Chapter 15: Fail the mission and become female King Kong?!!

After Su Chenyu left that day, Wen Jiexi's peaceful life remained. She still attended her classes, studied at the library, ate in the cafeteria and wandered around the school triggering more blue and even some yellow missions. Her monthly mission was already at the 90% mark and she felt rather satisfied by this outcome. Finally, she continued to binge-watch the dramas with Li Lingmeng and of course, practiced her basketball! 

To understand why Wen Jiexi would practice basketball, one had to go back a few days. As a sophomore, there were many different school activities one could participate in, however, the basketball tournament was one of the more important events. It was further divided into a men's basketball team and a women's basketball team.

In Wen Jiexi's grade, although the gender ratio was roughly equal, most of the girls couldn't be considered to be basketball players. They could only dribble a bit, but couldn't shoot the ball, so making any baskets was a big problem for them. There were only a few who could really play, but fortunately, there were enough to form a team of five. Not a large number, but it would suffice. 

During this time, Wen Jiexi completely destroyed everyone's three views of the world. So although in name she was still the 'sick beauty', with just a wave of the department head's hand, Wen Jiexi was able to enter the team. Li Lingmeng was naturally also a member, and the other three players were from different sports clubs who wanted to play basketball as a second sport. 

Originally, Wen Jiexi wanted to refuse the offer because she never played basketball before. If she didn't understand the rules, wouldn't she just be causing trouble instead? But Li Lingmeng showed her a copy of the other players' info and pointed at the sports clubs they attended. If you wanted to be nice, you could call them sports clubs, but they were sports not related to playing with a ball at all. Two of them did swimming, the other one danced, so other than maybe their physical fitness is better than the regular person, could they even play basketball with those sports as a background? 

Wen Jiexi thought about it, their department's team was focused on participation, not winning. So she nodded and watched as Li Lingmeng rushed to sign them up. The moment she disappeared from her sight,

"Huh…Jiexi, there's a yellow mission! A yellow mission with a rich reward has appeared!" Dango exclaimed. 

Eh? What?

"As long as you finish first in the tournament, you can get 8000 points towards your monthly mission! As long as you complete this, your golden mission will be done too!" Dango laughed joyfully. 

8000 points? Wen Jiexi raised her eyebrows. That amount won't be easy to earn. There were dozens of different departments in her school and each department must send out at least one team. If they lost a game, that was it, there was no possibility of a comeback. After all, an elimination tournament was much faster. She calculated that she needed to win at least six games to reach the championship. However, the number of games wasn't a problem. Her biggest problem is that she didn't know how to play basketball. Plus, adding on the three other unreliable teammates, although talking about it was easy, actually winning the championship was not. Furthermore, don't forget about the sports department. It wasn't there just for show, they were carnivores that devoured the weak. 

If one thought about it, an average yellow task was around 1500 points. Those tasks were easy and she just needed a few more, she didn't want to fight to the death. She remembered that the richer the rewards, the harsher the punishments. Wen Jiexi didn't want to take any risks, for if she failed, she would be finished. 

However, it's a pity that every party will have a pig teammate. Besides her, Dango smiled happily,

"Jiexi, I saw that the reward was very high so I accepted it for you, hehe!" Dango wore an expression that seemed to say 'Praise me! Quickly praise me!' while looking at Wen Jiexi. In its mind, as long as there is a yellow task, Wen Jiexi will accept them all and she will definitely complete it, 100% guaranteed! Dango had the utmost confidence in its contractor so seeing that rich reward that makes one drool, Dango automatically accepted it. 

"?!" Wen Jiexi's eyes widened and she stared at Dango, causing Dango's translucent body to tremble a little. 

"W-What's wrong?" Feeling a little uneasy, Dango touched its body with its little arms. This was Dango's first time seeing the contractor glare like that. What was wrong? Did Dango do something wrong? 

"…What is the penalty for failure?" Wen Jiexi took a deep breath to calm down before asking.

"Uh..this…" Dango felt ashamed, actually forgot to look…quickly glanced back at it and then said drily, 

"Become a female King Kong for two months…."

Wen Jiexi's expression changed. Heavens! Frightened by her expression, Dango quickly shrunk into a ball, learning its lesson, never daring to accept a task without asking first next time. 

And that is the reason why she practiced basketball so frantically, just thinking about it caused her to cry bitter tears. Li Lingmeng also felt strange about the whole thing, why was Wen Jiexi so enthusiastic about this? She was dragging herself to practice every day and playing like she was injected with chicken blood. 

And so today….

"Little Xi, pass!" Li Lingmeng quickly passed the ball into Wen Jiexi's hands. Wen Jiexi grabbed the ball, broke into a run, and performed a layup. Beep! She scored. 

"Huuuuu…." Wen Jiexi wiped the sweat on her forehead and clapped her hands in a high five with Li Lingmeng and also nodded at the rest of the team before returning to their positions. 

