Rebate King: Every Beauty I Spoil Makes Me a Billionaire

The ball ripped through the net. The rim rattled violently, and the backboard shook from the force of the shot.

And for a split second, the entire arena seemed frozen beneath the impact. Then the Peak section exploded. A wall of sound crashed across the court.

Sophie’s heart beat hard as she watched this, Maya’s hand flew to her mouth.

Fiona’s camera erupted into a rapid burst of clicks, capturing every frame of the sequence, the steal, the sprint, the elevation, the finish. Images that would inevitably dominate the front page of the school paper the next morning.

The Velaris Crown crowd, for the first time all night, fell genuinely silent. A dunk wasn’t supposed to come from a guy who had never played organized college basketball before. A dunk against Crown wasn’t supposed to happen in transition like this. Those moments belonged to senior forwards. Veteran centers. Established varsity athletes. Not a newcomer playing his first collegiate game. Not on this floor. Not in this arena.

And yet everyone had just watched it happen. The collective disbelief lingered for several seconds. The arena genuinely didn’t know how to react.

Stan landed cleanly beneath the basket. No celebration, calm and nonchalant. No stare-down. He simply turned, jogged back on defense, and pointed once toward Zack to communicate the defensive switch.

Coach Ederson, seated on the Peak bench, allowed himself a small, almost imperceptible nod. The highest praise he was likely to give all night.

56-50.

The third quarter spiraled from there in Peak’s favor. Crown threw their best haymakers. Devon hit two more shots and finished the quarter with twenty-two points, a performance that, on almost any other night, would have been the headline of the evening. Tobi continued to play hard, scrappy minutes, making every Peak possession feel uncomfortable and contested.

It didn’t matter. Stan scored eight points in the quarter. Marcus added six. Zack orchestrated the offense with the calm, surgical precision of a senior captain playing the best half of basketball of his college career. Even the bench contributed, combining for four points generated entirely through hustle plays and second-effort possessions that Coach Ederson carefully rotated through the lineup.

By the end of the third quarter, the scoreboard read: Peak 71, Crown 62.

The lead had survived. More importantly, it had grown. Crown had landed their punch. Peak had absorbed it and kept moving.

The fourth quarter became, slowly but unmistakably, a coronation.

Crown made one final push during the opening three minutes of the period. A quick 6-0 run trimmed the deficit to three. The home crowd surged back to life. The noise rolled through the arena once more.

For the first time all night, Peak felt genuine pressure. Even Stan felt it. His legs were heavier now than they had been at the start of the game. The system’s enhancements covered most of the fatigue, but they couldn’t erase it entirely. He was still a first-time basketball player logging heavy minutes in a college game, and the accumulated wear was beginning to make itself known.

Zack immediately called timeout. The team gathered around him. His voice was low, controlled and intense. ”They’re throwing the last of what they’ve got at us.”

Nobody interrupted. ”They have nothing left after this.” His eyes moved across the huddle. ”We take care of the ball. We get to the line. We let the clock work for us.” Then he looked directly at Stan. ”Take what they give you. Don’t force anything.” A brief pause. ”We win this game by being smarter than them during the last five minutes.”

Stan nodded. ”Understood.”

The play coming out of the timeout was simple. Deliberately simple. Zack brought the ball across half-court and entered the offense.

Marcus caught the ball at the elbow. He turned and faced the basket. The defense immediately collapsed toward him. Double team, exactly what Peak wanted.

Marcus kicked the ball out. Stan caught it on the wing. Devon was already closing. The arena held its breath. Stan held the ball for one count. Then two. He felt Devon’s weight settle slightly onto his back foot. That tiny mistake was enough.

Stan rose into his shot and the release was effortless. Unhurried. The arc climbed high above the outstretched hand contesting it.

SWISH!

77-68.

The Peak crowd exploded. The sound hit Crown like a wave. And just like that, their momentum died.

The very next possession ended with Devon attacking the rim in desperation. Marcus met him there. The block echoed through the arena. Zack secured the loose ball and immediately pushed the break.

From there, Peak never looked back. The lead grew through a series of smart possessions, free throws, and high-percentage shots. No heroics or desperation. Just winning basketball.

Crown’s frustration began to surface. One player picked up a technical for arguing a call. Another earned one moments later for swatting the ball away after a whistle. The game was slipping away, and everyone in the building could feel it.

The scoreboard continued to climb. 85-71. 89-74. 92-76.

The Peak section spent the entire fourth quarter on its feet. The cheerleaders had abandoned organized routines sometime in the middle of the third. At this point they were simply fans. Sophie had cheered. Maya, thrilled by the game, still jumped every time Peak scored. Fiona’s camera roll had passed eight hundred photographs and was still growing.

With two minutes remaining, Coach Ederson finally stood and signaled to the bench. The starters were done. The game belonged to the reserves now.

As Stan rose from his seat and walked toward the sideline, the Peak supporters greeted him with a standing ovation. The applause drowned out the increasingly subdued response from the Crown crowd.

He settled onto the bench with a towel draped around his neck. Thirty-one points. Six rebounds. Four assists. Three steals. In his first collegiate game.

Around him, the remaining seconds ticked away. The outcome had already been decided. The buzzer sounded. A sharp, final note cutting through the arena.

The scoreboard glowed above the court.

[Peak University 97.]

[Velaris Crown 81.]

A sixteen-point road victory. Against the conference favorites. And the beginning of something far bigger than anyone in the arena had expected when the night began.