Basketball System: Rebound of the Underdog

Kai stared at the ball in his hands and surprisingly found that the impact didn't hurt. So, he quickly looked back at their shocked opponents and threw the ball once more.

The guy next to Zeren couldn't move as the ball approached him like a fast-paced car. Then, before he even knew it, he was eliminated from the game.

"What the?"

"I mean, Kai is still probably the strongest among them. Rambo's just the biggest."

"But Kai said he was bad at P.E. before we went here!"

"Duh, he was definitely lying! He was the best at fighting during Junior Secondary School. How could he suck at P.E.?"

Meanwhile, Zeren wasn't happy with what was happening, so he quickly gathered his teammates and whispered a new strategy.

"Don't hit Kai for now," he said. "Just hit those lankly, little dudes."

The others nodded in agreement, with Rambo holding onto the ball.

His gaze, which was originally focused on Kai, shifted to the one standing next to him. With all the strength that he could muster, Rambo threw the ball at the guy with the thickest glasses on the team.

Kai's eyebrows raised in surprise when he realized where Rambo was aiming the ball. Then, he acted quick and held onto his teammate's sleeve before pulling him away.

However, since his teammate resisted a bit, the ball still managed to hit the edge of his shoulder.

"Out!" Miss Cherry exclaimed, and the glasses guy quickly jogged to where the rest of the class was sitting.

One by one, their teammates got eliminated. It seemed to be a pretty equal match—one that the teacher didn't expect based on how the teams looked in the beginning.

However, it seemed like Kai's team was holding out pretty well since they currently had the same amount of people as Zeren's team.

The people nearby had stopped to look at their match, intrigued by the push-and-pull that the two teams were showing.

Bao found himself getting bashful because of all the attention, which caused him to be eliminated on the next round due to his lack of focus.

He exclaimed in surprise when Rambo's throw caused his glasses to get knocked off of his face.

"Wait," Bao said, halting the resumption of the game as he picked up his glasses from the grass.

Kai saw how it got slightly bent, causing his eyebrows to furrow.

"Hey, are you okay?" Kai asked as Bao placed his crooked glasses on. He still had a wide smile on his face, appearing to find the game fun.

"Yeah," Bao said. "I'll go to the side now!" he cheerily exclaimed as he joined the rest of his classmates.

However, Kai didn't find it nearly as fun after seeing his friend get hit in the face.

It was one of the rules in dodgeball! A hit on the head was only going to count if the person ducked down or dodged and managed to get hit.

Rambo definitely aimed it at Bao's head from the very beginning. However, even then, it seemed like Kai was the only one who found it strange.

He shook his head in disappointment as he grabbed the ball and threw it over to their side, determined to eliminate their third teammate to even out the score.

Fortunately, it seemed like his aim was only getting better and better as time passed by.

Zeren sighed in relief when the ball passed through him, even making his hair fly in the process.

"Goodness," he muttered. "At this point, he should be a professional dodgeball player."

However, even then, Zeren didn't give up. Kai's last teammate, who had been running around for the entire duration of the game, appeared to have slowed down due to physical fatigue.

Zeren took this opportunity to aim at his chest, and it landed with a loud thud, signaling the elimination of Kai's last teammate and leaving him all alone to face two opponents.

"Do you think he can take the two of them?" Experience new stories on empire

"Well, in a fight, I feel like he could."

"Go, Kai!"

"Let's go, Kai!" Bao cheered excitedly.

Kai looked at the side and found the boys he picked for his team, who were looking at him with bright eyes. Back then, Kai swore that some of these boys looked at him with fearful gazes.

Somehow, seeing them cheer for him put him in a better mood.

So, he quickly turned his focus to Zeren, who was already aiming to hit him.

Kai narrowed his eyes in concentration, his gaze darting from side to side to predict which way Zeren would throw the ball.

Fortunately, since the two of them were teammates, Kai had an inner instinct where Zeren would throw the ball. That was how he received his passes during their game with the Daxue Dolphins, after all.

With that, he was able to dodge his attack and get the chance to retaliate and possibly put an end to the game.

He took the ball from the ground, held it with both hands, and focused his gaze on Rambo.

From his peripheral vision, he could sense Zeren standing nearby, which gave him the perfect opportunity for another double elimination.

He tried to recall how he managed to accomplish it a while ago. Then, he realized that he had to aim at Rambo's side so it could bounce off into Zeren's direction.

"Let's do this," Kai muttered.

At this point, the cheerleaders were already resting, their gazes focused on the noisy part of the field.

Yani clicked her tongue as she watched their showdown.

"Goodness," she said. "These first-year students are so noisy. Don't they know that they're interrupting our practice?"

"Let them be," Suzy said, her gaze focused on Kai. "Let's watch along with them. It seems pretty fun."

Yani sighed and begrudgingly faced them. Deep inside, she was also tuning into their game. It was much more interesting than she had expected!

With a deep breath, Kai finally raised his hand, aiming the ball at Rambo's side so he could fulfill his objectives.

He made sure not to execute any dirty plays like Rambo did (although he was very tempted after seeing Bao's crooked glasses).

It seemed like time stood still as the ball hurled into Rambo's direction.

The big guy's eyes widened as he gauged the speed of the ball, sensing that it was faster than Kai's past throws.

It almost seemed hypnotizing, and because of it, instead of moving away, he felt compelled to come close to it.

So, instead of moving to his left to evade the attack, he jumped to the right, where the ball was perfectly heading in a fast trajectory.

"Shit," he muttered as the ball became dangerously close to his treasured body part.

Then, before he knew it, a loud thud was heard around the field, arguably the loudest thud of the entire game.

The others quickly looked away as the scene happened before them, and even Miss Cherry couldn't help but cover her eyes.

Kai's eyes widened as Rambo fell to the ground, his hands covering the sore area.

"Welp," Zeren said as he stared at his teammate who was writhing in pain on the ground.

"Now, that's what you call a triple ball."