Miuradai High School, Kanagawa Prefecture (Private).
At the school gate, a middle-aged man was pacing anxiously.
His name was Harada, the coach of Miuradai High School's basketball team.
Ever since a month ago, when he saw a video of a basketball game sent by an old friend, he had been eagerly waiting for this day to come.
Screech!
A few minutes later, a taxi stopped in front of him.
As Harada saw Wu Yufei get out of the car, he rushed forward with excitement.
"Hahaha! Wu Yufei, you're finally here!"
"Hello, Coach Harada!"
Wu Yufei responded fluently in Japanese.
On the way over in the taxi, Wu Yufei had continued digging through his memories of this new life and had finally recalled some crucial details.
In this life, the original owner of this body was also named Wu Yufei. He had come to Japan a year ago with his father.
And the original Wu Yufei in this life was also a basketball fanatic, far more obsessed than the Wu Yufei of his previous life.
Since childhood, nothing but basketball had ever moved him, not even love confessions from girls.
Over the past year, Wu Yufei had led his junior high basketball team through victory after victory, eventually achieving eighth place in the national tournament.
You should treasure that this junior high team hadn't even made it past the prefectural tournament the year before. His arrival alone had taken them into the national top eight.
Though it was only junior high level, it still clearly demonstrated Wu Yufei's skills.
His father in this life was a business fanatic, one of the early entrepreneurs who took advantage of China's economic reforms, became wealthy, and quickly expanded foreign-his first stop being Japan.
Wu Yufei's father was friends with one of the board members of Miuradai High School. So naturally, Wu Yufei was introduced to the school.
After all, this high school was close to home, had good facilities, and most importantly, its basketball team was one of the strongest ones in Kanagawa.
That's the background.
As for Coach Harada, although his coaching skills were rather average, he had big ambitions. He dreamed of breaking the decade-long Kanagawa duopoly of Kainan and Shoyo, where all other teams were just background characters.
Over the past two years, he has been working hard to strengthen the team.
Thanks to his efforts, their main scorer Murakumo Kengo had matured, and their secret weapon Naito Tetsuya, after a year of training, was now ready to play in official games.
The only thing the team still lacked was a strong point guard.
Although Araki Kazuo could barely fill the starter role, he never quite met Harada's expectations.
That's why Harada now desperately wanted a powerful point guard-someone who could unlock Murakumo's scoring potential and activate Naito's dominance under the basket.
All these hopes were completely ignited when he watched Wu Yufei's game footage.
He had to get this guy-that was the only thought in Harada's mind after watching the tape.
To single-handedly drag a weak team from obscurity into the national top eight-that kind of talent would completely outclass Araki.
With Wu Yufei's vision and leadership, Murakumo and Naito's full potential would be unleashed. Miuradai could defeat Shoyo and even Kainan to reach the national stage!
That's why Coach Harada was willing to humble himself and treat a fifteen-year-old kid with such respect.
Of course, Wu Yufei had no idea what Harada was thinking. All he wanted now was to play some ball and test the strength of this new body.
Led by Coach Harada, the two walked toward Miuradai's gym. Along the way, they talked about basketball. Wu Yufei's clear logic and eloquence made Coach Harada appreciate him even more.
Inside the gym, even though it was still the holiday break and school wouldn't start for another week, all the team members had already been forcibly called back by their coach to train daily.
When the players saw the coach bring in a stranger, they all looked at Wu Yufei curiously.
Looking at the familiar yet unfamiliar faces in front of him, Wu Yufei felt a rush of emotions.
The Miuradai basketball team— in the original story, they were just a background team that quickly faded from the spotlight.
Although in the story they were badly beaten by Shohoku in the first round of the prefectural tournament, Wu Yufei didn't believe they were a weak team at all.
First of all, in the backstory, Miuradai had been eliminated by Kainan the previous year, which meant they had at least reached the top eight of the prefectures.
Second, the team had an average height of over 185cm. Even the point guard Araki was tall of only Shoyo could match that kind of height in Kanagawa.
Third, they weren't just tall dummies. Murakumo Kengo possessed great explosiveness, Naito Tetsuya had one of the best physiques in the entire prefecture, and the other players were all at least average in terms of skill.
That they lost in the first round of the story was just bad luck-they happened to go up against the protagonist's team.
Naito had strength, Murakumo had technique, and the rest had height. There were no disruptive egos on the team; everyone was fairly disciplined.
If Miuradai could refine their tactics and focus on defense and half-court play, they could compete with any top team in the prefecture.
Besides, this was the school his rich dad had picked for him. He had no choice of so he might as well settle his mindset.
No matter what hand fate dealt him, with the skills he now possessed, Wu Yufei was confident he could play it well!
"Everyone, gather up!!"
At Coach Harada's call, all the Miuradai players quickly assembled around him, standing in a line sorted by height-thirteen players in total.
Once everyone was in position, Coach Harada nodded in satisfaction and cleared his throat.
"Ahem! Today, I'm introducing a new teammate! Wu Yufei, go ahead and introduce yourself."
"Alright."
Wu Yufei stepped forward. Once all eyes were on him, he slowly began to speak.
"Ehhm... Hello everyone! My name is Wu Yufei. I'm an international student from China. I'm 188cm tall, weigh 86kg, and my position is Point guard. I'll officially become a student at Miuradai High School in a week, so I came early to greet my senpai."
"Even though Wu Yufei has only been in Japan for a year, he led his junior high team to the top eight in the national tournament last year. His skill meets our team's standards. I hope everyone will work hard together and aim to take down Kainan this year!"
"Yes!!"
All the players responded enthusiastically.
They were more than happy to welcome a strong new team captain specially someone capable of leading a team to the national top eight.
Even if it was just junior high, you had to fight through multiple rounds to get that far.
"Alright, to help Wu Yufei and the rest of you better understand each other's possessions, everyone should warm up for ten minutes. After that, we'll have an intra-squad scrimmage!"
Coach Harada gave the order directly.
Ding-dong!
Just as Coach Harada finished speaking, a system prompt sound rang out from deep inside Wu Yufei's mind.