ferocity of an enraged beast.

The rhythm of the game was dragged into a completely new dimension by Lu Ren's "forced scrambling".

Offense and defense shift.

Karasuno serves. Tadashi Yamaguchi walks to the sidelines with his number plate, replacing Shoyo Hyuga.

Key players take the field.

Lu Ren made a hand gesture to Yamaguchi at the net. It was the pre-arranged signal they had agreed upon.

Yamaguchi swallowed hard and stood in the service area. He patted the ball, took a deep breath, and tossed it into the air.

Jump float ball.

The volleyball flew through the air without any spin, like a ghost, drifting erratically towards the back row of Shiratorizawa.

Hayato Yamagata stepped forward to catch the ball, but the ball suddenly dropped the moment it touched his forearm, hitting the floor and bouncing away.

Serve and score!

Shiratorizawa 15:13 Karasuno.

"Well done, Yamaguchi!" The Karasuno bench erupted in cheers.

Shiratorizawa's formation began to falter slightly.

Yamaguchi serves again. This time, Ohira Shion steadily raises the ball.

Kenjiro Shirabu ran quickly and passed the ball to Wakatoshi Ushijima.

Ushijima leaped into the air, facing Karasuno's three-man net, once again demonstrating his terrifying ability to stay airborne.

Lu Ren stared intently at Ushima's left arm from the back row.

"Don't think you can get away with this so easily," Lu Ren said in a low voice.

Hotaru Tsukishima, Daichi, and Tanaka in the front row jumped simultaneously. Remembering Riku's instructions, Hotaru made a soft blocking hand gesture with both hands, blocking the diagonal line.

Ushima abruptly changed course in mid-air, heading straight ahead.

Nishitani Yu was already waiting there, sliding along the ground, using her arms to cushion the heavy slam.

"Counterattack!"

Karasuno's "Chimera" tactic has been activated again.

This time, the positioning was even more audacious than before. Even the libero, Yuu Nishitani, made a feint towards the net after receiving the ball.

Tendou Satoru was dizzy from the constant jolting at the net. His intuition was completely useless in the face of this erratic Brownian motion.

Amidst the chaos, Kageyama Tobio pinpointed the ball's landing point with pinpoint accuracy, then pushed it with both hands, sending it right in front of Rikuren.

Lu Ren leaped high from the back row, facing the hastily organized double block by Shiratorizawa. Instead of smashing with force, he flicked his wrist and hit an extremely light drop shot.

The volleyball flew past the blocker's fingertips and landed lightly in the empty area within the three-meter line of Shiratorizawa.

Shiratorizawa 15:14 Karasuno.

The difference is now only one point.

Shiratorizawa's coach, Washi, turned ashen-faced and immediately called a timeout.

"Well done, Ren!" Tanaka rushed over and slapped Lu Ren hard on the back.

Lu Ren rubbed his shoulders and walked towards the rest area.

He stared at the crisscrossing lines on the tactics board, his mind still racing with calculations.

"The second-stage tactical change will only catch them off guard." Lu Ren took a sip of water and said to his teammates who had gathered around him, "Once they get used to this chaos, Ushijima's numerical advantage will still come into play. We must turn the score around before they can react."

Coach Ukai nodded: "Lu Ren is right. Shiratorizawa isn't the kind of team that can be easily defeated by tricks. From now on, we need to focus all our defensive efforts on Ushijima. Tsukishima, your blocking needs to be more aggressive. Don't be afraid of being used against him; wear him down!"

Hotaru Tsukishima adjusted her sports glasses and responded.

The pause has ended.

Both sides returned to the field.

The smell of gunpowder in the air was extremely strong.

This is the ultimate confrontation between mechanism and data, a life-or-death struggle between reason and intuition.

Lu Ren stood in the back row, looking at Ushijima Wakatoshi, who was like a god of war, and Tendo Satoru, whose eyes had become extremely dangerous.

"Come on," Lu Ren said softly, his fingers tapping a rhythm on his side. "The third phase of the dungeon mechanics is about to begin."

The whistle blew once again throughout Sendai Gymnasium.