OBS Chapter 286: Playing with His Balls
Chapter 286: Playing with His Balls
Harlan Reiss... Nash’s brain processed the information.It made zero sense at first. Why would Hector dump his prize assets onto the real owner of the Midnight Rest? I fact, why was he even receiving so much attention from the CEO of Apex?
If Harlan was a ghost in the Underground, what was the goal of a move such as transferring the Baby-Boom roster to him? What was Monique’s situation now? And what would that mean for the girls?
"Nash?" Aiko’s voice came through the receiver, pulling him back from his thoughts. "You’re still there? You went completely quiet."
"Yeah, I am here," Nash said as he checked the clock on his screen. The pre-game countdown was ticking away. He had to get inside the locker room in less than five minutes.
"Listen, that news about Reiss is huge. We need to dig into that."
"I knew it," Aiko murmured, her voice sounding a little proud that she had actually helped him. "I will keep my ears open. If I hear anything else, I will call you right away."
"Good. Don’t get caught sneaking around," Nash teased softly. "Go get some rest. I have to go deal with my match now."
"Tch... like I would get caught," she huffed, but then her tone softened, becoming all sweet and sugar. "Hey... Nash? Good luck out there tonight. Do not lose to those bums."
Nash let out a rare chuckle, a ray of sunshine cutting through the darkness of his mood.
"Thanks. Tell you what, just for you, I promise to try and face-plant during the last quarter. Just as a little tribute to your spectacular performance last time."
"Aho!" Aiko barked, a sudden, letting out a bright laugh before she slammed her palm over her mouth. "You jerk! Go break your ankles for real! Bye!"
The call ended. Nash put away his cell phone, the smile on his face slowly fading away as he breathed in deeply. He put the cell phone in his pocket and made his way down the corridor to go straight into the Blacklist locker room.
He opened the door, and found himself in front of pure drama.
All five boys were cornered near the center tables, yelling over each other, while in front of them, Dahlia and two staff members were waving their hands frantically, trying to suppress the noise.
"You guys need to calm down right now!" Dahlia shouted, her voice completely cracking under the stress. "The stadium security lines are right outside the corridor!"
"Forget security!" one of the NPCs barked back, slamming his fist against a locker door. "Rumors explicitly state that you’re bringing Baby-Boom to Blacklist! We saw the leak! You’re trying to clear out spots for an idol group from the surface!"
Jaz, Nia, and Alicia were standing near the benches on the left, getting more and more irritated by the situation. Now, it was clear why Nash wanted to keep it secret.
"Oh, be quiet and calm down!" Alicia snapped, crossing her arms tightly. "You don’t even know what you are talking about!"
Victoria stood completely separated from the chaos, leaning her back against the far brick wall. Her arms were crossed over her chest, her face perfectly still behind her dark sunglasses. She looked completely indifferent, watching the chaos with a freezing, unbothered detachment.
But beneath her silence, her mind was somewhere else. She was remembering this voice from long ago, and the heavy words she could never forget: You will lose everything, little by little, until you crawl right back to my feet.
A slow, cold smile actually crept onto her lips in the middle of the shouting.
Let them yell. Let the building burn. It was already hell and she was used to it. The absolute disaster was her drug and only made her blood run faster.
Then, Nash walked into the center of the room.
He did not shout. He did not say a word. He just took three steps toward the middle of the floor, his massive frame instantly cutting the players’ voices straight in half. The entire locker room went dead quiet.
Nash kept walking until he stood right in front of Victoria, the woman rising slightly her face to look at his back. He positioned himself directly between her and the angry players, acting as a massive, solid shield.
The staff member quickly stepped forward, trying to patch the hole.
"Look, boys, Nash is here now. Like I was saying, your contracts are safe, your positions are not threatened—"
"Their positions are absolutely threatened," Nash cut him off, silencing the room again, then several gasps rose.
Dahlia’s jaw dropped.
"Nash, come on... please, it is already so complicated today..."
"I was going to bring the Baby-Boom here," Nash continued casually, completely ignoring Dahlia. "And the second their registration cleared the league desk, you were getting thrown straight into the street, back to square one. The only ones staying on this roster are the girls. You guys were done."
A sudden wave of frustration and angry muttering exploded from the boys. They looked at each other, their faces showing a mix of fear and anger.
That was when Jinzo saw his moment to shine.
He stepped forward from the back of the group, a mocking, ugly grin spreading across his face. He looked at the other players, raising his hands to hype them up, completely leading the revolution now.
"You hear this, dogs?" Jinzo laughed loudly as he pointed at Nash. "He is not even hiding it anymore! The golden boy wants to clear the entire team just so he can build himself a private harem! He wants to destroy our whole circuit standing just to satisfy his lust, and Ma’am is just letting him do it!"
