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Thump thump thump…
The basketball fell from the hoop.
This was a scene all too familiar.
But everyone present was unusually silent.
They all stared wide-eyed, looking at Akashi and Murasakibara with expressions of utter disbelief.
To be precise, all their gazes were fixed on Akashi.
So strong—truly too strong.
The scoreboard showed 5-0; Akashi had won.
This greatly surprised Ryu.
He had expected it to be 5-4, like in the original story.
But now it seemed Akashi had awakened the Emperor's Eye ahead of time.
However, he hadn't revealed it yet.
Ryu frowned slightly.
He deliberately hiding it? Or perhaps it just happened to awaken?'
He glanced sideways at Midorima not far away.
On the surface, Midorima seemed unremarkable.
'As expected, I'm not the only special person.'
But what Ryu didn't know was that his sudden godlike performance in the finals had completely spurred the entire Generation of Miracles.
Akashi's personality made it impossible for him to accept falling behind.
These past few days, he had been suppressing his other personality.
He wanted to interact peacefully with everyone.
But today, because of Murasakibara's provocation, he prematurely unleashed that other personality.
"Um... is that Akashi-kun?" Momoi Satsuki's pink eyes trembled as she asked in disbelief.
She disliked the current Akashi. He gave off too much of a repressive feeling, making her very uncomfortable.
The defeated Murasakibara Atsushi kicked over the water bottle shelf in annoyance.
"Then I'll be going now, everyone. Thank you for your hard work."
With that, Murasakibara Atsushi prepared to walk towards the main entrance.
But as he turned his head, he saw Ryu standing in front of the door.
He paused slightly, his expression a little unnatural, but he still walked over.
"Oh, Ryu-chin, you're here."
Ryu said, looking at Murasakibara, "You lost badly!"
"Yeah! Akashi-chin gotten stronger too!" Murasakibara was quite unhappy about losing the match, but he admired the strong.
As long as the opponent was stronger than him, he had nothing to say.
Akashi naturally saw Ryu as well.
"Ryu, it's perfect that you're here. Why don't you stay and listen in?" He said, then looked back at Murasakibara. "I'll pretend what happened just now never happened. Murasakibara, if you don't want to practice, that's fine with me. As long as you win the matches, I won't interfere with anything else."
Upon hearing this, everyone present was shocked.
Midorima frowned at Akashi's words and reminded him, "What are you saying, Akashi? This is completely different from what you said before!"
Akashi turned to look at Midorima and Kise. He continued, "You two are the same, Midorima, Kise. As long as we win the matches, I won't care about anything else. At our current level, there's no need to force the team to play in unison; that will only hinder our performance. It's more efficient for everyone to do their own thing."
Momoi Satsuki rushed over and anxiously said to Akashi, "Why is it like this? Doesn't that make teamwork meaningless?"
Akashi calmly looked at Momoi Satsuki, his expression unchanged, and spoke. "That's right. For the 'Generation of Miracles,' teamwork will only hinder each other's performance."
After speaking, he turned his gaze to Ryu. "Ryu, the same goes for you. As long as you win the matches, everything else is up to you. I won't interfere."
Ryu's brows furrowed even more deeply.
He was now somewhat tempted to give this fool a good thrashing.
However, thinking about the two years they had spent together, no matter what, he and the other's original personality had gotten along quite well.
He ultimately refrained from attacking.
Ryu looked at Akashi, his voice somewhat somber. "Seijuro, that's enough."
Akashi ignored Ryu's tone and instead asked him directly, "Ryu, what's wrong? Do you have a problem with what I just said?"
Ryu looked at Akashi, who was both familiar and unfamiliar to him.
He knew Akashi lacked love in his childhood, which was why he was the way he was.
But so what? His friend was Akashi Seijuro, not this "Akashi."
He spoke seriously, "You're the captain of Teiko. Your job is to unite the team, train the players, and improve everyone's skills. Wake up!"
Hearing Ryu's words, Akashi remained unmoved. He looked at Ryu and said calmly, "I'm very clear-headed now. The team doesn't need unification anymore. Everyone has a ceiling. Some players, no matter how hard they try, can't reach your or my level."
"I don't deny that talent is important, but basketball is a five-person sport, which means it's a team sport. If you rely only on individuals, you won't even qualify to participate in the competition. It's precisely because there are strong and weak players in the team that the strong are always wary of the weak catching up, and the weak constantly train hard, aiming to become the strong," Ryu continued to persuade him.
However, as soon as he finished speaking, he felt somewhat foolish.
Knowing full well what kind of person the other had become, why say such things? It was like casting pearls before swine.
Just as expected, Akashi's next words confirmed his suspicions.
"This world is ruled by strength; the weak attach themselves to the strong, all for the sake of victory. I never imagined you'd say something so naive as 'for the team.' I originally thought we were the same kind of people."
Ryu said directly, "I'm not like you. I don't agree with what you're saying. This goes against the original purpose of team building."
"So you're trying to stop me?" Akashi's voice had turned cold.
The two stared at each other, their gazes locked.
The atmosphere instantly plummeted to freezing.
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