I Really Am Just a Substitute – CH12

Chapter 12

Coach Ning’s team had survived Yu Bai’s powerful service rotation thanks to Ning Zhou stepping in on serve receive. And then, the unwell libero Ning Yang returned to the court…

“Impressive. A setter who can handle a jump serve that powerful—no wonder he’s been trained by Coach Ning since childhood. His fundamentals are rock-solid.”

“And the libero who just subbed in—that’s Ning Yang, right? If I remember, he was named Best Libero in this year’s domestic league.”

“Yeah. The first team’s main libero retired right before the league dissolved, so Ning Yang getting the award had some luck involved.”

“My team never faced his. Is he really that strong?”

“Uh… he always gave me the impression of being… one-sided.”

“One-sided?”

“Beep—”

The referee’s whistle cut through the crowd chatter. Next serve went to Coach Ning’s team. Their serve wasn’t threatening, the opponents’ first pass was perfect, and they quickly organized a fast attack. The block didn’t keep up. The opposing middle blocker smashed down with his wrist, right onto Xu Zichang, who had rushed to block but hadn’t even set his hands properly…

Xu Zichang cried out in pain, but seeing the ball pop into the air, he forced himself to brag, “Effective block touch! My blocking is unbeatable—see, I still got it!”

An “effective block touch” means the blocker deflects and reduces the attack’s power. It doesn’t count toward the team’s three touches, and allows a rally reset. But in this case, the ball hadn’t touched Xu Zichang’s blocking hands—it had just bounced off his body. That was just a lucky defensive mishap.

So now, only two touches remained…

The crowd gasped again and again, “Hit him right on the shoulder? You could tell it hurt just from the sound…”

“And his first reaction after body-blocking was… to brag?”

“Even a blind cat catching a dead mouse, and he still twists it into a proper block touch—his mouth is harder than iron!”

“That ball’s flying way off. Even if they save it, there’ll be no chance for a spike… wait, that libero!?”

Ning Yang’s footspeed was incredible, his protruding ears practically stirring up wind.  He sprinted after the ball the moment it bounced, shouting as he ran, “Xu Zichang, get ready to attack!”

Xu Zichang ignored the pain in his shoulder, hurried back to his hitting position, nervously waiting for the ball that Ning Yang would somehow adjust to set up for him…

The audience measured the distance between the ball and Xu Zichang with their eyes, hardly able to believe it, “A libero is actually going to set directly?”

“That’s a high-difficulty adjustment, he must be really confident in his spatial awareness!”

“No wonder he was voted Best Libero!”

Ning Yang squatted low, positioned under the falling ball, and used a back-set posture to pass the ball toward Xu Zichang. Then he turned back with confidence—The volleyball flew straight over Xu Zichang’s head and went crashing toward the coaching staff…

Assistant Coach Ning Xu’s face changed. He shot up his arms and caught the ball just before it smacked down onto Coach Luo’s head, “Coach Luo, are you okay?”

“…Not really.”

Coach Luo’s bangs had been ruffled by Ning Xu’s arm as it whipped past. He immediately pulled out a small comb to fix them…

BEEP—The referee raised his arm toward Garry’s team, signaling their point.

The entire arena went dead silent.

The first to react was Xu Zichang.

He had just pushed himself to his absolute limit, leaping as high as he could, and still hadn’t touched the ball. His eyes blazed, “Ning Yang! I risked my life to keep that ball alive, and you squandered it like this!”

Ning Yang didn’t have time to argue, sneaking glances at the coaches’ bench—Coach Luo was wholly focused on combing his bangs, while Ning Xu stood frozen with the ball in his arms, not daring to move…

“Pffft!”

Ning Zhou tried his best to laugh quietly, giving Ning Yang a thumbs-up, “Nice set, perfect chance for Assistant Coach Ning to spike it right on the spot!”

The audience, who had been holding it in, couldn’t keep straight faces anymore, “Haha, the libero just got jinxed into a mistake, but hey, at least he looked cool doing it…”

“He dared to threaten Coach Luo’s precious bangs with that set—he’s doomed, he’s definitely gonna get ‘special attention’ now!”

“Would love to interview Assistant Coach Ning—any regrets? Raising Ning Yang only to end up covering for his blunders, hahaha!”

…

Ning Yang apologized to the coaching staff and awkwardly jogged back to his teammates, “Uh… I just came on, wasn’t fully warmed up. My set was a bit off…”

“A bit off?!” Xu Zichang clutched his shoulder regretfully. “You wasted my brilliant defense!”

“Sorry, next ball!”

Ning Yang’s sincerity eased the mood, and Xu Zichang decided to give him another chance. In the following rallies, Garry’s team attacked with ease—One reason was that short setter Ning Zhou was in the front row. His height disadvantage made his blocking less effective.

The other reason was—

“Don’t worry, I’ll defend this!”

