A Perfect Finish

In just two possessions, Wu Yufei had already given everyone a preliminary glimpse of his strength.

But for Wu Yufei, his show had only just begun!

It was still the Red Team's possession.

This time, Araki finally dared not keep acting so arrogantly and instead brought the ball up with considerable caution.

"Tch!"

Seeing Wu Yufei rush at him, Araki immediately passed the ball away. Wu Yufei's Death Grip from earlier had clearly left quite an impression on him.

Takatsu Hiroshi caught the ball, then backed Kurosaki down step by step into the paint.

"Give it to me!"

Araki had also successfully shaken off Wu Yufei's harassment and entered the paint. Seeing this, Takatsu did not hold onto the ball and immediately returned it to Araki.

With the ball in hand, Araki launched a fierce attack toward the restricted area.

Aoyama Masaaki did not dare let his guard down and hurriedly pressed up on him, refusing to give Araki any room to accelerate off the dribble.

However, seeing his teammate Miyamoto left open, Araki decisively bounced the ball to him. Miyamoto caught it and scored on a layup.

"Hmph!"

After successfully earning an assist, Araki Kazuo turned to get back on defense and raised an eyebrow at Wu Yufei as though showing off.

"..."

What could Wu Yufei even say to that? He could only smile and shrug.

Blue Team possession. Wu Yufei brought the ball up and, upon reaching the frontcourt, drove hard straight at Araki.

Using his speed to force his way into the paint, Wu Yufei came to an abrupt stop and assumed a jump-shot stance.

"Don't even think about it!!"

Araki immediately leaped high into the air, ready to send Wu Yufei's shot flying.

But the next second, Wu Yufei pulled the ball back and, with a flashy behind-the-back pass, fed Murasame Kengo, who had cut in from the side.

"Mm..."

It was also Murasame Kengo's first time receiving such a perfectly placed pass, and his admiration for Wu Yufei grew by several degrees.

He drove into the paint and finished a three-step layup off the glass.

"Damn it!"

Having been played by Wu Yufei again, Araki was thoroughly annoyed.

On the next possession, Araki decided to give Wu Yufei a taste of his own medicine. Once he reached the frontcourt, he drove straight at Wu Yufei.

But Araki had forgotten that Wu Yufei could drive past him because he possessed advantages in height, weight, speed, and more. Against Wu Yufei, all of those were disadvantages for Araki.

Slap!!

Wu Yufei seized the moment, shot out his long arm like a dragon's spear, and poked the ball out of Araki's hands.

"What?!"

"Thanks~"

Wu Yufei ignored the stunned expression on Araki's face. He slipped around him, quickly secured the ball, and charged straight toward the Red Team's half.

"Damn it!!"

Araki hurriedly turned and chased after him. No matter what, he could not allow Wu Yufei to keep showing off like this.

The two left all their other teammates far behind, rushing into the Red Team's paint in less than four seconds.

Swish!

One step inside the free-throw line, Wu Yufei leaped straight up.

"Hah!!"

Araki Kazuo, close behind Wu Yufei, also soared into the air, ready to deliver a massive chase-down block.

But just as Araki gleefully thought he was about to block the shot, the basketball vanished from his sight.

"Haa..."

Wu Yufei let out a light sigh, pulled the ball back, made a small double-clutch motion in front of his chest, then switched it to his left hand and gently flicked it toward the basket.

Swish!

Spinning through the air, the basketball obediently dropped through the net.

"How... is that possible..."

Did this guy have eyes on the back of his head too?

At this moment, Araki Kazuo finally had some sense of the situation. Perhaps he and the guy in front of him truly were not players on the same level.

At 3:16, Wu Yufei advanced down the left side. Facing a double-team from Araki Kazuo and Takatsu Hiroshi, he forced a pass through the gap between them to Murasame Kengo, who had come over for support. Murasame drove into the paint and converted a floater.

At 3:45, Takatsu Hiroshi missed a buzzer-beater, and after Naito Tetsuya grabbed the rebound, the Blue Team launched a fast break.

Wu Yufei called for the ball from Naito, then immediately directed him to sprint toward the basket.

Only then did everyone realize in shock that Wu Yufei was actually faster than Naito, who had come from a rugby background!

The two streaked into the Red Team's paint like lightning. Wu Yufei casually tossed the basketball in his hand off the backboard, and Naito Tetsuya behind him timed his jump perfectly.

He caught the ball as it bounced off the backboard in midair, gripped it firmly with both hands, and violently slammed it into the hoop.

At 4:26, Wu Yufei slowly brought the ball beyond the three-point line and called for power forward Aoyama Masaaki to set a screen for him.

Using the screen, Wu Yufei successfully broke into the paint. Facing Miyamoto's help defense, he stepped back to create space before rising for a jumper.

Clang!!

The move looked stylish, but unfortunately, it did not go in. However, Naito successfully grabbed the rebound and immediately rose for a one-handed dunk.

At 4:50, Wu Yufei and Murasame Kengo executed a give-and-go. The basketball changed hands between them three times, bypassing every Red Team player in their path.

After charging into the paint, Wu Yufei and Murasame pulled off an alley-oop, letting Murasame experience the thrill of hanging from the rim.

