Amid the warm, romantic atmosphere, everyone said their goodbyes and headed home. Before they parted, Satsuki Momoi made a phone gesture to Ken Kaneki, signaling that they should keep in touch, then happily walked into the subway station.
"Honestly..." Ken Kaneki smiled as he looked at the LINE screen on his phone, where he and Satsuki Momoi had just added each other as friends. He gave a self-deprecating chuckle, then turned and headed home.
"I'm back." As usual, Ken Kaneki first offered incense to his parents. After washing up, he went to his bedroom to check on the system update. Just then, his phone buzzed. It was a message from Satsuki Momoi.
Little Peach: "Are you home? I just finished getting settled. How about you?"
White-haired Demon Man Sasaki: "I just got home too. I've only just finished getting settled."
Little Peach: "You did really well tonight, Ken-kun."
Looking at Satsuki Momoi's message, Ken Kaneki's expression instantly turned into that meme of the old man staring at his phone on the subway. He slowly typed a "?"
When Satsuki Momoi saw the question mark Ken Kaneki had sent, she realized her words had sounded a little odd and hurried to explain: "Um, I meant you did great at Basketball Club practice tonight. Coach Platinum seemed really happy."
White-haired Demon Man Sasaki: "Of course he was. The harder the players train, the happier our farmer of a coach gets."
Little Peach: "Haha, Ken-kun, if Coach Platinum hears you saying that, he'll make you run laps again."
White-haired Demon Man Sasaki: "You won't tell Coach, will you? This is our little secret, after all."
Little Peach: "...Get some sleep. We're going to the Summer Festival tomorrow."
White-haired Demon Man Sasaki: "Sure. Get some rest. Good night."
Little Peach: "Good night."
"A secret between Ken-kun and me..." Satsuki Momoi clutched her phone and touched her burning earlobe. She tossed and turned, only gradually falling asleep late into the night.
Meanwhile, Ken Kaneki finally put down his phone and prepared to investigate the system after its upgrade.
System upgrade complete. An unopened blind box has been detected. Open it?
"Open it, open it, open it!" Ken Kaneki watched the blind box's opening animation, brimming with excitement.
Congratulations, Host! You have obtained one Virtual Training Ground! Integrating into the system's underlying data... Integration complete.
Ken Kaneki's vision blurred. The system interface, which had been rather rudimentary, was now fully fleshed out, resembling the interface of a 2K game from his previous life. From left to right, the options were Character Bonds, Dream Pool, Task List, Player Modeling, and Training Ground.
Ken Kaneki first opened Player Modeling. A plus sign had appeared beside each of his physical attributes, indicating that he could upgrade them now.
Ken Kaneki calculated his current attribute points. Besides the three points the system had awarded him for completing the mission after the game against Seihō Middle School, he had also earned three points from his month-long daily self-discipline check-in task. After considering his options, he put all his available points into speed. As his points dwindled to zero, his speed rose from 85 to 91.
What's more, the system update had divided basketball players into three age groups: U15 (under 15), U18 (under 18), and adults aged 18 and up.
After looking over Player Modeling and gaining a better understanding of his current abilities, Ken Kaneki opened the Task List. It showed that he currently had two long-term tasks. The first was the one he already knew about; it was still in progress. The second task was what interested him.
Long-Term Main Quest: Path to Godhood; Objective: Before turning 18, lose no more than 10 matches across games of any kind and age group. Current losses: 0/10; Quest trait: Absolute Victory; Reward 1: Heart of the God King (Hall of Fame-level badge); Reward 2: From the quest's release until losses exceed 10 or the player turns 18, receive 0.1 attribute points per day; Penalty: If the quest fails for any reason other than injury, randomly lose one skill ranked S or higher.
Curious, Ken Kaneki opened the description for the Heart of the God King badge. He had to admit, this prize was exactly what he wanted.
Badge: Heart of the God King Badge type: Concept Badge trait: Sense of Oppression Badge level: Hall of Fame Badge effect: When equipped, the Host can reduce an opponent's physical abilities by 5% to 10%.
"Nice, nice. As expected of... Kuroko's Basketball. They really are going all-in on the supernatural stuff." Ken Kaneki gave a helpless laugh. "Should I say something like, 'At the summit of basketball, I reign supreme; I, Ken Kaneki, am the heavens'? That's so embarrassing... but also kind of awesome..."
Still wanting more, Ken Kaneki closed the Task List and opened the Virtual Training Ground he had won from the blind box.
As soon as he opened the Virtual Training Ground, he was greeted by highlight reels of NBA players. This world naturally had the NBA, and even its famous players were more or less the same. But for some unknown reason, the NBA's overall timeline in this world had shifted forward by nearly 20 years. Just recently, the news had reported that Michael Jordan had announced his retirement after completing a three-peat.
"Percent Night... The Shot... Last Shot... God of the Game-Winning Shot..." Looking at the dazzling array of highlight reels, Ken Kaneki began to get a general idea of how the Virtual Training Ground worked.
Each player highlight was like its own instance, and once inside, you could choose the difficulty. The higher the difficulty, the better the rewards. The minimum rewards were attribute points and Skill Upgrade Card fragments, while the best rewards might include skills or badges belonging to the featured player.
"Pretty nice, pretty nice." Ken Kaneki eagerly opened an instance to test it out, but when he did, he found that its screen was grayed out. A lock icon in the bottom-right corner showed that it was temporarily unavailable.
"Huh... I can't play the instance?" Surprised, Ken Kaneki opened its details. They showed that entering an instance required Victory Points, and that the amount varied by difficulty. An easy instance required 20 Victory Points, a normal one required 40, and the hardest required 80. Earning Victory Points was simple: win games. Each official game won earned between 10 and 100 points. After three consecutive wins, every subsequent victory granted a 50% bonus. Once the streak ended, the count started over.
"I never would've guessed! Even after coming to another world, I still can't escape the grind..." Ken Kaneki said, his expression growing more and more excited. "Every opponent who falls to me will become a stepping stone on my path to the top... This is so much fun!"