Haikyuu!!: The Disaster of Gamers

The corridor leading to the changing room wasn't wide, and the air was filled with the smell of Salonpas spray and sweat. Karasuno and his group were hurrying along when suddenly a large shadow fell ahead, blocking out even some of the light from the overhead lights.

Blocking the way were a group of burly men dressed in white tracksuits.

The leader was ridiculously tall, his broad frame resembling a moving load-bearing wall. Most striking was his face—no eyebrows, a fierce expression, looking like a hardened criminal just released from detention.

Date Industries.

The team came to a standstill. Lu Ren narrowed his eyes, and a red skull icon automatically appeared on his retina, marking the enemy as a high-level monster: [Warning: High-level monster has appeared].

The giant man without eyebrows didn't speak, but slowly raised his arm. His thick fingers pointed straight at Dong Fengxu in the crowd.

His movements were stiff and his presence was very imposing.

"Hey! What are you trying to do?!"

west Gu Xi instantly bristled, like a cat whose tail had been stepped on, and was about to dart forward.

A large hand pressed down on Nishitani's shoulder.

Dong Fengxu stood in front of him.

The usually timid and easily frightened ace, who would tremble at the sound of a siren, straightened his back at this moment. His face, unusually devoid of any desire to escape, darkened, and he stared intently at the eyebrowless man opposite him.

Neither side spoke.

The air seemed to freeze. Students passing by quickly detoured, afraid of being caught in the strange atmosphere of a gang fight.

Lu Ren stood to the side and slightly behind, silently tossed his backpack to the ground, and began rolling up his sleeves.

"Is this about to start a fight?" he muttered to himself, cracking his wrists. "Although there's a red name penalty for PK outside of combat zones, since the other side has shown their weapon first, there's nothing I can do about it."

Just as he was about to rush up and fix the big guy's judgment model, a person suddenly rushed out from the back of Date Industries' team.

"Qinggen! I told you not to target other people so easily!"

The man rushed over in a panic, grabbed the arm of the eyebrowless giant, and pulled him down, all the while calling to his teammate, "Erkou! Come help stop this guy! Don't make a fool of yourself here!"

A boy named Futakuchi strolled over slowly, looking on with an expression of anticipation, but he still cooperated by dragging away the giant man named Aogen.

"I'm so sorry! I'm really sorry!"

Amid a series of apologies, the menacing "monsters" from Date Industries finally disappeared at the end of the corridor.

call--

Sugawara Koji let out a long breath and patted his chest: "That scared me to death. I thought we were really going to fight."

Lu Ren rolled down his sleeves, picked up his backpack, walked over to Dong Fengxu, and patted him hard on the back.

"Senior Xu, that look you gave me just now was really something." Lu Ren gave a thumbs up. "You exuded domineering aura, your intimidation level was off the charts, that was the most ace-like moment you've ever shown since joining the team. How did you do that? Did you secretly practice some kind of 'King's Gaze' skill?"

Dong Fengxu's tense body instantly collapsed, and he curled up into a ball, as if his soul was about to float out of his mouth.

"What skills do I have..." He clutched his stomach, looking completely exhausted. "I was so nervous I almost threw up. My legs were shaking so badly I couldn't move at all."

"..." Lu Ren's lips twitched. "So you were frozen in place."

Just then, a hesitant voice came from behind.

"Sawamura?"

Sawamura Daichi stopped and turned around, a hint of surprise on his face: "It's you, Ikejiri."

Hayato Ikejiri, the captain of Tokiwa High School, stood there looking somewhat awkward.

Lu Ren also turned around, and his heart skipped a beat as soon as his eyes met Chi Jiri's.

broken.

Hayato Ikejiri's eyes widened suddenly, his gaze focusing on Riku Ren, his face showing a thoughtful expression that seemed to say, "Where have I seen you before?" Then, that expression turned into shock and astonishment.

"You…" Ikejiri pointed at Rikuren, her finger trembling slightly, "Aren't you the uncle who came to our school last month to fix the light bulbs in the gymnasium?!"

The air froze again.

This silence was ten times more awkward than when facing Date Industries earlier.

All the members of Karasuno turned their heads toward Rikuren in unison, like sunflowers.

Ryunosuke Tanaka's mouth formed an "O" shape, Hotaru Tsukishima let out a sneer, and Tobio Kageyama looked completely bewildered.

Lu Ren instinctively tried to shrink into the crowd and activate his "stealth" skill, but it was clearly too late. The "repairman's" disguise was exposed in public at this inopportune moment.

"Ahem." Lu Renqing cleared his throat. Since he couldn't reload the save file, he had no choice but to grit his teeth and continue acting.

He straightened up, adjusted his team uniform collar, and said in an extremely serious tone, as if nothing had just happened, "Hello, senior. That was my part-time job; I'm currently in main story mode. I'm Riku Ren, a first-year student at Karasuno High School, and my position is support. Nice to meet you."

Ikejiri was stunned for a long time, looking at Sawamura Daichi, then at Riku Ren, and finally could only scratch his head with a dry laugh: "Ah... I see. I was wondering why that repairman jumped so high... Alright, nice to meet you."

He didn't ask any more questions, but simply waved to Sawamura Daichi: "Sawamura, want to chat for a bit?"

