“I’m first!”
Bang~
The floor shook as both Aizen and Aomine arrived at the basketball club at almost the exact same time.
In fact, they were so desperate to be first that during the final sprint, the two of them launched themselves through the door like rabid dogs going after food.
Even Shirogane Kozo couldn’t help but marvel at the display.
This was even more professional than professional baseball players diving for a save!
Momoi arrived a bit later, humming a little tune and hopping along happily.
Then she saw Aizen and Aomine rolling around on the floor like a couple of unruly children, both shouting, “I was the first one here!”
“What on earth are these two idiots trying to accomplish?”
She was completely speechless.
These were the same guys who couldn’t even pay for a meal with a girl without mooching off her, yet they’d fight tooth and nail over something this trivial.
“You two cut it out already!
Stop causing trouble for everyone!” She walked over and scolded them loudly.
“Oh, it’s just Satsuki.”
“Oh, you’re here, April.”
“It’s SATSUKI!
Are you a goldfish or something?
Do you only have a three-second memory?
Didn’t Aomine just call my name a moment ago?”
Momoi glared, wanting nothing more than to grab Aizen by the ear and drill her name into his head letter by letter.
“Looks like everyone’s here.
You guys seem full of energy.” Shirogane Kozo walked over at that moment, grinning broadly.
Everyone else saw that smile and immediately felt their hair stand on end.
A sense of dread washed over them.
Sure enough, Shirogane Kozo announced his new decision the very next second.
“Starting today, club activities will begin twenty minutes earlier.
Anyone who’s even a minute late will run one lap around the court.”
‘No way!’
Everyone was shocked.
Starting twenty minutes earlier meant they’d have to come straight to the basketball club right after school let out.
Coach, if you want to add extra training, just say so!
They were all distressed, their faces twisted in agony.
Then they turned to look at the two culprits, and their eyes practically shot flames.
‘What’s going on?’
‘Why does my back suddenly feel so cold?’
‘They’re not blaming me for this, are they?
Aizen absolutely refused to admit this was his fault.
Aomine certainly didn’t have that kind of self-awareness either.
After all, this training intensity still hadn’t reached his limit.
“Coach Shirogane, don’t you think this might be a bit much?”
“What’s wrong?”
After assigning the daily training regimen, Shirogane Kozo heard his assistant coach’s worried voice.
“Our training intensity is already quite high.
If we keep increasing it, I’m worried the club members won’t be able to handle it.”
“Really?
I think Aizen and those kids are handling it pretty well.”
He pointed toward Aizen, Aomine, Akashi, Midorima, Murasakibara, and even Haizaki Shogo on the court.
Especially Aizen and Aomine—they were running so fast it looked like they had flaming wheels attached to their feet.
“But not everyone has the talent of those kids.” The assistant coach’s eyes fell on the members struggling desperately to keep up behind Aizen and the others.
“If they can’t handle this level of training, they can go down to the second string.
This is the first string—we don’t need incompetent players here.” Shirogane Kozo sneered coldly.
The arrival of Aomine and the others had given him hope of achieving his ambitions.
“Teiko’s ship has only one destination—national domination!
Those who can’t keep up can just watch from behind!”
Aizen was completely unaware of this.
He had no idea that his arrival, along with his rivalry with Aomine, would have such an impact on Teiko.
All he knew was that as Shirogane Kozo kept increasing the training intensity, some members of the first string began falling behind.
Many people complained that the training was too intense, unbearable, and exceeded what junior high students could reasonably handle.
Someone even went directly to Shirogane Kozo and suggested that the training intensity be returned to normal levels.
Upon hearing this, Shirogane Kozo pointed toward Aizen and the others and said, “Aren’t they training just fine?”
The player thought to himself, ‘Those guys aren’t normal people.
They’re true geniuses.’
He didn’t continue arguing.
He already understood what Shirogane Kozo meant.
From the moment Aizen and the others set foot in Teiko, the old standards of the first string had changed.
The bar had been raised significantly.
If you wanted to survive in the first string, you had to adapt to this intensity and work twice as hard.
Otherwise, you’d be ruthlessly left behind.
After that day, some chose to grit their teeth and stay, while others couldn’t keep up.
Aizen didn’t feel sorry for these people.
The basketball court was exactly this cruel.
Every year, countless geniuses dream of making it to the NBA’s grand stage, but there’s only so much slots.
To succeed, talent is just the key.
If you don’t work hard to become stronger, you won’t have the strength to turn that key.
Aizen trained himself to exhaustion every day precisely to become stronger as quickly as possible.
He didn’t dare hope for a starting position.
Just a few days had been enough for him to understand just how strong those Generation of Miracles guys really were.
They were true monsters—unreasonably strong!
For now, Aizen wasn’t qualified to compete with them for a starting spot.
But what about playing time?
That was something he had to fight for.
Without playing time, how could he farm stats?
Without good stats, how would he get experience?
Without experience, how would he level up?
Without leveling up, how would he get attribute points to grow stronger?
And without growing stronger, how could he compete with those monsters for a starting position?
It was an unsolvable vicious cycle.
Of course, at least he could rely on the ‘participation bonus’ for experience.
But the Feint Master badge was a much bigger headache.
The training intensity was now so high that everyone was completely exhausted after practice, with no energy left for extra work.
Aizen could only use his limited free time to farm at the local streetball court.
But unfortunately, the ‘easy marks’ had also started to dwindle.
In just a few days, he’d already dominated that entire court.
Now everyone knew that there was a ruthless monster ruling that streetball court.
If you wanted to play there, you had to beat him first.
He only needed one half-court for training.
Logically, the other half-court should belong to everyone else.
But this monster wouldn’t share—he wanted to hog everything.
Every time he saw someone, he’d walk over and say:
“You look pretty strong.
Let’s play a game.”
But after a while, Aizen suddenly realized—there were no more customers at the streetball court.
So annoying!
Couldn’t some idiot who didn’t mind getting crushed just show up so he could farm some proficiency?