Basketball System: Rebound of the Underdog

In a huge building in the middle of Shanghai, a team of bored-looking men and women gathered in a round table.

The sound of a basketball game served as ambient noise as they tapped their pens on the wooden surface.

On one of the walls, just right above the huge television, were the words 'National High School Basketball Committee.'

"Who's in the lead?" Mr. Wang, the head of the committee, asked as he sipped on some iced green tea.

Ashley, his pretty secretary, whose hair was dyed platinum blonde, brought out her pink tablet and cast her presentation on the screen.

Some members sighed in disappointment as the international basketball game came to an abrupt end.

"As expected," Ashley started off. "This guy's still in the lead."

Mr. Wang smirked. "As expected. There's no one unlike him. I doubt that someone will be able to beat him in this lifetime."

"We really need to look into recruiting him for the Olympics," he said, and the others enthusiastically agreed.

"That was my idea, honey," Mrs. Wang, her wife, said.

Mr. Wang clicked his tongue. "I told you not to call me that in the workplace," he said in a low voice.

"Anyway," he said. "We can't really count on them to be a part of the Elite Five anymore since they're graduating this year."

"Yes," Ashley said. "The second person on my automatic tracker is Zheng Zhang, who's also graduating this year. The third is Calvin Wu. The fourth is Fang Liu, and the fifth is still Max Zhou."

"I see," Mr. Wang said. "It seems like we'll be retaining three of them. Who are at the sixth and seventh?"

"One is from this guy's team," Ashley said, scrolling down to show the current stats.

"The promising first-year player last year actually became a monster on the court."

"The seventh one is Chunlei from Feng Arts," Ashley continued.

"Hmm," Mrs. Wang hummed. "It's pretty boring. I already expected this. Why don't you scroll even further, huh?"

Ashley chuckled in amusement and did as she said.

She had kept track of the top 100 high school players with the highest stats in the entire country. It was one of her greatest inventions. Ashley had hired trusted admins from each city to input each player's stats.

The list automatically refreshes when someone's rank goes up or down.

It was like the stock market for high school basketball players in China.

With that, she was able to make predictions every year, too, and it seemed like this year wasn't any different.

"Wait," Mrs. Wang said when she saw a familiar name.

She stopped at the 80th spot.

"Jimmy Wang," Mrs. Wang happily exclaimed. "That's our little boy right there!"

The other board members congratulated the old couple as they celebrated their son's achievement.

However, just then, the list moved, and someone new popped up on the 81st spot.

They stopped celebrating for a second when they saw that the new guy was only a point away from Jimmy Wang.

"Who is that?" Mr. Wang asked with narrowed eyes.

Ashley also frowned in confusion since she had never seen the name before.

"Kai Guo?" she muttered.

***

"Bro, you're famous now!" Jet exclaimed as their training finished.

[Official training: +5 XP]

[Current level: Premier (194)]

Kai smiled as he downed his water.

"What are you talking about?" he asked, nudging Jet's shoulder.

"Well, a pretty girl came up to me this morning. I really thought I would finally get a girlfriend. But then, she asked for your number instead," he sighed.

Lina's eyebrows furrowed while Kai shook his head in amusement.

"Anyway, I gave it away."

"What?" Kai and Lina exclaimed at the same time.

"What?" Jet asked in confusion. "She was really pretty. Do you want me to take it back?"

Kai clicked his tongue. "You've already given it away."

Jet sighed. "I don't get why you wouldn't want to give your number away. And you," he said, turning to Lina.

"Shouldn't you be happy about this? Our merch is bound to be sold out on the next game because of Kai."

Lina let out a deep breath. "Of course," she said with a forced smile. "I'm happy about this."

Jet turned to Renren and whispered, "Why does she seem unhappy about it?"

Renren smirked and shook his head in amusement since he was aware of Lina's real feelings.

"Anyway," Jet continued. "We need to capitalize on this! Now that you've got a decent haircut, I believe you can be as famous as Max Zhou!"

"With that, you need to work on your social media presence. We can use it to promote the team, have more supporters, and boost team morale!"

Shang chuckled. "For all I know, you just want to have some exposure so someone will finally date you."

Jet clicked his tongue and glared at his friend. "Stop ruining the mood. So, what do you say, brother?"

Kai sighed and shook his head. "We're basketball players. Why do we need—"

Just then, his words were cut off when his weekly mission appeared.

[Here's the player's current stats and skills: Find adventures on My Virtual Library Empire

Name: Kai Gou

Age: 16

Height: 191 cm

Current level: Premier (194)

Skills:

Simple Fake

Quantum Leap

Guard Wall

Anchor Stance

Synergy

Annoying Shooter]

Kai raised his eyebrows in surprise when he saw that he had grown two centimeters since Winter Break.

"Nice," he muttered.

[Incoming Weekly Mission!]

[The title is: Popularity Boost!]

[The host is a Gen Z basketball player. Charisma and social media presence is a must.]

[Receive confessions! Receive contact numbers! Receive invitations!]

[Accept these, and you will gain the same amount of XP.]

Kai froze as soon as he read his new mission.

"What is this?" he muttered.

"Come on, man," Jet said. "Are you speaking to yourself or something? Why are you taking so long to respond?"

Kai pursed his lips and scratched the back of his head.

"This will be good for the team. Right, Jinping?" Jet asked, looking for a confidant.

Jinping clicked his tongue. "As much as I don't want you getting more attention than you already do, Jet is right. The proceeds will go for our training before the Interhigh Nationals."

Kai let out a sigh as the other players looked at him with anticipation.

"I guess?"