Thirty Seconds
Panther Stadium in Derby was packed to the last seat.
A stadium that could hold six thousand people — one of the largest high school football venues in all of Kansas — filled to the brim was a spectacle in itself.
"Honey, there's Eunbi! Over there — Eunbi!"
"Where? Where? Oh! Quick, take a picture!"
The KSHSAA State Championship final. An unprecedented crowd, an unprecedented wave of attention — Jaehyuk's family was finally feeling it with their own eyes.
Unlike Jaehyuk, they had all been genuine football fans since long before, so they understood exactly what kind of stage high school football's biggest game really was.
"Wow, it's completely sold out. People are even standing?"
"Every single one of them came to see our Jaehyuk, didn't they?"
"Honestly, coming from me, but yeah — they're all here to see my brother!"
Just then, acquaintances came over to exchange greetings, and the seats quickly grew loud and lively.
While the parents laughed and chattered away, Minhyuk's eyes swept below the stands, across the field and the benches.
"Oh!"
There they are! Destroying's broadcast crew!
He had declared he would come to the final and stream it live — and true to his word, here he was.
Donald's not in sight, though.
Knowing him, he was probably in the locker room with the players, or conducting hallway interviews.
The last Wichita North visit video had hit a cumulative seven million views, showing just how far its reach extended.
Thanks to that, Jaehyuk's name recognition was beyond anything it had been before. The boy was now a nationally known prospect.
His rating hasn't been officially updated yet, but a 5-star is all but certain.
It was only because Jaehyuk had crushed Hopkins — himself a 4-star prospect — so effortlessly that people forgot, but a 4-star was already an enormous level in its own right.
Good enough to walk into any of the storied programs known as Blue Bloods.
A 4-star player was someone who possessed ability and instincts that ordinary players could never hope to close the gap on.
Which meant Blue Valley, today's opponent, was frankly a freak of a team. A 5-star talent in Kansas was something you might see once a year, if that.
"Shall we take a look?"
In place of Eunbi, who was busy waving a flag in front of him, Minhyuk pulled up Jaehyuk's social media.
Dozens of posts had piled up, all cheering on Jaehyuk's game. Someone had even dropped a link to the online broadcast, and when he tapped through, he found roughly ten thousand viewers already watching.
"Whoa."
Ten thousand people watching?
That meant that counting the crowd in the stands, a total of sixteen thousand people were about to witness this game.
And the game hadn't even started yet.
Once it did, the viewer count was bound to climb far higher.
The game hadn't started yet, so the viewers were busy tearing into each other.
Watching it all, Minhyuk felt his fingers itch.
He wanted to dive into that keyboard battle that very second and spill everything he knew.
Get a grip!
He had nearly surrendered to the temptation and typed out a comment, but barely held himself back.
Now was the time to focus on the game. He had to squeeze every drop of performance out of the camera he'd bought right before this match.
A camera purchased by pooling every scrap of allowance he'd saved with Eunbi's entire life savings. He'd managed to get his hands on it at the perfect moment, right before the final.
"Please, we have to win today!"
So that buying this camera would be worth it!
Redline — please, run!
Meanwhile, in one corner of the stands.
This section had a different atmosphere from everywhere else.
Tap-tap-tap-tap.
From a man hammering away at a laptop, to another with arms crossed studying the field intently, to a third nodding gravely into a phone call — everyone here was dead serious.
"It really happened exactly as you said."
Russell said, arriving with coffee.
David accepted the cup with a word of thanks and nodded.
"The kid's a trendsetter."
"I'm about half convinced myself at this point. If we watch through this game, I imagine I'll have made up my mind completely."
"You're late, son. Judge that slowly and all the good players get snatched up somewhere else."
David laughed lightly over the rim of his coffee cup.
But as far as Russell was concerned, he still lacked the yardsticks to rate Jaehyuk quite that highly.
