"Akashi-senpai, you're up next."
The voice pulled Li Mingshi's consciousness back to reality. Right after, the squeak of sneakers on the floor and the thud of a volleyball hitting the ground rushed into his ears like a wave.
He opened his eyes.
A delicate-faced boy with a hint of nervousness stood in front of him. Behind the boy glowed the familiar overhead lights of an indoor gym.
"???" For a moment, Li Mingshi was totally lost.
'What the hell?'
'Who am I?'
'Where am I?'
'Still drunk?'
"Akashi-senpai? Akashi-senpai? You okay?"
Seeing the confusion in his eyes, the boy spoke up again.
The boy wasn't speaking Chinese. It sounded like Japanese, but somehow Li Mingshi understood every word.
As he looked at the boy's face, a flicker of recognition sparked deep in his mind. Suddenly, a flood of memories that weren't his own poured out from somewhere inside him. It brought a strange mix of pain and comfort.
······
Akashi Asuka.
15 years old.
Height: 179 cm.
Third-year student at Sengoku Middle School, Miyagi Prefecture.
Not long ago, he got into a fight and was ambushed from behind and hit him on the back of the head. He spent the whole afternoon feeling dizzy, then suddenly passed out without anyone noticing. While unconscious, Li Mingshi took over his body.
Main spiker of the volleyball team.
Right now: in the middle of an intra-squad practice match…
······
From that flood of clearly foreign memories, Li Mingshi quickly pulled out the important parts, and then felt even more confused.
'Did I… just transmigrate? Was that voice seriously not joking?'
······
Li Mingshi.
24 years old.
After graduating university, he worked as a basketball coach at a training center in his province for two years. Three if you count the pandemic years.
Because of the pandemic, the world had gone completely wild. Back in college, Li Mingshi thought he was a pretty hard worker. Otherwise, with his average body and little natural talent, he never would've held a starting spot for two years on a team full of monsters.
If he hadn't pushed himself too hard and gotten injured, he might've had a better future.
But after graduation, he ran into a whole new kind of grinder. Not people competing on skill, but people competing on who could suck up to the boss and managers better.
In other words: Networking
And that? That was never Li Mingshi's strong suit.
So even though he kept grinding hard at work, his results never matched those of the guys who spent every night drinking and hanging out with the boss.
When effort and reward no longer matched, even Li Mingshi started to feel like he couldn't keep grinding anymore.
And right at that moment… a voice appeared in his head.
[Since you can't grind here anymore… how about grinding somewhere else?]
Li Mingshi had just gotten completely drunk. He wasn't in any state to wonder why a voice was suddenly talking in his head. Still tipsy, he only had one thought:
'Grind? Hell yeah I'll grind. Put me somewhere fair. I'll grind those bastards into dust.'
And so…
The moment he opened his eyes again, he saw this scene.
"…"
Li Mingshi was speechless. He thought he could handle surprises pretty well, but this half-assed transmigration still made him want to complain.
Luckily, he'd been an orphan in his original world. Nothing to hold him back. After a short mental freeze, his brain started working again.
Though it still ached a little.
Tch!
Young kids these days have no honor. Sneaking up on a guy in his twenties!
Oh wait. That wasn't me who got hit.
Never mind then.
"I'm fine, Nishimori. I've warmed up. I'll head out now."
Li Mingshi rubbed the sore spot on the back of his head, gave the delicate-faced boy Nishimori Tomohiko a small smile, and stood up to walk onto the court. He hadn't fully settled into being Akashi Asuka yet, but he could figure that out after the practice match ended.
Watching his retreating back, Nishimori Tomohiko stood frozen for a moment.For some reason… Akashi-senpai seemed different today.
······
"Volleyball, huh…"
Stepping onto the court, Li Mingshi felt a small wave of emotion.
Back in university, he'd learned a little about volleyball. Mostly theory, since his main sport was basketball. But with Akashi Asuka's body memory to help, he figured he could probably get through this practice match without too much trouble.
Yeah.
Probably.
"Akashi-senpai!"
