"Uncle Alfred," Mystic called out to the old man who had quietly crept up behind him.
"Ease up," Alfred said, tapping Mystic's shoulder as if to urge him to stay calm and speak less.
"I've watched you since you were very young, so I can say I have a sort of parental affection for you. I've always wanted you to prosper, but after your father's death, I worried you might act rashly and make decisions you couldn't come back from," Alfred said, and Mystic found himself lost in thought—he had, indeed, made such choices in his previous life.
"But you came out stronger, honestly, you haven't even given me a reason to worry, you became independent and focused entirely on improving this club. So I'm here to tell you this," Alfred continued, placing a hand on Mystic's shoulder.
"I'm incredibly proud of how far you've come. And I'm sure if your dad were here, he'd feel the same way."
"I appreciate it," Mystic said quietly, emotions bubbling inside him, it was the only sentence he could manage to say at the moment.
"Let's go," Alfred said with a nod.
"You coming?" Mystic asked, surprised to see his uncle prepared to join them.
"Of course. I started with you, didn't I? I think I deserve to see your team play—or don't I?" Alfred added with a playful grin.
"Of course you do," Mystic replied, smiling back.
-
# Bariga Young Boyz Stadium
The moment Mystic had been waiting for had finally arrived, he stood in the dugout reserved for the visiting club officials, on his side, there were only four people, three substitutes and his uncle, who wore the club jacket draped over his shoulders.
Compared to the Bariga Young Boyz side, their setup looked sparse, but it didn't matter, since this was a closed-door exhibition match, the stadium was empty of fans, only the players of both clubs and the referee arranged by Bariga Young Boyz were present on the pitch.
Mystic had left all the match preparations to the Bariga Young Boyz, after all, it was the least they could do, considering he'd promised not to trouble them again about the Adekunle matter after this game, as he looked over to their side, he noticed they were set up in a 3-5-2 formation.
And the way the two forwards positioned themselves suggested that one was clearly playing in support of Adekunle, who led the line.
Gradually, Mystic began analysing the team. Aside from Adekunle, who was evidently a Bronze-ranked player, Mystic noticed the Bariga Young Boyz had another Bronze-ranked presence on the pitch, and he was the captain of the team.
He was stationed at the center of the three-man defence, anchoring the backline, the bronze star beside the green stamina bar above his head made it clear to Mystic why his team stood little chance of winning this match, as winning against a team with two bronze players when they had no one in that rank was close to impossible.
He had hoped his players might at least have a fighting chance, but seeing the size and presence of the captain, whose name was Idris dampened that hope, with a solid build and the strength of a Bronze rank, Idris would be a serious obstacle to scoring any goal.
Just like Mystic's father had invested in Adekunle, it was now clear the Bariga Young Boyz had invested heavily in Idris, but that no longer mattered, the match was about to begin.
Above each player's head, Mystic could see green bars displaying stamina, a game-like feature enabled by his system special ability, however, something had changed now that the match was starting: along with stamina bars, player levels were now visible too.
And he was quick to notice that most of the Bariga Young Boyz players were at level 7, Adekunle and Idris were both at level 11, while the second attacker next to Adekunle was level 10, the gap in strength was now plain to see.
Mystic realized that the striker playing alongside Adekunle might have once been the team's primary forward before Adekunle arrived, and now the entire system was being built around Adekunle who is the new signing.
Still, whatever internal problems the Bariga Young Boyz had weren't his concern, that forward was just one more threat his team would have to deal with.
"Two Bronze ranks, one close to evolving into Bronze, and the rest of the team in the higher stages of the Ordinary rank... this is a terribly one-sided match," Mystic muttered, with X floating silently beside him.
In that moment, Mystic activated his Zonal Sense ability, though he didn't even know why he did it, it just felt right, but what he saw intrigued him:
Chance of Winning
Bariga Young Boyz – 80%
Draw – 10%
Dark Elites – 10%
On Bariga Young Boyz's side of the pitch, the 90% win probability was so blatant it made Mystic chuckle, it was as if his own power was mocking the hopelessness of his team's situation.
But he hadn't come here to win, as he deactivated the ability, the blue glow in his irises faded, returning to their normal colour.
He also noticed a drop in his mana energy—down by 2 points, finally confirming that mana was the cost of activating his abilities.
It was now clear: the higher he ranked, the more mana he would have access to, allowing for more frequent and prolonged use of his ability.
That wasn't all. Mystic also realized why, in his past life, he used to get dizzy whenever he used his powers, he simply hadn't possessed enough mana. Without a way to increase his Mana capacity, he'd just been overexerting himself and damaging his own body every time he went over the limit as he didn't have a system to show him how big his mana pool was in his past life so he just kept using it till he was really dizzy.
But now, thanks to the level-up format of the system, that weakness was something he could gradually overcome.
Phew!
Just as he was lost in thought, the referee finally blew the whistle, since all the players had taken their positions, and it was time, the match had officially begun, snapping Mystic's attention back to the game between his team and the Bariga Young Boyz.