Haikyuu!!: The Disaster of Gamers

At the Miyagi Prefectural Gymnasium, the glaring red light on the electronic scoreboard was frozen at 21:25.

Sweat dripped down his eyelashes and stung his eyes. Kageyama Tobio stood at the net, his chest heaving. His sharp eyes, which were always fixed on the trajectory of the ball, were now frozen in place, locked on the impenetrable "iron wall" of Date Kogyo on the other side.

The referee's whistle was like a blunt knife, severing the last taut nerve on the field.

Karasuno lost.

It wasn't a suffocating, high-stakes loss like in the national finals, but rather a crushing defeat in an IH qualifier that they should have won.

Date Industrial's newcomer and the seemingly mature Konkukawa stood side by side on the opposite side of the net, like two cold and silent stone statues, condescendingly announcing the complete collapse of Karasuno's proud "Chimera 2.0" system.

On the bus back, the atmosphere was even more deathly still than a cemetery at midnight.

Tadashi Yamaguchi stared intently at the captain's armband on his thigh, his fingernails digging deep white marks into the rough fabric. As the new captain succeeding Riki Yoshishita, he had delivered three fatal errors in this crucial match. Without Yu Nishitani's almost animalistic instincts for backcourt support, without Ryunosuke Tanaka's thunderous roars that shattered the air in dire situations, Karasuno was like a race car whose entire armor plating had been forcibly removed, leaving only a high-powered engine spinning wildly in place. No matter how fast it ran, the slightest touch would cause it to fall apart.

Lu Ren leaned against the corner of the last row, unusually not taking out his ever-present handheld console. He simply rested his chin on his hand, staring coldly at the rapidly receding roadside trees outside the window, his gaze so deep it was frightening.

"Defensive coverage has dropped by a full 42% compared to the same period last year." Lu Ren suddenly spoke, his cold voice shattering the oppressive atmosphere in the carriage like an ice cube.

Tadashi Yamaguchi's shoulders trembled suddenly, and he turned to look at him with some fear.

"Those newly promoted freshmen are indeed physically strong, but their underlying logic is completely messed up." Lu Ren didn't even look at Yamaguchi, his voice as flat as if he were reading out a list of scrapped items. "Sakura's left-handed spike is indeed fast enough, but his footwork when receiving serves is even worse than Kageyama's temper; Asano's tactical deployment is too idealistic. Once the first pass is not in place, he becomes a stuck, dead loop, unable to even make up for it."

"That...that's my fault." Yamaguchi Tadashi's voice was hoarse, his eyes red. "If I could have kept my first pass steady, if I hadn't made a mistake with my serve..."

"Stop patting yourself on the back. This isn't just your fault; it's a fatal bug in the underlying architecture of the entire system." Lu Ren withdrew his gaze and coldly swept it over the few dejected freshmen at the front of the carriage, who didn't even dare to breathe. "We're still smugly living off last year's 'multi-core attack.' But the truth is, our shield has long since shattered into pieces."

By the time I returned to Karasuno High School's volleyball club, it was completely dark.

Third-year students Hinata and Kageyama were like tireless machines, still practicing frantically in the gym. The sharp squeaking of their volleyball shoes against the wooden floor sounded particularly jarring in the empty space. Lu Ren stood at the door with his hands in his pockets, quietly watching Hinata jump again and again, but due to severe exhaustion, his core became unstable, his movements completely distorted, and the volleyball finally crashed limply against the net and rolled all over the floor.

"That's enough." Lu Ren walked over and stepped on the volleyball that had rolled to his feet.

"One more ball! Lu Ren, pass me another ball!" Hinata was covered in sweat, his orange hair was sticking wetly to his forehead, and his eyes were filled with terrifying bloodshot veins.

"Your current jumping height is a full eight centimeters lower than your usual average." Lu Ren bent down to pick up the ball and tucked it under his arm without any mercy. "This kind of low-quality training only greatly increases your risk of injury and does nothing to help you. Now, get out there and stretch."

Hinata opened her mouth, seemingly wanting to refute something, but seeing Lu Ren's unquestionable gaze, she finally slumped to the floor, panting heavily.

Kageyama walked up to Riku with a gloomy face, his tone as harsh as if he were grinding bones: "Next time, I'll definitely be able to get past Date's net with precision."

"Oh? And then what happens after we get through?" Lu Ren stared directly into Kageyama's eyes without backing down, a cold smile playing on his lips. "When they're on a counter-attack, who's going to receive the ball? Your pass that only flies wildly behind your head? Or my legs, which are practically cramping from covering for you guys?"

Kageyama's pupils contracted, and he bit his lip tightly, falling into a deathly silence.

