Do you like basketball?

Chapter 1 Do You Like Basketball?

Bang!

Bang!

The basketball struck the floor, emitting a series of muffled thuds.

On one side of the indoor court, two children—one tall and one short—were training.

The shorter one was thirteen or fourteen years old, standing just over 1.4 meters tall.

The taller one was only eleven or twelve, but his height had already surpassed 1.8 meters.

The two had been practicing for a while and were drenched in sweat.

"Boom!"

The tall boy suddenly accelerated, surged forward, and Leapt Up. Like a Roc Spreading Wings, he slammed the ball into the rim with one hand.

Sun Hao curled his lips and made a clicking sound, unable to suppress a wave of envy in his heart.

Yi Jianlian was only 11 years old, yet he was already 1.8 meters tall and could even perform a one-armed dunk.

This talent, this physical conditioning, and the stamina to still leap with such ease after training for so long...

Oh no, endurance—it was truly damn enviable.

"Brother Hao, what's wrong?"

Seeing Sun Hao's expression after the dunk, Yi Jianlian couldn't help but ask.

He had only performed a plain, unremarkable dunk, hadn't he?

"Nothing, just admiring how handsome you look."

Sun Hao said with a smile.

Yi Jianlian's face turned slightly red.

His personality was shy; although he was more open when with Sun Hao, Sun Hao was always so direct...

Seeing Yi Jianlian's reaction, Sun Hao couldn't help but laugh out loud, feeling a secret thrill at having successfully teased him.

Seeing this, Yi Jianlian scratched his head and laughed along.

The two of them were originally like parallel lines that would never have intersected from beginning to end.

But a year ago, Sun Hao had suddenly bent his own path and inserted himself directly into the other's life.

"Do you like basketball?"

That was the first sentence Sun Hao had ever said to him.

He didn't know what basketball was back then, but once he started playing, the thrill of slamming the ball into the hoop and the scenes of female classmates screaming for him made him very happy.

That kind of joy was something others couldn't imagine.

Especially a week ago, when they lifted the trophy for the Guangdong Junior High League in front of over a thousand spectators.

At that moment, he felt he had reached the pinnacle of his life.

So much so that when the class beauty confessed to him after the awards ceremony, he hadn't heard a single word she said.

"By the way, how are you preparing?"

Sun Hao's voice pulled him back to reality.

After winning the championship, they had attracted the attention of the Hongyuan Youth Team as the core players, and both were invited to attend a tryout for the youth team in a month.

"No problem."

Yi Jianlian's confidence was written all over his face.

Sun Hao gave him a thumbs up.

"Let's play professional basketball together."

He then opened his hand, gesturing for a high-five.

Yi Jianlian reached out as well.

The two slapped hands in agreement.

There was a light in Yi Jianlian's eyes.

He was now incredibly excited for the prospect of playing professional basketball with Sun Hao.

Training ended, and the two parted ways at the school gate.

Sun Hao walked forward alone, looking around as he went.

Gazing at the unfamiliar scenery, his expression couldn't help but turn dazed.

He was not a person of this era.

One year ago today, he was 28 years old and an assistant coach for the University of Connecticut in the NCAA.

He still remembered that day in the indoor arena, driving those Child of Heaven prospects—who all had a chance to enter the NBA—like a herd of ducks.

Running laps, navigating obstacles, dribbling through cones, suicide drills, one-minute rapid-fire shooting...

As an assistant coach in charge of team training, he was young and promising at 28 years old.

If he endured for another ten or twenty years, he might have a chance to become a head coach and reach the Peak of Life.

After training, he took a nap in the Locker Room, daydreaming as usual, when he suddenly felt a sharp, intense pain in his heart and lost consciousness.

When he opened his eyes again, he found himself here.

He had transmigrated to China in 1994, and into the body of a 12-year-old child.

It took him a long time to adapt.

After all, going from 28 to 12, not only had all his body parts shrunk, but the environment was entirely new as well.

Then, there was Yi Jianlian, a figure whose status in domestic basketball history was second only to Yao Ming.

He never imagined that after transmigrating, he would actually be in the same school as Yi Jianlian!

If there's a golden thigh to hug, he had to hug it; he casually created opportunities to "run into" Yi Jianlian, then step by step, lured him into basketball.

Yi Jianlian had high natural talent, and combined with his professional methods, his skill level improved by leaps and bounds, allowing them to easily win the provincial junior high school league championship.

However, starting tomorrow, the two of them would likely embark on completely different paths.

Yi Jianlian's talent was explosive; even without his help, he would represent the national team in international competitions at 17 and enter the NBA as the 6th overall pick at 20 Years Old.

By comparison, he...

He stopped in his tracks, glanced at a shrub about as tall as himself beside him, and couldn't help but sigh.

It was all because this body wasn't up to the task when it was just a little tadpole!

Although he had always wanted to play basketball, whether in his past life or this one, it seemed he just didn't have the fate for it.

He... refused to accept this!

Damn it, everyone else who transmigrates gets a cheat code, counterattacks, and steamrolls through everything, yet he transmigrated only to remain an ordinary person?!

In 1995, going to Hangzhou to find an English teacher named Jack Ma, or going to Shenzhen to invest in a programmer named Ma Huateng, could have made him rich.

But, that damn well wasn't his style!

He liked doing what he loved!

He reached out and raised a big middle finger to the sky, then gave the shrub beside him a fierce kick.

