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墨書 Inktalez
We are about to face our second opponent in the North China Finals group stage: the Firearms Team, champions of the Jinfen Division. After we got up and finished washing up in the morning, I said to the team, "Today we are playing against the Firearms Team. The strength of the Jin champions is not to be underestimated. They come from a major municipality, which means they are the elite among elites. Their impressive victory over the Gray Machine Team yesterday shows their dominance. We have already lost the initiative; if we lose this match, we will be eliminated in the first round." A Fei smiled and said, "There's no need to be nervous. No matter how scared or pressured we feel, we have to face it. It’s better to approach it with a relaxed attitude; otherwise, we’re just scaring ourselves." We all nodded in agreement. As we reached the door, I shouted, "Are you ready, team?!" They both responded loudly, "Ready! Always ready!" Then we set off on our journey into this life-and-death battle; we didn't want to go home just yet—we hadn't spent enough time in Beijing!
After arriving at Kuda Square, we first changed our clothes. Once we were dressed, we stepped outside. Since we arrived too early, there was no one on the court—not even any spectators. "We came a bit too early today; there’s hardly anyone here," Ouyang stretched and said. I picked up a basketball from the sidelines and replied, "No one is better; we can warm up perfectly. There’s still over an hour until the game starts, so getting familiar with the court won’t hurt." I tossed the ball to A Fei, who dribbled straight to the basket and jumped for a slam dunk. We quickly joined in on the training as well. After more than half an hour, Firearms Team finally arrived late. When we turned around to look, we were all stunned—one of their four players was actually a foreign Black man! Didn’t they say that foreigners could participate in the National Streetball Championship? Is this a national event or a global one?
The four of them walked over with smiles, and the person in front greeted us from a distance: "Hi there! We are the Firearms Team. I'm the captain, Luo Bing." I stepped forward and said, "Hello! I'm Xiang Jie, captain of the Three Musketeers Team. Your lineup is quite something..." Upon seeing our bewildered expressions, Luo Bing quickly explained, "Oh, these three are all my friends. This tall guy at 1.95 meters is our center from America, Remy. The one next to him is from Korea, Park Seok-ki. And this guy next to me who is about my height is my forward, called Liu Wei." So it turns out that the Firearms Team is an international squad! Competing against them will definitely put us at a disadvantage; just having Remy from America is enough trouble for us. The United States is recognized as a basketball powerhouse worldwide! I can’t believe we're already playing international matches before even graduating high school—it's a bit overwhelming. But whatever happens, we'll give it our all!
The American Black player and the Korean spoke to us in somewhat broken Chinese: "Please take care of us." After a while, spectators began to enter as well. They were surprised to see this unique Firearms Team and exclaimed things like, "Wow! The Firearms Team even brought in foreign reinforcements—impressive!" and "This isn’t NBA or NAA; why bring foreigners?"—there were all sorts of comments flying around. After the referee came onto the court and tossed the coin for possession, it landed on heads—Firearms Team gets ball control. Liu Wei sat on the bench while Park Ji-seok, Luo Bing, and Remy started the game. Remy stood at the corner for an inbound pass; after receiving it from 1.7-meter tall Park Ji-seok, he dashed to the top of the arc and passed it to Luo Bing. Upon receiving it, Luo Bing threw it directly toward the basket while Remy jumped high under the rim and effortlessly dunked it in—0 points. Due to his height and incredible jumping ability, A Fei couldn’t even touch the ball when he jumped. I felt particularly worried about our chances of advancing.
After we inbounded, I organized our offense while facing off against Park Ji-seok. I executed my killer move “Lingbo Microstep,” but since he had never seen such a unique step before, he was momentarily confused. After faking him out, I jumped in the paint and took a step back for a shot when suddenly a large black hand swatted my basketball away. Ouyang and Park Ji-seok scrambled for the rebound; after successfully grabbing it, Park Ji-seok passed it out to Luo Bing. With no one defending him at the arc's top position, he easily made a three-pointer—0-5. The three of them high-fived each other in celebration while standing under the basket was an immovable mountain named Remy. It would be very difficult for us to break through him. After we inbounded again, I maneuvered along the right edge before passing to A Fei. Instead of attacking directly under the basket again, he moved into mid-range for a jump shot—and scored! 5-5. It was clear that his intention was to avoid confronting Remy head-on because competing against him offered us no advantages whatsoever.
As it turned out, this strategy was indeed effective; however, once they figured it out, every time A Fei touched the ball they immediately sent over Park Seok-ki for screens and interference. Our play became extremely disjointed as they shifted their focus onto defense while their offense slowed down considerably as well. Six minutes passed with us tied at 11-11; we were trailing by one point when suddenly Luo Bing signaled for a timeout. Then Liu Wei stepped onto the court and exchanged high-fives with him before taking his place on the bench—looks like these two foreign players definitely won’t be substituted out anytime soon. After we inbounded again, I pushed for a quick attack but found myself stuck as if glued to me by Park Ji-seok. Even after using two “Lingbo Microstep” moves consecutively, I couldn’t shake him off; this guy was incredibly fast on defense—his feet seemed like they were fitted with roller skates! I passed behind me to Ouyang who jumped at a 45-degree angle for a three-pointer—and scored! 14-11—we took back a two-point lead! However, this pace of play felt hard for spectators to connect with—it lacked that explosive energy like stars colliding with Earth.
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