Haikyuu!!: The Disaster of Gamers

The volleyball bounced off the floor. The referee blew his long whistle. The score was set. Karasuno won the final set.

The two teams lined up. At the net, Kenji Futakuchi shook hands with Daichi Sawamura across the white tape. Futakuchi shook his wrist, his face full of speechlessness.

"Your team is really sick in the head." Futakuchi pointed to the other side of the court. "The setter went crazy, the opposite hitter attacked someone on the spot, and after that, they could still pull off this kind of play. Are all the teams in Miyagi Prefecture this weird?"

Sawamura Daichi smiled warmly, but his grip on her hand was surprisingly strong: "You flatter me. We're just more active in our internal exchanges. Date Industries' netting taught us a lesson today."

Futakuchi withdrew his hand, rolled his eyes, and beckoned Aone Takashi to head outside. The Date Industries team members packed their bags and gradually left the Karasuno Gymnasium. The iron gate slammed shut.

The moment the door closed.

The smile on Sawamura Daichi's face vanished completely.

He turned around and looked at his teammates behind him. Sugawara Koji threw the towel in his hand into the plastic basket. Higashimine Asahi rubbed his wrists and unfastened his knee pads. Hinata Shoyo stopped jumping around and stood straight, not daring to breathe. Even the usually most lively Nishitani Yuu quieted down, standing to the side with his arms crossed, his eyes darting around the field.

The air pressure inside the stadium plummeted.

Kageyama Tobio stood still, a bead of sweat trickling down his forehead.

He looked around. His teammates' eyes were all on him. Without any attempt at disguise, they stared intently. The gazes from all directions formed a net, enveloping him completely.

"What's the problem?" Kageyama asked, his voice dry.

Daichi Sawamura did not answer. He raised his right hand and waved it forward.

The instruction has been issued.

Ryunosuke Tanaka stepped forward from the left and grabbed Kageyama by the neck. Hotaru Tsukishima circled around from the right and twisted Kageyama's arm behind his back. The two moved with practiced ease and perfect coordination.

"Hey! What are you doing!" Kageyama struggled, kicking his legs wildly.

"Enough with the nonsense." Tanaka grinned, revealing a chilling smile. "Your Majesty, it's time to settle accounts for your tyranny today."

Tsukishima pushed up his sports glasses and said in a cool tone, "Don't move. I'm not strong enough. If I break your precious setter's arm, you won't be able to go to the national tournament. Then you'll just be watching us play from the stands."

The two of them carried Kageyama towards the storage room in the corner of the stadium.

Hinata Shoyo followed behind, holding a roll of medical tape in his hand, eager to try it out, his face full of desire for revenge.

Lu Ren leaned against the wall, popped a mint into his mouth, and chewed it. The candy made a crunching sound between his teeth.

"Should we follow the procedures or go directly through the formal process?" Lu Ren asked Zecun Daichi.

Dadi rubbed his temples: "Let's go through the motions. Let him learn his lesson. We can't let this kind of trouble happen again before the national competition."

The storage room had no windows. Only a single, low-wattage light bulb hung overhead, casting a dim, yellowish glow. In the corner lay a pile of old jumping boxes, musty-smelling mats, and several metal chairs with broken legs. The air was thick with the smell of dust.

Kageyama was forced onto a relatively intact tin chair.

Tanaka found a jump rope and tied Kageyama, chair and all, around twice. After tying him up, he even made a knot that couldn't be tied back.

"This is illegal detention," Kageyama said through gritted teeth, glaring at the crowd.

"Shut up." Lu Ren dragged over a volleyball basket, turned it upside down on the floor, and sat on it.

He held a tattered notebook that he had somehow found, and pretended to open it.

"Court is now in session. Defendant Kageyama Tobio is charged with: malicious overclocking, ignoring teammates' hardware configurations, and attempting to use max-level skills in a low-level dungeon, nearly causing the team to be wiped out."

Lu Ren raised his head and looked at the plaintiff's seat.

Hinata Shoyo was the first to jump out and accuse.

"The ball he passed was no joke! It flew faster than a bird! I jumped and couldn't even touch it, and he still yelled at me for swinging too slowly!" Hinata accused, spitting everywhere. "All that practice I've put into my 'thump-style jump,' and he messed up my rhythm!"

