Haikyuu!!: The Disaster of Gamers

Deep in the corridors of the Tokyo Metropolitan Gymnasium, a low, rumbling noise continuously emanated from the ventilation ducts.

Lu Ren crushed the empty sports drink bottle, flicked his wrist, and the plastic bottle traced an arc in the air before landing precisely in the trash can three meters away.

Ya-zhi leaned against the railing, her finger swiping across the match schedule on her phone screen. "Inarizaki, the perennial champion of Hyogo Prefecture. Second in the national competition last year. Wouldn't you call that overtaking a much stronger opponent?"

"There's no such thing as level suppression." Lu Ren clapped his hands, the dry feel of the anti-slip powder still lingering on his palms. "If the mechanics are right, even a basic attack can break through defenses."

A faint vibration came from the walls. It was the roar of the stands in the main stadium; even through the thick load-bearing walls, one could still feel the deafening noise.

The air in the Karasuno lounge was somewhat stuffy.

Hinata Shoyo ran to the restroom for the fifth time, and as soon as he opened the door, Sugawara Koji grabbed him by the back of his collar.

"If you keep peeing, you'll be completely dehydrated when you go on stage!" Sugawara shoved the water bottle into his arms and ruffled his orange hair.

Kageyama Tobio sat on the edge of the bench, head down, wrapping the duct tape around his fingers. Round and round, it was so tight that his fingertips showed an abnormal alternation of red and white.

Lu Ren leaned against the locker, his retina reflecting the Inarisaki data panel he had organized the previous night. Miya Yu, Miyaji, Kakuna, Ooshiro. This was a champion-level system with an extremely high tolerance for error, even possessing self-iterative capabilities.

"It's time." Daichi Sawamura pushed open the door.

The lights in the corridor were dimmer than in the lounge. Footsteps echoed in the enclosed space, the sounds of shoes scraping against the rubber floor mingling and overlapping. The further you walked, the clearer the wind music became. It was Inarizaki's massive support group, the booming brass instruments sounding like a regular army on parade.

After turning the last corner, the passage ahead narrows.

Another group of people walked towards us.

Black background, white team name. Inarizaki.

The corridor was eerily quiet, with only the sound of footsteps from two groups of people.

Karasuno slowed his pace. The opposing team showed no intention of giving way. The two groups stopped three meters apart.

The difference in size is immediately apparent. The average height of Inarizaki's starting lineup is over 185 centimeters, and the twins standing at the front, with one blonde and one gray hair, are highly recognizable.

Gong You. The top setter in the national high school team.

He had one hand in his team uniform pocket, his gaze sweeping over the Sawamura landscape and landing on that black head.

"Yo, Fei Xiong." Gong You raised his hand and gave a very perfunctory greeting. "Haven't seen you since the national youth team training camp. Planning to be a good boy today?"

Kageyama Tobio raised his head.

"I've always been obedient." Kageyama's tone was flat, without a hint of joking. "I play exactly as the coach tells me to."

Gong You paused for half a second, then let out a sneer. He turned to look at his twin brothers beside him. "Zhi, did you hear that? This kid's still so stubborn."

Gong Zhizheng was tearing open the wrapper of an energy bar without looking up. "Mind your own business. Just make sure your serves don't hit the net."

"Huh? When have I ever served into the net!"

The two bickered as if no one else was around. This relaxed attitude itself was a form of condescending arrogance. They didn't take the dark horse from Miyagi Prefecture seriously at all.

Tanaka Ryunosuke raised an eyebrow, took a step forward, and the veins on his neck bulged: "Hey! You two blondies, don't look down on me!"

Nishitani Yu followed closely behind, hands on her hips, chin held high.

In the back row of Inarizaki, Rintaro Kakunana raised his phone and pressed the shutter button on Tanaka and Nishiya. The flash went off.

"Local specialties from Miyagi Prefecture." Kakuna looked down at the screen. "Their expressions are quite vivid."

Hotaru Tsukishima adjusted her glasses, the lenses reflecting a cold glint. "We could ask you to delete these photos taken without permission. But oh well, consider them a memento of your defeat."

Kakuna put down his phone, his gaze sweeping over Tsukishima's face. It was a clash of rationalists; their eyes met, exchanging only cold scrutiny.

Hinata Shoyo peeked half his head out from behind the ground, staring at Miya Yu. He remembered Kageyama saying that this person's passing skills were extremely high.

Miyako noticed the gaze and looked down at Hinata. At just over 1.6 meters tall, he appeared exceptionally slender in the passageway filled with tall people.

"Is this your partner?" Miya Yu said to Kageyama, his tone undisguisedly flippant. "Looks like a caddy. How high can he jump? Can he even touch the net?"

Before Kageyama could speak, a voice came from behind Karasuno's team.

"How high you jump is not important."

