A Max-Level Account's Trial Pass, a Human Dong Zhuo, and the Ambitions of an All-Rounder Good-for-Nothing

At five thirty in the morning, Lu Ren woke up before his alarm went off.

He lay in bed in the same position he'd fallen asleep in the night before, barely daring to breathe. By all rights, after last night's "torture" that had made him feel like a pig being slaughtered, on top of the workout two days ago that had left his muscles feeling like they were dissolving, his body should have been like rusty scrap metal this morning—one movement away from falling apart.

He took a deep breath and tentatively wiggled his little toe.

Nothing.

Next, his ankle, calf, and thigh.

Lu Ren shot upright, threw off the covers, and bounced twice on the spot.

There was no soreness, no stiffness, and even that heavy, sluggish feeling was gone. In its place was a lightness he'd never felt before, as if he'd deleted a dozen gigabytes of junk files and boosted his system's speed by 200 percent.

"What the hell?"

Lu Ren stared in disbelief as he patted his thigh muscles. "Did I reload a save? Or did the developers sneak in a hotfix for this bug?"

He ran to the mirror and checked himself out. His muscle mass hadn't changed, but that "Red name: Weakened" state, where he felt ready to fall apart at any moment, had definitely been completely lifted.

That violent healer... she had some skills.

Lu Ren grabbed his bag and rushed downstairs, a slice of bread in his mouth as he dashed out. Just outside the door, he spotted Kiyosawa Mashiba kicking a pebble beneath a streetlight. She had tied her hair up high today, exposing her smooth neck, and her uniform skirt swayed gently with every kick.

Hearing his footsteps, Mashiba turned around. Her gaze swept over Lu Ren's rapidly striding legs, and she tilted her chin up slightly, her face practically screaming, "Hurry up and praise me!"

"Well, look who's alive," she said with a knowing smile.

Lu Ren darted up to her and did a high-knee lift on the spot, kicking up a gust of wind.

"You're a miracle doctor!" Lu Ren exclaimed sincerely. "Last night, I thought you were going to dismember me, but you were actually putting me back together. I feel like I could run all the way to Karasuno without even getting winded."

Mashiba snorted, folding her arms across her chest. Her smugness practically spilled out of her eyebrows. "Of course. Just look who did the work. Are you still going to question my professionalism, Manager?"

Looking at her lofty expression, Lu Ren felt the "tempting fate" switch in his brain flip on again.

He took half a step back, put on a solemn expression, clasped his hands, and bowed deeply, speaking from the depths of his diaphragm:

"Though Bu has wandered for half his life, he has only ever regretted not meeting a worthy lord. If you do not cast me aside, I, Bu, would be honored to call you my adoptive father—"

The air froze for a second.

Mashiba's smug expression instantly stiffened. Then her eyebrows shot up, and she kicked Lu Ren squarely in the shin.

"Lu Ren! So you're insulting me by calling me Dong Zhuo, huh?!"

"Ow, ow, ow! It's a metaphor! You know what a metaphor is!" Lu Ren hopped around on one leg, clutching his shin. "It's the highest praise for your authority!"

"Praise my ass! Dong Zhuo was a three-hundred-jin fatty! Do I look that fat to you?!" Mashiba flung her bag aside and charged after him, murder in her eyes. "Don't run! Get back here!"

"That's not the part you should be focusing on!"

Lu Ren took off running. The two of them raced down the deserted morning street, reenacting "Lu Bu's retreat from Hulao Pass."

At three thirty in the afternoon, in the Second Gymnasium of Karasuno High School.

The air was filled with the smell of spray and rubber rubbing against the floor.

"Gather round!" Sawamura Daichi's voice was as robust as ever.

Lu Ren stood with the others. He still felt tired, but that suffocating sensation that made him think he might drop dead at any moment had eased considerably. After his morning warm-up of being hunted down, his current status bar read [Good Condition].

"Today, we'll cut the basic training in half and focus on receiving practice." Sawamura Daichi held a volleyball and looked over everyone. "Tomorrow is the three-on-three match. It'll also decide whether Hinata and Kageyama can join the team. As their opponents, we can't afford to let our guard down."

"Lu Ren, you're joining in too." Sawamura Daichi tossed him the ball. "You may be a beginner, but receiving is fundamental to volleyball. There's no dodging it."

Lu Ren sighed and walked to the middle of the court.

"Bring it on, boss." He assumed his stance.

Sawamura Daichi didn't hold back as he swung and spiked the ball. It wasn't fast, but the angle was tricky, aimed straight at the left corner.

To everyone else, it was just an ordinary spike.

But to Lu Ren, the world became a torrent of data.

The moment the ball left Sawamura's hand, Lu Ren's brain began working at high speed.

He didn't need to think, or even rely on his physical abilities. It was just like a rhythm game's timing line: press the button at the exact instant the note reached it, and you got a perfect.

Lu Ren stepped out with his left foot, slightly bent his knee, and instantly lowered his center of gravity. He joined his arms together and held them straight, like a precisely engineered steel plate, meeting the ball exactly where it would land.

Thump.

A crisp impact rang out.

The volleyball struck the inside of his forearms. The perfectly measured force bounced it back up in a graceful arc, landing right where the setter was waiting.

"Nice!" Sugawara Kōshi couldn't help shouting.

Sawamura Daichi looked surprised. He'd deliberately put some spin on that ball, and beginners usually sent it flying, but Lu Ren's platform had been as steady as if it were welded in place.

"Again." Sawamura increased the power.