Chapter 7: The 5 Basics
"System, does this mean what I think it means?", Reo questioned in shock as he read the skill's description.
Jumping 20 inches into the air!
If one must know, he was on the verge of turning 11 in the next few months.
An 11 year old! Furthermore, an 11 year old that could jump 20 inches vertically!
It was a known fact that the norm height reached by jumping vertically at 11 years old was only 12.1 inches! And this was for athletes!
With this skill, Reo would be able to jump a whole 8 inches higher than the norm! His jumping ability would be on par with the athletes in high school if not greater!
If any coach knew about this ability, they would not hesitate to send their offer letters to Reo to invite him to their school.
If one could jump 20 inches at 11 years old, just thinking about his future potential would give them goosebumps.
This would make him a natural born dunkmaster!
[Of course but since your physique is only half of the required amount, the amount of power you exert will only be half as well. As such, you can only jump 10 inches at this moment!]
[Now do you understand why this skill isn't suitable for you?! This skill is useless for you! You would be better off starting with some Common Grade Skills! At least then, you would possess the basic skills needed to play the game!]
Just like that, the system didn't hesitate to pour a bucket of cold water over all his excited emotions.
Thinking about it, Reo found that the system did make sense.
With his current physique, he was only able to utilize 50% of the skill's ability which was only 10 inches. This was a whole 2 inches lower than the norm of 11 year old athletes.
In short, this skill was utterly useless to him right now.
With this in mind, Reo felt like he had been tricked.
He had originally been rejoicing about obtaining a Rare Grade Skill but now,he found that the skill was completely useless instead.
As if sensing Reo's thoughts, the system couldn't help but remark.
[This is nothing to feel disheartened about, Host! While this skill might be useless to you now, it will surely become a formidable weapon for you in the future!]
[Also, you will be able to obtain all of the Common Grade Skills through sheer practice alone!]
Reo was confused now. There was the matter of obtaining the Common Grade Skills but there was also another thing.
Was this system bipolar or something? One minute it was proclaiming itself as a god and cursing all existences beneath it while in the next moment, it became benevolent to all the existences beneath it.
However, Reo chose not to rack his brain over this matter. Trying to figure the system out was like trying to find out why the moon existed in the first place.
"System, does that mean that I can obtain all the skills provided by the system through sheer practice?", Reo asked.
[Of course not! Then, what use would I be then?!]
[Only Common Grade Skills can be obtained through sheer practice! All the other skills above Common Grade will be randomly obtained once progress in your skills!]
"Then, how do I obtain the higher grade skills?", Reo wondered.
[Hmph! How to do this, how to do that! Do you think that I'm that damned Google?!]
[Go to sleep, you brat! You have already wasted enough of this mighty one's time for one lifetime already! If you want to know how to do it, you must find out yourself!]
[Goodbye!]
Reo was at a loss now.
What just happened?
Did the system suddenly shut itself away from him?
"System? Oi, system! Wake up, your humble host needs your benevolent guidance!",Reo shouted as he pleaded for the system.
However, after roughly 5 minutes of pleading, there was still no answer.
This naturally caused Reo to be infuriated!
"Why you damned system! You think I can't figure out your functions by myself?!"
"Fine! I will impress you so much so until you will beg me to become your host! Then lets see who will be the mighty one then!", Reo vented his frustrations to the empty air.
Seeing that there is nothing he could do, Reo reluctantly tidied himself up before going into bed.
However....Unbeknownst to him, somewhere in the void, the system was trembling in rage as it tried to control it's anger.
It had heard everything that Reo said!
. . . . . . . . . . . . .
The next day, Reo's father had once again woken him up early.
However, it was not to go shopping this time but to start his practice for playing basketball!
While Reo was asleep, the people from Sports Direct had arrived early in the morning to install the new basketball stand in the backyard of his house.
Now that they had a fully functional basketball stand, Reo and his father could finally get their practice underway.
Standing in their small backyard, Reo's father looked at his son with a complex gaze.
The installation of the basketball stand and the absurd amount of money spent on it was all because of his son.
Thus, he could only hope and pray that his son possessed exceptional talent at least in middle school so that the buy would be worth it.
However, he would first have to teach his son the basics of the game.
"Reo, tell me....What exactly do you know about basketball?", his father asked.
Reo thought about the question for a while before replying.
"It's a game that is played between two teams which consists of 5 players each. Their main objective is to score goals by throwing the ball through the hoop"
"Each ball within the three-pointer line is awarded with 2 points while the balls from outside the three-pointer line are awarded with 3 points instead"
"There are also the free throws awarded in the case of a foul and each free throw is awarded with 1 point each"
Reo's father nodded in satisfaction. He then continued speaking.
"So far, you know about the scoring system of the game but you have yet to learn the rules. I will cover the rules at a later date but for now, I will teach you the 5 basics in basketball"
Reo's concentration spiked when he heard this.
In his past life, Reo was never able to do any physical sports so he spent most of his time researching online and learning new things. Whether it was a new language or information, he would learn them all.
Of course, he had come across the 5 basics of basketball before. In fact, he knew about them deeply but just never had the chance to practice it.
The 5 basic skills of basketball;
Dribbling
Passing
Shooting
Rebounding
Defense
In every game, these 5 skills would always come into play no matter what. As such, if a player wanted to excel in the game, they must first and foremost solidify their basics.
In this world, Reo was certain that these 5 basics would surely be taught to students even in elementary school so that when it was time for them to advance to middle school or even high school, they would already have a firm foundation in their basics.
However, Reo had yet to learn any of these 5 basics and he was already 10 years old!
This gave Reo a serious disadvantage against the other players his age. Although Reo was knowledgeable about the 5 basics, he had never actually practiced them so he only had a rough idea of what it was about.
Knowledge and experience were both separate aspects in one gameplay. While Reo was knowledgeable about it, he seriously lacked experience which could be his shortcoming.
Thus, Reo's father decided to train Reo up as much as he could for now.
Holding the basketball in his hand, Reo's father looked at Reo with an expressionless face.
"While all of the 5 basics have their own uses, the most important basic will be dribbling"
"Even if you could score a three-pointer or even a dunk, it doesn't matter if your dribbling is bad. Bad dribbling makes it easier for a steal to occur and can easily turn the game around if your opponent has a high steal and shooting percentage"
"Another important thing is that bad dribbling will also make for bad passes. If your teammate takes time to adapt to your bad passes, the opponent can easily steal the ball and make a quick counter"
As Reo's father continued explaining, Reo listened intently as well.
Even though it was just the basics of basics, all of it was equally important.
In a game, there were too many factors that could affect the outcome so eliminating even one factor could make the game take a turn for the better.
"Today, we will be focusing solely on dribbling. After demonstrating the movements to you a few times, you will have to practice it on your own until night"
"This is for you to get used to the rhythm and to let your muscles slowly adapt to the motion but don't worry about making any mistakes because I will be here to point them out", his father said grinning.
Reo felt his vision spinning as he doubted whether he heard his father's words correctly.
Practice until night?
What the hell was this? Why does everyone seem to want to torture me?
First that damned system and now you, father! Where was the love between father and son?!
And what get the muscles used to it? He would surely die before his muscles got used to it at all.
However, looking at his father's smile which resembled the smile of devil, Reo knew that he was in a deadlock.
Gritting his teeth, Reo made his decision.
The path to the strongest had to start somewhere and all those big stars surely would have had a rocky start as well.
This can only be considered breaking the back before climbing the mountain.
So, steeling himself, Reo prepared his heart for the next few hours of gruesome training.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone