Chapter 117: Zone!!!
At that very moment, a dark silhouette slowly emerged from behind Shuzo Nijimura.
Shuzo Nijimura turned toward the shadow in confusion.
The shadow walked up to the door, placed both hands against it, then turned back to look at Shuzo Nijimura—as if signaling him to step forward and push the door together.
Shuzo Nijimura hesitated briefly, then took a deep breath. He slowly approached the door, raised his hands, and placed them against it.
Then, together with the shadow, he pushed with all his strength. The massive door was forced open inch by inch. The moment it swung wide, the shadow vanished.
Only the opened door remained, silently proving that it had existed just moments ago.
Shuzo Nijimura glanced once more at the spot where the shadow had disappeared, then lifted his leg and stepped through the doorway, heading to the other side.
Kzz!
Suddenly, an indescribable aura swept across the entire court.
On the sidelines, Miyamoto Tokima abruptly stood up. He felt it—he could clearly sense the change that had occurred within Shuzo Nijimura.
Brown from the Jackets froze, staring at Shuzo Nijimura in disbelief.
‘H-how… how is this possible?!’
For the first time, Brown felt as if his perception ability had malfunctioned.
Shuzo Nijimura—who had previously given him no sense of danger at all—was now radiating an overwhelmingly intense feeling of threat.
That sense of danger even… even surpassed Zack and the others!!!
Kzz!
A bolt of black lightning flickered within Shuzo Nijimura’s eyes.
At that moment, Shuzo Nijimura felt as if his body were bathed in warm sunlight.
Power surged endlessly from within him.
Shuzo Nijimura looked expressionlessly at Marlon in front of him. In a single exchange, he blew past Marlon’s defense.
A trail of black lightning was left behind.
Marlon stood frozen in place, his mouth unconsciously hanging open, as if he had just witnessed something terrifying. He murmured blankly,
“He… disappeared…”
Facing an undefended hoop, Shuzo Nijimura leapt high and slammed the ball into the basket.
The court fell completely silent, with only the crackling sound of the rim echoing through the arena.
Shuzo Nijimura landed slowly, raised his head, and stared coldly at Marlon with eyes crackling with black lightning. Rarely, he spoke a line of trash talk.
“Getting past you is like crossing an empty road at dawn. Easy.”
Marlon stood there with his mouth wide open, unable to respond.
After the silence came an eruption of thunderous applause. The crowd burst into shocked exclamations.
“Did you see that?! That black-haired kid broke through in an instant!”
“I didn’t even see the move!”
“I thought he was weak—who knew he was this strong?!”
The spectators were completely stunned. They had assumed Shuzo Nijimura was weak, but now it was obvious—he was anything but.
On the court.
Zack watched the high-spirited Shuzo Nijimura and muttered with a faint smile,
“I’ve got to hand it to this brat. If he’d entered this state earlier, I might’ve been the one stuck on the bench.”
Nick walked over and patted Zack on the shoulder.
“I didn’t expect it either. Nijimura was hiding something like this.”
Jason Silver laughed loudly as he looked at Shuzo Nijimura.
“Nijimura! Didn’t think you had a trump card like that!”
Everyone was happy for Shuzo Nijimura—everyone except Nash Gold and Miyamoto Tokima.
This was the first time Nash Gold had seen such a state.
Driven by curiosity, he examined Shuzo Nijimura’s body with the Belial Eye—and what he discovered made his heart jolt.
Shuzo Nijimura’s current physical condition was extremely strange.
All of his attributes had increased, yet something felt off.
It was as if a power that didn’t belong to him had been forcibly inserted into his body.
To put it another way, Shuzo Nijimura was like a regular Peashooter from Plants vs. Zombies with a Gatling Pea forcibly installed on top of it—unnaturally mismatched.
Miyamoto Tokima felt the same.
Although Shuzo Nijimura had entered the Zone, his Zone felt deeply discordant.
The prerequisite for entering the Zone was a genuine love for basketball.
The second requirement was possessing extraordinary talent—enough to push open that door.
Shuzo Nijimura clearly had the love for basketball.
But that level of overwhelming talent was something he lacked.
Compared to ordinary players, Shuzo Nijimura’s talent was undoubtedly high.
But when compared to the members of the Generation of Miracles, he still fell short.
And yet, someone like him had forcibly entered the Zone. There was only one possible explanation—
Belief.
Shuzo Nijimura had used belief to make up for the gap in talent.
That belief transformed into power, helping him push open the door and forcibly enter the Zone.
Doing so allowed him to enter the Zone—but it came with a serious drawback.
That was… Shuzo Nijimura might never be able to enter the Zone again.
For ordinary people, entering the Zone even once was already incredibly difficult.
For geniuses, entering once wasn’t too hard—the real challenge was the second time.
Many geniuses, after entering the Zone once, were never able to do so again.
And the more they tried, the farther away the Zone seemed.
However, geniuses had one advantage: strength.
They could continue improving their abilities and eventually enter the Zone a second time through sheer power.
But Shuzo Nijimura couldn’t do that—because he relied on belief.
If he wanted to enter the Zone again, he would need belief even stronger than the first time.
That was far more difficult than entering the Zone through talent alone.
Although Nash Gold hadn’t fully thought this through, he knew one thing.
Right now, all they could do was let Shuzo Nijimura enjoy this moment.
More importantly, let him truly experience this state.
For that reason, Nash Gold reminded him,
“Feel this state properly. Don’t think about scoring. Carefully experience what this state brings you.”
Shuzo Nijimura nodded seriously—but how could he possibly abandon the thought of scoring?
It was precisely his belief in scoring that had allowed him to enter the Zone in the first place!!!
Over the next few minutes, Nash Gold kept feeding the ball to Shuzo Nijimura, hoping to help him acclimate to the state.
But every time Shuzo Nijimura touched the ball, he immediately attacked, tearing through the Jackets’ defense and scoring with ease.
On defense, it was the same—he kept stealing the ball and launching fast breaks.
Nash Gold was completely at a loss. He grabbed Shuzo Nijimura, about to say something—
—but Miyamoto Tokima suddenly cut in from the sidelines.
“Nash.”
Nash Gold looked toward Miyamoto Tokima. When he saw him shake his head, he swallowed his words and let Shuzo Nijimura continue attacking freely.
Miyamoto Tokima watched Shuzo Nijimura score again and again.
At that moment, he finally understood.
The belief that had opened that door for Shuzo Nijimura…
was scoring.
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Author's Note
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