Chapter 73: Tony’s Fiery Passion

At Manman Yu’s command, the five main players stepped onto the basketball court. The moment they entered, the five robots on the opposite side simultaneously lit up their red eyes.

The lead point guard, Zhou Xiaoshan, brought the ball up to organize the attack. No sooner had he crossed into the opposing half than two robots closed in on him. Geng Haoshi and the other substitute players stood on the sidelines, thinking to themselves: These robots are really eager!

Surrounded, Zhou Xiaoshan couldn’t break free and was forced to look for an opportunity to pass. Seeing Meng Lang raise his arms high, Zhou Xiaoshan decisively lobbed the ball toward him—only to have it swatted down in midair by Robot No. 5!

Manman Yu sat in the boss’s room before the surveillance monitor, legs crossed comfortably on her massage chair. “Round two, continue,” she said.

PS: This batch of AI athletic robots developed by Feizhi Group is currently only adept at defense; those skilled at offense won’t be ready until the third batch. Therefore, Manman Yu stipulated, “If the ball is intercepted by a robot, it counts as a loss.”

In the second round, Zhou Xiaoshan learned from the previous failure. Before the robots could close in, he passed the ball to Zhu Di, who had moved into the paint. Zhu Di had just received the ball when Robots No. 1, 2, and 4 swiftly surrounded him… and Robot No. 2 snatched the ball away!

“So fast!” the substitute players on the sidelines couldn’t help but marvel.

Thus, play continued up to the twenty-third round, and the main players had yet to score a single basket. The ball was intercepted or stolen every time, never once touching the rim.

“Didn’t you just eat lunch? Why is everyone so slow? Can’t even outrun robots?” Manman Yu complained, though she felt a twinge of guilt; she had accidentally set the robots’ athletic level to “Professional.”

Robots set to “Professional” level possess physical prowess comparable to professional basketball players. With the current skill level of Tiancheng Institute of Technology’s school basketball team, they stood no chance against such robots.

In fact, even if Manman Yu had gone with her original plan and had the school team face “Regular” level robots, with the rule “if the ball is intercepted, it counts as a loss,” it would still have been difficult to achieve a shooting accuracy above 20%.

Manman Yu realized as early as the sixth round that she had set the robots to “Professional,” but she didn’t bother reconfiguring them to “Regular”—after all, this match with the robot team was merely a prelude for a new training program she intended to introduce.

The five main players continued to battle the robots for over five hundred rounds… By the five hundred sixty-third round, the school team had managed only three baskets in total!

Looking at the bedraggled, demoralized main players, Manman Yu held her forehead: She hadn’t expected such a massacre.

She spoke into the microphone before the monitor: “At this rate, you’ll lose all the way… Never mind, let’s switch in the substitutes, let them get some practice too.”

Hearing her words, the main players shuffled dejectedly to the sidelines.

The players all understood; based on shooting percentages, the top-ranked substitutes—Chen Yu, Zhang Zhaolong, Lin Zhiling, Geng Haoshi, and He Zhikun—went in.

Though the substitutes took the court, Manman Yu still didn’t reset the robots from “Professional” to “Regular.” The outcome was predictable.

In the next four hundred thirty-seven rounds, the substitutes scored only two baskets, both made by Geng Haoshi.

Ultimately, in the thousand-round contest between the school team and the robot team, the school team managed just five baskets.

Returning to Chen Zhi Gymnasium, the players lined up on their own, ready to receive their punishment from their devil coach, Manman Yu.

She paced back and forth before them, then stopped, standing sideways: “A thousand rounds, five baskets… a shooting percentage of 0.5%.”

Manman Yu fixed her gaze on the captain, Meng Lang. “What did I say before the match?”

Why is it always me? Meng Lang blushed and lowered his head.

“Is a 20% shooting percentage really that hard?”

“Do you remember the first rule I wrote in your notebooks?”

“From October 15, 2016, to December 15, 2016, the shooting percentage must reach 33%.”

“What day is it now? Only twenty-five days left until December 15.”

Manman Yu’s eyes swept over the whole team. “You can’t even reach 20%. What makes you think you’ll hit 33% in twenty-five days?”

No one dared respond.

“I was going to whip you soundly,” she said, shaking the whip in her hand, “but that won’t solve the problem.”

“So, I’ve decided to add an extra training program starting today.”

“For this training, I need you to give it everything you’ve got—because if you don’t, you might lose your life.”

Lose our lives?! Geng Haoshi swallowed hard, thinking: What kind of training is this—so extreme?

“You’ll find out tonight what the training is,” she said.

Geng Haoshi rolled his eyes: Seriously? Still keeping us in suspense.

In fact, Manman Yu waited until evening because the new training would take place every night from seven to eight.

…

That evening, after dinner, Manman Yu gathered the players at Chen Zhi Gym’s basketball court at six thirty-six.

“From now on, every evening from seven to eight, you will practice boxing with him.”

Beside Manman Yu stood a burly man, about one seventy-five tall.

“Hello, everyone. I’ll be your boxing coach. Just call me Tony.”

Geng Haoshi thought: Tony? Ha, probably gay.

“Have any of you tried or learned about boxing before?”

The players all shook their heads.

“Let me give you a brief introduction, then. Boxing is a combat sport where you wear gloves and fight. The goal is to score more points than your opponent or knock them out, all while avoiding their attacks.”

“Boxing is called ‘the sport of the brave.’ So, if you’re a man, come and box!”

As Tony spoke, he flexed his biceps for everyone… and proceeded to show off his muscles.