System Upgrade

In a warm and enchanting atmosphere, everyone said their goodbyes and went home. Before parting, Satsuki Momoi made a phone gesture to Ken Kaneki, signaling to keep in touch, then cheerfully walked into the subway station.

"Honestly..." Ken Kaneki smiled as he looked at the Line interface on his phone where he and Satsuki Momoi had added each other as friends. He chuckled to himself and turned to head home.

"I'm home." As usual, Ken Kaneki first offered incense to his parents, then completed his normal routine of washing up, and headed to his bedroom to check on the System updates. Just then, Ken Kaneki's phone buzzed – it was a message from Satsuki Momoi.

Little Peach: "Are you home yet? I just finished tidying up. How about you?"

White-haired Demon Man Sasaki: "I just got home too and finished tidying up."

Little Peach: "Ken-kun, you did really well today."

Looking at Satsuki Momoi's message, Ken Kaneki's expression turned into that of an old man looking at his phone on the subway. He slowly typed out a "?".

Seeing Ken Kaneki's question mark, Satsuki Momoi realized her previous words were a bit problematic and quickly explained, "Um, I meant you performed excellently in your Basketball Club training today. Coach Platinum seemed very happy."

White-haired Demon Man Sasaki: "Of course. Seeing the players train harder naturally makes our farmer coach happier."

Little Peach: "Haha, Ken-kun, if Coach Platinum heard you say that, he'd probably make you run laps again."

White-haired Demon Man Sasaki: "You wouldn't tell the coach, would you? After all, this is our little secret, right?"

Little Peach: "...Get some sleep early. We're going to the Summer Festival tomorrow."

White-haired Demon Man Sasaki: "Okay, rest well. Goodnight."

Little Peach: "Goodnight."

"Ken-kun and my... secret..." Satsuki Momoi clutched her phone, touching her hot earlobe. She tossed and turned, finally falling asleep late into the night.

Meanwhile, Ken Kaneki finally put down his phone, ready to examine the System after its upgrade.

"System upgrade complete. Unopened blind boxes detected. Would you like to open them?"

"Open, open, open!" Ken Kaneki excitedly watched the blind box opening animation.

"Congratulations to the host for obtaining a Virtual Training Ground! Integrating into the System's underlying data... Integration complete."

Ken Kaneki's vision blurred. The previously simple System interface had now been perfected into a System interface resembling a 2K game from his past life. The options from left to right were: Character Bonds, Dream Pool, Task List, Player Modeling, and Training Ground.

Ken Kaneki first clicked on the Player Modeling option. Behind each of his physical attributes, a plus sign appeared, indicating that he could upgrade.

Ken Kaneki calculated his current attribute points. In addition to the three attribute points awarded by the System after completing the mission for the match against Seirin Middle School, his continuous one-month self-discipline check-in task had also settled three attribute points. Ken Kaneki pondered for a moment and decided to add all his current points to Speed. As his attribute points became zero, his Speed attribute increased from 85 to 91.

Not only that, but this System update also divided basketball players into three age groups: U15 (under 15 years old), U18 (under 18 years old), and Adult (18 years and older).

After reviewing Player Modeling and gaining a more comprehensive understanding of his current strength, Ken Kaneki clicked on the Task List option. The Task List showed that the System currently had two long-term tasks. The first was the previous long-term task, and its progress still showed as ongoing. What interested Ken Kaneki was the second task.

"Long-Term Main Quest: Path to Godhood;

Quest Objective: Before reaching the age of 18, the number of losses in any form of competition and age group shall not exceed 10 games.

Current Losses: 0/10;

Quest Trait: Absolute Victory;

Quest Reward 1: Heart of the God King (Hall of Fame Tier Badge);

Quest Reward 2: From the quest's release until exceeding 10 losses/reaching 18 years old, 0.1 attribute points will be awarded per day;

Quest Penalty: Failure to complete the quest due to reasons other than injury will result in the random deduction of one S-rank or higher Skill."

Ken Kaneki curiously clicked on the introduction to the Heart of the God King badge. He had to admit, this prize really hit the spot.

"Badge: Heart of the God King, Badge Type: Concept, Badge Trait: Sense of Oppression, Badge Rank: Hall of Fame, Badge Effect: When equipped, the host can inflict a physical ability debuff of 5% to 10% on opponents."

"Good, good, good. As expected of Kuroko's Basketball, it's really getting into the fantasy genre," Ken Kaneki said with a mix of amusement and exasperation. "Should I say something like 'On the pinnacle of basketball, I stand above all, I, Ken Kaneki, am heaven'... That's so embarrassing... but it's kind of cool though..."

Ken Kaneki somewhat reluctantly closed the Task List option and opened the Virtual Training Ground he obtained from the blind box.

As soon as he opened the Virtual Training Ground, scenes of famous NBA players appeared before his eyes. This world also had the NBA, and even the famous stars were largely the same. However, due to unknown reasons, the overall timeline of this world's NBA had been pushed back by nearly 20 years. Not long ago, the news reported the retirement announcement of Michael Jordan, who had just completed his third consecutive championship.

"The Shot... The Shot... Last Shot... God of the Game-Winning Shot..." Ken Kaneki looked at the dazzling collection of famous moments before him and gained a general understanding of the Virtual Training Ground's functions.

Each star player's famous moment was equivalent to a dungeon. Upon entering, one could choose the dungeon difficulty. The higher the difficulty, the richer the rewards. The lowest reward was attribute points and Skill Upgrade Card fragments, while the highest possible reward was obtaining the skills or badges of the corresponding star player in the dungeon.

"This is great, really great." Ken Kaneki excitedly clicked on a dungeon to test the waters, but after clicking, he found the dungeon screen was grayed out with a lock icon in the bottom right corner, indicating that the dungeon was temporarily inaccessible.

"Huh? The dungeon can't be accessed?" Ken Kaneki unexpectedly clicked on the dungeon details. It stated that entering the dungeon required "Victory Points," and different difficulty levels required different amounts of Victory Points. Entering the easy difficulty dungeon required 20 Victory Points, the normal difficulty dungeon required 40, and the highest difficulty dungeon required 80. The method of obtaining Victory Points was also very simple: win games. Each official match won could earn 10 to 100 Victory Points. Furthermore, after winning three consecutive games, each subsequent win would receive a 50% bonus. If the winning streak was broken, the count would reset.

"I never expected this! I've come to another world, and I still can't escape the fate of working hard..." Ken Kaneki said, but the expression on his face grew more and more excited. "Every opponent who falls before me will become a stepping stone on my path to becoming the strongest... This is too interesting!"