The Almighty Ring

“Alright, let’s try something out!”

Before Jiang Fei logged out, he placed the Cat Spirit Boots of Accuracy into the blue slots of the ring’s inventory. This could potentially change everything. Extracting the red potion from the game and into the real world had dawned an epiphany upon him. What if the game’s equipment could actually manifest in the real world? He would be unstoppable! He would be a superhuman!

*woosh*

With a flash of light, Jiang Fei returned to the real world.

“Come on! Come one! Namo Amitabha! Jesus Christ! Virgin Mary! Thor Odinson! PLEASE MAKE THIS WORK!” Jiang Fei muttered and started to rub the ring.

*bling*

“HAHA! It’s here!”

Jiang Wei cheered when he found the boots still there, in the blue slots.

“Alright! Come to papa!” Jiang Fei bellowed. He was so excited that he could feel his toes pulsating in tandem with his heart!

*woosh*

A faint blue light flashed in his eyes, and a pair of boots appeared in his palm.

“Heck yeah! It worked!”

Euphoric beyond imagination, Jiang Fei hurriedly slipped them on.

“Hmm?”

The boots had faded into Jiang Fei’s legs before vanishing into thin air. All that was left were his feet wrapped in warm socks. There was no trace of the boots.

“Might as well…”

Jiang Fei got up, prepared to take a walk. He skipped a little to start warming up.

*WHAM*

“SONUVA-” Jiang Fei roared in excruciating pain. The first light hop had turned out to be a powerful leap that sent his head crashing into the ceiling! It was a miracle that his neck had not snapped!

“Ah Fei?! What’s wrong with you?!” Jiang Fei’s mother cried out as she rushed over from the kitchen.

“I’m fine. I stubbed my toe again…” said Jiang Fei as he caressed his head. It hurt like hell. Some volcano was more than likely to erupt from it!

“You did that yesterday… Haven’t you learned your lesson? Be careful next time!” His mother nagged for a little before turning back to the kitchen.

Having confirmed the power of the boots, Jiang Fei clenched his fist and did a victory pose.

“It worked! I’m truly invincible! HAHAHAH! Ouff…” Jiang Fei laughed for a bit before the pain in his head kicked in. He had almost fractured his skull, but it had been worth it. His dream was coming true! He was going to be Superman!

…

After breakfast, Jiang Fei immediately set off for school. His two feet were wearing the same pair of basketball shoes, but Jiang Fei’s face had almost been separated into two by a beaming smile. From that day on, he would no longer be the poorly coordinated, geeky gamer boy!

Class went on as usual, and Jiang Fei was left as bored as always. Especially math! The math teacher was not human! One second earlier, the middle aged, crop haired teacher was talking about simple 1 +1 = 0 addition, after a simple sneeze and a wipe, the math teacher had started talking about Lagrange multipliers!

*Ring…*

The sound of freedom! The sound of the school bell!

“Hold your horses!”

Just as Jiang Fei was already done tossing all his stuff into his bag at a speed faster than light, a young girl’s voice rang out from the front.

“At 1pm, there will be a basketball competition between our class and the sixth class! After lunch, head over to the court and cheer for the team!” The girl who was yelling whilst waving her hands in the front was Sun Mengmeng, the class monitor.

“Tsk…”

Zhao Feng, who was sitting behind Jiang Fei clicked his tongue, disgruntled.

It could not be helped. Jiang Fei’s class was the sort of class filled with runts, yet no one could complain about the average result. However, in terms of sports and P.E, they were at the bottom. The sixth class, however, was filled with students who excelled at sports, most particularly basketball. Also, their vocabulary seemed to have been hardwired with random vulgarities. To have a match with the sixth class was basically digging one’s own grave! Pick three random students, and they would easily trounce five of the best from Jiang Fei’s class! It was like taking candy from a baby!

“Did I hear something?”

Sun Mengmeng stalked up in deadly silence to Zhao Feng, like a tigress.

“Nothing, ma’am! I, Zhao Feng will cordially be at the court, as you command! I will offer refreshments for our entire basketball team!” As the ferocious babe approached, Zhao Feng’s knees immediately turned into jelly. It was inevitable. Sun Mengmeng was extremely cute. A cute little hot chili pepper, that is! Nobody knew when, but at some point in her life, she had taken up Krav Maga. It was a certainty that among all the students in Jiang Fei’s year, she was the queen!

“Hmph! At least you know your place!” the little cutesy squeaked. She then turned to Jiang Fei and yapped at him, “You! Make sure you’re there as well!”

Like Sun Mengmeng, Jiang Fei was well known for his undying hatred towards sports. He would disappear without a trace whenever sports was involved. That was why Sun Mengmeng had to specifically ensure that Jiang Fei would be present at the basketball court.

“Fine!”

Jiang Fei shrugged. Long ago, when Jiang Fei was still in Junior High, he was in a basketball team. However, due to his poor constitution, he had given up on playing basketball and concentrated on playing games instead. At least games did not require strong bodies!

…

After lunch, Jiang Fei went back to his desk in class and got some shut-eye. Before he even started snoring, he felt a strong sting in his back, after a loud slap, that is.

“SUNOVA… WHO THE–”

Jiang Fei shot to his feet and turned towards the “attacker.”

“You big fat liar! You promised to be at the basketball court! Remember?” It was none other than the little tigress Sun Meng Meng.

“Oh… That… Ahh ha ha. It still seemed early, so I went ahead and took a nap instead.”

Jiang Fei awkwardly diffused the situation. He did agree to be present at the court for the match, so some level of guilt was nibbling away at his heart.

“Let’s go then! The whole class is still cheering for Wang Chen and the boys!” Sun Mengmeng grabbed a handful of Jiang Fei’s sleeve and dragged him out of the classroom.

When Jiang Fei arrived at the basketball court, the match had already started 20 minutes ago. The second round had only just begun yet the score was too painful to read. The sixth class had scored 37 points and the ninth class, Jiang Fei’s class, only had 8 points. It was only the first round, but the score was a complete pitfall!

“Oh damn…”

Jiang Fei saw the scoreboard and could not help but gasp. One look at the court, and it was no longer a surprise.

No one could even get close to the sixth class’ backboard. Standing abnormally tall at 190 cm, weighing over 90kg was their center, who could easily send the ninth class Yang Ming flying with a casual stretch.

His smaller complements were no small fries either. Wang Chen was the ninth class’s point guard. As a result, the ball could never get past the center line. Basically, whenever the ball was on the ninth’s side, it would get snatched away in less than 10 seconds.

Based on that situation, getting 8 points was already a miracle.

“Fight! Fight! Fight! Fight! Go Nine! Go Nine!”

Jiang Fei turned to the audience and found that all the girls of his class were cheering, while the guys were all bunched up in one corner, completely ignoring the game. Some of them were like old professors in university, pulling out papers, working their pens on them.

“Haha! Look at them! They are like monkeys!”

“Hey hey! Stop pushing them! As things are, the ninth class can’t even run on their own. Let them walk! If you push them too hard, we won’t have anyone to play with!”

“Haha! Good ball! That’s a 3 pointer!”

“Nice! Slam dunk!”

Compared to the very animated ninth class, the sixth was completely passive. They were barely even cheering. On the contrary, they were actually laughing and snickering away at the ninth class! They were not even taking the game seriously!

“What a scam. That class should be made illegal! Who the heck actually expects them to find a proper competitor?” said Zhao Feng, appearing by Jiang Fei’s side.