Basketball System: Rebound of the Underdog

[Incoming side quest!]

[Get the lone dog back into the team.]

[XP at stake: 50]

[You will not lose any XP if the side quest fails.]

[Deadline: One week, same time as the end of the ongoing weekly mission.]

"But yeah. I also tried contacting him," Lina continued. "However, he also didn't respond. I'll just take that as a rejection. Maybe Yuze and I would go through the list of applicants the other day and find a suitable one that could be trained as a substitute."

Meanwhile, Kai kept looking at the large house.

No doubt, Renren must be loaded.

So, there was already a discrepancy as to why he studied in a school like Shizi High in the first place.

Then, Kai turned to Lina.

"Do you want to go inside?" he asked.

Kai didn't just want to fulfill his mission but he also wanted to see just how good this Renren guy was.

Lina's eyes widened in surprise. "What? No! Why would we even go there?"

"Maybe we can talk to him in person," Kai innocently remarked, causing Lina to chuckle.

She reached up her hand and patted Kai's hair, which was surprisingly soft.

"You're so cute. You seem to not know how the real world works," she said. "We can't just knock on his door and ask for him to come back to the team."

"Why not?" Kai asked. "I thought you guys were close."

"We USED to be close," Lina said. "But, to be fair, Yuze and Kun were the closest to him. However, he missed training and games a lot, which was also one of the reasons why we still lost a lot of games even though we had some competent players. He always seemed busy," she ranted.

"However, that's all in the past. I think I'm just desperate to find good teammates right now," she said, finally walking. "If he doesn't want to join the team, then there's nothing we can do."

Kai's eyebrows furrowed.

Except, he felt like there was something he could do.

He had already brought Andy to the team.

He could definitely bring one more player to the Shizi Dogs.

***

"I told you to stop delivering the onions when you have class!" Grandma scolded.

"Your delivery boy is already going to college," Kai deadpanned. "You can't deliver all of these on your own. There's still an hour left for school, so I can still deliver them. Besides, I'll head straight to school right after.

Grandma shook her head. "But you're still a student. You should focus on your studies," she insisted.

However, Kai had already jumped on their crusty old bike and started driving to his usual delivery places. Fortunately, he had a delivery near Lina's house, which was also near Zhou Renren's mansion.

With that, Kai parked his bike on a nearby tree before heading to the large mansion.

He was quite introverted when he first transmigrated to Kai Guo's body, but after a while, it seemed like he had inculcated the original body's courage, which allowed him to do things he had never done before.

So, he raised his hand and dinged the doorbell without any hesitation.

He stood there for a while, continuing to observe the mansion and thinking how it would be nice to live in such a place when he grew older.

Then, before he knew it, the gate opened, revealing a middle-aged woman in a maid uniform.

Kai bowed deeply as the woman looked at him with confusion.

"Yes?" she asked, still appearing confused.

Kai smiled at the woman, but it seemed like she was threatened as she took a step back.

With that, Kai dropped his smile and maintained a neutral expression.

"May I know if the owners are at home right now?"

The maid frowned. "Yes," she trailed off. "But why are you asking?"

"Nice," Kai remarked, making the maid even more confused.

"Can I please speak with Zhou Renren?" he asked.

The maid's frown deepened further.

"Zhou Renren?" she asked.

"Yes," Kai said. "The high school boy."

The maid couldn't help but chuckle. "We don't have any high school boys in this house, nor a Zhou Renren. I think you've gotten the wrong house."

It was now Kai's time to frown.

He stepped back to see if he had mistaken the house for someone else's, but it was definitely right. This was the house that Lina was pertaining to.

"Are you sure?" Kai asked.

The maid scoffed in amusement.

"Yes," she responded. "I've been working here for a year, and there's not a single Zhou in this household. As you can see, this is the Lin household," she said, pointing to the barely visible nameplate on the top of their gate.

Kai squinted his eyes to get a better look, and, indeed, the word 'LIN' was engraved in what seemed to be a gold stone.

"Strange," Kai muttered.

"You're even more strange," the maid deadpanned. With that, she shut the gate in front of Kai's face.

Kai scratched the back of his head as he walked back to his bike.

"Was I mistaken?" he muttered.

Just then, his phone alarm rang, which signaled that he needed to go to school.

He cursed under his breath since he still had one last delivery near the neighborhood.

With that, he pedaled like his life depended on it. He arrived at a small diner, one that always availed their unpeeled onions. He rarely made deliveries in this section after Officer Huang nearly chased him out with a machete, so this was only the second time he was going to deliver to this particular restaurant.

He hurriedly picked up the last sack and hoisted it over his shoulder before making his way inside.

"Onion delivery!" he exclaimed from the counter, but it seemed like there was no one there.

Kai clicked his tongue since he really needed to go. Otherwise, he would be late.

"Onion delivery!" he repeated in a much louder voice this time.

"Oh, wait a second! I'm at the back! Boy, get the onions at the front!"

Kai sighed in relief when he heard the owner screaming from the back.

He impatiently tapped his foot on the floor as he waited for them to claim it.

Then, just when he was about to lose patience, a tall guy around the same height as him emerged from the counter. He was tan with blonde hair, and it appeared like he also had some foreign blood, which surprised Kai.

The guy lifted his head, and he instantly froze when he saw Kai. He did a once-over, which made Kai frown in confusion.

Did he know this guy from somewhere?

The guy didn't even bother greeting Kai before taking the onions from his hands and going back to the kitchen.

However, at that short moment, Kai couldn't miss the guy's nameplate, making him frown even deeper.
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"Ren," he muttered.