Kanagawa Prefectural Gymnasium.

Inside Shoyo's player tunnel.

The lights cast mottled light and shadows on the terrazzo floor.

Yet this tranquility had long since been completely shattered by the dense crowd.

Dozens of reporters squeezed onto the path leading to the Shoyo locker room, fully equipped with cameras, voice recorders, and notebooks, their long lenses and short barrels all aimed uniformly at the end of the tunnel.

Among the crowd were veteran reporters from local sports newspapers as well as magazine editors who had rushed over specially, and every face was written with uncontainable excitement and eagerness.

They had only one target.

Shoyo High School's Number 9, Zijing Cheng.

Three quarterfinal matches, three shutouts.

This abruptly emerging purple-haired center had completely ignited the high school basketball scene of Kanagawa in just three games.

Rumors about him in the streets had long been spreading like wildfire: the undefeated legend of his junior high school days, his sudden disappearance for two years, and now his triumphant return in the identity of a Shoyo player.

Every single topic, pulled out on its own, was enough to occupy the headlines of the sports section.

At the very front of the crowd, Yayoi Aida leaned against the wall, her fingertips gently tapping on the laptop in her arms, her sharp gaze sweeping across the restless crowd.

She wore a neat crop of dark brown short hair, the metal hoops on her earrings swaying gently with her movements, and her capable professional attire set off her brows and eyes to look even more crisp and heroic.

As a senior reporter for Basketball Weekly, Yayoi Aida had seen quite a few big scenes, but a grand spectacle like today's, where reporters collectively blocked the locker room entrance, was not often seen.

She didn't squeeze forward like her peers beside her, but just quietly observed the situation.

She was very clear that rushing up in a swarm would only yield a few perfunctory official answers; if she wanted to dig out true exclusive news, she had to find an opportunity.

Her target was very clear, and that was Zijing Cheng.

When she first heard the news of a "single-match shutout", Yayoi Aida's first reaction was disbelief.

In the high school basketball league, even with a vast disparity in strength, trying to keep the opponent from scoring a single point was as difficult as ascending to heaven.

But when the news of the second and third shutouts came one after another, she realized that things were far more exaggerated than she had imagined.

What shocked her even more was the junior high school data she had dug up.

Two years ago in the junior high school league, a purple-haired youth led his team to sweep all the way, crushing the Tokyo team led by Akira Sendoh in the quarterfinals, and forcefully snatched the national championship from Eiji Sawakita's hands in the finals.

Eiji Sawakita!

That was the currently recognized "Number One High School Basketball Player in Japan", the absolute ace of Sannoh Industrial.

A person who could beat Eiji Sawakita back in junior high school had actually appeared quietly in Kanagawa and joined Shoyo.

This news was enough to shock the entire Japanese high school basketball world.

Yayoi Aida took a deep breath and tightened her grip on the voice recorder in her hand.

No matter what, she had to get an exclusive interview with Zijing Cheng today.

Click...

The moment the locker room door was pushed open, the already noisy tunnel instantly exploded like a lit powder keg.

"They're coming out... Shoyo's people are coming out..."

I don't know who shouted, but all the reporters swarmed up in an instant, the dense crowd surging over like a tide, tightly surrounding the Shoyo members who had just walked out of the locker room.

Click... Click... Click... Click... Click...

The dazzling camera flashes connected into a sheet, so bright that people couldn't open their eyes, and the sound of the shutters was as dense as a rainstorm pelting against glass, making people's eardrums ring.

Mitsuru Nagano and Shoichi Takano had never seen such a battle formation before; they instinctively shrank back, their faces full of astonishment.

Kazushi Hasegawa narrowed his eyes, raised his hand to block the dazzling light, his expression somewhat dazed.

Taku Ito stood on the side of the team, the sports bag in his hand squeezed to one side, looking completely at a loss.

"Everyone, please calm down and don't push."

A clear and steady voice rang out, and Kenji Fujima took half a step forward, standing at the very front of the team.

He wore a just-right gentle smile, his spine held straight, and his steady eyes swept across the crowd, naturally carrying a composed aura.

With just a single sentence, the noisy crowd actually quieted down a bit.

As expected of Shoyo's ace and coach, this poise was indeed extraordinary.

Toru Hanagata also closely followed to stand by Kenji Fujima's side, pushed up his glasses, and calmly blocked in front of his teammates.

"Fujima-kun, may I ask if Shoyo's three consecutive shutouts of opponents were a tactic formulated before the game?"

"Is Zijing Cheng-kun your secret weapon? Why didn't he appear at all during the group matches?"

"Hanagata-kun switching to power forward, was it to accommodate Zijing Cheng's appearance? Do you and him have the confidence in your interior combination to counter Kainan's Shinichi Maki and Kazuma Takasago?"

...

All kinds of questions slammed over like cannonballs, with microphones and voice recorders almost poking right into the faces of the two.

Kenji Fujima maintained a smile throughout and responded one by one in an orderly manner: "The three victories are the result of the joint efforts of the whole team, and the shutouts were not deliberate, but rather everyone executed well on the defensive end. Zijing Cheng himself is a member of the team; not appearing in the group matches was a consideration for lineup rotation and tactical confidentiality."

His answers were airtight, responding to the questions without revealing any substantive tactical information, so seasoned that he didn't look like a high school student at all.

Toru Hanagata also added from the side: "The team's positional adjustments are all to allow the lineup to display its strongest strength. Zijing Cheng and I have great tacit understanding, and in the upcoming games, we will continue to work hard."

Hearing this, the reporters all inwardly complained.

"What kind of tacit understanding!"

Zijing Cheng stood under his own basket the entire time and didn't even participate in the offense.

"Were you cooperating with a ghost?"

Right at this moment, a bespectacled male reporter squeezed to the very front, raised his voice and asked: "Hanagata-kun... You were always Shoyo's starting center before. Now that Zijing Cheng-kun has arrived, you can only switch to playing power forward, which is equivalent to having your starting center position snatched away. May I ask if you feel a sense of gap in your heart? Do you feel unconvinced?"

As soon as this question came out, the scene instantly quieted down for a few seconds.

All the reporters' eyes lit up, and they uniformly aimed their microphones at Toru Hanagata.

This was an absolute prime headline-grabbing topic.

If they could dig up news of discord in Shoyo's interior line, tomorrow's headline would be secured.

Mitsuru Nagano and the others' expressions changed, and just as they wanted to speak up in rebuttal, they saw Toru Hanagata's expression remain unchanged as he just gently pushed his glasses, his tone calm yet carrying an unquestionable power: "Shoyo's team philosophy has always been strength supremacy. Zijing Cheng's strength makes him more suitable for the center position than me, and he can bring greater advantages to the team. As a teammate, I am very happy to fight side by side with him rather than bicker over positional attribution."

Pausing for a moment, he added another sentence: "Moreover, our goal is the National Tournament. All adjustments are for this goal."

These words were open and magnanimous, completely devoid of any flaws.

A look of disappointment appeared on the questioning reporter's face, and he sullenly retreated.

Failing to dig up a hot spot from Toru Hanagata, the reporters quickly turned their spearheads toward Zijing Cheng at the back of the crowd.

This was the main character of today after all.