Dominance Evolution System: Sweat, Sex, and Streetball

Chapter 318: The Loser Take It All

The final buzzer sounded, and it officially sealed the Falcons’ fate. The second it happened, the people in the arena just lost it. These were underground fans who loved the violence of the game, and now they were screaming their heads off because they were so mad.

They started throwing half-empty cups, cigarette packs, and random street trash at the Falcons’ bench. The staff barely dodged the junk flying at them.

"Get off the court, you useless bitch! You are ruining the whole team!" one guy screamed.

"Why the hell did you bench Griffin?! That buffoon Nash played you, you stupid girl!" another one yelled.

The fans were not showing any mercy. They could not believe the coach decided to keep their best offensive player on the bench for the final minutes, and they were not going to let her forget it.

In the middle of all this chaos, the Falcons players just sat there. They felt totally helpless, burying their faces in their hands. John, the captain, pressed his glasses against his face, trying to hide how ashamed he felt.

Beside him, Fred and Frank were shivering.

"This is too much... it is just too damn much," Frank muttered, grinding his teeth. He looked around at the angry crowd. "The crowd is totally wild tonight. When is this nightmare actually going to end? I can’t take being dragged through the mud like this anymore."

Erica stood right on the sideline, all by herself against a wall of hate. She was only nineteen and quite small, and under the smoky lights of the arena, she looked even tinier. She forced herself to breathe in and out slowly, keeping her back straight.

Alexia stepped through the trash on the floor, her jersey still soaking wet with sweat. She used her own body as a shield to block the insults coming from the crowd. Erica flinched a little and took a half-step back. She tried to look confident to reassure her older teammate, but her voice was shaking.

"Hey, it is fine, Alexia," Erica said, trying to shout over the noise of the fans mocking them. "Seriously, it is no big deal. They are just mad because we lost the lead. It happens. Blacklist... they were just better tonight, okay? That is all it is. I have things under control. The guys just need to clear their heads, and we will fix our mistakes for the next run."

Alexia did not say anything. She just looked at the young coach with a lot of patience. She moved closer and gently put her hands on Erica’s arms, feeling now how they were tense and shivering.

"We knew the crowd would get ugly if things went bad," Erica kept talking, trying to act brave even though the noise was deafening. "It is just a regular game, Alexia. Do not worry about me. My decision made sense at the time. I know what I am doing."

"I know, honey. I know you thought it through," Alexia whispered softly. She slowly wrapped her arms around Erica’s waist and pulled the small girl against her chest.

Erica went stiff immediately. She pressed her palms flat against Alexia’s damp jersey, trying to push her away slightly to slow down the hug.

"Let go, Alexia... I am telling you I am fine," the young coach insisted. She let out a nervous, forced laugh that sounded a bit choked. "Everything is under control, really. The insults do not bother me. I am big enough to take the heat from the people."

Alexia did not move or pull away. She held on tighter, ignoring the girl’s weak attempts to push her off. She held the back of Erica’s head, gently smoothing out her messy purple hair and rocking her back and forth in a slow, protective way.

"You never call me Alexia when you’re fine, Erica," Alexia whispered right in her ear.

Erica held her breath, Alexia continued. Her voice sounding very warm.

"You don’t have to act like a tough girl with me. You are incredibly strong, you know that? You are an amazing girl. It takes a lot of backbone and the heart of a real coach to stand out here in front of these people, taking all the garbage and the blame meant for the team. You did great tonight. You did what you had to do. I’m so proud of you."

"No, I messed up... I should have—" Erica started to say, but her voice broke. Her breathing became shallow and shaky, and her fingers accidentally gripped the fabric of Alexia’s jersey tightly. "I... I can handle it..."

"Shhh... it is over. I’ve got you," Alexia murmured. Her presence was like an anchor for the girl’s broken nerves. "You carried the whole team on your back tonight. You don’t have to hold it together anymore."

That was the moment everything broke. Hearing those kind words completely destroyed the girl’s last bit of defense. Her iron mask shattered, and she was just a scared, human teenager again.

Erica’s voice broke into a sob. She started crying hard, her whole body shaking with violent weeps. She stopped fighting the hug and clung to Alexia’s jersey, burying her face in Alexia’s neck. All the pain she had been holding back finally came pouring out of her chest, under a thunder of insults.

"I just wanted to keep him safe... Alexia..." Erica sobbed. The words came out in a messy flood between heavy gasps for air. "His ankle... Griffin’s ankle was bothering him since the warm-ups. If I left him out there on the court against this guy... he would have ruined his leg for the rest of his career... I could not let him lose everything just for one game! But... did I really make the right call, Alexia? Please, just tell me... Everyone out there hates me now... They all think I threw the match."

"You made the only call a real coach could make, sweetie," Alexia whispered. She squeezed the girl tightly against her chest, feeling the hot tears soak through her jersey. "You put your player’s life and health before a stupid scoreboard. Let them hate you. They don’t know a thing about what it takes to protect your people. You had the guts to do what none of these guys ever could."

Alexia held her firmly for several minutes right there on the baseline. She used her own body to hide the crying girl from the worst of the insults, letting the emotional storm strike her back. Then, while looking over the girl’s shaking shoulder, she noticed something in the far corner of the court.

The Blacklist crew was celebrating their win with a lot of energy. She saw Alicia jump wildly onto Nash’s back, wrapping her long legs around his big waist, while Jaz and Nia laughed and teased him. Nash stood in the middle of it, not bothered at all, holding Alicia’s sweaty ass with a shameless grip.

