Five in the morning.
The sky outside was a lifeless gray-blue, like a texture map rendered badly by a graphics card.
Lu Ren sat at the dining table, holding a bowl of freshly cooked noodles. Steam curled up, making his dead-fish eyes look even more unfocused. At this hour, everyone's biological clock—except for the roosters and sanitation workers—should have been in deep sleep.
There was no sound from the master bedroom upstairs. Comrade Lu Jianguo and Mom were fast asleep. Lu Ren slurped up a mouthful of noodles and mentally tagged their behavior as "anti-human."
He polished off breakfast in five minutes, washed the bowl, and changed his shoes.
The moment he opened the front door, the cold air slapped him like an icy hand, raising his alertness by ten percent.
Under the streetlight by the gate, Kiyosawa Mashiba was warming up with high knees. She wore a light gray tracksuit, her ponytail swinging with every movement, her energy practically overflowing off the screen. When she saw Lu Ren come out, she immediately stopped. She looked at him like he was a rare monster that had just spawned.
"Morning."
Lu Ren tugged his collar higher, trying to hide his face inside it. "Lady, are you some kind of anti-addiction guardian sent by the system? It's five thirty. Are you trying to beat everyone to the freshest chives at the market?"
"Since we've decided to clear the volleyball dungeon, we have to finish our daily quests." Mashiba ignored his complaints and pulled a folded map from her pocket. "Here's today's route. We'll run around the neighborhood, then head to the riverbank, and finally meet up at Sakashita Store."
Lu Ren glanced at the map, and the corner of his mouth twitched.
"You call this 'around the neighborhood'? This is a whole-city marathon! It's Sunday, a legal day off—the kind of day when even God would lie down after creating humanity."
"Oh, is that so?"
Mashiba smiled and pulled a small transparent plastic pouch from her pocket. Inside was a disc. Even from several meters away, Lu Ren's long-trained reflexes let him make out the Final Fantasy logo on the cover.
"About seventy percent of your game discs are still in my backpack. This is just one of the 'hostages.'" Mashiba gave the pouch a shake. "If you don't want them to get scratched in some 'accident,' or thrown like a Frisbee to that big yellow dog next door..."
"Run."
Lu Ren snapped to attention, righteous indignation in his voice. "Life is all about exercise. I love running more than anything. Anyone who tries to stop me is asking for trouble."
Ten minutes later, Lu Ren regretted everything.
The morning air was fresh, but breathing it in felt like swallowing razor blades. His legs were as heavy as lead, and every step took all the willpower he could muster. Beside him, Kiyosawa Mashiba—though she was a girl—breathed as steadily as if she were out for a stroll. She even corrected his arm swing from time to time.
"Control your breathing. Exhale for two steps, inhale for two. Don't pant like a broken bellows."
"I'm... cooling down..." Lu Ren managed to protest between breaths. "This is... overheat protection..."
They turned a street corner, and a long uphill road stretched out before them.
Just as Lu Ren was about to ask for a "pause," a commotion of footsteps and shouts suddenly came from the top of the slope.
"Rye—!!"
"Nice shot! Don't stop! Sprint!"
A group of figures in black tracksuits charged down the slope, full of fury, like a pack of beasts just released from their cages.
In the lead were two bald guys—no, one bald guy and a short kid with orange hair. Behind them came Sawamura Daichi, composed as ever; Sugawara Kōshi, looking fresh and cheerful; and Kageyama Tobio, scowling as though someone owed him five million yen.
Aside from Tsukishima Kei, the bespectacled guy who liked wearing headphones, nearly all of Karasuno's main players were there.
Lu Ren stood frozen, forgetting even to breathe.
Did these guys not need to sleep? Were their stamina bars locked?
"Lu Ren?"
Tanaka Ryūnosuke, at the front of the pack, skidded to a stop. His soles screeched against the asphalt. Hinata Shoyo was right behind him and nearly crashed into his back.
"Oh! It's Lu Ren!" Hinata waved excitedly. His boundless energy made Lu Ren's stomach ache.
The whole group came to a stop. Sawamura Daichi wiped the sweat from his forehead, flashed his trademark grin, and smiled so brightly it made Lu Ren want to call the police.
"What a coincidence! You're out for a morning run too?"
Lu Ren braced his hands on his knees, feeling as though all the air had been squeezed out of his lungs. "C-coincidence my ass. Are you all... sleepwalking together?"
"We all just happened to wake up early, so we thought we'd go for a run together," Sawamura Daichi said casually, as though it were as ordinary as eating or drinking.
Lu Ren stared at them like they were monsters.
Just happened to?
A bunch of high school boys, at five thirty on a Sunday morning, just happened to be unable to sleep, just happened to feel like running, and just happened to meet up?
That was coincidence? It was obviously a server bug causing a whole group of NPCs to spawn at the same coordinates!
"Since we've run into each other, why don't we go together?"
Sugawara Kōshi came over with a smile and naturally patted Lu Ren on the shoulder. His smile was gentle, almost maternal, but for some reason, Lu Ren felt a chill run down his back.
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