Libero Ning Yang shouted this every time, then threw himself around with dives and rolls, drawing gasps from the crowd. Not a single ball was saved…

Ning Zhou stared at the floor, lost in thought, “As expected, every time you defend, the court gets nice and clean…”

His teammates followed his gaze—Within Ning Yang’s defensive range, the floor shone spotless, the kind of sparkle that would make a janitor overjoyed.

Du Jun clapped Ning Yang’s back, trying to console him: “Good effort. At least you worked hard…”

“Brother Du, your insults are high-class!” Xu Zichang laughed until his stomach hurt. “Ning Yang, why do you do all those fancy moves if they don’t work? Luckily Assistant Coach Ning picked you first, otherwise you’d have been snatched up by the acrobatics troupe!”

On the sidelines, Assistant Coach Hou’s frown deepened, his glasses flashing sharply, “Assistant Coach Ning, not only do I fail to see Ning Zhou’s so-called talent, I can’t even tell what talent Ning Yang supposedly has…”

Coach Luo tucked away his comb and teased, “So far, Ning Yang seems to have the talent of keeping the atmosphere cheerful.”

“He…” Ning Xu rubbed his forehead, struggling to explain. “He does need to train his defense more.”

…

On Garry’s bench, “Trash-Talker” Middle Blocker bounced his leg nervously, gnawing on his fingernails, “This is torture to watch. Why isn’t that shady setter pulling tricks anymore? Was it just me he targeted?”

“Because their first pass hasn’t been stable, Ning Zhou hasn’t had a chance to run the offense.”

Middle blocker Chen Wenyao—towering at 210cm, making the chair look tiny beneath him—added his analysis, “That young outside hitter, Xu Zichang, has shaky receptions. They’ve been serving at him every rotation.

If their team can just stabilize the first pass, things might turn around…”

“Trash-Talker” nodded. “Exactly. If they get clean receptions, we won’t be the only middle blockers suffering from that setter’s tricks!”

Just as they braced for a new recruit to the “Victimized Middles Alliance,” Garry subbed in another serving specialist—This time, not Yu Bai, but a former core player, a burly veteran.

“Trash-Talker” turned his head and noticed Chen Wenyao’s face suddenly grow grim, “What, is his serve that dangerous? I hardly saw him in past nationals.”

“Serving is his specialty. But he faded from the international scene after an ankle injury. Only recently has he started training again.”

Chen Wenyao clenched his hands, cold sweat on his palms, “Damn, Assistant Coach Ning’s team is about to get destroyed on serve again!”

BEEP—

The substitute server bounced the ball on the floor, each thud a heavy, dull sound—clearly a power server…

Strength coiled deep, solid as a mountain.

His toss was lower than most. The moment the ball left his hand, he whipped his arm through, smashing down. Not only did he pour his own force into the ball, but he also harnessed the momentum from his running steps.

The ball wasn’t as fast as Yu Bai’s, but it spun violently, like a catapulted boulder, crashing heavily into the opponent’s court—

BOOM—

The sound of the serve alone made the audience’s hearts tighten, “That ball looks brutal. It’s spinning too much—any tiny mis-angle on the arms and it’ll ricochet out!”

“I’ve received his serves before—it’s like getting stomped by an elephant. Honestly, just getting it up in the air is already ideal. A perfect pass? Forget it…”

“Crushing the opponent with sheer power—perfectly in line with Assistant Coach Garry’s philosophy…”

The volleyball whistled just above the net, smashing straight into Ning Yang’s passing zone. Everyone watching silently lit a candle for him in their hearts… But on court, there was one person who remained completely unshaken.

Ning Zhou gauged the ball’s trajectory with his eyes, relaxed, and even had the leisure to mutter to himself, “If it flies to your side, I’ll just stand here and wait!”

…

Ning Yang crouched very low, eyes locked unblinking on the ball.

Spin direction, angle of tilt, rotation speed—In his pupils, the crisscrossing seams on the spinning volleyball reflected back with such clarity it was as if the ball’s speed had slowed dozens of times over. At the instant the ball touched his forearms, he bent his knees deeper, absorbing not just the sheer force of the serve but also dispersing the vicious spin. In just that split second, the volleyball transformed—from savage, violent, and brutal—to soft, calm, and light.

“With just one pass!?”

Middle blocker Chen Wenyao, the team’s tallest player, felt goosebumps erupt up his arms. His voice cracked without him realizing, “He perfectly handled that kind of serve with just one touch!”

Even though middle blockers rarely take first passes, he could still tell how brilliant that reception had been…

“Trash Talk” smacked his fist into his palm, suddenly enlightened, “I remember now! In the domestic league, Ning Yang’s defensive stats weren’t as good as other liberos.

But he was called the ‘King of Serve Reception’!”

