The Prefectural Tournament Begins

Wu Yufei had no intention of hiding the fact that he and Junko had officially started dating.

When Junko specifically handed Wu Yufei a towel to wipe his sweat after practice, everyone immediately noticed that something between them had changed.

Faced with his teammates' questioning, Wu Yufei admitted it without hesitation.

Although it made Junko incredibly embarrassed, and she lowered her head with a flushed face without daring to say a word, Wu Yufei did not consider it something difficult to talk about.

He had not stolen, robbed, or deceived anyone. He had openly built their relationship from scratch, asked her out when the time was right, and successfully confessed his feelings. It was both logical and the normal course of young love. Was there any need to hide a relationship like that?

Wu Yufei was quite open about it. After officially becoming a couple with Junko, he actively sought her out whenever he had free time outside of basketball practice.

They went to school together in the morning, ate lunch together at noon, went to the basketball gym together in the afternoon, and then Wu Yufei walked Junko home at night.

Naturally, news of Wu Yufei and Naito Junko's relationship spread throughout the entire school.

Naturally, Wu Yufei's female fans were filled with envy, jealousy, and resentment. After learning that Wu Yufei had been the one to pursue Junko, they found it even harder to believe.

But whether they believed it or not had nothing to do with Wu Yufei.

In any case, from then on, the number of people deliberately hovering around Wu Yufei every day clearly decreased.

May 19th, the day the Kanagawa Prefecture Tournament officially began.

Wu Yufei got up at six in the morning.

It was not because the tournament was starting today and he could not sleep. Rather, ever since he had begun dating Junko, he had asked her to go jogging with him every morning.

After changing into sportswear, eating a little to replenish his energy, and bringing all his gear, Wu Yufei said goodbye to his father, who was sleeping like a dead pig, and walked out the door.

Junko was already waiting at the corner of the street.

"Sorry to keep you waiting."

"No, I only just came out too."

The two jogged along the street, chatting about the basketball team and the Prefectural Tournament.

"The Prefectural Tournament is finally starting."

"Yeah, we can finally begin our push toward the National Tournament."

"With you here, Yufei-kun, this year's Miuradai is the strongest in its history. You have to do your best!"

"Don't worry. As long as you're cheering for me, Junko, I'll play better with every game!"

"Mm! I'll cheer for you, Brother Tetsu, and every Miuradai player from the sidelines!"

Nine o'clock in the morning, inside Kanagawa Prefectural Gymnasium.

"Let's go!"

After finishing their warm-up, Miuradai's starting five officially stepped onto the court.

When Miuradai's players, with an average height above 185 centimeters, stepped onto the court, everyone from Ohkita High School's coach to its players looked as though they doubted their entire existence.

As a standard bottom-feeder team in the prefecture, Ohkita High School's basketball team had never produced any noteworthy results, either historically or in the present. The best result in school history had been reaching the second round of the Prefectural Tournament a few years ago.

So even the system in Wu Yufei's mind looked down on their opponents in this game.

It required Wu Yufei to record at least 20 points and 10 assists using only the first half, and the reward for completing the task was quite shabby.

Wu Yufei did not care. As the saying went, even a mosquito was still meat.

Strong teams would definitely come later, and he was not worried about there being no high-reward missions then.

For now, playing against a weak team could count as a warm-up.

The game began.

Ohkita High School's center was only 185 centimeters tall and quite skinny, so there was naturally no way he could beat Naito in the tip-off. Miuradai easily gained the first possession.

After catching the ball, Wu Yufei launched a fast break. Ignoring the defenders entirely, he used the Butterfly Step to blow past two players in succession, charged into the paint, and rose for an explosive poster dunk that kicked off Miuradai's ferocious assault.

Ohkita High School's players truly lived up to expectations in their weakness. Even when they sent three people to double-team Wu Yufei, he could always find a split-second opening and put on a dazzling display.

When the first half reached the twelve-minute mark, Wu Yufei assisted Naito on another powerful dunk, successfully meeting the mission requirements. His stats for the game had reached 22 points, 10 assists, and 4 rebounds.

Now that even the mission was complete, Wu Yufei had even less interest in continuing to stomp weak opponents.

After all, the score was already 40-8. In just twelve minutes, they had built a thirty-two-point lead. If Wu Yufei played the entire game, they might set the largest winning margin in Kanagawa Prefecture Tournament history.

So when the first half reached fifteen minutes, Wu Yufei, having scored his thirtieth point, took the initiative to ask Coach Harada to substitute him out.

He truly could not even muster the interest to play the final five minutes of the first half.

Coach Harada understood Wu Yufei and immediately substituted out all the starters, sending in a full bench lineup for the remaining half of the game.

Yet even Miuradai's second unit could beat Ohkita High School until they completely lost their bearings.

In the end, Miuradai mercilessly slaughtered their opponents 155-45, claiming their first victory of the Prefectural Tournament.

As for Ohkita High School's basketball boys, hopefully this game would not leave them traumatized about basketball from now on.

Watching the Ohkita players leave with deadened expressions and lonely backs, Wu Yufei thought with a trace of sympathy.