That year, Karasuno faced its most awkward transition period since the team's founding. The graduation of their core third-year players left a shockingly large defensive vacuum. Although Riku Ren had improved his physical condition through almost self-destructive training, he knew very well that he wasn't Nishitani Yu. He was a tactician who needed to build precise models in his mind and calculate probabilities, not a firefighter who could rely on animal instinct to run all over the field and save the ball even if it meant falling face-first to the ground.

Even more fatally, Lu Ren keenly realized that he had become the "biggest obstacle" to the team's evolution.

Because of his presence on the field, the newcomers subconsciously develop a morbid sense of dependence. As long as the ball hasn't touched the ground, they always feel that the omnipotent vice-captain will appear like a ghost in the patchwork position. This deadly psychological inertia is silently eroding Karasuno's foundation like a computer virus.

Monday's routine tactical meeting.

Coach Ukai looked at the appalling statistics in his hand, his brows furrowing into an unsolvable knot. Tadashi Yamaguchi stood to the side, looking as awkward as a child who had done something wrong.

"Coach, I have a suggestion." Lu Ren suddenly stood up, his tone as calm as if he were discussing what to eat for breakfast tomorrow.

In an instant, all eyes in the conference room were on him.

"I will be stepping down from the first team's starting lineup for the upcoming matches."

These words were like a massive boulder crashing into a stagnant pool, creating a colossal wave. Hinata was so shocked he almost fell off the bench, Kageyama's plastic water bottle was instantly squeezed so hard it made a "smack" sound, splashing water all over the floor, and Yamaguchi Tadashi was completely petrified, his brain shutting down.

"Lu Ren! Have you lost your mind?!" Hinata jumped up and shouted, "You're our vice-captain! You're the tactical core of Karasuno!"

"It's precisely because I'm the core that Karasuno can't win right now." Ignoring everyone's shock, Lu Ren walked straight to the tactics board, picked up a black marker, and drew a bold horizontal line in the center of the board with remarkable precision. "Look closely, Karasuno's offense and defense are severely imbalanced right now. Hyuga, Kageyama, Yamaguchi, plus those freshmen with extremely strong offensive desires—our team is practically a hedgehog's den, full of damn thorns. But this sword is too heavy; once it's swung, it can't be pulled back. Once blocked, we don't even have a chance to fight back."

Below the horizontal line, he wrote two large characters heavily: Team Two.

"From today onwards, Karasuno will be completely divided into two functional groups." Lu Ren tapped the blackboard with a marker, making a tapping sound. "One team is the 'Absolute Offense Group,' consisting of Kageyama, Hinata, Yamaguchi, and those few offensive freshmen. Your mission is only one thing: pile up your offensive power to overflowing! Tear apart any barrier that dares to stand in your way!"

"And what about defense?" Tsukishima Hotaru pushed up her reflective glasses in the corner, her sharp gaze piercing Lu Ren. "Are you letting the first pass fly freely in the air? Or are you hoping the opponent will have mercy and hit the ball out of bounds?"

"Leave the defense to me." Lu Ren turned his head, his gaze fixed intently on Tsukishima. "The second team is the 'defense group,' or you can call it the 'system filtering group.' The members are me, Tsukishima, and all the freshmen who failed the defense test. I will lead them in the second team through hellish ball-receiving training."

Lu Ren looked at Coach Wu Yang, whose brows were furrowed, his eyes unwavering: "Coach, if I don't step onto the field, those freshmen will never learn how to survive in dire situations. I want to personally equip Wu Yang with a brand new, strongest armor plate. If Team One is the knife responsible for killing, then Team Two is the shield responsible for covering the rear."

Coach Wu stared at Lu Ren for a full half minute, then finally sighed deeply and threw his pen on the table: "...Do as you say. But I'll only give you two months."

"You're going to the bench?" After the meeting, Kageyama stopped Rikuren, his voice trembling with barely suppressed anger. "You're giving up on playing with me? Giving up on the fast break we've practiced for so long?"

"This isn't giving up, Kageyama, this is a major update." Lu Ren stepped forward and patted Kageyama's stiff shoulder forcefully. "With your current skills, you don't need an assistant who follows you around fixing bugs every day. What you need is a group of madmen who can keep up with your crazy pace. And I'm going to build a steel cage for these madmen that can't be broken no matter how many times they're dropped."

For the next month, the Karasuno High School volleyball club became the most bizarre and terrifying place in the entire Miyagi Prefecture.

The huge stadium was mercilessly divided in two.

On the left was "Team One" led by Kageyama, whose smashes echoed like thunder, while Hinata's excited roars and Kageyama's irritable reprimands almost lifted the roof off the stadium.

On the right, however, is Lu Ren's "Second Team," which he absolutely dominates.

