It was finally the day of the long-awaited ga.
France vs. China.
Their one-way ticket to the semi-finals. It was officially the knockout rounds, and with one loss, they were out of the gas.
The air inside the stadium was crazy. You would think this was the semi-finals already! Fans waved flags, faces painted in bold colors, and voices chanted as the players ward up on the court.
The Chinese team sat on the bench, their eyes scanning the French players, who all looked pretty relaxed despite it being the quarter-finals.
Well, of course, they would be relaxed. They had been in the Global Gas more tis than Jimmy felt inferior to Kai!
anwhile, Aiden sat in the corner of the bench, his elbows against his knees, staring at the ground in deep thought.
From afar, it looked like he was ditating.
"See?" Max whispered to Zheng. "I think he's back to normal."
Zheng nodded, a small smile of relief crossing his face. "Thank goodness. We need him for this ga."
Jimmy, sitting nearby with his arms crossed, rolled his eyes. "He's not normal," he muttered. "He hasn't been for a while now."
Before the conversation could continue, Max squinted at Aiden.
Instead of a serious expression, Max found a soft one, with Aiden's shoulders rising and falling in a steady rhythm.
"Wait a minute," Max said, leaning forward. "Is he…sleeping?"
Jian's head whipped around. "No way."
Kai, sitting further down the bench in Aiden's wheelchair, noticed the commotion. When he saw Aiden slumped over and lightly snoring, he grimaced. "I told him to take this seriously," he muttered while searching on his phone for how to switch bodies.
However, most articles just directed him to a self-help site.
Max nudged Aiden, who jerked awake with a start. "Huh? What? Did we win?" he mumbled groggily.
Jian groaned. "We haven't even started."
Kai pinched the bridge of his nose. Well, he couldn't really bla Aiden for being exhausted. They'd spent all night trying every possible thod to switch back into their original bodies.
They'd scoured the internet, diving into forums run by conspiracy theorists. They watched countless terrible movies, hoping to glean so clues from fictional body-switching tales.
None of it worked. Not the special chant, not the crystal under the moonlight, and certainly not the suggestion to bump heads again while eating sothing sour.
Now, here they were, on the biggest stage, completely unprepared.
The ga was set to begin, and the announcers' voices bood over the speakers.
"Ladies and gentlen, welco to the highly anticipated match between Team China and Team France! France, the 1st runner-up of the last Global Gas, has set their eyes on grabbing the gold dal."
"But don't count Team China out! They've shown incredible growth, led by the rising star, Kai Guo!"
Aiden winced at the ntion of his na. He loved attention—that much was obvious. But even this was too much for him!
In the crowd, Chinese fans waved their flags with enthusiasm. They didn't have high expectations—France was a juggernaut—but the fans couldn't help but feel a glimr of hope.
"Kai, you're up first," Coach Xu Wei said, clapping Aiden on the shoulder.
Aiden froze, looking back at Kai, who mouthed, "Don't screw this up!"
Joining on the court were Marcus, Caleb, Jian, and Jaw-Long. It was one of their strongest lineups. He took a deep breath and stepped onto the court.
The whistle blew, and the ga finally began. France dominated the tip-off, imdiately displaying their sharp passes and fluid plays. But Aiden, much to his own surprise, held up fairly well in the opening minutes.
He kept up with the pace, his speed and strength compensating for his lack of technical skills. He managed a few decent passes and even snagged a rebound.
The comntators were cautiously optimistic.
"Kai Guo looks like he's carrying his team as usual, but sothing seems…off. His movents lack their usual precision."
The French players noticed, too. They began pressing harder, testing Aiden's limits.
Aiden caught the ball near the three-point line. Feeling the pressure of the defense closing in, he panicked. His feet shuffled awkwardly as he tried to decide whether to pass or drive, resulting in an obvious traveling violation.
The referee's whistle pierced the air.
"Traveling! Ball to France!"
The crowd groaned, and Aiden's teammates stared at him in disbelief.
"Oh, what a rookie mistake!" Gina exclaid.
Kai buried his face in his hands.
"Get it together!" Marcus hissed as they reset for defense.
A few plays later, Aiden found himself with another opportunity to score. He was wide open, and the crowd held its breath as he lined up the shot.
He launched the ball…and it sailed over the rim, hitting nothing but air.
A ringless shot.
The stadium fell into an awkward silence, broken only by the muffled laughter of a few French fans.
"What is he doing?" one of the fans muttered.
Aiden could feel the glares from his teammates burning into his back.
He glanced at Kai, who was instinctively moving his hands like he was dribbling a basketball.
He was itching to play.
He wanted to scream at Aiden, but then again, he knew he was trying his best. It would be like asking a baby to speak when it ca right out of the womb.
It was simply impossible.
Kai glanced at the bench and saw Coach Xu Wei frowning at the scene. Aiden was a hot ss, and there was no escaping it.
The French team was also not a team that could be taken so lightly. In fact, they were enjoying the blunder Aiden was showing.
"So, this is the kid everyone has been talking about?" one of them chuckled.
"He's not that special."
"Yeah, people must be blind. He plays like a complete beginner."
Coach Xu Wei called for a ti-out, and Kai could see how Aiden was being scolded. For a mont, he felt bad for him.
However, his determination surged through.
He focused on his phone once more. He didn't know how many pages he had gone through, but it seed like he had landed on the last one.
It was an anonymous post. No views. No reactions. No comnts.
"How I switched bodies with my professor," it read.
It didn't have much context—not that Kai had the luxury to read through it all.
Then, he read the last word.
"Die?"
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