80 Basketball Practice (2/2)
Those who are skilled in a certain field will thrive, while those that aren't, will not. Of course, the flaw to this was that some people are born poor, which is what the Government Support Law solved.
This is where the Government Support Law came in. In the Government Support Law, every person below 20 that is in an indigent household will be granted everything they need to meet their potential. Following that, they're on their own and will not be supported by the World Government.
Other than that, the Government Support Law also states that all education is free, with private school institutions being banned to prevent capitalizing in the education field. all basic healthcare is free, except those that are truly expensive such as cancer treatments, though it's still affordable, and with private hospital institutions being likewise banned for the same reason with private school institutions, and many more.
To sum it all up, those with greater skills will be higher on the social ladder. Of course, to function, the government had to have some way to support such an easily exploitable meritocratic system, right?
Their solution was that the tax you have to pay was equivalent to your earnings for a year, and as the Identity Number system was pretty much fool-proof, you can't go cheat your way out of that at all. That was unless you were a criminal, which is a whole another topic.
…..
Two minutes into the game, Hayden has scored fifty points already, utterly crushing the wills of the former Annual Youth Pride team. Consequently, Coach Ardiente had to call a time-out.
”He's too godly…” Jack uttered with complete trepidation. ”I've seen him play personally, but I didn't think that facing him would be so different…”
”No… There's something wrong…” Gabriel stood beside Jack and mumbled. ”He wasn't this monstrous when my team played with him… It looks as if he's… Annoyed… That impassive face is emitting all kinds of messages. Wait...”
Abruptly, an absurd notion popped up in Gabriel's mind. ”Don't tell me… He was holding back when my team played with me?”
”There's no way that's true, right?” John walked up to him. ”I mean, he destroyed my team with incredible finesse and impossible feats. As for your team… No, that's impossible.”
”No… It's not impossible…” Gabriel nearly choked on his saliva. ”He's too good… Let's three-man him.”
”What?” Jack unconsciously verbalized. ”Are you crazy? Those other four aren't exactly pushovers, you know?”
”No, he's right.” Suddenly, a woman's voice rang out behind them. It was the young woman with Coach Ardiente. ”All you can do is three-man him.”
”As for the matter of Hayden's teammates. Gather around.” Coach Ardiente spoke to them in wonder of Hayden's skills. Hayden's movements were too seamless analogous to a machine's. a machine that could perform at their peak every second and has the ability to think freely was akin to giving wings to a tiger.
”They're way less skilled than Hayden.” Coach Ardiente provided them his observation. ”The root of this is certainly to their complacency that Hayden is on the court. You guys are overall well-rounded and more skilled than them. Consequently, you have the chance to defeat that one-man monster. All you have to do is get out of your inferiority complex. Which is why I brought her.”
”He's right.” Sophia softly spoke. ”You guys are better than you think. Get your minds out of the gutter and please have confidence in yourself. Defeat that bastard.”
The second Sophia's voice entered their ears, it calmed their erratic state of minds. Within their veins, a soothing feeling flowed, refreshing their vigor. This feeling made them concentrate without care for Hayden.
”Okay, I've found the solution for our plight.” Gabriel smiled excitedly. His defeat at the hands of Hayden was the time he hit rock bottom, and at long last, he'd get his vengeance at this time.
Synchronously, Hayden was listening in on them, similarly hearing the woman's words. He stopped as he heard that Gabriel and his teammates was planning. He was an athlete, and part of the excitement was seeing people come up with strategies. He wouldn't spoil the surprise, eh?
Staring at the five people huddled up. He noticed that the five players on the team was currently calm and level-headed, something that shouldn't occur subsequent to the beating he gave them.
”Sophia used it?” Hayden looked at Sophia with disapproval contained in his eyes. 'What the hell? Oh wow, that's so dirty.'
Sighing, Hayden was placed in a conundrum on whether he should use his Ability or not to destroy Sophia and Coach Ardiente's ploy.
In that instance, a message came from Coach Ardiente, ”Don't you dare use your Ability. She simply calmed them down, they don't have Abilities.”
