Basketball System: Rebound of the Underdog

For most of his life, Kai had interacted with two members of the Elite Five—Fang Liu of the Huolan Guardians and Zheng Zhang of the Ying Eagles.

It was expected since these two came from his hometown, Beijing.

Kai could describe Fang as a cold player, not really caring about who he stepped on just as long as he won. However, what was special about him was that he actually had the skills to back this up.

Zheng Zhang, on the other hand, had always been a star player ever since he was in elementary school. Most students usually regressed once they hit higher grades, but Zheng Zhang just continued to improve, marking his legacy in all of the schools he studied in.

In this life, he had met Max Zhou—the second-year, charismatic player who seemed to care a lot about basketball. He was also pretty cold, and Kai couldn't really pinpoint if he was kind or if he was just extremely professional.

Now, Calvin Wu, the fourth Elite, was right before Kai's eyes.

He was dressed in a puffer jacket with fur lining it. He also had a heavy suitcase, seemingly having just arrived.

"Calvin!" his teammates exclaimed, coaxing him over.

"You guys have already started?" he asked, taking off his puffer jacket and revealing his body to the other players.

Kai's eyebrows raised in surprise when he saw that the tattoos on his arms had increased. Moreover, it seemed like his body was bigger than before.

Kai looked at his bicep and then at Calvin's and inferred that they were around the same build. They had the same height, too.

It seemed like Guri wasn't the only player who was similar to Kai.

"What did you guys do?" Calvin asked with furrowed eyebrows. "Why are you so sweaty?"

Riley was about to answer. However, before he could even open his mouth, the second-string team, led by Dylan, ran to where Calvin was and held out their phones.

"Can I take a picture with you, please?" Dylan asked with wide eyes.

Calvin was taken aback. However, he smiled and nodded in agreement.

This triggered a domino effect as the other members of the Shizi Dogs also trudged to the Longyu Dragons' bench to take a photo with the famous member of the Elite Five.

Yuze and Kai glanced at each other and shook their heads before heading over to where they were.

Guri clicked his tongue as the Shizi Dogs flocked at their star player.

"They should have taken a photo of me instead," he muttered.

Riley leaned closer to him and whispered in his ears.

"The only photo that suits you is a mugshot," he teased, causing Guri to sulk even further.

Calvin kindly accepted all their requests for a photo, while the Shizi Dogs began fanboying because of the memorabilia they had gathered.

"Was that the last one?" Calvin asked, looking around.

Then, his eyes landed on Kai.

"Do you want one?" Calvin hesitantly asked.

Kai pursed his lips before silently nodding, causing his teammates to chuckle.

"He always acts so nonchalant, but I know he's like us," Dylan proudly said as Kai stood next to Calvin for a photo.

Lina couldn't help but gasp as the two of them stood next to each other. They were really much more similar than she had thought—even more similar than Guri and Kai.

"What a spectacle to witness," she muttered.

"Thanks," Kai said shyly, feeling happy to be able to take a photo with him.

"Wait," Calvin said, causing Kai to halt. "Kai Guo, right? I think I saw you on a video somehow."

Kai pursed his lips and nodded, feeling giddy since THE Calvin Wu actually knew his name.

"And Senior Yuze," Calvin said, turning to the older player. "It's been a while. How have you been?"

Jinping's eyebrows furrowed. "The two of you know each other?"

Yuze nodded. "The three of us," he corrected. "Fenhua, Calvin, and I met at a basketball workshop in Guangzhou when we were younger."

Zeren shook his head in disbelief. "You guys were acting like you didn't know each other, though," he said to Yuze and Fenhua.

Fenhua shrugged. "It's been a while. We were really young back then. Your dad used to take you to Guangzhou all the time when you were still studying at Yin Yang. Then, you just stopped."

"I was surprised when I saw you playing at Shizi instead," he continued. Continue reading stories on empire

Yuze merely nodded, not wanting to say anything about Fenhua's statement.

"Why did you come late?" Yuze asked, changing the topic.

He wanted to play with Calvin and gauge the skills of the Elite Five member, but their game was already finished when he arrived.

Calvin clicked his tongue and shook his head before turning to Guri.

"Well, someone from our team made a grave mistake."

Guri scratched the back of his neck and sheepishly smiled.

"To my defense, it was early in the morning when I booked it," he said.

"Why? What happened?" Kun asked out of curiosity.

Fenhua sighed before telling their story.

"Well, we were supposed to have a training camp in Shanghai," he started off. "I booked the training facility while Guri was assigned to book our plane tickets."

"However, this idiot booked our tickets to Shenyang instead. I wasn't able to check it because I was preparing a lot for the trip. When we got to the airport, we had no choice but to take the flight since all planes bound for Shanghai were filled."

"Again," Guri said, interrupting the conversation. "In my defense, they both start with the letter Sh! I'm weak against those letters."

"Shitake mushrooms—I hate those. Sharks, shimmers! You name it."

"Shizi High," Riley whispered, making Guri groan in disappointment.

Calvin chuckled in amusement before adding to Fenhua's answer. "I was on a trip with my parents in another city, so I booked a ticket straight from there to Shanghai. However, I received the news that they were bound to Shenyang."

"That's why I came late," Calvin explained.

Yuze nodded in understanding, feeling a little less disappointed that they didn't get to play with Calvin.

Nonetheless, he was looking forward to playing with him in the upcoming days.

"By the way, where's coach?" Fenhua asked.

"Coach is speaking with the airlines and with the place we've booked in Shanghai. She wants us to head there by tomorrow."

The Shizi Dogs were a little bit disappointed since they wanted to interact with the Longyu Dragons for a little longer.

Just then, Fenhua's phone rang, causing him to frown.

"It's coach," he said before answering the phone.n/ô/vel/b//jn dot c//om

"Yes, coach?" he asked, his expression unreadable. It seemed like their coach was saying a lot since Fenhua stayed silent for most of their call.

After a while, the call finally ended.

Fenhua placed his phone inside his pocket and sighed deeply.

"She couldn't book a plane since there's a huge snowstorm tomorrow."

"Looks like we're going to settle here for our training camp."

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