A Narrow Win

'Shit!', Kotaro thought as the ball slipped away from him.

'What the f*ck?!',the rest of the crowd thought.

This fella was so high and mighty just now but he had actually lost the ball once again.

However, their shock only lasted for a moment before they started cursing at Kotaro.

"Hey, what the f*ck man?! Is this the so called Thunder Demon?!"

"Thunder Demon?! More like Thunder Wussy!"

"Shit, I'm betting that this thing is rigged! I demand compensation!"

Even the DJ looked speechless. He had given a very enthusiastic introduction on the account that Kotaro would win this round but now, it seemed that all of that was just a waste.

What made it even more worse was that his opponent didn't have a much better gameplay than him. Instead, he was winning by using his smarts against Kotaro.

Brains over brawn.

This was the perfect example of it!

Even Reo was wondering if Kotaro had a screw lose for suddenly slowing down his pace all of a sudden.

The system told him that Kotaro's body was suitable for pulling off such a move so fatigue and pain was impossible.

The only other explanation was that this fool had slacked off!

[Moron! Idiot! Pumpkin face! You think you're a bigshot, huh?! Then, what is this?!]

[Why the hell did you slow down?! Stupid fool!]

Cursing soon filled Reo's ears, both from the system and the surrounding crowd.

The same was the same for Kotaro as he looked a little lost after the ball left his palm.

Meanwhile, his opponent almost cried from relief.

It looked like Buddha was still looking over him.

So, without wasting much time, both of them got into their previous starting positions with the university student going back into his old tactics of keeping the ball away from Kotaro.

Keeping the ball low, he kept it at a slow pace as he watched Kotaro's movements.

Kotaro would surely be anxious by now. If he scored even one more point off of him, there was almost a zero chance for him to make a comeback.

A 4-2 lead will surely be a nearly impossible feat to overcome.

True enough, after playing with the ball at a slow pace, Kotaro soon grew anxious enough to try for a steal by diving forward instead of pushing his opponent back to lower the scoring percentage.

However, his opponent seemed to anticipate this move as his dribbling quickly sped up and went into a quick crossover.

Then, taking the opportunity while Kotaro regained his bearings, that university student quickly sped up his dribbling as he ran forward towards the basket.

By the time Kotaro had reacted to his opponent, he was already in mid-jump to score with the layup.

With that, the score was now officially 4-2.

Kotaro's face now paled a little.

This was bad. His worst fears had actually come true.

With his opponent just one point away from winning this round, how could he not feel worried.

His reputation which he had been building for months would just go down the drain if he were to actually lose this round.

While losing was nothing new to him, it was a different thing to lose to a newbie.

No background, no experience and no outstanding gameplay.

All of his shots were made just by relying on his brains.

In other words, it was an indirect saying that he had no brains instead.

As they went back to the three-point line to start, Kotaro couldn't help but give a death glare at his opponent.

It was like he was saying....'I'm a bigshot here so don't you dare win against me!'.

However, while his opponent did look frightened, he had also grown braver as he met Kotaro's glare with his own.

There was a 2 point lead and a 1 point victory gap from winning this round. How could he not feel confident?

But he didn't dare to get too confident. He had already seen it's effects on Kotaro lest he make the same mistakes.

So, as they started their next round, Kotaro's opponent proceeded to keep some distance from Kotaro and keep the ball low as usual, waiting for the right time to score.

However, as time went by, he found that he was unable to press forward at all.

By now, Kotaro had acknowledged his previous mistake and instead of rushing to the ball, he decided to play it safe and not move an inch.

No matter whether his opponent got closer or slowed down the ball speed, making it look like an easy steal, he would still stand his ground and push him further back.

Observing his opponent's reaction, Kotaro saw that he was getting more and more anxious as time passed as well.

He was obviously not comfortable in being in a stalemate for too long.

The more time passing meant more possibilities for mistakes to occur.

It was only after another 5 seconds more, did he feel his mental capacity waning.

Not only that, his arms were starting to get sore from the consistent dribbling. Even if he had slowed it down a bit, it was still uncomfortable for his arm to be doing the same repetitive motions for so long.

Then, after a little while more, he finally made a mistake.

As his arms grew tired, he finally missed a beat in his dribbling, making him fumble with the ball.

It was only after catching it with two hands, did he finally get a good grip on it.

However, his eyes widened as he noticed his mistake.

He had two hands on the ball!

No matter where it was, whenever a player has two hands on the ball, they are not allowed to continue dribbling the ball. They were only allowed to pass or shoot with the additional rule of only being able to move one step only.

Seeing that his opponent was caught up in a rather sticky situation, Kotaro felt that this was his chance.

As such, he began closing in to put pressure on his opponent, forcing him to make a mistake.

His opponent had already taken about 20 seconds for just handling the ball so now, he only had about 4 seconds left before he loses possession of he ball. Coupled with the fact that he could not dribble, his situation seemed especially precarious.

As second by second ticked by, Kotaro's opponent grew more and more nervous.

Finally, he decided that before time ran out, he would take the shot.

So, without wasting anymore time, he got into a standard shooting stance and jumped!

However, Kotaro seemed to have expected this as he jumped just about half a second earlier.

As the ball soared through the air, Kotaro tried his best to reach the ball as he stretched as much as he could.

However, it seemed like he was still a little bit too short of the ball.

After all, his opponent had a height of over 6'2" which gave him a distinct height advantage.

So, as Kotaro tried to reach for the ball, he saw that the ball was getting further and further away from his hand.

It looked like all hope was lost for him. In the end, his height had been his downfall.

Until....

Pwish!

His one finger touched the ball!

Even if it was just a tiny bit, it still managed to touch it!

Kotaro now saw hope in the game. That one touch was all that he needed.