At 5:15, Wu Yufei once again forced his way into the paint. After drawing a double-team, he kicked the ball out to Naito Tetsuya, who had run under the basket, and Naito converted another easy finish.

At 6:23, Wu Yufei and Araki battled outside for several seconds before Wu Yufei suddenly hurled the ball toward the basket right in front of him.

That kind of reckless shot could not possibly go in!

"Get the rebound!!"

Araki Kazuo immediately turned and shouted at his center, but what he saw was Naito Tetsuya's huge body gliding through the air.

Catch, dunk!

Naito Tetsuya had gone crazy. He had never played this satisfyingly in his life!

By the tenth minute of the first half, the Blue Team had already stretched the score to 28:10.

Wu Yufei had already recorded 12 points and 7 assists. It could be said that he had single-handedly led the entire Blue Team in crushing the Red Team from start to finish.

At 10:15, Wu Yufei bounced the ball through Araki Kazuo's legs and drove into the paint. With a shoulder fake and spin, he got past Miyamoto Kazunari, who had come to help, then entered the restricted area, faked out Kawasaki Akio, took off with a running jump, and used Immortal Guides the Way to steadily lay the ball into the basket.

A perfect one-against-three.

He's so strong... This guy is ridiculously strong...

He's not the slightest bit weaker than that A Maki from Kainan...

Is someone like this really our teammate this year?

For a moment, every Miuradai Basketball Team member felt incredibly fired up.

They had trained hard for a year just to avenge last year's crushing defeat at Kainan's hands. To that end, they had even voluntarily given up nearly half their vacation and returned early to the school gym for intensive training.

Now, Wu Yufei's sudden appearance gave them even greater confidence.

For the rest of the game, Wu Yufei continued his wild performance, repeatedly delivering brilliant passes to Murasame Kengo and Naito Tetsuya, feeding those two until they were practically stuffed.

As for the other two teammates, Wu Yufei naturally had not forgotten them either. As long as they found a good opening, his passes would reach them immediately.

The Blue Team players only felt that this was the easiest game they had played in all their years.

The Red Team, on the other hand, felt profound despair.

Unable to do anything about Wu Yufei, they watched their defensive line get ruthlessly torn apart again and again.

In the end, they even sent three players to double-team Wu Yufei, attempting to stop his performance that way. But it was still useless.

After all, the Blue Team still had Miuradai's top scorer, Murasame Kengo!

If three people were guarding Wu Yufei, who would guard Murasame Kengo?

The point gap gradually widened, and as it did, the smile on Coach Harada's face by the sideline grew increasingly radiant.

What a treasure I've found!

Originally, his expectation this year had only been for Miuradai to reach the final League Finals of the Prefectural Tournament. As for whether they could defeat Kainan or Shoyo and earn a ticket to the National Tournament, that would largely depend on luck.

But as he grew increasingly satisfied with Wu Yufei, Coach Harada's ambitions gradually grew bolder as well.

Forget Kainan and Shoyo. Forget merely reaching the National Tournament.

With Wu Yufei, Murasame Kengo, and Naito Tetsuya, Miuradai might be able to make the quarterfinals... No, they might even reach the semifinals!

The National Tournament semifinals! That was a height no Miuradai school team or club of any kind had ever reached in the school's history!

When that day came, would he, as the coach, receive any less benefit?

Wealth, fame, status...

Coach Harada seemed to see an incomparably bright and glorious future beckoning to him!

Beep—!!

In the end, when the game concluded, the Blue Team had utterly crushed the Red Team, which was likewise led by two starters, by a massive score of 55:25.

That was only because Wu Yufei had lost the interest to keep crushing them during the final five minutes and voluntarily asked the coach to take him out, giving the Red Team an opportunity to narrow the score.

Otherwise, as long as Wu Yufei remained on the court, he was confident he could have widened the gap even further!

As for the mission, it had naturally been completed perfectly as well.

Wu Yufei did not hesitate to add the rewarded attribute point to his [Constitution] attribute.

After all, among his four core attributes, Constitution was the only one still in the seventies, not yet at 80+.

Basketball was ultimately a physically demanding sport. Without sufficient stamina, it was impossible to maintain strong endurance on the court, making it easy for opponents to target that weakness.

Take Rukawa Kaede, for example. His Constitution attribute was probably only around 70, while Sakuragi's was likely at least 90. In actual games, that meant Rukawa could only go wild for one half against Kainan University Affiliated High School before he could not hold on in the second half, forcing him to conserve his energy in the following game against Ryonan.

Sakuragi, meanwhile, could completely disregard physical exhaustion and play energetically from the opening tip until the final whistle in every game. That was the difference.

Then there was Mitsui Hisashi. After wasting two precious years, Mitsui's Constitution attribute was probably not even 70. Yet what made him formidable was that whenever his stamina dropped below the red line, he could still erupt one last time, hitting several Three-Pointers in a row to help his team mount a desperate comeback. That was a little unreasonable.

According to Wu Yufei's own plan, after three years of high school, all four of his core attributes needed to reach at least 90, or even 95.

Only by reaching that level could he establish himself in American college basketball after going to the United States for university.

Otherwise, all those grand ambitions afterward would be nothing but empty talk.

As for more specific attributes such as mid-range shooting, those could all be improved through future practice, so Wu Yufei did not intend to waste his precious skill points on them.