Haikyuu!!: The Disaster of Gamers

The morning classes seemed somewhat strange to the students in Group 4 of the first year.

Sitting by the window, Lu Ren resembled a terracotta warrior that had just been unearthed.

During the first class, he remained motionless, his hands clasped on the table.

During the second class, he maintained the same posture of supporting his face with one hand, without changing it at all.

During recess, he refused the physical education representative's call, citing that he was "in deep meditation to restore his chakra."

He even glanced at the mechanical pencil that had fallen to the ground with the corner of his eye, as if it were not his pencil, but a speck of dust in the mortal world.

"Aren't you going to pick it up?" The girl at the table in front of me kindly turned around.

"No need." Lu Ren stared straight ahead, his voice cold and hard. "This is punishment for it abandoning its master. Let it reflect on its actions in the cold wind for a while."

girl:"……"

Only Qingze Yazhi at the next table knew the truth.

Looking at Lu Ren's slightly trembling eyes, she had already seen through everything.

This guy doesn't actually not want to move.

It cannot be moved.

After yesterday's hellish training and this morning's forced activation, Lu Ren's thigh muscles are completely locked up. Now, he's like a rusty mech, with every joint movement requiring a huge amount of fuel.

Sitting down is a form of sealing.

The moment your buttocks touch the stool, the muscles in the back of your thighs will send out a sharp alarm, and any attempt to stand up will be ruthlessly rejected by your body system.

Lu Ren made his decision.

Even if the sky were to fall, he would never leave this bench before the afternoon club activities began.

As long as I don't move, the pain can't catch up with me.

however.

Murphy's Law tells us that when a player tries to accumulate playtime by idling, the system will always generate unexpected events.

The third class was just halfway through.

Lu Ren suddenly felt a strange, cramping pain in his abdomen.

*[System Warning: Your digestive system has been attacked by an unknown virus! Due to overeating and catching a chill last night, you have received the Debuff: Splatoon's Omen.]*

*【10 minutes remaining until the defenses collapse.】*

Lu Ren's face instantly turned from pale to ashen.

Tolerate?

nonexistent.

This call, originating from biological instinct, is not a harm that willpower can exempt you from.

"Teacher," Lu Ren raised his hand, his movements stiff like a robot, "I need to... go to the restroom."

After receiving approval, Lu Ren took a deep breath and braced his hands on the table.

*【Command input: Stand up.】*

*【Error: Insufficient power.】*

"Get up!"

Lu Ren gritted his teeth and used the momentum of his upper body to suddenly "pull" himself up.

At that moment, the excruciating, tearing pain in his thigh muscles almost made him burst into song, "The March of the Volunteers."

He moved with an eerie, zombie-like gait, slowly and deliberately leaving the classroom. With each step, he silently deducted 1 HP point from his body.

……

Men's restroom.

This is the only lawless place in the school, and it is also Lu Ren's refuge at this moment.

He struggled to move into the last cubicle, locked the door, and turned around.

Next up is the most difficult QTE (Quick Response Event) in this dungeon – crouching.

"call……"

Holding onto the partition, Lu Ren slowly sank down at a speed of 0.5 centimeters per second, like a Parkinson's patient.

The thighs are screaming.

My knees are groaning.

But thanks to the micro-management skills he honed over years of playing Dark Souls, he finally landed safely.

*【Task complete: Memory released.】*

*【Gain Buff: Mental and Physical Well-being.】*

Five minutes later.

As the sound of flushing water rang out, Lu Renxin pulled up his pants with satisfaction.

Everything was perfect.

Apart from……

He couldn't stand up.

Lu Ren braced his hands on his knees, trying to exert force.

no response.

The thigh muscles felt like two lumps of dead flesh, completely severed from the brain.

He tried to grab the doorknob and pull himself up.

"hiss--!!!"

A sharp pain shot through his nerves, causing him to slump back down.

*[System Notification: Your character is in a "paralyzed" state and cannot move.]*

*【Please wait for your teammates to rescue you, or choose "Die on the spot".】*

Cold sweat trickled down his forehead.

It’s over.

Is it possible that a hardcore gamer will ultimately die trapped on a squat toilet in a men's restroom? If this gets out, how will he ever be able to continue working in the gaming community?

Just then, a cheerful humming sound came from outside the door.

And there was the sound of energetic footsteps.

That sound...

Lu Ren's eyes lit up.

It's that orange-haired freak! That perpetual motion machine with unlimited stamina!

"Feed..."

Lu Ren knocked on the partition, his voice weak, like some kind of earthbound spirit, "Is anyone there...?"

The singing stopped abruptly.

"Huh? Who's talking?" Hinata Shoyo's voice echoed in the empty restroom.

"Here..." Lu Ren pushed the door open a crack, revealing half of his deathly pale face, "the last cubicle..."

Hinata Shoyo curiously peered over and, through the crack in the door, saw Lu Ren's face filled with despair.

"Ah! It's Lu Ren!" Hinata's eyes lit up. "Are you practicing your horse stance? That's amazing! You're even training for going to the toilet!"