Football since August of this year. And sure, it's astonishing. No player in history has put up results like this after only four months.
Judged in absolute terms, there had never been a player like him. But this was a battlefield of ferocious competition.
Viewed in relative terms, he felt it was still far too early to judge everything off a single season's worth of data.
"I hear offers have been pouring in from other schools as well. Whether he comes to us at all is the real question."
"Ugh, don't remind me — that's exactly what's stressing me out. What is it the higher-ups think they're measuring, anyway?"
"The terms are that unusual. Honestly, for us at Alabama, a true freshman starting from day one should require talent on the level of a Caleb Downs..."
"Tch."
David clicked his tongue again, clearly displeased.
It wasn't that Alabama had never had a player start as a freshman.
There was safety Caleb Downs, who had entered Alabama ranked eighth nationally in high school, won SEC Freshman of the Year that very season — and though he had since transferred to Ohio State following Nick Saban's retirement, the record remained.
There was Kool-Aid McKinstry, the 5-star cornerback named USA Today High School Player of the Year, now with the NFL's New Orleans Saints.
There was Will Anderson Jr., who logged fifteen tackles and twenty-two sacks in his senior season, earned a spot on the Atlanta Journal-Constitution's Super 11 team, and played in the 2020 All-American Bowl.
All of them were players heralded as once-in-a-century talents.
Measured against them, Jaehyuk's playing career, résumé, and stats were admittedly a little thin.
But consider this.
Who had scouted those very players?
My eye has never been wrong.
Just as Jaehyuk trusted his own skill and talent, David trusted his own eyes and ability — at least when it came to the scouting world — without a shred of doubt.
"Either way, it's only a matter of time before Jaehyuk proves he's that talented. If he stands out this season as a sophomore and again next season, then the higher-ups will finally admit I was right and come scrambling to bring him in."
"Couldn't we just wait until then?"
"It'll be too late by then! Do you think other schools won't notice what our own brass notices? A brutal war is going to break out — one that a mere 'guaranteed starting spot' clause won't be nearly enough to win. That's exactly why I wanted to buy at the bottom!"
Even after all that, Russell's doubts remained.
If Jaehyuk's stage had been Texas, where football competition burned hottest, he wouldn't even be agonizing over this. But this was Kansas.
No matter how brilliantly you performed in a slightly weaker region, some of the impact was inevitably lost.
But this time he's up against two 5-star players.
Star ratings were handed out on a national scale.
Even if this was Kansas, a 5-star was no inflated label.
And one of Blue Valley's 5-stars was none other than defensive tackle Jordan Watts.
The very position that would stand in Jaehyuk's way if he tried to run straight up the middle.
Whether Jaehyuk could break through even Jordan was the subject of burning, breathless interest.
"WAAAAAH!!!"
Right on cue, the players began pouring onto the field, and the thunderous cheer of six thousand spectators began to shake the entire stadium.
"This game isn't just about Jaehyuk, you know."
"Exactly. There are still hidden gems at Wichita North. Like that Liam boy you've had your eye on."
Blue Valley's 5-stars already had their futures decided.
Which meant what needed watching here were the players no one had bought yet.
Watching Jaehyuk alone was for amateurs.
"Let's see, then. Please, let a pearl show up."
"WAAAAAH!!"
"BLUE VALLEY! LET'S GO!"
"GO! WICHITA NORTH! GO!"
The heat of the cheering was intense.
Unlike every game before, this was no one-sided wall of support for our team alone.
So this is Blue Valley, huh.
I'd only learned this recently myself, but Blue Valley had built up a pretty serious fanbase long before now.
They called it the lone hope of Kansas, or something.
Either way, thanks to that, it didn't feel like the one-sided beatdowns of the old days — and honestly, I liked it.
"U-uuuuh. J-Jaehyuk! There are so many people..."
In the waiting room I hadn't felt it, but out here it seemed to finally sink in.