Lu Ren pushed aside Dong Fengxu in the front row and walked to the very front. He wasn't wearing a jacket, just his black number 13 jersey.

"The important thing is whether your system can understand the number of frames he jumps in."

Gong You narrowed his eyes, sizing Lu Ren up and down. "Who are you?"

"Kasuno, Rikujin." Rikujin announced his name, his gaze shifting back and forth between Miyako Yu and Miyaji.

[Inarizaki No. 7, Yu Miyazaki. Setter. Core Driver.]

[Inarizaki No. 11, Miyaji. Responder. Backup driver/multi-functional plug-in.]

"Dual-core system, seamless switching." Lu Ren seemed to be talking to himself, yet also giving a pre-match report. "Theoretically, it can achieve unlimited tactical changes. A very ingenious design."

Gong Zhi stopped chewing the energy bar and looked up at Lu Ren.

Gong You straightened his casual stance. "What nonsense is this? Do you think this is a video game?"

"Isn't that right?" Lu Ren retorted, crossing his arms. "Volleyball is a turn-based strategy game. I've watched videos of your Inarizaki system. It relies on the telepathy of twins to skip communication steps, compress the attack's pre-attack animation, and thus launch unconventional fast attacks."

He paused for a moment, his gaze fixed on Gong You.

"But the more sophisticated a system is, the more vulnerable it is to disruption of its underlying logic. What happens if your unspoken understanding, which transmits information without needing to read it, is compromised by a piece of gibberish?"

Gong You's gaze turned cold. The previous flippancy vanished, replaced by the wariness of a wild beast being scrutinized.

"Gibberish?" Gong You smirked. "With just you guys?"

"Just look at us." Lu Ren pointed to Hyuga and Kageyama beside him, "And by the way, let me correct you. Tobi isn't a good boy; he's a tyrant who forcibly raises the bar for his teammates. And this little orange..."

Lu Ren patted Hinata on the shoulder.

"It's a virus specifically designed to burn out your motherboards."

The atmosphere in the corridor became extremely oppressive.

At the very back of Inarizaki's group, a figure stepped forward.

Kita Nobusuke.

He had no expression, his pace was steady, and the distance of each step was exactly the same.

Lu Ren's gaze swept over Kita Shinsuke. Strangely, the system panel's evaluation of this person was extremely mediocre, with no outstanding individual stats, just a basic accumulation. But it was precisely this extreme ordinariness that formed Inarisaki's strongest firewall.

"Yu, Ji, that's the character's name. Let's go when you've had enough." Kita Shinsuke's voice wasn't loud, but it carried an undeniable sense of order. "A match is about fighting on the field, not talking."

Gong You withdrew his gaze and put his hands back in his pockets. "Alright. See you on the field then. Hopefully, your virus won't crash too soon."

Inarizaki's team started moving forward again.

The two teams brushed past each other in the narrow corridor.

Their shoulders were less than ten centimeters apart. Their breathing mingled.

As Gong Zhi passed by Lu Ren, he lowered his voice and said, "Your data analysis sounds impressive. But volleyball is all about physicality."

"What a coincidence." Lu Ren didn't turn his head, looking at the exit ahead. "What I'm best at is using mechanics to defeat numerical monsters."

The footsteps faded into the distance.

The Karasuno group stood still.

"Those people just now were so intimidating." Dong Fengxu wiped the sweat from his forehead.

"What are you afraid of!" Nishitani Yu slapped Higashimine on the back. "Just return all their serves!"

Kageyama's chest heaved as he turned to look at Riku. "That tactic you mentioned earlier, burning out the motherboard..."

"It's not finished yet," Lu Ren said matter-of-factly, shrugging his shoulders.

"Huh?!" The whole team burst into laughter.

"What's the rush? Real-world experience is the best resource." Lu Ren pointed to the exit emitting a bright light ahead. "Go out there and probe their defenses. Once you've cornered the Gong brothers' passing lanes, the rest is up to you."

The clear voice of the female announcer came through the radio.

"Next up is the second round of the boys' competition. Miyagi Prefecture representative, Karasuno High School, versus Hyogo Prefecture representative, Inarisaki High School. Please welcome both players to the field."

Daichi Sawamura walked to the front of the group and turned around.

"Let's go."

"oh!"

The entire Karasuno team strode through the dimly lit passageway and into the brightly lit central stadium.

In the stands, Inarizaki's massive support group was playing deafening brass music. It was a spectacle reserved for a powerhouse.

On the other side of the stands, Lu Jianguo was directing several bodyguards in black to hang a giant Chinese banner that read "We will kill all those who dare to defy us" on the railing. Lu Xin, meanwhile, took a megaphone out of her bag and tested the microphone.

Lu Ren stepped onto the wooden floor, his shoes making a crisp scraping sound.

He looked up, his gaze fixed on the twins on the other side of the net.

The cross-server dungeon, Inarizaki, has officially begun its exploration.