"Are you crazy!"

But after that kick, a man and a woman scrambled out of the shrubbery in a panic.

The man cursed at him, while the woman hurriedly pulled up her pants.

The two quickly disappeared from his sight.

He turned his head again and saw a square package dropped by the edge of the shrub, silently picking it up and putting it in his pocket.

Sigh, the world is going downhill!

Sun Hao lamented for a while, then continued walking forward.

He hadn't walked far when he suddenly heard a familiar sound and turned his head to the right to look.

It was an outdoor basketball court, and a group of people were playing inside.

The intense physical contact on the court, the occasional shouts, the Cheers, and those faces full of passion...

He felt his blood boiling.

This was what he loved to do!

Truth be told, he loved basketball, but he was already sick of the experience of only being able to watch from the sidelines in his past life.

Now that his life had started over, he didn't want anything else; he just wanted to get on the court and play!

He wanted to be like Mitsui Hisashi in Slam Dunk and shout at Coach Anzai: Coach, I want to play basketball!

"Do you like basketball?"

Just then, a voice popped into his mind out of nowhere.

That sentence sounded so familiar.

It was the same line he had used to "bump into" Yi Jianlian back then.

Who the hell was copying him?

"Of course I do!"

His brain was still thinking, but his body had already answered honestly.

"Congratulations to the host for successfully obtaining the Basketball Demon King System."

Another voice appeared in his mind.

Just as he looked around, trying to find where the voice came from, or wondering if he was suffering from auditory hallucinations.

In the blink of an eye, he found himself surrounded by a vast, pale whiteness.

He had entered a blank world.

To be precise, it wasn't entirely blank, for a floating selection box had appeared before his eyes.

Point Guard: Position 1, height 1.80m~1.90m, the team's offensive organizer; can unlock badges like Floor General and Dimer.

Combo Guard: Position 1/2 swingman, height 1.85m~1.95m, capable of both organizing and scoring; can unlock badges like Floor General and Long-Range Sharpshooter.

Shooting Guard: Position 2, height 1.90m~2.00m, scorer and slasher; can unlock badges like Catch and Shoot Specialist and Slithery Finisher.

Swingman: Position 2/3, height 1.95m~2.05m, scorer and slasher; can unlock badges like Catch and Shoot Specialist and Slithery Finisher.

This was a selection box for basketball positions, very similar to the NBA 2K games, though with more options.

Beyond the traditional five positions, there were also Combo Guard, Swingman, Forward, and Big Man Swingman.

Sun Hao had played plenty of 2K, so the scene before him felt incredibly familiar.

"The host may choose a court position according to their needs. Once selected, it cannot be changed."

Just then, that voice echoed through the space once more.

The sound drew Sun Hao's attention away from the selection box.

He looked around the space again, and slowly, he realized what he was experiencing.

He actually felt like crying.

He, at last, had a cheat code!

Could it be because of the middle finger he'd raised to the heavens earlier, letting the sky know he intended to defy his fate?

Probably not; if the heavens had seen it and didn't rain hail down to crush him, that was already giving him face.

It must have been his love for basketball that moved the system.

A clear piece of evidence: he had once asked Yi Jianlian the same question Haruko asked Sakuragi Hanamichi in Slam Dunk, which was also the system's prompt just now.

Do you like basketball?

Wasn't that the simplest and most passionate form of love!

Now that he had his cheat code, then...

He refocused his gaze on the selection box, scanned it from top to bottom, and finally settled on the Combo Guard option.

His height before transmigrating was only 1.75m, a height that had accompanied him for almost his entire life.

He didn't think he could accept suddenly shooting up to over two meters, feeling like a utility pole wherever he went.

Everyone has their own comfort zone; leaving it would feel very awkward.

To put it mildly, at such an obvious height, he'd probably have to file a report just to eat a pancake.

Guard was the most suitable position for him.

On one hand, he wouldn't need to adjust his mindset due to a drastic change in height; on the other, he had spent the past year practicing guard techniques, allowing for a seamless transition.

The system had a badge function, and the Combo Guard had more options than the Point Guard.

Having made up his mind, he reached out and selected Combo Guard.

Upon confirmation, the position selection interface vanished, and an attribute interface popped up.

Height: 140; Weight: 40kg

Strength: 16; Speed: 37; Agility: 39; Vertical: 14; Stamina: 30; basketball IQ: 51

Ball Handling: 33; Passing: 21; Dunking: 0; Layup: 35; Mid-range: 25; Three-pointer: 18

Defense: 25; Blocks: 12; Steals: 33; Rebounds: 16

With attributes capped at 100, his highest was basketball IQ at just over 50, and the dunking stat was a glaring 0.

This was a standard "battle-five-scum" level.

However, it was within reason.

He was currently an ordinary person, still a middle schooler who hadn't fully developed.

His slightly higher basketball IQ was likely related to his past life as an assistant coach in the NCAA.

Besides the attributes, there were three notes at the bottom of the interface.

Note 1: Once the position is confirmed, the system will help the host's height and wingspan reach the minimum requirement for the chosen position within five years, and the maximum within ten years.

Note 2: The time consumption in this space is proportional to reality; the current ratio is 2 to 1.

Note 3: When the host's abilities reach certain conditions, the system will upgrade, the time ratio will increase, and more functions and items will be unlocked.

New book released, remember to add to your library, mwah!