When Gu Jin dribbled the ball past half-court, the wind roared in his ears.
Miyazaki Ken of the Jinshan Team lunged from the side, spreading his arms to block him.
Gu Jin didn't stop, his left shoulder dipped slightly, seemingly about to change direction and break through, but when the distance between them was only half a meter, he suddenly stopped, his center of gravity lowered like a coiled cheetah—
"Stop him!" the Jinshan Team coach roared from the sidelines.
Yamamoto Sho came over to double-team from the other side, forming a pincer attack from front and back.
But Gu Jin didn't even look to the sides; his gaze was locked on the hoop as he suddenly leaped into the air!
The moment his body stretched in mid-air, he pulled the ball from his left hand to his right, a tomahawk dunk!!!
Miyazaki Ken jumped to block, his fingertips just about to touch the ball, but he was violently knocked away by Gu Jin's momentum-driven shoulder, losing his balance in the air.
"Bang!"
Gu Jin, like a cannonball, slammed the ball into the hoop over the double-teaming Yamamoto Sho!
The backboard shook violently, and he hung on the rim with one hand, looking down at Miyazaki Ken, who had fallen to the ground, his eyes as cold as ice.
The stadium was silent, then erupted into a roar of cheers.
Beep—! Blocking foul!
"Great play—!!!"
Taoka Moichi threw down his tactical board, jumped up, and furiously pumped his fist, his voice hoarse.
Gu Jin released his hand and landed, patting the wrinkles from his jersey, his gaze sweeping over the astonished faces of the Jinshan Team players, his lips moving, his voice not loud but carrying a bone-chilling coldness:
"Vulnerable!"
The free throw was made steadily!
9:6.
The cheers from the stands surged down like a tide: "They've taken the lead! Ryonan has taken the lead!" "Gu Jin is invincible! That play was explosive!" "Damn, that poster dunk completely stunned me!"
Amidst the roar, Gu Jin's hand, hanging by his side, slowly clenched.
Ryonan had never suffered such a disadvantage at the start of a game!
What angered Gu Jin even more were the extremely arrogant faces of the Jinshan Team players.
No one could suppress Ryonan!
At this moment, all the previous anger was unleashed with that powerful dunk.
He glanced at the arrogance frozen on the faces of the Jinshan Team players on the sidelines, and the chill in his eyes deepened!
Taoka jumped and shouted from the sideline: "Keep playing like this! Show your momentum!"
Gu Jin didn't look back; he just ran back faster.
Not aggressive? Is he young?
The Jinshan Team served the ball, and Miyazaki Ken, like an enraged Chicago Bulls, charged headlong into the frontcourt.
After receiving the pass, Miyazaki Ken's eyes were blazing.
The humiliation of being posterized just now burned his nerves like fire, and out of the corner of his eye, he caught sight of an open space under the basket, with only one thought in his mind—to return that dunk!
"Let's see you be arrogant!" he growled as he jumped, raising the ball over his head with his right hand, his body tensed like a bow in mid-air, vowing to respond with the same powerful dunk.
Just as his wrist was about to exert force, a dark shadow suddenly shot up from diagonally behind him, higher, faster, with a force that cut through the wind.
"Get down!"
Gu Jin's voice boomed like muffled thunder.
His right arm, like an iron gate, swung horizontally and smacked squarely on the basketball!
"Smack!"
With a crisp sound, the basketball was swatted away like a cannonball, hitting the side of the backboard with a heavy thud and bouncing out of bounds.
Miyazaki Ken lost his balance and once again fell awkwardly to the floor, his back aching.
Gu Jin kicked up a cloud of dust as he landed, looking down at him, his gaze even colder than before.
The stands completely erupted, the cheers of the Ryonan fans almost tearing off the roof.
Taoka paced in circles, clenching his fists, repeatedly shouting: "Beautiful! That's defense!"
Miyazaki Ken lay on the ground, slamming his fist against the floor, his cheeks burning as if on fire—compared to the poster dunk just now, this solid block made him even more mortified.
"Big oaf, it's not shameful to lose to Gu Jin! If I were guarding you, I'd swat you away too!" Sakuragi Hanamichi jumped high on the sidelines, his red hair swinging with his movements, the towel in his hand almost flying onto the court, "Learn from this! This is what you call top-tier defense!"
The Jinshan Team's bench immediately erupted, someone suddenly stood up and pointed at Gu Jin, shouting: "Referee! He's clearly provoking! Why isn't that a technical foul?" Others pounded the railing, yelling: "That last move definitely had an extra action!"
The referee frowned and glanced at Sakuragi, just about to raise his hand to warn him, when Ikegami quickly rushed over from the bench, grabbed Sakuragi, who was still yelling, and whispered urgently: "Sakuragi! Shut up! Don't cause trouble for the team!" He pulled Sakuragi back forcefully, while slightly bowing towards the referee to apologize.
Sakuragi struggled twice but couldn't break free, still muttering: "It's true..." But he obediently closed his mouth, only his eyes wide, staring fixedly at Gu Jin on the court, as if replaying that block ten times in his mind.
"Sakuragi, get ready, it's your turn to play soon," Taoka Moichi called out, his voice hoarse, and patted Sakuragi's shoulder.
Actually, his calculations had been clattering in his mind for a while.
When Jinshan had been pressing them at the start of the game, his hand, gripping the tactical board, was sweating—Ryonan's strongest fast break was almost useless, and the players' movements were like they were tied up.
At that time, he had wanted to send Sakuragi in several times, but he was afraid that substituting someone so early would make the team even more flustered and affect morale, so he held back.
It wasn't until Gu Jin's poster dunk and subsequent chase-down block, when the roar in the stadium rose like a tsunami, that Taoka finally breathed a sigh of relief.
The atmosphere on the court was completely alive; Sendo's eyes lit up during his breakthrough, Uozumi's boxing out had a fierce edge, and even the players on the bench started jumping along.
"When you go in, just charge," Taoka patted Sakuragi's shoulder, his voice a little lower, "Run fast breaks with Gu Jin and Sendo, and don't miss any rebounds."
"Coach, let me play now!" Sakuragi Hanamichi was full of energy.
"Wait a minute, with the speed of our fast-break lineup, we can score at least four more points against them! Just wait and see, they're definitely going to call a timeout."
A few minutes later, the whistle on the court indeed blew.
Only 8 minutes into the first half, the Kinzan Commercial coach, with a grim face, raised the timeout card.
The numbers on the scoreboard were particularly glaring: 21:14. Ryonan was already leading by 7 points.
Sakuragi slung the towel over his neck, bounced twice in place, his red hair swaying dizzyingly: "Leave it to me, Coach! I'll make sure they know what a genius is capable of!"
Taoka looked at his boisterous demeanor, a smile playing at the corner of his mouth, but he quickly straightened his face: "Don't get cocky! Don't play wildly when you're out there, listen to instructions!" But he felt much more at ease—this game, at last, could go at his pace.