There were no offensive drills there, and even the net was lowered to its lowest setting.

Lu Ren brought out a high-powered ball-serving machine from somewhere and set the speed to the highest setting. He stood behind a group of trembling freshmen like an emotionless tyrant, holding a folding pointer in his hand, his eyes so cold they could freeze the air.

"Bang!" The ball machine spit out a volleyball like a cannonball.

"Zuo Cang! Your center of gravity is too high! Are you dancing ballet?! If you let another ball through, you're immediately giving me fifty extra sets of diving saves!"

"Bang!"

"Asano! Are your feet glued to the wooden floor? If your anticipation is off, use your bare hands to block it! Even if you have to use your face, get the ball out of the way!"

The volleyball court echoed with the painful groans of the freshmen. They were covered in bruises from rolling on the floor, barely able to get up. But no one dared to complain, because Lu Ren himself was leading the charge. He no longer studied how to execute unpredictable and dazzling fast attacks, but instead devoted all the computational power in his brain to frantically analyzing the ball's spin, trajectory, and landing point.

Hotaru Tsukishima stood aside, watching Lu Ren fall heavily to the floor, skidding half a meter away, to save a tricky corner ball. He then got up expressionlessly, dusted himself off, and couldn't help but sneer: "This kind of self-torture-style low-level training, you, a young master, can actually endure for so long. It's truly an eye-opener."

"This isn't self-torture, Tsukishima, this is called grinding for skill." Lu Ren casually wiped away the sweat mixed with dust, his eyes revealing an almost morbid, chilling excitement. "Don't you think? When the opponent goes all out and hits their most powerful spike, only to have it returned so easily by us... that crushing sense of defeat is even more exhilarating than scoring directly with a spike."

Tsukishima paused for a moment, looking at Riku's maniacal smile, then a slight smile appeared on his lips: "Indeed, his personality is extremely wicked, very much in your style."

Tadashi Yamaguchi often stares blankly at the empty stadium after training. He, the nominal captain, now feels more like a fragile link forced between two groups of extreme madmen.

"Lu Ren, is this really okay?" Yamaguchi asked worriedly as he looked at Lu Ren's bruises all over his legs in the locker room.

Lu Ren, who was wrapping a cold bandage around his swollen ankle, answered without looking up, "Yamaguchi, your jump shot success rate and accuracy have improved by a full 15% compared to last month. Do you know why?"

Yamaguchi was stunned.

"Because in intra-squad practice matches, when you face the second team's defensive madmen, whom I've forced out, you realize that your ordinary shots don't even score a single point. You're pushed to the brink, and you can only pursue the ultimate landing point and variation." Lu Ren stood up, cracking his joints, his eyes sharp. "The first team is frantically pursuing the ceiling, while we're desperately raising the floor. The day these two reunite... the iron wall that Date Industries is so proud of will be nothing more than a cheap biscuit that crumbles at the slightest touch in our eyes."

This almost frantic, tearing-down training continued until late autumn.

The freshmen's eyes had completely changed. From initial fear, complaints, and helplessness, they had transformed into a fierce, relentless determination, like hungry wolves. Zuocang's left hand was no longer just a weapon of attack; under Lu Ren's devilish "training," he could now catch Kageyama's all-out powerful jump serve with unwavering stability. Asano's footwork was no longer stiff; it was as slippery as an eel.

Lu Ren, who used to only pursue "minimalism, effortlessness, and treating the game like a game," has now become the team's most diligent and terrifying goalkeeper.

He transformed himself from a lofty "player" into a "system patch" perfectly suited to Karasuno.

"Hey, Kageyama." One late autumn day, as training was ending, Riku called out to Kageyama Tobio, who was about to leave.

Kageyama stopped and turned around, his eyes still as stubborn as knives.

"I'll be back in the starting lineup for the Spring High School Qualifiers." Lu Ren casually tossed a volleyball over. "Don't let my defense scare you so much that you forget how to pass the ball."

Kageyama caught the ball steadily, feeling the lingering heat on the leather. Uncharacteristically, he didn't retort, but simply gripped the volleyball tightly and nodded emphatically.

Outside the window, withered yellow leaves were swept up by the gale, and a new storm was gathering destructive power on the gray horizon.

The Chimera of Karasuno is undergoing its most painful and thorough rebirth in this long and oppressive darkness. And Lu Ren is personally tearing away the old skin of this team, forging them into a set of hard black armor that can sweep across the entire country.

"System update progress: 90%." Lu Ren leaned against the locker, looking at the Spring High School tournament schedule that had just been released on his phone screen. A dangerous smile curled at the corner of his lips as he murmured, "Next... is the bloody practical test."