The stadium was stuffed to the absolute brim. There were spectators squeezed in shoulder-to-shoulder — this game was a genuine blockbuster.
"Go absolutely berserk out there. You need to burn your name into everyone's memory today."
"Nnngh... b-but my opponent is Jordan..."
James said, his face shriveled up small.
The player lining up right in front of a center was supposedly one of Blue Valley's two 5-stars.
"James."
"Hnn?"
"If you lose, I'm in danger too."
"GAH!"
James went white as a sheet at my words.
But I paid it no mind and kept talking.
"You're the one who has to open the middle so that a running back like me can go to work. So remember this."
"Gulp."
"No matter what happens, you open that road. Don't even spare a thought for who's standing across from you. Just one thing, burned into your skull: you make the road for me. That's it."
"Whew! Got it!"
The championship was right in front of us.
The teammates who had loosened up a little on the way in now stood frozen solid as sheets of ice.
This is a bit of a problem.
"Attention!"
Perfectly timed, Sanders called everyone together.
"You bastards have gotten real comfortable, huh?!"
"......"
"Trash that couldn't even make the playoffs back in the day — I put you on the stage of your dreams, and this is what I get? Long faces?"
At Sanders's words, I could see every one of them gritting their teeth.
"You made it all the way here, and now you're going to cry like little babies whining 'I can't do it, I can't do it'? There is exactly ONE thing you can do right now!"
Sanders tore off the sunglasses he always wore and roared.
"DESTROY THEM! Penalty? Fuck the penalty! Put them half in the grave! Prove you're the stronger ones! If strength won't do it, win on guts! If technique won't do it, throw your body in the way and stop them!"
The moment the words left his mouth, the referee called the captains out for the coin toss.
Sanders threw one last shout at all of us.
"Today! You go out there ready to die! Understood?!"
""YESSIR!!""
"Good — let's move! Wichita North!"
SLAP!
With one final round of applause, the players steeled their faces and began preparing, resolve hardened into stone.
Yeah — if Sanders told them to die, these bastards really would die. So this is why the head coach's chair carries that kind of authority. Noted.
"Heads."
Ever since Mark's injury, I'd been the one calling the coin toss, with Tony standing beside me.
Tip.
"Tails. Blue Valley — you have the choice of first or second possession."
Tch. So close. They'd snatched the choice away from us.
"We'll go second."
Their captain, surprisingly, wasn't one of the 5-stars at all — just their ordinary quarterback. He wasn't any particularly famous player, but he seemed better than average.
"Wichita North will start with possession. Everyone to your positions!"
At the referee's call, we returned to the bench and quickly sketched out our opening play.
We'd spent the past week dissecting Blue Valley, but facing them for real was another matter entirely.
Tap-tap.
"Go raise hell out there."
I exchanged a look with Tyrone as he tapped my shoulder, then stepped back onto the field.
"REDLINE! Do it again — prove it!"
"Jaehyuuuk! I love you!!"
"If you win, I'll take my pants off!!"
That last one was a dude. Is this guy insane?
Standing on the field to a chorus of utterly incomprehensible cheering, I watched the opposing defense jog in with faces dripping confidence.
Eleven games' worth of experience had taught me one thing:
Against the overflowing-with-confidence types, getting just one thing right takes half the fight out of them.
A battle of momentum.
I shot Tony a look.
Tony looked nervous too, but he steadied his breathing and relayed the call to the team.
"BLACK ALPHA 22! BLACK ALPHA 22!"
At the signal, the teammates scrambled to reset the formation — and the opposing defense scrambled right along with us, adjusting frantically.
But I could see it plain as day: every last one of them was keyed in on me.
"READY-READY! SET-HUT!!"
Thwip!
The game began in the truest sense of the word — in a blink.
Without any buildup, without any tell, the ball snapped from James at center to Tony at quarterback.
A perfectly timed start call, built to rob the defense of its rhythm.
