Side Effects of Body Overload, Failed Rollback After HP Reaches Zero, and Forced Dragging

The gymnasium floor was cool, carrying a faint, salty scent of sweat and the burnt smell of rubber.

For Lu Ren at this moment, it was the most comfortable mattress in the world.

He lay sprawled in a "big" character shape near the baseline, his chest heaving violently like a worn-out bellows. With every breath, his lungs felt like they were being scoured by sandpaper, a burning pain spreading along his trachea all the way to his throat.

[Warning! Stamina depleted!]

[Warning! Lactic acid is accumulating, current concentration: lethal.]

[Warning! Body overheating, cooling system failure, immediate forced shutdown recommended.]

"Lu Ren!"

A vibrant voice came from above, like some kind of high-frequency noise with extreme penetration.

An orange face suddenly intruded into his vision, blocking the lights on the ceiling. Hinata Shoyo stared with his big, round eyes, his face full of curiosity as he gazed at the "corpse" on the ground.

"Are you still alive? Can't move already?"

Lu Ren painstakingly turned his eyeballs, like turning two rusty bearings. He looked at Hinata. This guy had just run the same number of laps, done the same shuttle runs, and even added two sets of spike practice at the end.

But now, this orange-haired guy wasn't even sweating much. His head was even steaming, like a perpetual motion machine that had just finished preheating and was ready to operate at full power.

"...Monster." Lu Ren moved his lips, the sound he made smaller than a mosquito's buzz.

"Huh? What did you say?" Hinata squatted down, bringing his ear closer.

"I said..." Lu Ren took a deep breath, using all his strength to roll his eyes, "Can you stop shoving your max-level main character's HP bar... in the face of a level 1 newbie like me? It'll... it'll lower my sanity."

Hinata tilted his head, clearly not understanding the complaint filled with otaku jargon.

"I don't really get it, but Lu Ren, you look really bad, like you've been poisoned."

"Not poisoned," Lu Ren stared at the ceiling, his eyes vacant. "It's due to excessive level disparity, causing the player to suffer continuous mental pollution and physical blows. You freaks... your base stat panels are definitely cheating."

He glanced not far away. Kageyama Tobio was tidying up the net, his movements crisp, looking like he could play ten more games. Sawamura Daichi was discussing tactics with Sugawara Kōshi, his spirit high.

Only him.

Lu Ren felt like a villager from Animal Crossing who had accidentally wandered into the world of Dark Souls, completely out of sync with the art style.

"Stop lying there, it's bad for your heart to lie down right after strenuous exercise."

A fair hand extended in front of him.

Lu Ren followed the hand with his gaze. Kiyosawa Mashiba stood against the light, the zipper of her athletic jacket pulled all the way up, her ponytail swaying gently with her movement. She wore that signature "kind" smile that sent chills down Lu Ren's spine.

"Come on, revive at this save point."

Lu Ren stared at the hand for three seconds, then tried to control his core muscles and do a sit-up.

Failure.

His abs seemed to have run away from home.

"Can't... can't get up," Lu Ren abandoned his dignity and told the truth. "My lower body modules seem to have lost their connection signal."

"Pathetic."

Mashiba chuckled lightly, not minding his sweaty hands, and grabbed his wrist.

An unreasonable surge of strength came. Lu Ren felt like a sack being unceremoniously yanked off the ground.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa! Easy! I'm breaking a bone! It's a bone fracture!"

Lu Ren staggered to his feet, his legs still shaking uncontrollably, like a late-stage Parkinson's patient. He leaned most of his body weight onto Mashiba's shoulder, like a pendant.

"Is it that serious?" Mashiba supported him, slinging his backpack over her own shoulder with her other hand. "You only ran a few laps. Tsukishima and Yamaguchi aren't this dramatic."

"Them?" Lu Ren sneered, his face pale but his mouth still defiant. "Tsukishima might look thin, but he's tall with long legs; his stride is 1.5 times mine. As for Yamaguchi... he's a boss's companion monster, his stats must have a bonus."

"Excuses."

"This is called reasonable data analysis."

The two of them slowly shuffled out of the gymnasium. The sun had already set, and the night breeze carried a chill, blowing on their sweat-soaked clothes and raising goosebumps.

As they passed the Sakashita shopping street, the aroma of steamed buns seemed like a tangible soul-hook, precisely snagging Lu Ren's nose.

"Hungry," Lu Ren stated concisely.

"Weren't you just saying you were dying?"

"In a near-death state, the desire to eat increases exponentially. It's biological instinct."

Two minutes later.

Lu Ren sat on a roadside bench, holding a steaming meat bun. He took a bite, and the scalding meat juice exploded in his mouth, the bliss instantly washing away the soreness in his muscles.

[System Notification: Used item "Sakashita Store Special Meat Bun". HP restored +15. Gained Buff: Mood Uplifted.]

"I'm alive again..." Lu Ren let out a sigh of relief, looking at Mashiba, who was nibbling on a red bean bun beside him.

The dim glow of the streetlamp cast a halo on her profile, outlining soft contours. The way she ate was elegant, completely different from the female strongwoman who had effortlessly lifted over a hundred pounds just moments ago.