What the hell is this horse stance?

Lu Ren's lips twitched, suppressing the urge to complain, and he stretched out a trembling hand.

"Hinata... can you do me a favor?"

"What kind of help?"

"Pull me out."

"ha?"

"My leg... it's broken," Lu Ren said through gritted teeth. "Give me a hand. Right now."

Hinata didn't understand what "crash" meant, but he was a kind-hearted kid.

"Oh well!"

Hinata pushed open the door, stretched out her hands, and grabbed Lu Ren's arm.

"One, two, three! Heave-ho!"

An unreasonable and strange force came.

Lu Ren felt like a radish that had been uprooted in an instant.

Although his thighs were burning with pain, he was finally able to walk upright again.

"Phew... I'm alive again."

Lu Ren leaned against the sink, panting heavily, feeling as if he had just cleared an epic dungeon.

He looked at Hinata, who was pleading for praise, and felt a little touched.

Although he's a bit of a fool, he's actually quite reliable when it counts.

"Um, Hinata."

Lu Ren straightened his collar, trying to regain some dignity.

"Could I ask you for a favor?"

Hinata blinked her big eyes: "You tell me!"

"Don't tell anyone about what just happened. Especially those guys in the volleyball team." Lu Ren pointed to the cubicle, then to himself.

This is the bottom line.

This is the last act of defiance from a top-tier gamer.

If people knew that he needed help to go to the toilet, how could he ever face anyone in Karasuno?

Hinata tilted her head, looking confused.

"Anyone? Do you mean Kageyama and the others?"

"Yes, it's them." Lu Ren nodded seriously. "We absolutely cannot let them know. This is a secret between us men."

Hinata scratched his messy orange hair, his expression becoming somewhat conflicted.

"But……"

He stretched out his finger and pointed behind Lu Ren.

"But...they're right behind us."

Lu Ren's smile froze on his face.

In that instant, time seemed to stand still.

The background music changed to sound effects from a horror game.

He turned his head mechanically and slowly.

At the entrance to the toilet.

The space, which was not spacious to begin with, was now packed with people.

Kageyama Tobio was holding a bottle of milk, with the straw still in his mouth, staring blankly at him.

Sugawara Koji held his lesson plan in his hands, a gentle yet awkward smile on his face.

Ryunosuke Tanaka was covering his mouth, his shoulders heaving violently, making a "kukuku" sound as he breathed out.

And at the very end.

The tall girl with black-rimmed glasses—Hotaru Tsukishima.

She was looking down at him, a wicked smile playing on her lips.

The air was deathly still.

"puff."

Hotaru Tsukishima was the first to break the silence.

He pushed up his glasses; his voice wasn't loud, but it was clearly audible in the well-resonated restroom.

"So this is what they call the 'secret between men'."

Tsukishima's mocking gaze swept over Lu Ren's still trembling legs.

"Someone who needs help even to go to the toilet... Game Master?"

"Hahahaha!"

Tanaka Ryunosuke finally couldn't hold back any longer and burst into maniacal laughter, slapping his thigh and pointing at Lu Ren: "Lu Ren! Are you an old man?! I'm dying of laughter! Hyuga 'pulled' you out, hahaha!"

Even the usually serious Kageyama couldn't help but twitch his lips twice, turning his head to the side and his shoulders shaking.

*[System Notification: Player "Lu Ren" has suffered a mental blow!]*

*【HP-9999!】*

*【Gained the debuff: Social Death (Permanent)】*

Lu Ren felt the blood rush to his head, and his face turned as red as a ripe tomato.

Destroy it.

tired.

Let's blow up this server.

"you……"

Lu Ren pointed at the group of people, his hand trembling.

"Let me explain! This is...this is tactical leg weakness! It's...it's a system bug!"

"Yes, yes, it's a system bug." Sugawara Koji walked over with a smile, patted him on the shoulder, and said, "Alright, I won't laugh at you anymore. Can you still walk? Do you need us to help you?"

"Need not!!!"

Lu Ren let out a grief-stricken roar.

next second.

An adrenaline surge.

When faced with dire circumstances, humans often unleash potential that transcends physical limits.

Lu Ren ignored the excruciating pain in his thigh and the laws of physics.

He shoved the crowd aside and dashed out of the restroom like a black lightning bolt.

"I will be back—!!!"

In the corridor, only a desperate yet stubborn figure remained.

And from the toilet behind me, the inhuman, uproarious laughter of the volleyball team members.

Back in the classroom.

Lu Ren buried his face in his arms and slammed his head on the table.

Qingze Yazhi raised an eyebrow as she looked at him, who looked as if he had been ravaged by ten burly men.

"What? Did you fall into a pit?"

Lu Ren did not speak.

He simply raised his middle finger silently.

Then, in his mental notebook, he wrote down a blood debt for every single person in the volleyball team.

just wait.

Today's grudge.

I, Lu Ren, will run my legs off to regain my dignity on the court!