Basketball System: Rebound of the Underdog

"I can't believe we're going to be doing a cross-dressing competition," Zeren muttered as he walked to the gym for their training.

Behind him was Kai, who also couldn't believe that they had taken up Bao's suggestion. It started off as a joke, with Bao saying that the cross-dressing theme was a staple in anime series.

However, it seemed like his classmates actually liked the idea, so they pushed through with it.

There were definitely some disagreements, especially from their class president, Haobin, but the majority won, so they had no choice but to go through with it.

Zeren and Kai now walked side by side, and at that moment, they saw some people waving at them.

Kai still found it weird, but it seemed like Zeren actually liked the attention, so he waved back at them.

So, feeling like he was the king of the world, Zeren walked to the court with an air of arrogance.
Experience tales at empire

The two of them entered and saw that most of the players were already there. They were conversing among themselves, and it seemed like they were also talking about how strange the day had been.

"My crush actually waved at me," Jet said, scratching the back of his head.

Shang, who decided to watch their practice for the day, shook his head.

"I can't believe you guys are finally getting attention once I've left the team. Why didn't we beat the Xing Stars last year?" he exclaimed.

Zeren heard their conversation and sat with them on the bench.

"That's because I wasn't here yet," Zeren smiled. "So, you guys should thank me for making our team more famous!"

Just then, Lina arrived at the court, looking breathless and scared.

The entire team turned to her, and Kun immediately questioned why she was the last one to enter.

"Why are you late today?" he asked. "You're usually the first one here."

She walked to the bench and grabbed a cup of water before downing it in one go.

"I wanted to!" she exclaimed. "But people couldn't stop talking to me. I even received this," she said, placing some letters on the bench as she continued catching her breath.

Zeren looked at the love letters on the bench and froze.

"I led our team to victory," he started off, "but at what cost?"

"Shut up," Shang said in amusement. "You didn't even carry the team to victory. Yuze did."

Zeren clicked his tongue before looking at the love letters on the bench.

"You received these only today?"

"I did," Lina said. "It's strange. A lot of people even asked me when our next game was!"

"Me too," Kun said.

"Me three!" Jet exclaimed.

"People asked me too, even though I'm not part of the team anymore," Shang said.

"So, I guess more people are going to watch our next game?" Lina asked.

As the rest of the team conversed, Kai couldn't help but look at the letters that Lina received.

Did the basketball game leave that much of an impact on the school body?

"What's gotten you in such a sour mood?" Shang suddenly asked, causing Kai to straighten up.

"That's just his default face," Jet said.

"Oh, you're right," Shang said, chuckling in amusement.

"Anyway, the game is still in two weeks, right? You guys have some time to train." Shang chimed.

Jinping sighed as he leaned against the wall.

"Do you think the two weeks would be enough? We're going to be playing against the Feng Foxes," he remarked.

The team was silent for a second as they internalized Jinping's question

"If Chunlei and Yiming don't play, then I feel like we have a chance," Jet said. "We've improved a lot since our practice game with them."

Yuze hummed in dissatisfaction.

"That's not how our mindset should be. We need to go into this game knowing that the two of them are going to play," Yuze said.

"Yuze's right," Kun added. "As much as I also want to win the game, winning it when their two best players are out would entail that we're weak."

Lina nodded in agreement. "That's why we need to train extra hard for the next two weeks. I'll arrange some new programs just for you, guys."

Zeren smiled widely and went over to Lina, throwing his arm over her shoulder.

"You're the best!" he exclaimed.

Lina clicked her tongue and pushed him away, causing the younger student to pout.

"However, before we get to all of that, we have to talk about another thing," Lina said.

"Which is?" Kun asked.

"Our booth for the Cultural Festival!" she excitedly said.

However, it seemed like she was the only one who was excited since the rest of the players groaned—especially those who weren't in their first year.

"Why are you guys so upset about it?" Zeren asked.

"Well, this is a yearly thing, so we already know what to expect," Kun muttered.

"The class with the most visitors is going to get some grade incentives while the club with the most profit gets to keep all of their profit and an additional bonus from the principal," Kun exclaimed.

Jinping's eyes widened in excitement.

"Then, that means we can go to different training facilities!" he said.

"I guess," Shang answered. "However, our club has no luck with these kinds of things. The Shizi Snakes win every year even though they only ever do a bake sale!" he said, obviously bitter about the situation.

"I know, right?" Jet exclaimed. "But they do make tasty cookies."

"We also did a bake sale, though," Kun said. "My mom even made us some cookies when I was a first-year!"

Yuze pursed his lips. "No offense, but your mom's cookies tasted like tofu."

Kun clicked his tongue. "She was going through a vegan phase!"

Zeren chuckled in amusement.

"What did you even do last year?" he asked.

"We had people throw us water balloons," Kun said.

"Hey, that isn't too bad," Jinping said. "I would have paid to throw people some water balloons. It's a good way to de-stress."

"Yeah, a lot of people were encouraged in the beginning, too," Shang said. "However, Yuze was the first one to volunteer, and nobody dared throw a water balloon at him."

They all turned to Yuze, who still had that permanent scowl etched on his face.

Zeren nodded. "I see where they're coming from."

"Anyway," Lina clapped. "We can't do any of those now. We really need some funds so we can improve our facilities. Who knows? The incentive might even book us a trip during the break!"

"You're already thinking about the break when the Winter Cup hasn't even ended yet?" Kun asked, amused.

"Oh, shush," Lina said. "We need a well-needed break before we start the Interhigh Preliminaries!"

"So, do you guys have some ideas?"

Kai, who had been silent for quite a while, raised his hand, making the others turn to him in surprise.

"What if we do something related to basketball?"

"Like a shooting game of some sort."