Chapter 2: Making The Cut

Riku walked into a large gym, around 20 young teens about his age stood neatly in a row. They were undoubtedly from an anime world, with many different types of hairstyles and colors as if normal.

Since Riku arrived late he hurried to the line. He stood next to the others. But he also noticed, something, he was one of the shortest there, but he didn't care, with his ability and the system, he had enough potential to beat all of them.

A man with short hair, so short that he looks bald steps in front of the line of teens. He had a serious yet calm look on his face, you could tell that he was in love with basketball.

"So, this is everyone. I'm surprised, it's much less than last year. I wish all of you the best of luck."

"But, before we start, I want to make one clear, if you truly believe you can't do this and want to leave, then leave. I won't accept whining."

He took a good 20 seconds to see if anybody was planning on leaving, "Nobody?... Right, let's start small. I'll be testing your footwork and handling."

He put a long line of small cones onto the court, we gave each of them a basketball and told them exactly what they needed to do.

"So, just dribble the ball, handle it well, and make it through the cones as quickly as possible. If you drop it, lose the ball, or don't know how to dribble that well then you can wait for the next activity to start. Understand?"

In unison, "YES!"

A tall guy with blonde hair was up first, he dribbled the ball with precise movements and eye-opening speeds, he went between the legs, behind the back, and overall was just being a showoff. But he made it through the cones with ease, having not lost his balance or the ball once.

"Next!"

The next guy made it through nicely, he lost his balance a bit but quickly regained it and went through smoothly.

after this, just 2 others were like the first, one with black hair with blonde streaks in it, and another with brown hair and black tips.

They had the skills to pay the bills. Both of them looked as if they didn't try, they just smoothly went through the cones, not losing their balance, the ball, or even slightly touching the cone at extremely fast dribbling speeds.

Finally, Riku was next.

He very much wished he could've copied the skill of all of those guys, but due to his abilities and circumstances, he couldn't. So, he had to try his very best, he had to use everything he had, Riku gripped the ball and started to gently bounce it, with each bounce he started to speed up his dribbling.

Everyone watched as Riku started to go through the cones, he made sure to not touch them and tried to swiftly make it through, but along the way, he lost his balance and just barely lost the ball before bouncing back and continuing.

Through the legs, behind the back, he picked up the pace before passing the last cone and dropping the ball.

it had been forever since he had done such a thing so he was tired.

Riku was nervous though, he hoped the couch didn't notice him also losing the ball.

He went back to the baseline of the court where everyone else was and just waited for the next activity.

"So, pretty much everyone did decently, but 3 stood out to me the most, you probably know who you are. But I won't say any names. Now I want to test your stamina. Everyone is on the baseline and you will run some Suicides. I hope everyone knows what that is. Now go."

The first sprint was the easiest, but once Riku reached the second one, he was feeling out of breath, but he knew he could keep going. On the third, he started to slow down but he pushed through, finally, he made it to the fourth and finished the drill.

"Alright, seems like everyone is finished. Let's take a small break and recuperate."

After getting some sips of water and a break, everyone was ready to start again.

"We will do some footwork, test your rebounds, verticals, and shooting."

After nearly 2 hours of footwork, rebounding, and verticals. Now came the shooting.

Riku was struggling a bit during those other drills but, while watching the blonde-haired guy for nearly 20 minutes, he finally copied a skill.

[Fu Jin's Leap.]

[The ability to leap nearly 50 inches into the air.]

"That's a pretty amazing ability, and at my height? I can jump that high, that's amazing. He's for sure making the team."

'I also found this out.'

[2/3 Copies Left]

[At your current level, you can only copy 2 more skills since you have copied one.]

"It seems levels are important. I wonder what the max limit of skills I can copy"

Riku turned his attention to the tall guy with black hair and blonde streaks in his hair, they made 3 players go up and shoot for about 20 minutes each, this gave Riku enough time to copy, and he couldn't stop smiling.

But, Riku was also surprised, the guy he was observing was truly amazing and his jump shot was truly unique. He couldn't even explain it. With each flick of his wrist, it was like the ball just glided into the hoop, as if being guided by something. It then landed directly in the hoop, no backboard or anything, just pure hoop.

A satisfying swooshing sound was made and he was in awe. Riku closely observed the guy, making sure not to miss anything.

Before he knew it, nearly 21 minutes had passed.

[1/3 Copies left.]

[Current Copied Skills: Fu Jin's Leap, Unique-Tier Shooting.]

'Good, but I don't want to make it seem like I'm copying him or something, so I'll change up the jump shot a bit.'

After probably 6 more people shooting around, it was finally his turn. 

Riku stepped up, grabbed the ball, and used his copied skill.

But, instead of a much more elegant and delayed release, he put more force into it, adding a much quicker release.

He also did many more fadeaways than just regular shots, 20 minutes passed in a flash.

Out of the basketballs he shot, a total of 4 of them missed. And he shot around 86, meaning he made over 81 shots in total, just a little less than the person skill he copied.

But, even so, it was still amazing. The couch was surprised with how few but good candidates it was this year, since the skill gap seemed pretty clear, it wouldn't be hard to distinguish the good from the decent to the bad.

Tryouts were finally over, the results were going to come in tomorrow.

--

The next day, Riku walked out of his room.

Also, Riku found where he lived and came home to find, his mother and father. They were extremely nice and supported everything he wanted to do. They truly did love him, it almost made him cry, but he held the tears back. His parents knew Riku wasn't that good at basketball, but still supported him no matter what, they went to nearly every game when he was in middle school.

Riku walked into the living room where he found a letter with his school and his name on it. It was clear what it was about.

His parents also stepped out of their rooms to see what he was doing.

"What's that Riku?.."

"Oh, well, you know I tried out for the basketball team yesterday, these are my results."

His dad walked over and patted him on the back, "I'm sure you made it son, I don't doubt it, not one bit." He smiled warmly, eager to see the results.

Without wasting any more time, Riku opened the letter and read the contents.

"I...."

"?...." His parents leaned forward with their ears, ready to hear him say it.

"I made the cut!"

His mother sighed, but his father just hugged him, he meant his words when he said that he didn't doubt that he made it.

"Congrats son! let's celebrate by cooking up your favorite breakfast meal!"

Riku smiled and hugged his father back, 'A family, how long has it been since I felt this amount of love? I want to cherish this, much, much more.'