We all started getting ready to head out. Still, the officials wanted us to shake the hands of the losers first before leaving. Each time I shook one of the Marines" hands, they squeezed my hands as if testing my strength. Some of the squeezes were pretty painful, but I was able to endure it. They thought that could injure my shooting hand for my next game, but I just ignored them.
After a while of shaking, I felt like they had broken my hands as a notification popped up in my head. I was shocked by this because I was still in the middle of shaking the Marines" hands as they kept squeezing my hand one by one.
The notification said new skill faster recovery time, I got a little excited about this, and when the Marines saw that I was smiling, they all frowned. They found this strange situation strange as they had never witnessed anyone smiling after a shake and squeeze tactic that they always used on an enemy star player.
The Marines used this cheap tactic because they knew that star players would be too prideful to start crying out in pain, so they would just take it and get an injury, but this time one guy was smiling, and that was me.
I only smiled not because of the Marines but because of the new ability that I had just gotten. Faster recovery time not only boosts my recovery time, but it makes my immune system stronger. I could already feel my sore hands getting better; I knew I should be fully healed by the next day. I had finally finished shaking all their hands as I waved at them with a smiling face.
They looked at me in confusion because usually, players would be glaring at them with hate in their eyes due to the injury, but I not only smiled at them, but I waved and thanked them for the match. They were extremely salty at this point and didn"t like me one bit. They"re starting shooting guard came up to me and asked me for a rematch but a one-on-one match.
He figured since they injured my hand, I wouldn"t be able to shoot. I had time to spare, so I decided to entertain the man as he started talking trash, saying that I got lucky and that if it weren"t a team game, it would have been a different story. I nodded in agreement and said, "enough talking, let"s play ball."
Just when everybody in the stands was about to leave, another game was about to start as they all excitedly sat back down to witness another great game from their favorite player. This shouting guard was slightly taller than me and buffer. He told me he wanted the ball first, which I didn"t fight him for.
I didn"t notice him during the game, so I decided to see what he had to offer in the first plays. If I weren"t impressed, I would start using time freeze to finish this match quickly. We were only playing to 10 points, so I checked up the ball, and he immediately took the shot since we were near the free-throw line.
He was able to make it as I nodded my head in approval as I thought this guy might have what it takes but just not to beat me. We were doing make it, take it, so he got the ball back once again as we checked it out. This time I played better defense as I was in his face. He started dribbling around trying to find an open shot; he did a little hesitation while dribbling, causing me to put my hand up, allowing him to blow past me as he went in and dunked it hard.
The crowd around started cheering; it seemed like a whole new game was going on except everybody, including players from both sides were watching with intensity. Everybody was surprised that I was losing so far. Still, the game had just begun, so I was not worried.
I checked it up once again as he started dribbling the ball in front of me. I tried to reach, but he quickly crossed over, switching the ball to his other hand and driving it in for the layup. He waved his finger at me as if saying," no, no, no, you reach, I teach."
I ignored him and checked the ball up once again; he was up by three points. Still, I wasn"t going to take action now as I wanted to continue seeing what he could do. He started dribbling up, trying to cross me over. Still, I didn"t budge as I stayed with him. Since he saw that I was covering him pretty well, he made a mistake causing him to come to a stop and not be able to dribble again.
If he dribbled again, it would be traveling, so he had to take a forced shot, causing him to miss. I used that opportunity to grab the rebound, and I took it back to the 3-point line where he was waiting to cover me. His defense was tight, as he was not trying to allow me to shoot after he had seen my shooting skills last game, he truly respected my shots, hence why he was playing such good defense.
Still, I didn"t care as I stepped back and took the shot anyway, giving me two points. We checked the ball up once again. I faded away from the 3-point line before he could adjust his defense, giving me another two points and pa.s.sing him in scores.
He checked it up to me once again as I dribbled him up a little bit and did a strong pump fake, causing him to jump up to defend, so I quickly sidestepped and took the shot from the 3-point line giving me another two points as I hit the net.
Now I was up by three points, and I needed four more points. The Marine was starting to get frustrated as he slapped himself on the forehead, leaving a red mark on it and focused hard as he stomped his feet to the ground and squatted. He let both his arms off to the side, acting like he was about to play the best defense of his life.
I chuckled when I saw this and shook my head as I thought what an idiot. He checked up the ball while still maintaining his silly defense of pose. I did a time freeze and blew past him when the time returned to normal. I had disappeared from the guy"s sight as he started looking around for me but saw that I was already jumping towards the basket.
I did a ma.s.sive 360 dunk causing the crowd to cheer for me as I hung on the rim looking at him with ridicule in my eyes. The Marine got angry but did not repeat anything due to me having the lead.