Groaning internally, Hayden rolled his eyes and activated his Ability for a short amount of time to calm himself down. He only deactivated his Ability when the timeout was done.
The ball was in the hands of the Annual Youth Team and was being passed by Christian. Throwing the ball to Caleb, the four people not in possession of the ball surrounded Hayden on all sides.
”Interesting.” Hayden smiled faintly, intrigued of this tactic. ”So this is a four-man team. Nobody has ever teamed up on a single player this much, right?”
”Shut up.” Gabriel said serenely. ”Caleb is a great power forward, there's no way that your teammates can beat him.”
”All right, if you say so.” Hayden licked his lips. As Gabriel said, Caleb surpassed Jacob, Davie, Luke, and William without much resistance with his great physical prowess. At the end, Caleb dunked coolly. ”You know you guys can't keep this up forever, right?”
”Yes we can.” Gabriel sneered at Hayden. ”You think we didn't take that into account?”
”Nope, you didn't at all.” Hayden laughed without a care. ”You think this puny defense is enough to stop me? Watch me then.”
As they scored, Hayden was free from the four-man guard, going to their side of the court. William was the one who was going to pass the ball.
”Dude, are you okay with this?” Prior to the ball being passed, David talked to Hayden. ”Do you want us to not pass to you?”
”Pass to me. I can handle them.” Hayden cracked his knuckles. He decided to not let his annoyance get in the way this time.
Gabriel shuddered once again. Hayden's face was absolutely serious and not at all the unconcerned face he had during his plays back in the National Youth Tournament.
'Was the Hayden we saw out there not the true Hayden?' This question popped up in all the minds of his allies, enemy team, and the spectators.
With that, William obliged Hayden and passed him the ball. In possession of the ball, Hayden dribbled towards the Annual Youth Pride team's court.
The next occurrences put Jack, Gabriel, John, Christian, and Gabriel in absolute despair. They finally understood what the man entitled 'Emperor of the Court' was capable of.
At first, Hayden left his teammates back, something that the Annual Youth Pride team, Coach Ardiente, and Sophia thought was reckless.
As one might expect, the opposing team would not complain at all. Five elite players against one? Even the greatest basketball players wouldn't do such a futile endeavor.
Passing the half-court, Hayden was faced off by Christian and John with a two-man. Behind them was Gabriel, waiting for Hayden to pass them.
With extraordinary dexterity, Hayden feinted to go to the left. As a result, Caleb was going to block him. Unpredictably, Hayden swayed through in the middle of them, wholly penetrating the two's guard.
Faced off with Gabriel, Hayden merely ducked and passed him with his agility. He didn't even need to use a technique. Under the net, the two people remaining was Jack and Caleb, two of the tallest members of the team.
Dashing inside the three-point line, the instant Hayden stepped on the free throw line, he jumped up, ball in his right hand. Instinctively, Jack and Caleb jumped at the same time, trying to block Hayden's dunk.
In response, Hayden threw the ball inside the basket using the motion of a dunk as a substitute for a genuine dunk. He imitated Taiga Kagami's Meteor Jam in the old school anime Kuroko's Basketball or Dwight Howard's superman dunk.
…..
1 World Lore Time: With the establishment of the World Government came the World Sports Committee, or WSC. The WSC is the governing body for the many different sport associations or league in the world, which is the ascendant of America's sports associations or league, i.e., the National Basketball Association (NBA), the Major League Baseball (MLB), National Hockey League (NHL), etc. amalgamated with the various sports associations or league in the world. These associations or leagues are also replacement of the international entities in the sports world, such as the International Basketball Federation, or FIBA, and the Fédération Internationale de Football Association, or FIFA, and many more.
Effectively, this created the GBA, Global League Baseball (GLB), Global Hockey League (GHL), Global Volleyball Association (GVA), Global Football League (GFL), Global American Football Association (GAFA), Global Cricket Council (GCC), Global Handball Federation (GHF), Global Martial Arts Congregation (GMAG), and many more.