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On the school bus ride back...
The Sengoku Middle team didn't feel tired at all after their victory.
For one, Akashi Asuka had carried most of the offensive load. The rest of them played mostly supporting roles, so their energy drain was minimal.
For another, the excitement of advancing to the second round for the first time in three years kept their spirits soaring.
Meanwhile, Akashi Asuka sat in the back row of the bus, eyes lightly closed. To outsiders, he looked like he was resting. But inside his mind, he was studying his stats panel.
Host: Akashi Asuka
Strength: 75
(Core strength: 74. Arm power: 76)
Speed: 70*
(Explosive speed: 69. Reaction speed: 71)
Stamina: 72.5
(Endurance: 71.2. Cardio: 73.9)
Jump: 69.8
(Vertical leap: 74.6. Hang time: 65)
Basic technique: 59.4
(Serve: 51.7. Receive: 57.4. Set: 51. Spike: 75.1. Block: 71. Defense: 50.6)
Advanced technique: [None]
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After half a month of training, nearly all of Akashi Asuka's stats had improved to some degree.
This was normal.
Even though he'd focused mainly on strength, jumping, and spiking, the human body wasn't a collection of separate parts. It was one unified system.
When Akashi Asuka pushed hard on grinding, training, and strengthened his legs, other areas like stamina and speed naturally got worked too.
And then there were things like "ball sense", stats not even shown on the panel.
Even without deliberately practicing it, Akashi Asuka had touched a volleyball many times more than usual over these past weeks. Naturally, his ball sense improved.
And better ball sense meant all his techniques got a small boost.
Even if the increase was tiny...
For Akashi Asuka's basic skills, which had barely scraped past the passing line, this was already significant progress.
And that was just from side effects of training.
Not to mention the areas he'd focused on: arm power and spiking both broke past 75 points.
In the system's framework...
75 points was a dividing line.
At the third-year middle school level, limited by physical development, 75 points represented the "peak of ordinary humans". Anything beyond 75 entered the realm of "those with talent".
For the original Akashi Asuka...
Unless he was willing to wreck his health by forcing his body past its limits, 75 points would've been his ceiling under normal circumstances.
But with the system's help, Akashi Asuka broke through that barrier effortlessly.
And precisely because he now had two stats exceeding 75, he could unleash overwhelming offensive power, single-handedly smashing through Haishi Middle's blocks.
Gotta say...
It was brutally unfair.
Only after truly experiencing the strength of "those with talent" did Akashi Asuka fully grasp how, in competitive sports, "natural gift" could sometimes crush everything else.
But on the other hand...
Strength and spiking weren't even Akashi Asuka's fastest-improving stats over these past two weeks.
The real standouts were his "hang time" and "blocking", both of which jumped by over ten points on average. Absolutely terrifying growth.
But this didn't come from training. It was from his past life.
Many factors affected hang time: core strength, coordination, movement stability...
The original body actually had decent fundamentals here. But the old Akashi Asuka never knew how to use these advantages and didn't even consider hang time a weapon worth developing.
But Li Mingshi, from his basketball days? He had plenty of experience.
So once he fully merged with this body, those stats naturally rose.
As for "blocking"...
This skill was less about technique and more about tactics.
Blocking heavily tested your brainpower.
And the old Akashi Asuka? How to put it...
Well.
Put simply...
The original Akashi Asuka failed more than half his subjects on nearly every exam.
And Sengoku Middle's passing score was 40.
Happy education, after all, the focus was on "happy".
So... yeah. Made sense.
······
Since today was the weekend and time was plentiful, Coach Shimokawa Santo drove the school bus and kindly dropped everyone off right at their front doors.
Before they got off...
Coach Shimokawa repeated his warning again and again: go home, rest well, absolutely no training. Don't risk getting injured.
Akashi Asuka nodded eagerly and promised he wouldn't.
'Never try to explain things to people who can't understand. Just go along with what they say. Don't argue, at least not out loud.'
That was one piece of "office politics" Li Mingshi had learned after graduating in his past life.
Right now, Akashi Asuka couldn't explain the "system" to Coach Shimokawa. So instead of wasting breath, he just agreed.
After getting home...
Akashi Asuka dropped his bag, grabbed a volleyball, and headed straight to the nearby park.
Not training? Impossible. Never happening in this lifetime.
With the tournament approaching, the whole volleyball club had been cramming hard lately. Everyone's training volume shot up, which made grinding past his teammates way harder.
Now his only option was sneaking in extra practice while others rested on weekends, just to keep making progress.
Akashi Asuka trained his jumping ability the entire afternoon.
By the end...
His legs felt like they didn't belong to him anymore.
But the result? Only one low-level grind completed. Earned +0.1 Jump Grind Points.
When he saw that number, Akashi Asuka instantly realized: some bastard on the team hadn't listened to the coach. Someone else had snuck off to train too.
'Pah! Disgusting. This volleyball maniac... clearly not a hero character.'
······
Several kilometers away...
At another park, Nishimori Tomohiko, who'd spent the whole match warming the bench, was now training hard to improve his stamina. His goal? To set more balls for the Akashi-senpai he admired in future practices.
Suddenly, he sneezed hard.
Achoo!
Nishimori sniffed and looked confused.
"Weird... did someone just talk about me?"
He shook his head after a moment and muttered softly, "Never mind. Stop overthinking. Just keep training. With Akashi-senpai leading us now, the volleyball club will definitely do well in this tournament. For the club's future... I need to do my part too."
Remembering Akashi-senpai's energetic figure on court today as he watched from the bench, Nishimori's heart filled with hope.
Facing the sunset dipping below the horizon, he suddenly felt strength surge through his whole body again.
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*(End of Chapter)*