True enough, after that one touch, the ball was immediately thrown off it's projection course as it bounced off the backboard instead.

"Oh!!!",the crowd looked on in anticipation.

Was this the chance for the Thunder Demon to make a comeback?

He had already let them down twice. Hopefully, he could do it this time.

This time, when Kotaro started with the ball, his concentration didn't wane even a little bit as he bulldozed through his opponent.

He had been thoroughly humiliated by this newbie and it was time to show him who's boss!

Soon enough, the score had soon been tied to a 4-4.

Now that they were tied, the final score to reach was increased to 6 which meant a 2 point lead over their opponent to secure the win.

However, this 2 points didn't bother Kotaro much as he continued steamrolling through his opponent.

His quick and efficient dribbling proved to outmatch his opponent in every way as he was neither able to keep up to it nor react to it.

At the same time, Kotaro didn't forget to keep his concentration at MAX at all times.

After all, he didn't want the same incident repeating itself from before.

So, after some time, Kotaro managed to win the match with a score of 4-6.

Kotaro didn't bother shaking hands with his opponent as he just walked away with a huff.

He wasn't going to shake hands with someone who almost made him lose. He wasn't that good of a sport.

"Wooh!!! Go Kotaro!!!".the crowd cheered on.

Their attitudes had taken a complete 180 degrees turn.

Even if an underdog triumphed over a king, the people would ultimately want the king to win.

After all, if the king won, it meant more game time for him and more game time meant more entertainment for them.

Then, as Kotaro walked off the court, he noticed someone waiting for him.

However, when he saw that person's face, his face immediately contorted into a frown.

Standing in front of him was a boy whose age was similarly around his as he sported a sharp jawline along with bright green hair and a pair of glasses on his face.

"Thunder Demon, huh? Seems to me that you can't even handle a newbie properly. Perhaps you should just change your name to Thunder Boy instead. Hur, hur, hur",the boy spoke condescendingly as he laughed in a weird manner.

Kotaro's face grew even more uglier as he heard the boy's words. Right now, he wanted nothing more than to smash that glasses over his head.

This was his biggest rival in this challenge, the Black Shadow.

"Shut up,4 eyes! You're still gonna lose to me so don't get over your head!", Kotaro insulted back.

Crack!

Veins bulged on the Black Shadow's forehead as he heard Kotaro's insult.

4 eyes! The most hated nickname for every person that wore glasses in Japan!

"Huh?! Do you want to fight?! Do you really want to see the power of my 4 eyes?!",Black Shadow blew up instantly.

"What?! You think I'm afraid of you?! Bring it on 4 eyes!"

Soon, both of them were gritting teeth and spewing fire out of their eyes as they locked eyes with each other with their foreheads connected.

Each of them, trying to use their head to push the other out as no one gave an inch.

At the sidelines, those that saw this, couldn't help but laugh.

This sight had long become common for those who were regular witnesses to these challenges.

"Looks like they're at it again! Boy, they sure are lively!"

"What do you expect? They've been fighting each other in the finals almost every single time!"

"That's for sure. They're the two star attractions for the Street Ball Rumble after all!"

As the crowd discussed about these two local superstars, Reo was already initiating the Talent Scan on the Black Shadow.

[Talent Scan Initiating....]

[Target Acquired!]

Name: Mité Reijo

Height: 180 cm

Talent: B+ (Developing)

Specialty:-

Natural Fakes

Remark: Is he here? Or is he there? Just pick a spot and you might get it right.

Another 'B' talent and it seems that he is even higher than Kotaro.

A 'B+' level talent.

Considering that he was Kotaro's long term rival, it seemed that what the system said was true.

If used properly, that Rare Grade Skill would surely allow Kotaro to win against even an 'A-' talent.

Unfortunately, it looks like being able to win against 'B+' talent was more than enough for Kotaro since he couldn't even use his head properly.

[Natural Fakes....It looks like he is someone who specializes in fakes. This is really quite a surprise]

[Not many people specialize in fakes since it is quite hard to have that as their main skill. However, if done properly, it can make them nearly unbeatable!]

Reo tilted his head to the side in confusion.

"How does fakes make one unbeatable? The most it can do is help players escape from a block or take a shot properly"

[You are still naïve, boy! Fakes can make many things possible if used correctly!]

[For example, having a good fake will make it look like you're stealing from the right which in turn, makes your opponent shift the ball over to the left. However, your real steal direction would have always been on the right, making your opponent walk perfectly into your trap!]

As Reo heard the system explain more about fakes, he felt his worldview widened.

He never thought that fakes could be used for so much more than just escaping and shooting.

Looks like some things can't be just learned from watching the screen after all.

Seems like he only thought of himself to be an expert when in reality, he still had a lot more to learn.

In the meantime, more and more rounds were played as more and more players got eliminated.

Soon, it was time for another major event.

"Yo, yo, yo, now it's the time for the next major round!"

"On the right, we have one of our regular challengers while on the left, you've seen him disappear before your own eyes and if you blink, you just might miss him!"

"Give it up for....The Black Shadow, Mité Reijo!"

The DJ gave another enthusiastic welcome speech to another one of the challenge's main players.

As expected, the crowd soon cheered along following the DJ's introduction.

Of course, the Black Shadow was a fan favorite like the Thunder Demon.

[Finally! I really want to see how this kid plays!]

[Hopefully, he knows how to play better than that idiot over there! Otherwise....I will have you go up and kick him in my steed!]

Reo felt his vision darkening as he nearly fell over after hearing the system.

He couldn't help but feel like the system was plotting against him.

Forget getting arrested. If he actually kicked the Black Shadow in front of everyone, he would just get beaten up by the crowd instead.

As Reo was still thinking about this, he heard the referee make his call to start the game.

"Ready?! Go!"

Finally, the match was underway!