But Alexia’s eyes moved past them and locked onto Victoria. The director was standing near the VIP exit, watching her from behind her dark glasses. Their eyes met across the arena, and none of them moved. After a long moment, Victoria finally turned around and walked into the hallway that led to the locker rooms.

Alexia gently let go of the hug. She wiped the tears from Erica’s cheeks and gave her a soft kiss on the forehead.

"Excuse me, sweetie. I need to take care of something in the back. Stay right here with Ryan and John, they are going to look after you. I will be right back."

Straightening her damp jersey, the veteran player walked away with a slow, swaying stride. She left the Falcons’ bench behind and stepped into the dark corridor, following after Victoria.

On his side, Nash was just standing right in the middle of the basketball court. Alicia was still hugging his neck tightly, breathing softly against his warm skin. On the other side, Jaz was laughing and playfully hitting his chest with her fists, teasing him about how huge he was. Right at that exact second, a familiar light flashed at the corner of his eye.

[SYSTEM NOTIFICATION: QUEST COMPLETED]

Objective: Defeat the Falcons while maintaining a team offensive participation rate under 50% for your teammates.

— Your Participation Rate: 88%

— Team’s Participation Rate: 12%

[REWARDS UNLOCKED: 3 CRYSTALS]

• Crystal IV — SOFT STEPS (Passive): Permanently reduces stamina drain by 30% during consecutive physical encounters. Regulates and recycles energy to prevent exhaustion.

• Crystal IV — REBEL ANCHOR (Dribble): Grants absolute balance during high-speed low-dribbles. Dribbles success rate +20% under double pressure.

• Crystal VI — HORIZON IMPACT (Dunk): Converts explosive horizontal velocity into vertical momentum. Enhances mid-air collision resistance by +35% during contested dunks.

Nash looked at the notifications on his screen, a small smile forming on his lips. To be honest, he had not even been thinking about this quest by the end of the game.

In fact, even worse, he had been so busy dealing with all the crazy stuff involving Harlan, sneaking the Baby-Boom girls out of danger, and spending a completely sleepless night with Victoria, that he was actually starting to forget about all the attributes of his own system these past few days.

The new buffs melted smoothly into his statistics, and he felt a slow wave of warmth go through his legs and his lower back. It was a good feeling, like his body was getting stronger and more solid.

He gently took Alicia’s arms off his shoulders, setting her down on the floor with a calm movement. He looked across the court, letting his eyes slide over the wood. Then, his gaze locked straight onto Rain. The ghost passer of the Falcons was still standing near the baseline. He was completely still, just watching the massive Blacklist player from a distance with his pale, unblinking eyes.

Nash took a deep breath to calm his heart rate and walked calmly toward the other side of the court.

Over on the Falcons’ bench, the mood was completely down. Everyone felt terrible after losing so badly. John and Ryan were packing up their sports bags, keeping their heads down because they did not want to look at anyone.

John adjusted his glasses with a shaky hand and sighed.

"There is no point in hanging around here anymore. We should move to the back rooms before the crowd starts throwing more than just plastic cups at us."

But just as they turned around to walk toward the dark tunnel, the players suddenly froze. They were caught completely off guard. The younger players on the bench took a quick step back, looking absolutely terrified.

Nash’s massive body had just crossed the half-court line. He was walking over to them, but he did not have any hatred or anger on his face. He looked relaxed. He walked straight up and stopped right in front of Rain. The small passer was surprised, his eyebrows rising just a little bit.

Shane stepped up immediately, placing himself halfway in front of his teammate.

"What do you want, man? You came over here just to rub it in our faces?"

Nash didn’t even look at him. He kept his green eyes pinned directly on Rain.

"You’ve pushed that small-passer style a long way," Nash said. "Further than I ever could have. Your tricks and your blind passes... it’s clean work. I respect that."

Rain stayed completely silent, listening to the giant’s words. Around them, the other Falcons players looked at each other, totally confused by this sudden show of fair play from the guy who had just crushed them.

"Your squad has one of the tightest structures I have run into on this circuit," Nash continued, crossing his massive arms over his wide chest. "You play together, you trust each other, and anyone can see that on the floor. The problem is, you are too soft. You are not bad players, but if you stay at this level... Well, today will serve as a warning."

He stopped talking for a second, shifting his gaze over to Griffin. The red-haired guy was sitting on the bench with a white towel draped completely over his head. Nash could see tears of raw rage and frustration leaking down the kid’s shivering arms, dripping onto the floor.

"Especially your Ace," Nash muttered. "If he ever wants to break my wall, he needs to learn how to be a real monster of the street. He has to learn how to bite."

Without waiting for them to say anything, Nash turned around and started walking at a relaxed pace toward the private tunnel. The Falcons players just stood there completely stunned. They felt paralyzed by the shock of getting advice and a hard reality check from the exact same monster who had just taken apart their defense and broken their undefeated streak.

Rain watched the colossus’s broad back as Nash walked away. Then, he turned his head to look at Griffin, who was clenching his fists. Suddenly, a fresh, powerful feeling burned away all of Rain’s sadness. He wiped his own tears away with a hard swipe of his arm, balled his hands into tight fists, and shouted toward Nash’s retreating back.

"We are not giving up, Nash! I swear to you we are going to grow, we are going to rewrite our game, and we will climb all the way to the Upperworld if that is what it takes! Keep your seat at the top, because we are coming back for our revenge!"

Nash paused his walk, slowly rising his head.

"Good. That’s the spirit," he said before vanishing completely into the shadows of the tunnel.