But the other side didn't panic — they responded instantly. Blue Valley's pride, the 5-star defensive tackle Jordan Watts, came charging violently up the middle.
"GRAAAAGH!"
BOOM!!
James latched onto Jordan.
And I was already running, taking the ball from Tony's hands.
Too simple a play, you say?
Doesn't matter. I had four downs total anyway. Even a failure still left three more — and if it worked, it would snap the opponent's spirit clean in half.
And above all, I believed.
In myself, and in James.
There was no way this failed.
"RAAAAGH!!!"
James bellowed, shoving Jordan back with everything he had.
And I — just for an instant — found it. A tiny, sliver-thin gap.
Ba-dump!
The formation looked ready to collapse at any moment.
A faint red line, barely visible.
Glancing aside, there were plenty of other, far clearer lines too.
But I deliberately ran after the faintest one, the one right in front of me.
You couldn't spend your whole life making the safe choice.
Picking up the first down right now — renewing the ten-yard line — wasn't what mattered.
Seen from the big picture:
I needed a performance that was mine alone, one that could shatter this team's coordination and momentum.
And for that—
Ta-da-da-da-dak.
The clash of the linemen was right in front of my face. Their eyes were locked entirely on me.
Above all, Jordan's gaze, planted directly in my path, was brimming with killing intent.
James was a mountain of a man, but this one was terrifying from the face alone. The aura he put out was worse.
"GRAAAH!"
Unlike James, who couldn't see behind himself, Jordan checked me and pivoted — and in an instant, James's block crumbled.
But every bit of this, all the way to here, had gone according to plan.
BOOM!
"?!!"
"!!"
I ran in and thrust my arm out at Jordan.
The shape of it now: one side of Jordan held down by James, the other side by me.
"Hnngh?"
Jordan panicked for a heartbeat — then twisted his face into a scowl and tried to crush me flat.
Not happening.
C-Rank Strength
+30% Power — once per game
Thirty percent more strength, usable once per game.
You might scoff — what's thirty percent? — but it was an enormous amount of force.
Right now, it was exactly what let me hold my ground against this monster of a 5-star for roughly 0.3 seconds.
And that sliver of time—
was far more than long enough for me to slip through a space this narrow.
PAAANG!
I turned Jordan's own shoving force into my propulsion.
Slammed my foot down on the accelerator of my speed.
In the next instant, Jordan's stunned expression — unable to hold me — flashed past in a blur.
"WAAAAAAAH!!"
I broke the line, and an open field unfurled before me.
Through that suddenly wide-open vision, the crowd's roar — the one I hadn't been able to hear until now — came flooding in.
It wasn't over yet.
The second and third waves of the defense were still bearing down on me.
But—
Ba-dump! Ba-dump! Ba-dump!
I had the red line to show me the way.
The overwhelming Gift that existed for me and me alone!
"REDLIIIINE!!! He breaks through the wall of linemen and carves across the field! He pins down Blue Valley's 'Monster,' Jordan Watts, like it's nothing!"
"Is that a sight that should even exist? A ball-carrying running back helps his center in a split-second strength contest and just — slips past?! I've watched football for decades and I have never even heard of such a thing!"
"And the moment he breaks the wall, Redline moves at impossible angles — it's as if he knows exactly where every defender is going to latch on!"
"Don't — don't tell me — in the championship final, against Blue Valley, a touchdown on the very first play of the game?!"
"AAAAAH! He's through him! Through him AGAIN! Redline 21 keeps leaving the Blue Valley defense eating his dust!! There is no one on this Blue Valley roster who looks capable of catching him!!"
"In this historic game, Redline proves himself all over again!! Twenty yards to the end zone!"
"Fifteen!"
"Ten!"
"Ah — the trailing defender has given up! And at last...!"
"TOUCHDOOOOOWN!!! TOUCHDOWN!!"
"REDLINE 21!! Less than thirty seconds into the championship final — and he is already standing in the end zone!!"