Basketball System: Rebound of the Underdog

"Let's put our bags inside first," Lina said. "I booked the basketball court at 1 PM, so we still have some time before our schedule."

The basketball players nodded and went to their accommodation.

They were excited to see what their rooms looked like since the training facility seemed so prestigious.

However, as they entered their housing, their faces quickly fell.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

It was the smallest house among all the others, and it seemed like the oldest out of them all, too.

As Lina opened the door, they felt fear consume them when a huge spider was seen in the very middle of the room.

"What the heck!" Zeren exclaimed.

His scream triggered the spider, causing it to run away and hide in an unknown place.

Jet froze now that the spider wasn't in their sight.

"I don't think I could stay here," he muttered, his face ghastly pale.

"Oh, come on," Lina excitedly exclaimed. "It's just a spider! It's practically harmless."

"I fear her sometimes," Zeren said, still wide-eyed.

"Anyway, this is where we're going to be staying for the next five days."

Shang scratched the back of his head. "Umm, are we in the right place?"

Lina nodded. "Yup," she said, blowing some cobwebs away from the light switch before turning it on.

The light definitely didn't make it better—in fact, it made it much worse.

The stains on the walls became visible, and the broken windows and chipping wood made it look like the small house had been abandoned for ten years.

"Well, this training facility is quite expensive," Lina said. "It's a good thing we were even able to book a housing facility."

"I don't think anyone really books this place," Jet muttered.

Yuze clicked his tongue and faced his teammates.

"We will all be staying here whether we like it or not. It's a training camp—not a vacation. With that, we will dedicate our time to training."

Kai nodded in agreement. He didn't know what his teammates were complaining about.

This place was similar to his living situation, so it wasn't that big of a deal for him.

"It's also nearing 1 PM," Lina said. "Let's go to the court."

With that, Kai placed his bag on the floor.

A squishing sound was heard in the room, causing Kai to pause and the other players to look at him with wide eyes.

Then, Kai slowly lifted his bag to see what had happened.

Jet and Shang quickly looked away.

"Well, there goes the spider."

***

"So, over there is the volleyball court. The worker told me that we're free to watch practice games, but training will always be private."

"They have a total of two volleyball courts and four basketball courts."

"Dang," Zeren muttered. "You weren't kidding when you said that this place is a huge deal."

"It's where most of the Olympic players in the North train," Lina explained. "So, consider yourselves lucky that we're able to come here. They only open the facility for outsiders just in time for the winter and summer break."

Just then, their conversation was cut short when they heard Dylan's voice from a distance.

"Over here!" he exclaimed, waving at the first-string team.

Lina smiled and led the team to where they were standing.

Kai joined them and nudged Tony's shoulder.

"Where did you guys go?" he asked.

"We just went to our hotel to drop off our stuff."

Jinping heard this and perked up. "Hotel?" he exclaimed.

"Yeah, over there," Bao said, nonchalantly pointing at a tall hotel not far from the facility.

Shang pushed Kai to the side and held onto Dylan's arm.

"Please, adopt me in your team!"

Kai clicked his tongue and brought him away.

"Anyway," Kai said, changing the topic. "Is this where we're going to train for the afternoon?"

Lina nodded. "Yup!" she exclaimed. "We have this place for the entire afternoon."

"Sweet," the players exclaimed, forgetting their housing situation for a little while to focus on their training camp.

Lina was about to open the door when Dylan suddenly spoke.

"There's just one problem, though," he said, causing the team to look at him.

Lina also turned to him with raised eyebrows.

"There's a reason why we're waiting outside in the cold," he continued.

Lina's face twisted into a frown when she heard a familiar sound from inside.

"Basketball shoes squeaking against the floors," she muttered.

With that, she opened the door and found that her suspicions were right.

There was another team in their court!

The players stopped their drills as soon as the door opened.

"Wow, a pretty girl!" one of them exclaimed.

Lina was about to say something when Yuze stepped up right in front of her.

"Yuze? From the Shizi Dogs?"

Yuze's face hardened as he read the team name on one of the players' jerseys.

"Longyu High," he muttered.

Kai frowned as soon as Yuze said those words.

Longyu High?

One of the leading schools in the high school basketball scene was actually in the same facility as them?

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Kai looked around to find a certain someone and frowned when he saw that he wasn't there.

"Hmm," Kai hummed.

Suddenly, they were faced with a short yet fierce-looking player.

Kai immediately recognized him as Fenhua Zhong—one of the most symbolic players during the Interhigh Nationals last year.

Although he was one of the shortest players, only around 5'3, he was still able to get awards and land their team in the top five schools in the entire country. He was also the captain of the Longyu Dragons, a school based in Guangzhou City, and one of the frontrunners in the Interhigh Nationals.

"Yes?" Fenhua asked with raised eyebrows, appearing intimidating.

Yuze looked down at Fenhua. "I believe this court belongs to us at this moment," Yuze bluntly said, his hands itching to train with his teammates already. The break had left him craving to play basketball, so he was grumpier than usual.

Fenhua frowned in confusion, glancing at the players behind Yuze before shaking his head.

"There must be some kind of confusion here," Fenhua said.

"The staff lent us this place for the whole afternoon."