The other players started shouting in agreement, their anger rising as Jinzo fueled the revolt. The staff members and Dahlia watched with deep worry, the situation spiraling completely out of control.
Victoria stood perfectly still behind Nash’s back. Normally, she would let them spill their rage before giving an ultimatum, but this time, her usual ways met an anomaly: Nash’s back.
His shoulders were so wide that she could not even see Jinzo or the rest of the players anymore.
It was like... The problem was here, but with Nash standing there, she couldn’t see, nor feel it, just like against Hector. He was a perfect, immovable shield in front of her.
Her eyebrows frowned slightly beneath her dark glasses, her fingers tightening against her arms.
Nash did not move. He just stood there, letting Jinzo speak, letting him build up his little victory in front of the guys.
Jinzo took another step closer, totally riding the high of his own hype. He stopped right in front of Nash, looking up at him, and aggressively poked Nash’s chest with his index finger.
"You think you’re a god now, dude? You think you can just step on our lives—"
Nash moved so fast it didn’t even look real.
He didn’t hit him. He just took a single step forward, his massive frame closing the distance until his chest practically crushed Jinzo’s hand back against his own body. The suffocating pressure of his stance made Jinzo choke on his next breath.
"There’s little time left, are you done?" Nash asked, his voice dropping into a freezing tone that made the entire room stiffen.
Jinzo’s finger froze against Nash’s jacket. He tried to maintain his smug grin, but his eyes darted nervously toward his friends, and like the idiot who realized too late that as he stood for them, nobody followed him, here too, nobody moved to help him.
"You want the truth, Jinzo?" Nash asked. "Then, let’s be real. You’re complaining about your spots? Tell me, is there a single guy in this room who actually deserves to be a starter? Is there a single one of you who deserves to even be on the court?"
Nash looked past him, his eyes scanning the terrified faces of the NPCs, and Mac was there too.
"Me and the girls, we ran the drills. We ran the strategies. For three months, I gave you the exact strategies to improve your game. I gave you enough chances. But none of you ever earned a spot. You, Jinzo, you panic so much that the second a real defender steps into your space, you completely forgot how to play. You can’t even score a regular point from your favorite spot on the wing anymore. In fact, you have completely regressed since the regular season started. You are worse now than you were three months ago."
Jinzo’s face went pale, his his jaw working back and forth.
Nash’s gaze turned to Mac, who was trying to hide behind the NPCs.
"And Mac? You provide absolutely nothing to our team. You ruin our transitions because you are a complete fool who spends the entire match trying to get touched by girls instead of tracking the ball. A complete liability."
Mac stared at his sneakers, his cheeks turning a dark, embarrassed red.
"And the three of you?" Nash spat, turning his cold glare onto the NPCs. "You sit on the bench every night, debating how fun it is to make money while doing zero work. What’s even your position? I hope at least that you’ve actually licked someone’s foot to get in this team."
The room was completely dead. The players looked hollowed out, their pride entirely destroyed by the raw truth of his words.
"The only reason your names are still registered on this ledger," Nash whispered, leaning his face down on Jinzo’s forehead, "is because the Breakball rules say we need a minimum number of players signed to validate our registration. That is it. You are just numbers to fill a slot. If the rules allowed it, I would rather play three-against-five with the girls than leave a single minute of playtime to idiots like you."
Jinzo’s knees trembled slightly under the heavy pressure. Desperate to save face, he tried to slide out of the trap by leaning toward Victoria.
"W... why you’re even lashing out on me?! It... it is Ma’am’s fault anyway!" Jinzo stammered, trying to flatter Nash while shifting the blame. "She is the one who wanted to change the roster, Nash! We were just trying to—"
Nash didn’t let him finish. He reached out, his massive hand locking tightly around Jinzo’s jersey collar, and yanked him forward with brutal force. With an incredible display of strength, he lifted the guy completely off his heels, dragging his face inches away from his own eyes beneath.
"You are talking with me!" Nash roared, his voice echoing through the locker room.
Jinzo gasped, his feet above the floor, his fingers clawing weakly at Nash’s wrists as he hung from his collar, his entire body shaking with pure terror. The rest of the guys stood completely petrified, not a single one of them daring to make a sound.
Nash stared into his eyes for two long seconds, before he casually dropped him back onto the floor. Jinzo stumbled backward, catching his balance against a bench, his breathing ragged.
Nash turned his back on them, looking over at the three girls who were watching the whole thing with a mixture of worry, awe and satisfaction.
"Change the starting five for tonight," Nash said, adjusting his cuffs. "Jinzo, Mac, and you—" he pointed a blunt finger at one of the NPCs, "you are in. The girls sit on the bench for the first half."
The room froze again. The players looked completely stunned, their eyes bouncing between Nash and the court door.
Nash turned his cold, dark gaze back onto Jinzo, who was still clutching his throat near the bench.
"Go out there and play like your entire career is on the line."