What does one do in the moment of victory?
Yuuto straightened his back, using all his remaining strength to raise his right arm high, announcing his victory!
Homi Academy's bench.
Not a single person was sitting; they all stood up.
Teiko's final attack used a three-pointer to bring the point difference back to single digits.
But they still trailed by 7 points.
Without resorting to foul tactics, Akashi and the others chose to maintain their dignity.
The Generation of Miracles could afford to win, and they could afford to lose.
Yuuto let the remaining few seconds run out. At the moment the whistle blew, he threw the basketball in his hand forcefully toward the south stands.
At the same time.
The impatient Homi Academy bench players rushed onto the court instantly.
Howling and shouting, they surged toward Yuuto's position, surrounding him, lifting him up, and tossing him into the air again and again.
The game was over.
105:98!
Homi Academy defeated the super Teiko by a 7-point advantage, advancing to the Top 8.
The gears of fate turned.
Last year, Homi Academy fell at this very spot, but this year, they completed a magnificent revenge.
Yuuto.
From the first quarter until now, he played the full game.
He scored a team-high 39 points, along with 6 rebounds and 9 assists.
It is worth mentioning that he didn't score a single point in the first half; this was the score he accumulated entirely in the second half.
Besides that.
His stats on the defensive end were shocking.
10 blocks, 12 steals!
He interpreted "two-way player" to the extreme!
But now.
The Lion of Okukozome felt nothing but exhaustion. In the Devilization state, he had forgotten everything.
Now that the effect of this "stimulant" wore off, he felt as if he was about to collapse.
But.
Everything was worth it.
He stood in place, closed his eyes, and fully enjoyed this moment.
The first victory in his life.
The taste was even sweeter than he had imagined.
It was like drinking a glass of aged wine; he was about to get drunk.
The entire arena was shouting his name, singing praises of his victory.
He felt as if he was standing at the very center of the world.
In contrast.
It was Akashi's first defeat in life.
"It turned out to be... this intense."
He clutched his chest, experiencing the heartache that comes after failure.
From birth until now, let alone losing, he had never even been "second best."
Although he had anticipated this result during the game...
The moment the whistle blew, Akashi still wanted to cry.
"If only we could play it again."
He had an impulse to vent.
But he couldn't do that.
Because he was the sole heir to the Akashi conglomerate, the captain of the Teiko basketball club, and the leader of the Generation of Miracles.
Anyone could vent impulsively, except him.
Akashi organized his thoughts and walked up to Yuuto with Teiko's grace.
"Congratulations. No, congratulations to you all. You won the victory!"
He extended his hand, half-jokingly saying.
"You shouldn't reject me this time, right?"
"Now we're even."
Yuuto reached out and shook hands with Akashi.
Applause like a tidal wave rang out at the scene for the wonderful performance brought by the two teams.
There was no award ceremony.
Because they hadn't completely won the National Tournament yet.
There were still matches ahead; they needed to pack up their things quickly and leave the court for other participating teams.
Yuuto returned to the bench and showed the wristband on his elbow to Sora.
The two cartoon avatars were soaked with sweat, looking like they were weeping tears of joy.
He said, "Infinite possibilities!"
"Yeah!"
Sora hummed in agreement, unable to hold back any longer, and plunged headfirst into his embrace.
She was very light, but Yuuto still winced from the impact.
He f*cking needed a rest right now.
Turning his head, he saw Haizaki acting cool over there alone, with a bandage wrapped around his head.
He had turned into Dennis Rodman, diving to save the ball, and even broke his head doing so.
Yuuto pushed him lightly, pointing in the direction of Haizaki's parents. "Go over there, they are waiting for you."
"Who would do that kind of thing? Don't lump me in with others." Haizaki huffed and walked into the player tunnel first.
Only when he completely disappeared from his teammates' sight did he hesitantly take out his phone.
On the way back, he didn't walk with the Teiko group...
Aomine watched his back, wiped off his sweat, and was the first to disappear into the tunnel.
"Next time I'll definitely crush you, Yuuto."
...
After the Top 8 came the quarterfinals (8 into 4).
This match was scheduled for the day after tomorrow.
This time was enough for Yuuto to recover most of his condition.
In this match, he fought too fiercely with Teiko; one day wasn't enough for him to recover to his peak.
Sitting on the bus.
Driving out of the parking lot, the crazy people from Tochigi appeared before them again.
They stood on both sides of the road shouting loudly.
Without simulation running, Yuuto didn't want to pay attention to these things now; he just wanted to enjoy this moment.
He opened the window and waved to the fans.
Seeing this, his teammates followed suit and pushed open the windows.
In an instant.
The Yokohama Cultural Gymnasium was once again surrounded by the voices of the people of Tochigi.
The next day.
After waking up, Yuuto did nothing, planning to recover his physical fitness at home.
Muscle fatigue doesn't recover just by sleeping; it takes time to regulate.
At this time, the coach's decision to let him rest on the bench for most of the National Tournament played a role.
It kept his muscles from being overly exhausted.
"Does this count as Angelization?"
Yuuto was doing dribbling drills in the yard.
Only now did he recover from the intoxication of victory.
He recalled yesterday's game, yesterday's self.
Strictly speaking.
Being able to maintain rationality in the Devilization state was equivalent to completing the transformation to Angelization.
But the talent display showed [Devilization] instead of [Angelization].
"Maybe it has to do with the Weakness Correction talent disappearing again?"
Yuuto looked at his red talent [Weakness Correction], which had returned to an inactive state.
True.
He activated this talent relying on the temporarily boosted five-dimensional stats from Red Eye Mode to meet the requirements.
With the talent disappearing, the corrections and evolutions he completed in yesterday's game also vanished.
Yuuto didn't feel it was a pity.
Winning the game was more important than anything.
One day, he would be strong enough to completely unlock this talent.
Incidentally.
He had completed a simulation earlier.
He obtained [Data Eye], a blue talent.
Yuuto couldn't hold back at the time.
Not just players, the system even gave him Momoi Satsuki's talent.
He used this talent for the first time on Sora.
He obtained Sora's accurate "body data."
"As expected, still a bit small."
Sora immediately stepped on his face with her foot, cursing him as a "pervert."
As for the simulation result.
Homi Academy won until the end.
After defeating Teiko, they didn't encounter any turbulence.
They swept all the way to the top of the nation.
"Breakfast time, Pervert Yuuto!"
At this time, Sora opened the door and called him to eat.
The original Idiot Yuuto successfully upgraded to Pervert Yuuto.
The girl obviously held a grudge about Yuuto saying she was small.
"I'll give you a massage tonight, Sora."
"Go die!"
...
Get 20+ chapters ahead on - P.a.t.r.e.o.n "RoseWhisky"