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The next day:
Akashi Asuto never saw the college student with the dyed hair at the court again.
Don’t misunderstand.
It had absolutely nothing to do with him.
After all, this was the Multi-purpose Sports Complex. In a place like this, it was perfectly normal for the people playing these ‘pick-up games’ to be different every day.
Yep, that’s right.
That was the truth.
······
“Hey, kid over there, want to join us for a game?”
“Of course!”
Shortly after arriving at the Multi-purpose Sports Complex, Asuto’s familiar voice could be heard from the volleyball court as he immediately walked over with a bright smile on his face.
About a week later…
A rumor gradually began to spread throughout the Multi-purpose Sports Complex.
Apparently, a middle school student was treating the place like his personal training ground, coming every day to challenge people to matches and taking pleasure in tormenting his teammates.
Asuto happened to overhear the rumor while passing by, and he couldn’t help but shake his head before walking away.
Seriously?
‘Who could be so uncivilized as to spread rumors like that? What if people started to mistakenly associate it with him?’
From that day onward, to prevent others from connecting the rumor to himself, Asuto temporarily reduced the number of Cross-Court attacks he used, focusing instead on developing his Straight Spike.
Practicing straight-line shots from the middle court alone was meaningless.
To push himself to the limit, he would first hit a few Cross-Court shots to lure the opposing Block Defence before every attack, while intentionally or unintentionally retreating towards the sideline area between the Outside Hitter and Opposite Hitter positions.
Constantly switching between Cross-Court shots and Straight Spikes improved Asuto’s scoring ability tremendously.
As a result, it took another week and a half before rumors slowly began to spread through the Multi-Purpose Sports Complex once again.
“That middle schooler is back again.”
After that, Asuto found that it had suddenly become much more difficult to find people willing to team up with him.
“So I was still dragged down by the rumors after all.” Asuto shook his head lightly, then muttered, “Forget it. Since I can’t find anyone here, I’ll just join another pickup game and continue my activities for a while.”
——
Host: Asuto
Strength: 77.8 [Core Strength: 77.5; Arm Strength: 78.1]
Speed: 74.9 [Burst Speed: 75.2; Reaction Speed: 74.6]
Stamina: 75.2 [Endurance: 75.1; Cardiopulmonary fitness: 75.3]
Jump: 75.9 [Vertical Jump: 77.9; Hang Time: 74]
Basic techniques: 70.5 [Serve: 69.2, Receive: 69.4, Pass: 63.3, Spike: 77.9, Block: 73.6, Defence: 69.6]
Advanced skills: Cross-court spike: 69.1; Straight spike: 68.6; Power Jump serve: 70.7
——
“For the next court, I’ll mainly focus on real-match practice for Power Jump serves!”
That evening, after finishing his final game at the Multi-purpose Sports Complex, Asuto brought up his status panel while walking home.
After this period of training, all of his stats had improved dramatically once again.
Although the increases from ordinary training had gradually slowed as his attributes kept rising and the experience advantages from his previous life had mostly been exhausted, the sheer amount of ‘Involution Grind Value’ generated from his summer special training was just too high!
After all, not everyone could resist going out and having fun during the summer holidays.
Setting aside technical skills for the moment, in terms of physical ability alone, almost all of Asuto’s stats had broken past 75, aside from a handful of attributes.
These improvements in his basic physical capabilities allowed him to feel his growth in strength very directly.
This was especially true of the Strength stat.
Perhaps because he had recently been playing constantly against adults, the change wasn’t obvious yet. However, Asuto had a feeling that it wouldn’t be long before his spikes evolved to a whole new level.
As for the advanced skills, Asuto already had a fairly high Spike skill level, so he quickly learned both Cross-Court Spikes and Straight Spikes.
The final skill, Power Jump serve, was a jumping serve technique that Asuto had developed to best utilize his strengths in power and vertical jumping ability.
He abandoned precise control over landing points, instead utilizing his vertical leap and strength attributes to maximize the speed and destructive power of the Power Jump serve.
Since serving is one of the few techniques that can be improved entirely without teammates…
Even though Asuto had never used it in an official match during this period, it had instead become the highest-level skill among his three advanced skills after extensive private training.
· · · · ·
The next afternoon,
Asuto set out early and headed towards another multi-purpose sports complex that he had found on his phone.
Compared to the previous venue, this multi-purpose sports complex was farther away, but it was also larger and more professional. It had more volleyball courts, so presumably there would be fewer strange rumors.
After walking and taking the train, Asuto finally arrived at his destination nearly an hour later.
The Sendai City First Multi-purpose Sports Complex.
This gymnasium was obviously far more formal than the previous one. As he approached, he could see the football pitch and baseball pitch on either side of the venue. Compared to volleyball, those two sports were clearly much more popular.
Even under the blazing summer sun, both pitches were packed with people, and the moment he entered the indoor arena, the first thing he heard was the sound of basketballs colliding with the floor, accompanied by the endless screeching noise of shoes rubbing against the court.
“Hey, little bro, wanna come play some volleyball? We happen to be one person short over there. Want to join a game?”
Before Asuto could even reach the volleyball courts, a college student carrying an open sports drink suddenly passed by and greeted him proactively.
Asuto’s eyes instantly lit up.
Sure enough, proper venues like this were way better. There weren’t any weird rumors popping up everywhere.
Asuto decisively nodded in agreement.
A short while later.
The college student who introduced himself as Chiba brought Asuto over to their court.
Unlike the temporary teams he had encountered before, Chiba and his teammates actually had a relatively fixed squad. However, midway through today’s match, one of their members suddenly needed to leave due to an emergency.
“Chiba, how did it go? Did you find someone?”
“Yeah, pretty lucky actually. I happened to run into a school kid on the way over. What about your side?”
“What a coincidence! I just found a high school student here too.”
While Chiba was chatting with his friend, Asuto’s attention was suddenly drawn to someone who looked extremely familiar.
Standing at around 178 centimeters tall with short blonde hair and two black horizontal stripes shaved into the sideburn area, he had the constant air of a “pissed off” delinquent teenager.
When Asuto looked at him, the other person turned his head at the same time. His eyes were filled with ferocity, like a vicious wild dog’s.
Asuto rubbed his chin and searched his memory before thinking to himself,
“This guy… if I remember correctly, his name was probably…”
Kyotani Kentaro.
(End of Chapter)
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