As the basketball team leader of class ten, Gao Yuan clapped his hands to encourage the other four players.
"Don't worry. This is within our expectations. We just need to attack! Keep on attacking!
"We've got this!"
The five of them shouted in unison. As Gao Yuan carried the ball, the remaining four assisted him by his side. They charged straight towards their opponents' defenseless basket.
All five of them were strong and tall. Hence, they soon broke through class 18's line of defense.
Gao Yuan carried the ball to the free-throw line. Then he suddenly leaped into the air, hurling the ball towards the basket.
Gao Yuan had a good sense of shooting. Hence, he was certain that it was a scoring shot.
Not only him, but all of the spectators around the basketball court also thought that they would score.
It was clear from the trajectory of the ball that it would surely go into the basket. It might even be a clean shot if Gao Yuan was lucky.
Hence, Lin Hu and the others seemed to have given up on this shot. They weren't even planning to intercept the ball.
However, at this very instant, a figure suddenly leaped high into the air.
"Mass of the basketball: 600.24 g, current speed: 3.11 m/s, Wind speed: 1.41 m/s, equation of trajectory motion: y=2.54x^2+0.21x+6.58, chance of scoring: 100%…"
"To intercept the ball: height of jump required: 2.04 m, direction: 11.25 degrees northwest, distance: 2.11 m…"
At that instant, Gao Yuan felt like the cozy, afternoon sunlight had been blocked by that figure completely, casting a deep, heavy shadow on him.
As though he had already known the precise position of the ball, Cheng Nuo jumped up and the ball just brushed past his fingertips.
Now that the trajectory of the ball had been changed, it would no longer be a perfect scoring shot.
The ball hit the backboard with a thump and finally fell on the ground without passing through the basket.
"That's impossible!"
It was totally unexpected. One could easily imagine how miserable Gao Yuan was feeling.
"Did Cheng Nuo intercept me? Coincidence. That's absolutely a coincidence! Cheng Nuo's defense is by no means this strong!"
20 seconds later, Gao Yuan came to less than two meters from class 18's basket.
Swoosh—
Another shot, full of confidence.
"If I can't score even from so close, I'd rather go and…"
Bang!
Before Gao Yuan could finish his sentence, a hand had reached in from a strange angle. Then, with a gentle touch by the back of the hand, the flying ball immediately fell straight to the ground like a deflated balloon.
It was Cheng Nuo, again.
"Excuse me?! What just happened?!!"
Gao Yuan was dumbfounded.
"How did he intercept my ball? It was going in the right direction just a second ago! If that's the case… I've already lost four points!"
In fact, it wasn't hard to stop the ball. When a basketball moves in a trajectory, it is always spinning, be it fast or slow. Taking that into consideration, Cheng Nuo had simply pushed the basketball backwards with the back of his hand. With careful calculations, he was able to introduce a backwards angular momentum to counter the spinning motion of the ball. As a result, the ball stopped moving forward and fell.
The referee blew the whistle and the match continued.
At the moment, class 18 had taken a lead over class ten with a score of 6:0. Even so, the audience didn't believe that class ten would lose.
Cheng Nuo was the only pro player in class 18, whereas every member in class ten's team was very skilled. Hence, with proper teamwork, class ten could probably win the match, given their higher overall capabilities.
It wasn't hard to imagine that the finals were destined to be a tough match.
"Speed of the basketball: 4.58 m/s, equation of trajectory motion: y=2.84x^2+1.21x+6.56, time before scoring: 1.57 seconds…"
"To intercept: height of jump required: 2.14 mm, direction: 57.24 degrees southeast, strength: 10.35 newtons…"
Once again, Cheng Nuo had intercepted class ten's shot midair. He could almost hear the sounds of hearts breaking from his opponents.
The five team members of class ten, including Gao Yuan, were panting heavily. They stared at Cheng Nuo as if he was a monster.
It had been half an hour since the start of the match.
But what was the score now? 54:0!
No, you didn't misread it! It's 54:0! The zero belonged to class ten.
In the past 30 minutes, class ten had shot about 40 times. But Cheng Nuo had always been defending their goal like a natural barrier. They had to defeat Cheng Nuo before they could even score.
In fact, Cheng Nuo hadn't blocked all their shots. He wouldn't block those that couldn't reach the basket, but all the scoring shots had been successfully intercepted.
That was embarrassing like hell!
"Hey, Gao Yuan, have you ever seen this before? Ending a match with zero points?" Cheng Nuo smiled innocently as he squatted in front of Gao Yuan.
Then he stood up and left with a flourish.
Gao Yuan stared blankly at the bothering score—54:0. He had started to regret offending Cheng Nuo.
Just like many other students who had played with Cheng Nuo, the basketball players of class ten couldn't understand how Cheng Nuo had become so strong.
"Wah~ Mu Leng! It seems we are going to win!" Xiaoxiao exclaimed. Her cheeks were rosy with excitement.
The first half of the match ended with 54:0, giving class 18 an insurmountable advantage.
"Yeah," Mu Leng said with an indifferent nod. "It does seem so if nothing goes wrong."
"Then let's hurry up!"
"What?"
"To block Cheng Nuo again, of course! Maybe we can ask him to treat us to a hotpot feast like before," Xiaoxiao said, swallowing her saliva.
"Ha." Mu Leng turned her head dismissively. "Go ahead. I'm not coming."
"Let's go! Please! This time we can ask Cheng Nuo to guess the color of your underwear. If he guesses wrongly, he has to treat us!"
"SU! XIAO! XIAO!"
…
Back to the basketball court.
Gao Yuan and the other four members gathered together, exhausted.
One of them sighed and said, "Brother Yuan, I suggest we surrender."
The other person agreed. "Yeah. The guy from class 18 is crazy. We can't possibly win with him on the court!"
Just when the third person was about to speak, he shut his mouth unwillingly once he saw Gao Yuan's fierce glare.
Gao Yuan clenched his teeth and announced coldly, "I know. The chances of us winning this match are slim. But, at the very least, we should try to score. Even one point is better than nothing! Look, so many people are watching us! If we really end up getting trashed like this, ending the game with zero points, what a huge shame on us!"
Gao Yuan had watched hundreds of basketball matches, but he had never seen any team end the game with a tragic 0:N.
By right, no matter how huge the difference in capabilities between the two teams was, both teams should be able to at least score something. Gao Yuan was certain that even if they had been contested by an NBA team, they would have been able to score one or two points.
However, it was highly likely that they were going to face the tragedy themselves.
It would be a lifelong shame on their basketball experience.
"Remember, we have to score, no matter what!"
Gao Yuan had been holding firmly onto that belief since the whistle that signaled the beginning of the next half of the match.
However…