Chapter 229: A True Monster

The end of an era is often accompanied by the start of a brand new one.

Shirogane Eiji stood on the sidelines, his expression unchanged.

During his time coaching Rakuzan, he had experienced too many storms.

He knew how to win, and he also knew how to lose.

It was just that this defeat was different from all the previous ones.

This year's Rakuzan was absolutely the strongest in history, without exception.

Yet they lost to their opponent by 20 points in the final!

20 points!

He had been in charge of Rakuzan for twenty or thirty years, and had been working for Rakuzan ever since he retired.

Even in Rakuzan's lowest valley, he couldn't remember a game lost so thoroughly.

Rakuzan was the high school hegemon; the basketball club never lacked geniuses, and the lineup was always top-tier in the country.

Many times when Rakuzan lost, it was due to bad luck.

Today...

"Sigh."

Shirogane Eiji let out a sigh.

In this year's high school basketball world, a monster had truly appeared, a true monster!

On the court.

The Kirisaki Daiichi players were celebrating wildly.

"We really won."

Hara Kazuya still felt like it was a dream even after the game ended.

A year ago, they were still a team that took pleasure in bullying others; they didn't care about winning or losing, and never thought about winning the national championship.

Yet all of this just happened, and it happened so suddenly.

He felt his own changes and the team's changes.

And the cause of all these changes was simply the addition of one person.

Looking at that number 14 back, Hara Kazuya brushed back his long bangs and smiled.

"This feeling isn't bad at all!"

Compared to Kirisaki Daiichi, Rakuzan appeared incredibly dejected.

"This is the feeling of defeat."

Akashi panted heavily, standing motionless on the court, as if he hadn't yet walked out of the failure.

He suddenly had the urge to find a tree hole and scream at the top of his lungs. His heart was filled with unwillingness, a feeling that could not be described in words.

"To think it would be... so painful, so profound."

Akashi took a deep breath, letting his emotions stabilize.

He knew he still had things to finish.

As the captain of Rakuzan, he had to show his demeanor.

As a friend of the Heavenly Dao, he had to go and congratulate the other party on winning the victory.

"You won, Heavenly Dao. No, your Kirisaki Daiichi won!"

Akashi raised his head and walked to the Heavenly Dao; even though he had lost by 20 points, this young master did not lower his noble head.

"Let's play basketball together again next time."

The Heavenly Dao reached out to shake his hand; his hair was soaked, sticking to his skin, only his eyes remained bright.

It had a bit of the flair of Gojo Satoru when he was in a manic state.

"Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh..."

Thunderous applause erupted at the scene, cheering for the wonderful performance of both teams.

It was also at this moment that golden rain began to fall at the scene; the Heavenly Dao was just about to go over to shake hands with Shirogane Eiji, but turned his head and saw Kise walking out with Satsuki.

"Ten-chan, look here, look here." Satsuki closed one eye, holding the camera aimed at herself.

The Heavenly Dao didn't ask why they had come over, but instead held up one finger to the camera.

It symbolized this first championship, and also symbolized that he was undoubtedly No. 1.

The game was over.

The Kirisaki Daiichi players took a comfortable shower and returned to the court; the stage had already been set up.

After some nonsense about promoting the spirit of sports, the champion, runner-up, and third-place teams took the stage to receive their awards.

Kirisaki Daiichi was the last team to take the stage.

As the captain of Kirisaki Daiichi, the Heavenly Dao took the trophy and held it high without hesitation.

Then, he was elected as the Finals MVP due to his outstanding performance.

In this game, the Heavenly Dao played the full 40 minutes, recording 64 points, 12 rebounds, 13 assists, 12 steals, and 4 blocks.

Such data was unprecedented in the history of the national tournament.

60+ in the finals, a quadruple-double in the finals.

Neither of these two achievements had ever happened in history, and he had accomplished both at once!

At Satsuki's request, the Heavenly Dao took a photo with the championship trophy in one hand and the FMVP trophy in the other.

Finally.

All of Kirisaki Daiichi took a group photo, and the national tournament also ended in the night sky blooming with fireworks.

Hmm, Satsuki also snuck in, standing next to the Heavenly Dao, making two "YES" signs with her hands!

The next day, the people from Too Academy saw this photo and were speechless to the extreme regarding their team manager.

Because there wasn't just one game yesterday; there was also the battle for third place.

The two sides were naturally Too Academy and Yosen.

Neither Murasakibara nor Aomine played in this game, and in the end, Too Academy fought for 40 minutes and won very narrowly.

As a result, when it came time to take photos, Satsuki was nowhere to be seen; she had run off to celebrate with Kirisaki Daiichi.

The finals were over.

The second season of the anime also concluded.

The Heavenly Dao lived up to expectations and became the winner of the national tournament.

He was so strong that he was deeply ingrained in people's hearts; in the latest official popularity poll, the Heavenly Dao once again looked down on the crowd, ranking first on the list.

However, the popularity growth the Heavenly Dao could harvest had slowed down.

After all, Kuroko no Basket was not a "migrant worker anime" like One Piece, Naruto, or Bleach; its ability to break out of its circle was weaker, and its audience was limited.

From the beginning of the broadcast to the end of the second season of the main story, the audience began to gradually saturate.

It would be difficult for his popularity to see explosive growth in the future, but it was stable; as long as the anime continued to air, his popularity would keep rising and wouldn't stop.

"Let's draw a lottery."

The Heavenly Dao had a long-awaited lottery draw.

"Post-up +1, Mid-range +1, a pair of KD18s, Strength +1, Speed +1, Ball Handling +1, Three-pointer +1, Uncontested Layup +1, Jordan's special wristbands..."

It was still mostly messy stuff.

It is worth mentioning that once an attribute reaches 99 points, it cannot be improved further.

However, when his attribute points reach 99, the attribute points drawn from the lottery will be stored and will not be wasted.

Once his body enters the next stage, these attribute points will be added to him immediately.

The Heavenly Dao clicked on the introductions of the two items drawn.

[KD18, Durant's exclusive combat boots, style and size can be changed at will]

[Special effect: Increases the hit rate of buzzer-beater shots to a certain extent (Note: When the buzzer-beater shot is chosen as a three-pointer, it will increase the chance of stepping on the line to a certain extent)]

Damn it, why is there a negative effect!

The Heavenly Dao instantly thought of that regrettable shot by Durant back in the day.

He should have hit a buzzer-beater against his opponent, but because his shoe stepped on the line, the buzzer-beater turned into a buzzer-tie, and he eventually lost to "Mat-Ge" in overtime.

Continuing to look.

[Jordan's special wristbands, 2.9, can change to any style Jordan used at will]

[Special effect: When the game enters the final seconds and the host's team is trailing, there is a small probability of activating the skill 'The Shot'. After activating this skill, the player's next shot is guaranteed to hit.]

Awesome!

"The Shot" was one of Jordan's classics and even enjoyed a proprietary noun.

In NBA history, only two people have enjoyed such treatment.

One is Jordan, and the other is LeBron James's "The Block".

In the 2016 Finals Game 7, LeBron's final block was considered the greatest block in history.

"But what is the probability of activating this skill?"

This was a question!

And, the Heavenly Dao didn't seem to have played a game that required a lone hero to hit a buzzer-beater.

— Author's Notes —

PS: I drank too much yesterday, and then I stopped updating, sorry to all the big shots!