Chapter Forty-Four: Unstoppable and Unmatched!

Dai Ri-tian snorted coldly, then turned to his teammates and shouted, “Their main players are too exhausted to keep playing! The ones standing before us now are just a bunch of substitutes—let’s crush them and turn this game around!”

Geng Haoshi refused to be outdone. He also spun to his teammates and called out, “Brothers, their captain has already lost his mind and is talking nonsense. Let’s smash them and widen the gap!”

“Beep—” The referee blew the whistle again. “Hey! The game has started. This is a basketball match, not a shouting contest! One more word from any of you, and you’ll each get a technical foul!”

The game resumed. Tiancheng Polytechnic University stuck to their man-to-man defense and the “221” offensive formation.

Since Tiancheng’s lineup was now made up entirely of substitutes, each player was full of energy and threw themselves into defense with particular vigor.

Geng Haoshi, standing at only 170 centimeters, was even shorter than the shortest former team member, Zhou Xiaoshan, by a full five centimeters. Yet now Geng Haoshi was acting as the team’s power forward.

Normally, with Geng Haoshi’s height, the safest position would be point guard. However, his current ball-handling skills weren’t quite up to the standards required of a point guard.

But Geng Haoshi had his own advantage—he was the fastest runner on the team, thanks to daily running drills. In addition to the training required by Coach Yu Manman, Geng Haoshi also completed intermediate-level training tasks, meaning his running workload was at least double that of his teammates.

Even so, speed alone couldn’t guarantee that Geng Haoshi would fulfill the responsibilities of a power forward... But that didn’t matter. For Yu Manman, this was all an experiment with Geng Haoshi.

The ball was passed to the opposing captain, Dai Ri-tian, whom Geng Haoshi was assigned to guard. Dai Ri-tian stood at 181 centimeters, a full eleven centimeters taller than Geng Haoshi! Passing him the ball was clearly their smartest play.

Dai Ri-tian looked at Geng Haoshi with disdain, a smirk creeping onto his lips. “You think you can stop me?”

No sooner had he finished speaking than Dai Ri-tian feinted left with the ball. Geng Haoshi, thinking he’d attack from the left, instinctively shifted in that direction—“Hmph!” Dai Ri-tian snorted. That move had been a fake; as soon as Geng Haoshi’s body leaned left, Dai Ri-tian swiftly changed direction and darted past him on the right.

“Damn!” Realizing he’d been duped, Geng Haoshi quickly turned and gave chase.

To his credit, Geng Haoshi’s recovery was lightning fast, and he managed to cut off Dai Ri-tian before he could take the shot. The next moment, Dai Ri-tian jumped for a jump shot. Geng Haoshi leaped with all his might—but it was too late. The basketball traced a perfect arc and dropped cleanly through the net.

The score on the court became 39 to 26.

Seeing the score, Geng Haoshi suddenly realized: Oh no! We just let them score right after coming on. The beautiful coach said we had to keep the gap at fifteen points or greater, but now it’s only thirteen! Are we going to be benched right after stepping onto the court? Mi-mi is still watching from the sidelines... No way! That would be way too humiliating! I have to think of something, quickly, before the coach calls a timeout to pull us off. Well, looks like there’s only one thing to do!

“Hurry, inbound!” Geng Haoshi called his teammates to get the ball in play. Without hesitation, they tossed him the ball. “Alright! 9527, time for the big move!” Geng Haoshi was planning to use “Power Surge” to snatch back a quick basket, hoping this would convince the coach not to pull them from the game.

9527 seemed to understand Geng Haoshi’s plan, activating “Power Surge” without a word.

In an instant, energy surged through Geng Haoshi’s body, his athletic performance skyrocketing.

With the ball in hand, Geng Haoshi dashed toward the opponents’ half, weaving past three defenders under the basket in the blink of an eye. Now’s the moment! He soared beneath the hoop—“Bang!”

The entire gym fell silent.

Geng Haoshi hung from the rim with both hands. The scoreboard changed to 41 to 26.

“He actually dunked?!”

“Did my eyes just play tricks on me?!”

“Isn’t he the shortest player on the court?!”

“How did he pull that off? That’s incredible!”

A flurry of astonished murmurs swept through the stands. This massive dunk made Geng Haoshi the center of attention.

Impossible! I must be seeing things! Dai Ri-tian stared in disbelief as Geng Haoshi released the rim and dropped to the floor, unable to accept what he’d just witnessed. The shock was overwhelming. At 181 centimeters, Dai Ri-tian had never managed a dunk in his life. Now, a 170-centimeter nobody had just thrown down a two-handed slam right before his eyes. The impact was soul-shaking, unforgettable.

On the sidelines, Lin Ling leaned toward Yang Mimi. “Uh... he can dunk? Did you know about this?”

Yang Mimi herself was dumbstruck—she’d never seen Geng Haoshi dunk before either.

Oh, so this is the secret move Second Brother mentioned! She suddenly remembered Geng Haoshi saying he’d been working on a special technique he’d show her at the right moment.

Yu Manman was also deep in thought. This kid... looks like the plan can go ahead.

“Second Brother, you’re incredible!” The other four substitutes on Tiancheng Polytechnic’s squad were all beaming with excitement, as if they’d made the dunk themselves.

In contrast, every player from Huayu Design Institute wore a look of utter disbelief. Their captain, Dai Ri-tian, had barely scored at the start of the third quarter and lifted their spirits, only for Geng Haoshi’s thunderous dunk to knock the wind right out of them.

Given Geng Haoshi’s usual personality, after a dunk like that in this kind of atmosphere, he’d be laughing loudly and taunting Dai Ri-tian mercilessly. But he didn’t. He immediately sprinted back on defense, motioning for his teammates to hurry back as well.

The reason was “Power Surge.” Under its effect, Geng Haoshi had to maintain maximum intensity to accelerate the effect’s duration, or else risk its dreadful side effect—loss of bladder and bowel control.

Geng Haoshi had no intention of suffering such an embarrassment on the court, so he kept moving at full speed until “Power Surge” wore off.

Of course, there was another reason too—they couldn’t allow the opponents to score. If the gap shrank again, they might not be so lucky next time; Yu Manman would have no qualms about benching them. “Hold them, brothers! Don’t let them score!”