Dong Fengxu shrank back and weakly raised his hand: "Um... the pace was really too fast. I kept feeling like there was a dog chasing me from behind, and I couldn't even regulate my breathing when I jumped."

Hotaru Tsukishima sneered: "More than a dog, it's a mad dog. It completely ignores the blocking position and only cares about its own enjoyment when setting the ball. I suggest this kind of self-absorbed setter be retired immediately, so as to prevent it from harming the attackers on the court."

Kageyama sat in the chair, his face flushed red.

He wanted to argue, but recalling the foolish things he'd done in the first half of the match, he swallowed his words. Being in the wrong was one thing; being publicly executed by this group was quite another.

Lu Ren tapped the edge of the volleyball basket with his pen, making a crisp sound.

"Defendant, do you have anything to say in your defense?"

Kageyama turned his head away: "I've already apologized. I've also changed the second half. What more do you want?"

"If apologies were enough, what would we need the police for?" Tanaka cracked his knuckles beside him. "Do you know how much I was running around at the net in the first half of the game, my lungs were about to explode? You call that organizing an attack? You call that murdering your teammate!"

Lu Ren closed his notebook and stood up.

"Your problem isn't your passing skills, it's your terrible product manager thinking." Lu Ren walked up to Ying Shan, looking down at him. "You see advanced code and want to just copy and paste it into our makeshift system. Did you even consider how the servers feel?"

Kageyama didn't understand the game terminology, but he understood what Lu Ren meant.

"Volleyball is a six-person sport. You're a setter, and your job is to get the ball to the most comfortable hitting point for the attackers." Lu Ren held up one finger. "What did you do today? You maxed out the settings, threw the ball into the air, and then told the attackers, 'If you can't hit it, it's your fault.' What's that called? That's called forced overclocking. You don't care whether your teammates' hardware can handle it, and the result is that the whole team freezes."

"I shouldn't have been so hasty." Kageyama lowered his head, his voice muffled in his throat.

"Just admitting your mistake isn't enough. There needs to be a punishment mechanism." Lu Ren turned to Sugawara Koji, "Sugawara-senpai, is everything ready?"

Sugawara walked over with a smile, holding a piece of clothing in his hand.

It was an extremely flashy children's apron covered in pink Peppa Pig prints. I don't know which teacher left it at school; it was a bit faded from washing, but the patterns on it were still bright and eye-catching.

When Kageyama saw the apron, his pupils dilated.

"I won't wear it!" Kageyama struggled violently, causing the iron chair to scrape against the ground with a screeching sound.

"Hold him down," Lu Ren ordered.

Tanaka and Nishiya pounced on him, pinning Kageyama's shoulders down. Hyuga Shoyo took the opportunity to grab some duct tape and seal Kageyama's mouth shut.

Sugawara deftly slipped the pink apron around Kageyama's neck and tied it into a pretty bow at the back. After finishing, she thoughtfully smoothed out the wrinkles on his chest.

"Take a picture! Take a picture!" Nishiya pulled out his phone, and the flash went off.

Kageyama's eyes reddened, and he let out a humiliating sob. He had never suffered such humiliation in his life. Being isolated in middle school was nothing compared to this, this was true social death.

Lu Ren walked up to him and reached out to tear off the tape from his mouth.

"Listen up. For the next week, you'll be wearing this uniform whenever you're in the volleyball club. This is your punishment for ignoring team rules." Lu Ren patted Kageyama's cheek. "If you dare to act crazy on the court again, I'll post this photo on the Miyagi Prefecture High School Volleyball League forum. The title will be 'The King's New Clothes.' Oikawa Tetsu will definitely be very happy to see it, and he might even print it out and post it on Aoki's bulletin board."

Kageyama gasped for breath, looking at the pink pig on his chest, feeling like he could kill someone.

But he couldn't defeat Lu Ren, nor could he break free from the suppression of Tanaka and Nishitani. Most importantly, he knew he was in the wrong.

Sawamura Daichi walked over and patted Kageyama on the shoulder.

"Fei Xiong, we're not targeting you personally," Daichi's voice softened. "We know you want the team to get stronger. The national tournament is daunting, and we're all under pressure. But volleyball isn't an individual sport."

Dadi pointed to his teammates around him.