Around them, a large crowd watched them. After four days of intense competition, they finally arrived on the day of the championship game. Wen Jiexi's team was able to make it half because of luck and half because of their hard work and practice. However, as expected, their opponents were the carnivorous sports department. Four of their members were part of the school's basketball team and the fifth member was equally as good. 

Although they were able to score a lot of points, the gap between them was gradually widening, causing one to feel anything by reassuring. 

At halftime, Li Lingmeng gulped down her sports drink, wiped her mouth and then looked at the score. She touched her chin and then asked Wen Jiexi, 

"Eh, Little Xi, do you know what three-pointers are?" 

"Three points?" Wen Jiexi, who was already being harassed by the panicking Dango, felt somewhat helpless and distressed. She pretended to fix her hair, but she was actually just patting Dango's head to tell Dango to be quiet as she looked over at Li Lingmeng. 

They had only practiced a few days before they started the games. Wen Jiexi only understood the basic rules, even her layups, and other shots were not a guarantee. How can she possibly make a three-pointer?

"Look, the gap is growing wider, so might as well try it. You're the one with the most strength and endurance here. Maybe you'll get lucky and put in a few, that way our score won't look too ugly. If anyone else can make a basket, then just throw it up. If you can't, then quickly pass. If we have to then let's fight it out, don't let the gap become too big." Li Lingmeng gathered everyone and told them her opinion. 

"I don't mind." Wen Jiexi waved her hand. A three-pointer was just that, a shot that if she made it in would score them three points. She knew where the three-point line was, and just because she hadn't won didn't mean she couldn't win! I can't fail and hide my face for two months! That absolutely cannot happen! 

The other three teammates didn't have any opinions. They wiped their sweat and looked at the sports department laughing across from them. Their eyes were full of desire to compete. Originally, they only joined to fill in the required number, but now they had come all this way. As they continued to climb up the tournament they also began to practice seriously. It seems that the allure of winning the championship was one that no one could resist. Anyhow, duking it out to their last breath was nothing.

Beep! The game started again and Wen Jiexi shot the ball. The first time it was too close, the third time too far, the fifth time it hit the backboard, and finally on the eighth time, as it hit the rim, Wen Jiexi's eyes flashed. She had finally found the feeling. 

The girl from the sports department had watched Wen Jiexi's movements, she was surprised at first but then quickly disapproved of her strategy. Although making a three-pointer sounded nice, one had to have no mistake in their posture and if the strength was too little or too much, there was a great chance of failure. Even those from the school's basketball team couldn't guarantee they'll make it every time. 

However, they didn't know that in order to control her body's enormous strength, Wen Jiexi practiced every day. In addition to preventing her body from causing damage, she also needs to make it so that others wouldn't feel uncomfortable under her touch. That type of precise control was not something a person from the basketball team could compare. Plus, one couldn't forget about her unlimited strength. 

Shuaaa! On the tenth try, the ball flew smoothly in the air and through the net in the most beautiful arc. 

For a moment, there was silence, and then came the thunderous cheers. In this game, the number of three-pointers made was few, to say the least, even the sports department hadn't made many, so most weren't optimistic about Wen Jiexi and her ragged team. And because of this fact, Li Lingmeng and the others' morale soared. 

Bringing out their full force and taking advantage of the sports department's shock, they scored a few more points and the gap in their scores was now only 18 points! 

The sports department finally reacted, and the competition between the two teams became even more intense, but with Wen Jiexi's three-pointers, one after another, they were slowly catching up. 

Shuaa! Another three-pointer! At this point, everyone felt numb towards this phenomenon while the players from the sports department had their eyes bulging out of their sockets. Finally, they decided to have two players guard Wen Jiexi. In their eyes, except for Wen Jiexi, they were not afraid of the other players on her team. 

However, although they couldn't compare to Wen Jiexi, the other people had their own strengths. Even if they're shooting was mediocre, with the explosive force of the swimming team, the flexibility of the dance club, and although Li Lingmeng wasn't part of a club, she had energy, so they were on equal grounds with the sports department! They were able to score a few points and with Wen Jiexi's three-pointers, the battle got even fiercer, and the cheers even louder.

In the end, by one point, Wen Jiexi's team won. The entire stadium was shaken, no one believed that they could win against the sports department who had dominated every game. Li Lingmeng turned to her department and shouted, 

"Everyone, follow me! Today, I will treat everyone! All drinks and food are on me!"

The cheers got even louder. 

"Ahahahaha! Jiexi, you're the best! You did it! It's done! The golden mission is complete!" Dango smiled crazily, shouting and jumping near Wen Jeixi's ear, making it hard for her to hear the 'mission complete' signal from the system. 

Suddenly, Wen Jiexi's hand was grabbed by someone. It was the captain of the sports department team. She looked very excited despite the final results, her eyes full of longing as if she was looking at prey, she said, 

"Beauty, you must join the basketball team! Our basketball team needs you! As long as you join our team you definitely become the ace of our team…

Facing so many expected looks and the relentless promotions of their team, Wen Jiexi could only bitterly smile. However, she did not notice that not too far away, near the stairs, a pair of fiery eyes were looking at her…