"Akashi-senpai!"
As soon as Akashi Asuka stepped onto the court, a group of first-years and second-years came over and bowed to him. But looking at their faces, fear seemed stronger than respect.
Which made sense.
Besides being the team's main spiker, Akashi Asuka had another title: delinquent.
According to his memories, this "delinquent" hadn't actually done anything truly bad. Just gotten into a few fights. But in Japanese middle schools, just having the label "delinquent" was enough to scare younger students.
After all, in Japanese school culture, three types of students sat at the top: the smart kids, the star athletes, and the delinquents.
And Akashi Asuka? He held two of those titles.
No. Maybe all three.
Because according to memory, he was also pretty handsome.
In over two years of middle school, he'd received no fewer than twenty chocolates and love letters just on Valentine's Day.
"Please take care of me!"
"Please take care of me!"
After quick greetings, both teams lined up, bowed formally, and the match began.
Akashi Asuka was assigned to the Red Team. For this practice match, the six main players had been split up. On his team were setter Mishita Ryuhei and opposite hitter Oda Miki.
Peeep!
The whistle blew.
Red Team to serve.
A second-year substitute hit a simple underhand serve. Normal middle school level. The ball arced through the air and landed safely in the Blue Team's backcourt.
"I've got it!"
Blue Team's main libero, Kurata Neko, shouted as he spread his arms wide and easily received the serve. The substitute setter quickly moved in and passed the ball to middle blocker Omae Masato, who was already jumping high above the net.
Boom!
Smack!
Two crisp sounds rang out at the same time.
The first was Omae's spike.
The second was Akashi Asuka's block.
Akashi Asuka had the tallest height on the whole volleyball team. Normally, scoring past him with a spike during practice was pretty difficult.
At 179 cm, he was already quite tall for a third-year middle schooler.
There were taller kids his age, but none at Sengoku Middle School. After all, Sengoku's volleyball team was only average in Miyagi Prefecture.
Meanwhile, at Kitagawa Daiichi Middle School, the strongest team in the prefecture, their main players were said to average over 180 cm in height.
'Hmm… Kitagawa Daiichi. That name sounds familiar…'
The thought flashed through his mind and vanished. Akashi Asuka refocused on defense.
Even though he'd blocked Omae's spike, it didn't score. The ball had been miraculously dug by libero Kurata at the last second. Now the Blue Team was already setting up their second attack.
Honestly?
That dig had surprised him.
They would only just become third-years. Li Mingshi had heard before that Japanese schools took sports seriously, but actually experiencing it was different. The atmosphere here was genuinely intense.
Everyone on the court faced the ball with total seriousness.
"Heh…"
Akashi Asuka's lips curled slightly upward. He had to admit, he was getting excited.
If you couldn't take sports seriously, they were really boring.
He was starting to understand why that voice had brought him here. School sports really could be considered a "fair and square" place to grind.
The ball rose again. Omae jumped for another spike, and Akashi Asuka quickly matched his rhythm.But in the next second…
he ball flew past Omae, heading to the left side of the block. There, another figure jumped just as high as Omae.It was the other main middle blocker, Kazama Yujiro.
Smack!
The ball slammed hard onto the floor and bounced high.
Score: 1–0
"Hahahaha! Gotcha, Akashi! Today Kazama and I are teaming up. We're definitely taking down your ace spot!"
After scoring, Omae put his hands on his hips and laughed loudly. Though the younger players feared Akashi Asuka, the relationships among the main players were actually pretty good.
Good relationships aside…
Both Omae and Kazama had been eyeing Akashi Asuka's "ace" position for quite some time.
Guess you could say…
Grinding exists everywhere.
Akashi Asuka didn't respond to Omae's "challenge." He just looked at the spot where the ball had hit the floor. Not a trace of disappointment on his face. Instead, the corners of his mouth slowly curled upward. His expression gradually turned intense.
Subarashii…
Indeed. This smell of grinding really was addictive.
[Ding!]
[Detecting host's "Grind Spirit" burning brightly…]
[Grind System now activating…]