51 Chapter 50

A new month had arrived, and Ichigo eagerly awaited his free draw for this month. However, he didn't have high expectations. Due to his consistently poor luck, he didn't anticipate getting any useful normal quality cards, let alone an elite one.

Nevertheless, since it was a free draw, he felt obliged to participate. Ichigo believed it would be disrespectful to refuse a gift. So, after finishing basketball club practice, he found himself in his room, deciding to take a bath before drawing, not feeling particularly rushed because he didn't expect much from it anyway.

After his relaxing bath, Ichigo's stomach rumbled, prompting him to search the fridge for a snack. Unfortunately, to his disappointment, it was empty. Realizing it was still early evening, he quickly dressed and headed to the nearest convenience store to pick up some groceries.

Once he returned home with his purchases, he hastily prepared a meal, eager to satisfy his hunger. Opting for a store-bought bento, he simply needed to warm it up in the microwave. Satisfied with his meal, he decided to call it a night and headed to bed. However, just before falling asleep, he remembered about his free draw for the month. Despite feeling tired, he felt compelled to do it right away.

As usual, the imaginary slot machine appeared before him. Being familiar with the process, he quickly pulled the lever and waited for the draw to conclude. Perhaps because he didn't have high expectations, he could already feel his eyelids growing heavy.

After what seemed like a long wait, the draw finally stopped before he succumbed to sleep. Ichigo noticed a bright blue light, causing him to take a closer look at the results. Maybe it was his grogginess, but he rubbed his eyes to check if he was being deceived. However, the blue light remained. To ensure he wasn't dreaming, he even pinched himself, feeling the pain and confirming that it was all real.

With the excitement of knowing he wasn't dreaming, Ichigo couldn't contain his joy. It was the first time since his first draw after activating his system that he had received a blue light. This meant he had obtained an elite quality card, a rarity he had only experienced twice since acquiring the system.

He immediately picked up the card to see whose name was on it. As he flipped the card, he was immediately stunned by the name he saw.

[Elite Assimilation Card: Jamal Crawford]

Unable to contain his excitement, he shouted and danced like a kid inside his room. Ichigo felt as if he had won the lottery after drawing that card.

In his previous life as a basketball fan, he would watch career highlights of various players, whether they were All-Stars or not. He didn't discriminate when it came to appreciating players' highlights, even watching Brian Scalabrine's.

However, one player who stood out to him, aside from some NBA superstars, was Jamal Crawford. If you judged solely based on career highlights, you might even think that Jamal Crawford was better than Michael Jordan. That's how impressive Jamal Crawford's mixtape was, especially his crossover moves.

After his celebration ended, Ichigo immediately assimilated the card. Without waiting for the system prompt, he clicked the "yes" button. He watched as the card disintegrated in the air and was absorbed into his body. Once the assimilation process was complete, he quickly accessed his status panel.

[Status]

Name: Takai Ichigo

Template: Jamal Crawford (10%)

Assimilated: Akira Sendoh, Hanamichi Sakuragi

Height: 195cm

Weight: 195lbs

Wingspan: 208cm

Seeing that his status had been updated, Ichigo felt pleased. Combined with his growth over the past few months, he was more than satisfied; he was ecstatic. He couldn't wait for tomorrow to show off his newfound skill to his teammates, especially Midorima.

Ichigo knew that his teammates wouldn't be shocked by his improved dribbling skills since he had already demonstrated some advanced moves during practice in recent months. However, with Jamal Crawford's card added to the mix, Ichigo was confident that his dribbling would improve significantly just by assimilating the card. And this was only the beginning, with the assimilation progress at 10%. Ichigo anticipated that the higher his assimilation progress, the more his dribbling skills would improve.

With these thoughts in mind, Ichigo settled into bed, filled with excitement for tomorrow's club practice. He was so thrilled that he even dreamt about playing in the NBA and crossing up his opponents with his extraordinary dribbling skills. In his dream, he even managed to cross up the opposing team's coach, resulting in the referees awarding him a technical foul. But Ichigo didn't stop there; he even crossed up the referees themselves, causing them to stumble.