"Look at them. Hinata went to Guangdong and was trained by professional athletes for a week to jump higher, until his legs cramped up. Tsukishima watched videos every day to improve his blocking, and even drew tactics on his whiteboard during breaks. Everyone is trying to keep up with you. It's okay if you walk fast, but stop occasionally, look back, make sure everyone is there, and then run forward together."

Kageyama was stunned.

He looked at the bruises on Hinata's knees, at the bandages wrapped around Higashimine Asahi's fingers, and at Tsukishima's bloodshot eyes from staring at the screen for so long.

The awkward anger in my heart slowly dissipated, leaving only an indescribable bitterness.

"Understood." Kageyama's voice was low but clear.

Lu Ren snapped his fingers: "Alright, untie me. That's enough for today. We have training tomorrow."

Tanaka untied the jump rope. Kageyama stood up, tugged at his apron, his face a picture of utter despair. He tried to take the apron off, but Lu Ren glared at him and stopped him.

Hinata leaned over, pointed at the pig nose on the apron, and burst into laughter.

Kageyama kicked him, yelling, "Idiot Hyuga! Are you looking for death?!"

"You can't hit me! Hehehe!" Hinata ran around the volleyball hoop, making faces as he ran.

The storage room returned to its usual noisy state. Tanaka stirred things up from the side, Tsukishima crossed his arms and sneered, while Sugawara tried to smooth things over.

Lu Ren stepped outside and took a breath of the cold air.

Coach Wuyang stood at the end of the corridor, an unlit cigarette between his fingers. Smoking was prohibited on campus, so he could only satisfy his craving by holding it in his hand.

"Is it all done?" Wu Yang asked.

"All done. The system vulnerability has been fixed, and the patch has been applied." Lu Ren put his hands in his pockets. "These guys are incredibly resilient. A beating followed by a treat makes the system work even more smoothly than before."

Wu Yang watched as the team members came out of the storage room, playfully bickering.

Wearing a pink apron, Kageyama was chasing Hinata down the corridor, while Tanaka laughed behind him, and Tsukishima commented on how ugly Kageyama's running form was. This team's vitality was enviable.

"The national tournament draw will be out soon." Ukai put his cigarette back in the pack. "Are you guys ready?"

Lu Ren stopped in his tracks.

He looked out the window. The night sky over Miyagi Prefecture was bright, dotted with stars. Streetlights illuminated the distant streets, and occasionally a vehicle would pass by.

He recalled the exhilarating feeling of his scalp tingling and fingers trembling when facing extremely difficult final bosses in video games. Shiratorizawa was just a high-level monster in the beginner village; the real battleground was in Tokyo.

Owl Valley, Otokoma, Inarizaki, Itayama. The monsters in those teams had ridiculously high stats and their mechanics were as solid as an ironclad fortress.

"No matter who you draw, the system works the way it does." Lu Ren zipped up his jacket to keep out the cold air.

The next afternoon.

Karasuno High School Volleyball Club Gymnasium.

The team members were conducting their regular receiving practice. The atmosphere was lively, with the sounds of balls being struck echoing throughout the room.

The door was pushed open. Professor Takeda rushed in carrying a stack of documents, but he tripped and fell flat on his face.

"Teacher Takeda!" Daichi Sawamura quickly ran over and helped him up.

Without even brushing the dust off his clothes, Mr. Takeda raised the documents in his hand, his face flushed, and shouted, "The draw! The draw for the national tournament is out!"

The entire stadium fell silent instantly.

Everyone stopped what they were doing and gathered around.

Lu Ren walked at the very back, slowly taking out a mint.

Mr. Takeda spread the draw sheet on the tactics board. The densely packed tree diagram was filled with the names of top schools from all over the country.

"Our first opponent is..." Teacher Takeda's finger traced across the paper, stopping at a name.

"Representative of Kanagawa Prefecture, Tsubakihara Academy."

Everyone breathed a sigh of relief. Being a non-seeded team meant less pressure in the first round.

"Don't get too excited yet." Coach Wu Yang walked over and pointed to another spot on the draw. "If we win the first round, our opponent in the second round is here."

Following Coach Uyang's finger, I looked in the direction he was pointing.

The name was printed in a prominent position on the tree diagram, carrying a sense of oppressiveness that was impossible to look directly at.

Hyogo Prefecture Representative, Inarisaki High School.