Dadi glanced at Lu Ren, his eyes clearly saying, "I'll interrogate you when we get back," before turning to the others and saying, "You guys go warm up in the preparation area first, I'll be right there."

The main force continued moving, but this time the atmosphere became strange.

Upon arriving at the designated rest area, everyone put down their luggage.

Tanaka Ryunosuke was the first to lean in, his face almost touching Lu Ren's nose: "Hey, Lu Ren! What's with fixing the light bulb? When did you infiltrate Changbo? What's with that plot that sounds like a spy movie?!"

Sugawara also looked curious: "And why were you called 'uncle'? What kind of disguise did you wear that day?"

Tsukishima chimed in with a sarcastic remark: "He's probably just playing himself, since his usual demeanor is just like that of an unemployed bum who's just coasting through life."

Lu Ren turned his face to the side, avoiding the onslaught of everyone's gaze.

"That's an extremely complex side quest, involving advanced map exploration and intelligence gathering," Lu Ren said with a straight face, trying to change the subject. "We can talk about those trivial things later. Don't you think the focus right now should be on that?"

He pointed with his hand.

In the corner, Hinata Shoyo was holding a volleyball, his whole body vibrating violently at a high frequency.

That's the real "vibration mode".

"I...I'm fine..." Hinata muttered to himself, his face as pale as a sheet, his eyes darting around. "I'm just excited...yes, trembling with excitement! I need to go to the bathroom...no, I already have..."

Seeing Hinata's expression, Kageyama's face instantly darkened.

"Hey! You idiot!" Kageyama growled, "Don't you dare cause trouble on the court like you did against Aokijo, or I'll kill you!"

It would have been better if he hadn't mentioned it, because as soon as Qingcheng was mentioned, Hyuga started trembling even more, and he almost dropped the ball in his hand.

"N-no, it's nothing!" Hinata stammered, her voice cracking. "I-I've evolved! I'm a completely new me now!"

"I can't see anything brand new about it!" Tanaka screamed, clutching his head. "This thing's going to short-circuit again!"

Sugawara sighed and looked at Higashimine Asahi, who was drinking water: "Speaking of which, we're both cowards, but Asahi is surprisingly not nervous today."

Dong Fengxu almost spat out his water: "Hey! You don't have to say that about me! Although... although it is indeed true."

He put down the water bottle, looked at Hinata who was almost foaming at the mouth, and gave her a gentle, senior-like smile: "Hinata, there are actually ways to relieve tension."

Hinata, as if grasping at a straw, abruptly turned her head: "W-What method? Asahi-senpai, teach me!"

"Hmm..." Dong Fengxu stroked the stubble on his chin. "Try to recall the most terrifying thing you've ever experienced. Just think, 'The worst that can happen is nothing,' or 'We've survived that, so what's coming next can't be any worse,' and you'll calm down."

Hinata froze, her eyes no longer darting around, and she seemed to have truly begun searching for material in her mind.

The scariest thing...

For an ordinary person, they might think of a haunted house, failing an exam, or being chased by a dog.

But for Hinata Shoyo...

Seeing Hinata's increasingly dazed expression, Lu Ren couldn't help but interject, "Do you still need to think? Hinata, you just need to recall that moment—"

He stretched out his hand, made a serving motion in the air, and then pointed to the back of Kageyama's head.

"That was the crucial point of the first set. The entire arena fell silent. Your palm struck that spot perfectly. A crisp 'smack.' Then, Kageyama turned around, revealing a murderous expression..."

As Lu Ren described it, Hinata's pupils contracted sharply.

Kageyama seemed to recall the pain as well, subconsciously touching the back of his head. He then turned around, staring intently at Lu Ren with eyes more ferocious than a demon's: "You bastard, do you want to die?"

The murderous aura was so palpable that it instantly enveloped the entire rest area.

Hinata stared at Kageyama's terrifying face, her body stiffening for three seconds.

Then, a miracle happened.

He stopped shaking.

Her pale complexion regained its rosy hue, her eyes became clear and ethereal, and she radiated a Buddhist-like glow of having seen through the illusions of the world and attained enlightenment.

"Yeah..." Hinata muttered to himself, "I've already died once. I've even smashed Kageyama's head in, what else in this world is there to be afraid of?"

As long as I don't get killed by Kageyama, everything else is a minor matter.

It's only a one-point loss.

As long as you're alive, that's enough.

An ultimate mentality known as "a dead pig is not afraid of boiling water" awakened in Hyuga's heart.

"Hey, you've stopped shaking, but what's with that detached look on your face?" Sugawara said, somewhat amused. "It's like you're about to ascend to heaven."

"Two negatives make a positive, this is probably what they call a bug caused by numerical overflow." Lu Ren shrugged. "Anyway, the crash is over."

Just then, Daichi Sawamura returned.

"Alright! Everyone assemble!"

Daichi clapped his hands, his gaze sweeping over everyone before finally settling on Hyuga, who had returned to normal, and he nodded in satisfaction.

"Time's almost up, let's go in and warm up! We absolutely have to win this first match!"

"yes!!!"

Lu Ren followed behind the group, looking at the wide entrance to the stadium ahead.

A cacophony of voices surged forth like a wave.

"Alright, the tutorial is over." Lu Ren muttered to himself, a barely perceptible glint of excitement flashing in his eyes. "First dungeon, Start."