It wasn’t just the players watching who were stunned—the coaching staff were also left gaping. Assistant Coach Hou clenched his pen so hard the pressure snapped into his voice, “Impossible. The very first time facing that server, not even an elite international libero would dare guarantee a perfect first pass!”

Ning Xu’s brows finally relaxed, “Purely in terms of serve reception, Ning Yang could already rank in the world’s top ten.”

Coach Luo gave a small nod, his smile deepening: “Indeed, very good. If he can polish his defense, his future is limitless…”

“His defense… even though he’s been a libero since childhood, it’s still mediocre. Many people say he’s ‘unbalanced’ in skill.”

Assistant Hou absentmindedly jabbed his pen at the paper, “Why such a huge gap between the two skills? Does it have to do with so-called ‘talent’?”

Ning Xu’s expression turned serious again as he explained, “That’s right. Ning Yang’s serve reception relies heavily on talent—

His eyesight is sharper than most people’s. According to him, he can see the spin of a serve with one hundred percent clarity. But because he relies too much on vision, when defending he tends to pause and observe the ball first—often missing the best chance to dig it.”

Assistant Hou fell into thought, his eyes locking onto the volleyball Ning Yang had just passed up. He pressed on, “Isn’t his reception arc a little too high?”

Ning Xu raised his gaze as well. The ball traced a parabola, its peak noticeably higher than the first passes of most others.

“When Ning Yang and Ning Zhou are both on court, he deliberately sends the ball higher…”

For once, a rare smile tugged at Ning Xu’s lips, his voice lowering, “That’s their secret code—My part’s done. The rest is up to you!”

Ning Zhou, as if taking a baton in a relay, only shifted his feet slightly and was right at the ball’s landing point. That higher reception extended the ball’s hang time, buying Ning Zhou an extra fraction of a second of vision…

Once he was set, he raised his arms, and his eyes swept “downward.”

Across the net, he took in the positions of all six opponents—their stances, the direction of their toes, their movement tendencies—everything was laid bare. On the opposing side, their middle blocker rotation had brought his dorm mate, Nie Feiang, to the front row.

Nie Feiang’s explosive jump speed was outstanding. If given a quick set in the middle, even if his reaction was half a beat late, he could still keep pace with the tempo. If the set went to a back-row attack, even if Nie was faked into jumping, he might still catch up with a second jump thanks to that same explosive spring.

So—the middle was out of the question. Ning Zhou tightened his core and flicked the ball with his fingers—The volleyball traced a sharp, flat arc, landing perfectly at position 4, the left-side hitter’s attack spot. Nie Feiang scrambled in a panic, trying to chase it down, but his footwork on the block was clumsy, and his blocking partner wasn’t even in place.

The middle block was completely useless…

“Atta boy! I’ll set my longtime fan club member as much as I can!”

Xu Zichang spotted the gap in the block and smashed the ball between the outside blocker and Nie Feiang.

Point scored!

Ning Zhou raised his brows and flashed Nie Feiang a grin. As expected—when dealing with a “big lug” who’s slow on the move, just make him chase the ball across the whole net.

Fuming, Nie Feiang grabbed the net: “Ning Zhou, just wait—I’ll block your next set. Don’t think I’ll hold back just because we’re dorm mates!”

Ning Zhou stretched his hand under the net, caught Nie Feiang’s, and shook it up and down, “Mm-hm, same here!”

“Who wants to shake hands with you!?” Nie Feiang yanked his hand back, gave a sharp “Hmph,” and turned away in a huff…

Ning Zhou: …

So much fun. I’ll toy with him a few more times later!

On Garry’s bench, “Trash Talk” and Chen Wenyao were thoroughly entertained, already waiting for a new “victim” to join their Sad Middle Blockers Alliance, “Quick, find out that middle blocker’s name. We’ll be comforting him soon enough!”

“Haha, got it, Brother Chen. Our brotherhood just keeps growing!”

…

With Ning Yang and Ning Zhou—the “golden duo”—holding the fort, both spikers Du Jun and Xu Zichang found their attacking rhythm fired up. Their team gradually pulled ahead in score. Ning Zhou’s touch on the game only grew sharper. His body felt warm, his fingers more and more nimble, and he even felt as though he had never been reborn— as if everything before this had been just a nightmare…

“Ning Zhou, dig!”

The urgent cry snapped him back to focus. He sprinted after the ball, estimating the distance between himself and the landing spot—A dive is enough to save it!

He pushed off the ground, and just as his body stretched out, his head suddenly throbbed with a needle-like pain…

Ning Zhou felt as if he were being pulled into a whirlpool, unable to control his consciousness.

By the time he realized what was happening, his body had already curled up, crashing to the floor and rolling forward once.

The volleyball landed and bounced right in front of his eyes. Around him, players’ worried voices called out: “Are you okay?”

Ning Zhou’s heart skipped a beat, and his fingers wouldn’t stop trembling—Why… why can’t I dive anymore?

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