His dream turned into pandemonium as he continued to cross up anyone and anything that stood in his path. He even managed to cross up God, angering Him and leading to Ichigo's banishment to hell. Even there, he crossed up Satan, becoming the new ruler of hell.

Ichigo was still on his journey of crossing up anyone and anything when he was abruptly awakened by his alarm, cutting his dream short.

At first, Ichigo felt irritated that his dreams were cut short, but he quickly got up and prepared for school. The day seemed to drag on slowly for him due to his excitement. When the bell finally rang, signaling the end of classes, he didn't even wait for Takao and Midorima. He immediately rushed to the basketball gym.

In his haste, Ichigo was the first to arrive at the club, waiting alone for his teammates. Since Coach Nakatani hadn't arrived yet, and he had nothing else to do, Ichigo started his dribbling drills to gauge the improvement in his dribbling after assimilating Jamal Crawford's card.

He could already feel that his dribbling was much smoother than before as he performed the basic drills. Ichigo was quick to adapt, so after completing some basic drills, he eagerly moved on to the more advanced ones.

After a few minutes of practicing his dribbling, some of the other players began to trickle in. Shortly after, Coach Nakatani arrived and immediately signaled for the team to start their routine plays.

The day came to an end, and Ichigo didn't even get a chance to showcase his new skills to his teammates. However, he remained undeterred and promised himself that he would show them the next day. But as the days passed, his opportunity never seemed to materialize.

A few more weeks passed, leading up to the start of this year's preliminary basketball tournament. Before the actual games began, there was an opening program where all the participating teams were introduced. However, attending this event was not mandatory for the players, so most of them chose not to go. Instead, they sent their coach or a representative from the school to attend.

Finally, the day arrived for the Regional Preliminaries to begin. Each block, from A to D, had its own basketball stadium for the teams to compete in. The winners from each block would then advance to the Final League of the preliminaries, where they would all play in one stadium.

At this time, the Shutoku High team was preparing eagerly for their upcoming game. Many of the players were excited, especially those participating in the tournament for the first time. Ichigo and Takao were particularly thrilled. Takao had taken a break from organized basketball tournaments in middle school to prepare for high school, so it had been a while since he last played. As for Ichigo, he was simply excited to be in a competitive environment once again.

Once all the players were geared up, Coach Nakatani offered some motivational words before leading them to the court for warm-ups. As they entered the court, they noticed that their opponents, Shinmei Academy, were already there, going through their warm-up routines.

Ichigo and Takao observed their opponents closely and realized that there was nothing particularly outstanding about the Shinmei Academy team. Although they were solid players in terms of height, they were not at a disadvantage compared to Shutoku's players, especially Midorima and Ichigo, who were taller than average for their positions. Despite Shutoku's slight height advantage, it was hardly noticeable, except for Midorima and Ichigo.

However, Ichigo also noticed that all the players from Shinmei Academy displayed a strong foundation in their basketball skills and fundamentals. Even during their basic warm-ups and drills, it was evident that they were a well-coached team. There was no slacking off, and they performed with precision and focus.

Observing that there was nothing particularly intriguing about the opposing team, Ichigo and Takao decided to proceed with their warm-up routines. After a few more minutes, the buzzer sounded, indicating the start of the game.

Before the game began, the referees gathered all the players from both teams at the center of the court for the customary greetings. Following that, both coaches submitted their starting lineups.

With the starting players from both teams determined, the referee positioned themselves in the middle of the court for the jump ball. The starting lineup for Shutoku High consisted of Otsubo Taisuke at center, Takao Kazunari at point guard, Miyaji Kiyoshi at small forward, Midorima Shintaro at shooting guard, and finally Ichigo Takai at power forward.

Upon seeing Shutoku's starting lineup, the coach from Shinmei Academy was taken aback. He felt annoyed, perceiving Coach Nakatani's decision to include three freshmen in the starting lineup as him underestimating his team.