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“Three versus three is fine with you, right?”
“No problem,” Asuto answered casually.
Naturally, the matches that were casually arranged at these multi-purpose sports complexes weren’t all that formal. Basically, as long as each side had more than two people, a game could be played.
However, two- or three-person matches generally demanded far more well-rounded individual skills.
Asuto’s teammates were a middle-aged man and a college student with dyed hair.
Neither of them were professional players, just ordinary volleyball enthusiasts.
Once the game began, Asuto started by sending the volleyball over the net with an overhand serve.
Immediately afterwards, the opposing side quickly organized their first attack.
Bang!
The ball flew past a single block and smashed towards the floor.
At this crucial moment, Asuto shifted swiftly sideways and dug the ball up. The ball bounced high into the air; although the direction was slightly off, it remained on their side of the court.
“Sorry, I messed up the reception a bit,” Asuto said.
“No worries, no worries, that was a great save!” The college student with the dyed hair quickly responded.
And this wasn’t merely empty encouragement.
When playing under these kinds of conditions, randomly assembled teams often ended up with wildly uneven skill levels.
Sometimes, when they really couldn’t find enough people, they would even drag in a few guys who didn’t play volleyball at all, just to make up the numbers.
Plus, since Asuto had looked pretty young earlier, the college student with the dyed hair had been a little worried. So now that he had confirmed that Asuto actually understood volleyball, he felt much better.
“Come on, kid! You’re the newcomer, so we’ll let you take the first point in style.”
The college student with the dyed hair spoke again while setting up a high toss in front of Asuto.
Seeing this, the opposing side immediately sent two people up to block.
This was also one of the limitations of playing on these kinds of ‘street courts.’
Since everyone was teamed together temporarily and lacked chemistry and coordination, it was impossible to execute quick attacks or fast-tempo plays.
As a result, the game relied much more heavily on individual ability, whether attacking or defending.
“Hey! Aren’t you three being way too ruthless? The kid’s just arrived! Can’t you take it easy on him?” Seeing the defensive formation on the opposite side, the college student with the dyed hair immediately started complaining loudly.
“Hahahaha… Giving it your all on the court is the greatest respect you can show your opponent!” The two blockers opposite them, both over 180 centimeters tall, grinned broadly as they shouted back.
The college student with the dyed hair choked on his words, seemingly gaining an entirely new understanding of just how shameless those two were.
Just as he opened his mouth to continue arguing, Asuto had already leapt high into the air.
In an instant, the two blockers could only watch helplessly as their line of sight shifted from eye level… to looking upwards.
Even after jumping with all their strength, their eyes could barely reach Asuto’s chin.
At the same moment, a calm voice entered their ears:
“The two senpai are right. Giving it your all on the court is the greatest respect you can show your opponent.”
BOOM!
With an explosive sound, the volleyball soared directly over the two-man block.
Before the backcourt defender could react, the ball had already slammed viciously into the floor.
In an instant, the entire volleyball court fell silent, and everyone’s movements seemed to freeze on the spot.
The two blockers on the opposing side looked at each other and saw the same stunned expression on each other’s faces.
A few seconds later, the dyed-haired college student finally let out a loud exclamation:
“WHOOOAAA~~~ What the hell was that just now?! You jumped so high! That must have been almost 340 cm! What exactly did you do, kid?”
“Not really. My current maximum reach on a spike is only 337 cm. For now, I’m just the outside hitter and ace spiker for my school’s volleyball club.” Asuto replied modestly.
Everyone on the volleyball court: “…”
‘Were middle schoolers this terrifying nowadays?’
‘What kind of concept was a 337 cm spike reach?’
The simplest way to describe it was: This kid had the makings of a professional player.
Among the five people on the court besides Asuto, although all of them were older than him, not a single one had a spike reach exceeding 330 cm.
In fact, even people who could reach 320 cm were rare.
There were two main reasons for this.
Firstly, they weren’t professional volleyball players to begin with and physical ability doesn’t necessarily improve with age. In fact, the opposite was often true.
Under modern living conditions, although the university years were theoretically considered the physical prime of the human body, most people actually reached their athletic peak during high school.
Secondly…
Talent.
Within the System’s stat panel, Jump and Speed were probably the two attributes that depended most on natural talent.
Asuto himself understood this point deeply.
Before his vertical jump surpassed 75 cm, his maximum spike reach had only just reached 331 cm.
However, increasing from 74.9 to 75, that tiny 0.1 difference caused his spike to increase explosively by 5 centimeters.
It was a subtle yet fundamentally transformative change.
Without the System’s modifications, Asuto might have needed to wait for another growth spurt before he could jump any higher.
But by then, he would already have fallen behind everyone else.
One slow step led to another, and another, and another, and this was precisely the difference between professional and amateur athletes.
Asuto’s “modest” statement left the group speechless for several seconds.
Soon after, however, the college student with the dyed hair suddenly covered his mouth and burst into laughter.
“Pfft! Hahahaha! You two totally deserved that! You’re always bullying newcomers, look at you now, karma’s finally hit!”
“Shut up!”
The two blockers opposite him clearly knew the dyed-haired college student personally. Hearing this, their faces immediately turned red as they shouted in embarrassment and anger.
“Hahahaha… I’m dying here! Come on, let’s keep playing! I’ll toss you even more balls later, kid. After all, ‘giving it your all is the greatest respect for your opponent’, right?”
He spoke the last sentence in an exaggerated imitation of the blockers’ earlier tone.
The moment he said it, one of the blockers almost jumped across the court to punch him.
‘Was that something a human being should say, seriously?’
After fooling around for a while, the match resumed.
The college student with the dyed hair truly kept his promise, continuously setting balls to Asuto during the game.
Asuto also lived up to expectations.
For the first few attacks, he relied purely on his height and jump to practically crush the opposing side.
However, as the game continued, Asuto’s offence gradually began to face all sorts of restrictions.
The opposing players simply couldn’t compete with Asuto in terms of jumping ability or agility, but volleyball is not a sport that is solely decided by height.
Perhaps these people hadn’t played in many official matches, but years of playing on these kinds of ‘street courts’ had given them invaluable practical experience.
When it came to Asuto’s attacks, the two blockers on the opposing side made only a single adjustment.
Yet that one change immediately placed enormous restrictions on Asuto’s spikes…
(End of Chapter)
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