But that was the cruelty of competitive sports. If they could not accept that cruelty, they should simply treat basketball as a hobby. They should not enter competitions. At least then, they could enjoy its purest happiness.

Although it had been a victory by more than a hundred points, neither the coach nor the starting players showed much excitement.

Their goal was the round-robin finals, revenge against Kainan, and a place in the National Tournament.

They had merely won the first round of the Prefectural Tournament. There was nothing to be happy about.

After leaving their venue, Wu Yufei specifically went to another court to watch Shohoku's game, which had not yet ended.

This little butterfly, Wu Yufei, who had crossed over from another world, had finally made some difference. This year, Miuradai and Shohoku had not been matched against each other in the first round of the Prefectural Tournament.

That made Wu Yufei feel somewhat relieved.

After all, if things had truly followed the original plot and Miuradai had faced Shohoku in the first round, then even if they were the childhood idols of his previous life, Wu Yufei would have had to lead Miuradai to defeat them!

Although Shohoku was now at full strength, Wu Yufei felt that defeating them at this point would definitely not be difficult.

After all, Mitsui had only just emerged from a two-year absence. He had not recovered even half of his peak ability and simply could not withstand intense physical play. As long as they used a rotating defense to drain Mitsui's stamina, they could exhaust Mitsui Hisashi and force him off the court before the first half was even over.

Although Sakuragi Hanamichi had begun to show the makings of a rebounding king, he was still a rookie with less than two months of basketball experience.

Miyagi's speed and passing might pose a threat, but as long as Wu Yufei locked down Rukawa Kaede while Naito and Ono shut down Akagi, even if Miyagi managed to penetrate the paint, he would not find anyone to pass to.

What could Miyagi do then? Force his 168-centimeter body into Miuradai's paint, where the average height was over 190 centimeters, and attempt a layup? That would just be feeding himself to them.

Shoot from outside? Fine. Miuradai could completely let Miyagi shoot as much as he wanted from the perimeter.

Pass to Sakuragi Hanamichi? Give him a break. Aside from grabbing rebounds and making wide-open layups, what could Sakuragi do right now?

So it was fortunate that Shohoku had not encountered Miuradai as they had in the original story. Otherwise, Gorilla Akagi would truly have had no choice but to end his youth early with a heart full of regrets.

Wu Yufei and Junko entered Court Two, where Shohoku was playing. The moment Wu Yufei stepped inside, he was stunned by the roaring cheers.

Then he took a closer look at the score.

All right, 140-22, with five minutes remaining.

Shohoku was even more ruthless than Miuradai. Despite the enormous lead, they had only substituted out Rukawa Kaede and Akagi... Oh, no, Sakuragi was sitting on the bench too. He probably had not been substituted out, but fouled out.

They probably wanted Mitsui and Miyagi to regain their feel for the game as quickly as possible.

In the end, Shohoku mercilessly crushed their opponents 160-29 and advanced to the second round.

The Prefectural Tournament was cruel because it was single elimination. By the end of the first day, twenty-eight high schools from across the prefecture had already been eliminated, ending their Prefectural Tournament journeys full of regret.

"Shohoku is so strong..."

Although she had only caught the final few minutes, Naito Junko was still shocked by the powerful strength Shohoku had displayed.

"Well, their opponents were on the same level as Ohkita, so this result isn't surprising."

At least in Wu Yufei's view, aside from the final group-stage playoffs and the four-team round robin, there was nothing strange about any huge winning margin in the games from the first round through the fourth.

After all, the group stage was a mixed bag. As long as a team suddenly had one or even several strong players, it could easily claim a huge victory.

Like Miuradai just now, or Shohoku now.

Just as Wu Yufei was about to leave with Junko, he suddenly spotted an extremely conspicuous figure.

That person was...

With some confusion, Wu Yufei walked over.

"Excuse me, you're Captain A Maki from Kainan University Affiliated High School, right?"

Wu Yufei came up behind the man and asked.

Although the man wore a very formal suit, Wu Yufei recognized him at a glance.

When A Maki heard someone call his name and turned around, his eyes met Wu Yufei's.

"You're Wu Yufei, right?"

Wu Yufei was quite surprised that A Maki knew him too!

"You know me?"

"Of course. You were the standout figure in Kanagawa Prefecture's middle school basketball scene last year, and you even turned down our coach's invitation, didn't you?"

A Maki smiled.

"We could have been teammates."

"Compared with becoming teammates with you, I prefer becoming your opponent."

Wu Yufei replied.

"Well, everyone who turned us down said the same thing."

What A Maki meant was that all those bold words had amounted to nothing more than empty boasts.

Even Wu Yufei could not possibly become the king-slayer who overturned Kainan's dynasty.

"I'm different from them."

"Is that so? Then I'm really looking forward to it."

After their brief exchange, A Maki turned and walked out of the basketball gym.

"Rukawa Kaede, Shohoku, Wu Yufei, Miuradai... Heh, this year's Prefectural Tournament looks like it will be especially exciting."

A Maki spoke in a lightly teasing tone.

Yet when he lifted his head, his face was filled with fighting spirit.

"Only opponents like these can make a game worthwhile!"