The World Of Gear is the present-day world. Everything about daily life: technology, cities, culture, politics, social media, is basically identical to our real world in 2026. The only major difference is human physiology.
People in Gear are biologically stronger, faster, and more durable than in real life. This isn't from superpowers or tech; it's just how humans evolved here. Muscle is denser, bones are thicker and larger, tendons and ligaments are tougher, skin is more resilient, and the hormonal system supports physicality over all else. The changes are uniform across the population and have been stable for generations.
Untrained adults can lift, sprint, and jump well above average. The average untrained man will easily deadlift 82 kg and a max of maybe 98 kg.
Height has also changed. The global average height for men is 175cm and for women it's 165cm. Healthy Humans in GEAR can reach up above 242cm, though this is still rare.
Hair and eye colors have greater diversity: blue, green, silver, violet, and what would be considered uncommon shades may show up naturally.
Sports adapted to match. Basketball courts are a bit bigger than standard NBA size, and rims are higher (13 feet). The game itself is still 100% basketball: rules, flow, and strategy are the same. Wins still come down to skill, IQ, teamwork, coaching, and execution.
Real countries and cities exist exactly as they do now: Europe, Africa, Japan, DC, New York, Osaka, Kyoto, Moscow etc. As the story goes on, some locations and venues will mix in alongside them.
History of the Japanese High Basketball [JHB]
From the early 2010s through 2022, Japan experienced a rapid continuous surge in its basketball talent and high school competition.
Before 2022, the structure was fragmented: teams mostly played within their prefecture, then competed in the big national tournaments (Inter-High in summer, Winter Cup in December). Emotion and tradition drove everything, but there was no true regular-season national framework.
The top pro league globally is still the NBA, which remains almost entirely North American-focused. Japanese high school stars, no matter how good, stayed relatively unknown outside Japan.
In late 2022, the Japan Basketball Association, B.League officials, and the wealthy prestigious schools of japan created the Japanese High Basketball organisation. JHB for short.
The JHB added a proper national regular season on top of the existing calendar:
Prefectural league games
Inter-High (summer national tournament)
Winter Cup (winter national tournament)
Representation in the National Athletic Meet
The annual International High School Cup.
The new structure brought consistency, deeper schedules, national broadcasts, and bigger stages. Within a few years, the overall quality and competitiveness of Japanese high school basketball reached a level many consider the highest on the planet. Rivalries became iconic, the games reached the world. So the gap with American high school ball narrowed to the point where the two scenes regularly traded blows in showcase events.
The World Of Gear.